In honor of Halloween, here is an excerpt of my memoir draft– this section is actually pretty self-contained. But, to give you some set up this is after the second divorce when it’s just my mom and me, and before my step-dad comes along. Kind of a calm-before-the-storm chapter. (Mom or family, if you read this, I know you haven’t read any of this yet, so let me know privately if there are any gaps in time or wrong years… haha.)

Enjoy!

Chapter 7 – Empty Boxes

My mom sat on the floor in the Lincoln Log House living room surrounded by empty liquor boxes, appropriate material for this year’s Halloween costume. I was always marveled by what my mom could do. I sat on the couch with anticipation of what would become of those boxes.

One of the greatest things about being an only child with a single mom, I thought, was the undivided attention. She was assistant troop leader in Girl Scouts (Jasmine’s mom was the leader), she was PTO president, chaperoned all the field trips, DJ’d school dances, and was an overall hit among my girlfriends because she was so young. They all thought my mom was pretty and thought it was cool that she was a disc jockey who liked rock music. I agreed that my mom was beautiful, and sometimes, I wished I could have bangs like she did so I could curl and poof them up, too. When she got a spiral perm, I also wanted one, but instead, she gave me a temporary perm one night. After I took a bath, she put my hair in lots of little braids. As my long blonde hair dried, it made my hair curly. I couldn’t sleep that night because I was so excited to have wavy hair. When I woke up in the morning, she took out all my braids, leaving long, silky, soft waves throughout my hair.

When I hung my coat up at school that morning, Chris Breuer pet my hair and said, “Wow. You look like a princess.” It was the first time a boy ever said anything nice to me, although I kind of wished it was Richard Fortescue who said I was a princess. That day at recess we played She-Ra as usual, but I really felt like the Princess of Power with my long, wavy locks. What boy wouldn’t have wanted to rescue me from the throngs of Hordak and his thugs with hair as pretty as mine?

But as my mom had to work more after the divorce, she didn’t have as much time to do all the school things. I started to spend a lot of time with friends, or at home alone, because she started working so much. But when she was home, she was totally dedicated to me. This was especially the case when I had a school project to do (she made me a killer coal mine diorama in third grade), or better yet, when I requested a creative Halloween costume.

“Mom!  Why won’t you tell me what it is? ” I asked from our waterwheel printed couch.

She lit a Kool’s Menthol, inhaled, exhaled gray smoke, and said, “Because I like surprises, so should you. Just wait. You’ll love it.”

I stuffed my feet in between the cushions to keep my feet warm and tried to watch television on what I called, “The Top Television.” A few months prior, a nasty thunderstorm destroyed our big console television set, so we got a new, smaller TV. But since we did not have a stand, we put it on top of the other TV set. But even though the episode of General Hospital looked interesting, my mom’s cardboard art grabbed my attention away from the Quartermaines. She measured and cut the cardboard, stopping every few minutes to take a drag from her cigarette. I couldn’t wait to see what she’d come up with this year. My mom was a master of cardboard artistry and her skills earned me awards at every Halloween party we went to.

“Will it be better than last year’s?” I asked impatiently.

In third grade, our life was still surrounded music so Mom drew up plans for the perfect Halloween costume for the little daughter of Cuddle Up & Tony T. She had found big pieces of cardboard, probably from a refrigerator box, and cut out two matching shapes, like big eights. Then, she measured and cut a perfect circle in one of the eights. That would be where my head peeked out. She cut out long strips of cardboard and molded and folded them around the two eights and taped them together with duct tape. You could now tell that this would be an acoustic guitar. She cut an arm hole in each side.

“Here, try this on,” she ordered, placing the big cardboard guitar body over my head. I naturally stuck my arms through the holes.

“Peek-a-boo,” I said as I popped my head out of the hole. The costume fit perfectly.

Next, she created the guitar’s neck and secured it to the body with more duct tape. Once the shape was done, she carefully peeled sticky wooden-looking contact paper off its waxy backing and stuck it along the front of the guitar, trimming where she needed. On the back and sides of the guitar, she used a solid, dark brown contact paper. After she was done covering the guitar, she used a gold marker to draw lines and dots to resemble the frets. She then strung six kite-looking strings down the neck and body of the guitar.

“Ma, this really looks like Dad’s guitar. But bigger!”

