Squeeeeel for the Squirrel! Guest blogger, Laura Stone!

Today's guest blogger is actress, writer, and all around awesome gal: Laura Stone! You may find her online at Hey Don't Judge Me!

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Big thanks to the Fictionista Ladies for the opportunity to guest blog!

This week a video of a little four year old girl has gone viral, maybe you've seen it? She's cute as a bug, hanging out in her britches on a warm day, playing in the front yard and being absolutely adorable. Oh, and she's holding a dead squirrel, or as she pronounces it, "A dead squee-al!" Their dog, a greyhound, caught the squirrel moments before and shook it to death, as dogs do. She immediately picked it up (it's not bloody or anything like that) and cradles it, crooning "Oh, pretty baby, pretty baby squee-al," while her dad happens to be catching this on film.

I made the huge mistake of reading the YouTube comments (protip: that way lies madness, avoid at all costs) and a small, but vocal, percentage are screaming for the parents' heads on platters. How dare they let their precious angel touch a rabid dead animal that is teeming with bacteria! Really, people? Have you ever sat on a park bench? Because I hate to break it to you, but when you're not occupying that bench, other things are. Like maybe wild animals. And your hands touch that bench at some point. And here you are, alive and among us, not rabid and deformed (I assume.) When did we get so weirded out by natural things as a culture?

I can remember when two of my kids were under the age of five and their father and I slept in on a Saturday, as you do. We were woken up by a phone call from our neighbor, laughing, who told us to go look outside our front window. On our front lawn were my daughter and son, still in their jammies, barefoot, and hurling dead rats at one another, like a morbid game of bean bag toss. We had a mouser of a cat at the time, and he happily cleaned our trees and surrounding areas of squirrels, mice, and rats, and sometimes, because he loved us, would lay them at our front door as a gift. Cats are so thoughtful.

The kids got tired of waiting for Mom and Dad to get breakfast going, so they entertained themselves. In a world of games that play for kids (can you even get Hot Wheels tracks that don't have a motor?) the important thing you just read was that my kids entertained themselves. And they were outdoors in the fresh air! ...flinging dead things. Ah, the carefree days of childhood! Please understand that we bathed the kids once they came inside. I didn't panic, I didn't smack the rats out of their hands and look horrified, that would have been a huge mistake. I told them that the rats were dead, we don't play with dead things, we bury them and let them "feed the garden."

In the YouTube video, the little girl understands that the squee-al isn't alive anymore, that her dog killed it, and that she understood she couldn't touch it later but for now it was a sweet, sweet baby. Her mother did look daggers at her husband, but they didn't needlessly panic and inoculate her from any and all diseases, they let it run its course, told her to tell it goodbye, and then it was bath time. Jeez, folks, let kids get messy. Let them poke stuff with sticks, let them eat pickles wrapped up in paper towels in nothing but their bathing suits, and don't sanitize their hands with alcohol, soap and water is a-ok. Kids should get dirty. They should scrape their knees, touch something dead and make the connection between alive and not, and you should write down every single hilariously disgusting thing they've done in a secret notebook somewhere.

After all, how else will you keep them from doing disgusting things when they're dating?

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Laura Stone hopes to one day throw the greatest party ever: cocktails with John Waters while hitting on Johnny Depp with her charming Paul Lynde impression as Corey Feldman, snacking on canapés, admits he’s been aping Michael Jackson all along. [@StoneyboBoney]

Dying of Dystentery: the movie!

One of my FAVORITE computer games as a kid was Oregon Trail. There were so many fun ways you kicked the bucket. Check this awesomeness out:

I can't stop giggling. hahaha

Have you seen any funny youtube videos lately? What ones are your favs? Let's share some links--I need new funny stuff to laugh at!

Rockin out, yo

So today is kind of a fun Wednesday for me. My work friends and I are exchanging music videos and jammin to some great music--Justin Timberlake, Nelly, Ludacris, Fergie, etc. I'm shaking what my momma gave me in my cube LOL. Here's one I'm listening to right now:

What are you listening to right now? Let's get a good list of music going here!

