Super Sweet Sunday!

I forgot to do my Fun Friday Finds. I blame Thanksgiving and Black Friday and all that. Actually, I blame my couch and my desire to turn off technology for a couple days. Well, take whatever excuse you prefer. So instead of my Friday Finds, I’m going to provide you with Super Sweet Sunday!

(Yep, that's a super sweet Sundae... I'm so funny)

*I know it’s after Thanksgiving, but if you didn’t get a chance to see this, you have to take a look. It’s a pretty funny list of rules for the Thanksgiving family football game. I love rule #16: “No, you don't get to be "permanent QB." Not if you want anybody to like you. “ This definitely resonates with me. It never fails that I end up playing football with someone that wants to be permanent QB. It also never fails that everyone ends up hating him by the end of the game.

*I love this. End of story or explanation.

*Unsorted mail. This blog was actually discovered a couple years ago and has not been updated in about a year. That’s ok though because there are so many archives available that you will not regret going to this site. The premise: a short letter to someone about something. Totally vague, I know. The part that is the most ridiculous about this site is that after you spend your work day reading this whole website, you will speak in letter format for a couple days. True story.

*Awesome Breaking Dawn Movie Review. As my brother in law so eloquently pointed out as his reason why this movie review is incredible: “I’m a big fan of the phrase ‘I shit you not’”. Yes, that phrase among many other amazing pieces of feedback are in this blog. I did go see Breaking Dawn. I’ll admit it. I’m not a crazy over the top fan, but I’ve read the books and I want to see how they make it all work on the big screen. There were points in Breaking Dawn where I was laughing out loud. I know I have to suspend reality for these movies… I mean, it’s about a vampire, warewolf and a really stupid girl. I get it, but when the CGI wolves are having a conversation that makes The Transformers look realistic, I had to fight to not walk out of the theater…. And don’t get me started on the horrible acting. Read the review. You’ll want to see the movie for the laughs alone.
 
Listening to Brett Dennen.

The Little Prince and Important Conversations

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is my favorite book. My mother introduced me to it in high school and I was fairly skeptical (as any high schooler is with their parents). She told me that she thought I would like it and I should just give it a try. That’s exactly what she told me about piano lessons when I was in 3rd grade and that was a complete debacle which included me crying every Tuesday night about how I didn’t practice enough for lessons on Wednesday and that I was afraid that my teacher would yell at me. I do want to point out that my teacher did yell at me. Every week she yelled at me. Actually, I am sure that if I had practiced every single waking minute, she still would have yelled at me. She was a pretty awful teacher and I quit piano after a year. So all of this is to say that whenever I hear suggestions from my mother, I am cynical. With all that baggage floating around in my head, for some reason, I decided to give The Little Prince a try. I loved it. I loved the characters, the lessons, the illustrations (yep, there are pictures) and the meaning behind each page of the book. I snagged my mother’s copy of it and never gave it back (well, that’s because I lost it when I was a freshman in college… but I wouldn’t have given it back. Now I have a new shiny one that my mother gave me… she also purchased another one for herself). I have read the book at least once a year since it was introduced to me. There’s never a specific time of year that I feel like I need to read it, it’s more of a certain mood that I am feeling. I usually pull out the book when I need to take a break and get some perspective.


All of this explanation on the book and why I love it is not a prelude to a book report or anything, it’s more to give you some background on why I was reading it this week. I was reading it because I wanted to give myself some perspective as well as to provide me a little taste of home (it’s the holidays afterall, right?). I decided that I wanted to write something about this book or about how I feel around reading this book or something like that. What I’ve come up is a lot less insightful and more of a show and tell. I’m cool with that. I feel like most of the stuff I throw on here isn’t so much as insightful as it is just me rambling (unless you think my love for Marcel the Shell is insightful).

I wanted to share my absolute favorite part of the book. It happens within the first couple pages, so if you ever just want to pick up the book, read a page or two. You won’t be disappointed. Here’s the page that resonates with me.

