Of Smoking Clowns and Green Beverages

I was driving on Route 20 Saturday afternoon behind a black pickup truck. All over the truck were advertisements for a special events company: "Clowns! Animals! Table Magic! Balloon Tricks!" As I drove behind him, I wondered if maybe there would indeed be a clown driving. So, I passed him to see.

Sure enough, there was a clown driving--with full make-up, the big red nose and a ball cap on instead of his wig. I chuckled.

And then the best part--I noticed he was smoking. There's just something funny about a clown who smokes. It was like seeing a real-life Krusty the Clown going to work.

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I finally had that Shamrock Shake on Saturday. Oh, sweet joy. One of my youth group kids competes with a friend every year to see who can drink more. Last year, I kept pace with him. This year, I didn't even try because I want to keep my girlish figure. Turns out he had 13 in 10 days before giving up because the other kid was so far ahead.

While the Shamrock was wonderful, I noted as I drank it that it really just made me crave an Arctic Orange Shake.
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I'm not a big beer drinker. But My Intended and I went to see my high school friend Eric play at a bar on Saturday and got a pitcher of Miller Lite. It was colored bright green. The funny thing? I swear it tasted better green.

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Speaking of all these things I drank this weekend, I also bought a new combined fruit juice at Aldi to make up for the lack of The Best Juice in the World. This one was White Grape and Peach. As I drank it for the first time Saturday, I literally did a double-take because I thought I was drinking wine. It tastes just like a sweet, white wine.

It's good. But with cereal in the morning, it's a little weird.

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At youth group, we played Broomball for the first time in over a year.

The game (think floor hockey with a kickball and brooms) used to be a staple of our group. We played all the time. The kids even had their own custom brooms. But when the church renovated, we lost our good Broomball room. We gained a big new basement that the pastor told us we good play in, but there have been problems with it. First of all, it is way to0 big. So when you mark out boundaries, you end up chasing the ball way too much when it goes out of bounds. Secondly, the one time we tried to play down there, we kicked up so much dust that one kid left with an asthma attack. Thirdly, once the room got cleaned up, it kept being used for weddings and resales. So we had nowhere to go.

Last night, a few of us discovered that the new basement is now largely empty and unused again. There were also about 20 lightweight folding tables just sitting there from the resale. So, we used them to build a nice Broomball rink. The tables were used as the sides of the playing field all the way around. It was awesome.

We really had fun and bonded over our blood, sweat and tears. It was pretty hardcore and aggressive. Many of us left with several bruises. By the end, I was so exhausted, I could barely swing my broom.

Dream Log:
(March 18, 2007)
I was in a Jeep with Designer Doug. He was in the passenger seat. I was in the backseat. I think we were waiting for the driver because we were sitting in the parking lot of a bank. As we sit, we see another Jeep pull in. There's is red. 5 big, burly guys get out. They talk and then four go into the bank.

The fifth, a weaselly, Gary Sinese-looking guy, gets back into the Jeep, pulls out of his parking space near ours and moves to the far side of the parking lot from the bank doors. He gets out again, opens the back hatch and starts to arrange a bunch of blankets and plastic tubs. I watch him and see he has a gun tucked into his pants and a large knife hanging from his leg. I tell Doug that I think something's up.

We look into the glass doors of the bank and can't really tell if anything's going on. It seems calm. There's still a security cop standing his post.

Then the dream turns into a movie or show I am watching. Specifically, it's LOST. Inside the bank, the four burly guys go upstairs to a big exquisite lobby. As they walk in, Sawyer jumps them. They easily over power him. They beat him to the ground and tell him to stay. The guys search the lobby and finally find Kate in a corner. She says that she won't tell them where Jack is and that their plan to rob the bank won't work.

A lot of other stuff happens, but the rest is a blur.