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29 and holding. Plus 10.

2 Dec

So, I turned 39 today. I’m trying to feel positive about this and embrace the moment and all that jazz, but Ima keep it real and just say that it kind of sucks. I have a case of the birthday blues and feel pretty stupid and petty about it. And if anyone says “its better than the alternative”, I will punch you in the face. Because old ladies are grumpy.

The day itself was good and my friends and family were awesome with the cards and texts and posts, etc. I was treated to a sweet “work meeting” at Starbucks and went to lunch at my favorite dive diner with a favorite friend. The Accountant sent sweet flowers and kiddo gifted me the cutest drawing in a card and a Barnes and Noble giftcard which I spent on the same day because giftcards are like FIAH in my pocket.

In other news, Thanksgiving was really nice. The three of us went to my family’s and did the holiday up right. And by doing the holiday up right, I mean that I now need new pants because food baby. Christmas prep is in full swing and is stress free so far thanks to artificial trees, a set budget, and online shopping.

I’m trying to get kiddo to focus on things other than presents and to realize that she is a fortunate little bugger and that this is not everyone’s reality. She’s got several projects in the works; donating her bike to a local organization that refurbishes them for others, Soles for Souls shoe drive, shopping for gifts for a family her class is supporting. Great things for sure but I don’t think she “gets it” yet. All part of the journey I guess.

There was an excellent Tara Brach talk on serving. I’ll have to find it and link because it was so pertinent, even though the gist was pretty obvious and nothing novel or new. Yet something we tend to forget. She discussed how depressed people are selfish, in that they can be completely focused on self. I can’t speak as eloquently about it as she does but the basic premise is that by serving others and taking away that focus on self, we counter this “selfishness”. No brainer, right? I think what stuck with me was how she framed it. Because depressed people ARE selfish, at some base level, but putting yourself outside your own issues and mental quagmire is mind-clearing in many ways. And yeah, it’s 3 in the morning and I am butchering this but you get the idea.

Which reminds me, the meditation space is coming along. It’s been cleaned out and just needs some final touches and I will be omming with the best of them. Haha. Not that you need the perfect space to meditate but I’ll be glad to have a home base of sorts. And if meditation means face-planting into your keyboard in Cubicle Nation tomorrow, I’ll gonna be spot on because it’s late and sleep has eluded me, until now.

Peas ‘n Carrots.

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So we made a fall wreath…

9 Nov

FallWreathDoor2014…and it’s kind of gaudy, but looks ok from the road. I don’t know what possessed me but a couple of weekends ago I got the urge to make something fall-ish for the front door, probably still riding momentum from our stellar Halloween decorations, and so I took to the internet for inspiration.

I found one on Pinterest (where else) that looked simple enough for novice wreath makers like myself and kiddo. The original with instructions is here. Ours looks pretty much nothing like the Pinterest one but for our first attempt, I think we did ok.

The materials were few and fairly easy to find in the local craft store (we went to Michaels).

  • Fake flowers
  • Straw wreath still in the plastic
  • Greenery pins
  • Roll of burlap
  • Fall ribbon

FYI: I don’t think we saved any money by doing this ourselves. Fake foliage is expensive apparently. You’re probably better off financially to buy wreaths on clearance right after the holiday and whip ’em out next year.

For our creation you basically wrap a straw wreath with burlap and pin flowers on it. Then the hard part, wrapping and bunching and pinning more burlap in a semi-attractive way. I kind of failed at this but then we decided to add the orange ribbon as a distraction tactic because crafty crafters are crafty. The bow presented another issue as I also have no skills in this area but I finagled enough and finally called it adequate. And like I said, from a distance its a win.

PicMonkey Collage

PicMonkey Collage2

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Halloween report

2 Nov

1459147_10152821500548454_7297970401752063641_n (2)We had an epic Halloween this year. This is becoming my very favorite holiday. We had some family come over to see kiddo in her costume and partake of chips and dips of all sorts. Alas, this was not to be another year of cutsie princess or candy corn witch costumes for kiddo. She decided to be a “zombie witch” so I slapped some makeup on her and she was happily scarified.

