Happy Halloween

When I was little, Halloween meant pulling out last years dance costumes and figuring out what I wanted to be. In my first dance recital, I did a tap dance to Disco Duck (does that tell you how old I am???) so that Halloween I was a duck sans the disco. One year I was a bird, one year I was the March Hare, I was even a girl from the 50's. But, I wasn't the only one who got to recycle the old dance costumes, my friend Jeanah borrowed one of my old ballet costumes and was a milk maid. But, there were a couple of years I didn't have to rewear those old costumes. For some reason, I had a strange fondness for Casper the friendly ghost and Witchie Poo. So, my awesome mom bought those costumes that felt like plastic with the plastic mask and the elastic string on the back. Am I the only one that always tried to stick my tongue through the little hole in the mask mouth???

I also looked forward to the Halloween specials. Like, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and I remember a Scooby Doo special. But, my favorite was The Worst Witch. Do y'all remember that movie? They always showed it the ENTIRE month of October on HBO. I LOVED IT!!! I think I watched it all the way through my teenage years...and not just once, EVERY TIME IT CAME ON! I was thinking about that movie earlier this month, and then today I was reading Dlisted and saw that Michael K had posted something about it. So, I hope you enjoy a scene from one of my favorite childhood Halloween movies. (And the special effects are awesome! You can totally tell this movie was made in 1986.)



Is it strange that I find Tim Curry EXTREMELY hot???

Happy Halloween y'all!

Until next time...

Mandy

My Visual DNA

Well, there ya go.

Until next time...

Mandy

A Word of Advice

If you are an outside salesperson, please check that your zipper is up before you walk into a potential customer.

We just had a gentleman walk in here, shake mine and Mark's hand, and hand us his business card all the while his fly was gaping open.

When he left, Mark hollered from his office..."Shut up Amanda."

Until next time...

Mandy

Halloween Party & Horrorpops

Have you ever had a weekend where all you did was drink and sleep. Well, that was what last weekend was for me.

Friday after work, I sprinted home to get ready for the Halloween party I attended. Here are some pictures

Me as Rosie the Riveter

Lyndon and Me (He was white trash, notice the mullet.)

This is Adrian and Jeff. (Adrian was a zombie and Jeff was originally going to be Michael Meyers, but decided to be a Michael Jackson victim. As sick as that is, it made me laugh.)

Lyndon got hot, so he took the mullet and the jacket off.

My two best friends...Terra & Lyndon.

Terra, Mindy and Me. (Terra had to work a fall festival that night, so she didn't dress up. Mindy was Wednesday Addams.)

So Saturday I slept until about 4pm, then I got up and got ready for the Horrorpops show. There were three bands playing and they were all really good. The lineup was 7 Shot Screamers, Beat Union, and Horrorpops.

This is my friend Jeremy, he always goes to live shows with me. We have lots of fun, because we both talk about the freaks that are around us. It's kind of mean, but it's our thing.

This is the singer from Beat Union. They are from England and he was VERY HOT! He would talk between songs and I would look at Jeremy and ask, "What the hell is he saying?" to which Jeremy would reply, "Does it matter?" And I would look at the stage then look back at Jeremy and say, "Not really."

This is Patricia Day, and I LOVE HER!!! I think she is gorgeous and I love the fact that she plays the stand up bass. Sadly, I was on the right-hand side of the stage, so all I could get was the back of the bass and her arm.

This is a pretty decent picture of the stage. The gentleman playing the guitar is Patricia's husband, Nekroman. (They are from Denmark, originally.) He also fronts another band, The Nekromantix.

This was during the encore. They come out playing each other's instruments.

Patricia singing.

The whole group of them.

Talking to the audience.

The last song of the night.

Would you like to know what I did Sunday??? I laid on my couch all day, drifting in and out of consciousness. I'm getting too old for two days straight of drunken stupors. You would think I would know better. But other than the hangovers, the weekend was pretty fan-damn-tastic!!!

Until next time...

Mandy

P.S. I know some of the pictures are kind of dark, if you would like to see them better just click on them.

More Proof that I am a Dork.

A friend of mine is going to a Halloween party tomorroew night...a themed Halloween party. The hosts would like all of their guests to come dressed as some sort of rock star. He told me who he was going to dress up as, and it totally unimaginative. (that's a word, right?) He said he was going to dress up like Elvis. I told him he should dress like Madonna, complete with gold, cone boobs. He said his chest was too hairy to pull that off, I told him that the hairy chest would make it that much better. As I was thinking about his party, I had four ideas come to me and I think they are GENIUS...let me know what you think.

