This story begins with me creeping on Facebook....
Everyone I know at this point is either pregnant, about to pop out a kid, or still somewhere in the toddler phase where they are characterizing their child's age as "blank months".
At this point I'm looking at these pictures and, OH MY!, they are turning 1 or 2 years old. So I get to see these cute little birthday party pictures (green with envy and a dash of pure jealousy) and then I see it. Right there. It's happening again.
They bought/made their 1-2 year old a cake all to themselves to engorge themselves in.
Everyone else gets a separate cake or cupcakes, but this miniature person who has certain nutritional needs gets to devour and destroy a pretty size-able cake at that age. What gives?
I'm not a parent so I need someone to explain this to me.
We are the fattest country. We are wasteful. We teach our kids decadence and then expect them to be humble. Why is this new custom considered adorable?
I think part of my frustration with this is also because touring the internet (and real life experiences) has led me to see 1 year old's being fed their first Happy Meals, eating whole bags of candy so they would be content and leave their parents alone, being the age of 4 and addicted, and I mean ADDICTED, to sweets so bad that obesity is setting in and they go through sugar withdrawl.
What happened to getting a cupcake at the age? What happened to getting a cake so that the family can mostly celebrate and feeding a few small bites to the kid? What happened to not letting a child that age eat junk at all and instead giving them something else while everyone else had cake? Especially at 1, they can't identify the difference.
I think kid's birthdays are adorable and special. I get it. I also agree with it. They are your precious offspring, by all means celebrate. But do they need the fondant covered cake with all the fixun's on it at that age?
I kept hearing the "We don't have money," sob story but then I always witness this.
I'm also wondering if it would be a good idea to start implementing different vocabulary into their birthdays. For example, instead of "What do you want for your birthday?" ask "What do you need for your birthday?" and start having the child recognize the difference between things that are necessary to live and things that are not. I have tried re-evaluating that with my life lately and I have found that I don't NEED a lot.
Kids are becoming spoiled with the notion that they deserve things and that they need luxurious and useless things (like cakes to themselves) to have a quality life.
Someone please bring back the simple life and show kids what that looks like.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Down to the Wire
This is it. I leave this coming Monday.
I'll be shutting down my Etsy page this weekend for the foreseeable future until I am done training and actually get stationed somewhere that I can set up my printer and what-not.
I also got engaged last Friday, September 14th.
It was nice and really unexpected. The story of our engagement goes something like this:
He came home from work and I was still in my pajamas (don't judge). After our initial greetings he walked over to the dinner table to set a few things down and I mentioned that I needed to go to Wal-Mart to get batteries for my car key and while I was fussing over something on the table he said "Yea, ok, but will you marry me first?" I turned around, saw him on his knee with an open box and I jumped backwards, slamming myself into the wall and said "Right now??? I don't even look cute!" This got him to start laughing and whole time I'm saying "ARE YOU SERIOUS??" at which point he felt the need to ask me what my answer was. Haha. Obviously I said "yes" after the shock and I called friends and family while he cooked me dinner on the grill.
I enjoyed the way he decided to do it. I later found out that he meant to cook me dinner and do it then but couldn't hold his water so did it as soon as he got home. He knows I don't like public engagements with people everywhere looking at you and knowing your business and that cliche things like inside a teddy bear or stuffed animal just do do it for me. Putting it inside food or drink is a strict NO as well. That is just icky.
Most of the time that we spend with our significant others is spent doing ordinary things, usually at home, and I find it fitting being proposed to while doing something like that. It seems sincere to me and while I would have definitely preferred to have at least looked a little nicer it just emphasizes my point a bit more that I wasn't.
I had finally gotten dressed when a friend of mine insisted that I take an engagement day picture. Here is the result of said request:
Yup. Take a goooood look. This is the man I've decided to spend the rest of my life with...Haha.
We will be engaged for quite awhile due to all the training I will have to do over the next year and a half, but we're both ok with that and looking forward to having a long time to plan things.
As I mentioned in an earlier post I decided to sell Jenny, my car. What an experience that was.
I got an estimate from Kelly Blue Book and I knew that CarMax or a dealership wouldn't match it but I thought I would see what I could get for it if I had difficulty selling it online....Holy smokes. They offered $4,000 less than it was worth! No freakin' way. I know you have to turn around and sell it for a profit, but NO. So Craiglist was the next place I figured would help me get closer to what it was worth.
I'd like to take this moment to describe the circus that is Craiglist.
