Parents. We all have some. Some of us are actual parents Sometimes parents are amazing. Sometimes? Not so much. But a lot of parents (amazing or not) do a lot of weird things. So, that’s what we’re looking at the strange things parents do.
Ready?
Calling your baby partner Mommy or Daddy or Mom or Pops or whatever.
Talking about poop and asking if they have to go to the bathroom.
Early bedtimes . In Spain they get to stay up til 10 because families want to interact.
Spelling out words
Driving the SUV
Lying that you have allergies – often to pets, sometimes to people.
Baby talk
Throwing kids into the water to learn how to swim.
Write poems for the water at the restaurant.
Mr. Tree – One dad would pretend the tree was pontificating about the tree farm.
Fancy pants – Some parents only use wine glasses to drink everything.
Going back to work right after you have a baby. In Belgium you get four months. Austria? Until they are two.
Baby walkers – Canadians have banned them.
Lifting up your child to smell their butt.
Covering their eyes when scary or sexy things happen on videos.
Trying their food before they try their food. And cutting it up into itty bitty pieces.
The actual FUNNY stories are in the podcast itself, so check it out. 🙂
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation
Living in the Matrix - When Dreams Come True - Psychic or Lucky?
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Welcome to Loving The Strange.
Psychic dreams. Dreams that foretell the future. Sleep disorder or something more? Some people think of it as a glitch in the matrix. As Dr. David Ryback wrote in 1986, “Future Memory as Holographic Process: A Scientific Model For Psychic Dreams,”
“Psychic phenomena are only byproducts of the simultaneous-everywhere matrix. Individual brains are bits of the greater hologram. They have access under certain circumstances to all the information in the total cybernetic system. . . . “
And we sort of talked about that a little? Mostly Shaun took us off topic because Carrie swore; Shaun reveled in being “the talent” and we ended up talking about body odor for a long time before circling back to dreams.
Shaun halfway outed Carrie about her serial killer dreams and Carrie gave a couple examples from her past.
Stanley Krippner wrote,
Dreams and visions are, in a sense, experiences occupying two opposing sides of a spectrum. According to Wikipedia the visionary state is achieved via meditation, drugs, lucid dreams, daydreams, or art. For as long as human beings have kept records of their experiences, they have described extraordinary occurrences: reveries in which they appeared to receive the thoughts of another person, dreams in which they seemed to become aware of faraway events, rituals in which future happenings were supposedly predicted, and mental processes that were said to produce direct action on distant physical objects.
These purported occurrences may have been instances of phenomena that contemporary parapsychologists call telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis. Collectively, they are referred to as “psi” or reported interactions between organisms and their environment in which information exchange or influence has occurred that cannot be explained through mainstream science’s understanding of sensory-motor channels. They are regarded as anomalous because they appear to occur beyond the constraints of time, space, and energy. The noted Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote a skeptical treatise on anomalous dreams entitled, “On Divination.” In his treatise, he pointed out that: (Stanley Krippner)
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation
THE BEAUTY OF NOT FITTING IN. LOVING THE STRANGE
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This week’s episode is called THE BEAUTY OF NOT FITTING IN. And one of the big aspects of understanding that is understand what it is to feel belonging.
They quote psychologist Abraham Maslow, who worked on human motivation and created a ‘the Hierarchy of Needs’ models, saying that he “saw ‘love and belonging’ as so important he placed them third only to our basic ‘physiological needs’ like food and shelter, and ‘safety needs’ like employment and good health.””
So feeling like you belong is important, but it’s also a way a lot of us feel and there’s a certain freedom and beauty in not belonging.
“Feeling like you don’t fit in with the crowd teaches you to see and appreciate differences in people. It teaches you empathy and compassion for others who are on the outside. It gives you eyes to see things that the crowd, can so easily miss.”
“Everybody tries to fit in because they desperately want to feel at home wherever they are. But fitting in will never get you home. Fitting in is about trying to adapt to a world that’s not your own. You don’t belong there.
“Belonging is about inhabiting the world as the real you. And the hard reality is that you’ll never fit in where you don’t belong. Here’s what it actually takes to truly belong where you’re meant to be—even if you don’t seem to fit in anywhere.”
Writer Marianne Cantwell has made a life work out of telling people that ‘weirdness is your edge,’ and ‘your hidden advantage.’
We look at people with a million followers and have perfect hair and smiles and speaking styles, but those people often didn’t start like that or felt like they belonged or felt comfortable who and where they were.
