I think that this is first for me. Usually I ignore being tagged for these things, but I will follow through with this one because i was tagged by Valerie and Adele.
1. When having a meal I like to have only 1 food item on my plate at a time. If I am forced to put more than 1 food item on my plate those foods MUST NOT TOUCH! I will then only eat one food at a time, no jumping back and forth from the sandwich to the fries.
2. Though I have a nice clothes hamper and a couple of laundry baskets in our bedroom my dirty clothes come off my body and go straight to the floor, where they will remain for at least 1-2 days (but probably longer).
3. I peel the label off my beer bottle. It’s not nervousness, just something I have to do.
4. When I come home I say, “Hi kitty-cats, Mommy’s home!” Then I ask them about their day and what they’ve been doing.
5. I check my email, MySpace, Facebook, my blog, & CuteOverload 100x/day.
6. I love to buy copies of books that I’ve already read. Barnes & Noble Classics are quickly taking over our bookcase.
7. Genetically I am a procrastinator. I even blame that for why I was a late-bloomer.
8. My obsession with my kitty-cats means that I take pictures of them everyday. I love to take pictures of them sleeping because they look so cute and cuddly.
I put a few pictures of my Chicago trip on my Picasa Web. I didn’t take any pictures of the conference, just of the city (and one of the airport bathroom).
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Today I leave Chicago and head home. I really liked BlogHer and will post more about what made it awesome for me once I get back to RVA. My body is really achy from lugging my laptop around with me all weekend. I must have the world’s heaviest laptop. I will need a lot of recovery time in the pool to get my body back to normal. This morning I’m going to bum around downtown some more. First, I need breakfast, probably by the lake.
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Today is the first day of BlogHer, which is the largest blogging conference in the world! There are about 800 bloggers here. I’ve been surprised by the diverse group of people here. Amazingly, there are a lot of people here do not have a blog. They are here to learn more about blogs and want to start either a personal blog or a blog for their employer. Even corporate America wants to learn about blogging and there are women here from big companies who want to look at using blogs to reach out to clients and promote products/services. Also, I can’t believe how many BlogHers have jobs that involve blogging, including a woman who blogs about vineyards & wine. Everyday she wakes up, gets ready for work, and then writes vineyards & wine. I want to be her.
Right now I’m in my third session of the day and I feel like I’m taking in a lot of information (ideas) about blogging. The conversations and ideas here are as diverse as those attending the conference and are greatly expanding my understanding of blogging. This conference has come a good time for me because I feel that lately I’ve been struggling to find a voice for my blog.
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Today I leave for BlogHer, well, actually, I’ve already left my house and now I’m waiting at the airport because my flight to Chicago has been delayed by a couple of hours. It’s hard to wait because I’m so excited about going, but it is kinda fun to people watch. Earlier I saw a woman standing by the window watching the plane pull up. She must have been “stretching”, but what it really looked like was a combination of various aerobic classes. I swear I saw her do moves from BodyCombat, BodyFlow, and BodyJam. It was rather impressive. The airport is such a fun place to people watch because you get to observe all kinds of emotions and events. Like, when my fellow passengers found out that our flight is delayed some reacted by rolling their eyes, others got angry, then there’s me who instantly pulled out my laptop to blog about my delayed flight and chat with Dan.
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There are several reasons why you should be thankful that you are not my mother-in-law. For example, for mother’s day I will buy you the most wonderful book by one of our favorite authors. But, I will forget to bring it to you when I visit. Instead, I simply tease you and tell you what book I’ve bought you. Then two months later, after having multiple opportunities to give you the book, it still remains on my coffee table. Until a day like today, when I decided that I want to read it. I will probably continue to tease you by telling you how wonderful it is and how I can’t read it in public because I end up laughing out loud and also wanting to cry.
Yes, be thankful that you are not my mother-in-law.
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On Thursday I am going out to Chicago for BlogHer. I can’t describe how excited I am about this trip! Not only will I have a chance to meet some of my favorite bloggers, I will also get to spend an entire weekend talking (and listening) about blogging, oh, and I get to explore Chicago some while doing this.
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Dan & I had our first sailing adventure on Saturday. It was a perfect adventure with beautiful weather and cold beer in the cooler. After sailing we walked around Alexandria in search of a place for dinner. It was my first time to Alexandria and I quickly grew fond of the area. I hope to go back and explore the shops and art galleries there. I also hope to get more homemade ice cream because I’m still drooling over the coconut ice cream I had after dinner last night!
