30 Day Challenge - Day 1

                Day 1: Introduction, Recent Picture, and 15 Interesting Facts

As we all know, I’ve been the ultimate blogging slacker for the past few weeks.  In an effort to remedy this little situation I am going to do one of these 30 days of blog post challenges.  I snagged it off of this other post  after reading through four Google search pages to find one that didn’t include me posting pictures of my life every other day because I don’t take pictures of my life and how boring would 17 out of 30 posts be if I just answered the question with nothing? 

I’d like to say I’ll post for 30 days straight but let’s be serious – with my track record that prob won’t happen.  Can’t hurt to try though right?  How’s that for an introduction?

Recent Picture –well if I invited you here through the book of face then you can reference that picture.  And if not, I used to look like this, last year, back when I worked out a lot.  Whatever.  Like I said – picture taking is not something I remember to do. 

Ignore that weird armpit fat.  Thanks.

Interesting Facts -  Interesting, by definition, means engaging or exciting and holding attention or curiosity.  Not sure this list qualifies.  Also, this list was surprisingly difficult for me to put together.

1.       I started biting my nails again.  It’s horrible.  I must stop.  But life got stressful.

2.       I told my friend’s husband I was turning 25 on this year’s birthday.  Six hours later I remembered that I turned that last year.  I hear these kinds of things happen with age?

3.       Half marathon training is not really going super awesome by myself.

4.       I have an online shopping addiction.  Thankfully I don’t necessarily spend all my money, I just fill the online carts with all my hopes and dreams.  However, I do often buy shoes.

5.       I want to be friends with Kate Middleton.

6.       If my freezer was full of all the mint chocolate ice cream combinations in the world it probably would not be enough.

7.       I am determined to accessorize my outfits.  Unfortunately, mornings do not promote creativity for me and I generally forget.

8.       I swore I would never watch anything vampire related.  Turns out, that wasn’t exactly a truthful statement.  Twelve vampire novels and 3.5 seasons later I find myself wishing Pam and I could be BFF’s.  Man do I love True Blood.

9.       I only like to movies I’ve already seen before.  Which, as you can imagine, presents quite the dilemma.

10.   I nap almost every day of my life.  I’m not willing to give this up any time soon.  I’ll have no choice when classes start again in the fall.

11.   I’ve done my best to only wear dresses to work for the entire month of July.  I’ve been mostly successful.

12.   My niece finally chose to say my name.  She’s been able to all along.  I know it. 

13.   Boyfriend thinks we need two dogs.  I still think we need zero dogs.  He says I secretly like Prince.  I say I don’t know where he’d come up with such a crazy idea.

14.   I found a nice Baptist church to attend these days.  They have great music there. 

15.   If it snows again this winter, it will be too soon.  You won’t catch me whining about this heat.  It may be the only thing I don’t whine about.

That list seriously took me like an hour.  What a struggle.  I'll prob think of twenty-seven more things to add to that list thirty seconds after I hit post.  I promise I'll try to come back for day two tomorrow.  Cross your fingers.

Sugarland

     Sometimes, for me, music says everything I can't find the words to say.  Too bad country music offends Boyfriend's senses to the very core.  If anyone finds a thug-life, gangsta rap song that says something similar send it my way.  Also, he likes his Justin Timberlake Pandora channel?  Whatev.





"Shine the Light"
-Sugarland

When you walk into the edge of those
Dark and lonely woods and when I ask how was your day
And you answer not so good
And when nothing seems to be working out
Quite the way it should; I will shine the light.
When the skies up above you fill
With grey and stormy clouds.
And there's not a single face you know
In the maddening crowd.
When you know that you don't make your way
But you just can't see how. I will shine the light.
I will shine the light.
I will shine the light.
I will hold you in my arms
Until everything's alright.
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/sugarland/shine_the_light.html ]
I will shine the light
When your worries they won't let you sleep
And rob you of your days...
And you've looked in all directions but you
Still can't find your way.
When you just need someone to remind you that it's
All gonna be ok I will shine the light.
I will shine the light.

I will shine the light.
When you're staring down your demons
Weighing in your darkest night
I will shine the light.
Sometimes we jump into the great unknown.
Sorrows we all will have to walk alone.
Waiting there in the end is a heart that calls you a friend.
That's me clapping the loudest welcoming you home.

