Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Thing 10

Take a random class just for fun.

It over a half-decade ago that I discovered random classes were available to the general public.  Funny, I know, but I guess I just never really paid attention.  College courses were for college students after all, right?  Nope. See, I found out that mini-courses were open to the public.  This changed my life.  And the first course I took was Hip Hop dance.

Now it’s 2012 and I needed the perfect class to take.  This 52 Things challenge has completely changed my awareness of life around me; it’s great!  Where before I would walk quickly through life, as if on a mission, I now stop and peruse community boards in public places.  I looked into cooking classes, and cake decorating classes, before finally setting my sites on a class that I’d never in my life have envisioned myself doing. 

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.

The class meets weekly, for 2 hours, on Monday nights.  It’s a 13-week course.  We haven’t even hit the halfway marker yet and I have found my life to be forever changed.  This course is fantastic!  Plus, look at all the neat stuff I got!  Plenty of tools, right at my fingertips, to help me succeed.


Dave Ramsey is the author of the best-selling book Total Money Makeover.  It’s an outstanding book, and for some reason in my cleaning last week I found 2 copies of it.  Anyway, I found parts of the book difficult to comprehend, but that’s simply because they didn’t apply to my life at the moment.  I think as a result of that I never really stuck with the program.  Financial Peace is so much better in my humble opinion. 

If you are in control of your finances already, or if your finances are in control of YOU, this course is well worth the investment. 

My goal is to be debt-free in 2 years.  Wish me luck! 
No, not luck, discipline!!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My Soldier Wrote Me!

Way back in the beginning of January I blogged about writing to "Any Soldier".  You can read more on that here.  

Well folks, I've heard back!  Real mail is so much fun.  When I looked in the mail slot and saw the handwritten envelope marked "FREE MAIL" I knew right away what it was.  I resisted all excitement within me that wanted to rip open the envelope and read the letter right then and there.  Instead, I waited till I was sitting on my couch, ready to meet my new friend.

I'm really happy to have heard back from my soldier.  It looks as though we will be able to communicate via email now - my have the times changed!

I think the only blow I got to my happiness was by my good friend's question "so, is this like gonna be a friend?  Or could it be something else?"  It was like a punch in the stomache.  You see, when I first sent my letter to a random soldier, I had a guy friend basically say the same thing only more in a teasing fashion, like, "I know what that means!"  Really?  REALLY?  Does anyone even know me?  After the response yesterday I just flat out said that I find that really offensive.  I don't do nice things with a hidden agenda.  For all anyone knows my soldier is a woman!  It really bothers me that writing a soldier means I'm trying to pick someone up.  Right, 'cause someone stationed in a dangerous area is so much more appealing than someone I could find in my everyday life.  Not saying it doesn't happen but...well...yes I am, for me!  ha!

Laying all those rude comments aside, I have a penpal and I'm really thrilled!

"Thing 1" = success!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Mommyhood

The time has come to share a little about the life of the man in my life.  If you’ve been around or stalked my blog even just a little, you’ve probably seen him.  In fact you’ve probably seen him look rather dapper in his Christmas tie and polo shirt.
 
This is Beans.
 

He’s a handsome boy and he knows it; believe me.

Mr. Beans, as my Father refers to him, is the man of the house.  He struts, he whines, he fights, he defends, he eats, and he sleeps.  Basically, he’s like most men; only difference is he doesn’t bring home any of the bacon!  It's totally fine though. We call it even because when the creepy crawlies start making their way around the home in the months of Spring, Summer, and Fall, Beans kills them dead.  And I appreciate that greatly.

Beans likes to know what is going on at all times.  He perches himself on high places where he can keep everyone in sight.  I find it absolutely adorable.  If he’s not under the lamp, or on my clothes, he’s usually found high atop the media shelf.  This is his spot and his alone.  Ivy has never once been allowed on it.  I honestly don’t think her little legs would be able to launch herself that high, but I just pretend she’s being respectful.  It doesn’t matter, Beans smiles massively when he’s on his shelf.


But don’t let his cute and cuddly appearance fool you.  He is one of the smartest cats that I have ever known.  I’m not kidding you.  He systematically finds things in the house that get him in trouble.  Why?  Simple, because it is attention.  He has done it his whole young life and it has lead to many sleepless nights while “waiting out” certain phases.

No longer has my man settled for sleepless nights.  He now respects my slumber, for the most part, and waits for me to wake up in the morning as he sits looking out the window. 