After this page, the author goes on to talk about how adults don’t understand anything and that it is exhausting for children to have to keep explaining things to them. He says:

“Whenever I encounter a grown-up who seemed to me at all enlightened, I would experiment on him with my drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I wanted to see if he really understood anything. But he would always answer, “That’s a hat.” Then I wouldn’t talk about boa constrictors or jungles or stars. I would put myself on his level and talk about bridge and golf and neckties. And my grown-up was glad to know I was such a reasonable person."

These pages and words resonate with me. It makes me ponder how I address people and make judgments based on who I think they are. I’m not carrying around a picture of a boa constrictor eating an elephant, but I certainly decide who is enlightened enough to have the important conversations. Well, the important conversations to me. As explained in the book, people feel like talking about work, politics, sports, and technology. They see these conversations as enlightened and educated. I don’t really see those as the significant conversations, but I’m willing to have them with those that I think deserve them.

I’m not inclined to share what I consider important conversations with those that can’t understand them or handle them. To me, an important conversation involves your dreams, hopes, fears and so much more. I want to talk about how the music you listen to moves your soul. I want to have conversations about the close relationship of your grandparents and how that impacted your life. I want to talk about the feeling you get from your pen strokes touching the paper as you write your first novel. Or the spark you felt in your heart after strumming an original song on the guitar. Please tell me about the childish joy you get from rolling up a snowball and preparing to find a target. Let’s talk about the things that we cannot even fathom… are there really spiders the size of my head in the amazon? What does it feel like to walk on the moon? What would it feel like to paint a masterpiece? All of these things seem like a real conversation to me. In the grand scheme of things, these are what I find important, but sometimes, I need The Little Prince to remind me.

Listening to Simon & Garfunkel.

Fun Friday Finds!

I read a lot of blogs that do some sort of Friday wrap up or list of websites to visit or favorites from the week or something. I don’t always love what people post, but I enjoy the fact that they are just giving me a list of things that I should check out. My friends are always sending me videos and blogs and asking me if I’ve seen them already. It’s about 50/50 nowadays, but I used to be MUCH more well versed in the random crap out on the interwebs. Either way, here’s my list of awesomeness that I was checking out this week. I titled it Fun Friday Finds because I like alliteration, not necessarily because I found these all on a Friday, but maybe you will find these things on Friday, so then the title actually works... we'll see. Hope you enjoy!

*Full House Revisited: Yes, this blogger reviews each episode of Full House. It is awesome. I can’t decide if I love it because of the commentary (which is pretty spot on and hilarious) or if it is because I know all the details of the episodes being reviewed since I was a very committed Full House viewer. http://fullhousereviewed.wordpress.com/

*Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Two. The much anticipated to Marcel the Shell with Shoes On officially came out this week. Guess why I smile a lot? Why? Uhhh, because it’s worth it. http://bit.ly/tmF5R6

*12 Things Happy People Do Differently. This is an interesting blog post. As I was reading it, I had my shields up. I was ready to find ways to apply what I’m doing to their ideas or to refute the ideas that I’m not doing. The further I read in to the post, the more I enjoyed it and was intrigued by it. The third point about avoiding over-thinking and social comparison was particularly poignant. I think everyone struggles with that, and it’s a great reminder that comparing ourselves to others can be poisonous. The blog got me thinking so much, it may even be a post that I create a response to… we’ll see.    http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/08/30/12-things-happy-people-do-differently/

*I email on a pretty regular basis with some grad school friends. Our conversations vary, covering topics from current events and weddings to donuts and bacon. Someone sent out this article about Pakistan telecoms blocking “obscene” texts. They event listed some of the words that would be blocked. I think my favorite word they are blocking is WuuTang, as in the Wu-Tang Clan. What is this, 2000? I can’t think of the last time that the Wu-Tang Clan has been relevant in society. How far behind is Pakistan? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15772292

