Spook

So, I had planned on doing more "Chuck" blogging last week, but sometimes real life gets in the way. 2009 is turning out to be one of those reevaluate your life's direction years. Sometimes you make changes in your life, sometimes life drags you kicking and screaming into those changes. Me? I like to pay attention to the signs and play along so I can take charge. But right now what direction I should go in is murky at best.

Which brings me to the little things in life. When real life gets tough, the trivial stuff and fluff looks extra ridiculous by comparison. Then you think about all the time you waste on that stuff when you should be doing more important things. But, I learned something recently. After dealing with some tough stuff, I sure do appreciate the trivial.

Its just nice to not have a care in the world beyond whether you've seen one too many Lindsay Lohan or Hannah Montana references on the Internet that day. Or to just come home to a quiet, empty apartment, kick off your shoes and fire up the DVR. I suppose I'm finding out there's a time and place to do and think of more important things, and there's a time and place to do and think of nothing at all. The key is the balancing act between the two.

So since I'm appreciating little things right now, I had an amusing Easter. Occasionally my Mom likes to give me strange gifts. It's not often, and the gifts aren't bizarre, bizarre or anything. It's just, for example, when I turned 30, she gave me a stuffed animal. A lion. Because I loved stuffed animals when I was a kid. Yeah, Mom, but... I'm 30!

Truthfully, I think I was a victim of re-gifting with that one. It was intended for my niece, and my sis put a kibosh adding to her daughter's overpopulation of stuffed animals. So Easter rolls around this past Sunday and my parents are giving out candy and toys to the grandkids when Mom says to me "I've got a gift for you." And she hands me this guy:


Immediately I'm puzzled. Okay, looks like a McDonald's toy. What? Have they been raiding Happy Meals lately? I know I'm the youngest in the family, and maybe because I'm the only unmarried kid, they don't want me to feel left out during holidays. But I'm 41. And I get a Happy Meal toy.

Then it dawns on me. It's a Spook! Holy crap! My Mom just gave me the coolest gift ever! And when you pull its legs down its eyes even light up! Mom gave me a spook.

So my excitement over receiving Spook needs a little context. If you haven't figured out by now, my Mom is kind of a colorful, somewhat unusual person. I have lots of funny stories about her which I've blogged elsewhere. As you can imagine her doling out words of wisdom is going to have some fun bent to them.

One of her pearls she passed along to a couple of my nephews when they first started driving was "Don't let no spooks ride in yo' car!" She was referring to not hanging out with, oh, what you may call hoodrats, thugs or undesirable "friends" albeit with less political correctness (call it racism within your own race). It's been my favorite Mom quote ever since. Just because calling someone a "spook" is so old school South. Which, basically, she is. Of course, my nephews are just so proud that their Nana is ghetto.

When she gave me Spook, I was baffled and then I burst out laughing. OMG Everyone, Mom gave me a Spook! This is so going in my car! And that is where he'll stay.