Isn't that great? Although it is a little suspicious, and if I didn't know better I might think the whole thing's fixed. You see, the last winner was a gal, with whom, I worked at a homeless shelter. And this gal, is one with whom I worked at the SAME homeless shelter. And these two women's husbands have a podcast together and also host a lovely winter-time bbq. I know, if I were y'all I'd demand my money back!! Which reminds me, every last one of you forgot to pay me to enter the sweepstakes. But seriously though, I really wish every last one of you could have won, I really do. So, just keep entering, and hopefully one day you'll win!!!
And what did Megan win, you ask? I'll let the below picture do the talking...
Do y'all have this kind of thing at y'all's Costco?
Well, congratulations Megan!! Keep your eye on the mail!!!
That right y'all, you could win a Hawaiian thing!!! Remember over here, when good old what's her face won poi?!?!?! Well, you could be feeling the same feelings of delight!
Before I get into how you can win, I have a few free-floating ideas that I'm having trouble making a complete blog post around, so I'll share them right here, right now. They're all short stories about how great my mom is.
1.) Who among us doesn't remember singing this jaunty tune, made famous by the Snowman from "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"?
Well, being the imagineer I was, as a child, my younger sisters and I planted lollipop sticks under trees 3-4 times a week one summer. And every morning we'd wake up to find a menagerie of lollipops, lovingly scotch taped to the tree boughs. This only served to feed our lollipop tree addiction, but whatever.
2.) My mom has a funny relationship with technology, in my humble opinion. I mean, she's really good with technology and very innovative when it comes to her career as an elementary school librarian, but then she'll do things like email you detailed instructions on how to find an interesting internet item, rather than just emailing you the link. But, actually, maybe that has more to do with pop culture stuff. Por ejemplo, about 17 months ago my mom asked my sister, Emily, if she had seen the youtube woman. Thinking that perhaps it was a television character, of some sort, Emily said "maybe, I'm not sure". My mother's reply to that what "oh no, you'd know. Go to youtube and type in 'England's Got Talent Woman Singer' "... she wanted to show Emily, Susan Boyle, you see.
3.) My mom wants us all to know Jesus, and sometimes her methods to introducing us to him were a little unorthodox. Par exemple, my baby sister Brittany was obsessed with the rapper Eminem, when she was in 7th and 8th grade. She won a framed poster of him, looking tough, at the Ellensburg Rodeo, along with a sliver chain that was very Eminem-esque. Well anyway, Britt was super in to Eminem, but had a touch of the social anxiety so wasn't very involved with our church's Jr. High Youth Group, so my mom hatched a plan. In 2002, when Brittany was 14, Eminem came out with a movie called "8 Mile". If Brittany went to a church retreat, she could go see "8 Mile" with our older sister, and I think Violet, too. That might be a pop-culture thing too, cause if my mom knew the details of "8 Mile" she might not have let Bun-bun see it. But who knows.
So yeah, my mom rulez. But on to the sweepstakes!!! If you want the chance to win something Hawaiian, leave me a comment. Maybe it could be about something cool your mom did. Or if you're a mom, maybe something cool your kid did. Or maybe your favorite season. I don't know, but something!!! I'll announce the winner on Friday. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!
I am like giant cosmic magnet for awkward/uncomfortable situations. And you know what? I really only have myself to blame. I get myself into these unfortunate predicaments by opening my good for next to nothing mouth. Well, that's not entirely true, it might also have something to do with my "hearing loss", or whatever. Due to "prolonged and excessive" use of headphones through out my life, I may have some "hearing loss" which has led to countless "misunderstandings". For example, I have not thrice, but TWICE mistook someone saying "take the hand of the person next to you" for "take the head of the person next to you". Both times, while my hands were extended, reaching toward my neighbor's (always a stranger, mind you) head, I was able to quickly realize my bad, and play it off by quickly running my hands through my hair and throwing a quick hand pretending to be a gun and shootin' um with a winky face (a run-on sentence, I know. But totes worth it).
Anywhose, today I opened my mouth and awkwardness ensued. I got a Starbucks card from a special Valentine, AKA my mom, so I started my morning off at the Bucks (trying to get this to catch, feel free to join in). It was pretty busy, full of mostly tourists. So, I ordered my drink and hovered near the bar waiting for my drink to be ready. When, to my left I hear and man ask, "What was that?"
Now I know for a fact I had been singing "My Baby" by Lil' Romeo, in my head, and I was like 60% sure I hadn't sang anything out loud. My mind was racing so I just said the last thing I remembered saying outloud, "Tall decaf soy latte" I said to him.
"I don't think so." was his reply
Now I had no idea what kind mind game this guy was playing, cause I was PRETTY sure that's what I ordered, so I tried to remember if I had said anything else. "I maybe coughed a little" I said meekly.
