Author Archives: Sherry

Things going on right now

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Sometimes life works best in numerical points.

1. Valentine’s Day came and went without too much fanfare. I enjoy the day mostly for the kids. I’m really kind of turned off by all the diamond commercials (don’t get me started on diamonds) and whatnot, so I like to keep it really low-key. On top of that, George wasn’t feeling all that well. As a result, I got up with the kids and sent him back to bed, then made a batch of pancakes for their breakfast. Later we gave the girls some chocolate and a little teddy bear each for gifts, and basically relaxed. George made a delicious pork roast for supper, then we watched a bit of TV together before bed. A quiet celebration, but quiet works for me.

2. If Valentine’s Day is about sharing the love, for me Sunday was all about having very little love in my angry, cold heart. That’s because I spent the entire afternoon – I mean entire, from brunch until supper – cleaning out the girls’ room. It had turned into a nightmare and it never stayed clean. I knew it was partly because they had too much stuff that they never really even played with, and they had nowhere to store anything. I stuffed three giant garbage bags and one decent sized box full of crap. Most of it was old toys that they had technically outgrown but wouldn’t let go of willingly, and some of it was stuff that just wasn’t very good or useful.

I made Hayley’s bed first, then realized I should take a picture for posterity. So this is before:

Before

I know, right?

This is after:

After

MUCH better. They basically have some dress-up/princess/beauty stuff, Barbies, Little People, Littlest Pet Shop, and car/truck/etc toys, but everything is able to be grouped together and it’s so much better. WAY better. But holy hell, I was exhausted that night.

3. This morning Hayley woke up feeling a little under the weather but I dressed her anyway and got her off to school. She’s been in the breakfast club for a few weeks now, and it’s been great because I don’t have to fight to get her to eat first thing in the morning. Instead she eats something (they rotate between things like cereal, oatmeal, egg burritos, pancakes, waffles, etc) when she gets to school half an hour earlier than usual, and by then she’s actually hungry. However, because of that, I have no idea how much she ate this morning.

I *do* know that the school called just after lunch saying that Hayley had a fever and needed to come home. I checked her lunch bag after she got in, and she had eaten half a scone that I had sent her, but had left her cheese and crackers, and only ate two bites of her tuna sandwich. All of that is highly unusual. She then laid on the couch for the rest of the day, dozing on and off, refused supper, sat like a lump in a lukewarm bath, and was in bed sleeping by 7:15. This is my kid who stays up until 9:30 or 10 every night, reading in bed. I tucked her in an hour ago and she’s still feverish despite medicine.

Guess who’s staying home tomorrow?

4. I am officially Getting Old. Breanna wanted to play Littlest Pet Shop earlier today and since it’s so easy to play in their room now, I went in and pulled it out. I laid on the floor, propped up on one side, playing for about 20 minutes. And by doing that, on a hardwood floor, I hurt my lower back, all around my tailbone. Usually when I put my back out, I at least feel it go; it usually happens when I lift something too heavy. I wasn’t DOING anything, I was just lying there. What the hell is that about?

I’ve been sitting here with my chair massage pad thing on, heat blasting through it, hoping it will dull down the pain. I thought about taking back pain medication but I’m afraid it might cause a bad reaction with my Geritol. Sheesh.

5. American Idol is already paling in comparison to last season. So far, on night one of the top 36, I am royally unimpressed, except for Anoop. This is not looking good. This isn’t unusual, because often when I really love one season the next one is a bit “eh” for me. It would be hard to compete with my utter David Cook mania last season but they could at least put in some sort of effort!

And with that I’m going to make my old, aching self a cup of hot tea and eat some cookies while trying not to berate people inside the TV.

Friday Flashback #22 – Gloria

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I couldn’t even tell you what made me think of this song, but I loved “Gloria” by Laura Branigan. REALLY loved it. My parents had the album (and that was back in the days of LPs!) and I remember liking it in general but the first time I heard “Gloria” I was hooked. Her powerful vocals were so much fun to listen to and though my teenage self didn’t quite have the pipes to keep up, I loved to sing along too.

Tonight it just popped into my head for no apparent reason and I’ve been singing it ever since. It’s such a shame that she died so young.