She said often, “they were the different ones” who didn’t fit in. She looked to her own identity as an empathetic, very sensitive person, who didn’t fit in the business world, which was a bit more straightlaced. And once she adapted and adopted that, she began to be successful.
Anna Wintour – who was allegedly fired for being too edgy is now a fashion editor at Vogue
Oprah – who was allegedly fired for being too emotional when reporting is now Oprah!
Taylor Swift once said: “I remember when I was in school, the whole reason I started writing songs was because I was alone a lot of the time. I’d sit there in school and I’d be hearing people like, ‘Oh my god, this party that we’re going to is gonna be so awesome on Friday. Everyone’s invited except for [Taylor],”
Lady Gaga – wanted to be Boy George and often talks about not fitting in when she was in school
Zayn Malik – has spoken a lot about not fitting in and feeling bullied
Hunter Hayes – cried himself to sleep because of not fitting in and bullies.
1. Finding your tribe is more important than ‘fitting in’
2. Learning what makes you happy is more important than trying to fit someone else’s idea of a successful life
They write,
“It sometimes takes great courage to stop and think about this path and decide what elements we truly choose for our own lives. If we define accomplishment as having these things, we limit what success can be for us. Perhaps success for you is having an afternoon each week to paint, or hike in nature. Or maybe it is having a great circle of friends who really ‘get’ you and where you truly fit in.”
3. Aim for a meaningful life
“Much of our focus on outward signs of success such as making money or shopping might come from an underlying fear that our lives are meaningless. Viktor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor, said that ‘When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.’”
So, ask yourself, what is meaningful? Does this thing that I’m doing right now mean something to me?
4. Choose to serve your own values rather than society’s
We grow up in families usually and those family’s praise some things and others? Not so much. One family might think competitive sports are the bomb. Another family might not. Even if your own family you could have those divisions. Those systems of attention and reward push all certain ways, so it’s good sometimes to step back and think, “Holy crap. Am I only a writer because of this thing that happened to me in second grade or because my mom praised it a lot?”
Do I play softball because my mom did? Do I art because the only thing my dad praised me for was that?
As they say on learning-mind.com,
“And countless studies have shown that materialism doesn’t make us happy anyway. I’m not saying that having a steady job or buying nice things is wrong, I’m simply suggesting that you question everything and act upon your own desires rather than society’s expectations.
“When you choose to do the things that serve you, rather than politicians, big businesses, and even family and friends, you will being to live a more authentic life and discover a deep sense of belonging that can never be found by merely fitting in.
That feeling can come from abusive relationships, medical issues, and trauma, but sometimes it comes from a lack of confidence or belief that who you really are is unworthy, which is why we’re going to talk about some awesome stories from Buzzfeed compilation by Allie Hayes about dumb things people do even when their smart.
Look, we all have moments of dumb and weird. It’s better to just embrace that stuff and be the person you were meant to be, the person you are, and be proud and joyful that there are things about you that make you beautiful and unique and so shiny.
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
On BE BRAVE FRIDAYS, we share other people’s stories (unedited) to build a community of bravery and inspiration.
Please let us know if you want to share your story with us and we’ll read it here and post it on our social media and website.
This life is too short to not be brave. We can do this together.
This week’s Be Brave Story is from the wonderful Sheri Boggs!
Sheri, thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
You are so brave and so wonderful.
xo Shaun and Carrie
I have a story of bravery to share. It isn’t big, bold physical bravery but rather small, mild bravery in which my foe WAS MY OWN MIND.
I took violin for a few years as a kid and started taking adult violin lessons in my late 40s. I was not great and probably would have given up a long time ago if not for my teacher, (let’s call her Ms.X), who is hilarious and reminds me of Candace Bergen. Half the time my lessons consisted of us ranting about politics or her telling me some marvelously gossipy story about when she played with our local symphony.
A few months before the pandemic we decided I was ready to join the New Horizons Orchestra. New Horizons is an international organization with orchestras in cities all over the United States. Anyone is welcome, regardless of experience or skill, and their motto is “Your Best Is Good Enough.” My first time there, however, I realized I would need significantly more than my best. Everyone seemed to be a music teacher, a retired symphony member, or someone who practices for three hours a day. I stared in bewilderment at the sheet music (a medley of tunes from Chicago) and struggled to keep up. My bow was barely able to land on the right string much less hit the right note.