So here's the thing...

I felt like today was a good day for a feel good video. And if a baby lamb running through the house playing hide and seek doesn't make you feel good, you're whackadoo.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Recently The Simpsons celebrated a landmark episode, and I think The Simpsons are swell. I like cheapo animation with cheesy production values but very smart writing. I like South Park. But before any of these was a little slice of genius called REN AND STIMPY.

REN AND STIMPY was an angry, goofy, incredibly smart, but also incredibly subtle cartoon. I remember when it first broke a lot of adults were mystified that this wasn't for kids. It was for teens and adults. It often even outstripped the dimmer adults with its cultural references. I was a massive, frothing, fanatic REN AND STIMPY enthusiast.

I still miss it.

And so, my friends, I give you on this lovely Saturday at the dawn of a new decade, a little dance down memory lane. Enjoy:

Texting While Driving PSA--watch this video!

Have you seen this public service announcement video about texting while driving? Take a few minutes and watch it:

I just saw it, and I'm still feeling a little shaky from it. It's WAY intense and made my gut twist. It's not "real," fortunately, but it definitely makes its point.

The state I live in, Ohio, has made texting while driving illegal (and in one city, you're not even allowed to be talking on your cell while driving).

Texting is a dangerous distraction, one that this video totally reinforced for me. I hope this video gets around and more people watch it.

So, after seeing it, how did it make you feel? Would you show this video to your kids? Do you think this should be shown in high schools, like how they do the drunk driving video presentations? I plan on showing this video to my kids, especially my 13-year-old daughter. God forbid something like this happens to her.

copping out

Sorry. I'm so busy today finishing edits and preparing for my conference, I'm totally copping out of a real post. BUT if you love Monty Python and Star Trek (or if you just love Monty Python) this will crack you up!



ps: I posted a different one on my personal blog today that's just as funny. Go forth and laugh! I promise to be back next week with real content.

Shall We Dance?

I've always envied people who can dance. I'm not a complete klutz. When I was younger we used to do line-dancing (not the country western kind... it didn't exist around here then) on the beach. Sunset would come, we'd play oldies, and do stuff like the hully gully (ask your grandparents) or the stroll in tide-pools. Barefoot, ankle deep in water, we had a blast with a boombox blaring out old stuff from the fifties. Later it was The Electric Slide and The Montego. Yep. I'm old.

But when I said dance... I don't mean the generic shaking of booty that pretty much everybody can do, if not particularly well. I mean D A N C E.

I can dance-- held in the arms of a man, swirling to music on a hardwood floor-- with a total of two people on earth. Ahmed is one, and the second is one of our oldest friends. He's an amazing dancer and I've known him so long he's like my brother. So I trust him. And dancing, for real, is all about trust.

I don't like being pushed around, and that includes on the dance floor. Ahmed can take me in his arms, hold my gaze, and steer me. I trust him. I know he won't drop me, stomp on me, or steer me wrong.

I guess that's why I love to read a historical romance with two lovers dancing in one another's arms. Or why I love ballroom dancing on PBS. It's about two people trusting one another without any hesitation. Hesitation kills the dance.

I admire anyone who does it beautifully. Like these two. ENJOY:




ADDED: Need a reason to dance? Our own Gwen Hayes won first place in Paranormal Category of the Marlene Contest!!

Holiday Reunions and a Great Video Clip

Have you seen these guys? They are Straight No Chaser, an acapela group reunited after college when one of the guys posted a clip on YouTube. Hoping to connect with his old singing buddies, he got them discovered by Atlantic Records. And the rest, as they say, is holiday history...

What I love about the story is not the record deal or even the great music, though they certainly are terrific. What I like is how they got together after time, and life, and miles had drawn them apart. My own friends often wander home for the holidays. I see old students, kids I knew through my family home from college. I run into high school pals visiting parents, siblings, whomever... finding themselves back in Green Harbor for a little while.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday and will continue to do so as we head for a brand-spanking new year. And I hope you find a few old friends in the hustle and rush.