Things that are ticking me off right now

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In no particular order, here are some things that are ranking quite high on my annoyance meter right about now.

1. Dog poop. Not my dog’s poop, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call hers delightful or fun or anything. However, what’s great about it is that it quickly ends up tied up in a plastic bag. Apparently there are a few people in my neighborhood who aren’t so vigilant with the bag situation, and it’s making me borderline homicidal. What is especially pushing me over the edge is that someone keeps letting their (potentially large, I would say) dog crap all over the snowbank directly out front, all along what would be the lawn of our building. It isn’t just that it’s unattractive to look at or that it creates a delicate obstacle course for me – it means that I have to constantly worry that people in the building think that *I* am the one neglecting to pick up after my dog.

There have been two times that I’ve run downstairs with Pearl, expecting her to just pee, only to discover – aww, crap (pun totally intended) – I should have brought that bag after all. In both of those situations, I ran right back upstairs, flew back down, and picked it up. I do not leave dog poop all over the damn place. In fact there was one time where I had already thrown the bag away on a walk only to have her go again a few blocks later. Luckily I was close to home/the dumpster, and I had a wad of tissue paper in my pocket. And that’s all I have to say about THAT experience.

But the point is, I own a dog and part of the responsibility of being a dog owner is that I need to clean up after her when I walk her. If people don’t want to bother with that, then they should bloody well make sure they have a private yard – they can let their dog crap to their heart’s content out there, as long as the general public, and all the decent dog owners don’t have to deal with it.

2. Hand-over child care. On Sunday I filled up an ice cube tray with water and a bit of red food coloring to make some ice jewels. This makes for some fun times out in the snow. On Monday we had a ped day, so we went outside with them and Hayley and Breanna pretended to be pirates digging for treasure:

Winter pirates

And then they used them to build a little winter fairy house:

Bejeweled fairy house

They were having a good time. Then all of a sudden, this car pulls up (we were near the side street), and a kid who was maybe five ran out, in a snowsuit, and started playing with them. No problem! The kids were ecstatic to have someone not related to them to play with for a bit.

Except no one else got out of the car. I waited, confused, and glanced over a few times, and through the tinted windows I could make out the outline of someone sitting in the front seat, talking on the phone.

The three kids played for – no kidding – 15 minutes while this girl’s mother sat in her car. She didn’t know me, couldn’t see the kids when they ran around to the courtyard, and clearly expected me to watch her daughter. And obviously I did, because what else was I going to do?

Eventually a school bus pulled up from one of the other schools in the area and a bunch of elementary school kids came out. It was only then that the mother got out of her car, pulled some grocery bags from the back and then called to one of the boys to come help her carry them in. Obviously she was just killing time between arriving home from errands and meeting her son at the bus stop – a lot of schools don’t allow kids below a certain age to get off the bus without someone there to greet them.

But the big kicker was that she never once acknowledged me – no thank you, and not even a friendly smile. She looked right at me, all of three feet away, and turned around and headed to the building behind ours. Well you’re welcome, beyotch!

I just don’t get people sometimes.

3. Scholastic. Andrea from The Fishbowl posted a link on Twitter about a group that is trying to petition Scholastic to return to selling books and nothing more. I couldn’t agree more. When I was a kid* our Scholastic catalogs each month contained books. We picked the ones we wanted, we got them, we read them, we were thrilled. Now at least half the books that Scholastic sells seem to come with some sort of tie-in toy, like they’re the Happy Meal of the literary world.

That’s not too bad. I don’t love it, but I can live with it. Last year Hayley got a Backyardigans book and it came with three little figurines. Last month she got a chapter book about unicorns and it came with a small stuffed unicorn. That’s borderline acceptable – at least she’s still reading.

But the problem is that they also sell JUST toys. Instead of ordering any book at all, you can get random things like handheld games, cars, rubber stamp kits, and so on. Scholastic is supposed to be for books, to promote reading. How does a package of toy cars promote reading? It doesn’t. I had to argue with Hayley because she wanted to get a little stationary set that came with all of six sheets of paper, a pencil, some stickers, and three stamps for something like $12. I told her if she wanted that sort of thing so badly we could get more of it for less at the dollar store but if she wanted to order something from Scholastic it had to be something to read, end of discussion.

