Day 3

Day 3: A picture of the cast from your favorite tv show.

Okay, this one was not hard for me to choose at all.  There are a few television programs I enjoy now and then, but this is the one show that I absolutely love and could watch over and over again: Grounded for Life.

This was a FOX show that aired for a few years in the early 2000s. I freakin love it.

According to Wikipedia (which is much better at summing it up than I): " The show is set in an Irish neighborhood in Staten Island, New York and is about the comedic interplay of the Irish Catholic Finnerty family. One of the central aspects of the show is that Sean and Claudia Finnerty had their first child and got married when they were only eighteen years old. Thus, while they have three children, including a teenage daughter, the two parents are themselves relatively young and not out of their "wild" years. (In one episode, where Sean goes to pick up his daughter at a police station and is mistaken for her drug dealer, his father quips, "That's what happens when you're 17 and don't know what a condom is!") The show features an unusual style of storytelling, often starting with a scene at the end of the story or sometimes in the middle and filling in the gaps with flashbacks. Its main concepts are an Irish Catholic family with three children - one girl and two boys - surviving one catastrophe after another, utilizing flashbacks to further explain current situations they find themselves in. The opening sequence is set to a guitar theme, performed by the band Ween, that also serves as the music between scenes."

Seriously, if Ween performs your theme song, its got to be a good show.


I love every character in the show. If you haven't watched Grounded For Life before, you are seriously missing out. Check out the links below to see what you've missed!

Grounded For Life Season 1 Episode 1 (1/3)

Grounded For Life Season 1 Episode 1 (2/3)

Grounded For Life Season 1 Episode 1 (3/3)

Karma chameleon

~ How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. ~

Okay, I am taking a day off of the photo challenge to write about something else. An issue that has always irritated me and decided to raise its ugly head again when it occurred to a good friend of mine this week.

 About two years ago she found out he was cheating on her.  When confronted he cried and apologized, insisting he loved her and that it was over. Since she loved him, she took him back. They had history together, a family, comfort.

It took awhile, but slowly things began to go back to normal and she learned to trust him again.  Her doubts left her and she allowed herself to regain her own confidence. 

Then one day she discovered a text on his cellphone. From that very same girl he had been with before.

Of course he denied the accusations. The girl was crazy. She just couldn’t get over him.

But upon contacting this rival love interest, she was given concrete proof of his infidelities. And it broke her heart and turned her world upside down.

Now answer me this, why do people cheat?  I just don’t understand it. 

Is it the thrill of hiding something from someone who supposedly knows you so well? If that’s the case, why even bother? As soon as the person you are cheating on finds out, the cat is out of the bag and the excitement is gone.  So then both relationships will have lost their spark and be over.

If you love this new person so much…heck, even if it is just merely an intense like…shouldn’t that tell you that maybe you weren’t meant to be with the person you have been with?

Floyd and I agreed a long time ago that if either of us were to ever come across someone who peaked our interests we would be honest and tell each other. No sneaking behind the other’s back to see how things might work out.

If you loved this person enough to be with them, why would you want to risk breaking their heart? Don’t play the coward and ‘wait and see’ how this alternate relationship works out before you come clean.  Have some guts. Have some respect.  If your heart is not in it, let them go.

I have seen so many people that I care about have their hearts broken this way, and each time it happens I just don’t get it. I, myself, was cheated on once upon a time and it ended that relationship. Yeah, it would have sucked if he had broken up with me when he started digging the new girl, but it would have sucked a whole lot less than it did when I found out he was stepping out.

So ladies and gentlemen the message is this: BE LOYAL. BE HONEST. BE RESPECTFUL.

Because if you’re not, karma is coming for your ass.

Day 2

Day 2: A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.

Let me introduce you to Ali. She is my best-est.  I have known her for what feels like forever. I am a part of her family, and she is a part of mine. Somehow in the mixed up, crazy world that is middle school we managed to stumble into each other and realized that we may just happen to be two of the most coolest people on earth.

She has been there for me through everything. 

She held my hand the times I was frightened (and too stubborn to admit it).

She’s let my cry on her shoulder when I couldn’t hold it in anymore. 

She was the only friend of mine to come to the funeral home when my Grandpa Curly died.

She was there outside the hospital room door when my son entered this world. 

She is the absolute keeper of memories and I love that she is that creative and that motivated.  In fact, she is the most creative person I know.  What she can do with her imagination astounds me and makes me feel like a kindergartner in comparison and I love her for it. 

My son loves her. And her dog.

She has always gotten me the best presents.

Sometimes we don’t talk as much as we used to, and it sucks.  But I know on those occasions that we can talk or get together, that it will be the highlight of my day.

She is my sister from another mother and she will be by my side when get married in the spring, just like she has been by my side during everything else.

Thank you Ali for being the bestest friend a person could  have.  You rock hard.

