Bravery or Foolishness?

I was talking to Diddy the other day and we were discussing how crazy our lives are (mostly mine). Not crazy like out of control partying. But crazy like extreme ups and downs and major changes in short periods of time.

Diddy told me that the reason my life is so crazy is because I'm so brave. When I questioned this, he told me that I put myself out there a lot. Then he said, "It's good, but it's crazy!"

So I got to thinking about that. As you'll remember, I made the commitment to myself to be more open about my feelings for others. So I did, and it didn't turn out so well. Because of that, I'm a little more reserved about telling people how I feel about them, but not reserved at all about sharing my feelings with others. Which doesn't make a lot of sense, but since when did I make sense?

So, I'm recommitting to share my feelings more. Hoping that others will follow suit. Just think of all of the times that you wanted to know how someone else felt about you. Go ahead and figure that there are people out there wondering the same things about your feelings for them. And in the end, isn't it better to know?

Things That Your Mom (Or English Teacher) Should Have Taught You...

First of all, I need to give credit. The title of this post was inspired by an etiquette book, Things You Need To Be Told. These books are great and I recommend them to everyone! Match.mom is CRAZY about etiquette. The night before I moved to college some friends of mine came over to say goodbye and she made us sit down and watch an etiquette video. I wish I was kidding. Although I believe that it has served me well, I was super embarrassed at the time! And I tend to agree with her that there are not enough mothers out there teaching their children proper etiquette.

The other thing that Match.mom is crazy about is grammar. I'm not quite as freaky about this as she is (I still don't understand the comma rules...), but there are a few things that drive me crazy. Below you will find common mistakes that should be corrected (especially if you want to continue to have me as a friend.)

1. Irregardless is NOT a word!!! And even if it was, it is a double negative and would mean the exact opposite of what you are trying to convey.

2. The correct past tense of the verb orient is oriented, NOT orientated. If you go to an orientation, you get oriented.

3. There is NO "A" in definitely. Please do not send me an email stating that you defiantly want to do something, unless you actually plan to do it in a resistant or challenging way.

I am sure that there are more, and I may add to this list as time goes on, but this is a good start...

Oh, Sweet Victory Is Mine...

I just finished a load of whites and every sock had a matching pair!

It truly is the little things...

Some Housekeeping...

It has been pointed out to me that there needs to be a little housekeeping for some readers.

As a reminder, when you are reading the blog, please take note of the dates, I have been blogging since Sept. 2007 so there are some old posts. Before you start getting crazy about what is written, make sure you are aware of timing of the post.

If you want to know who a character is, you have to guess correctly and I will tell you. As a policy, I will not just tell you who the person is.

If you have any other questions regarding the blog, please do not hesitate to ask.

A Year In Review

It's time for the obvious, "year in review" blog.

Following are the things that will define 2008:

- Making new friends and strengthening new friendships. Beginning with meeting RedShirt and ending with the one year anniversary of meeting Dirty Shirley*, EID, Honker, and Auditor*, 2008 was a great year for friendship!

- Reconnecting with an old friend after seven years. A highlight for sure!

- My first (and last) year as HOBY LSC. Which leads to standing up for myself and winning the battle with facts, not emotion.

- The IC. And the Vegas trip that can never be recreated.

- Hawaii. The hilarity, the beauty, the fun - this was a wonderful trip!

- Working on telling people the way that I feel. Even though the results weren't what I had hoped, the ability to be so honest about my feelings to others was refreshing.

Things I'm looking forward to in 2009:

- Trip to Maine with IT

- Bunner and Banana's wedding

- 10-year high school reunion

- Brand new nephew

Hey! What's Going on Here?

Have you ever noticed how when you are with certain people, the same things tend to happen?

For example, when I am with BodyBuilder we tend to meet the most random people and we end up in very strange situations. Like the time a random guy took a bath in our hotel room. (Don't freak out, he was a friend of a friend, but he was random to us.) And there are a million stories like that. It seems that every time I hang out with her, we end up with a story.

Yesterday Such-n-such came down from Flagstaff to stay the night so that I could take her to the airport this morning; and it appears that when we are together, very strange things happen.

Instead of giving her directions all the way to my house, we decided to meet at PJ Fangs* for lunch. Once we sat at our table it took a while for the waitress to arrive, but we weren't overly concerned because we hadn't seen each other in a while and we had a lot of catching up to do. Consequently, when the waitress arrived we were ready to order. Such-n-such orders a noodle dish and asks if she can add chicken to it. The waitress thinks about it for a while and then finally says, "Sure, I think there is a protein option." Great. Thanks.

She comes back with our drinks and the little sauce tray and she doesn't ask us how we like it before she starts making it. She says, "I only put one scoop of this, but if you like it spicier you can add more. And I only put a little hot mustard because it tastes too much like horseradish to me." Umm, what if we like horseradish?

After a while, the waitress walks by and tells us that our food is being "trayed." We keep talking, not annoyed or impatient, just enjoying each other's company. About 10 minutes later she comes up to our table and says, "Sorry, apparently I didn't specify what kind of chicken you wanted so I just got chewed out by the kitchen." We don't really need the chain of events, we just need our food, please. The food arrives shortly thereafter and we begin eating. I start to run out of iced tea so she walks by and says that she is going to get me another glass. Then a manager comes by and asks me what I'm drinking. I tell him that the waitress has it under control.

We continue to enjoy our lunch when the waitress walks up, sets a plate of sweet and sour chicken on our table and walks away. Then she turns around and says, "On us." What? This is starting to get weird.

About five minutes later a woman dressed in normal clothes comes up to our table (I assume she was also a manager), and asks us how every thing is going. We reply that everything is great and she walks away. She didn't talk to another table on her way to us nor away from us. It was the strangest experience ever.

Then, this morning, as I'm driving her to the airport and we get on the freeway and we can see that a highway patrolman has a truck pulled over ahead of us. There are two officers and one guy standing in front of the patrol car and as we approach one of the officers begins running to his car. As we pass he jumps into the driver seat and the truck begins to pull away. Then the other officer jumps into the car and they take off, leaving the other guy standing on the side of the road. The truck is now travelling down the freeway at a high rate of speed and it passes our car and we get a look at the driver, who I'm pretty sure was a vampire. It takes the highway patrol car a very long time to speed up to the point of even coming close to catching the truck, but he finally does and we lose them.

I don't know if they caught the guy, but it reminded me of what BodyBuilder always says, "Go ahead and run. You'll just go to jail tired."

Run, Run, Rudolph

My question is: how did Santa see where the sleigh was going before Rudolph arrived to guide the sleigh with his nose so bright?