*Last March, my aforementioned email buddies found the March Madness Bracket of Cake vs. Pie (http://bit.ly/bmrqgt) created by Jezebel.com. A very contentious discussion ensued as the battle waged on throughout the month. Well, in honor of Thanksgiving, we have found a Thanksgiving Sides Contest on the Huffington Post.  We’re anticipating a Stuffing v. Mashed Potatoes Championship Round. But you should certainly get over there to vote. http://huff.to/tboKop

*And one last Thanksgiving link. This website has the recipe to combine the traditional Thanksgiving bird with the beloved bacon. Don’t ask why I’ve ventured to the Christian Science Monitor for a recipe. Just appreciate that in America, we can add bacon to anything.  http://bit.ly/urs1mT YUM!

Listening to Coconut Records.

The Breakup

Have you ever had your heart broken? You know that feeling the next day... that weird hangover feeling? You know that you need to move on, but your insides still ache? It's awful.

Imagine this:
Imagine that you have been seeing someone for quite some time. Years in fact. You've established a very close relationship. You know everything about each other. Most important, you trust each other. This person has promised you so many things and, over the years, has fulfilled all those promises. Even sometimes when it looked like they weren't going to, they somehow found a way to follow through. They never let you down. Until one day, that all comes crashing down. You find out they lied to you and they can't give you all that they guaranteed. Not only have they lied to you, they decide to let you find out about it in front of a bunch of other people. All you can do is stand there in disbelief. You feel shame, humiliation, and most of all, you feel hurt. So hurt, it makes your insides tense. You feel sick to your stomach. The only thing you want to do is curl up in to a ball and hide at home, losing all connection to the world. As one of my friends suggests "Drink until you don't feel feelings. Sometimes that's best." I can't say I always take his advice, but sometimes it just makes sense. This feeling sits inside you for days as you sprawl out on your couch in your ratty pajamas thinking of all the things that could have been. Rehashing the scenario in your mind over and over while trying to come up with ways it could have been different. Hoping for some sort of solution that will make the hurt go away.

Sound familiar at all? It certainly does to me. That's because I'm a Boise State fan. Not just a fan, but an alum. I've been connected to Boise State for 10 years now. We've had some close calls, but somehow, Boise always follows through. This year is a little different. Boise's football team promised me that this year is the year that we will show the country that the BCS is a flawed system. This year is the year we would, again, go undefeated. This year is the year that we would be taking a trip all the way to the Championship Game. Well, apparently, this year is the year that we were reminded that we need to work on our kicking game. This year is also the year where I will have to deal with the humiliation and heartbreak of another chance that slipped through our hands. Yes, I've been in a relationship with Boise State football for years and she let me down. She made promises she couldn't keep and then decided to announce her failure to me in front of millions. I've been sick to my stomach since the final failed kick. Right after the game, I went straight home. I turned off my phone, computer and TV. I didn't need any reminders of the pain. I could still see it in my head. I may have had a drink or three with the roommate to mourn the event (no one will know the true number of beverages except whoever picks up our recycling). I moped around in my pajamas while revising the last plays of the game. If we didn't fumble, TCU wouldn't have scored. If we had made the tackle, TCU wouldn't have completed the 2 point conversion. If this, then that... If this, then that... No amount of reasoning is going to change the outcome of the game. It's heartbreaking, but it's true. I'm a horrible loser. The one thing you can do after a break up to keep your mind off the situation is to keep busy. I went up skiing today to try to forget about the agony of defeat. It worked for the most part, but there were still moments where I relapsed. As with any break up, this will happen for awhile. The only way to heal a broken heart is to give it time.

I do want to be clear, I'm not breaking up with Boise State Football. But after last week's betrayal, we may be on a break... until next Saturday.


Listening to Tristan Prettyman.

Reflections on a Drive Home

First off, I was looking at my stats and it looks like I have a ridiculous amount of readers from Russia, which is awesome. I only know one person living in Russia, and since I haven't talked to him in years, I can be pretty certain that he is not the one reading my blog from overseas. So thanks Russia! I feel the love!

