It's cold!!!

Since I'm not a Florida native, I usually don't complain about it being cold. However, this morning was cold!!! It doesn't usually get cold like this until January around here. I was expecting it to be cold but not that cold, lol. It was still 37 degrees outside around 9am when Joshua and I went to the store. We wore winter coats but by the time we were on our way home, we stripped them off. I checked the temp. once we got home and it was 54 degrees, much better.

We had a frog sitting right in the middle of our sidewalk when we woke up this morning. We think he went into hibernation mode because it was so cold. Don tried to get him to jump away but the thing wouldn't move. It was still there when Joshua and I went to the store. When we came back, it had moved to the side of the sidewalk but wasn't moving. When we went to get Shawn from the bus stop, it was gone.

All my friends have been posting which candidate their child voted for in school. Shawn voted on Tuesday but he didn't say anything about it so I asked him today who he voted for. He told me he voted for McCain. When I asked him why, he said because he's the best, lol. Then I asked him what makes him the best and he told me because he is really nice. We haven't really discussed politics with him at all so I'm not sure how he thinks McCain is nice, lol.

Flashback

I have saved a lot of things from my childhood. One thing that I saved is this:





My collection of 45 RPM records. It's kind of embarrassing to look at. I can't believe I used to listen to some of these, lol. For all you youngsters, this was before MP3, CD's, and cassette tapes, lol. I'm going to list the contents without leaving any out no matter how embarrassing it is. Enjoy!

The first record I pulled out was Pat Benatar - side A "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", side B Prisoner of Love
* Men at Work - side A Down Under, side B Crazy
* Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - side A I Love Rock 'N Roll, side B You Don't Know What You've Got
* John Cougar - side A Jack & Diane, side B Can You Take It
* Go-Go's - side A We Got The Beat, side B Can't Stop The World
* Joe Jackson - side A Steppin' Out, side B Chinatown
* The Manhattan Transfer - side A Boy From New York City, side B (The Word Of) Confirmation
* Pointer Sisters - side A He's So Shy, side B Fire
* Olivia Newton-John - side A Physical, side B The Promise
* Duran Duran - side A & B Hungry Like The Wolf
* Steve Miller Band - side A ABRACADABRA, side B Baby Wanna Dance
* Rick Springfield - side A Jessie's Girl, side B Carry Me Away
* Duran Duran - side A Rio, side B Hold Back The Rain
* Blondie - side A The Tide Is High, side B Suzy And Jeffrey
* Sheena Easton - side A Morning Train, side B Calm Before The Storm
* Juice Newton - side A Queen Of Hearts, side B River Of Love
* The Human League - side A Don't You Want Me, side B Seconds
* The J. Geils Band - side A Centerfold, side B Rage In The Cage
* Laura Branigan - side A Gloria, side B Living a Lie
* Olivia Newton-John - side A Twist Of Fate, side B Take A Chance
* Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson - side A Say Say Say, side B Ode To A Koala Bear
* Phil Collins - side A You Can't Hurry Love, side B Do You Know, Do You Care?
* The Romantics - side A Talking In Your Sleep, side B I'm Hip
* Talking Heads - side A Burning Down The House, side B I Get Wild/Wild Gravity
* USA For Africa - side A We Are The World, side B Quincy Jones - Grace
* Billy Ocean - side A Suddenly, side B Lucky Man
* Journey - side A Separate Ways, side B Frontiers
* Styx - side A Don't Let It End, side B Rockin' The Paradise
* Paul Davis - side A '65 Love Affair, side B We're Still Together
* Survivor - side A Eye Of The Tiger, side B Take You On A Saturday
* Mathew Wilder - side A & B Break My Stride
* Limahl- side A The NeverEnding Story, side B Ivory Tower
* Joey Scarbury - side A The Theme From "The Greatest American Hero", side B That Little Bit Of Us
* Quiet Riot - side A Cum On Feel The Noize, side B Run For Cover
* Bonnie Tyler - side A Total Eclipse Of The Heart, side B Straight From The Heart
* David Lee Roth - side A & B Just A Gigolo I Ain't Got Nobody
* Air Supply - side A Making Love Out Of Nothing At All, side B Late Again
* Survivor - side A I Can't Hold Back, side B I see You In Everyone
* Dirty Dancing - side A (I've Had) The Time Of My Life, side B Love Is Strange
* Bee Gees - side A You Win Again, side B Backtafunk
* George Michael - side A & B Monkey
* Prince - side A You Got The Look, side B HouseQuake
* Aerosmith - side A Angel, side B Girl Keeps Coming Apart
* Elton John - side A Candle In The Wind, side B Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
* The Nylons - side A Kiss Him Goodbye, side B It's What They Call Magic
* Toto - side A Pamela, side B The Seventh One
* Bangles - side A Hazy Shade Of Winter, side B Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - She's Lost You
* Chris De Burgh - side A The Lady In Red, side B The Vision
* 38 Special - side A Teacher Teacher, side B Twentieth Century Fox
* Chicago - side A If She Would Have Been Faithful..., side B Forever
* Billy Ocean - side A & B Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)

On my behalf, I'm pretty sure all of these were purchased before I got out of elementary school. My taste in music definitely got better as I got older, lol.