1. Put on fairy wings and go as...WINGER!

2. Dress as George Jefferson and attach airplane wings to your back...JEFFERSON AIRPLANE!

3. Wear a shirt with a skull and crossbones on it...POISON!

4. Wear some antennas and carry a baby around...PAPA ROACH!!!

(I can do this all day long!)

I think they're funny, he told me I'm not right. Although, I think he's going to use the Papa Roach idea.

Until next time...

Mandy

Horrorpops Tomorrow Night!!!

Two years ago, I went to a Reverend Horton Heat show and the opening act was Horrorpops. I had never heard of them and before they came on the stage I just wanted them to hurry up and get done so I could see the Rev. When they started to play, I fell in love with them. I actually enjoyed their set more than the Rev's. The next day, I went to Best Buy and was surprised that they had their CDs, I bought Hell Yeah and listened to it for 3 days straight. Then I went and bought Bring it On and listened to it for another three days. Tomorrow night will be the third time I've seen them live and I CAN'T WAIT!!!

This was the opening song the first time I ever saw them, after that I was hooked!




Until next time...

Mandy

Ike was a MoFo part 3

I know it's been over a month, but I just remembered to buy batteries for my camera. So, here is the evacuation and aftermath of Ike in pictures from Seabrook, TX.

This was the first hotel we went to...The LaQuinta!!!

Hurricane evacuations are not complete without the industrial sized box of Pop Tarts.

I grabbed as many photo albums as I could carry from my house, just in case it wasn't there when I got back.

This is what I came out to after the hurricane. I wish I could find the douche bag with the bb gun.

Can you explain to me why this window cost $150 more than the back window...

That's my sister's car next to mine.

This is the second hotel we went to, this is the transformer that the owner was telling us about.

My nephews and I before bed. It's a lovely picture of me, as you can see I have no make up on and I am sporting my 4 year old spectacles.

This is my apartment complex, I was standing on my patio.

This was the tree next to my apartment.

If you look closely, at the bottom of this picture you wil see a sidewalk and on either side you will see buildings. We got really lucky that the trees didn't fall on any of the apartments.

The weird thing is, Clear Lake is in front of the property, you would think the trees would have been blown the other way.

This is about a mile from where I live - Nasa Road 1

Still on Nasa Road 1

I don't think these boats made it.

This is a boat restoration place on Nasa Road 1.
(If you look in the background, you can see some condos. They have been deemed uninhabitable...there was a sailboat stuck in the walls.)

This is the carpet that had to be pulled out of my mother's house because of flooding.

More stuff that was ruined at Mom's.

My mom's neighborhood.

One of Mom's neighbors.

Mom's neighborhood.

Driving through Mom's neighborhood.

Driving through the neighborhood.

Some people lost everything.

Still driving.

It's true...City of Seabrook ROCKS!!!

Again, sorry it's taken so long to post these. When I look at these pictures, it breaks my heart. But, you would not believe the progress the city has made cleaning things up. Sadly, there are still people living in travel trailers in their driveways because sheetrock got wet and now there are some mold problems. Luckily, mom just needs new flooring. All in all, our family was very lucky.

Until next time...

Mandy

Two More Days

Two more days until Horrorpops!!! Can you tell I'm excited!!!




Woooo Hooo!!!

Until next time...

Mandy

Three More Days

Until I'm at the Meridian, drinking beer and doing shots of Jager!!!




Until next time...

Mandy

Not much to say today

So, here's another Horrorpops video.



You can probably expect these videos the rest of the week. Hope you enjoy!

Until next time...

Mandy

The Weekend is Over.

I had a great weekend.

Friday night I went out with a new guy...we went to the movies and hung out for a while. (Hey Laura, you will be so impressed...I sat through the whole thing!)

Saturday I went to Jennifer's baby shower. She is barely 6 months along and she looks like she is about to pop. I guess three babies will do that. (Better her than me.)

Sunday I went out with another guy to the Texans game. (We've been out several times.)

I hope this week goes by fast. This Friday I'm going to a Halloween party and then Saturday I am going to the Horrorpops show. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Here is the latest video from Horrorpops. Watch it, I think you might like it!

Hangin' Tough

Last night, Megan and I went to...wait for it...

THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK CONCERT!!!!