“You’re going to look so cute,” she said as she puffed on a Kool’s. She stepped back to admire her work.
When the Halloween party came in third grade, I was not only a guitar, but also a country-western singer. My mom came up with that brilliant idea so that, when I had the guitar off to eat or play, I would still be in character. I wore jeans, a western shirt with a bandanna around the collar, and cow girl boots. Every year, at Tobyhanna Elementary Center, we’d have a Halloween parade where all the students would march down the street and then across Route 940 to meet our parents at Blanche Price Park, where Tobyhanna Township Volunteer Fire Company threw a party. That morning, my mom drove Theresa and me to school because one, my guitar costume would not fit on the bus and two, Theresa couldn’t walk.

Grandmom and Theresa, who used to just visit on weekends, moved from their house in Willow Grove to the Poconos. Theresa was one grade ahead of me, in fourth and right before she moved, she had a bad accident. She was at a roller skating birthday party, fell, and was run over by another skater, maybe two. Her leg was broken in several places and she had to wear a full leg cast, from her ankle to her thigh. She sometimes used a wheelchair because it was hard for her to use crutches (I thought she was just too lazy to use them.) Since she was in the full cast, Theresa was devastated about Halloween.  But lucky for Theresa, her mother was the very person my mom got her craftiness from. My grandmom wrapped Theresa from head to toe in white bandages and made her into a mummy, but she left the cast the way it was, signatures and all. On the day of the Halloween party at school, none of the kids in my class believed Theresa had really broken her leg.

“It’s just part of your costume! I don’t believe you!” Ricky Thomas said, tapping her cast to make sure  it was real.

“Stop it! It’s not fake! My leg is broken,” she snapped back.

“Can I play with your crutches,” asked another boy.

“No, I need those!” she said.

I ran around with Jasmine and my other friends while Theresa sat between my mom and Grandmom in the fire hall. When they announced the winners of the costume contest, Theresa’s spirits were raised. She had won “Funniest Costume.”  And I was gleaming too, taking home the prize for “Most Original.”

Scissors slicing through cardboard snapped me back to the living room in my new house, without a dad, with just my mom, and she was crafting my costume for the fourth grade contest. My mom had the cardboard pieces all cut out and was duct taping them together to form a large, rectangular box.

“Just tell me, Ma. What’re ya making? Please! Tell me.”

“Don’t you like surprises?” she asked, as she got up and headed to our adjoining kitchen.

“Maybe on Christmas,” I replied, noticing she was cutting pieces from our Entenmann’s Banana Crunch Cake. She brought over two pieces using paper towels as plates, handed me one, and sat back down in her arts and crafts pile. She bit into her cake, took a sip of coffee, and went back to work.

“Moooom. I asked you a question!” I begged.

She gave in. “Okay, okay. You’re going to be a bar.”

“A bar?”

“Yes, a bar.  What do you think?”

I swallowed my mouthful of cake and thought about it.

“A real bar? Like Woody’s? What will it look like?”

“Oh, just you wait. It’s gonna be really cool,” she said.

While she was working, the phone rang. My mom was gone for a while. The phone rang again, and she was gone a little longer. When she came back, I asked who it was. She said it was an old friend.  I asked who the second one was, and she said an older friend. She continued making my costume, but she didn’t seem herself. I shrugged it off and continued watching TV.

It took Mom a few days to complete the costume and I was getting impatient. But, soon enough when I came home from school one day, before me stood a miniature replica bar. It even looked like it was made from real wood, thanks to the same kind of contact paper my mom used for last year’s guitar.  There were holes in either side for my arms and a big hole in the top of the bar for my body, so when I put the costume on, it appeared that I was working behind the bar. She had me try it on.

“Wow! I feel like a real bartender!” I said, imagining myself behind the bar at Woody’s, where I’d sometimes go with my mom.

I would help the owners, Marlene and Lois, put sour cream into little containers to go out with baked potatoes. Sometimes, I would sit and play Q-bert at the table video game machine. Other times, I would try to blend in with the adults at the bar by drinking Shirley Temples, wishing my feet would reach the the golden bar on the bottom where everyone else rested their feet. I’d steal pieces of orange slices and eat them, sucking out all the juice while I stared at a 99 Bottles of Beer poster and try to pronounce and memorize all the brands. When my mom got off work and was allowed to have a drink, she would always let me have a sip of her Kahlua and Cream, which tasted just like chocolate milk.

