Sock Earrings
Love socks? Love knitting socks? Love comfy, cozy toes? Here’s a small tribute to warm tootsies! These little earrings boast a heavenly blue dangle. Maybe I need to knit blue socks….
Sock earrings. © JustHavingFun
Posts tagged ‘Fun’
Cling
Link to the daily prompt
Cling peaches
“Canned Fruit” by Rennett Stowe, used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Don’t cry little fleshlings as you are destined for greatness:
No longer to cleave to that hard, unmoving pit inside your sunny heart.
Slide around my bowl, float in the spoon, and submit to my teeth
Cling wrap
“Saran Wrap, 1961” by Allen, used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Who would have known you’d stay faithful
when others failed their trials? When the task became urgent
you succeeded in keeping together the good
and excluding the bad. Alas you are expendable and flimsy,
your success being your downfall.
Cling on (sorry!)
furrowed brow and coarse glances
alien guttural growls of a foreign race
an enemy turned ally, warriors
united against a common enemy
“Funny Pictures Cat Has Static Cling” by Kevin Jarrett, used under CC BY 2.0
Static cling
A spark, a shock, a cat winding around my calves, you
Plaster skirts to hose in an unflattering way. Dry air? Feet dragged across nylon
Rugs? I beg you reveal your origin. Clothes dryer inheritance? Evidence:
Socks hide in sleeves and wrinkles create hills and valleys
Like landscape artifacts as seen from space across my contorted torso.
Now picture this…
Joe Klingon walks across the room and flicks a metal switch. Zap! Static electricity shocks him! His dessert, a small packet jacketed in cling wrap — held against his uniform blouse (which was oddly bunched up from static cling) — jumps from his hand and flies across the room spreading the sunny yellow cling peaches to the carpet. He ironically roared, “Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam!”(1)
“Klingons” by Michael Buonaccorsi, used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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1. Translation: “Today is a good day to die.” See: http://www.babylon-software.com/definition/Heghlu’meH_QaQ_jajvam/English. (Retrieved 12 January 2017.) ↩
Up the Steps!
Fit friends on the steps at West 187th St.
I’m from the city that has the most “stair streets” in the USA, Pittsburgh. I understand their utility. Too steep for a street but gotta go there? Put in steps.
“On some of the steepest hills, steps even double as legal streets. Known as ‘paper streets,’ these staircases appear on maps as valid thoroughfares – an often consternating surprise to unsuspecting visitors.”(1)
I don’t have to like them, though. <grumble, grumble>
Like those in my hometown, the steps at West 187th Street are not for the faint of heart. I chug up and down them reluctantly, when I really need to… because I’m too lazy to walk three blocks to take the elevator. Despite being the venue for an art project commemorating the Revolutionary War—for which I fail to connect to the historical past—these steps harbor a pedestrian functionality. At best they are a shortcut from Fort Washington to the valley (Broadway) below. At worst they are an insurmountable obstacle. For the thousands (my guess) of people who use them daily, they are just another way to get from low to high or high to low without detouring south to the A train station to use the elevator or walking up/down the long, bleak hill on Overlook Terrace between West 190th Street to West 187th St. So you see all sorts of people there: old, young, pregnant, and occasionally those with shopping carts or strollers.
“ The design, known as a “road tattoo” on the W. 187th St. steps” by DNAinfo/Lindsay Armstrong. Copyright reserved by original owner.
Among these (primarily young) people are fitness buffs, determined souls who actually decided to run up and down the staircases! I’ve counted the steps (135) and the landings (8) and usually cannot walk up the entire staircase without stopping for a breath about two thirds of the way there. HOWEVER, I have a new world’s record to announce: I walked all the way up on Wednesday morning without a break! After coming all the way down I stopped to photograph these brilliantly glowing young people(2) with their own camera when they were trying to use a water bottle as a tripod. Then I asked to take my own shot and use their picture in my blog. New friends. How happy they made me!!
While my old knees won’t let me aspire to running up and down, and my lungs protest asthmatically, I can still aspire to climb and breathe freely! Care to join me?
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
1. Albrecht Powell. Steps of Pittsburgh: Explore Pittsburgh’s Many Steps & Staircases. http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/about_pittsburgh/a/steps.htm, accessed June 6, 2015. ↩
2. If you know these people, please shoot me an email so I can thank them again.↩
Laughter
“Hi there. Ain’t I such a cutie pie?”
“sloth” by Thowra_uk, used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Nothing fills the soul with pleasure the way a good belly laugh does!
Memory 1: A close friend accompanied me to a lecture one evening several years ago. On the way home, I decided to stop at the supermarket for milk. We walked through the aisles toward the very furthest corner at the back of the store where (naturally) the milk was kept. On the way we passed the greeting card display. So we did what women do; we paused to look at a few.
You wouldn’t ordinarily think that greeting cards would be a source of great amusement.
However, some are good for a giggle. Maybe you’d get a few chuckles over a good quote from a “Shoebox” card by Hallmark. Or perhaps Maxine would get you grinning. I’ve dwelled over a few funny cat cards to be sure. ….. sooooo … (pause for the punch line) …
“cards” by Tom Magliery, used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Luckily for us, few people shopped at that particular store at that particular time on that particular date or 9-1-1(1) would have been inundated with calls to rescue the two middle-aged ladies who were rolling on the floor(2) laughing for over an hour!!!