As soon as I started to form the l for little, I saw the tell-tale white head phones, and realized he was talking to someone on his iPhone. But we've all been there right? No big deal! He didn't even notice I was having a conversation with him. The only people who might have noticed were the 50 some odd people waiting for the drinks. It really was no big deal, but I just couldn't find a way to be normal after such an event. So when the barista called out a drink, I looked about wildly and headed toward the counter, looking like a child raised by wild dogs who was being reintegrated into society. Quickly, I realized the drink wasn't mine. It was clearly some kind of iced, caramel thing.
"Oh, I ordered a hot drink. I don't think they would get it wrong." I said this part quietly, to myself, but the next part was louder "Must not be my drink". I looked at the gal next to me and slightly shrugged. She smiled sweetly. I spent the remaining time, waiting in the corner for my tall decaf soy latte.
Anyway I guess I'll just leave you with 2001 music video "My Baby" by Master P's son Lil Romeo
I'd like everyone to welcome, my first ever guest blogger, Violet!!! As she states in the post, Violet's been knowin' the Sandbos for DECADES, and nowadays she has a painfully hilarious job, that she blogs about HERE. It's pretty funny, y'all should check it out.
I have to admit, when I first read this I teared up a little bit. It reminded me just how great my life and family is/was. And helped me remember just how much I really do love watch home-videos of myself... ENJOY
I was introduced to The Sandbo Family many many years ago. I could figure out just how many but math is hard and frankly it makes me feel old. Let’s just say I had big hair and Brittany was in diapers.
Violet meets the Sandbo family around the same time this picture is taken
A little background on me, I have one younger sister we were latchkey kids our whole lives. We were raised on Top Ramen, MTV and made up dances to sitcom theme songs. Anne has the only picture taken of me on the day of my high school graduation, because my entire family was glued to the TV watching OJ Simpson in a car chase and arrived late to the school.
The Sandbo house can only be described as organized chaos. Anne had notes stuck to almost every kitchen surface, with careful deciphering one could figure out where each member of the household was located at any given time. There were always scattered projects, tasty snacks, and tons of people buzzing around.
Shocking to me they rarely watched TV but when it was on, usually old (and newly made) home movies were playing. Once during a huge snow storm and powerless, without a way to watch the movies we sat around reminiscing about things that happened in them.
Some of my fondest memories took place in the VW Vanagon. We would all pile in (this was before everyone less than 160 lbs was required to be in a car seat) and Anne would drive us on adventures, usually to the Bridle Trails Market, or Bartells. The strangest thing (to me) was they rarely turned on the radio, instead everyone would sing the songs of whatever the upcoming school concerts were. When the radio was on we would listen to Raffi and Tickle Toon Typhoon, and I could not have loved it more.
A fore mentioned fun times in the Vanagon
Nowhere I have ever lived has felt like home to me more than that house did. I would often drive my own mother crazy by saying “Anne Sandbo does this or that” she would snap back “Well maybe you should ask Anne Sandbo to be your mom!” if only it were that easy.
Here are a few things I learned in my years of knowing the Sandbos.
How to make prank calls
All you need to start a band is a bucket, and some clarinet reeds
How to spy on your neighbors without getting caught
A recorded dance routine is the best gift you can receive
Andrew can not behave himself long enough to earn cable
And most important;
It is possible for eight people to share one phone line and two bathrooms.
That's what my mom's going to call the book she writes about a recent medical "incident" she encountered. You see, she awoke one night with blood GUSHING from her nose. Turns out it was a bleeding artery, and after nearly two weeks of extreme pain, misery, uncertainty, stress, etc. the doctor was able to stop the bleeding, cauterize it, and hopefully prevent it from ever happening again. So, my mom's on the mend (thank GOD... but seriously though). In those two weeks of my mom being in and out of the hospital, the rest of the family handled it like any other family would. With feigned cruelty, potty jokes and overall hilarity.
...I started this post, like, a year ago. I have NO idea where I was going with it, but how can I deprive the world of such an intro? Can any of my family members remember any of the potty jokes to which I alluded (my New Year's resolution is not to end sentences with prepositions). I feel like the past couple post have been a litty bit too bitty, but I'm kind of focusing on my music right now. I'm borrowing a friend's ukulele and everything. But don't worry, I'm formulating posts on how great my mom is and how quirky Mass at a summer camp can be (is "be" a preposition?).
It was 1 year 4 months and 20 days ago today that I started this blog, and this is my 47th post. So clearly it's not a bloggiverary, but I just didn't know what else to call this post. I actually got the idea from a 'Reno 911' episode where Lt. Dangle throws a tribute for the 10 year anniversary of Princess Diana's death. However, he couldn't bring it to its grandeur in time, so it ended up being 12 years after her untimely death. Maybe a more accurate title for this would have been "Former Sweepstakes Winner Does Something With Winnings". But this is a great lesson in not judging a book by its cover. Well anyway, remember the sweepstakes winner, Sarah? Well she made some poi donuts, and posted about it, here on her blog.
So in closing, go check out the Sarah's blog, and.... today a kid itched his head and I got dandruff on my arm.
