WWF

What type of person are you? 

Do you open yourself up like a book, revealing each and every sentence of your life? Or are you the type of person that keeps people guessing and second guessing about who you are?  I, probably like very many of you, fall somewhere in the middle.   

I open up to those I know, but don’t reveal too much.  We all have our secrets and I certainly have my share. It’s not that they are necessarily all bad.  Some are embarrassing, some too personal that only people who are really close to me should know, and others are just too insignificant that I’ve never bothered to tell anyone because the subject never came up. 

Today I thought it would be fun to reveal something insignificant about myself that might give you a little insight into who I am.

I used to watch and enjoy WWF Wrestling!  OMG!!  I can’t believe I just revealed that about myself!!  But it’s true. 

Back in the early 90’s when Rick and I were married just a short time, we met Bob and Peg who lived in our apartment complex in Orlando, Florida.  They loved the WWF and would watch it on television.  Peg frequently invited us over on Friday nights to watch with them.  We instantly became hooked. 

We were so hooked that we started watching on our own whenever we saw WWF playing on TV.  We tuned in to the likes of Hulk Hogan and Randy “Macho Man” Savage and a host of many other wrestling stars of that time.  They became our new virtual friends. 

One time we, along with Bob and Peg and another couple, chipped in and purchased a WWF Wrestlemania extravaganza playing on HBO as a pay-per-view event.  I think it cost somewhere around $50 to purchase.  I remember we were all sitting around the TV munching goodies, drinking cokes and yelling for our favorite wrestlers.  This sounds insane to me now! 

AND…we even took it a step further.  The four of us actually paid and went to a live performance of the WWF at the Orlando Convention Center.  The tickets we purchased were great—a few rows from the front.  But this turned out to be a negative once the show started. 

I could see with each move made and each stunt pulled how it was all staged and choreographed.  I was mortified to be sitting there in the midst of a thousand screaming fans.  Did they really believe The Hulk was beating the heck out of Macho Man?  That did it for me.  It was over.  I had seen too much to ever go back to cheering for The Hulk or any of them for that matter. 

Today there is no more wrestling in my television lineup.  But there is Survivor.  I have seen every season of Survivor since it began in the year 2000.  While I am a fan of the show, I am glad that I am not able to go and see it in person.  You see, I am not so sure that IT isn’t a little bit staged and choreographed. 

So now you know a little known fact about me.  What do you think?  Are you shocked?  If you are, it’s ok.  We all have things in our life that we are not real proud of. 

♥

 

~ P

 

The Year of Asparagus

I’ll be the first one to admit it—I’m a picky eater. I’m not proud of this fact and I didn’t set out to be this way, but it’s who I became over the last 60 years. I sometimes wish I was more like Rick, he’s like Mikey, he’ll eat anything! 

Whenever we go out to eat, it takes me forever to decide what I want to order. I look and look for something that I know I will like. Most of the time, I’ll find something only to read how it’s cooked or what accompanies it and there will be something about it that I’m sure I won’t like.  There’s nothing worse for me than ordering something that I end up not liking. 

Rick, on the other hand, will frequently look for a menu item he’s never tried before and then order it just to see what it tastes like. So far as I know, he’s only been burned once—when he ordered chili relleno’s stuffed with crawfish at a Mexican restaurant back in 2007 when we were living in Baton Rouge. It was the ONLY time Rick didn’t finish his meal. The smell of the crawfish mixed with the Mexican smell just about made him sick. I was surprised he ate half his meal! 

I have been burned many times—the food tasted too spicy, I didn’t like the sauce on top, the chicken (or whatever) tasted funny, they didn’t remember my request of no butter or no sour cream or no guacamole on my plate anywhere, etc. With me there is always something. I eventually labeled myself a high maintenance diner.  Waiters beware! 

Sometimes I blame this on my mother, but in reality I know that it’s not her fault. She did the best she could to provide us with nutritional meals. When I was a young child, there were some items on Mom’s menu that I didn’t like very much. One meal in particular was fried eggs over easy with creamed spinach. Can you imagine the runny yokes and creamed spinach running together? Scary!   

Another was liver. I would chew and chew until it became pate in my mouth but I would not swallow it.  I would tuck it away in the side of my cheek and take the next piece in. Often I would be the last person at the table looking like a little chipmunk.  Eventually, Mom would tell me to spit it out and go to my room. Ahh, memories!! 

I haven’t tried any new foods in quite a while.  Mushrooms came on my list of things I will eat back in the early 70’s followed in the 80's by broccoli and cauliflower; zucchini came much later in the 90’s.  This year, 2012, is the year of asparagus. 

I went to a wedding last Saturday. The wedding reception was held at the Del Frisco’s restaurant in Charlotte, NC—very fancy and very chic. The menu was salad, steak or fish or chicken, asparagus, mashed potatoes and dessert. 

After the waiter placed my steak in front of me, he asked if I would like some asparagus. Hmmm. I thought about this for a few seconds. You see, I don’t eat asparagus. Why? Well, they look funny, like little trees and they’re mushy (or so I thought just by how they looked) and I don’t do mushy. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself so I told him to put just two stalks on my plate.  

