0
You know when you’re young and fresh and 18, heading out on that big adventure called college? Leaving home for the first time, we felt like we were making the leap into adulthood.
If only.
I’m reliving those days a bit over at Letters for Lucas, where Tonya has graciously asked me to share something for her Letters to You series. I decided to take a trip down memory lane and reach out to my young, naive (oh so naive!) freshman in college self. I’m not a huge fan of letters to our younger selves. I think they’re a bit overdone sometimes. But I found I had a lot to say to myself. Mainly, don’t accept that piggy back ride…
Go visit me at Tonya’s and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
11
Remember when I talked about how only terrible (or all) parents let their kids go around with messy hair? Well, we rectified that with a trip to the “beauty shop” as my sweet grandmother calls it. Only I don’t think hers has princess decorated stations and all-you-can-watch screenings of Happy Feet. But why would we talk about haircuts when we can talk about Rachel and Claire’s new favorite game, Butts? The rules are simple, as they should be: 1. Chase your sister around the room and tackle her. 2. Pull her pants down, exposing her rear. 3. Yell one of the approved Butts battle cries: “I see your BUTT!” or “Hee hee hee…Your BUTT!” or maybe even “JUICY BOOTY!” 4. Some smacking and/or sniffing may be involved. 5. If wearing footie pajamas, you must strip down to your undies/diaper to participate. Otherwise it’s just too much zipping, and the whole... Continue Reading
6
So I think the last time I wrote about my ZOOMA Half Marathon training progress, I was a little discouraged, no? Well you all, including my fellow ambassadors, were all so nice and encouraging and group huggy, and it just warmed my cold, black, blergy heart. And you know what? I haven’t really had a terrible run since. I don’t know what was going on that day. Just a bad run, I guess. Everyone had great words of encouragement, most notably to get the $115 shoes I had been fitted for, so that’s on the way, as well as some sexy compression socks I just got in the mail today. Boy did they feel good! Some also suggested jazzing up the playlist. Some offered to get together and run, some advised me to stretch more. My favorite comment was that my feeling discouraged meant I was a real runner, because... Continue Reading
17
I am an introvert. It’s not uncommon for us online personalities. We flourish behind our keyboards, coming out of our shells on the screen as we type witty status updates, tweets, and thoughtful blog posts. I carry on virtual conversations with the best of them, but put me in front of someone, and I can barely form a coherent thought, much less a sentence. But the reason we’re so good online is not necessarily because we’re shut ins whose pasty indoor skin practically glows in the light of day. It’s because there’s a delete key. A backspace. The opportunity to edit ourselves! Face to face, it’s a little harder to say, “Okay, that sounded inappropriate. Let me just go back and change that. Where is that thesaurus…..” Also, no one is touching us. There are things that classic introverts hate. I despise being in charge of something; I’m a good... Continue Reading
15
You know what we people take for granted? Hot showers. You know what else? Dryers. Warning! This post is chock full of first world problems, friends. It all started a few weeks ago when my dryer — not a spring chicken, I admit — started making a clattering noise straight out of your worst laundry nightmares. We have a home warranty on this 30 year old abode, so we quickly filed a claim, but it was Sunday. The appliance company contacted us on Monday, but no one could make it out until Wednesday, which in laundry speak with multiple children means you may as well just burn all your clothes and start from scratch. When the dryer dudes finally made it out, they spent all of 10 minutes looking at my dryer, adjusting the blower wheel, and collecting my $65 deductible. It seriously pays to be a dryer dude. And... Continue Reading
25
I’m grumpy. I’m hitting a wall in my half marathon training, and I’m getting discouraged (I know y’all are so over me talking about this, but it’s a big part of my life right now. Can we still be friends?). There will be no inspiration or life lesson from this post today (joke’s on you — there never is!), nor am I looking for your pity and assurance that I can do this. Scratch that. I will take your pity. And heck, I won’t even turn away your encouragement. Last week when I ran 6.25 miles for the first time, I was on cloud 9. I felt great the entire time. I felt like a badass afterward. I wondered if I’d hit that runner’s high that I’d heard so much about. But best of all, I felt like I could do this half marathon. Today I’m feeling less confident and... Continue Reading
22
I’ve been running. A lot. I’m chugging right along in my Zooma half marathon training. Some days I think I’m gonna rock this half! Other days I think This totally sucks, I’ll surely never make it. But thanks to the fact that I commit to things almost to a fault, I’ll be there and attempt my 13.1 miles. I may hobble across the finish line resembling Simon Pegg in Run, Fat Boy, Run, but I will cross that finish line. Even on my hardest run days, a good running playlist makes the difference between a decent run and a shitty one. I don’t necessarily need thump thump pump it up tunes to keep me going — just something that I love. Some may be fast, some may be slow, but it has to my mind wander so I’m not thinking about RUNNING ALL THE MILES! It doesn’t necessarily mean that the... Continue Reading
15
Before I had kids, and even when I was a mom of babies, I used to scoff at kids with messy hair — ponytails flattened down and drooping, barrettes all askew, tangled locks in their faces. In public of all places! I mean, did these kids’ moms not see these hair atrocities? Did they not care enough to fix their poor child’s hair and make them presentable? Now that I have preschool aged kids of my own, I can tell you no. Their parents did not care enough to make them presentable. They cared about one thing and one thing only: keeping the peace. Because messing with a kid’s hair is like opening the Pandora’s Box of screaming, gnashing of teeth, and OMG you’re trying to kill me with the hairbrush and the elastics and the clippy things, MOM! So now I’m eating my words, because my kids regularly venture... Continue Reading
14
This was how I spent my Sunday morning: I was apprehensive about this run. It was just last weekend that I had upped my distance to 5 miles, after hovering at the 4-ish mark for way too long. I kept thinking, Okay, I’m at 4. I have to figure out how to run 9 more??? Talk about daunting. When I hit 5 miles last weekend, it wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t too great either. I was supposed to do 5 again on Saturday, but we were deep into Operation Big Girl Bed the entire day, and I barely squeezed in a 3 miler before dinner. No way was I ready for 6 miles on Sunday. Maybe I’ll just do 5 again, I said. Maybe 5.5. So much of this training thing is a mind game. I’ll never be able to run 6 miles. I can’t imagine running for an hour... Continue Reading
29
I got headshots taken yesterday. Sidenote: Every time I type “headshots,” I end up missing the “o” and typing “headshits.” Which would probably be more accurate. Having your photo deliberately taken is a humbling experience, preceded only by childbirth (vaginal or c-section, all your goods are on display for even the lowest rung assistant to see), breastfeeding (especially first timers — everyone’s feeling up on your boobs), and that first trip to the bathroom after giving birth (I’ll spare you the deets on that one. Moms, you know what I’m talking about.). Lucky for me, my good friend Brandie is a photographer, and when I asked her if she could take my headshots, she didn’t groan audibly or roll her eyes. Could be that we were texting and I just didn’t see it, but I like to think she jumped at the chance to play Annie Leibovitz for me. I... Continue Reading
Writer, artist, wife, mother, cook, maid, bookkeeper…all around genie in a bottle, except you only get one wish, and it has to be reasonable.
Sponsors
People Like These
Proud Member
Grab some Genie
Find me