Yep, I'm the youngest
This was the only time in my childhood when my sisters were nice to me. My sister Norah (on the left) had gotten roller skates for Christmas and, for some reason, she let me try them. She and my sister Janelle (on the right) called to our mother, "Look Momma! We're helping our baby sister." Momma took the picture and as soon as she turned around they threw me on the floor and made me eat toothpaste.
When I tell people I'm the youngest of three girls, they say, "Of course you are." According to Linda DiProperzio in Parents Magazine, "Lastborns generally aren't the strongest or the smartest in the room, so they develop their own ways of winning attention...." Thanks, Linda. That explains a lot. My two older sisters are really smart and made really good grades in school. I was the "creative one" and was a poster child for Attention Deficit Disorder. Only nobody had heard of ADD where I was growing up in the '60s, so I just ran around the dinner table or crawled under it, or hung by both hands from the refrigerator door handle without the benefit of ritalin. I never sat down for an entire meal until I was in my late 20s and had children of my own. A family friend described me as one who "wears her clothes out from the inside."
But being the youngest of three girls made me who I am today -- a mildly successful, moderately well-adjusted empty-nester who will do just about anything to get a laugh. And I'm grateful for that. I live to be the reason for the laughter. I have had a folder on my computer for years, entitled "creative nonsense" and it's where I file all the crazy shit I make for people. I make crazy shit for people to make them laugh. And if it doesn't make them laugh, at least it makes them feel good - like somebody loves them enough to go to the trouble to make something special, just for them. I make birthday cards, gift chits, cartoons, fake composite photographs and song parodies -- LOTS of song parodies. The ability to write song parodies is a really bizarre talent that, it turns out, is not a "resumeable" skill (that's reh-zoo-MAY-able) unless you are applying for an apprenticeship with Weird Al Yankovic.
So while my sisters will always get the best grades on tests and can recite poetry and talk about English literature and discuss how Manchester by the Sea is obviously a modern retelling of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, I will sleep well tonight knowing that I can do a reasonably good impression of Dan Aykroyd doing an impression of Julia Child, and make everyone laugh.
So welcome to my site, where I share the crazy shit I have made for people and generously offer you tips so that you can knock off my stuff the way I have knocked off other people's stuff. Because I am a giver.