First, I am somewhat uncomfortable selling my wares on a website that not only has a rant column dedicated to the musings of people who I'm pretty sure should be committed, but that also allows people to place ads for people who are seeking marital affairs from their spouses with an emphasis on "no-strings-attached". Not a quality place to be doing business if you ask me.
Despite the obvious con's I put an ad on there for my car anyway because it seemed like the easiest thing to do. I should have known that when you put a reasonably priced Mercedes on Craigslist that the first people to become interested are invariably anyone who is a sociopath. The first guy to contact me tried making it seem like my car wasn't anywhere near the value that I had asked for and tried to smooth-talk me into receiving considerably less for it. Lucky for me I'm not an idiot and told him I would think about it (just to get him off the phone). He kept texting me about the car and if anyone was interested and finally agreed to a price more fitting to what I knew I should get. Fast forward to the day he was coming to get the car and pay me--no show. Essentially he annoyed the crap out of me for 2 days, didn't show, and for the next 2 days had the nerve to text me and ask if the car had been sold yet.
Thankfully he stopped because I was about the block his number.
The next interested buyer turned out to be a Nigerian internet scam. Yup. Took me a whole day to figure it out because initially the person wasn't that pushy and wasn't asking me for information about myself but eventually it all came out and I reported it.
Just as I was starting to feel bummed about my chances of selling the car a nice couple inquired about it. Andrew and I met up with them, they thoroughly looked over the car and test drove it and agreed to purchase it ::::insert big sigh and lots of yay's::::
Although I felt relieved that it was one less thing I was going to have to worry about once I leave, that car was kind of a big deal for me. It was the first car that ever had just MY name on it. It was the first car that I bought out-right and never owed anything for it. It was one of the few things that I didn't have to worry about while going through my divorce. As stupid as having a minor attachment to an inanimate object is, I still had one for that car.
The day came to hand over the car, Andrew and I washed it one last time, drove it up to Raleigh and met them at my bank. I signed over the title and notarized a bill of sale and said goodbye to Jenny one last time. Don't get me wrong, I didn't cry or anything (I've known people to do that) but I kept rambling a little too much to the new owner I guess to not have to let it go so quickly.
The car was the one big-ticket item that I needed to take care of before all the rest of the packing and sorting that needed to take place before I leave so seeing the new owner drive away with Jenny made things hit home a little more. Since Saturday I have been without a car and pretty much stuck at home to look at all the things that need to get done in the short spam of time that I have left. It's all a little unnerving but things will turn out alright, right?
Right?????
Saying bye to my normal life--
I'll be shutting down my Etsy page this weekend for the foreseeable future until I am done training and actually get stationed somewhere that I can set up my printer and what-not.
I also got engaged last Friday, September 14th.
He came home from work and I was still in my pajamas (don't judge). After our initial greetings he walked over to the dinner table to set a few things down and I mentioned that I needed to go to Wal-Mart to get batteries for my car key and while I was fussing over something on the table he said "Yea, ok, but will you marry me first?" I turned around, saw him on his knee with an open box and I jumped backwards, slamming myself into the wall and said "Right now??? I don't even look cute!" This got him to start laughing and whole time I'm saying "ARE YOU SERIOUS??" at which point he felt the need to ask me what my answer was. Haha. Obviously I said "yes" after the shock and I called friends and family while he cooked me dinner on the grill.
I enjoyed the way he decided to do it. I later found out that he meant to cook me dinner and do it then but couldn't hold his water so did it as soon as he got home. He knows I don't like public engagements with people everywhere looking at you and knowing your business and that cliche things like inside a teddy bear or stuffed animal just do do it for me. Putting it inside food or drink is a strict NO as well. That is just icky.
Most of the time that we spend with our significant others is spent doing ordinary things, usually at home, and I find it fitting being proposed to while doing something like that. It seems sincere to me and while I would have definitely preferred to have at least looked a little nicer it just emphasizes my point a bit more that I wasn't.
I had finally gotten dressed when a friend of mine insisted that I take an engagement day picture. Here is the result of said request:
Yup. Take a goooood look. This is the man I've decided to spend the rest of my life with...Haha.
We will be engaged for quite awhile due to all the training I will have to do over the next year and a half, but we're both ok with that and looking forward to having a long time to plan things.
As I mentioned in an earlier post I decided to sell Jenny, my car. What an experience that was.
