Something fun to kick off the weekend

Nothing special today. Just a bit of awesomeness.

Enjoy. Laugh. Rinse. Repeat!


I am going to learn this. Not kidding.



Love this!

"Because when I leave I'm not making any concrete plans to return back to my point of origin."

My collage...

We made collages that show who we are in Creative Writing. This is mine.

Clockwise from the top:

Apples:
This, this is what I wait for.
Song of Solomon 2: 3-7
"³ Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. ⁴ Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. ⁵ Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. ⁶ His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me. ⁷ Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires."

Whew, I need to catch my breath a little after that!

Green Mountains:
I am still young and green, but I've been built into by now. I've been sculpted a bit, in ways both beautiful and scarring. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I know it's part of who I am now.

A Clear "i":
I live my life transparently both here and with the people in my life. Remember that post that got people all up in arms? Yeah. No matter what, though, I'll always love and value blinding, painful, and absolute honesty. Coy is cute, vague is alluring, but honesty sticks. For reals.

Pomegranate:
An ancient Christian symbol of the fullness of Christ's suffering and resurrection. The transparency of the i comes from this, 'cause, uh, otherwise I wouldn't do it.

Blue Silk:
I am precious and intricately woven. A lot of things in my life [both people and situations] have done quite a number on my heart to make me constantly doubt that. From an offhanded comment made when I was 12 to years of prolonged appearance-anxiety fueled by a man [and that's not to say it was his fault. I really believe that the combination of my insecurities with his particular expectations were doomed from the outset] I felt uncomfortable in my skin for 25 years. It's still a work in progress, but now I always see more good than bad, and some days, if I'm really honest, there are times I look in the mirror and think Man, God. Good job. Is that vain? It probably is. Crap.

Slats and Lines:
Winter is my time. This was a painting I found in a magazine that represented the season of winter. Interestingly, I find fall to be my favorite season, but I was born in the winter. I grow the most in the winter. And I always emerge from the winter softer, newer, and ready for wiser. And I'm hoping that trend continues.

Blue Butterfly:
Not only do I emerge from the literal winter as a new woman, I've also emerged from a figurative winter recently. Now, this winter I've come from was not barren, dead, or cold--that's not the kind of winter I'm talking about. I'm talking about a time of challenge, of growth, of . . . oh my word, could I sound any more pretentious and metaphorical? You get the picture right, gentle reader? Of course you do! You're smart! You don't need to sit here and listen to me wax on poetic!

Paints:
The meaning of this is twofold:
1. I like color.
2. I like to put things in ROYGBIV order. Everywhere. All the time. If you look for it, you'll notice it.

Keri Strug:
What a moment of sacrifice and determination. I watched this live. It was amazing, and I've never forgotten it. She knew what needed to be done, and it wasn't about her. It wasn't for her own glory. It was for the glory of others. This is what I want my legacy to look like. And this is hard for me, the girl whose parents once bought her a T-shirt that said It's All About Me just for the heck of it. Yeah. I was that girl. I'm trying not to know her anymore.

Music:
Any moment a note a passing through my lips is a moment of incandescent joy. Anytime my fingers rest on the keys of a real piano [not a keyboard, mind you. Those aren't keys, psh] I feel a thrill of possibility, and my throat tingles in anticipation. I live to sing.

"Maturity is relative."
That pretty much explains itself, right?

In lieu of a deep post . . .

I have a lot of heavy things on my heart lately. Bet you couldn't tell, huh?

All in due time my lovelies.

Meanwhile, I wanted something to make me laugh. This, obviously, is the perfect choice.

Please enjoy. Oh, and make sure you watch to the very end.

Awesome

I want to be the house on the left of this photo. I want to be it so badly . . .

Too stinkin' cute.

I'm a little late posting this. I saw it last week and thought it was one of the cutest, most genuinely funny things I'd seen in a long time.

Good job, Jenny Slate. If you don't know who she is, she's one of the newer cast members on SNL. It's been taking her awhile to come into her own, but if they'd let her do stuff like this, she'd be a big hit.



Move over Samberg!

No Longer Ashamed

I watched Up In the Air tonight. Or early this morning. Tom-ay-to, Tom-ah-to.

And I noticed that Anna Kendrick (Natalie in the movie) and I share the same unusual and difficult hairline. Seriously people, it's like someone drew a squiggly line from ear to forehead and to other ear. I'm talking about you, God.

Sometimes I wonder what it is that makes me notice inane details like this, but then I get over it.

