Sleepy Pup

Bailey is tired. I'm sure she had a hard day of...well...of sleeping.

Yes I know

I haven't posted in forever. I really have no good excuse like "I was out rescuing kittens from trees," "I was reading to the elderly in assisted-living facilities" or "I was needed at a very important UN Conference in New York for the Seventh Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues." (I wasn't invited)

I guess the best answer is still the "funk" that I allude to on occasion. That guy loves to mess with all the things I find enjoyable. I need to kick its ass, but am struggling to get my foot off the ground.

Anyway, I have lots to post about, but first I will fulfill my blogger duty as a tag-ee. My friend Jodi tagged me. Here are the rules:

*Link to the person who tagged you.
*Post the rules on your blog .
*Write six random things about yourself.
*Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
*Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
*Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

This should be relatively easy since I'm fairly new to blogging and haven't given too much of myself away yet. Plus, I continuously have random thoughts, so I'm pretty sure I will have to force myself to stop at six.

1. I am very anal about grammar and spelling. I always notice grammar errors, and it irritates me when I find mistakes. It doesn't bother me so much when the writing is in an informal setting, like emails or blogs, but billboards, signs, newspaper articles, reports for work, etc., those mistakes drive me crazy. And, it drives me crazy when I make them to. (too!) (haha!) This anal-ness about grammar and spelling also extends into my text messaging. I never use "u" for "you" or "ru" for "are you". Again, I don't mind so much if others do it, but I just can't bring myself to.

2. I'm a chickenshit (sorry for the profanity). I love to watch scary movies, but am a big scaredy-cat. I can't watch them alone, prefer not to watch them in the dark and would really like to be able to fast forward through the scary parts and then rewind it once I know what's going to happen. Since most people probably wouldn't put up with this, it means that I'm watching the thing with my eyes averted when it gets stressful! And I don't mean just the really scary ones like Saw; I mean even goofy, retarded scary ones like Friday the 13th. But, I'm a glutton for punishment and watch them anyway.

3. I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER! 'Nuf said.

4. I'm left-handed. Not too random I suppose, but only about 13% of the population is left-handed. I'm an oddball and I like it! Being left-handed means I'm more likely to be schizophrenic, an alcoholic and delinquent, but it also means I'm more likely to excel at sports and arts and be more intelligent (I agree with this last one the most!) Being left-handed does contribute to an odd quirk of mine. I sometimes have difficulty distinguishing right from left when asked to do so quickly. I remember one time when I was just learning to drive and my mom told me to get in the left lane and I got in the right lane and almost missed my turn-off. Plus, I have to think about which direction West and East are in comparison to North and South. Weird, but true.

5. I love traveling to Europe. I went the first time with my French class when I was 16. I fell in love. I've been back only three times since then and must go back soon or I will die. My favorite city to visit is London. I love everything about it (except how expensive it is). I love the history of it: Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, The National Gallery, etc. I've been there enough times and for long enough that I can ride the Underground and not have to look at a map to know which stop I'm getting off at. My favorite painting The Lady of Shalott is in London at the Tate Gallery. If I lived there I would visit her every day. I hope to be able to go back sometime in 2009. I would love to go to London again, but might go to Paris or Italy instead. I'm not sure yet, but MARK MY WORDS I will get there again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6. I'm slightly OCD, but I'm horrible at it. My books on my bookshelf must be in alphabetical order (even if it means moving them all down a row); same goes for my DVDs. My closet right now is arranged by color. That is not always the case, but has been so for several months now. At work I have to fill out "Chronos" about all the activity I have with a client. If I mess up a word I have to white it out and re-write it. Plus, I hate liquid white-out because it's too messy. The reason I'm horrible at being OCD is that I get bored with it. My clothes will eventually migrate back to being a mixed mess. I'll end up throwing a new book on top of the ones already in a row. I'll buy a new movie and put it next to Zoolander (except I don't really own Zoolander). But, eventually, the CHAOS of it will drive me back to re-organizing all of it over again.

I'm not sure I have six other blogs to tag, although I read lots of blogs (mostly preemie blogs linked to Jodi).

I'm tagging:
Keri (just her myspace page, but she's awesome anyway!), Jeanne, Laura, um...um...okay...that's it.

False Advertising

Advertised Product

Actual Product

Now I realize that companies have to make their product look as good as possible in order to make customers buy it, but this is ridiculous. The picture of the actual product has only one bite taken out of it. Besides the fact that I could eat three times that amount of food, there was barely enough "cheese" and "hamburger" for about half of that amount. The question, "Where's the beef?" is brought to mind as well as, "Where's the cheese?" Hmm...I wonder if I need to add a trademark symbol to "Where's the beef?" I wouldn't want to commit trademark/copyright infringement. Damn. I'm still hungry. Anybody got any food??

Beautiful Buttons!

I am participating in the March of Dimes' March For Babies on April 26th. As I've mentioned before, my friend Jodi had twins at 23 weeks, 1 day gestation in August 2007. Since then I've learned a lot about prematurity and have fallen in love with a little girl named Olivia. She just glorifies all that is miraculous in this world and has got to be my favorite baby of all time! Jodi had buttons made with Olivia's picture on them as well as ones with her twin brother Logan, who didn't make it.

Olivia Paige was born weighing only 1 lb, 1.5 oz. She's now just over 7 months old and weighs in at over 11 lbs!

I'm excited to participate in the March and have raised almost $400, which has got to be some sort of record for me! I guess I've just never been so passionate about a cause before. I'm also excited to get my buttons, as I have collected buttons since I was young and have lots of them saved, including ones with pictures of Wichita Wings players (remember them?!), old River Festival buttons, goofy ones I made in school, etc.

