strange encounter in Johnson County

OK, so maybe I do attract a strange cosmic thing. who the heck knows. I just know that sometimes weird things happen around me. I am driving home after dropping kids at school, enjoying the quiet pretty neighborhoods, cool weather, sun shining down, taking a few back roads to see different scenes. I come upon an estate sale sign. I think "hmmmm" why not? I get up, stand in line as there's about 15 min's left before they open. As I stand there, people keep walking up and dropping a key, a quarter, a squished can, etc. on the sidewalk and walk away. I think they're rude, don't really figure things out, until this nice looking man explains the "marker system" to me. Apparently, instead of standing in line when it's cold or rainy or you're bored or whatever, you drop a marker to hold your place in line and you can walk around or wait in your car. I was a big leaf. very exciting. Well, about 10 min's till opening, all the people come up and take their places, and the place goes NUTS. It goes from 5 of us to 50+ people in about 2 minutes.

Conversations start & stop and I'm always the people watcher, so I enjoyed this lady up ahead of me who reminded me of my wild Aunt Dot. (I wrote about her long ago, she's the "Knitress", a retired high school math teacher with a loud voice, strong opinions and a head of wonderful curly hair who lives in CA and is on a mission to knit something for everyone she's related to--big ass Catholic family no less). I love Aunt Dot. Well, this lady in line is just cracking people up with little anecdotes and opinions. Then a few more people joined in, and suddenly it was like we were this bunch of old friends. EXCEPT for 2 disgruntled old men, they took offense at a comment from wild lady repeating a Jon Stewart quote from the Daily Show last night. Apparently, I was in line with 18 of the 24 liberals in the entire state of Kansas, a few republicans dissatisfied with the general situation, and 2 of the approximately 3 million George W. lovers our state is known for. OH MY HOLY HELL. I mean, this place went NUTS. I kept my damn mouth SHUT (very wisely I might add) and just chuckled quietly when things were too funny to help it. I mean, it was like two ladies were doing stand-up comedy and FAST and FUNNY and SMART, the crowd was laughing its asses off, and the two old men were getting mouthier and mouthier and louder and I swear the one right in front of me (RIGHT IN FREAKING FRONT OF ME as he was the crushed can) starts making fists with his hands as he explains the main lady and all the rest of us who may agree with her about not being happy about GW's handling of Iraq or Katrina or terrorist threats, etc....... are just "all watching the wrong news shows and reading the wrong newspapers" and starts getting ready to TAKE A SWING at this lady. Of course, did I say I was IN THE FREAKING MIDDLE OF THEM???? I decide to get the hell out of the way, stand aside and this other lady (who had previously been totally quiet just chuckling like me) starts singing KUMBAYA.....MY LORD......KUMBAYA.....and waving her hands in the air like she just didn't care right between the two. The place burst into laughter and I almost wet myself. I've never seen anything like it. Every time the old men started up again, it was SOMEONE'S CRYING LORD.....KUMBAYA......OH LORD, KUMBAYA....I just can't even explain it. It was surreal. Quiet little Johnson County Suburbia in the middle of Bible Belt Church=State Anti-Evolution Attorney-General-abusing-his-political-power-for-personal-beliefs Kansas. too freaking funny. And after all that, the sale sucked, but the wait in line was priceless. It's nice to occasionally see there are not only liberals here in Kansas, but also those violets who I'm growing to be quite fond of. (Not entirely red on all issues, not entirely blue on all issues, but OPEN MINDED--phrase came from Miss San Antonio, my very favorite Violet!)

Russell and Mark have both apparently lost TONS of weight by going to the gym and working out and sweating. While happy for them, I'm a bit pissy for myself. I went to the closet to pull out a pair of jeans (as it's now nice and chilly fall weather) and I can't wear ANY of my damn jeans and still be able to breathe. THIS REALLY PISSES ME OFF!!! Though I said I wouldn't buy bigger clothes, I'm cold and want some pants. I'm off to Dillards after class today to find me some jeans, dammit.

SHOPPING UPDATE--> Dillard's has their 75% off sale going, and there's actually a lot of GOOD STUFF still there! I don't know if they've not advertised, or just unloaded a lot of crap, but it was GREAT! Jeff had his boys last night and asked me and my munchkins to meet him for dinner in the food court of Oak Park Mall. mmmmmm. A veritable cornucopia of grease and fortune cookies. I ate orange chicken and thought of you, Jildo! Jeff ate things at the mexican place, sonic, chinese AND the steak sandwich place. AND he's thin. It really pisses me off. After we all eat, we walk the mall hand in hand while our FOUR children all together actually behave themselves, walk pretty much normally, don't break anything and with only one close call of almost wiping out a toddler but missing by mere inches, were well behaved chitlins. THEN the man of my dreams says, "why don't we head into Dillards to shop as they have the big sale going on?" OH MY GOD, no, he's really not gay. I swear. I LOVE this man! Of course, we only shopped for about 15 minutes (all a straight man can handle I think), but still! He picked up the tab on my purchase of 6 shirts (all for $1.99 or $2.49/ea) for the kids and offered to watch the kids at the play/climbing place while I shopped for myself. I said I'd hit the mall with more time and less children, but aaaaaawwwwwwwww.

Also as we were mall-walking I saw that Jones store has its Clinique bonus buy going on, so I'm going to run out to Metcalf Mall before my class.

TWO DAYS LEFT TO PUT TOGETHER MY ART SHOW CRAP and I've just about got it ready. Wish me luck!