“Can you teach me how to make some drinks?” I asked, jumping around inside my costume.

We both laughed.  Before the annual parade, my mom super-glued on all the finishing touches: bar napkins, ash trays with real butts and ashes, beer cans, shot glasses and real dollar bills and coins.  She also made up a menu where she had things like beer, shots, wine, soda, hamburger, and French fries listed. There was even a shelf on the back of the bar costume with more items glued to it. The top of the bar was labeled, “Donna’s Bar.” On Halloween day, just like the year before with the guitar, I had a costume under the costume, this time a white dress shirt, black slacks, and suspenders, with tons of promotional beer and liquor buttons pinned on. Once again, I was at hit at all the parties I went to.  Other moms and dads wanted pictures with me. I once again won, “Most Original.” Jasmine won funniest for her “Clubbed Sandwich” costume.

I had a Halloween costume inspired by Woody’s that made me so happy. But later that year, the bar my mom worked at also changed my life.

My last two posts were poems. I never really write poems, but since I wrote a few, I decided to share them. Funny thing is that I pre-scheduled the second one three days in advance thinking that I’d write another post in between. I didn’t expect them to be back-to-back, haha.

Some random thoughts from this past week or so:

BAKING: Last week, my friend Jeff brought me pumpkin cookies. I ate one while he was here and held back. After he left, after a weekend of a haunted hayride and a scary movie, I ate the entire tub of cookies in one sitting. It was only six, but still. They were delicious. I instantly looked for a recipe, and found one from Cooks.com. A week passed, but I made them tonight. Yummy! The second batch turned out better than the first- I took them out at 15 minutes. They are more soft and moist. I technically made one batch, but I had to bake one pan at a time because I only had one baking pan, haha. I have more pumpkin, so I will make more, but I got tired.

I baked soft pumpkin cookies while drinking Harvest Moon by Blue Moon

READING: I finished LIES MY MOTHER TOLD ME by Kaylie Jones. It was fabulous. One line from one of the later chapters really, really resonated with me. Don’t want to say which one it is, because it’s too personal for this blog. But, I guarantee you that if you read this memoir, something will stick with you, too. I just started a new book last night, YEAR OF WONDERS, a book about the plague in 1666.  I like it so far. Was hard to adjust from Kaylie’s conversational style to the more formal English that people in 1666 speak, but I like the main character a lot. This is the first book of fiction I am reading in over two years. It’s been all memoir since I started the Wilkes program. I think I did read Animal Farm and some Stephen King in the middle somewhere, but pretty much, all memoir. Wonderful memoir, may I add.

WATCHING: Rocky Horror Picture Show, put on at Music Box Dinner Theater in Swoyersville, was tons of fun. I went with a new friend I made through attending events at Paper Kite Press and had a blast. The cast was great. Very, very enjoyable. Another friend of mine heard I was going, so she went also and had a great time. What a fun night!

DRINKING: A new dive bar. I went to a new bar, Full Moon Cafe, in Larksville on Friday and had fun. I love finding hole in the wall places. It was quite the eventful evening, too. And in fact, I just wrote a nine-page essay about the night. Long story short: I complained all night about my hair being in a ponytail. When we got to Full Moon and I said it again to an older woman I knew through a previous job, she whipped my hair tie out, fluffed my hair, then proceeded to give me smokey, sexy eyes. Yes. An impromptu make-over at a dive bar. One of the funniest things ever. Here’s a picture for your viewing pleasure in case you don’t believe me. Love nights that I can write nine pages about. A cute boy helps, too.

If strange things happen when there is a full moon out, imagine what happens when you are INSIDE the Full Moon. (Wow. Did I just write them a helluva tag line or what?"

LISTENING: Tom Petty Live Anthology Superhighway Tour is going well (I blog about Tom Petty music a lot). Think I am on Week #4 and I am just enjoying it to the fullest. Every week, two new songs and lots of memorabilia like newspaper clippings, set lists, studio papers, and more. Fun, fun, fun. Best $25 I spent in a while. Can’t wait until the physical set comes out on November 24. Things have been so busy for me lately that I actually forgot to check the last two weeks, so tonight, I am enjoying four new live songs! As I write this, I am listening to “Breakdown” as it was recorded live on June 30, 1981 in LA – sounds so young! What a freakin’ jam session this was, too. They break”Down” into Hit the Road Jack. Wow, just a killer performance of “Breakdown.”  The crowd sings along in a lot of it, and it makes me wonder who was at that concert, and where they are now.  I love the commentary about these songs and shows that the band gives through the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Superhighway Tour.

