Thursday, May 14, 2009

Bag It

I have been reading rather than stitching, so I don't have anything to show. I will share my new carrying case. When I went to camp, they gave me this Vera Bradley lunch tote:



The pattern is "purple punch," though it seems kind of brown to me. Anyway, I haven't been packing lunches and I'm not really a huge fan of VB, so I was thinking WTF am I going to do with this? So there it was, sitting on the table amongst my stuff.



And, though I am spatially retarded, I thought, does that Ott light fit in there?



Turns out it does! Perfect for camp; I am not sure the Ott light leaves home any other time. But if it needed to, it could. And dressed to the nines at that.


Apparently when President Obama wanted to change the conversation about race in America, people in Philadelphia thought he meant they should talk to me. The other day, my across-the-street neighbor was outside and started chatting to me about my next door neighbors who have recently moved out. (Open house this Sunday! I love nosing around other people's houses.) "You know," she says, "they were black but they were nice." Now I lived next door to them for 3.5 years. Did she have to tell me they were African American? No. It's the correlation. Then she says, "he (the father) didn't let them (the two boys) run wild in the street." It might surprise you to learn that both boys were born while we were living here. We moved in December 17, 2005. Wow what a good father! And hey, two African American boys not in gangs! Where do people get this? Honestly, I'm flummoxed. And torn. She said I made her day talking to her, and I stood there for about five minutes. She's obviously very lonely. She doesn't drive and her sons visit maybe once a month. Her next door neighbors are good to her, but I suppose there is some moral obligation for the dude and I to visit or reach out in some way. See? See why I hate living in a society?

Oh, and just by-the-by when society no longer does something it "loses" the custom not "looses" it. L-O-S-E spells the word that means to come to be without, to suffer the deprivation of, to fail to have, to fail to win. L-O-O-S-E, which does not rhyme with C-H-O-O-S-E, means unfettered, lax, sexually promiscuous or immoral. Are we good on that? Because this one is really starting to drive me nuts.

19 comments:

Leah said...

I think you're loosing it, Anna.

Caroline said...

Good thing your stitches aren't lose......., that would really make you loose your mind.

Caroline said...

:)

Von said...

Oh no, they're ganging up on you! :D
That's one of my pet peeves as well. And what's up with making plurals possesive? People just can't be bothered with thinking any more.

Kristen said...

BUT they were nice?

Holy crap! What's wrong with people?

Coni said...

Please feel free to join my sister and I as we embark on a journey to discover an island on which no people will be allowed. Just us. And our stitching. And our stitching friends. No loosers.

Unknown said...

Ugh! Loose/lose; compliment/complement; their/they're/there; its/it's; and, like Von said, possessive when it should be plural - the list goes on and on! It bugs me to no end! What's worse is seeing it in print in books, magazines, newspapers, etc. I can tolerate it more when it's on someone's personal blog than when someone has actually been paid to write, but it's annoying all the same. I feel you!

Deb said...

The way people are and think really makes you want to shake your head sometimes (and strangle them for their stupidity).

riona said...

Yes it is annoying but my personal pet peeve is the confusion of the noun "loan" with the verb "to lend", as in "Will you loan me your pen?" No, I'll lend you my pen.

Anna van Schurman said...

I hate to break it to you riona, but loan has been used as a verb for 800 years.

Laura said...

The other day I was picking my stepson up from practice and overheard the coach telling the kids something was a "mute" point. Ahh! I almost loosed it.

Glad to see I'm not the only person who routinely uses the word flummoxed. It's one of my all time favorites!

LoneStar said...

Gee. Where do you live? Your neighbor sounds like half my relatives. I don't get them either.

And yeah, "lose" and "loose" misue and misspellings drive me nuts. For me, they rank right on up there with misspellings of "y'all."

Lisa (Texan)

LoneStar said...

Geesh. I can't type (new keybooard). That should be misuse and misspellings.

Lisa (Texan)

Siobhán said...

Their should bee a law against people who have very little incline about how too spell. It drive's me nuts.

Great job on the Cinderella L*K!

doris said...

Most of my pet peeves have been mentioned already, but one is driving me bonkers. I understand the phrase "up the ante", but do we now have to use up as a verb all the time? For instance, someone the other day said, "The doctor is going to up my medication." One of our school administrators said they were glad we could up our test scores. These people sound stupid to me. Or maybe I'm a snob or just cranky.

Kristen said...

I hate to break it to you riona, but loan has been used as a verb for 800 years.I'm with Riona. In English class, I was taught that lend is the verb. I think it's like 'irregardless' in that the word has become so ubiquitous, it's use is now accepted/-able.

Another one: I'm bored of... No, you're bored with...

Linen Stitcher said...

As a professional editor, my list of pet peeves is far too long to include here, but I'm definitely with you on the whole lose/loose issue.

Loved Siobhan's comment! And your snazzy OttLite carrying case!!

Coral said...

Sorry, darling, I blogged about this two years ago, and even had phonetics on how to say the word - ha ha, it didn't help, that was the downside. And I was so frustrated!

I love it when people 'loose' weight, does that mean the weight they had is now more flabby?

Never mind, we can take the high ground.....

Have a great weekend
xxxx

Melissa said...

Love your ott lite bag! I know I have typos ocaisionally on the blog because I assume I've proofread as I typed and then reread a day or so later and am mortified at what I let slip by. My big thing, alot instead of "a lot" it's two words!