Category: Amusing

Burning Love & Memoirs

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Does anyone remember a show called Burning Love that aired back in 2012-2013 on E! (Entertainment)? It was a parody of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. I found out my library had it on DVD so I’ve been re-watching it before bed and it’s hilarious.

The first season focuses on firefighter Mark, played by Ken Marino. Instead of giving roses to the ladies, he gives them his hose.

The second season focuses on Julie, played by June Diane Raphael. She gives contestants her box.

One of them is Robby Z, played by Paul Scheer. June and Paul are married in real life and I was curious if they met on the set and learned they were married well before then.

That led me down a little rabbit hole where I found out Paul had written a memoir in 2024 which received a lot of praise so I borrowed it from the library.

I’ve never been particularly fond of the actor because every character I’ve seen him play is super annoying, which isn’t fair to him, I know. He is particularly gross and annoying in The League. But I digress…

I was not prepared for how well this man writes. He can tell quite a compelling story, even when the content is disturbing. The amount of abuse he suffered as a child is awful and makes me so angry at all the adults in his life, particularly his parents, that let it go on as long as they did.

I’m in no way trying to say I had anything close to the childhood he did, but I saw myself in some of his tendencies, such as feeling content spending time alone (which I did a lot as a child), pretending to be a character in a movie (another thing I did often), collecting souvenirs from experiences, and journaling. My guess is it’s a self-soothing coping mechanism to deal with trauma. I believe we all have some in various degrees.

In any case, I highly recommend his book, and the show that led me to reading it, if you can find it at your library. It’s all but disappeared online other than short clips on YouTube.

Jumping Spider & Moth Buddy

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One thing I’ve been seeing on Tiktok lately is people keeping jumping spiders. They are super cute! We get the really tiny ones in the house frequently, which we’d get in my childhood home too. I nicknamed them zebra spiders growing up, although based on some research they might have actually been called that. Anyway… I’ve never actually seen the larger jumping spiders before. That is, until recently.

Back on June 4th Joe spotted one on his car in the garage. He was shy, so I couldn’t get a photo of him, but he basically looked like this:

How cute is that?!? I wish we’d see them more often!

On July 5th I was out on the patio watering flowers and a moth decided to land on me and hang out. I brushed it off before going inside, or so I thought. I was at the kitchen sink when I felt an itch on my head, and when I brushed at it, I saw the moth fly away. It disappeared so quickly, I had no idea where it went and quickly forgot about it.

The following morning I was grabbing towels from the guest bathroom and the moth was there. I was able to capture it in my hand and let it loose outside.

On the 9th an identical looking moth decided to hang out on the patio door screen for half the day.

Could it be the same one, and if so, why was it so obsessed with me? I love nature.

Joe Made a Funny

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Joe says a lot of things that make me laugh, but I thought I’d share this incident with everyone.

We’re driving down a two-lane road (one lane in each direction) and he’s messing with some food we had picked up for breakfast when I glance over and notice that he has no hands on the steering wheel. Of course, this made me very nervous, so I mention it and add, “what if you hit a rock and lose control?” to which he replies, “this isn’t Mario Kart, Nicole”. LMAO!

Survey Says

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Last week I got a call from a woman who used to send me on market research focus groups back when I was in college. I’m not even sure how the company obtained my current contact info, but she was working in the suburban office and came across my name and asked whether I was interested in doing a music survey on October 17th in Schaumburg. When I heard it paid $70 for about 2 hours I was on board. Plus she said if I arrived at least 15 minutes early I’d be entered into an early bird drawing to win an additional $100.

As the day approached I started feeling apprehensive about going since it was after work and we wouldn’t be getting done until 8 pm, but I kept thinking how that $70 would cover Winston’s vet bill.

When I got to the hotel where the survey was being held I was surprised to see a lot of people there, all women. It turns out the survey was a big group, approximately 60 women in total. I was bummed because the odds of winning that extra $100 was now 1 in 60.

We used wireless keypads to record our answers to questions and rate music they played for us. Other than the ridiculously cold room we were in (luckily I anticipated this and was wearing layers), I enjoyed the survey and the time passed quickly.

Right at the end before they released us they held the early bird drawing and they called my name! I couldn’t believe it because I never win stuff. In the end I made $170 for two hours of my time. Too bad that doesn’t happen every day!

Silly Rabbit, Tricks Are For Kids

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Remember the gift basket my mom made me for Valentine’s Day? Included in that basket were a pair of gloves. I put them in my purse and a few days later went to put them on when I became baffled. You see, one side has rubber balls on it for gripping, and it turns out my mom had accidentally given me two right-handed gloves. I called her and we laughed about it. The gloves were sold separately, and she had bought two pair, so she had two left-handed gloves at home. She mailed them to me and I received them yesterday along with this note (click to see a bigger version).

Another amusing thing that happened recently was what Joe did at Petco yesterday. We were checking out the ferrets nearby a guy who was buying a rat to feed his snake. Except Joe didn’t put two and two together (he didn’t notice the guy was holding a big bag of snake bedding), and assumed he was buying the rat as a pet. Joe asked the guy if it was his first rat and then went on to explain how we have one at home. Obviously the guy wouldn’t care since he viewed the rat as food, but I’m not sure he was really understanding what Joe was getting at anyway judging by his response which was that his snake was getting so big he’d soon be feeding it chickens.

I’ve been totally giving Joe shit about his observation skills since, quoting him, “Is that your first rat?” while he rolls his eyes at me. Luckily he’s a good sport and was ok with me posting this entry because I found the whole thing highly amusing.

When we got home I promised Templeton I’d never feed him to a snake. I don’t know if I could ever own a snake (they are boring anyway) because of that. It doesn’t bother me feeding crickets to my toad because they are nasty insects, but a cute little furry rat? Don’t think so.