Feeling Like a Fool

Last week, Emily and I were enjoying American Idol. The last act was 62 year old "General" Larry Platt who performed the now viral hit, "Pants on the Ground." In case you haven't seen it, here it is for your viewing pleasure.




What a catchy tune!

Well...I have had that tune running through my head like an ear worm for the past 24 hours.

But first, a flashback moment from my very distant past.

When I was a young girl, I loved books. (Still do.) I remember my mother reading me many, many books. One of my favorite childhood books was Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag. Wilkipedia, that wonderful on-line encyclopedia shares that not only did it win the Newberry Award in 1929, but it is the oldest picture book still in print. It is about a lonely old woman and a lonely old man who decided they wanted a cat. The husband set off to find the perfect cat and found a hillside where there were "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions, and billions, and trillions of cats." This phrase is repeated several times throughout the book. Many times, after hearing this book read (or later reading it to my daughters) I would hear this phrase repeated in my brain--over and over, much like the ear worm that I have when I even see the phrase, "Pants on the Ground."

Well, now I want to share another memory from my distant past. (I promise, there really is a point to this very rambling post.)

When Ron and I were first married and living in Provo we had an experience that forever turned us off Log Cabin Syrup with it's pop-up lid. We had made a lovely batch of pancakes. They were fluffy and perfectly browned. We heated up the syrup (still in the container) in a pan full of hot water. Carefully we buttered our stack of pancakes and then drizzled pancake syrup over our pancakes.

In horror, we saw ants floating in our syrup and soaking into our lovely pancakes. Hundreds of ants, thousands of ants, millions and billions and trillions of ants. Of course, the pancakes were thrown away.

Now, for the latest experience that occurred yesterday morning.

After coming back from my delightful Friday morning walk with Julie, I poured myself a bowl of cereal. If you MUST know, it was Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds. I sat down to enjoy my cereal when I saw not one, but TWO ants in my bowl. Shuddering, I investigated further.

I could not see any signs of ants in the actual cereal, but the outside box of the cereal had a few ants on it. I investigated further.

Next to the Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal (with almonds) was a box of Lucky Charms that Emily enjoys partaking of occasionally. I saw more ants on that box of cereal. Opening the box, I removed the cellophane interior where the cereal was nestling. I looked inside the cellophane to see if there were any ants in THAT cereal. I didn't see any. I left all the cereal on the kitchen counter so that the cupboard could be cleaned out. A few minutes later, I noticed many, many ants swarming all over the Lucky Charms Cereal.

There were hundreds of ants, thousands of ants, millions and billions and trillions of ants. The rain that we have been receiving the past few days drove them into my house and straight to the warmth and security of the Lucky Charms cereal.

I don't know if I can ever buy Lucky Charms cereal again.

And that is why I have "Pants on the Ground" playing in my brain over and over the past 24 hours. But instead of the original lyrics I hear these words:

Ants in my food,
Ants in my food,
Feeling like a fool with these
Ants in my food.