Hulabuns' Life Lessons: Discombobulated

Phew! Binderclips and I are so happy to be done with our move, let me tell ya! I will also tell you that moving to Milwaukee in the dead of winter was not the smartest idea that we have ever had. It's pretty darn cold here and it snows almost daily (even if we just get a slight dusting). It's snowing again today, however the snow flakes are larger than they have been so far, it's very pretty actually. Also, the National Weather Service has issued a Blizzard Watch for Tuesday to Wednesday of this week. I'm hoping it hits just south of us, but we'll see.

So, can I interest you all in little something I'd like to call "Hulabuns' Life Lessons"? Yes? Good, 'cause I was going to share them anyways. So, it's not like you actually had a choice in the matter. Here we go (brace yourselves - it may be a bumpy ride)!

1) Did you know that most of the counties/cities in the Milwaukee area were named for their ties to Native Americans? Well, neither did I and that's why I pronounce almost all of them incorrectly.


Example:


City name: Waukesha


My pronunciation: wa-KEY-sha (did I mention I grew up in the Detroit metro area?)


The actual pronunciation: wa-ka-shaw

I thought it was pronounced like an African American girl's name, no - not so much. Note to everyone; if you say it like that - people WILL laugh at you.

Life Lesson: Try to trick the locals into saying the name of the cities before you try saying them. That way, you can possibly eliminate you making an ass out of yourself.

2) Question: When you go through airport security after taking almost all of your clothes off (ok, you don't have to take them all off, but it sure feels like it sometimes) and emptying all of your bags to pass them through the scanner machine, do you feel discombobulated like I usually do?

I'm here to tell you that the Milwaukee Mitchell Airport has found a way to tug at your heartstrings (well it found a way to tug at mine). It has a dedicated "Recombobulation Area" that's on the other side of Security. I'm totally not kidding. Binderclips and I took a picture of it (see below). I feel like every airport needs one of these signs and I might even consider getting one for at home.

Life Lesson: Recombobulation Areas/signs are a necessity, especially at airports.

3) Upon arriving at the airport to fly home after looking for apartments, several interesting things happened:

• Binderclips and I recombobulated ourselves in the dedicated "Recombobulation Area" (see #2)

• I had to use the restroom, but it was early and I was really tired, so seemingly normal tasks were incredibly difficult. Namely, trying to get into a stall in the restroom. A lady with a stroller (just so you know I just typed "A lady in a stroller" on accident and it made me laugh out loud) followed me into the restroom. I tried to pull on several stall doors as she watched me. Finally, I decided to push on one of them and it opened. I turned back to the lady with (not in) the stroller and simply said "It's a push not a pull". She looked at me like I was crazy.

• After leaving the stall I went to wash my hands. A Hispanic lady was washing her hands at the sink next to me. When I was done I reached for the paper towel (the dispenser was in-between the Hispanic lady and I), however I could not figure out how to get the paper towel to come out (did I mention the lady with the stroller was now standing behind me at this point? well, she was). The Hispanic lady had to actually show me how to pull the paper towel out of the dispenser SEVERAL times 'cause I just could not figure it out. The lady with (again, not in) the stroller laughed at me.

• I walked out of the restroom to find Binderclips waiting for me. I picked up my portion of things and started walking then saw this sign:

Although, for some reason I didn't see the "er's" part of "Usinger's", so I read it as "Using Fine Sausage". So, I said "Why would they want to use any other kind?" to Binderclips. Baffled, he looked at me and said "What are you talking about?!" When I explained that they had a sign that said "Using Fine Sausage" he just laughed at me and said "Really?" After a brief pause where we both just stared at each other with very confused looks on our faces, he said "It says Usinger's Fine Sausage", then pointed at the sign. I looked up at it and when I saw what it really said I started laughing. His response "Seriously, what is wrong with you today?"

Life Lesson: I'm not sure what the life lesson is in this one, maybe it's that I shouldn't get up super early or be trusted to go to into public restrooms on my own?

I hope these Life Lessons can help you it in some way or another, you know what they say "Hind sight is 20/20" (wait, isn't hindsight one word? my bad, hehehehehe).

I thought I'd leave you with a picture of the inside of our new apartment. I took this picture from the loft where our bedroom is. The little area on the other side of the stairs is our office, where yours truly is typing up this very blog post. 

Anyways, I hope you have a great day today. Later gators!! 

Moving on Up!

Well, we survived the move (but just barely)! Thanks to some wonderful friends we had most of our truck packed on 1/13, so a big thanks goes out to those folks (you know who you are). We couldn't have done it without you all, so thank you again!