* Thanks to Ryan & Aoife for a great time in Alexandria and for our first sailing adventure! I hope there will be many more in the future.
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Strangely and cruelly the days in July fall the same way they did this past April. Friday the 13th followed by Monday the 16th. Most people probably did not even take notice, but I’ve been dreading this week since I first glanced at July’s calendar. One of the more peculiar habits I’ve started is searching for the 16th of the month with every calendar I see. My face lost all color and I trembled when I saw that July would have the 16th on a Monday. Yes, it is too soon for irony like that. Tomorrow marks three months since Jarrett’s funeral. It will also end this horribly cruel week.
Others who lost a sibling on that day have started to connect with each other. I’ve been added to an email list and I became Myspace/Facebook friends with some of them. I get a couple of messages a day from people who have lost like I have. I do not know if these connections will bring any healing, but I am in an awkward place. The loneliness I experience now exhausts me, but when offered company I often deny it, stating that I want to be alone. I’m still afraid of breaking down in front of others. I’m afraid they will think I am a pity-party and devalue my grieving. So I cling to my emails and MySpace/Facebook messages. They are safer (I guess blogging is too). I can read them while crying or yelling and no one will judgingly make me feel worse about myself. This week the emails asked for prayers as some of the lost loved ones had birthdays to be celebrated. It is too much for me and I ache for those left behind. Of course this also makes me think of Jarrett’s birthday. I realize that time keeps moving and someday Jarrett’s birthday will come. Our birthday week will come. Just like I had to get through this cruel, painful week I will have to fight to survive our birthday week as well.
The shock of Jarrett’s death is starting to wear off and I’m beginning to understand how my life is now drastically different than pre-April 16th. I’ll admit that in the past I’ve often chosen the “flight” option when faced with an undesirable situation. As a child I believed the grass could be, and probably is greener on the other side. This situation is not exempt from those longings and I fight them each day. I want to escape not only the pain, but this “life” I’ve been left with. I want to run away and create a new life. I’ll make up a new me, one that never had a beloved brother, and I’ll live in that fantasy as long as I can. Though it won’t be real, it has to be better than this life I’ve been left with. I know it sounds crazy. I know it means I would leave behind even more people that I love. Those are rational thoughts, but I’m sorry, what I’m experiencing is the opposite of rational, possibly like the decisions made on that day in Blacksburg.
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This will not be new news to anyone who also reads Dan’s blog.
1. Dan is not feeling well. I am not feeling well. I apologize to anyone else who may get sick from the baby germs I brought back from Narrows.
2. We got a pool! Yes, it was made for children, but we have been enjoying it just the same. The last couple of evenings we’ve spent time cooling off in our pool. According to the pool directions we should not take our laptops into the pool. Therefore we’ve been forced to have conversations with each other by talking, you know, instead of conversations over IM or finding out the my husband is not feeling well by reading his blog. Here’s some marriage advice, if you want to improve communication in your relationship, you should get a kiddie pool.
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I’m ready to start the ladies only book club! The selection is Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. The book is split into 3 smaller books, with each of the smaller books containing the author’s story of her visits to Italy, India, and Indonesia. I’m proposing that we gather after completing each smaller book. At these gatherings we shall have food and drink from each country! I’m pretty excited that Italy is the first book, I’m already looking forward to an Italian dinner with delicious wine! If you are interested, let me know, and we can start to plan a date for the first dinner.
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Today I’ve spent some time catching up on the news and NPR shows I missed while in Narrows last week. While listening to Wait, Wait…..Don’t Tell Me, I heard a question about man-eating badgers being released in Iraq by the British. This caught my attention for a number of reasons (as I’m sure it has caught yours), but mainly because I have a brother-in-law who enjoys stories about badgers. I quickly Googled “man eating badgers” and found a good story from the BBC. I’m going to tease you with a couple of quotes from the story.
First, from a woman who was attacked by one of the beasts.
“My husband hurried to shoot it but it was as swift as a deer,” she said. “It is the size of a dog but his head is like a monkey,”
Next from the UK military spokesman, Major Mike Shearer:
“We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.”
My head is full of endless jokes right now.
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