Needless to say, when everything shut down I was relieved not to have to go back and be so noticeably behind everyone else. I also quit taking violin lessons, falling into a Covid-related funk and reasoning that Ms. X would only want to deal with Zoom for her most promising, high school and college-aged students. I didn’t touch my violin for a full 15 months.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Ms.X emailed me to see how I was doing and to let me know New Horizons was starting up again. I wrote back that everyone had been super nice but I’d felt embarrassed the few times I went, I never had time to practice, and I wasn’t planning to go back. She wrote back that she would “entreat me to reconsider,” claiming that, “some of those people have no talent whatsoever and I would know because I taught some of them.” She assured me that New Horizons is about the joy of playing and that I was already way ahead of some of them, even if it didn’t feel like it.
So, much to my own surprise, I went to my first practice this week! I was again completely lost in the sheet music and unsure what key we were even playing in but it felt good to be there. Everyone was so welcoming and if anyone heard me scratching away at the wrong string with my bow, they didn’t say anything. I came home, practiced, figured out the key, watched videos of other people playing the pieces, and practiced some more. I plan to go back next week.
The takeaway for me is how, when I’m anxious, I try to make my world smaller and talk myself out of things where I have to experience being awful at something, but what actually helps me is to keep pushing outside of my comfort zone, and letting my world get bigger. I had fun, seeing a few familiar faces and occasionally hearing my violin blend in with the violins all around me.
BE A PART OF OUR MISSION!
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
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HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
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Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation
Goat-hair unibrows and the strange things people do for beauty
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This week’s episode of LOVING THE STRANGE is all about the things we do for beauty. These are things in history and now, right?
Because this world is weirdly obsessed with looking hawt and has been for a long time.
From CITI/IO it says,
“In Hollywood films, it is practically a given that female spies will look stunning, and female nuclear scientists will be attractive blondes. In this world, beauty is considered to be a peoples’ defining feature.
“People love to worship celebrities and buy magazines that show their ‘perfect bodies’ and ‘perfect lives’. This feeds an unrealistic expectation of what life is really like. Not everyone is a male or female model with flawless skin. Actually, many magazine photos are touched up by photographers to remove blemishes and spots.”
They go on to say that attractive people can spend up to a third of their income maintaining their looks.
In a 2006 article, “Examining a society obsessed with appearance,” Kathryn Masterson writes,
“Last year, Americans spent $9.4 billion on cosmetic surgery, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. More than 10 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2005, including 3.8 million Botox injections. Cosmetic surgery is so common it has branched over to entertainment: A host of plastic-surgery shows, including “Extreme Makeover,” “Dr. 90210” and “The Swan,” allow us to watch the unattractive (or those who simply feel that way) pursue an ideal of physical attractiveness.
So, let’s talk about some of the weirdness:
TANNING
You know it’s weird that we try to change the color of our skin despite the whole skin-cancer issue.
And even before now and the time of spray tans (to avoid the sun-induced cancer) people would paint their legs too. During WWII especially when there wasn’t any pantyhose or nylon out there.
THE OPPOSITE OF TANNING
In Europe in those horrible Middle Ages, it was the thing to have pale skin because if you weren’t pale that meant you went outside and if you went outside? Well, that meant you were a peasant. Rich people did NOT work in the sun.
So to make that difference even more obvious, some would get some leaches and bleed out a bit to get that almost-dead look of vampires. Yay rich people? Using that money wisely.
Cough.
Things haven’t changed much.
WHITE TEETH AND BLACK TEETH
In Japan for a bit, military commanders’ daughters would have their teeth blackened with a lacquer made from taking vinegar and dissolving iron in it.
Eventually, the practice expanded and it was the aristocrats. And then those of us commoners had it for special occasions. It eventually was banned, but I’m not sure why.
It wasn’t just Japan though. Queen Elizabeth of England’s past had nasty teeth, black and naturally so because she ate too much sugar and didn’t have Crest, I guess. So, all these other ladies blackened their teeth to look wealthy and pretend like they had eaten tons of expensive sugar products just like the queen.
THE COD PIECE
Because we all want to pretend like there’s a giant kielbasa down there.
THE TAPE WORM
Because being skinny is worth parasites, meningitis and epilepsy.
BUTT IMPLANTS
Once, someone hacked my Amazon account and ordered butt padding. Honestly, I could use this, but they weren’t sending it to my house.
HOBBLE SKIRT
Because who doesn’t want their legs bound together?