About Our Move:


The 560 mile drive took us a little more than 12 hours (per google it should've taken us 9-10 hours) due to Binderclips having to go 50-60mph (60 was pushing it, believe me) in the 26 ft truck (they upgraded us for free from a smaller size since the smaller trucks were having trouble starting - yippee *rolling eyes*) with our other car in tow behind it. I followed Binderclips in our other car with the dogs, which needed several stops as well during the drive which also contributed to the longer drive time. The last 70 miles driving were in terrible weather and because we left at 2:30 CST, we were just finishing up the last 70 miles around 1:00-2:30AM. Needless to say, it was not fun and very stressful. I'm just glad we made it safely.


We went to bed around 3AM and got up the next day at 7:30AM-ish to start our very busy day of moving everything into the apartment. Since then, it's kind of been a struggle to catch up on sleep but we're working on it. That's why I haven't posted anything or read any blogs. I'm so sorry to my followers and fellow bloggers I promise I'll be back to it soon, I'm still pretty much exhausted.

Stuff Other Than the Move:

Even though I've been moving and haven't updated my blog in quite some time I still managed to get an award thanks to Bernie at One Mixed Bag !!! Bernie and I found each other and  have soo much in common that we couldn't help but love each other's blogs. Bernie writes about her life and the funny stuff that happens with Mr. Bernie. She's super talented, so if you haven't visited her blog yet - you must! Thank you again Bernie, you rock!

There are 4 duties to perform to receive this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

Seven things about Me:

1. I don't like using the word "hate", it's a very powerful word and I can't think of anything that I dislike enough to use it. However, if I feel like I might dislike something close to that much I use the word "hat" instead.

2. I hat getting the mail. When I was little all that came in the mail was "bad news" (aka bills) per my Mom, so I guess that has stuck with me other the years. Most of the time I refuse to get the mail when Binderclips asks me to do it.

3. I try not to let anything get to me. Sometimes I fail at this, but for the most part I'm pretty even keel temperament-wise.

4. Sometimes I talk to Turner and Callie with a French accent. (I can't explain why I do the things I do, I just do them.)

5. I am 3.5 years older than Binderclips. Fun fact: His Mother and Father are the same distance apart in their ages.

6. When I was in elementary school my school wanted my brother and I to skip a grade, but my Dad didn't want us being weirder than we already were - so, he kept us right where we were. I guess no matter what weirdness can't be prevented. Who knew?!

7. I don't like cake but I like cupcakes. I know, it doesn't make any sense.


I want to pass on this award to the following amazing bloggers:

Year 31

One Mixed Bag

Missed Periods and Other Grammar Scares

Georgina Dollface

Sassy Sassy and the Cult Jam

Reeds

Living on Less

Climb to Nowhere

And Then She Was Like Blah Blah Blah

The Girl Diagnosed

Wanna Buy a Duck

The Disconnected Writer

Lightning Bug's Butt

Live Dream Love

Confessions of Me...Uncensored

You all are very deserving of this award. Make sure you follow the instructions for passing the award on! Thank you all for being so great, just keep being yourselves that's all I ask! 

Any who, I hope you all are having a great day. Later gators!

Bedtime Stories: Pit Time

I figured I'd post an oldie but goodie (it's one of my favorites actually) with all of the moving craziness going on around here. I've also provided a moving update at the bottom of the post if you want to keep up with how things are going for the Binderclip Clan. Anyways, enjoy!


I'm not sure why most of the dysfunctional communication between Binderclips and myself occurs at night, all I know is - it does and both of us have to live with it.

One night about 2 months ago we were going to bed. Both of us climbed in; me on the right and him on the left, as usual. Although before I get into what happened I should first mention that we have 2 wonderful dogs: Turner (a boy) and Callie (a girl). Both are from the same litter, a litter of chihuahua/terrier pups that were born on 12/17/09.

Here's a pic of the little monsters (Turner has the white stripe and Callie doesn't):

Aren't they the cutest dogs EVER??!!?! Before you start getting all detaily* on me, let me say this: "Yes, Turner IS, in fact, wearing a doggie diaper**....and YES, it WAS necessary. He had a bit of a incontinence issue up until the age of 10-11 months old."

As I was saying, we were climbing into bed for the night. Callie had crawled under the sheets in between Binderclips and I with her tail near my shoulder and her head near my hip. Immediately after that Binderclips turned off the light. Because we have dark curtains (due to the fact I am a very light sleeper), it was pitch black in our room.