We managed to get kiddo and her cousin to wait until dark before letting them loose in the neighborhood to do that thing they do. It was rather windy and chilly and the girls didn’t last very long. Their freezing moms got a welcome reprieve thanks to the neighbors around the corner who can always be depended on each Halloween to have a fire pit and warm apple cider ready, spiked with Captain Morgan if you so chose.

Our little group didn’t even get close to covering the entire neighborhood but the kids had fun and you only need minimal amounts of candy to obtain Sugar Coma status anyway. Capture

I LOVE dressing up and decided to channel my inner Rosie the Riveter this year. Also known as a good reason to wear lot of makeup and a retro hairdo. Not that I need an excuse for that.

And now we shift our focus to Thanksgiving. I have a crafty urge to make a wreath I found on Pinterest. I’m going to pretend that doesn’t sound too lame. 🙂

10603781_10152821500613454_7375640868183978632_n (2)

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hearty har har

14 Feb

CaptureI was looking at vintage Valentines this morning because free time, and this one cracked me up. So I’m sharing it with you.

I have chocolates and cards waiting for kiddo and hubs. Plus, the little one is getting a teddy bear and a new battery powered toothbrush and bubblegum toothpaste. Little Mermaid style, thank you very much. Oh, and I’m making cuban black beans and rice for supper. Nom.

Happy Valentine’s Day Internet! May your chocolates be sweet and your kisses full of heat. May your cards be funny and your candy hearts yummy.

Hallmark, call me.

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stuff ‘n thangs

4 Jan

PicMonkey CollageI’m over the holidays and Christmas “vacation”. I’m ready to go back to work. And now there is the threat of Snowmaggedon on Sunday night so there’s more than a snowball’s chance in hell that Monday will be a snow day and I will go crazy. I’m overly dramatic, I realize. Its been awesome to hang with kiddo these past couple of weeks and we’ve done a lot of fun things…but y’all, I really need to reenter the adult world. I can easily see how stay at home moms tend to “lose themselves” in the land of Legos, diapers, tantrums, Nickelodeon, and all things kiddie. Those women deserve a raise and a stiff drink or five.

I’ve registered for my first 5K of the year for February 15th with some friends. Should be a fun race, albeit COLD. But there will be hot chocolate and fondue at the finish line so how could a chunky girl NOT do it? I’m not sure I’ll ever be a very good or fast or consistent runner. But I can’t seem to stay away from it for long. Maybe its because I consider it a solitary sport (or at least as solitary as you want it to be) and I like that about it. You’re only competing against yourself and seeking to improve from your last time or pace or hot chocolate consumption or whatever your goals may be.

On the literary front, I’ve been reading Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series lately and am on the second book. I’m saving the movies for after I finish and hope to watch both the Swedish and American versions. As far as movies go, I did get to see Bettie Page Reveals All the other night and wow, interesting lady! I didn’t realize she was born and lived in Nashville, or was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia and spent almost two years in a mental hospital…and so many other things. I love documentaries. On the other hand, I watched The Last Unicorn with kiddo tonight and I did not love that. Odd movie, in my opinion, and I usually like the weird stuff.

Tomorrow let’s make veggie tacos, do some stuff at the gym, rock some Angry Birds Star Wars on the Playstation, and go for a walk in the freezing cold, um’ kay? Fabulous.

Peas ‘n carrots.

 

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my annual anti-new year’s resolutions post

31 Dec

The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you chose.

– Arnold Bennett

This quote pretty much sums up why I don’t do the New Year’s Resolutions thing. I’ve been on that bandwagon before and its always a sure fire way to set myself up for failure, so my current attitude is above. If you wanna make changes or do something new, you’ll do it when you’re damn good and ready and not because the calendar says January 1.