I got an estimate from Kelly Blue Book and I knew that CarMax or a dealership wouldn't match it but I thought I would see what I could get for it if I had difficulty selling it online....Holy smokes. They offered $4,000 less than it was worth! No freakin' way. I know you have to turn around and sell it for a profit, but NO. So Craiglist was the next place I figured would help me get closer to what it was worth.
I'd like to take this moment to describe the circus that is Craiglist.
First, I am somewhat uncomfortable selling my wares on a website that not only has a rant column dedicated to the musings of people who I'm pretty sure should be committed, but that also allows people to place ads for people who are seeking marital affairs from their spouses with an emphasis on "no-strings-attached". Not a quality place to be doing business if you ask me.
Despite the obvious con's I put an ad on there for my car anyway because it seemed like the easiest thing to do. I should have known that when you put a reasonably priced Mercedes on Craigslist that the first people to become interested are invariably anyone who is a sociopath. The first guy to contact me tried making it seem like my car wasn't anywhere near the value that I had asked for and tried to smooth-talk me into receiving considerably less for it. Lucky for me I'm not an idiot and told him I would think about it (just to get him off the phone). He kept texting me about the car and if anyone was interested and finally agreed to a price more fitting to what I knew I should get. Fast forward to the day he was coming to get the car and pay me--no show. Essentially he annoyed the crap out of me for 2 days, didn't show, and for the next 2 days had the nerve to text me and ask if the car had been sold yet.
Thankfully he stopped because I was about the block his number.
The next interested buyer turned out to be a Nigerian internet scam. Yup. Took me a whole day to figure it out because initially the person wasn't that pushy and wasn't asking me for information about myself but eventually it all came out and I reported it.
Just as I was starting to feel bummed about my chances of selling the car a nice couple inquired about it. Andrew and I met up with them, they thoroughly looked over the car and test drove it and agreed to purchase it ::::insert big sigh and lots of yay's::::
Although I felt relieved that it was one less thing I was going to have to worry about once I leave, that car was kind of a big deal for me. It was the first car that ever had just MY name on it. It was the first car that I bought out-right and never owed anything for it. It was one of the few things that I didn't have to worry about while going through my divorce. As stupid as having a minor attachment to an inanimate object is, I still had one for that car.
The day came to hand over the car, Andrew and I washed it one last time, drove it up to Raleigh and met them at my bank. I signed over the title and notarized a bill of sale and said goodbye to Jenny one last time. Don't get me wrong, I didn't cry or anything (I've known people to do that) but I kept rambling a little too much to the new owner I guess to not have to let it go so quickly.
The car was the one big-ticket item that I needed to take care of before all the rest of the packing and sorting that needed to take place before I leave so seeing the new owner drive away with Jenny made things hit home a little more. Since Saturday I have been without a car and pretty much stuck at home to look at all the things that need to get done in the short spam of time that I have left. It's all a little unnerving but things will turn out alright, right?
Right?????
Saying bye to my normal life--
Friday, September 7, 2012
Hi Dad
Florida, my last vacation fling before I become military property...
It would make sense, of course, that when we showed up the first 3-4 days were spent drenched in tropical storm rainfall. We made up for it by catching up on some much needed television programming and, like all girls who are bored, we went shopping.
After much waiting the sun finally came out and we were about to have some beach time with a view that looked much like this--
I will have you all know that this man apparently couldn't get enough hotdogs because he kept swallowing them whole. He was so excited that he didn't even feel the need to get hotdog buns. I'd also like to know why he's wearing no shirt... no pants... but found it a necessity to wear gloves.
This wasn't even an isolated incident. There were old men in banana hammocks everywhere! I always imagined that young, Daniel Craig-looking-men were the type of men to wear Speedos and, frankly, I'm ok with that situation. I'm ok with fit individuals wearing next-to-nothing clothing because all the right body parts are in all the right places. Young men also wouldn't be so eager to wear Speedos hip-high with ass cheeks hanging out...such as in the picture above. What I had envisioned and what actually took place were totally and completely different. Not only did we end up at beaches where there were next to no young adults in sight, we ended up at what appeared to be an exclusively elderly gay beach.
Maybe old men living in hot climates have just become indifferent about parading around with their privates on display to the general public. Maybe they grew tired of cotton/polyester blend outfits and traded for woven nylon and spandex. Whatever the case may be, don't let t.v. trick you in to believing that Fort Lauderdale and South Beach are a mecca of gorgeous young people or else you'll end up driving over an hour out of your way to spend it avoiding eye contact with every old person who just doesn't give a damn anymore.