NO HAIR
Everyone wanted lovely oval shapes back in the 1300s in Europe again. So they plucked a lot of their hair out at the top of their head. Then they got into it on their eyebrows. And then the church said, “STOP IT! WE ARE MAKING THIS A MORTAL SIN!”
Mortal sins are bad. You’re cutting off god’s sanctifying grace until you confess. But hey! You’re fashionable, right?
LARD HAIR
Well, not hair, but wigs. Back in Europe again, they wore some super massive wigs made out of wood frames. The paste on the frame? It was lard.
And that made some issues with rats.
Rats like lard.
So, when people took off their hair, rats would go on in and have brunch, or a late night snack and party down. So they invented wig cages and the term “rat’s nest.”
URINE MOUTHWASH
Apparently, some Ancient Romans would get their teeth white by making a mouth rinse with urine and it had to be from the Portuguese. We, allegedly had the strongest urine in the world. It was the ammonia, my friends. Or maybe the cod?
TOOTH INLAYS
According to Bust. Com, Ancient Mayans drilled holes into their teeth so that they could have jeweled inlays. Snazzy.
THE GOAT HAIR UNIBROW, OR JUST THE UNIBROW
Untouched eyebrows? In Ancient Greece, it meant you were pure. If you were like Carrie and had scant eyebrows, then you filled it in.
A unibrow meant you were a beautiful smartypants.
And they’d go to great lengths to get that look. How great? Imagine making fake eyebrows out of goat hair and then sticking them on with tree resin.
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation
Let’s Play Padiddle - The Things We Do For Luck.
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This week’s episode of LOVING THE STRANGE is all about the things we do for luck:
Carrie has all these rituals on New Year’s Eve:
Eat Hopping John
Eat 12 grapes at midnight in a minute or less.
Kiss someone you love or can tolerate.
Smashing the peppermint pig.
Wear yellow underwear for good fortune.
Burn our wishes the night before.
No cleaning on New Year’s Day.
Carrie: My Portuguese grandmother would throw water out the window and sprinkle sugar outside. I don’t really do that anymore. I probably should.
Dee Harris wrote in that she was always told not to wash clothes on New Year’s Day because you’d wash away your good luck, so all her laundry is done by 10 p.m. on Dec. 31.
We also talked about where some of our superstitions come from—especially Padiddle—and how to attract good luck.
According to bakadesuyo to attract good luck,
Listen to hunches
Turn bad luck into good
Expect it
Maximize your opportunities.
We also talked about:
Knock on wood
Throw salt over my shoulder
Lucky pennies
Oh, and what’s a padiddle? Apparently it originated as a kissing game, but in our family when we’re in the car and we see a car with one headlight, yell “piddle” and punch the ceiling.
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation
The strange things people have done on dates.
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Hey! Welcome to episode 18 of LOVING THE STRANGE where we talk about the strange, adorable things people do on dates!
Dates. What are those long lost things?
Thank you all so much for listening! This wouldn’t be fun if you weren’t here.
So here are a few stories.
I was set up by a coworker with his wife’s cousin. I worked in a deli at a grocery store. So our first meeting I was in a hair net and apron and no make up. I barely remembered what he looked like but we must have hit it off because the next day my coworker said the guy wanted to swap phone numbers. I wasn’t from this area so i was nervous when he invited me to a town I never heard of April fool’s for a bonfire. I took a chance and found my way there. When I arrived it was only me and him at his friends farm, no one had arrived yet. I was nervous. Once others arrived we went muddin in his truck amd danced under the stars in the light of the fire. His friend’s truck got stuck in the mud so my date went to help pull him out and his truck got stuck. They ended up dragging it out with a tractor but the truck wasnt in neutral so the tie rod end snapped. My date was upset so someone handed him a bottle of homemade wine. He got drunk but we still had a good time. At the end of the date he walked me to my car and said he was gonna go sleep on top of a silo. I was nervous he was gonna roll off and fall to his death…. So that was an awkward but memorable first date…. We have been together for a total of 10 yrs , 8.5 of those years we have been married. Still going strong
Amanda Courtney
Sad I missed this. My hubby and I connected online and our first date was in a nature park. I took us on a short cut off the trail to visit some horses that live on the backside of the park and we ended up lost in the woods for three hours
Autumn Gin
First one: I rode with a friend to her mom’s for the weekend (so I didn’t have a car) and they left to go somewhere on that Saturday. I had a friend (he was a guy) come pick me up to get Steak ‘n Shake. While we were eating my female friend came to get me to take me to her place. She comes in and goes “is this a date?” While I was saying “no” he was saying “yes”. Needless to say it was very awkward after that.
