Friends: Confirming our Crazy Since Day 1

Everyday Adventures

I get along pretty well with my new coworkers (thank goodness!). We share an open office with our three cubbies along the same wall and the office is seldom quiet. Mostly we’re talking shop, getting info to the right person in the right moment, but usually once a day there’s something that gets us giggling. It’s a fun environment, our office.

But the other day I realized my cubbie neighbor (I know they’re called cubicles, but that’s so boring, cubbies is friendlier) and I had something in common: our baby nails.

Baby what?

If you’ve ever been around an infant you may know that their fingernails are tiny little razor blades attached to flailing limbs. It’s why baby mittens are a thing, keeping them from flaying themselves alive as they figure out that whole fine motor skills concept. Usually nails get thicker and less prone to flayage as we grow up. Mine didn’t. Mine are still very thin and still fully capable of leaving scrapes and gashes from random contact with my thin, scar-prone skin.

Good times.

They also reject just about every nail treatment out there, a fact of which I’m absolutely convinced but feel a little silly saying, because it sounds so strange even to my own ears. Acrylics lift, gel and shellac manicures chip within 3 days, nail wraps leave the nail bed even thinner–like I just soaked off acrylics–and regular polish? Forget it! I’m lucky if I can go 8 hours without a chip (and that’s when I do them before bed). And yet, I like my nails to look pretty, so occasionally I’ll get on a polish kick.

But my cubbie neighbor? She experiences the same thing. She confirms my crazy.

Which got me to thinking about the rest of my close friends: do we all confirm each other’s crazy in some way or another?

The touch-point may not always be as simple to identify as the above example, I’m fairly certain my closest companions do confirm some level of my existence not to be so out there.

And why is that a good, necessary thing?

Well, most of us want to feel special or unique in some way but the truth is, that there’s a fine line between special and special. Between acceptable and not. Between quirky and scary. Most of us don’t want to be scary. Even those of us who want so desperately to be unique still want to be accepted at the same time. We’re human, it’s natural.

So when we find someone out there who echos one of those fringe traits, we get a reassurance that we’re still within the acceptable limit. We’re still lovable, if still weird. And it’s those people we are grateful for and to and tend to strike up friendships with, whenever possible.

All the time I thought
There’s only me
Crazy in a way
That no one else could be
I would have given everything I own
If someone would have said you’re not alone

Barry Manilow, All The Time

See, he knows!

So, how do your friends confirm your crazy? Have you ever thought about it?

August Vlogging Recap

Everyday Adventures

Once the new job kicked in I fell way behind on not just blogging, but editing the vlogs as well. I was filming pretty regularly, just not doing anything with the files. Perhaps one day I’ll edit them into June and July highlight reels, but I’m not going to stress over it. For August I switched to just recording on the weekends and have been able to keep up, more or less, with editing those each week.

Since I know not everyone who stops by here makes it over to my YouTube channel, I thought I’d share the last month’s recaps here for one-stop viewing.


Direct link for the feed readers: I Got the Job!


Direct link for the feed readers: Finally, a Weekend!


Direct link for the feed readers: What’s Up with the Pup?


Direct link for the feed readers: Wordless Weekend

See, now you’re all caught up! This month I’m hoping to do a few videos that aren’t straight blogs to add to the mix, so we’ll see how that goes.

This Is Halloween!

Everyday Adventures

Oh, folks, it is my most favoritest time of the year: Labor Day is done, summer is effectively over, and now we can get to the good stuff: fall and Halloween!

While we’ll wait a little bit to start decorating (our decorating scheme may have to change a bit to be Duncan-proof, but that’s a conversation for another day), I think it’s the perfect time to start watching some of my favorite seasonal movies. Usually I just start in October, but I think this year I’ll start right now (well, last night) with the various Halloween and Halloween-adjacent movies that I love.

