I love this quote! “Sometimes I pretend to be normal but it gets boring so I go back to being me,” Ain Eineziz. Makes me think of some dumb things I do. This has been a Shady Oaks week in so many ways. I blew the horn when I rode by Shady Oaks this morning on the way home from Peachtree City, didn’t slow down, afraid they’d commit me. They say if you think you’re crazy you’re really not crazy. That thought gives me comfort. But if you really are crazy, you don’t know you’re crazy. Now I’m confused about being crazy.

My children and grandchildren graciously invited me to go to the beach with them this summer. I’m so excited! Been getting my summer vacation wardrobe together. Well, the other night I decided to try on my new bikini, just kidding, didn’t want to make the chubby grandmothers jealous so I bought a bathing suit that looks like shorts with a t-shirt top. I love it. Anyway, it had a bra inside that wasn’t attached to the suit, just sewn in the top across the shoulder seams. For the life of me I could not figure how to put the t-shirt top on. When I finally got myself in the middle of the bra to pull the top down, I was stuck, tied up in a bra straight jacket. I could not pull the suit down or pull it off. Then I started sweating!

I was so mad…I hobbled over to my desk for the scissors. I could see myself in the mirror, I looked like a meerkat, my arms sticking up out the neck of the bathing suit. While I was cutting the bra off I prayed to not cut myself. I would be mortified to call an ambulance to take me to the emergency room and then I thought, in the meerkats’ position I can’t drive or use the phone. If I wasn’t careful I could cut my earlobe off with these six inch mill scissors. I was in a fix but I finally got the bra cut off the suit. I was so glad to be free of the bra. I love the bathing suit…without the bra. I pranced into the kitchen wearing the bathing suit, so proud of myself, and chunked the bra in the trash can. My youngest son walked by the trash can in the kitchen the next morning and I heard him mutter, “What on earth.” He just shook his head, looked at me and said, “Never mind, I don’t even want to know!”

Spent last night with the grandchildren. Alexander performed in his high school’s symphonic band spring concert. I always enjoy the boys’ band concerts. Anyway, I woke up in the middle of the night and reached over for my phone to check the time and knocked the phone off the table and it bounced under the bed. I got on the floor but could not reach it, had to crawl under the bed. The waistband of my pajamas caught on something on the bed frame and I couldn’t back out from under the bed. I just lay there and laughed thinking they’d find me stiff as a board the next morning. I couldn’t holler for them to help me. I was in the guest room downstairs and they were two floors above me. Then I started thinking about aliens! Seriously!

My friend and I were talking about martians and aliens one night recently and laughing about all the old magazine articles where people who couldn’t account for periods of time, said they had been abducted by aliens and “probed.” I remember seeing those articles in magazines. Did a little research and read about Barney and Betty Hill being abducted on a rural road in New Hampshire after visiting Niagara Falls in 1961. Kinda scary, so I’m not writing about them. I actually thought, they can abduct me tonight if they’ll pull me out from under the bed.

When I was young, I thought if you thought about aliens, they’d feel your vibes and come and abduct you. The more I thought about them coming to abduct me, the more I worried, the more I worried, the more I thought about them. My friend and I got hysterical that night on the phone laughing about being abducted but it really frightened me when I was a child. Kinda frightens me now, too, so I better just hush!

Psalm 116:6 states, “The Lord protects the simple and the childlike.” And I’m grateful he does!

“To be ordinary, be normal; to be original, be different; to be valuable, be unique; to be priceless, be yourself.” — Unknown