Thursday, February 28, 2013

It's a Southern Thing

I consider myself to be a Southern girl.  Even though I was born outside the Continental U.S., it was definitely south and then I moved to Virginia where I spent my formative years.

I know that I am a Southerner mainly because the sight of the Confederate flag in no way makes me scared or angry.

I associate the Confederate flag with a jaw dropping history, bad and good, much of which happened right here under my feet.

While I abhor racist principles (which certainly did not go away just because we changed flags), I understand the whys and the hows and certainly many of the whos and the wheres.  I find it fascinating.

There are things I LOVE about living in the South which include, but are not limited to the following, in no particular order:

Climate
Southern Hospitality
Southern Manners
Architecture
The pace (though, to quote an oft turned phrase.....We are Southern, not stupid)
FOOD
Horticulture
Design esthetic

My new gal pal turned me on to this publication (which I was disappointed not to already know about):

http://gardenandgun.com/

Holy cow.......I love this magazine. 

If you live in the South and haven't read it....you must.  If you'recoming to visit the South.... you must.

I'm going to Savannah this May for work, where I've not been since I was a young teenager.  I am SUPER excited to do some exploring there.  Hell, I might even buy a guide book!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Catching Up

Randomness

My daughter spent the long weekend at her soon to be college....and seems to have survived, none the worse for wear.  She was not nearly as happy to be back at home as I was to have her there.  This is God's way of forcing me to let go.  I get it.  I get it.

Both of my children now drink coffee.  I cannot tell you how much more pleasant the mornings are as a result of this.

I had a birthday.  It was uneventful.  I gave myself bangs which seem to be making me feel a little less old, though I'm not sure they make me look it.  My daughter just stared at me and rolled her eyes.  "What?  You just cut your own bangs?  Like, right now?  In the BATHROOM???"  Yep.  Pretty much. 

My son will be spending spring break on a cruise ship with the rest of his SCHOOL BAND.  In light of recent nautical mishaps, I'm feeling slightly nervous about this.  This is God's way of ........ I GEEEEEEET IT.

Friday, February 15, 2013

ACOA

Crushes are wonderful, dangerous things.

I have a girl crush, at the moment, on this awesome woman my husband introduced me to.  She's fantastic.

I don't have a million girlfriends.  I have, oh.....7.  This woman makes 8. (No that does not include the fabulous women in my family who I also count as friends, but they HAVE to be my friends so that's somehow different).

In any event, unlike my husband who has over 1000 FB friends (I have under 100 and I'm constantly secretly unfriending people after applying my completely ridiculous "scrutinizing friend formula"....a topic for another blog), finding a new friend who I think has some staying power is, for me, statistically significant!

In any event, in the throes of being twitterpated with her phenomenal awesomeness, I took a giant step outside of my teeny comfort zone and went with her to an Adult Children Of Alcoholics meeting. 

She is, and yes, I am, too.  And that's a long story, which I've never had any attention of telling here.  So, without "going there" here, it's necessary to at least allude to it in order to process the experience.

While I've done a little delving into this category of human being (children of) sitting in a room full of them was definitely axis tilting.  I almost got a crick in my neck from nodding the whole time.  It was definitely one of the more visceral experiences I've had in a long time.  I laughed, I cried, I got angry, I got sad.  It was a little nuts, and at this point I never ever want to go back and do that again. 

I can, however, see the utility of actually D E A L I N G with some of that S T U F F that came up.

It presents a very interesting opportunity to practice all that "leaning in" I've mentioned previously.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

The yin and yang of troll feet

"I am sick of running."

My husband just looks at me. 

"Really.  I never want to run again."

He smiles.  "You're not REALLY sick of running.  You are in a relationship with running.  You are a runner."

Hmmmpf.  I start throwing things around in my closet and ignore him.

He's right, of course.

But, at some point, don't we all sort get sick of just about everything?  I do.  Certainly.

Right now I'm sick of running.

I'm mostly sick of running because it just kind of sucks.  I am about to punk out on my second race in the same year and that sucks.  I just cannot get it together.  I fell last weekend and crunched my knee and now it hurts (more than usual) to run so I really don't feel like doing it and that just makes me mad and grumpy.

This kind of made me laugh though:
Troll Feet

SO TRUE, because my toes are so gnarly from being crunched into the end of my shoes that I'm afraid to walk around in flip flops any more for fear of scaring small children.

You're probably asking yourself WHY I continue to run then. 

It's a good question.  Obviously, because I love running.

It's complicated.

VDay

Just finished eating a heart shaped donut (filled with chocolate frosting) because the colleague who bought it for me insisted on taking it personally if I didn't.  I anticipate dropping into an insulin comma momentarily and spending the rest of the day in a complete funk.

Valentine's Day is stupid.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

They do!

A friend of my sister's (from high school....many many moons ago now) just married (at the tender age of 45 or so).

I love the wedding announcement that was in our paper:

http://www.dailyprogress.com/celebrations/article_23a8dc1a-658f-11e2-9aff-001a4bcf6878.html

I loved it at first, because the parents refer to "unloading their fourth princess" which is just hilarious.  There were four daughters, obviously, and they did have a bit of fairly tale existence, but that's just genius!! 

I loved it a little more now, reading it a few weeks later, realizing the the Boeing Dreamliner did, indeed, deliver them home safely from Japan to Seattle, as outlined therein, which, in retrospect, was a freaking miracle.

I'm sure, in their newlywedded bliss, they had no idea at the time how close they came to dying a fiery death.  Life is funny that way. 


 

Overheard at the gas station. Scene One

Scene opens with my husband pumping gas next to a mother with a teenage daughter and younger son.  Clearly the teenage daughter has been dishing out some attitude about which the mother has finally become exasperated.

Mom:  "Oh really?  Okay fine.  You want to do this?  Go ahead and roll up on me with your baby high school PMS then.  REALLY?"

Daughter:  (Cannot get a word in)

Mom:  "That's fine.  Because I got some real have-three-kids-working-two-job-PMS and I will take you out with your bullsh*t......"

Car doors close.

Son looks awkwardly (yet familiarly so) out the car window.


"baby high school PMS".......I love people.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Autopsy Number Two (again.....not for some of you)

This one, while more interesting than the last because the head had been thawed out longer therefore making the interior exploration much more realistic (apparently), this head was also (because of said thawing) much closer to it's living state than the previous.  Plus he still had a full head of hair, which the last one did not.  Apparently that's because the first one was older....and not, as I naively suspected, because they routinely shave the heads of the cadavers.  In this regard, it was a little more unsettling.  I think it might be easier if I knew the head were attached to the rest of its body.  Somehow.  It's a little weird that it's just sitting there, propped up all by itself.

Anyhoo....this guy had an amazingly deviated septum.  Kind of interesting. 

This individual was also black.  Or brown.  In any event, not white.  And, while it is clearly obvious, I found myself struck, anew, at how very much the same "color" we are on the inside!!!

TRUST ME....several times a day now, I take a deep breath in and contemplate where all of that air is going inside my sinus cavities.  All six of them or whatever.  And then I express gratitude for the fact that my body continues to function another day.

 

I need an app for that!

Tangent about phone APPS.


1. So, in the car the other day I was checking the weather app and I got a message "recalculating your location" while it attempted to "find" me. I'd like an app that actually recalculates my location by sending me elsewhere. That would be MUCH MORE USEFUL, non?

2. Watching Mission Impossible 3 (i know, why?) and someone had an app on their phone that identified an approaching "ASSASIN"....beeping and flashing in red. I need one that will identify an approaching "ASSHOLE."   Anyone want to help me develop that?  We could make millions!!!