That said, I thought it would be interesting to look back in my blog archives and post the links to prior musings about the new year. So I did. And my past cynical sarcastic self still cracks up my current cynical sarcastic self. Sue me.

https://finnspace.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/this-is-not-a-cheesy-post-about-2013/

https://finnspace.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/giving-2011-the-boot/BW2013

https://finnspace.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/grumpy-mcgrumperson/

https://finnspace.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/so-here-we-go/

https://finnspace.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/10-things-on-a-wednesday/

https://finnspace.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/looking-forward-and-back/

https://finnspace.wordpress.com/2006/12/31/the-obligatory-new-years-post/

2013 wasn’t so great in many ways and yet it was good in others. Yin and yang and all that jazz. Overall though, 2013 can take a hike through a poison ivy invested forest and be eaten by rabid grizzly bears.

Happy New Year y’all. May it be as great as you make it.

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so it goes on the 4th of July

4 Jul

fireworks-wallpaper-for-desktopIt rained today. I don’t mean it rained for an hour or two, it rained ALL dang day. We didn’t really have solid plans for the 4th anyway but if we had planned on outdoor activities, they weren’t happening.

So we ventured to a lazy late breakfast at one of my favorite places that tries a little too hard to be reminiscent of Paris in that annoyingly cheesy and inauthentic way that Americans can possess. But maybe that’s why I like it so much, because it tries really hard.

I spent two hours at the gym working off said breakfast while kiddo stayed home with The Accountant and drew about a million pictures of Spongebob characters and fish. Then it was time for a shower and an hour at the local inflatable bouncy house place with kiddo in which she worked out some serious four-almost-five-year-old energy.

Let’s talk about those for a minute um’kay? Those places are cool ain’t they? Large gaudy plastic inflatable castles and such for kids to jump around in their stinky sock feet and tumble and slide and scream and get injured. But my kid would live at one of those places if she could. I practically have to drag her out of there. We have been to a million birthday parties of her little friends at these establishments and the little bugger is having her party this year at one too. It must be the cool thing to do for the pre-school set these days.

We decided to go to the movies and see Despicable Me 2. Apparently everyone and their third cousin’s grandma had the exact same rainy holiday idea because we had mega trouble scoring a parking place but finally did in the very furthest remote location possible. We ran through the rain to get in. Or rather, mommy stumbled through puddles while carrying a 40 lb kid who was wearing flip flops and didn’t want to get her feet wet. But whatevs. The show time we wanted was sold out but never fear for even this would not derail us. We bought tickets for the next show, 45 minutes later and waited in a winding line that snaked through the lobby to finally get a seat in the actual theater. Overall, it was a success and popcorn happened and kiddo loved the movie. It was really good and I LOLed more than a few times. Steve Carell is pretty much awesome no matter what he does and it was just a plain ol’ cute, funny, clever movie. A zillion times better than Monsters University, if you want to know what I think. I am fast becoming the Roger Ebert of kid’s movies. Another career option I should consider pursuing.

By this time mommy is ready to collapse from all the running around (let’s face it, I’m usually ready to collapse even if I’ve been sitting still all day). Kiddo was pretty worn down too so she drew yet more pictures of fish and we tricked her into thinking the neighborhood fireworks were the “big ones” we’d been talking about seeing all week. Many places had cancelled the fireworks shenanigans due to the weather but we could have ventured out to see a couple that were stubborn and held out. But dude, it was raining and I was beat down. Parents are conniving evil creatures so much of the time. We have to be to survive. The show was actually pretty good though and we got to watch it from the comfort of our covered patio while wearing pjs. Doesn’t get much more American than that y’all.

Then bedtime and now its 2 am and I’m up giving you the play by play of my day and you are actually reading it. Suckers.

sh5Oh. Lastly, I started listening to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five on audiobook today while sweating at the gym. It’s always been on my list and I decided hey, you wanna read it, just flippin’ read it already. I should do that with more things in my life. You wanna do it? So do it. Simple. Easy peasy. Anyway, I’m at Chapter 2 and its interesting. I think I’m gonna like this guy.

Peas n’ Carrots.

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