We now have a new hurdle:  The fridge.

“What do you mean, Heidi?”

Well, thank you for asking.  What I mean by that is simply; Beans jumps to touch the top of the fridge and then hits the floor.  It’s so loud that it is ridiculous.  And he does it over, and over, and over, and over without stopping – if I give him the satisfaction of saying “NO!”

Once I establish that it is wrong, I then ignore him when the behavior occurs and then eventually he tires of not being fawned over.  Sometimes this process takes weeks or months. 

So folks, wish me luck!

I have another weekend of THIS ahead:

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Grief Is Not A Four Letter Word


Grief is such a personal thing.  No one can tell you how to grieve; they can only encourage you and be there for you while you do it.  I am convinced that no two people’s experiences are the same.  Grief is something that most people will face at some point in their lives.  It is inevitable.  That is part of the reason that in the book I am writing about finding the blessing in singlehood, there is an entire chapter devoted to it; facing grief as a single person.
 
Death has been something I’ve faced and dealt with several times in my lifetime.  One of my dearest friends went to be with the Lord after a long fight with cancer when she was in her early 30s.  That meant that at 25 years old I lost my best friend.  Never would I have imagined that four years later I would lose my Mom as well.
 
Three years have passed since my Mom received her new body (read: she went to be with the Lord and is no longer suffering in the pain of her natural/earthly body).  Three years can seem so long.  Three years can seem like a day.
 
The anniversary of my Mom’s death was just a few weeks ago.  Shortly after that time a woman who knew my Mother ran into me out in public.  This was a person that I love and respect.  She is a woman who has been a great friend to the family.  At the end of our short chat, in a very sweet and reassuring voice (seemingly out of nowhere), she said to me “It gets easier doesn’t it?”  And then she smiled and went on her way.

I wanted to say “No.  Actually, no, it doesn’t just get easier.”  But I didn’t have the heart to sound so cruel.

 
The truth of the situation is that I am single and I have no Mom.  Nothing changes that.  Nothing really gets easier about that.  It is the truth that I face all the time.  The degrees of that may change, but the truth of it does not. 
 
Life gets busier; time gets filled with other things, but even now, 3 years later, I find myself remembering random “Mom” things.
 
Today it was remembering how she would fake shoot me with if I entered the house or a room unannounced.  I could picture myself running up the stairs to meet her at the top and she’d go “peew, peew!  You didn’t identify yourself!” and then we would laugh.
 
When I lost my Mom…well, when she died, because technically I didn’t lose her, I mean, I knew right where she was.  Anyway, after I became Mom-less, I realized that “It will get easier” left my vocabulary.  Instead I replaced it with other words of strength.  Maybe it’s not meant to get easier.  You’ve just suffered a huge tragedy that maybe you are not meant to move on from.  That isn’t a bad thing; and no one should make you feel otherwise.
 
The business of life sets in and life goes on.  Maybe I will marry someday.  Perhaps I will have children.  If that happens, my Mom will not be there.  “She’ll be there in Spirit” will surely be stated by plenty of well-wishers, but at the end of the day, my physical Mother will not be there.  And she will be missed. 
 
There will always be events that she will be tangibly missed at.
 
These thoughts aren’t depressing to me; these thoughts are just fact.  My days now are a new normal.  I may go a week or more without thoughts of my Mom.  But then there are those times when a memory will strike my heart and I will feel tears well up inside of my eyes.   Usually those are the times that I couldn’t prepare for; not birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, holidays…rather, it is the times when the unexpected things hit.  It’s when a movie comes out that I know she’d love.  It can hit when I’m alone and need a hug.  It’s those times when I think to myself “I haven’t talked to my Mom in awhile”… and I instinctively reach for the phone.  Those are the times that cut like knife.
 
The point of all of this is just to say that grieving is a process.  It happens to you and with you.  If you’re grieving, grieve.  However that may look.  Find someone to share in it with you.  Remember the good times.  Laugh.  Cry.  God made us all unique and He knows just how to reach us in our hardest times.  Our loved ones will never be forgotten.  The pain will lessen and memories will bring strength in the hardest times.  Just remember, we’re not created to suffer alone.  There is always someone who we can find to be a rock for us; a person to hold us up when our knees get weak.

The picture above was taken about a year before my Mother passed away.
This photograph was taken during a missions trip to India.
This is a photo of my Mother doing something that she loved, hugging people.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Does This Blog Make Me Look Fat?

