Pull Your Red-Hatted Head Out of Your Eccentric Ass

My mother has this really annoying habit (well, she has many..I'll just speak of one of them today) of attaching herself to random words and devising ways to steer conversations toward the particular word. Each obsession may last a few days up to a few months. Some of her previous fixations have included ergonomic, multi-tasking, authentic...you get the idea. Everyday words that generally have no real intrigue or appeal, just minding their own business...my mother will jump on and ride them until they are dead. When it was ergonomic, she purchased all kinds of new ergonomic equipment. When it was multi-tasking, she would walk around with a headset attached to her phone and a pen behind her ear while doing the dishes or writing emails. So..anyway, for the past couple of weeks her word has been eccentric. She uses it mostly in thinly veiled references to herself, sometimes when referring to people that she considers to be interesting. I've been trying to ignore it as much as possible but last night she got tired of that. Excerpt from telephone conversation at 1 am this morning:

Mom: Have you ever heard of the red-hat society.
Me: Ummm, no.
Mom: Well..there's this lady and she wrote a poem about how when she got old she wanted to wear purple clothes and a red hat. It was a really beautiful poem and so many women were touched by it that they began establishing Red Hat Society Chapters around the country. If you are of a certain age, nearing your senior years, you get together with your friends and wear red hats and purple clothes and hang out. If you're not quite old enough yet, you have to wear a pink hat and lavender clothes. The best part is that you don't just wear any red hat. It has to be a big, gaudy red hat. Doesn't that sound cool?
Me: Do they go to the bar in the red hats and purple clothes?
Mom: I don't think so but I guess they could if they wanted to.
Me: It might be ok if they were going to get drunk. Other than that, I'm not sure I would use the word "cool" to describe it.
Mom: Oh Holly, that's just because you don't want your mother to be considered "old" because you might have to face the fact that you're getting up there yourself.
Me: You could be right, Mom. Maybe I'm totally distraught about being 31 years old, in the prime of my life, and can't admit that my mother is 16 years from being a senior citizen. (For all of you doing the math...she's 49.)
Mom: *laughs*Just face it, Holly. Your mother is ECCENTRIC. You're just going to have to deal with it. At least now you know what to get me for Christmas. But don't get me one with all of the netting or anything. I really want one with a big, wide, floppy brim. I really like those.

It was an "eso es" moment for me. (How do you like those Spanish skills?) I had to listen to all of this red hat bullshit so that she could get around to being eccentric. Ugh...this is an actual chapter from my life. Does anyone else find this disturbing?

I've never been one to work out but I have a new obsession: stripaerobics. I saw Teri Hatcher on Oprah a couple of weeks ago. Of course she looked amazing. She did a little demonstration of what she's learned in this stripper class that is also her only work out program at the moment. I told my husband. He said, "Well, why, who are you going to strip for?" Again...does anyone find my life disturbing?

Thank you for stopping by, Chase. I'm glad you found a way to overcome your computer illiteracy to accomodate me. One of the many reasons that I love you so.