That's right, I relived my youth with Danny, Donnie, Jordon, Joey and Jon. Believe it or not, it was really good. They sounded good, they all look like they've aged really well, and they still dance while they sing (although, they don't move as fast as they once did.)

During 7th and half of 8th grade, I was IN LOVE with Jordon Knight. I honestly thought I was going to marry him, until Jordon got replaced with Jani Lane. Anyway, the concert was SOLD OUT, the entire Toyota Center was filled with screaming women between the ages of 25-35.. Megan and I both decided that we are going to go this weekend and buy an NKOTB CD.

Until next time...

Mandy

P.S. I've decided that I am going to reinstate my crush on Jordon Knight, not only has he cut that ridiculous rat tail off the back of his head, he has a body to shoot someone for.

*I decided to add a link to a review of the show and a picture gallery from the Chronicle.

Do you ever wonder...

Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and wonder what happened? I have been doing that a lot lately. I've got to make some changes, I'm just not sure where to start.

Until next time...

Mandy

Phobias

Since the night that I thought my dishwasher was going to burn my apartment to the ground, I have developed an irrational fear of using that appliance. I have been handwashing everything, and you know what, it hasn't been that bad. Did you know that your dishes look prettier when you hand wash them? There are several people that think I'm strange and odd, I like to think it's just another one of my odd quirks that make me Mandy. I started wondering if there was a technical name for a fear of dishwashers or using the dishwasher, so I went to this site, and apparently I'm the only one with this particular phobia. I decided to list some of the phobias that I thought were very peculiar...



Alliumphobia- Fear of garlic.

Anablephobia- Fear of looking up.

Anglophobia- Fear of England or English culture, etc.

Apeirophobia- Fear of infinity.

Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.

Aulophobia- Fear of flutes.

Bolshephobia- Fear of Bolsheviks.

Caligynephobia- Fear of beautiful women.

Cathisophobia- Fear of sitting.

Chaetophobia- Fear of hair.

Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.

Dutchphobia- Fear of the Dutch.



And these are just a few from the A - D section of this website. So see, I'm not that strange at all...Quirky, yes, strange, no.



Until next time...



Mandy

One of My Favorites

I was watching The Cosby Show yesterday when I got home from work, and to my pleasant surprise, it was an episode with one of my favorite scenes.


I love Bill Cosby.

Until next time...

Mandy

And this is why my mother calls me Grace.

Friday night was a classic Mandy moment. But first, I have to explain the layout of my apartment. When you come in the front door, you have two options...

1. Walk up the stairs to go into the bathroom and the bedroom.
2. Turn to your left, walk down two stairs to go into the living room, dining room or kitchen.

Around midnight Friday night I turned on my dishwasher and decided to go upstairs, read for a little bit and then go to sleep. So, I'm laying in my bed, reading a book I had just bought, and minding my own business, when I started noticing a strange smell. So, I got out of bed and walked down the stairs and once I got about half way down, I noticed that my living room was filled with a smokey haze and a foul and mysterious odor. So, once I get to the front door, I turn and, apparently, forgot that there were two steps to get down to the living room. People, I fell and I fell hard on my left ankle. At first I thought, "Great, my apartment is on fire and I have just broke my ankle." But I was able to hobble around a little bit. I gimped my way into the kitchen and noticed there was water all over the floor and smoke was coming out of the dishwasher. So, I opened the dishwasher and notice that the element was red, which I figured was normal, and I looked around the dishwasher as best I could but my glasses were slightly fogged up and the foul and mysterious odor was getting worse. So, as you all have probably guessed, my Worst-Case Scenario cape appeared and I started thinking, "Oh my GOD! Whatever this smell is is toxic and I'm going to die!" So, I start running around the apartment (Well, more like a quick limp...running on a twisted ankle is not possible.) As I'm opening the blinds on the sliding glass door, it occurs to me that I am only wearing a tank top and boy shorts. So, I have to gimp my way back up the stairs and find a pair of pajama pants. (Here's another one of my weird quirks, my pajamas have to match. Each pair of pants that I have has a coordinating shirt/tank top that goes with it. If the shirt is dirty then I can't wear the pants.) I was in such a hurry, I just threw on the first pair of jammy pants I could find, the whole time trying to hold my breath so I wouldn't breathe in any of the toxic fumes, this is not easy with me being a smoker and all. So, I have on a black and white striped tank top with a pair of white jammy pants with little rainbows all over them...I looked stunning. So, I called the apartment office twice and left messages on the emergency hotline. I was sitting outside on the steps waiting for the maintenance man to call me back. After about 30 minutes, I decide that I'm going to go over to my mother's house and stay there until morning, because I didn't want to die. I go in my house, close the sliding glass door, but leave the windows in my bedroom open to get the foul and mysterious odor out, I grabbed my purse, put on some flip flops (they didn't match either.) and drove over to Mom's house. The time at this point is about 1am and I don't have a key to Mom's house. I decided I would ring the doorbell for a while and if that didn't work, I would tap on her window. (Usually, Mom and Megan sleep like the dead.) I started ringing the doorbell, after about the 8th time Megan came to the door, asked who was there and let me in. Once in, I headed to Jereth's bedroom and went to sleep, around 1:30 am, the maintenance guy called me back and told me he was going to go check my dishwasher. The next morning, I had to explain the limp to the mother and the sister and they got a good laugh out of it. (We laugh at each other when we fall, don't judge us...it's our thing.) Then Megan told me that she had broke up with her boyfriend that night and when she heard the doorbell ringing she almost didn't get up for fear that it was him, drunk, with a "boom box" and a Peter Gabriel CD. So, I go back to my apartment and when I walk into the kitchen there is some weird, black, mangled thing on the cabinet...a measuring spoon fell in the bottom of the dishwasher. I felt like an idiot, my ankle was the size of a softball and there was probably some weird curse put on me because I woke some poor guy up. So, I spent the rest of the weekend laid up on the couch with my foot elevated and icing my ankle in 15 minute intervals. A friend of mine told me, "Well, Mandy, this was a fire drill, and you failed it miserably."

