As you all know I have been running from pillar to post (figuratively and literally) to get Mantra’s book where it needs to be and ready for everyone to grab their copy by the end of this month. You also know my one of gal pals, Lizzie, has been in the trenches with me. So, let me let you in on a secret.
One mid-afternoon, I got to thinking about all this running and had a Lizzie-style Mental Moment.
What if we could harness all the energy we spend running around?
No, not just store it up, but channel it into something far more productive than merely chasing our tails. There are hundreds of examples. What? Oh, yes you do. Let’s take the one I hate the most…the grocery store.
You pack up the kiddles and get in the mobile and motor to the grocery. Next is the fight with the handicapped cart…you know the one with the one wheel which does not touch the floor?
Then, there is the cotton top who is standing in front of the tomatoes who has to touch 45 before she picks one. Once it is in her cart, she looks back longingly wondering if she really liked #26 better…all before she beats you to the bananas, where she repeats the entire process.
Up and down the aisles in a mad dash, running from the meat counter to the liquor aisle to the frozen food section to the dairy. You have everything and rush to stand in line to wait for some ill-tempered teenager to tell you she is not old enough to ring up your Cabernet.
While you are waiting for the manager to come to squint at your ID, which has had a more birthdays than he has, you realize you completely forgot the ketchup because who really goes down the condiment aisle every trip to the store? You have one point four minutes to get there and back to the snotty cashier, so you are running back to the register, really trying to look like you are speed walking for the exercise, to avoid the embarrassment of having forgotten the American cover up to every burnt dish known to man.
Little Miss “I really need to be discovered by someone who has loads of money so I can sit at home and play Playstation twenty-one hours a day” gives you your total. You open your wallet and discover the money you were going to use is sitting on the dresser right next to your speeding ticket and the receipt for the dry cleaning which was wrinkled before you could get it home.
Sheepishly you hunt around for some other form of currency whilst the eight people in line behind you at the only open register scowl as they shift from one foot to the other as though you planned this, and they cannot wait to tell someone about the idiot in the grocery who tried to buy a cart full of groceries with the change in the bottom of the console of the car.
Meanwhile, Kiddle One has discovered the gumball machine and is doing the pee-pee dance in front of you (and the other eight patrons in line) begging for a quarter at 40 decibels…replete with cajoling and promises to clean the bedroom where you have not seen carpet since the third birthday.
As you explain while Kiddle One sees you hand money to the pouting cashier you really do not have a quarter for one gumball, just one please please pretty please, Kiddle Two decides a wonderful idea is to begin running around the front end of the store playing freeze-tag with an invisible friend.
Bag boy is ready with your purchases, and you beg off seeing as you have nothing left with which to tip him. Off to the parking lot after running down Kiddle Two and threatening both children with a life sentence of unloading the dishwasher and bathing the dog…only to find out it is raining.
Now, children love to run in the rain, but you, well, not so much. Running to the mobile produces enough additional wind to blow the receipt away and get everything in the basket jostled around so that loaf of bread looks like a model for a Salvador Dali painting.
You know…It would be so much better to skip the running around and order in.
And now, a word from our sponsor…
So, why did we have this mental moment? Because this is the first stop in a scavenger hunt. What are we scavenging? You will note a number and a word (italicized and bolded) in this post. The word is one word in the name of a .wordpress.com blog. The number is the position of the word in the name. So far, you have….
http://running____________.wordpress.com
To find the other words in the name, you will need to visit some other bloggers who have some special wishes for Lizzie. Why are we having mental moments for Lizzie?
Today is her birthday.
The other bloggers holding the secret pass keys in the scavenger hunt are:
Ginger Snaap
El Guapo
Linda Vernon
Buddha Kat
Ginger Fight Back
Writer Wannabe 763
Happy Hunting!
Lizzie, I love you!
~~~~~~~~~~
Am I the only one who really hates the grocery store?
If you would like to wish Lizzie happy birthday on the special blog, but do not have a load of time to visit all the other blogs (but you should because they are all awesome blogs), stop by the birthday blog.
El Guapo
/ August 20, 2012Thank goodness you wound it up with Happy Birthday wishes! The grocery store mayhem was making me a bit tense.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZZIE!!!
El Guapo recently posted..All Day Mental Moment – Whee!!!
Lizzie Cracked
/ August 20, 2012😀 wow…just..
it does put that email into perspective. I never did look… so I am ..a WHOLE BLOG??? thanks..
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..The Tao and Te of…. Me
Red
/ August 20, 2012Yes, ma’am. Happy birthday! <3 We all love you, Lizzie!