Last night’s flick? Practical Magic. As much as Love Actually inaugurates the Christmas movie season, Practical Magic is my go-to witch movie of choice. Not that I restrict viewing of these or any other movies to only one time of year, mind you, but it’s more special this time of year.

And what will I watch for the next 54 days? In no particular order…

  1. Halloweentown
  2. Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge
  3. Halloweentown High
  4. Return to Halloweentown
  5. Hocus Pocus
  6. The Nightmare Before Christmas (we consider this a dual-holiday movie)
  7. Scream
  8. Scream 2
  9. Scream 3
  10. Scream 4
  11. The Craft
  12. Ghostbusters
  13. Ghostbusters 2
  14. House on Haunted Hill, 1959
  15. House on Haunted Hill, 1999 (I’m usually not fond of remakes, but both versions stand pretty well on their own for different reasons)
  16. Little Shop of Horrors
  17. 13 Ghosts
  18. The Haunting, 1963
  19. The Haunting, 1999 (again, another stand-along remake that I can get behind)
  20. The  Birds
  21. The Addams Family
  22. Addams Family Values
  23. Manhunter
  24. Silence of the Lambs
  25. Hannibal
  26. Sleepy Hollow
  27. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
  28. The Others
  29. The Sixth Sense
  30. The Corpse Bride
  31. Devil’s Advocate
  32. It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
  33. Edward Scissorhands
  34. Rocky Horror Picture Show
  35. Beetlejuice
  36. Monsters Inc
  37. The Faculty
  38. I Know What You Did Last Summer
  39. Skeleton Key
  40. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  41. Idle Hands (a friend of mine’s brother is in this one)
  42. Teen Witch
  43. Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the Movie
  44. The Worst Witch
  45. Clue
  46. The Lost Boys
  47. The Haunted Mansion
  48. The Good Witch
  49. Once Bitten
  50. What Lies Beneath
  51. The Woman in Black
  52. Flatliners
  53. The Witches
  54. The Village

I’m sure you can tell I’m not big on the gory side of the horror movie genre. You won’t find me watching slasher flicks or movies intended to give you full-on nightmares. I’d never sleep again! But I like suspense and some tamer horror, along with a lot of fun. Last year I watched several of the Goosebumps movies that were on Netflix, and I’m sure I’ll tumble down some b-movie holes a few times over the next few months.

What are your favorite movies for this time of year? Any must-sees that I’ve left off my list, above?

Gettin’ All Up in My Grill

Everyday Adventures

This post is sponsored by Mean Green Degreaser.

Labor Day marks the unofficial end to summer–I can only hope the thermometer gets the memo. And even though we here in the Deep South have the luxury of using our grills pretty much year-round, it feels a little more natural to use it more in the summer. And a well-used grill tends to show it.

When Todd and I moved in together back in 2009, my family gifted us with a lovely gas grill for our housewarming party (that we immediately put to use). That grill is still hanging with us, though we had to get new grill grates a couple years back because the set that came with it had been cooked and scraped through in places. Now, I’d like to see the replacement plates last at least as long as the originals, so a little maintenance is in order.

We try to remember to give them a once-over with the wire brush before each use, but it’s more like every 2-3 uses if we’re being real. Now that prime grilling season is over, though, it’s a good time for a deep clean.

The Before: Not Too Pretty

The Before: Not Too Pretty

Oh, wait, let’s get a little closer so you can see the true extent of what we’re working with.

jvanderbeek_meangreen_grillcleaning_superstrength-2

Yeah… kind of a mess, right?

First I hit it with the wire brush to knock any larger particles loose and then shook the plates out before hitting them with the hose.Then a liberal application of Mean Green Super Strength Cleaner & Degreaser, let it soak in for a minute before giving it a scrub. Rinse and repeat because, well, it’d been a while.

jvanderbeek_meangreen_grillcleaning_superstrength-3

Once they had a chance to air dry, back into place they went–not quite good as new but definitely a vast improvement. Even Todd was impressed!