SLEEPING: Sleep has been going better. Still hit snooze two hours before I wake up, but I am in my bed before 11:00 p.m. every night. I stop drinking caffiene after 12 or 1 – usually my last coffee around 11 and my last soda with my lunch. If I need the fizz, I go for a Root Beer. Before bed, I’ve been journaling to get my mind to stop racing, then that gives time for my peppermint melatonin tea from Alvita a chance to get to get to a good temperature, then I have been reading (while my white noise machine playes) until I fall asleep. I’ve been getting a lot more sleep and feeling better during the day. The only part of the equation that still makes no sense is the waking. Amazing, still, how I hit can still hit snooze for two hours.

PLANNING: I’m doing a talk at Wilkes next week for my former mentor and friend, Jane, and the student-run PR agency and am very, very excited.

WONDERING: And, I woke up this morning, as shown below, with one sock on and one sock off. This has been going on for years. Last week, my friend Jeff stayed over and I showed him in the morning how the same thing– one sock off. We had watched Paranormal Activity, so he said, “Maybe a demon is taking your sock?” Hm. Here’s my blog post from over a year ago about this…

99% of the nights I sleep with socks on, I wake up with the left sock off. Have no idea why. Do you believe in the sock monster?

And, that’s it. Just some random stuff I’ve been up to.

Strays in the Drawer

by Donna Talarico

I could almost be fully clothed
if I put on everything in that drawer

Strays in a drawer
left behind in the scramble in leaving in the morning
Or forgotten in the stupor the night before

Little memories of good times
with good boys
who are just good friends

I have:
Brian’s socks
Derek’s tie
Tim’s undershirt
and a pair of sweatpants from an ex-boyfriend
Mark or Dan; I forget.

Tim’s undershirt wasn’t actually left behind in my bedroom because it actually made its way back in a suitcase
from a weekend excursion in Boston
where I met him and Sam Adams (Sam Adams first)
and he was from New York York
and he puked on my foot
and we had fun

I wonder if Derek ever looked for that tie again
Maybe he did
If his dress shirt was baby blue or navy blue or mint green

And now that sandal season is over, will Brian notice the argyle socks missing from his own drawer?

I’d look pretty silly if I wore them all at once
But maybe I will
I could take a self portrait
and post it on Facebook
and tag each item of clothing
with each boy’s name
and people would wonder.
Let them wonder.

I’d look pretty silly with a colorful striped tie
hung over a white tank top that people call a wife beater
worn with black sweat pants that don’t stay put around my waist
bottomed off with preppy socks
I don’t even know how to tie a tie
So maybe I won’t wear them all at once

I wonder if they think about these stray articles
And if they wonder about these stray articles,
Do they ever wonder about me?

Strays in the Drawer inspired by these real strays in her real drawer.

Dreamspinning

by Donna Talarico

My cursor blinks
A spider crawls across the wall
Climbs high and passes under the fabric D
that begins a string of letters that spell
D-r-e-a-m

My spider friend is looking for somewhere to begin his work
as I stray from mine

I think about the web of words
I’m trying to weave
but all I get is tangled
stuck in corner
never getting further than a string of ideas

My D-r-e-a-m is just a string of letters.

I wish that I were a spider
Then I could weave
something beautiful, something strong
like a web

The spider stops for a second
inspired by a long worn off sticky tab
that once held an inspirational poster

The spider keeps going
It can’t find a place to start either

Dreamspinning by Donna Talarico, inspidered by this spider and my wall hanging.

One day, Regis Philbin told America to, “Have a hoppy day.”

And, it’s because I told him to.

Welcome to the first post in another new series on Daily Dose o Donna, Memory Lane. Here, I will recount (quickly) unique, memorable stories from my past. Hope this will be a prequel to a collection of essays one day.

Event: My trip to Live! with Regis

Year: 2001

Age: 23

My place in life: I was promotion director at Froggy 101, living in Luzerne, PA and dating Mike.