I'm kinda addicted

58%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site

That's about what I figured. Taken from Melodie's blog

I can't wait until tomorrow!

The temperature is only supposed to reach 73 degrees! I can't wait!

I've been tagged:

My friend, Andrea, tagged me with this Meme:

Here are the rules: Grab the nearest book.
Find the closest book...Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one. Pick the CLOSEST. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences on your blog along with these instructions. Tag five other people to do the same.

I have a stack of books right in front of me so I picked the book that was on top. My book is Gut and Psychology Syndrome: We know that some of the toxins, which are produced by abnormal gut flora, have the chemical structure of opiates, like morphine and heroin. If the baby gets these opiates in the breast milk then it is quite understandable why the baby falls asleep after the first few mouthfuls. Another reason for the baby to refuse breast is milk allergy.

I'm supposed to tag 5 other people but I'm just not in the mood so if you read this, consider yourself tagged.

Conversation with Shawn

Shawn: who is Joshua going to marry?
Me: I don't know.
Shawn: I think I'm going to marry Sophia.
Me: The Sophia in your class or the Sofia on your bus?
Shawn: The Sophia in my class.
Me: I like that Sophia. I like her mom too.
Shawn: But why does she always try to kiss me?
Me: I guess she likes you too.
Shawn: But I don't want her to kiss me.
Me: Tell her you don't want her to kiss you.
Shawn: I did tell her but she keeps trying to kiss me anyway.

Walking

Today, Joshua and I took a walk around the neighborhood. He rode in the stroller and told me which way to go. After a while, I suggested to him that we walk to the playground (in the neighborhood). We played there for a little while until I saw these dark clouds rolling in. I hurried Joshua back in the stroller and started back home praying the whole time not to get rained on. It did sprinkle on us but the heavens never opened up. Thank you God! When we got back, I felt so good. I really miss walking. I really enjoyed it when Andrea and I used to meet up for the stroller walks. I need to get in the habbit of doing it on a daily basis and now that the weather is starting to cool off a bit, I have no excuse. Best part about it - it's free, lol.

I want to live in a trailer...

That's what Shawn says everytime we pass the senior trailer park on Mt. Carmel Rd. Just what every mom wants to hear her son say, lol.

Tagged...

Tagged...

I was tagged by my friend, Andrea, with this Meme:

The rules are, you have to answer with only one word. Then pass it on to 7 others.

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Where is your significant other? couch
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? paranoid
5. Your father? helpful
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? Heaven
9. The room you're in? bedroom
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? bugs!!!
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Home
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you’re not? lonely
15. One of your wish list items? Tempurpedic
16. Where you grew up? Linthicum
17. The last thing you did? typed
18. What are you wearing? pjs
19. Your TV? on
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? crappy
22. Your mood? tired
23. Missing someone? yes
24. Your car? parked
25. Something you’re not wearing? Socks
26. Favorite store? book
27. Your summer? fun
28. Love someone? Absolutely
29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When is the last time you laughed? tonight
31. Last time you cried? Hmmm?

I pass this along to:
Kandee, Jen, Karlise, Scarlett, Brian, Angie, Sean

Greedy Company...

I can't stand Classmates.com!!! They're just money hogs. They send you messages like guess who signed your guest book today. Come and see, but then you can't see unless you pay for a gold membership. MySpace is sooo much better. I wish more people would stop hating and resenting MySpace and get a MySpace page, lol.

The Chicks

When I was in the 5th grade, we had to write and illustrate our own book. Then we had to read them to the kindergarten class. I had the chicken pox at the time so I didn't get to read mine. I still have the book I made. Want to see it? It's hard to read the words in the pictures so I'll type the words above the pictures. I couldn't fit the whole thing in the scanner because it was too long but here it is:

Once there lived a mother duck. She had just laid her eggs.

While mother duck was talking with her friends, one of her eight eggs hatched.



Then three more of her eight eggs hatched. Then the rest of her eight eggs hatched.



While mother duck was teaching her chicks to swim--- a little bear was spying on them.



While the little bear was spying on them from behind a rock, the chicks were having fun playing and running around.



A monkey saw the little bear---- and wondered what he was doing.



The monkey thought how hungry he was and that he could eat a bear. The little bear thought how hungry he was and that he would like to eat one of those little chicks for dinner.