My life is full of randoms.  Random statements, random happenings, random friends, random everythings.

Random statements like when I co-worker tells me that if he could be an angel he would be one that rescued people and brought justice to wrong-doers.  To which I responded "so you'd be the Chuck Norris of angels?"  Note to self: Maybe you should start speaking like an adult.  But then again, life wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

Or even better yet, random statements like earlier today when a co-worker asked me if the local jail had conjugal visits.

Really?

Random happenings like finding poop on the bottom of my shoes today while home for lunch.  Quickly I changed into a different pair of shoes only to find out that they too had walked through poop somewhere, at some point... but where?  I don't own a dog and I couldn't find dog dookie in my yard when I went out and looked.  It's not my cats because they are clean and are actually the ones who pointed out the poop to me in the first place.  Awesome.  Random poop on the bottom of my shoes.  Fantastic, guess I'll be washing two pairs of shoes tonight.

Random friends like the ones I see but once a year and still manage to send me thoughtful notes and gifts at the perfect time.  Or even better yet the ones that I never see and then when I do see them it's massively awkward because we once were close but no longer are.  And then the random friends that you instantly connect with and it seems that you've been friends your whole life.  Seasons change, people change; and all of it interests me.

To tell you the truth, I don't have anything to share for the "random everythings" column.  I must have been being dramatic or something when I typed that.  I'm not going to lie, I have nothing for ya on that one.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Thing 9

Make totally homemade bread, like Amish people or something.

Well said, right? 

I am domesticated like nobodies business.  While most little girls were dreaming of independence and working, I was dreaming about homemaking and all that came with it.  My Mother taught me well.  I was raised with an understanding that I'm not hopeless and probably *will* be stuck doing a lot of things on my own as an adult (well played, Mom) but real delight comes in crafting things with your own two hands.  Bread was something I had never attempted before.  Out of all of the baking and cooking I've done in my life, I had never made actual bread before!  Actual bread, in my mind, is bread made with yeast and done by hand.  Bread machines don't count - as I've made dozens upon dozens of loaves in there.  And banana breads etc do not count because, well, they are super simple and they also require no yeast.

On Friday night all of my Saturday plans were canceled.  A walking date and a single-girls chocolate-tasting party were all canceled because my friends came down with illnesses.  Bummer dude.  With an entire Saturday open - it was time to bake!


First step, get that yeast going!


Beautiful. Just a little sugar, yeast, bread flour and warm water.  Then set that off to the side while I start the big stuff...


Any sort of kitchen activity peaks the curiosity of the male in the house.  It only took about two minutes to pass before Mr. Man came wandering in, wondering what the heck was going on.  "Don't worry about it, Buddy.  I'm just mixin' up some bread dough."

More water, quick oats, bread flour, the yeast mixture...


Yeah, just so we're clear, my biggest bowl was too small for this project!  I eventually (while slowly adding in the flour) had to dump it all on the table and mix it by hand.  Nothing makes you feel more old-fashioned than kneading dough by hand.  I absolutely loved it.



Time to put that puppy in a bowl, slap a damp towel on it and let it sit for an hour...



and rise...

Apparently this would also be when my magic trick took place.  Not only did I make dough rise, but it seems that I also turned my towel from gray to purple.  I have skills.


That's one hunk of dough.  Like how I added the bottle cap to give you perspective?


After dividing it into 6 even balls, I panned 3 and froze the rest of them.


And yet again I let those suckers sit for an hour. 


Once they were ready I set them in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.  The results were mighty tasty!


I passed 2 loaves on to friends and family and with the remaining one, I lived on sandwiches for the rest of the weekend!  "Thing 9" was a total success!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Tameiki

Japanese for: a sigh; deep breath

That's how my week is going.  Not that I have anything to complain about; it's just life.  My taxes have been filed so I no longer need to plain out how I'm going to get that done.  And I still have leftover ribs from yesterday.  Double bonus!

I've been thinking a lot lately about my childhood friendships.  Perhaps I mentioned that on a past blog, I'm pretty sure I did.  Anyway, I have been blessed with some serious characters in my life.  As I sat in my house last night and thought about how much I'd love someone to help me organize the chaos of my dining room, the only person I could settle on wanting was my childhood best friend, Naomi.