Anonymous
Second one: I left an event early to meet up with this guy. He had an hour to travel to my two hours. When I got to the place we were supposed to meet I waited for like 15 mins before I found out he left. He told me he liked for people to be on time. For the record he never told me he was mad or that he was about to leave. He just left. side note: I ended up getting lost along the way so it took longer than two hours to get there Bonus story! It’s not a date but it is kinda strange and had to share (if it doesn’t fit though it’s okay ) my friend at the time called me up one night. I answered and said “hello”. He proceeded to play Collied by Howie Day and sang the entire song to me. When it ended he just acted like nothing happened. To this day I have no idea what it was about but it’s the only time I’ve been serenaded
Anonymous again. Also, um, the song was COLLIDE. 🙂
An all day date. Back when I was in high school I had a crush on this guy for a few months, and he FINALLY asked me out. Texted me the night before and was like “hey, I have rowing later in the day. Can we do a movie at like 10am?” I was totally fine with it, so that was our plan. He came, picked me up, and we saw the movie —- after the fact he looked at me and told me that he wanted to blow off the rest of his plans for the day and spend it with me. The second activity was bowling, which I’m atrocious at. I told him this, and he said that he was super good at bowling and maybe it would rub off on me, which I said maybe I’d be lucky this time. So every time we would take our turns, after his he would make a BIG show of “wiping off” his body and “rolling” all of his luck into a ball and throwing it to me (it was actually the best I’ve ever bowled). From there we went to dinner, and then went to every dock around the lake that we live on. On the final dock, we were skipping rocks and he kissed me — it was my first kiss and I was literally shaking excited and nervous. It wasn’t anything SUPER special, but I’ll always remember it.
cvssies – THE DATE THAT’S LIKE A TEEN MOVIE
It was my second date with this guy, and he said the exact same things that he said on the first date. Word for word. The same stories, the same “random thoughts,” the same questions… It freaked me out so much that at first I played along and answered in the exact same way, as though we were both following some weird script. Eventually I tried to break the mold and ask him new things, but he would just bring it back around to the same topics as last time. It was like I was in a computer program and there was a glitch. Still freaks me out to think of it.
Reddit User IHaveTheMustacheNow – THE GLITCHING MATRIX
I had just moved to London, and met this guy on a dating website, he was generally not my type. Still, I was fresh out of a long term damaging relationship and trying to meet new people yada, yada.
Fast forward to the date, and he takes a call from a girl and he says to her – ‘oh i’m just in the pub with (male roommates name)’ I can hear her on the other end getting worked up about something and him telling her to calm down. Alarm bells already ringing.
He hangs up the phone and says ‘that was my fiance, but not a real one, just one i’m with for her visa’ At this point I’m already thinking ‘bloody hell’. He continued on with his excuse ‘She also lives with me’ (in his 2 bed apartment with this other roommate – cosy). ‘Oh yeah, I should probably tell you i’m getting married in three weeks’
At this exact point, I just said ‘well, I’m going home’ and start pulling on my coat.
His reply was even more classic, ‘do you want to help me buy groceries first?’
Reddit User Clarieinthesnow
We had been talking on the phone for about a month already. He tells me his car is booted – outside of his house. He had a long drawn out story about how he could not get the boot removed. His dad was staying with him and he thought would be able to use his dad’s car but now he can’t. So I go to get him to go somewhere to eat. He starts panicking saying, “oh great, now I’m in the car with you and I’m going to get accused of rape or something.” I asked him what the hell he was talking about. He just kept rocking in his seat anxiously, worried that he would be accused of rape. I drove to the nearest area with food and asked him where he wanted to go. He said he had no money and wanted to go home. So I took him home. Then he asked me if he could borrow $20. I don’t know why, but I gave it to him. After this, he called me repeatedly and I ignored his calls. He texted me asking why he was “not good enough for me to date.” I kept ignoring him.
Fast forward 3 years. He is on a dating site I am on. He messages me but does not remember who I am. He tells me that a year ago his long time girlfriend passed away – the one he had lived with for 10 years. So, he was not staying with his dad, and he was freaking out because he lived with his girlfriend when he met me, right outside of his house. I called him out on it and he tried to pretend I had the wrong guy. But he had the same name and worked at the same place, and looked like the same guy. Very bizarre.