For everyone who has donated, I thank you. God plays his part, but I truly think that Olivia wouldn't be here and doing so well today if it wasn't for all the research funded by the March of Dimes. In the not so distant past babies born as early as her and Logan did not survive; period. It was rarely even attempted to save them. Even today some hospitals do not view 23-weekers as "viable." Looking at Olivia, how can you say she was not viable? So with the help of the March of Dimes, babies like Olivia have been given a chance at life, and also just as importantly research is being funded to understand why premature birth occurs and to prevent it from happening in the first place. If you're looking for a great cause to donate any extra money you may have laying around the house causing excess clutter, consider donating it to the March of Dimes (to my team please!). Jodi is kicking my butt and I could use a few more dollars!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!

Today is my brother's 33rd birthday. I, of course, have not sent him a card. I'm horrible about that kind of thing, which makes me a really sucky person. Sorry Josh! But hey, a shout-out to you on my blog has got to be waaaay cooler than some commercialized, three-dollar greeting card right? It's not like I would have included a check or gift card in the darn thing anyway.

Josh is my favorite brother*. He's super smart and probably the funniest person I know. We don't tell each other often enough, but I love him dearly and I'm sure I would not be who I am today if he wasn't my brother (Thanks Josh, see what you've done?). Anyway, I hope he had a good time on Saturday night when he went out for his birthday, and I hope he has a great day today, even though he's at work and probably either working too hard or bored.

*He's my only brother.

End of the Road?

At what point in a friendship should you call it quits? How many times should you allow a friend to hurt your feelings? And if a friend continues to make the same mistakes, are they truly a friend at all? My friendship with someone I have been friends with since the 8th grade has, admittedly, been quite a struggle throughout the years. You would likely get an entirely different story if you asked her, however. To put it concisely, she is my friend when it is convenient for her. She will adamantly deny this claim, but it is true. Any period of time she was without a boyfriend we were inseparable. A boyfriend enters the picture and I'm relegated to the sidelines. Now I suppose in middle school and high school this sort of thing is to be expected. A boyfriend is such an exciting experience to have as a teenager I'm sure (I wouldn't know; I never had a boyfriend in high school). But now that we've turned 30, it seems so immature and slight. You can not preach to your friend how important she is to you and how much you love and treasure her, but treat her like she isn't important. Actions speak louder than words.

So, do I give up one of the few friendships I have because I only get what I need out of the relationship when it is convenient for her, or do I stick around and take what I can get? This is my dilemma. Earlier today I was ready to end it: write her a "throw down" email and tell her exactly how I feel; tell her I'm done being her "spare time" friend. But I didn't write the email. It's hard to end a relationship. And I keep thinking that if I talk to her about it "one more time" she will get it. I have a feeling I'm just postponing the inevitable.

My Trip to Boston

I went to Boston a couple of weekends ago. My cousin and her husband live there. My brother who lives in Omaha came too so we all had a great time. I have a pretty small family and there are only six cousins on my dad's side. We are all still really close, which is nice, especially considering I will probably be single for the rest of my life and will need them to keep me company (and empty my bed pan).

I had been to Boston once before so we didn't have to squeeze in a bunch of tourist stuff. We went to my cousin's school to see where she teaches a bunch of middle school boys at a private Catholic school. I wish I could watch her teach. A Southern Belle (she's from Texas) with remnants of her slow drawl teaching a bunch of Catholic Irish and Italian-Americans with Bah-ston accents. I hear they love to say, "y'all" like a true Texan.

We also went to Mt. Auburn Cemetery, the country's first "garden" cemetery. It was founded in 1831 and more than 90,000 people are buried here including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary Baker Eddy, Winslow Homer, B.F. Skinner and Isabella Stewart Gardner. It was amazing.

I, of course, had to go the the Boston Museum of Fine Art. I have absolutely no artistic talent, but I love art. Not modern art, but fine European art. If I lived in London, my butt would be planted at the Tate Gallery every day (mostly staring at The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse, my all-time favorite painting). Boston's MFA has some good stuff too (for an American museum, ho hum) like: John Singer Sargent's Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Pierre Auguste Renoir's Dance at Bougival. I could have stayed longer, but my brother was with us and he was starting to twitch after about 45 minutes so we thought we ought to get out of there before he started crying. Not everyone enjoys art museums, can you believe it???

Of course we had our usual drinking activities, but we behaved ourselves rather well I think. No broken bones, tears or fist fights over politics. Amazing really considering my cousin is a staunch Republican (poor uninformed, close-minded girl, I weep for you) and my brother and I are...well...not.

Overall, I spent way too much money, drank too much wine (okay beer because I can't stand wine) and spent way too much time in an airport. But I loved every minute of it (but still couldn't wait to come home and get back in my comfort zone).

Fingers Crossed

I've mentioned before that I'm a reader of Confessions of a CF Husband. Today especially I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my thoughts positive for Tricia, Nate and Gwyneth. A second call about a possible match for lungs occurred this morning! A few days ago a set of lungs was not a "go", but I'm hoping and praying this set will be perfect! So whatever it is you do, whether it be cross your fingers, hope, pray, wish, send positive waves, do a dance, etc. now's the time to do it. I've never met the Lawrensons and most likely never will, but since reading Nate's blog I've become personally invested in their lives and their futures. May this be the day that Tricia gets her new lungs so she can watch her precious daughter grow up.