I am ALL for returning to the books-only version of Scholastic, thank you very much.

*Every time I start saying “when I was a kid” I feel like I’m getting old. Any second I’m going to start screaming for people to get off my damn lawn. And stop letting your dog crap there, while you’re at it!

There are probably more things annoying me, but being hungry happens to be one of them so I guess I’ll go dig up some lunch now!

Little miss model

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A little while ago someone we know called and asked if Breanna could be involved in a photoshoot; she sells baby products through Costco, things like legwarmers, terry cloth robes, little outfits, etc. We said sure, that it would probably be fun. Everything was finally ready to go on Saturday, so I took Breanna to an awesome photo studio where she joined a few other kids.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect once we got there because with Breanna you just never know. She’s a lot of fun and laughs a lot, but when she’s ticked off you really know it, so it could have gone either way. In the end, she loved it and she did an amazing job. She wore all the things they wanted, she listened to everyone as far as where to sit, where to look, everything.

Breanna's Photoshoot

Naturally I loved being there too because, hello, shooting in a real studio with real lighting (as opposed to my ghetto lighting, “let me just take the shade off this lamp, hang on”!). And luckily for me, the photographer didn’t seem to mind that I was shooting behind him. I just stayed well out of his way and didn’t speak to Breanna while he was working so I wouldn’t distract her.

I think she had an excellent time.

Breanna's Photoshoot

I think we may have created a monster though. Afterwards, we stopped by George’s parents’ house so she could try on her dress for my sister-in-law’s wedding and as soon as she had it on, she started twirling and posing.

Also, while we were at the studio, they would alternate between her and a little boy every five minutes so neither one got too tired, and she looked up and said, “I want my picture taken again!”

Breanna's Photoshoot

What a lot of fun! There may be another day that we’ll need to go back for some retakes, because one of the bathrobes they wanted to feature was too short for her, but I think she’ll be happy to do it again.

Breanna's Photoshoot

She was also really excited because she got to keep the little shirt, pink skirt, and polka-dot pink legwarmers. Last night she insisted on wearing the legwarmers to bed.

As long as she doesn’t go all Naomi Campbell, screaming at people and throwing cell phones at anyone’s head, it will be okay.

You can see more of the photos I took over here!

Groundhogs don't mean much around these parts

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Standing tall

Today people waited breathlessly for their resident celebrity gopher to pop out into the daylight so they could see if spring was right around the corner or if they’d be stuck with another six weeks of winter. Many were disappointed as pretty much every gopher I heard of on the news did indeed see its shadow, signifying that winter is not done with all of us yet (you folks in places like Los Angeles can hush. So can all of you in the Southern hemisphere, though I do not envy the 42C temps parts of Australia got last week either!).

Early morning

Please. Disappointed? Really? I don’t care if you send out a gopher, a skunk, or a little dancing monkey who will do a soft shoe in the middle of a snowbank. I live in Canada. I live in the Eastern part of Canada, to be specific. Winter is NEVER almost over on the second of February. It’s also not over in March. If we’re lucky we see warm temperatures and spring conditions by April, but it’s not unheard of to wake up to a blizzard that month either. Last March 9th, I shared pictures showing exactly how much snow dumped down on us in one particularly memorable blizzard. And last April 13th I was considering a flight to L.A. to escape yet another snowfall.

Happy trails to you

So yeah. I wasn’t really expecting much with the gophers. If ever they *don’t* see their shadows and winter is actually over by February 2nd, I’d say it’s time to start worrying about the Apocalypse – keep an eye out for random horsemen.

Hayley was pretty let down by the gopher story. While she enjoys playing in the snow, it’s starting to get on her nerves, especially when it comes to the hassle of putting on snowpants, boots, scarves, and the like. Her precise words, in regards to how she felt about it were, “Winter sucks BUTT.”

Not exactly delicate and lady-like. But you can’t argue with the feelings behind the sentiment!

Interview time

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Awhile back I read an entry on my sister’s blog where she had been asked some interview questions courtesy of Laura. At the end, she offered to ask five interview questions to anyone who felt like participating. I couldn’t resist, I wanted to see what kind of questions I would get from the person who probably knows me better than anyone else in the world, so here’s my interview.