I've always thought that I'm a pretty good multi-tasker. I'm the girl that can talk on the phone, eat and put on makeup all while driving to work. I know, I've heard of the dangers of distracted driving. I'm just such an amazing multi-tasker, it's not a problem... Ok, I'm working on cutting back on distracted driving, I promise. But that's not the point of what I'm talking about today. I think my multi-tasking stems from the fact that I can't ever seem to focus specifically on one thing for an extended period of time (yeah, we can make correlations to my love life based around this statement, but that's not where I'm going with this today). My mind seems to race so fast that it needs multiple stimulants to keep me focused. If I'm in a meeting, I'm listening closely and fully comprehend, but I am also making a to do list. When I run at the gym, I have my music on, and I'll also watch the news and read the closed captioning. I can't ever seem to focus on one thing. On my drive home tonight, I was reflecting on my day and my ability to move fluidly from task to task was very apparent. I don't know what your work day looks like, but mine is always changing and unexpected. It is not uncommon for me to get home at the end of the day and completely crash from running around and being mentally exhausted. Let me give you a little information about what I did today to illustrate this.

My morning started with a walk through part of our building to look at our chalk board display about patriotism. I run upstairs to discuss fee regulations with our accountant. Throughout my day, I am an active participant in problem solving situations about being over budget, creating gender-neutral restrooms, developing student organizations, being an advocate for non-christian cultures, city sponsorships of campus programs, the use of glitter at events, developing inclusive holiday programs on campus and more. I worked with 11th grade students to help them develop a student involvement group at their charter school in Denver. I confirmed a show featuring Demetri Martin (super funny guy! Wahoo!), submitted an award recommendation for a coworker, collaborated with a colleague from a nearby college, and created a floor plan for our upcoming Veteran's Day Event. I even got the chance to eat lunch today, which is awesome.

I realize as I'm writing this that it sounds annoying. That's not my intention. I understand that everyone is busy and productive during their work day. There is no way that I'm going to get in to the "who's the busiest" game. I have no desire to debate. You can win, I'm sure your life is much more chaotic than mine. I'm really writing about this because I appreciate that my job is so varied and it really fits with my multi-tasking style. I'm pretty lucky to have the chance to be able to have such differing conversations and activities throughout my day.

Today one of my students posted this status on Facebook:

"It's time to get personal. Do you ever step back, look at your life, and realize that it is really good? Like, real good. Sure, there are setbacks, bumps, and unfortunate happenings, but, in the grand scheme of things, you couldn’t ask for anything..."

I'm impressed by her insight and it gave me a chance to step back and take a look at myself. My drive home reflecting on my day at work let me take a look at my job and realize that I have it really good. That's pretty awesome if you ask me.

Listening to Avett Brothers.

Day Off? Never Heard of It.

Today I took the day off. I decided to take a long weekend to travel down to Texas for my friend's wedding. If you don't want to read the rest of the post, know that the moral of the story is that I shouldn't take the day off assuming that it will be relaxing and that I am always becoming more awesome. If you want to read on, go for it.

I woke up at an ungodly hour to a freezing cold house and a cranky dog. Those aren't the reasons that I woke up, they were just the first things that struck me after my heart attack due to a painfully loud alarm clock jolting me out of my slumber. I stumbled through the dark of my room trying to remember why I thought an early flight was a good idea while simultaneously knocking over about 8 things in order to find the light switch. How are those things so hard to find?! I mean, they are pretty much in the same location in every room- right next to the door. But I digress... I get ready and rush to the airport. I could tell you tales of everything that is annoying about airports and flights, but I'll save that for another time. We all know the stresses of going through security and the camaraderie created due to our vulnerability as we remove our shoes. But as much as I loathe certain parts of airport travel, there is something oddly nostalgic and enchanting about it.