Until next time...

Mandy

THAT was Your Idea of a Compliment?

Have you ever been told something by a member of the opposite sex that was supposed to be a compliment, but in your mind you're like "HUH?" I get quite a few of them, some of my personal favorites are...

"You've got such a pretty face." and "Wow, you are THICK!"

But I have to say, the best one came a couple of years ago when I worked for another petroleum distributor. That company had a tire service that would come and fix or change the tires on all of the trucks. The gentleman that always came out was named Willie. Willie was short, thin, had a jerry curl, and had one tooth in his mouth...and it was gold.

Willie: Amanda, can you sign this ticket?
Me: Sure. How are you doing today, Willie?
Willie: I'm fine.
(I sign the ticket and hand it back to him.)
Willie: You know what?
Me: What?
Willie: Whenever I look at you, I think of a Clydesdale!
Me: That's an awfully big horse, Willie.
Willie: I know. You're a big, thick girl...And that's a good thing!
(All I could do at this point is look at him with my mouth hanging open.)
Me: Thanks Willie, I guess.
Willie: You're welcome.

Then with that, he got in his truck and left.

So, since I still work for the same guy, just at a different company, I still get to see Willie. And now instead of calling me Amanda, he simply calls me Clydesdale.

Until next time...

Mandy

The "F" Word

I was talking to a friend last night and we got on the subject of weird quirks. This friend hasn't known me for very long, so he was unaware of how strange I actually am.

I was telling him about my dislike of butt warmth and a few other things, then I told him my stance on bodily functions. For those who don't know, I HATE discussing them. I think bodily functions are, probably, one of the most disgusting topics anyone can discuss. I've mentioned before that Nanny drilled into my head, "Nice young ladies don't _______." When my family was staying over at Terra and Lyndon's, she and I were sitting on the patio smoking and, apparently, I forgot where I was and I burped. She looked at me, with eyes as big as saucers, and said, "That is the first time I have ever heard you burp." And she's known me since 1997. Anyway, here's how the conversation went...

Me: I hate to talk about bodily functions.
Him: Really?
Me: Yep, I pretend like they don't exist.
Him: That's weird.
Me: I told you, I'm a little on the odd side.
Him: I'm noticing that.
Me: I hate the "F" word.
Him: What?
Me: Looks around, cups my hand over my mouth and whispers...FART.
Him: (Laughing) Why?
Me: I don't know, I think it is one of the ugliest, tackiest words ever. That, and I would get in massive trouble if I said when I was growing up.
Him: (Laughing) So, you never use that word.
Me: Nope, but oddly enough, the word Fuck doesn't bother me one bit. I guess only parts of the Southern Belle training stuck.
Him: I think you got your "F" words mixed up.
Me: Probably.

I think I need electro-shock therapy.

Until next time...

Mandy