Now that they were on my plate I said to myself, “What the heck! Step outside of the box and try something new.” And you know what? I liked them!! They were in a buttery sauce and had sliced almonds on top and not mushy at all! They were yummy! Lucky for me, the waiter put down a whole plate of them right in front of me so I helped myself to seconds. 

I gave myself a big pat on the back for trying something new that day and I know my sister-in-law Debbie will be proud of me also. She’s always telling me to broaden my palate and try new foods. Maybe it was her I heard whispering in my ear: Patty, try the asparagus. They’re good. 

Gee! All those non-asparagus years gone that I can never get back. What a waste. Oh well. What’s done is done. I can only look to the future. I’m not saying that asparagus has changed me for all foods.  I’m still a picky eater.  But just maybe I won’t be so close minded the next time I’m presented with the opportunity to try a new food.  

Brussel sprouts. Lamb. Kiwi. Salmon. Artichokes. Eggplant. Escargot. Avocado. Who’s next? 

♥

~ P

GPS Back Talk

Rick and I decided to take a drive yesterday.  We never know where we are going to end up, so we are happy that we have our trusted Garmin GPS to guide us home.  However, it is not always easy to communicate with it.   

Our Garmin is voice activated (it has a female voice so I call it a her) and that makes programming her a breeze.  She will verbally respond to our requests sometimes even when we don’t ask her anything.  More than once as we were driving and talking, she would suddenly blurt out, “Say a command.”  We can only figure we said something to trigger her response, but we are never able to duplicate the trigger word. 

Most of the time the GPS works just fine, but sometimes she understands Rick’s Texas accent better than she does the New Yorker in me.   Other times she doesn’t understand either of us and comes up with a suggestion that appears to be completely out of the blue.

So here we were on a drive that took us from South Carolina to North Carolina heading to Tennessee then north to Virginia and then back home.  We thought it would be fun to drive in four states in one day.  It was about a 6 ½ hour drive which would get us home at about 7 p.m. 

We wanted to stop for lunch at a non-chain restaurant, something local, so in Boone, North Carolina I engaged the GPS.  This is how the exchange went. 

Pat:   Voice command.

GPS: Say a command.

Pat:   Find by category.

GPS: Say the name of a popular category.

Pat:   Food

GPS: (no response)

Pat:   Food

GPS: (no response)

Rick: FOOD!!

GPS: Searching for Food and Drink 

At this point we browse through the listed restaurants that are approximately within 2 miles of our location.  We selected Tucker’s Café.  It sounded local so we thought we would give it a try.  As we got to the end location per the GPS, you guessed it, there was no Tucker’s Café in sight.  Frustrated, we decided to stop at a restaurant we passed a few blocks back called Come Back Soon, a burger and fries joint.  Not exactly what I was hoping for, but the food was good. 

After lunch, we got back in the car to head to our next destination.  We were going to pass through the northeast corner of Tennessee and then drive north to Virginia.  I looked on the map and saw a town that was near the border of Tennessee and Virginia so I decided to program the GPS to get us to this town and then I would reprogram it to someplace in Virginia.  Here was my conversation with the GPS. 

Pat:   Voice Command.

GPS: Say a command.

Pat:   Find City.

GPS: What city in South Carolina? (This was the state we were in for our last GPS trip)

Pat:   Change state.

GPS: What state or province?

Pat:   Tennessee.

GPS: Did you say Rhode Island?

Pat:   No.  Back.  (Back is the command to go back to the previous screen)

GPS: What state or province?

Pat:   Tennessee (I said it more slowly this time, but just at that time Rick chimed in)

Rick: Tennessee.

Pat:   Rick, let me say it.

GPS: Did you say Maine?

Pat:   Grrr!!  No.  Back.

GPS: What state or province?

Pat:   Tennessee!!

GPS: What city in Tennessee?

Pat:   (Finally!)  Mountain City.

GPS: Did you say Johnson City?

Pat:   Back!!

GPS: What city in Tennessee?

Pat:   Mountain City.

GPS: Did you say Mountain City?

Pat:   Yes.

GPS: Searching for Mountain City.  Begin navigation.

Pat:   Navigate. 

I had my trusty map book in front of me so I knew we were going to turn on to Route 91 going north to Virginia.  This was the easiest way, but the GPS had a different idea and kept telling us to turn on to little roads that weren’t on my map so I couldn’t tell where she was taking us.  We decided to ignore her requests to turn around in an attempt to get us back on track until she finally reprogrammed herself and had us turn north on Route 91. 

By the time we got home I was exhausted from being in the car and from talking to my GPS (there were several more of these conversations), but I wouldn’t change a thing.  I remember years and years ago before we ever thought of having a GPS when I had to plot our trips and figure mileage by looking at the map (I didn’t get my nickname Navigator for nothing) and searching for gas stations and restaurants.  This is much easier, even if she doesn’t get it right all the time. 

Our GPS does take some abuse for not getting it right (mostly from Rick—he tells her to shut up quite a bit), but we can laugh at her and the way she pronounces names of streets and locations and how she doesn’t always understand what we are saying and makes crazy suggestions preceeded by, “Did you say ___?”  Sometimes it can get downright hysterical and it gives us a good laugh.  But we still love her, uh, it and are so glad for the technology!!

Stop Route!!

~ P