1) You’ve just won a ridiculous amount of money on the lottery. You and your family (including your sister!) will never have to worry about money ever again. You can live anywhere you want in the world. Where would you live and why?

This is practically a giveaway question, because even with all the money I could ever possibly need, I would still choose to move to Halifax. The only difference is that I would be able to buy a really awesome house. However, if I was truly ridiculously rich, I would probably also get a condo or small house that I could either own or rent in various other locations – I’d love a home in Prague and somewhere in Mexico.

2) Tell us the story about the time you caught George smelling your coat. Did he know at the time that he had been caught, and if so, how did he try to cover it up? Most importantly, what went through your mind when you saw this?

Hang on while I stop laughing! First the brief backstory for everyone else – shortly before George and I got together, I was sitting at my desk finishing up some work before lunch arrived. The studio guys were lurking around my desk and George was sitting directly across from me on the chair where we all threw our coats. He probably thought I couldn’t see him because of my monitor but when I glanced up I saw him smelling my coat.

So to answer the questions, he did indeed know he was caught because I leaned around my monitor, incredulous, and asked, “are you smelling my COAT?!” Our boss immediately picked up on that and started laughing. George didn’t try to cover it up, but I think he might have been a little flustered. He owned up though and said that it smelled good. At that time I was wearing vanilla essential oil a lot so I frequently smelled like a walking cake.

It’s so long ago that I can’t remember exactly what it was that went through my mind, but I remember being happy that he liked my perfume. It was only a couple of weeks before we finally started dating so it was well timed.

3) You really wanted to be an actor. Given the crazy lives actors lead and that you have children now, would you still pursue such a career if the opportunity presented itself?

If I had already been acting and then had kids, I would have figured out a way to balance it, but now that I have kids I can’t imagine deciding to pursue a career that frequently has long hours, late night hours, and requires a lot of traveling around. I am in awe of how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie juggle their careers so that they are rarely, if ever, working at the same time and I admire them for almost always traveling as a family rather than having one parent leave for three or four months at a time.

But you know, now that I work as a celebrity blogger, I’m kind of glad that I’m not in the public eye like that. The things that I read about people, comments that people make, scrutiny they go through, I’m not entirely sure that it’s worth it. Especially the physical commentary. If Angelina is her normal weight, she’s torn apart for being “too skinny” and then if she starts to put a couple of pounds on, every tabloid says she’s pregnant. And don’t get me started on Jennifer Love Hewitt who, in my opinion, has one of the best bodies in show business (and the best rack EVER) and yet she was ripped to shreds over how “fat” she is. She is NOT FAT. So, you know, I’m just not sure that my self-confidence could stand up to the bloodbath of nasty commentary like that. I’m happier to just be me, writing about what celebrities are up to!

4) An all-powerful being has approached you and offered to grant you any super power of your choosing. What do you choose and why?

On the one hand, my knee-jerk reaction is to say being invisible but I think that could be more trouble than it’s worth. And flying could be a cool power, but I think that really, the best super power would be to be able to teleport AND to have the ability to teleport with other people as well (much like the way that Dumbledore was able to make Harry Potter Apparate by holding on to him). Then I could go anywhere at any moment.

5) What is your most guilty pleasure?

It really changes from time to time. Sometimes it’s a food – for awhile my guilty pleasure was getting those Lindt dark chocolate bars. Other times it might be reading something. I had a streak of reading books that centered around the Muslim world. Most recently I guess that my guilty pleasure was the Twilight series and movie.

That was fun!

Friday Flashback # 21 – Closer

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Oh, Nine Inch Nails. Every time I hear this song, I remember the hours (and hours and HOURS) that I spent at The Sphinx, a goth club in downtown Montreal. No matter what I was doing, no matter how tired I might have been at any given moment, if they played “Closer” there was no way for me to resist getting up and dancing. Occasionally on a speaker.

Now that I’ve listened to this I will inevitably spend the rest of my night listening to NIN songs. And truth be told, my favorite Nine Inch Nails song was actually always this one.

(Blame Andrea, she mentioned it on Twitter and it got stuck in my head!)