The story: Through a connection, I scored some tickets to see Live! with Regis at ABC Studios. This wasn’t a work event, but I decided to bring some Froggy 101 swag to try to get our call letters and fun logo splattered on national television. I brought a bag full of station T-shirts (which a design I came up with: a spoof of the 70s ‘Have a Nice Day’ shirts with the smiley face, and instead had our frog face and it said, ‘Have a Hoppy Day.’ Radio promotions really meshed well with my corniness!), Froggy 101 license plates, and bumper stickers.

Regis and crew getting the shirt ready to go live after the pre-recorded George Clooney segment was over.

This show was after Kathie Lee retired and Regis was looking for a co-host. The day we went, Meredith Viera was co-hosting. During a longer break (because they had to use a prerecorded George Clooney interview), Regis talked with the audience. I walked up to him.

“Hi, Regis! I’m from a radio station in Scranton. You have relatives near there, don’t you?” I asked, remembering a little nugget of information that he threw the first pitch at a Red Baron’s game years ago because of some local tie.

“Oh, yes,” he said, or something of that nature.

“I brought you some goodies. Can you tell America to ‘Have a hoppy day?’” I asked, holding up one of my shirts.

“This is cute! Sure,” he said, taking my bag off to the crew.

After the Clooney segment and a commercial break, Regis said there was some folks from Froggy 101 in Scranton, PA in the studio and said that they wanted you to have a hoppy day… he held up the shirt. He and Meredith giggled a bit and they carried on with the show.

Regis Philbin and Meredith Viera on the set, holding up my Froggy 101 T-shirt

After the show was over, he came back over to us. We asked for a picture, so here it is. Not only did I meet Regis, but I got him to give a shout out on national television. Brian Hopper, the then midday guy at the station said the phone lines were lit up from listeners who were surprised to see the Froggy 101 shirts on the air with Regis.

Mike, Regis, and Me in September 2001 on the set, after his show.

Long after 2001, Froggy 101 also became nationally-recognized on NBC’s The Office! Most Office fans know about Froggy 101 because Dwight has the station bumper sticker stuck by his desk. Of course I was long gone from the station by then, but awesome to know that the awesome Froggy logo is still being seen by people everywhere, even when they can’t tune in.

Cherry, meet Harvest.

As you can see, I was enjoying a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. Then, I opened #2 for the evening, a Harvest Moon, Blue Moon’s Seasonal Ale. I looked at the two bottles next to each other, and it hit me. I took a picture and posted my thought to Facebook. After my friend Alan commented on the Facebook post I made, I realized I needed to move some of these simple thoughts here. So, this begins a new recurring feature on the blog, Donna’s Moments of Wit & Wisdom. (Mostly these are to amuse myself.)

I’ll add another thought I had today:

I read in the Times Leader today that the local Catholic churches, for fear of passing along illness, are discouraging the peace handshake. My reply?

I think the church should finally stop passing the offering basket around?

Our hands have far less germs anyway.

“No one believes me when I tell stories about college that involved you,” said Tanner.

“That’s why I am writing a memoir,” I responded. “Life with me is always a little more outrageous.”

We giggled as we walked back to campus from Ralston field, the same route we walked form our old dorm, Evans Hall to go to Amnesia, the then 18 and over dance club. As we told stories on the walk back, she held hands with he fiance. And, since I had free hands, I took pictures and talked with my hands (the 1/4 Italian in my went directly to my story-telling handicap) as I told outrageous stories from the past ten years that she hadn’t heard. (The ones I hope will make up my second book of non-fiction: a collection of essays.)

Tanner and me in front of our old college apartment in Wilkes-Barre. We took a walk back on Homecoming Weekend. We lived there together a few years. I had left Wilkes but still lived there. After she graduated, I lived there another year with another college buddy. This apartment was where most of our crazy stories happened.

But, I was happy to confirm to her fiance that we really did do the Hokey Pokey with Faith Hill in 1998 in Keenan’s after a show at the Kirby Center. Although, she reminded me of a few details I forgot like I wanted Faith and her band to do the chicken dance, but none of them heard of it. I always thought it was the Hokey Pokey they didn’t know. (I also don’t think anyone believes me or my friend Jenn G. that we danced onstage at the Kirby with Davey Jones and got to me the Monkees backstage after – that was in 1996. Unfortunately, since we were both on stage, there are no pictures. Anyone at that show??)

“Do you still have the pictures,” she asked.

“Of course I do,” I replied. “I have to look for them, but it’s funny you brought that up. I blogged about it the other month.” (Turns out, it was actually in January – read about our hokey pokey with Faith Hill here.) Mental note to self: go hunt through pics. Not sure if they are in the storage shed or here.

