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Today I am participating in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop by answering the prompt: 3.) Something that scared the Hell out of you as a child.

The Isley Brothers’s song “Footsteps In The Dark” scared the Hell out of me as a child. I love the song now–and Ice Cube’s sample of it in “Today Was A Good Day”–but when I was little the haunting melody and the words “dark” and “footsteps” sent chills up my spine.

When I was little, I used to visit my aunt. She had a teenage son and my other cousin used to hang around the house as well. The boys had turned the family room into their music listening room–complete with big speakers, a black light and a big red furry lounge chair. I would lounge on the chair while my cousins listened to The Isley Brothers. They didn’t know I was scared or they would have run me out the room. I wanted to hang out with the big kids, so I pretended to be cool, but as I lay on that big furry chair in a dark wood-paneled room, I was silently freaking out. Theirs was an old house with long corridors, dark corners and creaky old house sounds. After listening to The Isley Brothers I would lie awake at night, sure that monster footsteps in the dark were coming to get me.

Of course now I can appreciate this song, but just listen to it from the ears of a little girl; SCARY!

Visit Mama Kat’s Losin It to write a prompt of your own.

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Real Simple is one of my favorite magazines and not just because I am Ma-Gyver. The essays are very good; they are funny, poignant or just dead-on. I could really relate to the Life Lessons essay in the October 2011 issue. In Get Me Outta Here, Judith Newman writes in (hilarious) detail about why it is painful for her to be a guest in someone’s home. Judith, like me, it just a wee bit too particular and quirky to live in someone else’s world, if but for a weekend. Here are just a couple of Judith’s The Many Ways Things Can Go Wrong When You Stay With People:

People hide the items you need most. Where’s the coffee? No, not that decaffeinated imposter; the real coffee. No wonder everyone in this house is still asleep at 6:30 a.m. Fine, I will just go out and buy coffee at the corner store. Oh wait, there’s no store at the corner—that’s a pond.

It’s 6:30 a.m. and all I want to do at this point is run home.

I will be repeating the same interior monologue at midnight, only this time it will be about gin cocktails. I mean, what kind of people don’t keep their limes in plain sight?

People in other houses eat things that are not, in fact, edible. I think the idea is that when you’re having guests, the experience must involve “special food,” and “special food” nine times out of 10 is completely horrifying. Seriously, if octopus really tasted that good, wouldn’t there be Octo Shacks dotting America?

Of course, I also despise people who make a big to-do about their precious little eating habits. So I say nothing. Instead, now and then, I bring little treats with me that I like and, naturally, intend to share. Occasionally this goes over well. “How thoughtful!” the host exclaims. More often, though, she shoots me an icy stare: Oh, my cooking isn’t good enough for you?

I agree with Judith; I like my stuff and where I put it. It makes perfectly good sense to me. Your stuff and it’s placement does not. Lest you think I am only quirky one in my family (that is usually the case, but not this time) my husband has a rule: he doesn’t drink milk in anyone else’s kitchen. He says that other people’s milk taste funny. Sounds about right to me, although I’m sure this makes us terrible houseguests. Refusing to drink your milk even though you say “it’s perfectly good milk” would likely offend you.

And that is why we stay in hotels.

It is also why we still have friends.

What about you; are you a good houseguest?

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Poking around in an old school candy and toy shop in Idyllwild, California, I found some new additions for my bookshelf toy collection: Speed Racer and Racer X, racing nemesis (and brothers! gasp!), together at last.

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This video is a re-post, but it’s perfect for Mama Kat’s prompt this week: 5.) Share a memorable road trip story! because it captures the essence of the Road Trip so well–the pain, the pleasure–but mostly the pain. Have a good laugh and be thankful that this wasn’t you.

Visit Mama Kat’s Losin It to write a prompt of your own.

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Wow, I have been MIA lately, huh? I’ve had so many personal things going on that needed my attention, I had to take a break. But I missed y’all so much and I’m back! Mama Kat’s weekly writing prompt was right on time to help me get back into the swing of blogging, but this time I took her vlogging challenge instead and made a video about an evening we spent at Jane Fonda’s ranch: 6.) Describe a time when your child said or did something that made you laugh out loud.

Visit Mama Kat’s Losin It to write a prompt of your own.

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