LLWorldTour

While spending a few days at my cousins’ place in Bloomington, I met a new and wonderful man. His name was Flat Stanley.  It turns out he was a traveler just like me. *Sigh*

In 1995, Dale Hubert, a 3^rd Grade teacher in London, Ontario, Canada, began the Flat Stanley Project based on the 1964 book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. The project connects children and classrooms around the world via a character who, in the original story, gets squashed accidentally by a bulletin board (ouch!) and then discovers he is flat enough to fit inside an envelope and travel the world (hmmm…where can I find a big bulletin board?!).   Students who participate in the project read the book and then design their own flat character and send him to children, friends, or family in other states or countries.  Those children then write about their special visitor and his adventures with his hosts.

Now teachers and their students around the world are getting to know Flat Stanley and each other.  In 2005, more than 6,000 classes from 47 countries took part in the Flat Stanley Project

Back in Bloomington, Michael and Nancy received their very own Flat Stanley from their goddaughter Faye, a second grader at Increase Miller Elementary School in Golden’s Bridge, New York.

We took him around town, photographing him in front of the Indiana University Stadium and other local landmarks.  I think I scared my cousins with my crush on this two-dimensional, mini-man and maybe got a little ‘too’ creative with my ideas.

I asked Michael, “Why don’t we photograph him lying on the ground next to an empty bottle of Jack Daniels or exiting a strip club with a black bar superimposed over his eyes?”  Perhaps Flat Stanley got into some trouble here in B-ton. He is a bit of a bad boy, ya know.  Yeah, I guess not the message we wanted to send back to the second graders.

Okay, so instead of in front of local landmarks, I thought, why couldn’t we be different and photograph him in front of the suburban mundane: Flat Stanley in front of ‘our’ local pharmacy. It’s a place called C-V-S, kids!  Or Flat Stanley in front of the local Hooters or in front of the Kinko’s Copy shop—where he actually feels quite at home for some reason.

He was cute, a tad petite, but still huggable just the same.  He was a little two dimensional for me, but so are some of the guys I date. Ba. Dum. Bum.

But in the end, we had to bid ‘Flat’ farewell as he had to go back into his manila envelope, back to New York, and back to the classroom.

Thank you for making me laugh. I will miss you Flat Stanley.

Here is Nancy’s letter that she sent back to Faye with Flat Stanley.

Dear Faye,

Hello to all of the Second Graders at Increase Miller!! We had a great weekend with Flat Stanley!  Michael’s cousin, Lisa, was here and she fell a little bit in love with him.  I’m sorry we didn’t get any pictures of her with Flat Stanley.  She has traveled around the world and has a blog called, www.LLWorldTour.com.

He came to visit us in Bloomington, Indiana—the home of Indiana University.  So we went to the football stadium.  It was empty now but is filled with thousands of screaming fans and students in the fall.  We aren’t sports fans so usually try to avoid it.

Flat Stanley really wanted to see where Michael keeps his sailboat.  No one can believe that we have such a wonderful, large lake for sailing.  It’s called Lake Monroe and is a reservoir that has the City of Bloomington’s water supply.  They flooded a small town named Paynetown about 50 years ago to make the lake.  They moved everybody to new houses first, though.  As you can see, there are no boats out yet, but Michael will put his boat out in a couple of weeks.  Yeah!

We were so happy that Flat Stanley got to see the buffalo.  They live on the way to visit my father, who was just 94 years old.  The buffalo are very large and hairy.  I’m sure they get really hot in the summer.

Next to the buffalo is Flat Stanley in front of the entrance to the Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhist Monastery.  We actually have two Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in Bloomington.  The Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibetan Buddhists, has family here and comes to Bloomington when he is in America.  I’m taking a class with him in May.  This is very special.

The last picture is Flat Stanley in front of the Monroe Country Court House.  We have a lovely square around the court house with lots of stores and restaurants.  The inside of the court house has a wonderful painted ceiling.  It was too dark for Flat Stanley to see so we’ll have to visit when you come to see us in Bloomington.

Lots of Love,

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Michael

Craigslist has gotten several mentions on this blog.  I sold a lot of my belongings through Craigslist when I first set off on my travel adventures.  I sold my car, my condo, and even my coffee table on Craigslist. If you gaze to your right…you will see their link proudly displayed in my “cool sites” column.

Well, now I have learned of a nifty spin-off site to Craigslist sweetly called: You Suck at Craigslist.

It’s a compilation of crazy, weird, odd, and just plain stupid REAL advertisements found on Craigslist.  It’s good for a laugh every now and then.

Here are a couple examples.

Bees!

selling ford truck – $1200

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$1200 obo this has been a good truck for me but i have to sell it because i cant ever get to it with all of the bees around it they have been in and around it for almost 2 months now and i havent been able to get near 5 feet or else i get stung and im sick of it i still have welts from months ago stingings and i cant even get to work because i cant get to my truck so i have to sell it test drives at ur own risk i cant go with you too many bees.