I was feeling nice so I decided to reach over and give Binderclips a pat/rub on the shoulder to say goodnight. So I reached over (again in the pitch blackedness***) to feel for Binderclips' shoulder, however felt something furry. Thinking it was Callie's tail I tried to push it to the side repeatedly (think a 'stay' in cards type hand motion). After about the 5th or 6th try I got frustrated and said "What on Earth??!!" (this is a phrase I throw around a lot so get used to it). To which Binderclips responded with "What are you doing?!" In which I responded with "What is THAT?!" To which he responded with "My armpit." To which both of us burst out in a fit of laughter.

When I asked him why he didn't say anything to me when I was "petting his armpit" (because that IS what I was doing basically) he said he thought it was the dog. Now, when we go to bed, before he shuts off the light (and sometimes after), he'll ask me if I want to pet his armpit.

*Detaily means focusing on the details
**I made the doggie diaper with a maxi pad, piece of fleece, and velcro - just so you know. I'm crafty like that.
***Blackedness IS a word (in my book) and if it's not, it should be and I refuse to define it because the definition should be obvious


Originally posted: 4/22/10


Moving Update: Binderclips and I are headed to Milwaukee to check out places to live this weekend. I made us 8 appointments with places that look promising, hopefully one of them will work out. We have been packing like mad since we got home from vacation on Sunday. We will be moving next Friday, yes I said NEXT FRIDAY and yes we are crazy. If we can pull it all off we will have packed up our entire apartment and moved in a less than 2 week time frame. Anyways, wish us luck! Later gators!

Happy New Year! Socktastrophes & Other Weird Happenings

This picture is from Minnesota, I took it when we were there for Thanksgiving.

I hope you all brought in the New Year with thoughts of 2011 being a great year for all of us!

Random Weirdness from the Holiday

1) Binderclips and I were out and about and he received a call from his mom telling us they were at "Bonnaroo". Since Bonnaroo is an outside concert that occurs in Tennessee during the summer time, I knew they were definitely not at Bonnaroo, but decided to just let it go. What I didn't realize is that this would come back to bite me. The very next day I was sitting talking with Binderclips' mom and she said to me "Where were we yesterday? I just can't remember."

Hulabuns: "Hmmm, wasn't it Bonnaroo" I say knowing that isn't right, but hoping it spurs her memory a bit

Binderclips' Mom: She just looks at me like I'm crazy

Hulabuns: "Bonaroom?" I say knowing that still isn't right

Binderclips' Mom: Still looking at me like I'm crazy

Hulabuns: "Bona..something" I say as a last ditch effort

Binderclips' Mom: Oh, Bonarose, that's right!

Hulabuns: See I'm not as crazy as you thought after all!

Binderclips' Mom: I was beginning to wonder there for a minute

2) Binderclips and I stayed at my parents' one night. The next morning we wake up and are getting dressed. He's putting on his socks and the following happened:

Binderclips: As he slides a sock on his foot, he looks over at me. His foot is in the air. He says "Hey, did you pack MY socks?"

Hulabuns:  I look over to see his foot still in the air with my sock on it. Like, all the way on it, which is extremely impressive considering I wear a size 5.5 -6 and he wears a 12. I say "WTF?! How did you even get my sock on your foot like that?!"

Binderclips: *confused face*

Hulabuns: Take my sock off, right now *Pretty sure I'm going to lose it face*


Binderclips: Did you bring any of my socks?!

Hulabuns:  "What is it with you and socks?! It's like they are invisible to you or something" I say, getting them out of the same pocket that he got my socks out of and handing them to him.

The rest of the day I walked around with a very stretched out sock on my right foot, just so you all know. I was not a fan.

3) This is one of our conversations while on our way to MI in the car:

Binderclips: Turns on the bright headlights then says "Well, those don't help at all. You can't see anything but the trees."

Hulabuns:  I like the trees (I'm a major tree hugger, in case you didn't know) and I think they need more light

Binderclips: "Well, I need to see the road and the trees do not need more light" he says sounding a little bit frustrated

Hulabuns: "A little something called 'photosynthesis' says they do" I say knowing that headlights are not the type of light involved in photosynthesis.

Binderclips: *Really? We're going to do that right now face*

The examples above are just a few of the weird things that happened, I'll have to share more of them later. Anyways, I hope you all are doing well!! To my fellow bloggers Bernie at One Mixed Bag and TB and Year 31 I have to send big huge ginormous thanks! They both included me in their favorite blog listings. Thank you ladies for the blog love, you both are 2 of my favorites as well. Also, thanks to the new followers that have found their way here. I, again, can thank TB and Bernie for leading some of you here. I will be checking out your blogs as well when I get caught up on all of my reading.

Also, Binderclips and I are moving. We basically have 2 weeks to get packed and ready to go, so I may not blog as regularly as I would like or read your blogs as much as I would like to for the next couple of weeks. However, believe me, once all the dust settles I'll be right back to it.

Have a great day today! Later gators!