After getting in to Houston, I knew I had some free time because everyone was scheduled for wedding activities, so I decided that I would go relax and get a pedicure before joining in. To make my day even better, I swing by Starbucks to grab a wonderful tall light ice soy chai then head to the salon.   What a great way to enjoy the day off, right? I pick out my nail color (OPI- I'm Not Really A Waitress), hop in to the massage chair and start soaking my feet. This is where I make a mistake. I check my email. Dear lord. Emails from my boss' boss about some event concerns. Emails from some of my staff about a project falling through. I try to send off some responses and provide direction on some of the situations as much as possible. Once I send responses, people realize that they can just call. So my cell phone starts ringing off the hook. As my toes are getting painted, I do what I can to try to put out fires. After I hang up with a call, my pedicurist looks at me and says "I thought you had today off?". So did I. Needless to say, that was the most stressful pedicure I have ever had.

After the pedicure, I finally get to meet up with my friends and catch up with them. There is plenty of excitement. It feels so familiar and comfortable. Even after a "day off" that was more stressful than it should have been, it was relaxing to spend time with everyone. We covered stories of past romances, mistakes and adventures. We discuss mutual friends and what people have been up to. I found out another friend is expecting, which is a little crazy. Really? Is there something in the water these days? In the past week I have had to purchase cards and/or gifts for 3 couples that are engaged/married and 2 people that are pregnant. Is it fair to cap the amount of people that I celebrate in one year? I mean, at what point is this completely excessive?

Someone posted this picture of NPH and I decided that it was fitting. Even after a day like today, I'm just getting more awesome.

Listening to Muse.

Everyone is Awkward

An old boss once told me that he loved hearing stories about my awkward encounters. He found them completely hilarious and couldn’t wait for the next installment. After about 6 months, he mentioned to me that if I was always a part of these awkward encounters, maybe it’s not everyone else, maybe it’s me. If I’m the common denominator in all the stories, wouldn’t it make sense that I’m the awkward one in the situation? As much as I hate to admit it, he makes a very good point.

I am a self-proclaimed awkward individual. I know it and I own it pretty well. I think it’s my charming combination of unfiltered commentary combined with poor coordination. I’m pretty aware of my awkwardness, so I like to do what I can to make sure others don’t have to experience it to any huge extreme. Which leads me to the question: am I the only one that does that? 

I wouldn’t have thought twice about this question until this past week. Maybe Halloween brings out everyone’s awkward side, but I don’t think that’s it. I think that everyone is completely and totally awkward but only certain individuals know how to fall within societal norms and “pass” as normal. 

I feel like there are different extremes of awkward. I get embarrassed when I see people do things that are uncomfortable in public. For example, my office hosted a Halloween Costume Contest this week. Of course the only people that entered were these students that were extremely dressed up in costumes of characters that I’m sure only 1% of people on earth have heard of. In addition to dressing over the top, they also felt that it was acceptable to act like their characters in front of hundreds of people. What?! All I could do was stand there and force a smile (even though I was cringing with embarrassment on the inside). That may be the extreme of awkward and uncomfortable. I think the part that is scary is that they are college students. If they were in high school, we could convince ourselves that they can grow out of it. 

I don’t think being awkward has to be to that extreme. My friend’s FB status last weekend said the following: “OMG. So excited to hang out with my boyfriend today. We’re going to carve pumpkins, go hot tubbin’, and eat frozen yogurt!”. Let’s get past the fact that I’m calling this person my friend and move straight to what she is saying. First off, don’t ever use OMG. It just reminds me that you should still be in high school or that you read too many gossip magazines. Second, everyone knows that you have a boyfriend. You’ve mentioned it in every other post since you’ve been “facebook official”. Move on. I’m pretty sure your boyfriend is embarrassed by you. But the main awkward part of this post to me is the combination of activities that will be taking place. I understand that you are trying to explain how your whole day is going to pan out, but when you state it like you did in your post, I’m picturing you and your boyfriend sitting in the hot tub while carving pumpkins and eating frozen yogurt. Not only am I completely disgusted by this imagery, I also question what you consider a good time. Are pumpkin seeds falling in to the hot tub? Is your fro-yo melting? Don’t bring me in to those so-called intimate moments of your life. It makes me feel completely uncomfortable. 