It was a blast to talk to Tanner again and just have all these memories come out. I stay in touch with here on Facebook and e-mail, but until you talk and laugh in person, it’s not the same.

Some other things that she brought up that I had long forgotten was our perpetual leak… we had this one area in the long hallway of our apartment that just always leaked water, almost like a horror movie would have a hotel corridor that would leak blood. She reminded me of the time I went back to a boys dorm after a party but didn’t know where I was and called her for help getting home.

Tanner, Bonnie and I at Ralston Field on Homecoming Weekend, 2009

Perhaps the funniest memory was of Charlie and her friend Joe. Charlie was a homeless man (who many speculated really had money and lived on the streets because he didn’t want to pay taxes or something like that) and was very well-known in Wilkes-Barre. He had psoriasis and was always bundled up, but his outer layer was always a worn in, tan coat and he also wore a furry brown hat. He was nice when you talked to him. Well, Charlie took up residence in the foyer of my building. Some guys who lived downstairs would give him food and sometimes let him shower. Sometimes I would leave food, too, although, , my roomies didn’t know. It was like feeding a stray and having them always come back.

So one time, Tanner’s friend Joe put a wire hanger on the end of a broom and used it to fish for Charlie’s bag – we were on the second floor. Joe was successful. We looked through his bag and we pretended we were detectives. I recorded everything on an audio tape as Joe cataloged the items. We used the contraption to replace the bag where we found it. Then, Charlie started to cough and Joe said, “He needs a doctor! Quick, get me my lab coat.” I ran to my room and brought Joe back a white robe which would have made a fine substitute to a lab coat except for the lace ruffles on the ends of the sleeves. For some reason, Tanner had a chef’s hat. So, Joe went down to Charlie in my robe and Tanner’s chef’s hat and woke Charlie up and discussed the cough. It was very funny.

I can’t believe I forgot that. But, after Tanner told the story it all came back to me and now I can see Joe, well over 6-feet tall wearing my robe. I laughed so hard I cried. It’s nice to have memories that make your stomach hurt with laughter. Nothing like a tear rolling down your cheek from a great memory. Going back to the line I started this blog with, it just makes me feel pretty cool that I am part of people’s favorite stories to tell.

Overall, homecoming was a blast. I say it on this blog so much that I love Wilkes, so I didn’t want to get too mushy in this post. Instead, this one’s for you, Tanner! Great memories. Was glad to laugh with you so much on Saturday!

Now off to find that Faith Hill picture.

Update: A few hours later after writing this post, I found the album these pics were in. Surprised I never scanned these in yet. This is from February 2008 at the Faith Hill concert at the Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, which the radio station I worked for, Froggy 101, sponsored. This was right after “This Kiss” came out when she really hit big. This was the last show on her tour, hence the big after-party. Always trying to be silly and get the crowd involved, I requested some silly kid songs and Faith Hill and her band joined in.

The memorable night (yep, Faith still remembers this night from what my buddies tell me) where I had the DJ play the Hokey Pokey at the post-show after party. Faith Hill and her band did the Hokey Pokey with me, my co-workers, my old roomie, and some fans.

Sometimes it’s fun to look back at a blog post or posts from last year. Last year, this week I

• had just moved to my new place in Swoyersville (now: still here)
• just got back from San Fransisco for a work convention (now: no travels this fall)
• did Wilkes homecoming (now: going this year again, and now on a committee)
• did Oktoberfest and hung out with someone pretty awesome afterward (now: no Stegmeier Oktoberfest, but a friend had one. No awesome boy afterward this time.)
• had my side view mirror smashed off (now: got mirror fixed seven months later but today, car is broke down)

Surprisingly, no drastic difference between the first week of October 2008 to this week, this year. Most people still in my life, car still having something wrong with it, still drank Steg Oktoberfest, still single.

Just some observations because I can’t sleep. Oh. So, what was I doing this week in October 2007?

Car trouble. Ha! I had run out of gas in the Yukon. (Still living with Dave.) He got on me about it, and I explained that there must be something wrong with the gas gauge. He didn’t believe me. Then, as if on cue, we got a letter from GMC about a recall for a malfunctioning gas gauge. We took it to the dealer to get fixed.