That was a great belly laugh!
“Speak into the microphone!”
Memory 2: My sisters and I had only one first cousin (our father was an only child and my mom’s sister had only one child). Needless to say, family was small but precious. It was the night before our cousin’s wedding and we four girls went out for coffee and cake without the parents. No bachelorette party but something nice. We were reminiscing, swapping stories, teasing our cousin about marriage, comparing lipstick, etc., and all of the things girls talked about in those days. We were jolly but not outrageous. I remember playing the interviewer, holding up my spoon as if it were a microphone, and asking an interview question around the table. The bride and my sister #2 said something into the “mike” and we were laughing. When I held the “mike” to my sister #1, she was laughing so hard that she burst into tears! At that point, the rest of us lost it and started howling laughing, too. For years afterward, the phrase, “Speak into the microphone,” would propel #1 into paroxysms of tears and laughter.
Now, that really was a great belly laugh!
Have some joy this week.
PS – Doesn’t that little sloth just make you want to smile until your face hurts? Cuuute!
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1. American emergency contact telephone number. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-1-1 ↩
2. Only in the idiomatic sense; but afterwards, our sides ached from the laughter as if we had been rolling on the floor! ↩
Gallery
3-Strand Crystal Bracelet
I bought some lovely crystals on Sixth Avenue in “my” colors and decided to practice crimping at the same time as making a bracelet for the holidays. I’m pleased with the results.
3-Strand Crystal Bracelet with Silver Links
First attempt at a complete bracelet with my new tools and colors! I made the silver links myself, making me realize that if I want to continue with this fun, I’ll need a better side cutter—for smoother joins—and a second flat-nose or bent nose pliers.
3-Strand Crystal Bracelet, draped over wrist
The links are rough but I proudly made them all.
3-Strand Crystal Bracelet, view of links and hook
Gallery
Jewelry Supplies
I’m going to make some bracelets! Or earrings! Or necklaces! Or all three! What a find on Craigslist. Thanks to the generous person who added all of this swag to the crimping tool I inquired about.
Crimping tool and beading supplies obtained via Craigslist
Random Act of Bagels
“Random Acts of Kindness” by Courtney Dirks, used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
What’s inside the box? What random act of kindness could be inside?
My box once held two bagels. I looked forward to enjoying their chewy goodness toasted with cheese melted on each half. I had been at a party where they served a nice meal. At the end guests were asked to take the extra food home. I helped myself to the bagels, wrapping them in the time-honored fashion: in a napkin. I slipped them into my bag and boarded the subway home.
“Cheddar Bagel” by Mark H. Anbinder, used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The bagels spoke to me from inside my bag. I knew exactly where the bread knife rested at home and saw myself slicing them into halves on my much-scored wooden cutting board. I heard the click of the toaster’s lever as I lowered them down in the slots, adjusting the browning knob to the perfect doneness. Ouch! the hot bagel seared my fingertips as I pulled it from the toaster and popped the halves onto a microwaveable glass plate. Now, which cheese? Yellow cheddar or white Muenster? The cheddar won so the bagel was paved with small slices around the center hole.
“Ben Helping with Dinner” by John Flinchbaugh, used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
My fingers slid over the microwave’s time controls. Too short and the cheese would be solid. Too long and it would be a burning puddle on the plate. How long would be just right? My fingers knew the right setting. Then the microwave buzzed and I opened the door. The gooey cheese puddled perfectly on the platter and steam curled from the surface. All I needed to do was take a bite….
I was savoring the anticipation of my cheesy treat when I heard a voice in the aisle. “Sorry to bother you but I’m homeless and haven’t eaten. If you can spare any change for food I’d appreciate it.” A scruffy-looking man in a soiled army-green coat had entered the car. “God bless,” he intoned as he walked down the aisle with his hat outstretched. He repeated his homeless plea again, humbly.
I knew what I had to do. I waited until he approached my seat then withdrew the bagels in their festive napkin. “Please enjoy this,” I said handing him the bagels. What was the dream of a cheesy bite in the face of a man who had nothing to eat. “God bless you,” he said looking into my eyes.
At that moment, providing a “box of kindness” to this unfortunate man tasted better to me than the most meltingly delicious cheesy snack I could ever prepare.
Some random act of bagels had fed my soul and nourished another, too.
The Start of a Good Thing
This is the start of a Good Thing. A Fun Thing. A Meaningful Thing. My Thing.
My Thing is writing, thinking about writing, and thinking. I like to comment on my observations and thoughts. I like to share observations when I think they’ll be appreciated. Sometimes I observe too much, ruminate over thoughts. Here, in my Good Thing, I hope to ruminate aloud.
Most of all, I hope to have Fun. Or barring that, I hope to enjoy the torturous effort of getting my thoughts on “paper.” After all, if it’s not fun, why bother? Or, in the words of those venerable sages, Ben & Jerry, “If it’s not fun, why do it?”
Just Having Fun 
Written
on May 20, 2015