You see, I was a messy kid.  My room was a pigsty.  I couldn't keep that thing cleaned and organized ever.  And I mean EVER.  When I was 8 my Mother had a bone marrow transplant and as a result she couldn't be around dust or germs AT ALL, during her recovery.  I came home to an empty house.  Other than books and a few toys that could be washed and saved, everything was packed in the garage or attic, or it had been thrown out or taken by the family and friends who cleaned the house for us - including pictures, which sucks because I know that a lot of pictures from before that time were split among other people...meaning, I missed out on a lot of historical pictures of my family.  Whatever, point being, I had pretty much nothing.  We started over.  Sometimes life does that to you.

As a kid you accumulate a lot.  I brought things home, was given things, was handed down things...I wasn't lacking.  I may never have had new things, but I had "things" none the less!  And some of those "things" I still have to this day.  Yikes.

Some people are good at purging belongings.  I fail at this.  Maybe it's because I wasn't given the chose 24 years ago, but I refuse to use that as a crutch.  I have moved 6 or 7 times in my adult life.  Prior to that, in my dependant life (read: the first 18 years on earth) we never moved house.  My parents got married and LIVED in the house that my Dad still resides at.  That's a lot of crap build up!  And now, 14 years after I first left my parent's home, I now am getting all of my junk in one place.  It's finally ready to be sorted through.

Where do you even start?

That's where Naomi would be great.  She ROCKED at this sort of thing.  Any time that I was grounded and couldn't go outside till my room was clean, Naomi was the friend that came over and did it for me!  No lie.  What kind of jerk friend was I?  I did the cooking, Naomi did the organizing and we both did the washing.  That's a true friend.

Now I get home at the end of a long day and the last thing I want to deal with is a box that contains everything from random candles and notes, to journals and random bits of paper.  I hate it.  It's the thorn in my side.  It's that THING in your life that you want dealt with but you don't want to deal with it! 

Irony.

How did this rabbit trail even start?  I have no clue!

What I DO know, is that I need to get Dawson's Creek over to my friend's house tonight.  She needs Season 4, stat!  And no, it's not Naomi that needs it.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Ribs and The Bachelor

Tonight I dine on ribs.  I'm a gal who loves meat and I have been looking forward to ribs all week.  I shall devour ribs and catch up on The Bachelor.  Oh what a glorious evening!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Thing 8

Go ice skating.


Chazz: Mind-bottling, isn't it?
Jimmy: Did you just say mind-bottling?
Chazz: Yeah, mind-bottling. You know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle?

How could I start this post without including a quote from either Blades of Glory or The Cutting Edge?  It was irresistible...like a baby, or an awesome brush.  "No exaggeration, I could not love a human baby more then I love this brush." (Blades of Glory)  Okay, I'll stop now. "TOE PICK!" (The Cutting Edge)  Okay really now, I'm done, I promise.

So, Nancy Kerrigan, eat your heart out because guess who hit the ice on Saturday? 

(Getty Images / Chris Cole)

Not you!  Well, maybe she did, actually, I really wouldn't know... But anways, it was

 
 THIS GIRL!
Notice the leg-warmers.  I'm legit.  Too legit to quit.

This adventure seemed a lot more romantic when Winter first arrived.  Back then there were all those welcoming images of couples holding hands and snuggling while smiling and enjoying the ease of skating on ice.  Back then there were Hallmark worthy moments in movies where crowds of people happily flowed across pristine ice arenas while laughing with wide open smiles, like Julia Roberts, at the joys of life.  All the while gigantic snowflakes peppered the atmosphere and somehow it all felt so cozy.

That is so not the case.  When I stepped my first skate onto the ice my first thought was "Holy crap, this ice is slippery!"  Well duh Einstein, it is ice after all.  And you are walking out onto it (basically) on knife blades - what do you expect it to be like?

(this is my favorite of our pictures)

When I was a kid roller skated all the time.  I mean it.  All. The. Time.  That made the switch over to ice skating pretty simple.  In many ways it was similar.  I wasn't amazing but I could get the job done - so as an adult, how hard could it be?  The last time I'd skated on ice was probably 3 or 4 years ago.  I'm definitely older (and fatter) now, my body didn't take kindly to me thinking that I was still 12.  Oh well, deal with it Body.

My shin muscles (who knew those were real things?) hated me the most.  Oh, and my knees, but those tend to hate me on a regular basis anyway.