Happy Superbowl Sunday everyone! How's everyone feeling about today's big game? Good to great? Well, I just found out the the 49ers will NOT be playing to today's match. Which leads me to question why my bookie let me put thousands of dollars down on an SF win. I guess if the 49ers do end up winning, for some reason, I'll win BIG. I'll be eating nickle soup for the rest of my life! JK. In celebration of this holiday, I've been watching a lot of YouTube. Whoever is in charge of YouTube suggested I take a look at the following video. I don't know what I've been watching to make the YouTube super computer think I'd like this, but they were wrong... DEAD wrong.
As the title of this post suggests, I think this is just awful!! And let me tell you why:
There is too much movement in their dancing
Cymphonique mouths the words when it’s not her turn
The song doesn’t rhyme enough
Alexya looks about 10 years older than the other girls, and we’re not buying that she’s hitting those notes at the end
Their clothes lock them into a certain time. Not unlike the way you can see “Clueless” and know it was set in the 90s, just by Alicia Silverstone and the late Brittany Murphy’s clothes
The animation is archaic
And although it’s captioned and there are constantly butterflies flying by, I thought the chorus said “you give me great advice”
It may seem cruel to say such things about a group of young girls on the internet, but people gotta just quit trying to make little kids into internet sensations. Unless they’re really good at beat-boxing or playing the piano or roller skating or something like that.
Another example of people trying to make an internet sensation out of an adorable child. I do LOVE the lyrics, but just give her a little time to mature and remember to sing, rather than allowing the backing track to do all the work.
I hope all y'all have a great day. Is a Manning brother playing today? I want that team to win!
A few days ago it finally donned on me why I have a tinsies bitty bitty problem making friends my own age. I can almost hear those of you who know me well shouting: "You don't know what to do with your hands and face while carrying on a conversation!" "You remember a creepy amount of information about people TOO SOON in your relationship" "YOU DON'T LIKE TO BRUSH YOUR TEETH!". To which I say: rude, rude, rude. No, the real answer is: I have the maturate sensibility of a woman 40 to 50 years my senior. Please, do not misunderstand. I can eventually makes friends with my peers, but it takes a some quality, quantity time.
After moving, I racked my brain thinking of ways to make friends. I seemed to vaguely recall, that during parties there are usually two people who have large circles of people form around them. One is the guy or gal who has intricate choreographed dances, showcasing various forms of dance, to every song that's played (usually me). The other being the person who tell stories starting with "one day, at daily Mass...". And to be honest, I'm not entirely sure that's how good party stories start... I'm usually dancing so hard I get severely dehydrated and pass out 45 minutes in. J sorta K about that jazz, but I really thought church would be a good place to meet young adults. I mean, what 20 something doesn't LOVE a routine which involves getting up and out of the house by 6:30 each morning?!?!? The answer is, most 20 somethings don't like that... Yep, most. I can't complain though. This is where I met Betty, my retiree friend, whom I speak about briefly here.
After deciding daily Mass was a bit of a bust, I mean friend-wise, and I mean friends-outside-of-Jesus-and-Betty-wise, I thought I should be doing something a little more active! Enter canoeing. The Kihei Canoe club has visitor days, when for a small donation (or if you just blink profusely and clear your throat when asked for a donation, they don't usually push the issue) you can spend a couple hours canoeing around the ocean on traditional Hawaiian outrigger canoes.
Look at the gal in blue, just loving life
Sadly, I was again, the youngest person there by at least 30 years. And as it so happens (that's a common saying, right?), this is something young people generally know about the sport of canoeing. Several hours after I came home after one canoe outing, once the IC (idiot children, aka my roommates) woke up, I told them about how I was the youngest one out there. The boy IC said "Right? In da mahning, dair ah some ripped uncles outdair." Translation: I know. In the morning it seems to be, only strong older men out there (I'm slightly exaggerating his pigeon, for effect).
So, early activities were out. Then one day, while getting my 14 hours of internetting on, I came across a website for Kalama Heights Community Center. And guess what class they offer... HULA!!! I thought I had died and gone to heaven. And get this, the class was at 4pm, so I thought there might be more young people. My mind was made up, I was DEFINITELY gonna check that out the following Saturday. That Friday I went back to the website to get the address. You know, so I could do a dry run to time how long it takes me to get there, so I can get there 20 minutes AKA uncomfortably early. It was then that I realized, it's not Kalama Heights Community Center, it's Kalama Heights SENIOR center, and classes were only offered for the 55 and over crowd. Agism at it's worst, I think. So, I didn't go, but I kind of wish I had. I bet I could have made up a story about how it was all a misunderstanding, or how I suffered from Benjamin Button Syndrome. Or perhaps I could have some how ended up teaching the class!! I think I've watched enough YouTube to make that work. Maybe I'll try again next week.
An age-progressed photo of how I might look in 20 years. Can't say I'm crazy about it. It would appear I become a vampire in the future. Notice the red blood stains down the edges of my mouth. But I do kinda look like Steve, which is lovely.
