Thursday, August 28, 2008

Bell out of order, please knock

Apparently Tamara did not like my last post. In fact, I believe she might have suggested that it was the worst post ever. And, yeah, it was short and not thought out at all, but at least I wasn't listing things I carry in my purse, right? Right. In any case, Tamara is bored at work, and since she was kind enough to blog for me today over at The Collective, the least I can do is babble to the Internets for a while.

It probably won't surprise you to hear that I was sort of a weird kid. A weird kid who grew up into a genuinely weird woman (or, as my mom calls me, "a unique mind").

My mom also likes to remind me that, when I was little, I had a Southern accent that no one would explain. I grew up in southwest Ohio and, while it is a bit close to Kentucky, it's not close enough for Southern twang to seep in. I don't remember how or when I lost it, but I wish I still had it. I love accents of all kinds, but the Southern accent is the friendliest of them all.

Like most kids, I liked to play "pretend" during recess, but instead of playing House or School, I liked to imitate Babs from Tiny Toons or pretend I was Peter Pan (the girl version, of course) and climb to the top of the jungle gym and jump off. I never ended up flying, though. I tried a lot of different things in my attempt to fly. I stood on one end of a teeter-totter and had my friend push down on the other end. My thought was that, if he pushed down hard enough, I've propel through the air and soar into the clouds. What happened was, I fell backwards off of the teeter totter and hit my head on the ground. It was sort of exactly like what happened when I tried to run down the Slip 'n Slide. I used to try flying off of swings, too. You know, you'd swing as high as you could and then jump when you reached the highest heights, but I always crashed back down to Earth. My most unsuccessful attempts at flying usually involved an umbrella. I thought that since Mary Poppins could take off from the ground and fly with an umbrella, I could do it, too. But since I was an amateur, I jumped off of stuff while holding an open umbrella, so I'd at least already be in the air. It never worked and I was always disappointed. Even now, I can't believe movies would lie to me like that. I mean, I cannot tell you how many times I tried clicking my heels three times, but it never took me home. I tried it just this morning and it still didn't work. Hasn't stopped me from trying, though.

6 comments:

Tam said...

MUUUCH Better! I need this kind of stuff from you jennie - it's the only way I make it through the day sometimes.

Also, peter pan is almost always casted as a girl. I bet even the cartoon peter was a girl. J is super interested in flying, you sould brainstorm some ideas with him.

I, on the other hand, am only concerned with speed reading. Not the kind were you read a little faster than most people, the kind of speed reading where you pick up a book, fan through the pages, and DONE. I picture myself doing this every time I walk into barnes and noble. I guess I'm a genuinely weird woman too!

Heather Anne Hogan said...

I feel like you wrote this just for me.

Anonymous said...

Growing up so close to Kentucky makes everyone a wee bit 'special', I think.

Jennie said...

Tam, that would be a great superpower. Although, I kind of like sitting and reading for a long time, so I don't know if it'd work for me.

h!a! is it cause of the flying? Or the Southern accent?

Sir, at least it was just close to Kentucky and not IN Kentucky. JK JK I love Kentucky!

mysterygirl! said...

How come we could never get the swing to go all the way around? I always tried, but the chain would just go slack. :( Stupid physics, ruining our dreams.

Anonymous said...

I used to try that umbrella thing all the time. I was always a disappointed that it didn't at least slow me down when I fell.