So when your heart is heavy like a stone
From carrying it's load
And you look into the mirror and see someone you don't know
When the shadows are closing in on you like a hand around your throat
I will shine the light.
I will shine the light.
When you've given into your fears
When you've lost your will to fight
Let me know what I can do
Let me try to make it right.
I will shine the light.
I will shine the light

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/sugarland/#share

Must Love Dogs

               So after all that hype I guess you’re probably wondering how it went.  You know, the meeting of the family.  Or not.  Whatev.  The answer is – we’re still dating.  So I guess there’s your answer.  Of course two days after we got back he needed me to babysit his dog for four whole days, by myself, which is way more than 1.5 days with my family, so that could be why.  We made it to Boston without a hitch.  Made it to NH after a minor detour that resulted in me being super anxious and therefore being allowed to listen to country music for the rest of the drive.  He’s a wise man. 

                He got a preview of the extended fam Friday night – promised not to remember anyone’s, which he did not.  Promised my Gram he’d compliment her on her hair-do for the wedding, which he did.  He’s good like that. 

                Met the kids in the church – I pointed to the row of people that all look like me.  They all turned around to stare at him before the wedding started.  The ceremony was beautiful – I could not be happier for the two of them.  I forgot to bring the tissues from my gift bag the bride left for her out of town guests.  That was a mistake.  What? I’m a crier.  Boyfriend rolls his eyes and laughs at me.  We had a way fun time at the reception – I’m not a dancer but my little sisters were breaking. it. down.  We did get in one slow dance in the beginning.  He promised not to make me dizzy – proving that sometimes he hears what I tell him. (Noted.)

                Anyway.  He still loves me.  And I still love him.  And he went to Vegas to visit his family and left me with his dog, who I do not love, for four days, and I fed him when I was supposed to, so he was still alive when Boyfriend got home, so I say all’s well that ends well?  He was all ‘you two bonded while I was gone didn’t you.’  Well if you call sitting in the computer room with the door closed while I got super awesome at my timed mahjong game for like six hours straight so he couldn’t come in and ruin my life with his vomit inducing farts again bonding, then yes, we did that.

I'm so good at this game. You don't even know.

                The good news is, next time he goes to Vegas to visit his family I’m going with him. (!!)  Which means – I will finally journey west of the Mississippi River.  It also means that he has to love me at least until October because we already booked our flights. 

                In other news Half-marathon training starts today. T-minus 12 weeks.  Also True Blood came back into my life last night.  I think that’s everything.  Happy Monday people.

Friday Flashback

                After reading – technically ex-boss-lady’s Friday Flashback post we were chatting about how I’m hopeful that no one shows up later in life with surprise pictures of my childhood and some of the reasons why I might be concerned. 

                If you thought the Grinch photo was the worst of it – you might be wrong.  If you thought I was going to show you photos to prove your inaccuracies you are also wrong.  I will, however, admit my fashion shortcomings to you now.

                Three reasons why my childhood photos should be kept in a safe for eternity.  Or Burned.

1. I had a pair of khaki colored jeans – that I wore. All. The. Time. With a flannel zip up shirt by like Arizona Co. that was all zig-zag plaid-ish. So that wasn’t cute. Oh and I totally wore it zipped all the way up. :(
   
   
2. My bangs (gulp) were too short for curling. That didn’t stop me. I looked like I had a freaking curler in my hair or taped to my forehead. Totally not cute.
   
   
3. In grammar school I wore like 16 metal hair clips in my hair all the time. I found that if I did not a sibling would take my clips so I thought I would have none. So rather than putting them in a secret place for safe keeping – I put them in my hair for safe keeping. Probably could have picked up some satellite radio stations with all the metal on my head. Definitely not awesome.

All of these - on my head. At the same time.  Why did no one stop me?

So – as I said, hopefully no one has any photo documentation of these dark days.  And if you do, how about you do us all a favor and light them on fire.  Also, I’m pretty sure these things help Boyfriend confirm that I was so not a cool kid growing up, directly in contrast to how awesome he thinks he’s been since birth.  Don’t worry.  I tell him that I’m sure that he was not always the most awesome person in the world.

Meet and Greet

                Well it’s June.  Which means – by my imprecise calculations, me and Boyfriend have been dating for two years.  What have I learned in two years?  Many things.  A few highlights would be: he and I have nothing in common except True Blood and the New York Yankees, he only wears gray or blue shirts, contrary to my previous thinking that I only like bulldogs – I’m pretty sure I like zero dogs, and Boyfriend does not prefer to travel if he can A.) come up with a list of chores that need to be done B.) tolerate my whining long enough so I have to leave without him  C.) gets me to agree that he has no business participating in whatever it is that I am trying to get him to do.  So far so good for him – until this weekend.