Oh yeah, and I love you dude.

 p.s. Day 2 done. Are you happy now butthead?

Day 1

Ali-I am going to steal a page out of your blog and attempt to do the thirty day photo challenge :o) I think it will help me think and give me a good start at this whole blogging thing. You better hurry up though, because so far you have only managed to get to 17, and I don't know what subjects come after that...and if I keep being as motivated as I have been I may just end up catching up with you!

So...the thirty day photo challenge. Here goes!

Day 1: Ten facts about me.

1. I have the oddest arrangement of moles on my left arm/wrist area. My dad calls it the milky way. A pothead in high school used to refer to it as the mark of the beast. I call it neato. Its my own perfect little triangle.  

2. When I was pregnant with Max I was convinced I was going to die during labor. Absolutely sure of it. I have no idea why. The fact that I already had this thought floating in the back of my mind and I happened to see the first five minutes of that awful movie ‘Jersey Girl’ a couple of days before I was due ( you know, the one where Jennifer Lopez is in it for maybe the first ten minutes and DIES during childbirth??) Yeah, that was really assuring. I don’t know if this is a normal feeling for a pregnant woman or not…I haven’t exactly wanted to ask any other pregnant woman that because I don’t want to pass the paranoia onto her. Oh well. I’ll let you know whenever I get pregnant next if its normal.

3. I love, love, love to read.  You become my new best friend if you introduce me to a book or author that I have never read before. Generally I gravitate towards fiction, but I do dig a good autobiography.

4. I really really really like zombies. If I am in a video store and I see a zombie movie on the shelf, I am renting it, no matter how god awful it looks. I have read every zombie type book I have managed to get my hands on.  If I was any good at makeup, I would totally join in on those zombie walks they have around Halloween.  And it seems I have managed to pass this fascination onto my son. Max pretends to be a zombie. He makes his army man shoot zombies. He informs you that if you bite a zombie that you’re gonna turn sooner or later. Other people might find this odd and disturbing for a three year old, but I love it. But  there is no way in hell I am letting him watch a zombie movie anytime soon! Oh, and FYI- of you are a fellow zombie lover, you should check out the AMC series The walking Dead. Its fantastic!

5. I am afraid of aliens. I don’t know if they exist, but if you are telling a story about your supposed UFO sighting, I am running away from you into the other room to avoid it. I really have no rational reason why. I have never experienced any of these sightings myself. Just the idea of aliens and abductions and cow mutilations is enough to scare the beejesus out of me.  I can remember being younger and waking up in the middle of the night from a bad dream and running downstairs. Dad was awake watching a movie and he let me lay on the couch and fall back asleep. Of course, that movie was Fire in the Sky. I don’t know if this is where the fear originated from or not, but it seems like a logical reason to me. Thanks dad.

Save as Draft

6. I can never go a whole day with my nails painted. As soon as the tiniest chip appears, I will systematically peel off every piece of nail polish off of every damned nail. I must be  OCD or something.

7.  I collect buttons. The odder the better.

One of the best things about working at Hot Topic all those years ago was being able to dig through the assortment of buttons whenever we got a new shipment.

8. I want five kids. Don’t ask me why, five just seems like a good number. And with my luck, they are all going to be boys.

9. I don’t know if I believe in god, but I do know that the idea that there may not be a god frightens me.

10. I worry. All the time. About everything. I over analyze everything and imagine every horrid possibility that could arise out of each situation. 

Elephants ride bikes and move it, move it.

Yeah, you read that right.

This afternoon dad, Maximus, and I went to the Shrine Circus down at the IMA.  Even with a free pass, it was still ridiculously expensive to go. Crazy the things you do for a kid :o)

I'd paid the parking, and the admissions. Dad paid for Max to ride the elephant and a pony. Gee, my kid didn't get spoiled at all!

Max was very amused that the elephant stopped mid-ride to take a dump. Great kid I got there, amused by any and all bodily functions be it man or animal.

Just so happened that we saw my cousin and his wife there with their kid so we were all able to sit together. Their son, Justin, is only two months younger than Max so he had someone to hang with.

The circus just isn't what is used to be. Or maybe its just that as a kid the circus just seemed so much greater. I thinks it the first.

For one thing, it used to be when you walked in you were greeted by mass amounts of clowns (which really sucked for me since I absolutely hate clowns.) So you would walk in, buy a program and then have each and every clown you met autograph it.  I think there were about four clowns when we walked in.

It costs ten dollars to ride the elephant. Ouch. Five dollars to park.  Four dollars for popcorn. Three for water. Eight dollars for the pony ride. Fifteen dollars for the laser gun. But, I have to admit, the laser gun is pretty damned cool.  I did a little fist pump when Max decided he wanted that over the light up sword.

But I knew it was going to be expensive going in. Hey, at least I got a break on admission with some free passes.