Also this week, I blogged about sleeping trouble. How funny is that? I’m blogging because I can’t sleep and I find on this very date two years ago, I had the SAME issue. My blog post was about Bigelow Sweet Dreams Tea.

Guess I should go tea shopping.

The October 2009 cover of Happenings Magazine. Cover photo by Rob Lettieri

Some cool news. Happenings Magazine of PA each year does a Back to School issue, featuring college students on the cover. This year, the focus of the story was on alumni of the local colleges in Eastern PA for the cover story, “Brain Gain.” I was selected by Wilkes to be featured. Before Labor Day eight other local alums participated in a fun photo shoot at Miller’s Orchard in Clarks Summit.

There were alums from Wilkes University, King’s College (which happened to be Scott Carey, one of my colleagues at Solid Cactus), Misericordia University, Penn State Wilkes-Barre, Johnson College, Career Technology Center of Scranton, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (not a local school perse, but student did all rotations locally), East Stroudsburg University, and University of Scranton. The University of Scranton student is kind of a double-feature because she’s also part of the first class at Commonwealth Medical College, which is another cool highlight.

The photo shoot was a lot of fun. So many bright minds in varied career paths from medical to technical to creative. The nine of us posed all over the farm: on tractors, in corn fields, in the mud with pigs (I’m serious!), in kiddie rides, on a hayride, and more. Did I mention we got to take a hayride? The folks from happenings, Erika and Lisa, were a lot of fun and the photographer they hired, Rob Lettieri was also extremely cool. The folks from Miller’s Orchard were also very accommodating for Erika and Lisa, from driving the tractor to helping us find locations to take pictures.

I told the photographer that this setting was perfect for me since I'm corny. Then, I told my "Why don't you tell secrets on a farm joke." Oh, an I made sure Isaac and 'he who walks behind the rows' was not in the corn first.... Photo by Rob Lettieri

The magazine looks great. Happenings has always been a very visually appealing publication. The cover story, Brain Gain: Meet Talented Grads Staying in NEPA, had a small profile on each featured student as well as side bar stories on careers in the area, profiles on each school featured, financial aid, cheap and free things college students (and anyone) in NEPA can do, and more. Great issue. Happenings also did a profile on Miller’s Orchard in Clarks Summit, which is getting ready for its busy season. Miller’s Orchard has a great store. I left with pumpkin spice instant cappuccino mix, homemade apple sauce, homemade apple butter, and all-natural peanut butter. The two apple products were made at Miller’s, from Miller’s apples.

To read the full issues, pick one up locally. They are all over and there is so much in this issue about all the fall happenings. If you aren’t local or can’t wait to read it after I’ve raved about the issue, you can read it online here. The website I will admit is a little hard to navigate, so click on the read online banner, but you can also follow the linked text I have here. You need a program to read PDFs and will view sections at a time. The Back to School cover story is all pretty much within the first PDF.

There were so many fun pictures available so they created a page on the site that shows the behind the scenes pictures, too. Check these out…

On a side note, I was surprised that only nine colleges/post-secondary schools sent alums. (NOTE: My previous employer, Allied Medical Technical Institute didn’t send anyone from either of their two campuses. When I worked there, I tried so hard to push the value of PR and later, social media. But I was never in a position to make it happen and my ideas were pretty much laughed at… Guess they still didn’t learn the value because this issue is a great example of schools beaming with pride for their alumni.)

Screen shot of my bio... please read the rest of the magazine at the link provided. (c) Happenings Magazine

I don’t have Google Analytics on my blog because I don’t host my own WordPress blog. But, from the stats that WP has, recently there has been hundreds of hits to my blog post for my imagine tattoo. Am I some kind of trend setter? Haha. I thought I was being original, but I guess lots of other people want this awesome, inspirational word tattooed on them as well. Also, wrist tattoo is a huge word being searched. Just an observation.

Here’s some of the words people have used to find my blog: imagine tattoo, imagine tattoos, tattoo quotes, wrist tattoos, wrist tattoos writing, one word tattoos, tattoo on wrist, wrist word tattoos, word on wrist tattoo, “imagine” tatttoo, imagine tatoo [sic], girl wrist tattoo, letter tattoo on wrist, inner wrist tattoo, tattoo wrist writing, wrist tattoo quotes, wrist tattoo ideas, and more. That’s just the past 30 days. Hope my tattoo and blog post about it helps others find what they are looking for!