Purely chance, the random blend of time and place...

Over at Josh Is Trashy, Sassy Josh has done a few posts about Ten Rando Things, just ten random things around his house, or on his way to work, etc. And in an outright theft homage to him and those posts, I've done one of my own.

Ten Rando Tingz Around Polt's Palace


1) Back when the second X-Men movie came out, Dr. Pepper released a series of cans with the characters from the movie on it. Ghostie saw this one, which has Pyro, Rogue and Iceman on it and got it for me. Mainly because I met the actor who played Iceman, Shawn Ashmore, in Toronto one time and I never hesitate to tell him about it whenever the chance comes up. As I don't like Dr. Pepper, I've never opened it. It's sitting in my kitchen, just as it did in my apartment.


2) There's a lady I work with, Janis, who brought in a diffinbachia plant for me about ten years ago. I kept it in my office, watered it semiregularly, and it lived. Then I decided to bring it home. And I forgot about watering it regularly. Somehow, it still chugged on. Then, I went to move it and I broke the stalk and leaves off from the roots in the dirt. I put the stalk and leaves in a jar of water. And it's still alive! That's the only living thing that made the trasition from the apartment to the house. Other than me. That I know of. At any rate, I named it Janis, and I refill her water about once a month when it gets low. And she's still living, this many years afterwards.


3) I have two memories of my dad's mother: Her sitting in her little rocking chair by the window. And the clock that chimes ever 15 minutes she had in her dining room. This is a photo of that same clock, sitting in my dining room. I have no idea how old it is, it's GOT to be well over 70 years old, though, cause dad had said that he never remembered the house without that clock in it. In fact, it could be my grandmother's mother's clock, for all I know. I just know I'm keeping it, although the chiming is turned off, cause it echos around the house and scares the crap outta me at night.


4) At my mom's parent's house, when I was little this...thing was alwasy in their kitchen, with a cactus like plant growing in it. Apparently my uncle made it for them when he was in school, I don't know. But when I was really little, I remember Pap holding me in one arm and with his other hand, poking the cactus and saying, "Ouch! The monkey bit me!" And I giggle my little ass off and he'd laugh too and do it again. So when Pap died, I made sure I got the thing and I've had it ever since. But God, it IS a hideous looking thing, isn't it? It's a wonder it didn't give me nightmares.


5) When I worked at Borders, on Friday nights, a group of us would got to TGIFridays after work, get something to eat, have drinks, and socialize. One guy that went with us several times, Zach, was an unusual guy, all tattoos and Goth attitude, but yet went to college and became an elementry school teacher, go figure that. At any rate, one time, he stole a set of thier silverware and gave it to me when we left. Another time it was a menu he stole, a third time, a yellow 'wet floor' sign they put up when they washed the floors. And he got me this one: it was a display on the table. I don't why he did this, but I accepted them all gracefully.


6) My baby shoes, the first pair I ever had, bronzed and made into bookends. I thought mom would want to keep them as a momento, but no, she gave them to me when I moved into the apartment. I've never used them as bookends, they just kinda sit on a shelf and...well sit there.


7) One summer, when Johnnie was going to college in Bradford PA, he invited me up for a weekend visit, which I accepted. The college wasn't in session, so there weren't many people there, although Johnnie's friend Rich was. So the three of us hung out that weekend, drank, watched movies, harrassed the band that had come from Pittsburgh for a band camp there. Just had a good time. It was at that time that I introduced them too LaBatt's beer, my favorite. This was the end of August. When Johnnie came home for Christmas, he brought me this gift: it's a bottle of Crown Royal that he and Rich emptied and then they filled it up with caps off of LaBatt's bottles, folded in half. And the whole entire bottle is packed. And this they did all by themselves, just the two of them. In less than four months. I don't know how either of them have any liver left at all.


8) I emptied a bottle of champange and left it on the table. Then, the next night a friend of mine came over for a meal I was making (just pasta, I can cook that much). I stuck a tapered candle in the bottle and lit it and that was our dining light. I ended up putting about four different candles over time in it and burning them down. I've still got a bit of a purple one in it. I brought the bottle (feat. unburnt candle and burnt candle wax) to the apartment, and will use it here when appropriate.


9) This teddy bear is sitting on my aformentioned grandmother's little rocking chair. But the bear it self belonged to my dad when he was kid. When he died, mom gave it me. It too has got to be damn near, if not, 70 years old as well. And he's seen better days, but he's still in respectable condition, considering his age.


10) I spent a month in Europe in 1984, and this is a musicbox I purchased in Vienna Austria. I don't have a clue how much it cost, but it plays that song from Love Story, the theme, some classical thing that I don't know the name of. And it still works. I wound it up and tried it.

Incidentally, all these things came from the first floor of my house, I didn't even venture into the basement, attic or second floor. So concievably, there could be more of these.

POLT Listening to "How Would U Feel" by Lea Lorien

And while you're at it, do something about your hair. It's threatening to become more interesting than you. - Buddy Cole, The Kids In The Hall