1991 integra shell minty – $650

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i am selling my 1991 acura integra da shell it is minty no dents no nun… diz waz my project car but havent had time to drop a motor in it so im sellin it for 650 firm obo if da price is rite ill throw in da tranny i got to so holla at me
### ### #### or hit me up on aim #######

Who says there is ever enough fun? Life should be fun…if you are not laughing and loving as much as possible well, it’s time to start!

“Can we get more people to choose the stairs by making it fun to do?”

This is the question posed by a group in Stockholm, Sweden who converted the stairs of a subway exit into a giant piano. The answer to the question is an overwhelming “yes” as a reported 66% more people chose the stairs over the adjacent escalator. The project is part of “The Fun Theory” initiative of Volkswagen. Previous projects include adding speakers to a park garbage can that makes throwing away trash sound more dramatic and fun.

The cool part is that it barely promotes Volkswagen (except it still does as I am here) and mostly promotes fun and exercise. I like it.

Check out the video here.

Mob rules.  Get a group together and get bulk discount rates for cool stuff.  But what if you don’t have your own gang or posse? No worries Groupon takes care of all that for you.

Groupon is a website with daily deals too good not to pounce on.  From teeth whitening to spa days to dinner deals at your favorite restaurant, Groupon offers discounts from about 50-70% off normal prices.

And Groupon is growing – they are now in almost 20 cities across the US and hope to be in 30 by year’s end.

The Chicago-based company has sold nearly 500,000 groupons, saving consumers about $23 million according to Andrew Mason, the company’s founder.

That is beginning to translate into big money for Groupon. It makes money by taking a percentage of each groupon it sells, and Mason says the cut hovers around 50 percent.

“It’s really exploded in a way that, if I stop and think about it, kind of freaks me out a little bit,” Mason says.

Why am I writing about it? Simply because I signed up, thinks it’s a very cool idea, and am easily entertained by neat, new stuff…plus it really works and you can save a wad of cash!

Check them out, if not for their good deals, at least for their sharp and witty prose. Each day’s write up can be pretty entertaining.

It seems in our modern times we spend so much time face down in our blackberry world texting and shuffling through life. Now with all our i-gadgets we never miss a call, but seem to miss more of real life passing us by and certainly have less interaction with people and the world around us.

Juan Mann of Australia has started a revolution to buck this trend. How? By hugging it out.  That’s right, free hugs to anyone who wants or needs one.

Who doesn’t love a good hug? I don’t know about you, but for me, there’s nothing out there for sale at the stores that compares to a good old fashioned squeeze around the mid section.  Now, folks in places like Taipei, Tel Aviv, Italy, Ireland, Toronto, and Colorado are continuing his campaign by offering free hugs to strangers in public places. Check out his site and story here and then go hug someone you love…or if you are feeling really ‘huggy bear-like,’ go hug a stranger. Now get to huggin’.

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While I was home in New Jersey living once again with my dad and his new wife in my old childhood house, I helped them sort through 36 years worth of stuff (dare I say crap?) before they sell the house and possibly move to a lovely over fifty-five community where the grass is always green and nicely mowed.

So our house here in NJ is a lovely typical suburban split level abode circa 1972. And it hasn’t changed much since.  As I described earlier, my pink bedroom was nearly exactly as I’d left it 20 years ago. And the same could be said for most of the rest of the house, like the kitchen complete with yellow Formica countertops, yellow linoleum floor, and beautiful faux wood grain cabinets. But, now my dad would be selling and trading up for newer more contemporary digs. So I was helping him sort through all kinds of miscellany and junk, a lot of which hadn’t been touched in several decades.

Here are some fun items we came across in the garage…most of which went straight to the trash:

• Burpee seed catalog circa 1987
• Bicentennial commemorative 1976 hot plate
• A tiny Torah. Mazel Tov!
• Old plasticy table cloths
• Half used cans of WD-40 and Oil-in-One
• 20-30 plastic, cobweb-filled plant containers
• Dried up craft paints
• ‘Cleen! Brite-White’ white wall tire spray circa 1978
• 6-7 ice scrapers and various snow brushes
• Approximately 512 used golf balls
• 1 old red snow sled (a keeper!)
• An unidentified tool that looks like a ray gun from a 1960s sci-fi movie
• Drain snake
• Plutonium reactor (just seeing if you are paying attention)
• Coleus Plant seeds circa 1979
• One Headlight (The Wallflowers would be proud)
• 1 Styrofoam egg container
• Axe handle sans Axe head
• Metal Mailbox Letters
• 1970s hanging lamps
• Random bits of wood, glass, Plexiglas, skin
• 1 Hedge Trimmer
• Solidified Turtle wax
• Various balls of twine, rope, and electric cords

Besides most of this stuff that hit the trash before I could say ‘toss it’ we still decided to have a moving sale—the classic American weekend of fun—hocking old, dirty wares to old, dirty bargain hunters.

The morning of said sale, the darn garage sale groupies showed up around 7:30am. Our sale started at 9:00. They were circling like vultures, just waiting to score that coveted old Sinatra LP or misplaced antique.  The funny thing was these early birds all knew each other…it was like a scary gang, but scary as in ‘get a life’ scary.  I went out at 8:30am to say ‘hi’ and ask jokingly ‘what about NO early birds’ didn’t they understand?! I did relent and let them in at 8:50am…nice salesgirl that I am.