The After: you could totally eat of this grill (which is sort of the point, right?)

The After: you could totally eat of this grill (which is sort of the point, right?)

This clean-up was simple and painless and didn’t ruin my nails, not something I usually associate with grubby tasks like cleaning the grill or anything else. It all comes down to the right tools, you know?

So before you put away your summer gear, make sure it’s ready and waiting for the next season by cleaning it up before you store it.

And with that, let the autumn fun begin!

 

Shelter From the Storm

Everyday Adventures

First things first: we made it through the bulk of the Hurricane Hermine last night with only a blip of a power outage (that I only know about because the clock on the stove was blinking this morning). A lot of folks in Thomasville and many more in Tallahassee are without power and could be for a while, so we’re quite lucky in that respect.

We went up to bed last night around the usual time but I was too keyed up to sleep for a couple of hours. Thankfully the exertion of putting up water when I got home worked to wear me out, so I fell asleep around midnight, and only woke up once, a couple hours later, with the sound of the wind and rain and brushing branches against our bedroom windows.

Thankfully there are no large limbs down in the backyard–surprising since lesser storms have brought down boughs in the past–and there doesn’t even seem to be much in the way of pooled water in the side and back yards. Again, that’s a surprise.

There are still flash flood and tornado advisories through most of the day, here, and it’s still doing a steady drizzle outside, but for now, we’re good.

Yesterday we left work around 3, I stopped to fill up my gas tank (it was only 1/4 low, but better safe than sorry), and then stopped at the grocery store for light provisions:

  • 40 lbs of ice
  • 6 gallons of water
  • 4 2L of Coke for Todd
  • Bread and Cheese
  • and a few canned goods (tuna, chicken, and some veggies)

We already had some dry goods at home, of course, plus a couple of ways to cook them and what’s in the freezer should the need arise. A full propane tank for the grill and a small Magic Cook dealie that uses water and a chemical pouch to heat whatever’s in the nested stainless steel cup–sort of like diy MREs.

In the future, though, I’d like to get a small generator–something to keep the fridge cool and charge portable electronics if the need arises. And, to that end, a couple of the portable solar chargers (for the cell phones) and a solar oven wouldn’t go amiss. I know I could charge my cell phone in the car, but that’s not always convenient, either. The solar chargers would be more for after the storm if there’s an extended power outage.

Now, 6 gallons of water doesn’t exactly meet the 1 gallon per person per day for 3 days, minimum, rule, especially when we factor Duncan in. I knew that and did it that way on purpose. When I got home I cleaned the upstairs bathtub so we could fill it after dinner and showers. That’s great for cleaning up as well as flushing the upstairs commode, should we lose water or the supply become contaminated.

Downstairs, I filled several drink pitchers and plastic containers to the tune of another 6 gallons or so. Then I cleaned out a spare kitchen garbage can and filled it with water. That’s 10-13 gallons right there. Of course, I filled it by the front gate and then had to drag the thing (1 pt of water = 1 pound, 8 pts/gallon = 8 lbs, 10+ gallons is 80+ lbs of sloshy contents… I got a bit wet in the process) down the length of the house and then up the back steps. Hey, it sounded like a good idea at the time and I managed it, which made me a bit proud of myself.

The two 5 gallon buckets were a lot easier to handle. Mostly because they had handles.

I’m off work today (they figured it wouldn’t really be safe to drive today, and they’re probably right–Thomasville had a lot of signals out and the outtage map shows that most of the substations around the office are down, though no word yet on if the office lost power or not) and don’t fully know what to do with myself. So far I’ve watched the weather reports a couple dozen times (and still have them playing in the next room in case there’s an alert) and had breakfast. Todd’s at work, so it’s just me and the pup (whose napping in his bed). I’ll probably work on finishing the last monkey and maybe tidy up in The Abyss a bit.

Or nap. Today’s a good napping day since it’s all dark and gloomy.

Stay safe, friends, and have a great Labor Day weekend!