Moral of the story: I didn't fall.  Not once.  Neither did my friend.  We may have held hands for awhile, but we didn't hug the wall and we didn't bite it falling over (or in front of) all the little kids.  And believe me there were plenty of them!  I guess it was because of the intense mass of people that we kept it tame.  I mean, I'm sure if it wouldn't have been for the hundreds of people we would have had enough space to practice our short program but we didn't want to risk slicing some child's face open with our skate.  A few triple axles and we were good to go. *wink*

All in all a wonderful day.  I didn't even wake up sore the next morning, other then the tenderness around my ankles where the skate tongues dug in because I tied them so tightly.  AND to top it all off, we went out for pizza and used the coupons (for FREE slices) that we had won at the Humane Society Lunch the previous weekend.  Bonus!

Just another day in the life of a professional figure skater.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Thing 7

Plant a tree in Nelson's (or Areba's) name.


I may just give myself a half-credit on this one, as I'd love to physically plant trees at some point this year. But oh well.  For my friend's 32nd birthday I researched and found a great organization to donate some money to.  You donate money, they plant trees to rebuild forests that have been somehow devastated; whether by man or by nature.  It's winter in the Midwest, so planting trees myself, not gonna happen.  But when I found this organization who could plant 25 trees with a donation, I jumped on it! 
Nelson is the name of my friend's side-kick, a pug.  Nelson was just a smiley happy little guy who lived only 6 short years.  Saying goodbye to him was the hardest thing my friend had ever done.  I thought what better gift could I give, or buy, than the gift of planting trees in his memory?  So that's what I did.  And then two days later I realized that we had it as a "thing"!

Opening up the certificate that I'd framed (myself) for her made her cry right away, and I wasn't expecting it to make ME cry too!  What the heck?  It was so great being able to bless her like that, and being able to remember a little guy who wasn't just someones pet, he was family, and will be forever loved and missed.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Let's Talk About Books, Baby!

Okay, for being a blog that primarily was to focus on writing I have not talked about books in a long while!  I shall remedy that starting....now!

My writing style is different from most. Obviously.  I think everyone writes differently; just as everyone studies differently.  My sister graduated Law School by blasting music, whereas when I am in a focused mode I like silence.  In traffic jams or snow storms you will find me in an absolutely quiet car.  No lie.  When it comes to writing, I find that the moment I am focused on what I am doing, all else (apart from the Bible) falls away.  I cannot even look at a book.  It's not that I hate them, it's just that I have a fear that they will somehow taint me.  Books that I gravitate to are very similar to how I'd write and I don't want them to change the true flavor of what I'm trying to express. 

Examples:

  1. Jen Lancaster and David Sedaris are my go-to authors.  They "get" me.  They have that sarcastic flavour that I love and they tell it like it is, much like me.  I loaned out all of my Jen Lancaster books and hid my favorite Holidays on Ice book by David Sedaris last November.  Why?  Because I was writing the book about my life; and while sarcasm and wit (okay, I won't lie, I accidentally typed "shit" instead of "wit" just then.  I didn't catch it until I read back the line.  That's hilarious.) are what I was living, drinking, eating and breathing while I wrote...I didn't want other influences to spice my cooking.
  2.  When I began my book on "Finding the Blessing in Singlehood", I ceased reading any books of the sort.  My experiences, perceptions, revelations and anecdotes need to be my own.  Of course books influence your life and they always will, but in the heat of the moment, I want to get all of my stuff out there before going back in the editing process and changing huge chunks of it.  Also, on this particular subject, I've found that 99.9% of books on singleness are written by married people.  Ironic.  I feel like I have a voice into this subject that a married person just can not carry.
  3. Writing becomes my life.  When I wrote Lily of the Valley back in 2010, I found that my life got shaken.  It was my very first novel and it was (and is) truest to me.  I very much was Penelope and the more I wrote, the more I learned about myself.  It was a strange feeling and very difficult at times.  I found myself feeling like I was living an episode of Dawson's Creek.  Needless to say, my breaks from writing were not spent reading.
After completing the rough draft of my Memoir (back in November) I took a break from writing.  That break is coming to a close soon and I will be going back to tackle the heck out of that book.  In the meantime, I finally picked up some books and caught up on my reading.

For Christmas my sister bought me a Nook.  It just may be one of the best presents I have ever received.  It was extremely thoughtful and something I'd been dreaming about yet never anticipating I'd actually ever own one!  I fought tooth and nail against the switch to ebooks, yet that is the shift that is happening and as an author who hopes of publishing one day, I could no longer pretend it wasn't there.  Nothing will ever in my mind replace the feel of a physical book; the scent of the pages as they age, the crispness of a book being "cracked" for the first time...these are romantic things to me.  ebooks just don't have that appeal.  Having said that, I can't now also confess that I adore the swishing sound my Nook makes when I "turn" the pages!  So consider that (and this) my disclaimer: I love books.  I will always buy books.  Nothing can replace a physical book...buuuuuut, ebooks are convenient and kind of fun!