                **Note - I’m the kind of person that “this weekend” means the one up and coming.

                This weekend my cousin is getting married, in New Hampshire.  Boyfriend is coming with -  mostly against his will and quite possibly against my better judgment.  I am having anxiety.  You see, he’s yet to meet my fam – except for one sister and one brother and one niece.   Unfortunately, for him, that’s not even the half of them.  It’s the perfect scenario really – he doesn’t travel, they do not travel so now that the stars have aligned and everyone has to travel to the same place- guess it’s time for a meet and greet.

                As you may or may not know, I am the oldest of nine children.  So if you’re doing the math that’s nine people Boyfriend has yet to meet.  He couldn’t list them all if you offered him a million dollars – he doesn’t do names well.  I’m pretty sure, by this point, he knows the names to identify them as related to me when I speak of them – no longer forcing me to pre-empt my stories with ‘my sister/brother…’ So maybe it will help him to have a face to go with the name?  Or.  It’s just going to be a wall of people who all know who he is and he wouldn’t recognize if they were all wearing name tags?  Personally, I think we all look alike.  Of course I lived with all of them for years so I might not be the right person to ask.  I offered to set him up with some study cards – he declined. 

                I’m totally not worried about Boyfriend – he’s a perfectly reasonable person and he can hold his own with the relatives.  I’m just pretty sure he’s going to be all ‘we can’t have that many people needing places to stay when they visit Niagara Falls – so we need to break up.’  I asked him to sign something saying he’ll still date me after.  He agreed saying it would never hold up in court.  And when I amended the contract so that there has to be one witness – he said he’d get back to me.   I’m a thousand percent counting on the niece to work some magic and distract my Gram from asking him a zillion questions.  Plus the baby totally says his name and not mine so I'm pretty sure everyone is going to get a kick out of that.  (Which is totally not fair because I spent two and a half days listening to Elmo and Dora and he spent fifteen minutes talking to her while he was getting ready for work. I think she does it on purpose.)

                                     Stay tuned.

I feel like she's plotting how to run Boyfriend's defense already?

Change of Pace

                Back in the day – like when I just assumed I would obviously someday choose to have kids I was all “I’m going to be the kind of mom that gets up every day at 6am to shower and put on my makeup before I start the day.”  Now I’m all if I ever accidentally have a kid I’m hiring a nanny to come over so I can do things that are important to me – like shower. 

Last week I babysat my niece for two and a half days (with the help of my brother) and let me just tell you I’m hopping right back on that “Babies ‘R Not For Me” train again.  I know I’m only 25, and I’m not getting married any time soon so this is essentially a non-issue – but I was driving that train right after my sister had her baby and a year and half later I was starting to think maybe I shouldn’t be making such a decisive statement.  Then she came to visit.

Don’t get me wrong – my niece is an incredibly simple child.  She loves her naps.  She hardly cries.  Eating is a struggle – she turned down the cheese quesadilla and dipped her raisins in the sour cream one night for dinner.  She did, however, demolish the treats we got her from Dunkin Donuts.  Here’s the thing though.  She never sits still.  And no it’s not just because I gave her two munchkins. 

Also, the concept of repetition is lost on this tiny person.  She only said like four phrases for the whole time she was here.  Not that she can't say more things.  She just likes to say the same things. A lot.  Boyfriend seems to think that us grownups are just making her gibberish sound like words but let me tell you the baby knows what she’s saying.

Baby:  “Elmo Whaa Whaa?”

Me/Brother: “What? Water?”

Baby: “Elmo Whaa Whhhaaa??”

Me/Brother: (Hesitantly)  “Elmo Quack Quack?”

Baby: “YEEEAAA!!”

Me: “I’m going to shoot myself in the face.”

Brother:  “Ohhhh no.  You’re not getting out of this that easily.”

She literally asked for Elmo Quack Quack on YouTube at least 47 million times and simultaneously was hoping to listen to the Dora the Explorer theme song.  She was all “Do Do?  Mo Do Do.”  And Brother was all trying to reason with this irrational person with “You chose Elmo.  You’re watching Elmo!” To which she obv was all “Mo Do Do?”  *Face Palm*

Speaking of Dora - where are her parents?  One episode we watched Dora was all "my mom packed my blueberries for a snack today."  Oh really.  Great mom you have there.  Gives you some berries and sends you out into the jungle, where we all know there is that villain fox on the loose, with nothing more than a singing backpack and a monkey who wears red boots.  I'm thinking someone needs to call CPS.  Do we know where Dora lives?

Anyway, we took my niece to the Buffalo Zoo – thinking she would be pumped to see things like animals.  She was more interested in the other babies in strollers.  We’d stop at an exhibit and we’d be all “Do you see that? Oh they’re sleeping. Shhh.”  As we stoop down to stroller eye level to confirm that she could, in fact, see the animal from her vantage point – had she not been looking at the kids running around behind us or pointing to the path and telling us she’s bored with “More?” 

