Barbara's Crab Shack: The Weekly Hodgepodge

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Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

Where do you get your news these days? 

I haven't watched an actual newscast or read a newspaper in a while.  I'm all the happier for it.  I see enough headlines and such on the Web to stay informed on relevant happenings.

It's National Crab Day...do you like crab meat? What makes you crabby? 

I don't know that I've ever had real crab meat, so I don't know if I like it or not.  I've had imitation in various seafood salads and California rolls from the grocery store. 

What makes me crabby?  How much time do you have?

• Hormone changes.
• People who are condescending.
• Politics. 
• People who don't turn their cell phones off during church. 
• Store clerks who don't know where anything is.
  
• Over aggressive or under attentive drivers.
  
• Grocery stores that don't alphabetize the soup. 
• Hobos who steal the little grocery buggies. 
  

Does freedom mean more choices? Have you ever felt there were too many choices? Elaborate. 

It depends on what your asking about.  For some things, freedom means an elimination of choices that are not beneficial.  For other things, it does mean more choices.

Barbara Millicent Roberts was introduced to the world on March 9, 1959...that's Barbie to most of us. Did you have Barbies as a kid, or did you let your own children play with Barbies? What well known Barbara (living or not) would you most like to meet? 

My best friend bought me a black "kissing" Barbie doll for my 8th or 9th birthday.  I think I lost her during a move.  I must confess, I really didn't (and still don't) know how to play with Barbies.  I wanted to play outside instead of being cooped up inside pretending to have this unrealistic life with plastic dolls.  Nothing against Barbie, but she just wasn't my favorite kind of toy.

Well known Barbaras I'd like to meet:

Barbara Bush - (No, this isn't political)  I didn't fully understand her literacy initiative during her time as First Lady (I was in elementary and high school at the time).  Now that I'm a teacher again and see the affects of adequate (and inadequate) exposure to literature and reading, knowing more deeply what her initiative entailed would have been helpful.

Barbara Walters -  (No, this isn't political either) My undergraduate degree is in Mass Communication (back when journalism was still journalism).  Barbara Walters was a journalist during the time that women were not welcome in the profession.  I think I would enjoy some of her stories on how she worked in that environment.  I think her story would be fascinating.

What are three things you value most in another person? 

Honesty, openness, and a sense of humor.

Insert your own random thought here. 

I want to go back to a question Miss Joyce asked last week since I didn't participate in last week's hodgepodge: In what way(s) do you 'march to the beat of your own drum'?  

I've been thinking about this lately.  I couple of the personal development books I've been reading lately have brought this question to the surface.

Before I dive into this, I have a question; what is the difference between marching to the beat of your own drum and making the best of unintentionally standing out?  I marched to the beat of my own drum in high school because my standing out made me unwelcome with most of my peers.  I got used to that.  

Church youth group was a different story.

Picture it, a youth group full of middle-class white kids who attended the local Christian academy (housed in the church we were attending) and me, a poor black kid from the hood who only knew enough about Jesus to say yes to Him.  I had to march to my own drum because I knew absolutely nothing; these kids heard this stuff all through the week at school and at church on Wednesday and Sunday.  The problem is that our Youth Pastors didn't know how to handle a kid who wasn't playing the church game.  The others knew how to be good little church children.  Not me, I would call them on their B.S. (the group and the leaders).  I wasn't there to play, I was there to learn and grow.

Has anything changed?  Not really.  Though I'm now in a much better place, I still don't have time or patience for church games.  No judgement or thinking I'm better than anyone else. In fact, I feel like I had and have to work harder just to keep up with everyone else.

In case you missed it:  

*My last Hodgepodge post, "Being a Squirrely Nutcase" is here.
*My latest Five Minute Friday post "Behold," is here.
*My latest 2022 Book It Reading Challenge review of Belong by Radha Agrawal is here.
*My latest Simple Woman's Daybook "A Buggy Full of Lemons," is here.
*My latest Auntie's Workshop post "Finishing and Fixing III," is here.