The circus itself has gotten pretty lame too.  There were no trapeze artists, just some guys that rode their motorcycles up and down a wire with girls sitting on swings below it that did nothing but smile and wave to the crowds. Whoo hoo.

The tiger act lasted about five minutes, and the highlight was when they jumped through the hoop of fire. Once.

The elephants amused Max greatly. They walked around and did some tricks and then they played the "Move it" song from Madagascar during the act.

There was a gymnastics act dubbed 'The Chicago Boys' that did crazy flips and jump roped. Much more amusing than it sounds, trust me.  They were probably the highlight of the circus.  They boomed hip hop and rap music through the arena and Max danced his little tushie off.

There was an Asian man who practiced the ancient art of 'vase balancing'. Yeah, that was about as exciting as it sounds.

Then they turned out all of the lights except for one tiny blue spotlight and had women in day glo butterfly suits come out, climb the ropes and do a little twirly act.  The problem was, it was way too dark to see anything.  The blue light was so tiny that it did nothing to highlight the colors of their outfits, so we basically sat in the dark for about ten minutes listening to goofy music and our own thoughts.

But, as disappointing as it was compared to my own childhood memories of circus past, Maximus absolutely loved it.

He passed out in the car on the way home after telling daddy about how cool the circus was.  As Floyd tucked him into bed, he opened his eyes and said "dad, the elephants ride bikes and like to move it, move it." then promptly fell back asleep with a big grin on his face.

Horoscopes and toothaches

Its almost two in the morning and I am still awake, waiting for the pain medicine to kick in and make me forget about my tooth ache that has been driving me crazy all day.  For some reason, I decided that I didn't need to take anything because it was somehow going to magically go away on its own. Now that I want to sleep, it is pounding through my head harder than ever.

Today Floyd, Maximus, and I headed out to Davison Roadside Park and did some sledding.  Max thoroughly enjoyed it and laughed and screamed each time he came flying down the hill. He didn't want to ride with Floyd and I, he wanted to be a big kid and do it by himself. Of course, we had to haul his ass back up the hill each time. Man, nothing like trying to climb a twenty foot hill in the snow with boots with no traction to make you feel incredibly out of shape!!

In a total other direction, I am amused at how many people are responding to the article about the changing/addition of horoscopes. Really? I find it hard to believe that anyone was that concerned that their  sign may have changed to something different.  Was your identity governed that much by the pull of the moon on your birth date?? Well, if so, you're fine.  Apparently us Americans don't judge our astrological signs by the planets alignment or the stars. We decided to stick with the changing of the seasons. So, you're fine until global warming really kicks in and all the seasons turn into summer. Check the link below for a much more educated-sounding reasoning.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/13/no-your-zodiac-sign-hasnt-changed/

Speaking of which...is it awful that I am graduating with a degree in Environmental Science and I have never bothered to watch "An Inconvenient Truth"?  I mean, I am sure it is something I would find incredibly interesting, but I have a really hard time watching documentaries anymore.  I hate to say it, but Michael Moore has ruined them for me forever.

Floyd thinks I am a ginormous dork for blogging.
I warned you this blog this was going to be random :o)

A new start...

Well, for a long time now I have been telling myself I need to start writing more things down, either in a journal or a blog.  It looks like the blog has won out.

I want something where I can record my random thoughts... the highlight, lows, or odd tid bits of my day.

Who knows, maybe this is something that Max will look at years from now and learn some things or reminisce. 

Wow, that is really odd to think about.



Hmmm..where to start?

Well, I am in my last semester of my senior year of college. Finally. Its frightening to think that soon I will be done with my college years and be moving on to the next phase of my life: career.

Yesterday was my twenty-ninth birthday.

Well, its just past midnight now so I guess that would technically make it two days ago.

Floyd surprised me by getting someone else to take his shift at work and decided to take me out to dinner at The French Laundry out in Fenton (an excellent place if you have never tried it!).  At the last minute, we decided to take Max with us, which made for an interesting night. It was pretty amusing though when he told our waitress "Gracias" after she brought him his grilled cheese. And they had magnadoodles for the kids to play with. Magnadoodles! Heck, when I was little we got cheap little crayons with a small sheet of paper if we were lucky.

Speaking of being a kid...

This year I will graduate, marry, and maybe (hopefully) start a new job. Next year I will be thirty.  I have a three year old kid.  Part of me feels old, but there is still part of me that feels like a kid.  I wonder if that feeling ever goes away.  Do my parents still feel immature and childish at times?

Don't get me wrong, I definitely feel much more mature and worldly than I did ten years ago, but I don't feel like what I thought or imagined I would feel or think when I reached this stage in my life.  Is that normal?

I am not upset by it.  I am glad that I have managed to hold on to that childish part of me. I like that I can sit and watch cartoons with Max and be more amused than he is half of the time. 

I am the person sitting in the back of the geology class that still giggles uncontrollably every time the professor lectures on dikes. And I will still be giggling when I reach eighty.