All of a sudden, the monkey ate the little bear. The monkey wasn't hungry anymore. In fact.... he was so full and fat that he died.

And the chicks lived happily ever after.

My interview with Mr. Joseph Marsiglia

This is a paper I wrote in school. I'm not sure which grade (maybe college?). In any case, I thought it would be fun to share. We had to interview someone that lived during The Great Depression. My paper got ripped to shreds for grammar, lol.

The person I interviewed was Mr. Joseph Marsiglia. Mr. Marsiglia was born on September 30, 1920 to his parents Mr. Guesippi Marsiglia and Mrs. Dominico Marsiglia. He became the youngest of their twelve children.

Mr. Marsiglia grew up in a three story row home in Baltimore City. He remembers the bedrooms were on the third floor and that he had to share a bed with two of his brothers. The furnace was in the basement and the basement had a dirt floor. One of his chores was to shovel the coal into the furnace and to clean up the ashes. He also remembers having an icebox. He said that everyone had a sign in their window that had either five, ten, or fifteen cents written on it. When the ice man came down the street, he would look at the signs to see how much ice to chip off. He said there was a tray where the water went when the ice melted and you had to keep it empty because if you didn't - it would overflow. The icebox couldn't keep things fresh so they would have to go to the market everyday to get eggs.

Mr. Marsiglia's father and brothers worked at the Lexington Market selling produce. Since it was their own business, they didn't have to worry about losing their jobs. All of his brothers and sisters were pulled out of school as soon as they could read and write to work at the market or to help at home. Mr. Marsiglia was the only child allowed to finish school. He did say that sometimes he would help his father at the market after school. His family always had food on the table. They didn't eat a lot of meat but they had plenty of pasta. Sometimes when he had money, he would go to the pet store and buy a pigeon as a pet for fifteen cents. He would only have it for a coulple of days and then it would disappear. He never knew what happened to them but now when he thinks back, after the pigeons disappeared, they had squab for dinner. "No wonder my parents didn't mind me buying them."

Mr. Marsiglia said that the Depression didn't affect his family that much. They could have made more money at the market and his father did lose money in the banks but they were doing a lot better then some people. Mr. Marsiglia remembers that one day he went to the bank to get change for his father but the banks were closed. He told me that was when FDR had closed the banks. Most of the people in his neighborhood had jobs so he never really witnessed poverty first hand.

When I asked him what his family did for entertainment, he said that his father and his brothers would go to work early in the morning and come home around 7:00. Then they would eat dinner and go to bed. Sunday was the only day they had off. They would go to church and then went to visit relatives. The men would play cards while the women talked and the children played. They also had picnics. That was what he did with his family but he said he played a lot with his friends. There were a lot of kids in his neighborhood and they would get together and play football and softball. They could buy a softball at the store for about ten cents. It wouldn't last long before it would fall apart and they would wrap it up with tape to keep it together. They would also go fishing and crabbing a lot. He said that you could ride the street cars all over Baltimore for only a nickel. they also had neighborhood gangs. He told me that if you left your part of the neighborhood by yourself, you were usually chased.

It seems that Mr. Marsiglia spent most of his time playing with his friends. He kept telling me about all the games they used to play. He went to the movies every Saturday with his friends. After the feature film they showed the serials and every week the hero would end up in a crash or fire but they would never die or lose their hats. His family had a radio but he told me the only good program was The Shadow. Another thing he remembered doing as a kid was to find two old cans and jump in the middle of them so the sides would fold over his shoes and stick. Then he would walk all around with cans on his shoes.

When I asked Mr. Marsiglia about blacks and prejudice in general, he told me that the street cars would not run in the black neighborhoods and that if blacks wanted to ride the street cars, they would have to sit in the back. He also went swimming with his friends and some of the pools they went to prohibited blacks and Jews. Mr. Marsiglia siad that sometimes they wouldn't let him in the pools because he had curly, black hair and they thought he was Jewish. There were also no blacks at the school he attended. He told me that one of his friends was robbed by three black boys. They had a police officer with them when they found the three blacks and started to chase them. They caught two of them and beat them up real bad and the police officer didn't even try to stop them.

Mr. Marsiglia's family didn't own a car. He told me that there were about eighty houses on a block and you were lucky if you saw twenty cars on the whole street. Everybody's clothes were old and most of it had holes. He remembers when they would get holes in the bottom of their shoes, they would cut a piece of cardboard to fit inside.

I had fun writing this paper and interviewing Mr. Marsiglia because I wasn't just talking to some old man, I was talking to my grandfather. I learned a lot more about him and his generation and I really began to imagine what it was like during the Depression.

Another thing I remember my grandfather telling me was that his whole neighborhood was Italian. Everyone spoke Italian and even though he was born in the U.S., he didn't learn English until he went to school. I'm not sure why I left that out of my paper.