Let's get down to business:
Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen Degeneres.  Good book.  Easy read.  DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DO NOT LIKE ELLEN!  I have loved Ellen ever since way back before she hit it huge and had her own talk show.  My Brother, however, cannot stand her.  If she grates on you, do not read her book because the reasons I enjoyed the book are the same reasons why you would hate it.  Ellen writes just like she speaks.  The book has no real focus, no real point.  It is entirely train of thought; with a few coloring pages and haiku's thrown in the mix (and no I'm not kidding).  It was just what my brain needed and I definitely enjoyed it!  If you love Ellen, read it.  If not, then read Bossypants by Tina Fey.  That book was fantastic.




Sticking with my easy reads, I purchased Become Your Own Matchmaker by the Millionare Matchmaker's Patti Stanger.  A friend of mine had gotten this book for Christmas and absolutely raved about it.  So much in fact, that I had to buy it because she wouldn't lend hers to me!  Now, walking into this read I was hugely skeptical; I mean come on, a book is not going to help me find a man and I'm not going to pretend that it will!  I don't do online dating, I don't go to single's mixers, I'm just old-school.  Maybe that's why I'm still single!  Just kidding.  I read this book with a huge bent in me to just laugh at all the things she throws out there, the odd thing was, I didn't!  I actually enjoyed a lot of the points that she made.  I think it simply was because I was totally skeptical that I enjoyed it.  I ended up taking several of Patti's suggestions and incorporated them into my life; not because I am trying to win myself a man of my very own(!) but because they were actually sage advice.  Good book.  Easy read.  If you're reading it out of desperation, you probably have bigger problems you need to deal with, but if you're reading it for fun - have at it!  As a "single" or a "married" it's good to be reminded what little things we can do in our lives to have an impact on the world around us.

Lip gloss, I never leave home without it!



Not to be without my share of celebrity gossip, I broke down and bought (on my Nook) Jo Piazza's Celebrity Inc.  I have wanted this book since before it even hit the stands.  I am about halfway through it and am definitely eating it up.  Hollywood and "celebrity" has always been intriguing to me.  Like, where did Paris Hilton come from out of nowhere?  And why is Kim Kardashian making so much money?  And what's the deal with people like Spencer and Heidi?  I mean, come on!  This book exposes Hollywood for the money maker that it is.  The truths that are outlined on the pages of this book are shocking and not entirely unexpected.  Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is worth money and it is interesting how we, the consumer, feed into this money machine.  At times boring, but overall captivating if you are at all interested in celebrity gossip and the breakdown of it all. 


My future tackle (no pun intended) is George Orwell's book 1984.  In school I read his book Animal Farm because we had to.  It was one of those books that I remember most of the class hating while I think I actually liked it.  That was probably 15 years ago though, so how great could my memory of that be?  At any rate, 1984 is a book which people reference a lot and I just nod along as if I know it well.  Why do I do that?  Time to fix that by actually reading this literary award winner.  Wish me luck!

What about you?  Have you read any good books lately?

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Bite Me!

I feel like I woke up ready to tackle the day; ready to blog all about yesterday with vigor.  But then  Thursday pimp-slapped me in the face and said "Bite me!"

I'm going to go home and wallow; basking the in the crapiness that was my day.  Reminding myself that, yes, someone really did say "I'm going to pray for you to find a husband because you need someone to bring discipline to your life."  Pondering back over the words that I suck because I'm single and somehow that makes me a failure - as if somehow I'd missed the memo that I was single?  I'll possibly spend some time thinking about people who have it really easy, financially, and how many of them have no clue what it's like to be strapped at times; oh, and how not having a brand new car seems more like a status symbol than that of being a wise choice financially. 

Today was a day of non-encouraging words.  That's always fun, especially when you barely made it through yesterday (which was a normal day to most, but to SOME it may have been the anniversary of when their Mother died).  You know just the usual.

I'll dust myself off and stand up again, because that's what I always do.
I'll believe that tomorrow will be a better day - all the while knowing that I'm basically just holding on and waiting for the weekend.  Come Saturday I will start regaining my momentum.  As for today, not so much.