After 2 hours of entertainment and my brother insisting that all he wants to see in the whole world is an ocelot.  Which, come to find out the Buffalo Zoo does house an ocelot – unfortunately it was not in its display.  We finally find a duck.  And me and Brother were all “Look! Quack Quack!” and the baby was all bored and pointing to keep moving…”More?”  Turns out?  All that Elmo Quack Quack nonsense?  Has nothing to do with the ducks.  Who knew? 

This is when I learned that it clearly takes 2 grownups to manage one mobile toddler.  I also concluded that all you people who have more than one of these people, on purpose, are saints and maybe a super hero because – there is no way I am cut out for that kind of chaos in my life.  I napped both days for two hours while she slept and her mother was the one who got up with her at 6am.  But I still couldn't pull off a full day.  Note to self though.  If I ever have a kid - I will tackle and/or karate chop any person who even attempts to introduce them to Elmo or that crazy bi-lingual child explorer. 

In case you too had no idea what the crap an ocelot is.

Come. On.

                I don’t consider myself a particularly friendly person.  I try to avoid people for the most part because I suck as making small talk.  It is torturous when I see people trying to think of something to say to me in awkward situations like – waiting in line for something.  Or in an elevator – which thankfully I never have to take those because I’m super scared of them. Or unfortunately walking the same route as someone else to parking lot. And most recently I've been unable to dodge some conversations that have left me wondering 'is this real life?!' 

                At work as I’m doing my best to keep my eyes open and my head down so I can get coffee and water for my oatmeal packet without speaking to any humans because well – I am no morning person:

                Man:     “You’ve got that oatmeal measurement down huh?”

                Me:        “Yes.”

               Whhhat?  It is of no concern of yours what my preferred oatmeal to water ratio is.

                Next day – same person, second cup of coffee and therefore no more oatmeal:

   Man:     “Finished your oatmeal already?”

   Me:        “Yes.”

   Now it’s certainly no concern of yours what I ate for breakfast.  But thanks.

At work, as I was leaving, wearing my North Face over my dress - so I didn’t have to carry it:

                Man:     “You look like you’re dressed for summer from the waist down.”

                Me:        “Oh. Ha. My office is chilly.”

                Man:     “Too bad we can’t see the top of that dress.”

                Me:        “Oh.”

                  Awkwardddd.

                Leaving work a different day after I made the mistake of not wearing heels – which apparently is messing with everyone’s sense of morality or something?

                Man:     “It’s so weird not to see you in high heels.”

                Me:        “Oh. “

                Man:     “I mean I’m just so used to seeing you in heels.”

                Me:        “Ok.”

              Man:     (Who ruined my plan to park at an alternate door as to avoid continuing such thrilling conversations by also parking by that door)  Proceeds to tell me some story about a different girl that I don’t know, who almost fell down the stairs because she wears heels and something about Karma because he thinks she’s a B-word.

                Me:        (Grateful to finally be in the parking lot)  Have a good evening.

               Why is my footwear a matter of national security?! Sometimes I like to wear comfortable shoes.  Incidentally, those flats are less comfortable than my heels.  But whatev.

                So with that being said, I’m thinking I’m going to implement a high five policy.  I’m going to just high five people who say things to me that I don’t think they should be saying.  I don’t think you can leave someone hanging right?  They’ll have to high five me back.  And then the next time they want to try and think of something to say to me they’ll remember that I’m the girl who high fived them and they prob won’t know why I did that and maybe that won’t want to roll the dice on that happening again and they’ll slow they’re roll and take the hallway at a more staggered pace as to avoid having to come up with something brilliant to say to me?  Thoughts?

                Concerns.  I’m slightly OCD and high fiving people constantly would force me to have to up the hand washing count - which is already pretty high.  I can’t handle any more antibacterial gel – my hands see enough of that when I go places and touch door handles, use shopping carts, pump gas, sign credit card slips with the same pen the whole entire world uses or go to the ATM.  Pretty much after I touch things any other person else might have touched before me.  I don’t trust that people didn’t choose to wash their germy hands with body wash rather than anti-bacterial hand soap after using the restroom resulting in pomegranate scented germs being transferred to the door handles. 

 I’m thinking I’ll need to use the fist pound instead.  Less personal contact.  To be determined whether or not I’ll incorporate the explosion.  But seriously, if people feel like they need to talk to me – they do not.  And if you feel like you need to get me to ask you a question by sighing loudly to initiate the conversation – I will not.  I will, however, stop resisting the urge to congratulate you for being such an awesome conversationalist.