Red
/ August 20, 2012Oh, we all know it is your favorite hobby! *snicker*
Lizzie Cracked
/ August 20, 2012whatever the chemical that overloaded my brain and emotional center is ..they should bottle that stuff…cept I think i od and my brain turned off for like an hour…it was weird but I am back and well I am back… did I leave a Mental Moment laying around here? lying? no they can;t lie
BEST BIRTHDAY AND FRIENDS EVER!!!!
I am thinking Team Lizzie Shirts..lol ok I’ll stop for awhile anyways 🙂
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..The Tao and Te of…. Me
Red
/ August 20, 2012I would so be wearing my Team Lizzie shirt.
Red recently posted..Muse for Monday
Sue Dreamwalker
/ August 20, 2012You know Red, this has left the biggest of smiles upon my face, as you just mentioned about every pet ‘Dislike’ of mine in the shopping run.. Thats why I send Hubby! 🙂
Enjoy your week my friend, and Good luck with putting all your energy into those Book sales, you don’t require any as I think it will FLY off the shelves for you have put enough energy into it already.
I have a day off work today, so spending time catching up on my favourite blogs..
Thank you for leaving me your own lovely thoughts upon my posts..
Have a wonderful Week..
~Sue xox
Sue Dreamwalker recently posted..Escape ~ A Short Story.
Red
/ August 20, 2012Glad you liked it. Enjoy your day off! I will be cruising the blogosphere later…busy morning writing on my new book (after this one) and wishing Lizzie happy birthday all over the blogosphere! Have a beautiful rest of the week, Sue <3 xxx {HUGZ}
Lizzie Cracked
/ August 20, 2012I have ..running 2 wish 3 4 5 6 67.. I am not going to cheat..I am going to savor this..a whole blog???
You pretty much described my day at the grocery store. and I um..like this isnt a mental moment…
don;t know what to say… thank you. I love you Red and this is already the bestest bday I have had in while..years…I’ll be back..hee hee no watch tho..it may take awhile..I am already completely touched and blown away and exuberant and (((((hugs))))) thank you. a whole entire blog???? wow…WOW..
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..The Tao and Te of…. Me
Bearman
/ August 20, 2012I love the grocery store…except when they don’t put out enough samples.
Bearman recently posted..Art of Carolyn Curtis
Red
/ August 20, 2012I miss the little cotton tops with the hot plates and the samples. They were always fun. The children loved them!
Lizzie Cracked
/ August 20, 2012oh if they aren;t there my kids actually dont want to go anymore… fine by me but I have to take them sometimes…MORE SAMPLES T-Shirt anyone?
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..The Tao and Te of…. Me
spilledinkguy
/ August 20, 2012Grocery store carts are the WORST. I shouldn’t be allowed to push one… I’m pretty much guaranteed to run into someone or something and start the whole ‘clean-up on isle four’ thing. Not that those baskets are much better. Can’t they at least make them with spikes or camo or something? So I don’t feel so much like I’m… carrying around… you know… a… basket?!
🙂
spilledinkguy recently posted..Water’s Edge – Lake Michigan
Red
/ August 20, 2012ROFL! I can just see that as a line for you, SIG. You could design a special urban camo for both baskets and carts. That way, when you smash the watermelon display, you can sneak away without anyone being the wiser… *tears in my eyes*
GingerSnaap
/ August 20, 2012YAY!
Well, not really “yay” to the grocery store mayhem, but “YAY” because it’s Lizzie’s Birthday!
YAY for Lizzie’s Birthday!!
Red
/ August 20, 2012Mayhem…we have lots of it…but only one Lizzie’s birthday! <3
Linda Vernon
/ August 20, 2012YAY Lizzie!
Linda Vernon
/ August 20, 2012Phew Red! And I’ll bet you anything when you got home from your shopping trip you forgot to get the thing you went for! (Insert slapping forehead image here!) HA HA! I love that you explained everything for Lizzie’s treasure hunt! I wish I would have thought to do that (insert another slapping forehead image here). And you and Lizzie have kids to take along with you when you go grocery shopping. And shopping with kids in tow is a herculean effort that deserves an olympic metal! 😀 HA!
Red
/ August 20, 2012LOL! Lizzie and I both have a truckload of children. Over the years, I have gotten better about remembering when I get in the checkout line. (Scores points for remembering to bring list even when she cannot retrieve a scribble stick from the morass of purse.) <3
Red
/ August 20, 2012Psst. Check the CommentLuv box and it will automatically attach your last post 🙂