Better visuals

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Day 29: Eyesight

Much to my shock today, I walked out of my eye exam with my crappy glasses in my purse and brand new (one would hope) disposable contact lenses pressed firmly against my eyeballs. I was fully expecting to wait a week, what a surprise that they would have my insane prescription available right there in the office!

I ended up waiting almost ten minutes in the doctor’s office while he finished up with another person and I realized how I have changed. A long time ago I would have been annoyed at sitting around waiting. Today I just thought, “wow. I’m all alone and it’s quiet. This is frickin’ awesome!” And then I snapped a few pictures of the eye equipment. When you become a parent sometimes you’ll take your peace and quiet anywhere you can get it. If the exam didn’t cost $70 I’d book one every second day.

Anyway, we went through the exam and the questions, and he ended up giving me a trial pair of contact lenses that are meant to be tossed away after a month. I’m supposed to wear them for about a week and if there are no problems then I go back in to order a supply for either six months or a year. I can likely make each pair last longer than one month if I don’t use them every single day.

I’ve gotten new contacts several times since the first time when I was 17 but I always forget what it’s like to first put in a brand new pair. I’ve been looking through glasses that are so old the anti-reflect coating is wearing off (he said that and the overall age of the lenses are likely what was causing my dizziness and nausea and not the prescription itself since it didn’t change that much; he said my eyes were overworking themselves trying to see through deteriorated lenses), so when I stuck those lenses in my eyes, everything was so bright and so crisp. The doctor was amazed at how quickly I ran through his eye charts and how much better I could see immediately considering most people need a bit of time to adapt.

My very first eye doctor as a child (I was three when I got glasses) told my parents to try contacts for me when I got to be about 15 or so, and said that my vision would be even better because of a lack of space between my eyes and the correctional lens. I guess he was right!

All the way home I marveled at how well I could see the definition in the branches of the trees, how I had peripheral vision again, and when I looked at Breanna up close (she wanted to try to see my lenses in my eyes), I was amazed at how her eyelashes – they stood out so much now.

I’m not anticipating any trouble, I’ve never had an issue with any contacts before, so hopefully I’ll be placing an order before a month passes by and I won’t have to wear my glasses at all anymore other than first thing in the morning and shortly before bed. I’m wearing the glasses now because I’m going to sleep as soon as I post this, but I can already see the difference between typing here with the glasses and the contacts. My head is starting to hurt a bit – I don’t think I’ll be without contacts very often.

I am so happy I can see properly again!

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It's going to be a strange week

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I am so utterly confused by this week. I’ve been off since it started. Monday was a ped day so Hayley was home, making for a long weekend. That meant that Tuesday felt like the beginning of the week to me. Last night she couldn’t sleep because she didn’t feel well and she was feverish this morning so she stayed home today with some random ailment (much like the one Breanna had on Friday and Saturday) – this messed me up further.

I actually thought that today was Tuesday and nearly forgot to do a chunk of work that I normally do on Wednesdays. Oops.

Tomorrow may wreak further havoc on my grasp of the weekly calendar since it started snowing sometime between walking the dog at 6:30 am and getting back up at 8:30. It’s been coming down like crazy and they’re figuring on anywhere between 20 to 30 cm by the time it stops tomorrow. If it keeps coming down as heavy as it has been, there may be a snow day. The local news said it will be the biggest snow storm we’ve had in Montreal so far this winter, and we’ve already had a snow day once so it’s quite likely. I took the dog out at 9 pm and there were absolutely no sidewalks thanks to the plows and the street was slippery.

I intend to listen to the radio on my iPod in bed tomorrow morning when the alarm goes off at 6:15 to hear if there are any cancellations. I don’t want to wake everyone up only to find out the school’s closed after I’ve already served breakfast. I wish school boards could look at the 10 pm conditions and the overnight forecast and make a decision by the 11 o’clock news so I could just turn my alarm off altogether. Alas.

Whether the school is shut down or not, I’m hoping the roads will be relatively passable by 11 am because I have an eye appointment. I figure it’s about time it’s only been, uh, nine years since my last one. Cripes. Also, it’s not just a regular eye appointment, I’m being fitted for contacts again and I can’t tell you how badly I want those again. I have missed them and seriously despise wearing glasses. I needed to do something anyway since I find myself getting randomly light-headed and nauseous (and no, I am not pregnant). I think my vision may have changed and also that my glasses have gotten old and bent out of shape too many times and it’s affecting me in that way. I have more headaches than usual as well, so this was a really good idea.

