So, I had this neighbor girl when I was younger. I can't really disclose her real name here because I don't exactly have her permission to post obnoxious stories about her on the internet. So, I'm just going to make up a different name for her for now. We'll call her Marti Ganetti. Now, Marti Ganetti used to come over fairly often to play. And on one of those occasions, I informed her rather mournfully that one of my cats had run away. And Marti, being the generous soul that she was, took it upon herself to track down my beloved pet for me. A week or so went by until one afternoon I was standing out in my front yard when here Marti came, galavanting along, with this cat hoisted upon her hip."Maggie! I found it! I found your cat!", she exclaimed, rather triumphantly. I glanced over at the f[...]

I had this random memory the other day. And it was a funny memory. So, I thought I'd share it here with you.One time, when I was still living at home with my parents, I was pilfering through the garage. And I don't know if you've seen my Pa's garage, but there are so many treasures in there. Just so many. It's mostly full of golf clubs, but there are a few other things like old books, and old dishes, and old socks, and old tools, and old clothes. Oh, and at the time, there were like a ca-trillion of those plastic gallon ice cream buckets, just in case they were needed to store various other old things. (No need to google the number "ca-trillion". I just made it up.)Photo creditActually, my parents have cleaned out their garage like 5 times since then, but I'm pretty sure it's still full of[...]

Last night, after the kids hit the hay, I went out walkin' barefoot in the yard. I watched some fireflies. I noticed some pink clouds up there in the sky. I played with my cat. I sat on the swing and I swang. And then I remembered a funny story. (Blogger now transitions from intro into funny-story time.)photo credit So me and my little brother were just little folks. Like, I don't know--I think I was 12 or so and he was 10 or so. We were at my Mamaw and Papaw's house way out in the sticks. We were just a-swangin on the swing talking about life and stuff. "Hey Maggie," my little brother exclaimed, "Just so you know, if there was ever a bad guy around, I wouldn't even be scared. I would just beat him up." As usual, I felt the mean-sister duty to laugh him to scorn and then retorted, "Wh[...]

Photo credit Did you know that when we were just little folks, me and my brother invented the boogie dance? I mean, we invented the real, true, authentic boogie dance. There's a lot of boogie dancers out there, but we were actually the first to ever boogie. Like, truly boogie. It happened on a crisp fall day. Or maybe it was a crisp late-winter day, I don't actually remember. I just know it was a cold day because we were only allowed to play out in the woods in the front of our house during the cold months, before the snakes came out. (When you grow up in Arkansas/copperhead country, that's just the rules.)We were doing our usual woods exploring. We were always exploring, well, except for when we were playing like we were Indians, building tepees and booby traps. But on this part[...]

This is me with my kids with my little brother. Well, I should say my younger brother. He's much bigger than me, now. But he used to be littler than me and I used to beat him up. I was a mean sister. Like, really mean. And mom and dad would always say, "Maggie--someday he's gonna be bigger than you, so you better watch out." Funny. I didn't believe them...but it happened. And when it did, I learned not to pick on him anymore.But before I learned, I would do some mean things. (You know, because I was a mean sister.) Like, one time we were waiting at my dad's gas station and my mom had to go run an errand. She gave me money to get a treat out of the snack machine and told me I had to share it with my brother. Well, David fell asleep on the dirty old couch in the lobby. So, I got us a brownie[...]