Brain Clutter

Contrary to what my blog has evidenced in the last several posts, there are deep, surprisingly unexpected things happening in my heart and life these days. For anyone who is curious, the start of deep things was last mentioned on the January 28 post, in what Liann later chided me for being a very vague bit of blather. Rude! And quite likely correct--it just wasn't time to share things yet.

So I think I will do it in my next post :) Ha!

Today, I unload the clutter o' me brain. And like a happy leprechaun on this St. Patrick's Day, I do it with a tummy full of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, that I was able to cook in the apartment without the whining of a former roommate who shall remain nameless. One who has a very sensitive nose. And a weakness for cookies.

Speaking of cookies, I must amend my previous post. I was stopped in the hallway by a colleague last week who pointed out that it is possible to eat a box of Samoas, also known as Caramel deLites, and feel no ill effect. I pondered for a moment and had to agree. They go down so nicely...and the toasted coconut is so yummy-licious. After looking online, I can also confirm that this way-too-educated-about-Girl-Scout-cookies-than-a-man-over-six-feet-tall-should-be guy was totally accurate in his information to me that the name of said cookies depends upon which bakery makes the cookies, Little Brownie Bakers or ABC Bakers. Marshall, I doff my sticky-fingered cookie hat to you!

And Devin is also correct--a roll of frozen Thin Mints goes down superbly, and YES...I see the word Tagalog every stinking time I look at a box of Tagalongs. I almost circled the 'n' on the box I bought so I would remember to say it correctly if ever I am dumb enough to purchase some again.

Back to Marshall, he let me pick some cool 80's tunes to burn onto a CD for my road trip to Newberg last weekend to see the Skaggs and Foxes. Marshall has no idea who these people are, by the way. It's just that I find he and his wife, another colleague, so adorable and funny, that I am constantly pestering them...so I think he started to read my blog to see if there is any explanation for my pestering and clambering to hang out with them. And feeling the need to liken significant events in their lives to game shows I make up in my head that are along the lines of "Wheel of Fish" from UHF. They are very patient with me, obviously! In fact, when he first offered to let me pick songs for the CD from his collection, I told him he could just do it for me. He begged off, warning me I might wind up with stuff like Weird Al. That turned into a 5-minute drivel from me about all the Weird Al and Dr. Demento I have been exposed to. Like anyone needs that peek into my life...

All that to say he let me make a cool CD. And just as I pulled out of Baker City, Oregon, my first stop for gas on the way to Newberg, Mike + the Mechanics came on--"The Living Years". There I was, on Interstate 84, singing away, beef jerky in one hand, steering wheel in the other, Baby Ruth candy bar on the passenger seat waiting to chase the beef jerky. And I took my first deep breath in weeks. Ah...that's a road trip!

More brain clutter--I saw these things called "Grāpples" in the market today. Looks like four apples in a plastic case. It says on the container, "Looks like an apple. Tastes like a grape." WHY?

And because someone will be pleased to know, I tasted linguiça last week, Portuguese pork sausage. My pastor came to cook breakfast at MAF for some meetings our team was having--the guys had been subjected to bagels and yogurt for two days, so Pastor Mark came to make "Man Breakfast". That's some good stuff...and it'll last ya for a 7-hour road trip, I might add.

Off to finish a tube of Thin Mints from the freezer. Each one is "only wafer thin!"