I am a Convert*

See this? I love her.

How in the world did it take me so long??

Granted, I’ve spent most of my time in iPhoto but that alone is enough to completely justify this decision. I haven’t used a mac in ages but so far, I love this thing. And the more I use it, the more I love it.

 

*No, Mom. Not that kind of convert. Put down the phone. Breathe.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

You know, eleven years is a long time for any relationship. To be honest, I never expected it to go on this long. I was young, I was naïve, you had so much to offer. We’ve had our share of ups and downs. You’ve done some amazing things for me. I have made so many wonderful, life-long friends because of you. You’ve taken fairly good care of me over time. You moved me across the country and gave me a life I never dreamed of. I was always loyal to you. You were always pretty stingy, never giving me what everyone knew I was worth. And the looming feeling that you were going to tire of me and kick me to the curb every fall got to be too much. So I am taking my life and my future into my own hands and I am turning and walking away. It’s best for both of us. Maybe our paths will cross again in the future, though with your recent self-destruction, that’s probably not likely. I wish you the best and truly do thank you for our time together but it’s time for me to say goodbye. It’s bitter-sweet and I am sad to go, but I have to break out on my own now. Best of luck to you.

Holy shit. I have quit my job.

What have I done??

Project Say Something: Burning Down the House

Why is it, my sister’s questions always make me rethink how I do things? How rude.

“Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire; after saving your loved ones, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any ONE item. What would it be?”

I have to admit, all of my life I have had an intense fear of my house burning down. Yes, I’m materialistic, but that’s not it. It’s the sentimentality of it all. Though, right now, if I my stuff were out of the house, I’d say sayonara, sucker! Burn, baby, burn! I’d finally be able to get out of the damn thing. (I am KIDDING! I do not want my house to burn down with or without my stuff. Okay, universe? Did you get that disclaimer? It was a joke!)

But if it did, and my stuff was going up in flames with it, I would be screwed because the one thing I know I would want to go back in and get is up the stairs, around the banister, down the hall and in the very back bedroom. Yes, I would be going down with the house if I went back in for it. This is where my sister has made me rethink how I do things.

I would want to save my binder of CDs that have all of my pictures on them. Sure, I would be losing all the pictures before I went digital but these are Madeleine’s entire life. I’m sure there should be something else I would rather save, but that’s the only thing I can really come up with right now. So instead of storing them in the worst possible place in the house, I have decided to move them to the bookshelves in the front room. With my camera. So I can cheat. If I have time to grab one, I have time to grab the other. Which means I might as well store my computer there too. And the baby books. And my jewelry. And shoes. And… I’m kidding. Really just the pictures. The memories.

Project Say Something: 20 10 Questions

Amy stole her questions from Inside the Actor's Studio this time around. Which? Brilliant. I love how "word-association" -like they make them.

What is your favorite word?
Onomatopoeia

What is your least favorite word?
Fart (seriously, I hate that word)

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Intelligence. Cleverness.

What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Close-mindedness

What sound or noise do you love?
Ocean. Children's laughter

What sound or noise do you hate?
LOUD

What is your favorite curse word?
My mom,grandma and mother-in-law read this site so I naively swore to myself I would not use that word on my site. Which truly kills me a lot of days. (It is afterall, my favorite. And just flows so easily and works so well with so many things.) It's the one that starts with the F and ends with the K. But mom, grandma, mother-in-law, I swear, I don't say that word. Ever. Really.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Designer

What profession would you not like to do?
Clean port-a-potties. Along with so many others.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"Welcome" (Hey, it's better than, "You've got the wrong door, dummy!")

Sound of Silence

You know how limos have those windows that the driver can roll up to give "privacy" to the back seat? So he doesn't have to hear or see what's going on back there?

I want one of those.

So when she starts screaming and freaking out, I can roll up that window and pretend the car is quiet and calm.

Project Say Something: ‘Cuz I’m an Idiot

"We've all done stupid things in our lives. (Don't deny it, you were a teenager once too!) What's one of the stupidest things you've ever done? Tell us all about it! (Or if you're like me and have a ginormous LIST of them, just pick a few :) )"

If there has ever been any question of my genius, let me clear that up right now. I got a new cell phone Friday night. I spent a couple of hours setting it up and fiddling around with it. I didn’t bother “learning” anything about the phone. I just put my contacts in, added my most frequently called numbers, and called it good. Saturday I went to the mall. I tried to call my husband from my frequently called numbers list. It went to my voicemail. I tried again to make sure I wasn’t just crazy. Nope, same thing. A few possibilities went through my head since I know nothing about the phone. I had thought maybe I had just typed his number in incorrectly (our numbers are only one digit different), but of course I couldn’t be *that* stupid. So after trying and testing a few things, I actually started looking into it. Yep, sure enough, I was, in fact, *that* stupid.

Is this the stupidest thing I have ever done? Not by a long shot.

I seem to have a knack for doing stupid things. An old pro. And while I do have a list of them, I sure do have one that takes the cake for all of them. Not one I like to admit, not one I like to talk about (for so many reasons other than the pure STUPID factor).

The summer I was twenty, I naively, stupidly, in a complete loss of all rationale, logic, smarts, common sense and whatever else, got on a plane to Portland, Oregon to meet some guy I’d been chatting online with for a while. A LITTLE while. I’m not talking lots of months or years. I’m talking in weeks. Aside from all the other reasons this was incredibly stupid, reasons I don’t need to go into here, seriously – DUMBEST thing ever. I knew next to nothing about the guy. I could have been flying off to meet a complete psychopath, serial killer. What did I know? Young people are insane. They want something, they ignore all rationale and reason and get it. Doesn’t matter how incredibly stupid it is. It wasn’t until I got there that I thought (in the terms of safety), “What the HELL am I thinking????”

Obviously he wasn’t a psychopath serial killer (well, he very well could have been a psychopath, he did turn out to be kind of a nutjob in the end.) and I lived to tell the tale. But looking back over my life, of all the HUNDREDS of stupid things I can say I’ve done, that would be the worst.

It makes all the backing into things, head shaving, walking away from things that shouldn’t be walked away from, not selling stock worth something, relationship screw-ups, dumb-ass decisions I’ve made look like I really am a pure genius. Even if I can’t type a phone number correctly.

Heading Outside Again

It's finally getting warm enough that we don't have to spend all night in the house. Thank goodness. Hopefully it stays that way. It's made surviving the night much, much easier.