Friday, July 25, 2008

Excusive Behavior

Today I'd like to discuss a term I have coined, called "excusive behavior". No, that's not a typo, it reads "excusive" not "exclusive".

What's excusive behavior you ask? Well, here's my definition:

"Excusive behavior is that behavior which, in normal circumstances would be considered odd or out-of-the norm, but is excused or dismissed based solely on the personality of the person engaging in such behavior."

Before I lose you and you hit the back button let me give you an example.

My friend was driving along a local country road when she saw something out of the ordinary. There was a small black car parked in a farmer's "pull in" at the edge of a cornfield. A "pull-in" is a short gravel covered spot where the farmer parks his truck while accessing his field. He also uses it as an entrance to pull his tractor onto the field. It's not normally a parking spot for a sporty black car.

In the next moment she saw a woman crawling around on the ground at the edge of the field, commando fashion. Her first thought was, "How odd is that?? What is that crazy woman doing?" In the next moment she saw a camera and put two-and -two together and realized that it was ME crawing around the field taking photos.

Photobucket

Her response? "Oh, it's just Suzanne. No big deal."

Do you see? What is it that would cause a person to excuse my behavior based solely on my personality? If this was a isolated case it would be different but this happens all the time.

My son was dating a girl for a couple months before he brought her around to our house. I can certainly understand. Sometimes you want a relationship to get on firm ground before you subject the person to the full monty of what goes around here. Remember, we're multi-generational, multi-cultural and simply multi-dysfunctional.

I wasn't home to greet them when they arrived and the Farmer's Son brought her into our home office to look something up on the computer. It took a minute for him to notice that she was staring wide-eyed at my inspiration/blog organization wall. Many of us employ that method, such as my friend over at Liberty Post. Take a look at her organizational wall. (Scroll down to the third picture) Cool huh?

Now look at my wall. This is what the new girlfriend was staring at:

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My son could tell instantly that she was thinking of the movie, "A Beautiful Mind", where Russell Crowe's mentally ill character has plastered papers all over the walls of his room.

"Oh no," he said, "it's OK, it's just my mom."

Yeah right, it's just your mom's somewhat bizarre way of jotting down story ideas so that when they fly out of her brain two minutes later she can remind herself later. The problem is that half the time even I can't figure out what they mean. Here's a few examples. Some are very strange. You should feel free to steal them for yourself.

- 87-yr, old Greek chicken (For real! I think I might have already written about this, but I can't remember.)

- Inspiration grows like mold (Seriously, what??)

- Doghouse flowers.

- The Green Twinkie

Oh, here's a really good one.......

- Simone de Beauvoir can kiss my _______


While I'm name dropping how about......

- Maya Angelou and the Chicken Breast

or

- Margaret Mead and Me (or is it Margaret Mead and I.....Margaret Mead and myself? Sheesh, where's a Grammar Nazi when you need one?)

I challenge you to take any one of the story ideas and write a blog post around it. I dare you.

Don't worry because it won't deter me from writing a story around it also. That is, only IF I can remember what the story was supposed to be about!

Let me know if you do. I'll do a round-up and link to the posts so that we can ALL have a good laugh. It's on me.

15 comments:

ZONE F DG TEAM said...

I've got the green twinkie thing covered.

Visit my blog at htt://noreasonneeded.blogspot.com

J'Ollie Primitives said...

"inspiration grows like mold" Gotcha.
No problem.

visit me at:

http://www.jollieprimitives.blogspot.com/

carolyn@simple~primitive~devotion said...

hehehehe! Girl, you are too funny!

Rue said...

Good morning Suzanne :)

You are so funny!

I had an inspiration book, but know I can't think of anything to go in it. I'm having blog block, brought on by house issues. In other words that's ALL I can think about, but I have nothing to say about it. I would talk about my feelings, but last time I did that I had people telling me I needed medication LOL

Hugs,
rue

Anonymous said...

When I was young, a long time ago, I took a bite out of a twinkie and it had green mold growing around the cream center. I was so nasty I haven't had another one since. I do however once in awhile enjoy the Dolly Madison ones. I haven't had a problem with them. YET.

Mamahut said...

It is no wonder you have so many faithful readers. You work hard at your blog. Unlike myself.

I did almost get run over taking the picture of the truck in the river, but I am not as dedicated as you are.

Well all I can say is, You are Awsome and have a great weekend!

Julie H said...

I was jotting things on a bookmark at mcd's yesterday and was thinking I should carry a note book lol.

StitchinByTheLake said...

I'm so happy to see your wall! I'm having the hardest remembering things I want to post about - now I know what to do! If I can just remember it long enough to actually do it. Blessings, marlene

Trish said...

wow...never thot of putting it all down on the wall..... you are hilarious girl! Okay...I'll have to think on those ideas....Hmmm wish I was that original!

LIBERTY POST EDITOR said...

You just quack me up. Take a look over at my place.

Vee said...

It should be Margaret Mead and I if they are the subjects or Margaret Mead and Me if they are the objects. Gheesh, Suzanne, why aren't you writing a humor column somewhere and getting paid big bucks for it? This was so funny!

Unknown said...

You have my dog, Meesha, all worried. She's pawing at my leg 'cause I'm laughing so hard.

I don't have a post wall, but I think need one, as there are bits of paper scattered all over the desk with random stuff written on them...

I'll have a think on your post ideas.

Paula B. said...

sorry, sorry, I'm back now. Wedding is over and thank goodness! We were all exhausted. I laughed when I overheard one of the bridesmaids remarking "Whenever I've gone to a wedding, I've always wondered why the bride's family doesn't really look like they are enjoying the moment. I understand why now...they are all ready to drop with exhaustion!"

My mom is here for another few days and we are going to make an apron, but I'll be back into routine on Friday.

see you then!

Paula B. said...

It's a good thing Vee is around to keep you in line, grammar-wise!

Danette said...

I am laughing out loud.