Monday, September 28, 2009

The Five Words Challenge

When Scarlet did this post about responding to 5 words, she asked if anyone would like to play and I said, "Yes!"
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She gave me her 5 words in the comments of my last post, so here I go:
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OCEAN: I think anyone who reads my blog knows how I feel about the ocean, but if you are reading here for the first time, let me say that I LOVE THE OCEAN. My blog header up there at the top is one of my favorite pics. I took that from the deck of the beach cottage that we rent and it is everyone that I love deeply except for Mom who was standing beside me when I took the picture. My daughter is behind someone, but she is there. You can see her leg. Every time I log into my blog here, I always take time to look at that picture and it makes me happy. All of my favorite people and the ocean. It does not get any better than that.
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DECORATION: I grew up in a very modest household in the 60's and we had very basic stuff. Our living room had a tan couch, a matching chair, a swirly green chair and two end tables. The decor on the end tables was ashtrays. And there was a TV of course. But over our couch was this picture:

It was the only thing in our house that was not functional and I loved it. I always imagined I was the little girl reaching up to Mom on the left. Because I was too young to know about servants, I made the lady on the right my Aunt Ann, who was Mom's youngest sister. I spent a lot of time looking at that picture and making up stories in my head. It had been Granny's picture and we were keeping it for her while she worked in New York. Years later when she came back, she took it back. At some point Granny told me that her grandmother (or mother?) used to do snuff. The snuff company gave stamps or coupons and when Granny's granny (or mother) got a certain amount of stamps, she ordered this picture from the snuff catalogue. It is currently hanging in my entryway over a small cabinet that Granny owned and it is probably my favorite decoration in my house.
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CHILDHOOD: I loved everything about my childhood, but I believe that what made it all so special was Dad being the coach. This is one of the very earliest pictures from when he started out as a softball coach (the kid circled is my brother). After that he got a Little League membership for our community and was the Little League coach for several years. He was even always voted by the county to be the All-Star coach every year. Then he was the Pony League coach. I really loved being around all those boys and being the coach's daughter, I was always treated with the utmost respect. It was like being a princess and I loved every minute of it.

( It's kinda funny, but I can still name a bunch of those guys.)
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HUMOR: "It's all about the funny" is my personal mantra. My Sweetie and I make each other laugh every single day. There is nothing better than making him laugh. And he loves to make me laugh. My last post was titled "None Of This Was Fun." To be honest I had some laughs. When the tow truck guy was all nervous and told me he had worked there for only 3 days and had formerly been a repo guy, I asked if he had seen the movie Repo Man. He didn't know what it was and I told him it was about a repo guy taking a car with an alien in the trunk. Then when he had my little trucky all hooked up and was about to pull away, I said, "Hey. I don't want you to freak out but I'm going to be taking pictures when you drive by. It has nothing to do with you, it's for my blog." He looked at me like I was an alien. I thought it was funny.
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CERVEZA: Because Scarlet is Cuban, she warned anyone that wanted to play the 5 words game that she would possibly throw in a Spanish word. Well, she didn't make this one very challenging for me. But it gave me a funny memory. Dad liked to take me on random vacation trips and one year we went to Puerta Vallarta. It must have been 1996, because I know the Summer Olympics were going on since Dad spent most of his time in the room watching it. In Spanish. I'd come and go from the beach and the bar and he'd be up there watching the Olympics. When he first planned the trip I told him that it would be cool because I had taken 3 years of Spanish en escuela and could order beer and ask for a bathroom. Well the funny thing was the one night we decided to go "into town" for seafood, I needed to iron something. I could not for the life of me think of the Spanish words for "iron" or "ironing board". I called housekeeping, and with no understanding between us, they sent someone to our room. When the cute girl showed up, I did a pantomime of setting up an ironing board and ironing. She laughed and said "Si!" and was back in 3 minutes with both. Dad spent the next two days imitating me doing the ironing board thing. My response was always "Hey! Whatever works."
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If any of you guys want a FIVE WORDS challenge, tell me in the comments section. I would really enjoy picking 5 words for you guys.

9 comments:

Jazz said...

Yep. I want to do it please. That looks fun.

Anonymous said...

Your childhood home's decor sounds very much like our family's. There is one picture we had over the livingroom sofa of a farm house in the mountains and a little girl and her mother at a pump,pumping water. My mum still has that hanging in her spare room and I've told her if she's ever at a loss of what to give me for Christmas, she can give me that picture. I used to imagine all sorts of stories about that woman and her child, too.

geewits said...

Jazz,
~~Cool! Here ya go:
Napping
Boats
Italy
Dancing
Eggs

Xup,
~~That's interesting. You should snap a photo of that next time you are there and do a post.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

So does that mean the Spanish word means IRON?? LOL! Interestimg five words and very interesting answers....Do you know who did that Painting? It is really sweet---and I understand making up a story to go with the painting. I love the picture of your Dad and your brother...How WONDERFUL that you have it...!

Anonymous said...

Please, dear, 5 for me.

geewits said...

Naomi,
~~LOL! I just assumed everyone knew it meant "beer." The painting is actually just a print and if there is a signature, it's below the frame. But thanks for making me take it down to see if I could open it (couldn't) because it really needed to be dusted! I always loved the team pictures. I wonder where the rest of them are?

Ian,
~~Okay! Here you are:
farming
costumes
pearls
moonlight
lemonade

Scarlet said...

Your story of the painting made me think of the painting in my great aunt's living room. As a kid she told me I was the little girl in the pic running around the lake with my two cousins from Miami I hadn't met yet. I LOVED staring at that painting and hadn't thought of it in years until you mentioned it.

Your cerveza story was hilarious!

Btw, I purposely chose words for you that reminded me of you...next time it won't be so easy. :)

Great job, btw!

geewits said...

Scarlet,
~~Thanks for the words. At first I thought they were too easy and then my husband challenged me to do a different spin on them. I really enjoyed it.

VioletSky said...

I'll play, too, if you've got 5 more.
I used to make up stories about the wallpaper in my bedroom that used to be a dining room. It was sort of a toile pattern with chinese pagodas and bridges and peasants and ducks.