I’m trying not to be too hopeful about it, but I’m still crossing my fingers that they’ll be able to give me my trial pair of contacts right away when we’re done tomorrow. It’s not all that likely because in all the years that I wore contacts, no one has ever had my stupidly awful prescription strength in stock; they’ve always had to order them in. It shouldn’t take long, less than a week, but I would really like to have them immediately. I’d like to stick my glasses into a case and walk out with little plastic discs pressed firmly against my eyeballs please and thank you.

I told George that I guess I’m just not ready to give up on vanity yet. I thought that maybe I could deal with wearing glasses but I can’t. I realize that this is an issue that dates back many years, back to early high school, probably even elementary school – and it’s just towards myself. I think that glasses look fabulous on the vast majority of people who wear them but on me? I can’t stand them.

Plus there are other perks to contacts. I can put makeup on more easily since I can see what I’m doing. When your prescription is as bad as mine is, taking your glasses off to put on eye makeup is a challenge. I will have peripheral vision again. Of course I can see shapes and whatnot out of the corner of my eyes now but it’s all very blurry and abstract. With contacts I see perfectly in all directions at all times. And considering winter will probably continue for another six months or something, it will be nice to walk back inside after being out in the cold and not have my lenses fog up on me. (I wondered about that when I was 17 and got my first contacts – would they fog up? But no, they do not. And thank God because wouldn’t that look really weird and zombie-like?)

So here’s hoping that I will be glasses-free tomorrow. And if not, well it shouldn’t be more than this time next week. Please let the roads be clear enough to drive!

*******

Speaking of winter and snow and cold – is anyone else finding that January is The Month That Will Not Die? Usually March does that to me. March is the month where I am officially fed up of winter to the point that I have to restrain myself from climbing into a bell tower with a high powered assault rifle. It teases just enough that spring is on the way and then it dumps a metric ton of snow on your head. It goes on forever.

But this year I’m finding that it’s been January for a bloody eternity. October, November, and December combined passed more quickly than this month. Thank god it’s almost over now because it’s starting to feel like some sort of weird occult phenomenon and January just isn’t going to end. Ever.

And with the storm blasting outside right now, that would be a very bad thing.

Friday Flashback # 20 – She's In Love With the Boy

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I mentioned this in an older entry, but to recap, when I was 16 years old my parents and sister had gone to Vermont for a week-long vacation as we did every summer. The difference was that I had stayed because I “had a job” except really I just didn’t want to be away from my boyfriend for a whole week. I mean, gasp! A week! Seven days! I would have died!

So I stayed. They left. The very first day that they were gone? He dumped me over the phone. So that was, you know, a lot of fun.

When I called my parents, 2.5 hours away, and cried, my dad hopped in his car and drove all the way back home, spent the night and then drove me to Vermont so I wouldn’t be alone. I was utterly miserable, convinced no one would ever date me again and that at 16 years of age I was destined to be a spinster who would die surrounded by my 15 cats. I didn’t know if I could manage a smile, so it was something of a shock that a song made me laugh.

Whenever we got within about a half hour of our vacation spot (a recreational trailer park in Alburg right on Lake Champlain), we’d be able to pick up a local country music station. My parents loved country music. At the time I was a closet country fan (now I shout it from the rooftops). Two songs in, they played a new song from a mostly-unknown at that time singer – Trisha Yearwood. The song was “She’s In Love With the Boy”.

You’d think a broken-hearted girl would rather hear songs about people who have “been done wrong” and mope with a bottle of whiskey with their hound dogs or something, anything other than a song about how much a boy and girl love each other.

However, when the chorus hit the line “her Daddy says that he ain’t worth a lick, when it came to brains he got the short end of the stick” I just started giggling and couldn’t stop.

I was sad most of that vacation but at least I wasn’t alone at home. And that station played that song at least twice per day so I heard it a lot and it never once failed to make me laugh.

See? Not all country music is about sad things!