Archive for the Just Another Mary Monday Category

I’m not one to be ashamed of convenience, especially on a Monday. Lord knows, I take advantage of any modern marvel that makes my life a little easier. Forgot to pack my son Timbo’s lunch? Those prepackaged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a lifesaver. The boys want a cooked breakfast every day? We stock up on frozen boxes of pancakes or waffles – I say let them pop breakfast in the toaster if they want something hot to eat on a busy morning! But recently I came across the kind of convenience I

Good morning, class! Last week, we reviewed ‘selfies’ and ‘photobombing’ as our new vocabulary words, but in today’s world, new terms in technology and social media pop up every day. Did you know, for example, that LOL (Laugh Out Loud) is now considered passe and the hipper way to laugh online is Ha or Haha or even Hahaha? Looks like it’s time for another lesson…. This week, we try and stay ahead of the curve by catching up to a trend that’s still in its early stages – have you heard of face swapping?

First, there was the selfie. Although the concept has been around for ages, the term ‘selfie’ didn’t really hit the scene until 2005. By 2012, it was a part of the general lexicon. Time magazine named selfie one of the “top 10 buzzwords” of that year. Then in 2013, the Oxford Dictionary added selfie to its online dictionary. By 2014, the term ‘photobomb’ arrived on the scene, in large part, thanks to an adorable stingray. For those not in the know, it’s a simple enough concept – what’s supposed to be a normal, nice

Every March, I get in the spirit for that four-leaf green shape. No, not the St. Patty’s Day shamrock, the other one – the clover symbol for the Girl Scouts of the USA. It’s cookie season, folks, right smack in between “New Year’s Resolutions” and “beach weather.” Has there ever been a stronger test of will and resolve? Thin Mints (or as I call them, ‘Fatty Mints’) are my personal kryptonite. I keep them in the freezer and try in earnest to reserve them for sweet-craving emergencies. The Girl Scouts really have a good

If you’re paid by the hour, get ready to gloat. If you’re a salaried employee like me, you should probably be weeping instead of leaping for joy. Nobody likes starting their Monday out with bad news, but I have to break it to you: Since February 29th – better known as Leap Day – only occurs once every four years, it’s usually not factored into yearly salary calculations. So, salaried employees, if you’re sitting at your desk today, you may be working for free! Unless you’re in Anthony, Texas today, in which case, you’re

Is your Monday morning already going a mile a minute? How about two hundred miles a minute? Grab your coffee and hold on for a quick spin ’round the Mary Monday track: In the spirit of our collective need for speed, today we’re celebrating the anniversary of the first ever Daytona 500 race, held on this date in 1959. The track, famously located in Daytona, Florida, is a two and a half mile oval, requiring 200 laps for a 500-mile race. While NASCAR sometimes gets a bad rap as a sport for rednecks (see

No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, or who the president is, we the people spend a lot of time complaining about American politics. When it comes to our favorite presidents, we tend to reach back to the sort you’d see on Mount Rushmore, or at least, in the Hall of Presidents at Disneyworld. I’m an Honest Abe gal, myself. Did they truly make ’em better back then? Or is that just the fuzzy goggles of nostalgia? Rose-white-and-blue colored glasses, if you will, making America’s past politicians seem better than our

What a game, right? Or at least, I hope it was. Don’t worry- if you’ve somehow recorded the game, stayed far away from Facebook, and moved under a rock to avoid hearing who won, I won’t be spoiling it for you. I couldn’t if I wanted to! As you’re reading this on Monday morning, I’m quite certainly in bed, antacids at hand, recovering from a night of hot wings and loud cheering. Regular readers will know by now that I like to take time off for special holidays. And this Super Bowl certainly qualified.

The word ‘Surprise!’ always does funny things to my guts. Sometimes ‘Surprise!’ can be a wonderful thing, like when I recently drove from Alabama to North Carolina to see my mom for her birthday. And sometimes, surprise can be a terrible thing, like when I was waiting for her at the restaurant and discovered my debit card had been charged $174.03 without my knowing! I immediately went into logistics mode, making calls to determine where and when these charges were made. The charges had been made that very same day! When I should have