“Hey, Mom, why’d you stop playing with me?”
This post is part of One-Liner-Wednesday.
January 31, 2024
January 30, 2024
JusJoJan – Calendar
I challenged myself to write everyday in the calendar month of January. One more day, and I will have met my challenge. There were some days that I found it easy to write about something. There were other days that it felt like Janus closed the door between the abstract images in my head and putting concrete words down on the page.
Will Frebuus help purify me of all the foreign, extraneous, or objectionable elements that distract my squirrelly brain, allowing me to keep the momentum going through February?
Off slightly to the side, but still within the realm of the prompt, “calendar”, I have a fascination with odd, bizarre, and weird holidays. Like today’s – National Inane Answering Message Day. Does anyone actually celebrate this holiday? It’s not a true national holiday, but it is a copyrighted day.
Another notable, and more serious, observance in January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. This is something very important to me, as I fought cervical cancer in 2012-2013 for 9 months. It was grueling, and I am very lucky to have beat it. Even so, I still live with some of the long-term side effects from the radiation and chemo. One of the long-term side effects is that my already squirrelly brain is even more squirrelly.
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 30th, 2024 is “calendar.” Use it any way you’d like.
January 29, 2024
Being the Elder in the Family
It’s still strange to me to think of myself as the elder in my family, yet all the family members that I’ve had any contact with that were older than me, are now gone. There may be a cousin out there, that I’ve not seen or heard from, that might be older, but if so, they’ve not been in contact with any of the family in a very long time.
In some cultures, being the elder is a position of honor. Not so much in the American culture, especially in this day and age. Old people tend to get hidden away, or belittled, or blamed for all the woes of the world.
I remember when the elder family members felt like the glue that brought us and held us all together. They planned all the holiday gatherings, the birthday parties, and other celebrations. When my aunt passed away three and a half years ago, all the family gatherings passed away, too.
I don’t live close enough to my family members to keep those traditions going. The family is spread across five states and we have found it challenging to find times that we can all get together. Sometimes, I miss those large family gatherings.
This post is part of Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt comes to us courtesy of Kim. Check out her blog here!
January 28, 2024
JusJoJan and Kazoos
I can’t congregate enough words together to make a coherent blog, post, or even a paragraph, so here’s a video regarding the history of kazoos for National Kazoo Day.
The prompt for the day is “congregate” for Just Jot it January by Linda Hill. The prompt is courtesy of Fandango.
January 27, 2024
Stream of Consciousness Saturday
Tonight, I had to make the call, and it wasn’t one that I had planned on. I went to our monthly Geek meeting with all intentions to play a new game that was meant to get everyone mingling at the meeting. With my head pounding, I had to bow out as one of the contestants, even though I did help some of the contestants work their way to figuring out what character they were.
I’m glad I made the call to go to the meeting, despite my headache. I had a great time, got to spend time with friends, including one I hadn’t seen in years, and enjoyed the White Elephant exchange that went on.
The prompt for #JusJoJan the 27th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “make the call.” Use it as an idiom or use it literally.
January 26, 2024
Do you consider clashing clothes atrocious?
I may skip out on the word of the day (atrocious) for Just Jot it January. I’m not sure I want to get so angry at the atrocities that some of humankind has perpetrated on other parts of humankind that my blood pressure goes up.
I will leave that for others who may be able to embrace the word without fully visualizing those horrors.
Maybe I can write about Clashing Clothes Day, which some may see as an atrocity, but I see it as just a chance to break away from all the mundanity that we are subject to and are taught that we should adhere to.
I have never understood the obsession of so many people to judge, to criticize, to even care what others choose to wear. It amazes me, even more, when it’s someone who says they have no interest in fashion and that it doesn’t matter what someone wears, will post a picture or meme meant to mock someone’s clothing.
Do we really live in a society in which conformity has so much weight that anything or anyone stepping out of that box needs to be mocked, ridiculed, or even bullied to the point of causing injury?
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 26th, 2024 is “atrocious.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy! Today’s prompt comes to us courtesy of Jemima. Please be sure to visit Jemima’s blog to read her posts and say hello.
January 25, 2024
JusJoJan24 – Cheesy
Thank you, Linda, for choosing my word, ‘cheesy’, as the prompt for the day.
When I think of the word cheesy, so many options come to mind. Cheesy holidays, like Opposite Day. Extra cheesy pizza toppings. Cheesy movies like “Sharknado”. Cheesy pick up lines.
One of my favorite, and cheesiest pick up line that a man said to me was, “You must be a Pisces because all I want to do is swim upstream to spawn with you.” I still shake my head when I recall that line.
I have a confession to make. I love cheesy movies. The cheesier they are, the more they tickle my fancy. One of the cheesiest movies I watched last year was “Tammy and the T-Rex”. Paul Walker plays Denise Richard’s new boyfriend. He is murdered, and a mad scientist steals his brain and puts it into a robotic T-Rex. Mayhem ensues. Lots of mayhem. Tammy figures out that her beloved’s brain is in the robot. She rescues the brain and saves it to find another body to put it in.
And now, I am going to take part in one of my favorite late night snacks, cheese and crackers.
This was inspired by the prompt for JusJoJan24 by Linda
January 24, 2024
January 23, 2024
JusJoJan24 – To Be Stoked or Not To Be Stoked
I was stoked when I learned we were going to start learning how to do handwriting in elementary school. I was not so stoked about ever hitting the waves in the early sixties, despite the fact that so many people were convinced that I’d make the perfect surfer girl, with my blonde hair and svelte body.
As such, stoked was not really a part of my vocabulary back in the day. I really didn’t fit in the Jan and Dean lifestyle. I wore too much black in the early 1960s and too many beads in the later 1960s.
I remember when my family lived in Michigan, my dad would use a poker to stoke the fire in the fireplace. There were many a cozy night in the long winter months as we huddled near the fire, listening to the radio and reading.
I, most recently, stoked a fire while on a camping trip in Oregon, which, by the way, I was very stoked about going on.
This was inspired by today’s JusJoJan word, “stoked,” suggested by Nicole, who resides here.
January 22, 2024
JusJoJan24 – Mood
Remember Mood Rings? They were very popular in the 1970s. In a way, they were like an early version of an Emoji, but instead of having to signal your current mood, you were wearing your mood for all to see.
I still have my Mood Ring, though it no longer functions. Whatever magical properties that the Ring possessed have left for other realms. I wonder if the magical properties leaped into the Ethernet? Or maybe they joined the Magellen spacecraft to Venus to learn if it truly was the planet of Love. If so, I hope that they weren’t disappointed. Maybe, after Magellen fell to the planet’s surface, some lucky Venusian found a spark of the magical properties and kept that spark alive.
Linda Hill is our host, and our word was suggested by Dar.
Our prompt for JusJoJan January 22nd, 2024 is “mood.”
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