I see smooth hairlines like these, and feel bad about myself:

 

But now I have finally seen a woman who fearlessly wears her hair back, despite a hairline that defies any sort of normal line. And I don't feel so self-conscious anymore about wearing mine back. Because I'm telling you, mine looks exactly like hers. 

And wouldn't you know that I can't really find a picture of myself to compare?  Know why? Because I've always been so hyper-aware of my weird hairline that I don't allow it to be documented on the rare occasions that I pull the safety curtain of my bangs back. Here's the closest I got:

See? I keep the sides down most times because the widow's peak is more like peak(S). 

Anyway, this is an early morning post, and it's happening partly because I'm trying to stay awake as I watch Up In the Air with commentary so that I can get it in the mail by the time it goes out tomorrow morning. 

In any case, please forgive my vanity. We've all been there. Glad I could share it with you.

A Nice Night

I saw this off of my back porch this evening.



If I ever leave the Midwest, I'm really going to miss this sort of thing.

Also, I did a bit of binge shopping at Wal-Mart the other night. Yes, a lot of it was necessary (supplies for my students, some toiletries), but some of it wasn't (super expensive toothpaste and a sun dress). Well, I realized that perhaps the extra spending was a little rash, so I pulled together some things to return. I had purchased the sun dress, a Batman t-shirt, and four dress shirts for school. On clearance at $3.50 each, I was more than glad to get dress shirts from Wal-Mart. I decided to return one of the dress shirts, and then it came down to the sun dress or the t-shirt.

Duh, you already saw where this was going.

Dear reader, you're so smart.

I kept the t-shirt. Come ON! Batman! I don't buy clothes very often, so now my Star Wars shirt has a companion. Now all I need is a Doctor Who shirt, a Buffy shirt, and a Firefly shirt. I like these:

Oh, and I added some Star Wars and Big Bang Theory shirts as well.

I'm still looking for someone to play Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock with me!

Cheer Up Hug!

Sorry about the downer yesterday.

Here is something that always cheers me up, and I hope it will do the same for you.



Bill Hader is the best thing to happen to SNL in years, and never, ever laughs. When he cracks a smile it's all over for me. So funny.

Again, you're welcome.

Quick Update

By the way, for those of you who were wondering, I did not go visit the house this last week. It wasn't ready for a showing yet.

The new day is this Wednesday. I'll have pictures posted then, don't worry.

In the meantime, please enjoy.



You're welcome.

A Gift for You

So I found this randomly tonight, and I thought I would share these gems with you.

These beautiful little charts come from the year 1939. Use them to assess the kind of spouse you would/will be/are. I have to say, just looking at them, I'm not optimistic about my score . . .

So funny! What do you think? What about the red nail polish? It's the only color I wear on my nails! A demerit for that? That must mean I'm a hussy. And I can't remember the last time I dressed for breakfast. Oh well. 

Night Terrors

Ugh. Long story short, my sleeping has the kind of regularity that's . . . NOT. 

And my water intake has been poor to non-existent. 

Both regular occurrences for me. 

But, before we get into how much I am hurting my poor body (which, I'm very aware of because of the vomit-inducing cramps that I experienced this morning because dehydration increases "woman troubles." Oh. My. Lord. Did she just write that sentence? Yes she did, people. Now, either unfollow me or let's get to the point of this post), let's talk about what I'm really here to write about. 

Dreams. Specifically, nightmares. 

So, I have this recurring nightmare. We all have them. And we all know how they work. Usually, it's not the kind of situation that would require blood and guts and a scary soundtrack. Instead, it's nightmarish because it plays on our individual fears. Oh, and because it's so real in the dream that we usually wake up panting and in a cold sweat. 

I had my nightmare again last night. The situation in each dream is always different, but the same thing happens. Last night, it was me talking to a group of friends in high school. We're chatting, and I'm talking to some faceless guy who I have a crush on in the dream. Suddenly, I feel something drop onto my tongue. 

My tooth.

Yes. My nightmare is about my teeth falling out. Last night it happened with people. A lot of the time it happens in the bathroom while I'm standing over the sink and staring at myself in the mirror. The first tooth falls out. I look down in shock. The blood dribbles out of my mouth and down the sink in the swirling water along with the tooth (because of course, it wouldn't be a real nightmare if I could hold on to my teeth to get them put back in). Then the next tooth falls out. Then two more. Then all my top teeth just spill into the water and I'm looking at my bloody gums in the mirror and screaming. 

I know! It's terrifying. And it's so real. I remember waking up this morning and thanking the Lord that I had cramps, because that's much better than losing my teeth. And the cramps made me puke! 

That's serious, people.