Marriage Will Change a Guy

It is quite well known that women from the first moment of history will find a guy and then work for the rest of their life to try and change him into something other then what he actually is. I have found myself changed in several ways, by Judy, that actually surprised me. I figure these changes just crept up because I am not sure when the actual moment of change happened.

This is a short list out of many things that I now do different then when Judy first started her project.

1) I go barefoot outside all the time.... Judy never does but I do.

2) I actually like seafood now. This probably has to do with eating seafood the same day it was caught. Eat at Red Lobster? Never again.

3) I have learned to not eat stuff that you found on the ground.

4) I now take the trash out before things start growing in it.

5) Watching sports is fun and can even be a hobby but it is not a way of life.

6) A good movie does not have to have explosions in it. I still do think that it can even help a chick flick if there are enough car chases, explosions or cool things in the movie though.

7) Muscles (the food) should not need to be stomped on, hammered or thrown against a wall to get them open after they have been steamed.... I ate one and was pleasantly surprised (sarcasm) that a few hours later I could see again everything I had eaten the previous week.

8) Being a Yankee is not a disease but actually there are many benefits to it.

9) Duct tape does NOT fix everything.

10) Having your best friend be your mate for life is the most wondrous thing.... Ok, some of these are not actual changes but they are things I have learned.

Birthday Gift fom an Irish Girl, Potatos?

This last week was my birthday and I have to say I received a very strange gift.

I have no problems naming names on this one so the young lady is Ari. On my birthday she gave me two packages, one was actually a very normal but nice gift and I thanked her because I was appreciative. The second one was a bag of two potatoes that were wrapped in paper as well.

I honestly could not figure it out. I know that she teases me for being Scandinavian and I tease her about being Irish so I assumed it had to do with some funky Irish custom that I had never heard of before. Maybe it had to do with the great potato famine but I was pretty sure that millions of starving people would not be something she would make a joke about.

I stood there after opening the gift trying to look more grateful then puzzled. I looked at Judy and then Ari's sister, Heather, hoping to find a bit of support but they both just looked at me with pleased smiles. I held the small bag of potatoes nervously trying to figure out what to do with them till I decided that a small bag of potatoes must be a weapon. You know, kind of like how the mob uses a bag of oranges to beat people and not leave a mark, I decided that a bag of potatoes must be what the Irish mob would use so I started swinging it around hoping that I got the whole idea right.

I swung the sack of potatoes around for what seemed like an eternity while all 3 young ladies just smiled pleasantly making me feel more unsure about my stupid action more and more as each second passed. Finally Heather stopped me and asked me to open here gift. I put down the sack with a sense of relief and took her gift.

I opened the wrapper slowly hoping above all hope that it was not going to be some kind of bizarre Irish gift that I would not understand. The gift slowly emerged and what I saw finally made sense .... I was given a fantastic potato gun and now I even had ammo for it.

This blog is honestly a warning to my neighbors, if I knock on your door and have a sneaky smile on my face and a hand behind my back you might want to act like you are not home ..... of course I could go coon hunting and shoo the critters away from our trash cans with my new weapon but the stubbornness of those beasts they would probably just think that I was shooting food at them and they would set up house in my backyard.

I am the Pied Piper of Children and Crabs

I love Marblehead, the people, the town, the history, well just everything. The simple truth is that while I may be an Okie, born and bred, I still fit in with at least a few of the people here.

A simple story to show what I mean

Judy and I both of a deep love for the ocean and we go to the beach every time that we have an opportunity. She always looks her glamorous self when we head off to the beach while I look like every kid with a plastic pail and shovel. Now I want to make it clear that I am a grown up so I leave the cheap Dollar Tree pail at home and bring my fancy stuff with me.

We both comb the beach and water for interesting rocks and shells but while she has every guy from the age of 13 to 93 watching her I end up with this rag tag group of kids following me. I never really thought much about it until Judy pointed it out to me today.

There is actually a simple reason for this entourage of kids and it comes down to the fact that when I am at the beach I turn into a big 10 year old boy. While Judy is looking for the delicate shells and slivers of sea glass I tend to become more interested in flipping over big rocks to see what I can find underneath. Many times there are 10-20 small crabs under the rocks and they all go scurrying off to find new shelter.

Having the inquisitive mind of a 10 year old but being able to flip large rocks means that I am a real popular guy for other small urchin that love the idea of getting a bit dirty catching critters that make you scream "ouch" when they pinch you.

I do love my life here and could never imagine living anywhere else.

Internet Friends, Real Friendships or Not?

We all have talked to people on the internet and made what we consider real friends but the question has to be.... can people become real friends if all they have are notes, chats and comments over the internet.

I have found a couple of things to be true, at least for myself. The first thing is that I have found my greatest enemies over the internet, people who would never have come after me if we had no other connection except the internet. Since I can safely say that I have people who hate me because of the internet I should also be able to say that I have found true friends.

I have met people who I truly care about, ones that I am concerned when they have something bad in their life and able to rejoice when something good happens. These are the exact same feelings that I have for real life friends.

I moved to Marblehead because of a person I originally met on Facebook, we became friends, then best friends and now husband and wife. Now that I am in a different state and many of my Internet friends that lived here are real life friends my old friends of become my internet friends.

I will give an example, Thomas is a real life friends who I have known since my school days. He is an important part of my psyche and considering I have not seen the guy for almost two years we have stayed in contact via the internet...... but he is still as real to me via the internet as he was when we would go to lunch together.

The simple answer to the question..... Yes, real friends can be "just" internet friends.