My friend has provided me with a scale to better understand awkwardness. This only came about after I created a slightly awkward situation, but still, I appreciate his perspective. I told him that I needed to ask him a question that he might find uncomfortable, so I wanted to apologize in advance if it made him uncomfortable (see, that’s me being self-away… the exact opposite of the Halloween Costumed Crazies and the Creepy Hot Tub Couple). After asking the question, he said “on the continuum of awkward questions, that is much closer to "what is your name?" on the left than "what do you think about when you urinate?" on the right”. I’ll tell you right now, I took that as a compliment. I’ll also tell you that the fact that he has created this continuum proves my point that everyone is awkward.

Listening to Florence & The Machine.

Questions I had to answer

Wow. This has been a busy week and it's only Tuesday. I'll fill you in on the things I've been things I've been thinking... well correction... I was going to fill you in on a lot of the things I was thinking, but my roommate convinced me to go to Happy Hour tonight, so let's be real... I have only a couple things to say this evening and then I want to go to bed. Here goes...

When your roommate asks you to go to Happy Hour, think twice. I say that with all sincerity. I love the girl, but Happy Hour always turns in to Happy HourS. We start out having one lovely beverage at a location (Upslope's Pumpkin Ale in this occasion) and before you know it, we've had a couple beers and have moved on to another location in the city. Um, BFF Roommate, it's a Tuesday. I have an early meeting tomorrow. Peer pressure gets me every time.

I was filling out an application and came across a question thought caught me off guard. I rarely encounter something that I can't quickly find an answer to, so this was particularly frustrating to me. The question was asking me to name 3 things that have meaning in my life and why. I'm pretty lucky that the application isn't due until the end of this month so it gives me some time to really think about it.  Here's one option for an answer that I have so far.

Running- This is something that didn’t have meaning in my life for quite some time. I think that a lot of people would think this is a strange answer. I was never a runner. I was the kid in gym class that would rather walk the mile fitness test than run it. (And believe me, I did walk it, much to the chagrin of my gym teacher). It’s not that I wasn’t athletic, it’s just that I didn’t want to run from Point A to Point B unless there was a reason. I was a dancer, softball player, and swimmer. I was certainly fit enough to run. After college and grad school, I had gained a fair amount of weight. I was not as happy as I should have been and I knew I was missing something. I moved to Houston for my job and decided to give myself a challenge. I decided that I was going to run a marathon. This was clearly absurd since I had never run more than one mile. People kept asking me if I would rather start with a 5k or a 10k or something. I would politely decline. I’m stubborn to a point where once I say that I’m going to do something, I’ll do it, no matter how impossible it may seem. So I trained for months and learned so much. I learned how to balance my life, how to challenge myself, how to get past the negativity that everyone (including myself) would put out in the world about my idea. There were so many points along the journey that I knew no one would fault me for stopping, but I kept going. Long story short, I completed a marathon. It was amazing and life changing. Running is something that now has a place in my life that helps me reset my mind and gives me perspective. If I am facing a challenge, I know that I can overcome it, even if no one thinks I can. 

So that's the start of my answer. I think it came out a little too cheesy for my liking, so I'm sure I'll adapt it, but we'll see how it goes. Only one month to get the rest of that answer complete.

One of the great things about going to Happy HourS with my roommate is that we get a chance to catch up and get down to the bottom of things. We've been friends for 10 years, so there are very few (if any) things that we won't say to one another. Tonight was no different. We spent a lot of the evening MANalyzing as we tend to do. My roommate asked me what kind of crap I've been trying to pull in the past couple weeks. My answer about the "crap I'm trying to pull" is that I have no good answer. I'm a pretty level headed and smart person, and I know better. Sometimes I make poor choices because I like to live imagining how things could be without considering all the variables that I know already exist. I enjoy the experiences and unrealistically hope that things may change in my favor. Her response: "Stop it and move on". Noted.

Listening to: AWOLnation