Reddit User Elleseven
Cool dating ideas from andthewesaved.com (Direct quote)
1. Play in the snow, build a snow man, then drink cocoa
2. Go to a community play, a dress rehearsal, high school or college play
3. Do an inside or outside picnic
4. Work out together
5. Go roller skating or ice-skating
6.Movie marathon with ice cream sundaes
7. Play hide and seek in a corn field (or the woods)
8. Go on a very long walk around your neighborhood at night
9. Go to a real- live movie store, pick out a movie together then pop homemade popcorn at home
10. Go to estate sales together
11. Spa night together
From PSILOVEYOU – How not to be a dick on a date.
Pay.
Show up.
TALK THE WHOLE TIME – just you. Only you. Monloguer.
The good morning text.
Have some swagger but not too much swagger
Don’t go somewhere creepy unless you know the other person is into creepy.
Thank you all so much for listening! The extra shout-outs go to our high level patrons who also read Carrie’s books in progress and get some art in the mail sometimes.
Hey! We’re all about inspiring each other to be weird, to be ourselves and to be brave and we’re starting to collect stories about each other’s bravery. Those brave moments can be HUGE or small, but we want you to share them with us so we can share them with the world. You can be anonymous if you aren’t brave enough to use your name. It’s totally chill.
Want to be part of the team? Send us a quick (or long) email and we’ll read it here and on our YouTube channel.
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Dogs Are Smarter Than People: Writing Life, Marriage and Motivation
Who Is Stranger? The North or the South?
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Hey! Welcome to episode 15 of LOVING THE STRANGE where we talk about the strange, weird things people love and why.
And this week’s episode is all about the north versus the south where Shaun basically wins. It was supposed to be about which is stranger? It devolved into who is better.
Oops.
We talk about food, alcohol, manners, and so much more. I hope you’ll check it out! And like and subscribe or sign up for the blog posts so you never miss our weirdness.
Thank you all so much for listening! This wouldn’t be fun if you weren’t here.
The extra shout-outs go to our high level patrons who also read Carrie’s books in progress and get some art in the mail sometimes.
Autumn Gin
Claire De Brey
Jenn Duffield
Pam Leffler
Joan Stradling
Nancy Stone
Sam Spellacy
Toni Floback
Shay Altair
Rachael Azbill
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
On Thursday, my co-podcaster, Shaun, and husband guy, takes over the blog.
He’s adorable. I hope you’ll read what he says even if he does occasionally sound like a surfer dude from the 1990s.
Best husband award
So, I love food! Like, I love everything about it from growing to harvesting (both plants and animals), to preparation and of course, eating. I enjoy all types of food and one of my favorite things to do is to try new foods or new ways of cooking food I have already had.
Carrie and I do a lot of cooking and probably spend more time in the kitchen then the average family when it comes to meal preparation. We have learned a lot from each other and my favorite thing to do is introduce her to food that I think of as being from the South.
I am from the South and spent a good deal of my childhood in the kitchen surrounded by three generations of women, all of whom were great cooks. I suppose this is where my love of food comes from. Well, at least the cooking aspect.
I think I come by the eating part naturally. I have always loved to eat. Of course, I don’t like all foods and I have a few that I particularly dislike and unfortunately, a couple of them are southern staples. Tomatoes? No freaking way! The same goes for okra, collard greens, and lima beans.
However, the list of what I do like is so very much longer and oh so delicious. Biscuits and sausage gravy, grits, fried chicken, including livers and gizzards, frog legs, alligator, barbeque, catfish and any other wild game.
I have had the pleasure of introducing Carrie to a number of these delicacies and I believe that she has loved them all. I think she is actually a Southern gal at heart, but she would likely say otherwise.
So, this Friday night at 7 p..m. (EST) on our podcast Loving The Strange, we are going to compare aspects of the South (that would be me) with aspects of the North (that would be my lovely wife Carrie) and I am sure that we are going to end up talking about food. I hope that you can join us and maybe offer up some of your personal loves, traditions or opinions on either region. Of course, you can’t beat the south, but that is just my very bias opinion. We’ll be on live on Carrie’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. And then here on the blog on Saturday.
No matter where you love, remember to always Love Your Way Through It!
Peace y’all,
Shaun
LET’S HANG OUT!
HEY! DO YOU WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER?
MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
