It's Like High School

Some people are born bloggers, some blog to "get it out," I feel more like, um, "everyone else has one, where is yours?"

How do I know that this is peer pressure? Because I've been staying up nights trying to think of a clever name. Something to really *snap* make people stand up and say, "Hey! What an Awesome Blog!" I've never heard anyone say that, about anyone's blog, but, I imagine that there are cool ones out there that everyone wants to read. I wanna cool blog. It's like picking out a prom dress. You want it to look totally awesome, but also stand out amongst all the other fluff.

I've named ours after a memory, and a motto. "Catch the window", grab what you can, look around you before you are suddenly faced with a cardboard licorice ad. Life moves pretty fast, and you never know when that moment to act will arrive. For you see, on a Thanksgiving trip from Iowa City to Cleveland, all my siblings and I were told to do just that, "Catch the Window!"

On that fateful trip, one of our van windows, wired shut with a coat hanger, and constantly getting bashed each time the sliding door opened, started to waver. Then to tilt. It caught my dad's eye; and because he was driving 75 MPH in freezing slush in the dark night, he did what any normal person would do - he started screaming, "Catch the Window!! Catch the Window!!" We were all asleep in the fold down seats, and as my dad was making a racket, my mother said, "I was having this dream, and someone was yelling - 'Catch the Window! Catch the Window!'" But it was too late. The window dangled for a brief second before coming completely unhinged and whooshing into the night slush, somewhere in the winter night off I-80.

Trying to soften my dad a bit, Mom rubbed her eyes groggily and said, "Should we go back and get it?" My dad, now in a full on rage, sliding on black ice said, "OH RIGHT! And where we gonna LOOK Midge?!"

Now fair reader, the tension was so high, so unbearable, that the first person who giggled set everyone else off. What a ridiculous situation! A family of 8 all driving in the "Nerd Van" without a window! How sad and pathetic are WE! We started mouthing to each other, "Catch - the - window - ! AHHHHHHhhhh! - Ahhhhhhhhhh!" and making all sorts of faces and mimicking the window as it hinged and then *WHOOSH!* went out into the icy night.

We had the giggles far past the rest stop where dad did a duct-tape/licorice cardboard patch job. What a way to show up to the relatives. We looked like nothing short of Hillbillies with our cardboard window covering, and dad's pistol-wielding Yosemite-Sam mud flaps that said "Back Off!"

We still laugh about it now. Except my dad. But ya know, that is life. Tense, with really funny, ridiculous, stuff in the middle. So, there isn't a "Craneium", or a "Crazy Cranes", or anything "Cranetastic", but I'll let you know when it's time to "catch the window" in our lives. :D