(#3) Mental Telephone Solitaire..or.."What do hot dogs have to do with Hawaii?"

I am sure you are already confused!  Well, my family (minus DH : "stick-in-the-muditis"), has an uncanny ability to play mental telephone soltaire.  It is "solitaire" because, while each of us play very well, none of us can play with each other!

I was prompted to share this by my daughter. Recently, I had thought to show her how impressed I was with my new ability to write down my profound thoughts for blogging as they come to me in the middle of the night.  I just reach out, with one eye closed, and quickly capture the thought onto the notepad of my iPhone, so I can expound upon it in blog form later when fully awake. 

Yes, well, it would seem more than one eye was still asleep! An example of my most recent note taking rendered this result:  "Mental telephone solitare with melting witch and flying monkeys and wild horses but no red shoes"

Now, here it is a couple weeks later and I am quite baffled by the entire thought!  Was I having a Wizard of Oz moment?  How did the mental (no comments here, please!) fit in?  What about a telephone and solitaire?  Why were there no red shoes, and where did the wild horses come in?  I am sure, in my dozing state that this all had great clarity and meaning!  I feel somehow that I have let everyone down, as surely there was a very profound revelation that I have let slip through the REM cycle!

One thing I have been able to understand from it all (at least it sounds good now) is the mental telephone solitaire; so I will give you all the odd exciting details of that part and perhaps I will sleep to dream of the rest again..

My (and I refuse to take the wrap alone--my kids are the same) mind tends to jump a lot of tracks, cross many wires, whatever analogy works for you...the point is that when I hear something it enters my mind but jumps from stop to stop inside my head until it comes out my mouth a quite different thought!

That is why the "mental telephone" part.  Ever play "telephone" as a child, where one person whispers a word into the ear of the first person, and each passes it down the line until the last person speaks it aloud?  Rarely is it still the same.  Now you get the idea.

A recent example is when my daughter said she wanted a hot dog and my mind went to a "dog" which then made me think of my dog, Tiki.  This made me think of the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland, which made me think of pineapple (they sell pineapple spears out front of the ride).  Once I had pineapple on the brain it made me think of Hawaii. 

Now...all of this is split second thought jumping.  So as soon as my daughter said she wanted a hot dog---I responded with, "I'd love to be in Hawaii right now."

Yes....even tho my family plays, as I said, it is solitaire...none of our minds seem to take the same tracks as the other so yes, she may play, but she still looked at me as if to say WHAT??!! (rather like I feel you are doing right now!!)

The best part of the whole "mental issue" (wink wink) however, is that next, we get to explain how we got from what they said, to what we responded.  Much laughter and fun always ensues after the explanation!

I will not say we have the most nuts on our family tree, as I cannot reveal as much about the other branches, but we certainly do have our share!   Just remember..Most people love nuts and our brand result in much laughter which is good medicine!  Viva La Nuts!!    ;)

(#2) There's still some nuts on the family tree...

We are who we are, in large part, because of the family we come from. On my dad's side were an abundance (13) of children in a very poor setting. They were raised to always be seen and never heard. As soon as they were old enough to drag a cotton sack, they had to go out and help in the fields and when a bit larger (around 10 years old) they got jobs in the local factories and farms. Life in Arkansas in the mid to late 30's. My mom was one of five children, and also fairly poor. However, her mom died when she was only five and her grandma down the road, and older sister raised her. At 11 years old her brother took her in with him and his wife.


While my dad's childhood left him with a great work ethic, he really doesn't get humor; and especially not if it is silly. Perhaps because my mom was raised by kids, she has always had a particular sense of fun and silliness. Most of her family, are very easy to discern as limbs from the same tree. Thus, my cousins and I grew up with a multitude of LOL-style memories!


 Unfortunately, those branches of the tree tend to be ripe with nuts of many types. It seems that OCD runs through that side of the family and it is very strong in me and all of my children, even my grandchild. In the early years, my mother's father made many comments regarding the "oddeties" of his grandchildren - which we find hilarious today. It is true, our "quirks" became apparent at young ages. In addition, our mothers were prone to bouts of laughter until they could not breathe, so we were "weird, and dinghy." Do not misunderstand me -- I am very happy with who I am -- I am just giving you, the reader, a little peek into the younger years of this particular family tree..


The ability of our close knit, extended family to find laughter and fun regardless of the situations life throws at them is the reason I can see the "sunny side" in my life as an adult. Each and every leaf, limb, and yes, nut, on that tree contributed to my ability to entertain and amuse my family and friends (often to the point of wetting their pants). I love them dearly, and while there are certainly a few "insects" and "rotten spots" on our tree, I am grateful for the "ME" they helped to form.