LIFE: Lessons Incorporated From Experiences

Last year for Christmas, my boss gave me a pair of down feather slippers...the warmest, most comfortable slippers I have ever owned.  Trevor thought so too.  For the past year we have both gotten great mileage out of these slippers until eventually, inevitably they got a hole.  We continued wearing the slippers until there was noticeable feather loss.   It wasn't noticeable in the way that your feet weren't quite as warm, but more so in the way that there were feathers all over the house!  Feathers in the kitchen, feathers in your closet, feathers stuck up in the cobwebs in the corner...I am still, 5 months after throwing slippers out, finding feathers in the nooks and cracks of the house.  Lesson learned: sew up hole in a timely manner or throw slippers out right away.

Ever been in a store that has those shopping carts with a high pole attached to it?  Ever wonder what that's for?  I did.  I always thought it was for the store employees to be able to spot them easier.  Abandoned cart in aisle 4....shopping cart out in the parking lot between the truck and the corrollla... Nope, not in this store.  Those poles on the carts are designed to keep that cart in the store.  I found that out the hard way today as I'm scurrying out of ROSS Dress for Less with a cart full of goodies. Pulling my cart from the front and excited about my new basket and 3 quart pot, I'm thinking hmm 'where did I park'...BAM...the pole on my cart whacks the door frame and I nearly fall on my butt.  Immediately I'm thinking 'someone's messing with me' until I look around and no one is near me, yet everyone is staring at me and I look straight to the pole which is hindering my exit and think "sh*t."  I go back in the store, return the cart, juggle my purchases and walk out with my head down.  Lesson learned: now I know what the poles are really for.

My new apartment doesn't have a lot of space in it, so I make use of what's available.  There's not a lot of shelves or table space, so I like to use the window sill to put my little nick knacks, small candles, and things..  Before my grandma died she gave me these two little duckling statues.  I put them on the kitchen window sill.  I thought it would probably be a bad idea but I would just leave them there until I could think of a safer place.  Well before that could happen, the window was opened, the duckling was budged and now one of the little ducklings is headless.

Trevor gets back to California on Friday so I've been tidying up a bit and finally decided to glue that duck's head back on.  I get out the crazy super glue, dab it on the neck and line up the neck with the cracks in the head and squeeze tight.  The glue seeps out of the crack as I press down and the ring of glue build-up bothers me.  I go to the bathroom the get a q-tip to wipe it off.  Still squeezing the duck's head hard to it's body with my left hand, I reach for a q-tip with my right hand and pop!  I squeezed too hard and at the wrong angle and the darn thing's head goes flying up in the air while the body goes shooting out the door.  A split second goes by as I frantically swat at and fumble for the head but unfortunately I knocked it into the toilet...Lesson learned: don't leave precious, valuable mementos on an elevated ledge next to a moving frame and don't bring precious, valuable mementos into the bathroom.

My grandma would be mortified if she A) knew I broke her duckling B) found out I dropped it's head in the toilet, but most importantly C) if she saw me sticking my hand into a toilet without even thinking twice.  She would be happy to know I washed my hands and the duck's head immediately afterwards.  I dried off the head, brought it back into the kitchen and properly glued it back together.

Continuing on my now adrenaline-filled cleaning expedition, I move on to dusting and sweeping with my now seriously sticky fingers.

And who are sticky finger's best friends?........feathers...