Here are some of the luxurious items I sold throughout the day:

• A mini fridge (which was later returned as it was said to ‘not work’ even though it actually did…later sold it on Craigslist.com)
• My ‘Sew Perfect’ little girl sewing machine
• A small pocket knife
• A green glass dish
• An old transistor radio
• My old Soundesign small radio
• A plastic laundry hanger thingy
• The Hardy Boys books
• Couple other books
• A Sudoku coffee table set
• My brother’s old nun chucks. Some kid is going to attack someone with those soon. At least I made a few bucks.
• An old softball bat
• Random stuffed animals
• Assorted games
• A Nurf basketball set
• Barware
• Watches
• Several wall prints
• Frames
• 2 plastic storage boxes
• A never-used charcoal grill
• Old Sheets/bedspreads
• Brass candlesticks
• A silver ice bucket
• A glass jar for .25. (for the buyer to store her ‘fish food’)
• A beautiful never-used car shammy
• Car Seat Cover
• Basket of fake flowers
• Sunglasses
• Clip on Sunglasses
• Sports flip up sunglasses
• Outdoor Chair Cushions

This is it. This is what my life has come down to on a beautiful Saturday. Hawking lame wares to lame people. Ugh.

The last sale of the day? My Fiddler on the Roof Music box. Sniff, sniff. Goodbye Tevye! Just like him, I wish I were a rich (wo)man…and now I know that having a garage sale is not the way to achieve that.

But there is still stuff left if anyone is interested in a twenty-plus year old outdoor umbrella or a shoe horn shaped like a horse.

As a good friend of mine put it so perfectly: One man’s trash is…well, another man’s trash.

They say art is subjective. But apparently the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is full of pieces so bad that they have been unanimously deemed ‘bad art’ hence their motto: Art too bad to be ignored.  Sounds actually a bit more fun and interesting than some other museums I’ve been to and probably a great curating job. Since 1994, MOBA has been true to their mission: to bring the worst of art to the widest of audiences. In fact, the museum was founded when the above painting, Lucy in the Field with Flowers, was fished out of the trash. If you are up in Somerville or Dedham, Massachusetts…check out their galleries.

My father recently married his sweetheart of the last five years. A few of my friends joked and asked me if I was walking him down the aisle. Considering he has yet to be able to do this for me, it may be my only aisle-walking experience – except going up and down the aisle on one of my many airplane flights.

It was a fun and happy weekend full of family, laughs, and more Chinese Buffet! Growing up, our family was pretty small and we didn’t get out all that much and then I moved away. It is really fun to be back home now for awhile – to hang out with my dad and get to know my new and expanding family. My gift to them was a wedding album, but this was not your usual sticky page photo album. Instead it was a really nice bound coffee table-type book filled with photos I took at their wedding. Here’s a very cool website called Blurb, where I downloaded the software to design and create this book. It’s very cool. Check it out. You can make your very own book or even buy the one I made if you want pics of Carol and Jamie for your very own coffee table!

“Goin’ to the Chapel…”

“…and we’re gonna get married.”

Our new expanded family!

Congratulations Dad & Carol!

Texts from Last Night

I am not a fan of texting, but this is just plain funny. Here is a website of peoples’ random texts. You can send in funny texts you made or received. It is most likely that the majority are ‘drunk dials’, of course.  It’s always good for a few chuckles to start your day.

Here are a few from today:

(803): Operation extremely regretful is in full effect

(617): Where were you when I was single???
(1-617): Still in diapers.

(917): i just had sex. the condom broke. we’re sleeping in to separate beds. And im in Albany

(610): The spoon I was using to ice my hickey just fell out of my purse while i was paying at the liquor store. I look like

an alcoholic with a meth problem.

(617): I cannot find my penis.

(609): this is amy. the small petlike person from the women’s bathroom at the reef.

(202): He’s so far in the closet he’s in Narnia

(213): Gonna be late. Someone jumped in front of our train

(619): Moving to Utah. Got sick of alcohol and have a severe wife shortage.

(917): omg. I had the wrong window open and I accidentally posted my credit card # on twitter
(310): What’s your twitter name

I don’t know about you, but I find this much more useful and interesting than Twitter.

From time to time I will be posting some righteous sites and other really cool stuff that I think is LL-worthy and you simply must check out.

This week’s link? Improv Everywhere.

This group does exactly as their name describes – the world is their stage as they create human works of art in various sketches in random locations amidst an unknowing audience who had no idea they were about to see a free live show. They’ve frozen in New York’s famous Grand Central Station.

They’ve staged one act plays on the subway – like dropping their drawers during rush hour traffic and acting like it’s completely normal.

They’ve greeted tired commuters on the way to work in the morning with random “high fives.” And they’ve welcomed home complete strangers at the airport with cheers and balloons.

As their site says:

Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 80 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City.

It’s awesome and brings some joy and chaos to the average day…we could all use some more of that.