Despite the reason behind all the flashy butt cheeks and scary man boobs there were flocks of old men with this same mentality and it took a little adjusting in the beginning but after the initial shock Tess and I were able to refocus on other activities.
For one, I tried Cuban food for the first time in my life and I looooooooooooved it. Who knew that plantain's were so amazing??? I'm not kidding. Deep-fried with garlic and olive oil and red and green peppers is just plain delicious. I had some incredible food down there. My idea of Hispanic food is anything Tex-Mex. Wrong. According to my favorite Puerto-Rican, Mexican food "is basically white people food now." Haha. I wish I had a picture of a few of the dishes that I had because it's my new love. If you have the opportunity to have Cuban food, do it...except ceviche...it's raw seafood and it's slimey and gross and that's coming from someone who likes sushi. I paid $24 for a ceviche dish >>this big<< at an expensive, high-end restaurant and it was plain awful.
On our last day we decided to go big and scheduled parasailing trip.
Those pictures say it all. It was incredible. As you may notice we were flying high up in the air and I dared to bring my camera...a bit risky but worth it from the pictures. When Andrew saw them he said "Wait, so you took my camera? What the hell?" Haha. Oops.
Knowing that my life is about to change in a big way I was glad to kick my shoes off and do things I wanted to for one last time.Tess and I have been wanting to go on a trip together for the longest time....years infact. Her and I are about to go on our own little adventure's so I think it was more than fitting that this trip happened right before the huge unknown that's about to come. Great vacations like this one never seem long enough, though, and it only puts into perspective the little time that we have left to hang out with everyone that we love before we go our separate ways.
It was Labor Day Weekend by the time we got back from our trip so Tess headed to D.C. with Pat while Andrew and I went to Wilmington.
Andrew has this obsession with bogey-boards that I will never understand so that's what we spent most of our time doing. Initially we were the only adults in the water with one, standing next to all the 8 year old's, but when one dork does something then all the rest feel comfortable about coming out of their shells too. Soon after realizing that an adult dork was out in the water with a board (who had a female along for that matter) all the other adult dorks shyly came out clutching their beloved bogey-boards. It was a sight to see.
The one day was amazing though. There were about 50 pelicans out close to shore catching fish. I wish I had a better camera because none of my pictures did it justice. I've never seen that many pelicans in one spot and they were beautiful to look at.
The second day we were there it started to rain (I'm so sick of rain) and it didn't end til we left the next day. Andrew and I really don't get to go on legit vacations together so I was a little sad that we didn't get to have as much beach time as we would have liked but before we left. I enjoy the fact that he likes going to the beach with me. He's a fun beach person and he'll make the best out of any situation so the weekend was by no means a bust just because of the rain.
We're home now and life is back to normal. I'm trying to sell my car, figuring out what I have to do to get ready to leave at the end of the month, and trying to enjoy every last minute with the people I care about the most.
What a summer it has been.
(today's title comes from the fact that I received a call the other week from my Dad who made it known that he reads my blog. Seeing that he's probably one of the only readers who intentionally comes to this site to read my blog-- Hi Dad!!!)
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Empowered Me
Getting up this morning I had a plan:
Let the dogs out, eat breakfast, boot up my computer and write about something that has been on my mind for a very long time.
Before I got on Blogger I decided to check out Etsy and I noticed an article discussing "crafting". Before long I was clicking on every link they had which led me to an eye-opening article here. The article under the link I just gave is titled "Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy" written by Sara Mosle. It's a little dated but I think that it still holds rather true even in current times.
What I like about this article is that the author takes a look at the data, percentages and numbers of existing members to form an opinion. Based off of her research, she maintains that married mother's (or soon to be mother's) who are at home with children are the likely candidates to be seller's on the site because they are holding "out the hope of successfully combining meaningful work with motherhood in a way that more high-powered careers in the law, business, or sciences seldom allow". What that means is that, in a way, Etsy is catering to that to increase flow onto the website and all-the-while falsely encouraging the idea that you CAN be a stay-at-home-mom and make lots of money. The author also states that it's a fantasy because only an extremely small percentage of people have claimed to do well enough on the site to sustain an actual lifestyle. Upon further inspection of the income of those seldom lucky ones you come to find out that they are not really making a living at all solely on the site and aren't the breadwinners for their family.
I'm not going to go into any further detail about it because I really want to encourage you to read the article. It's well articulated and I'm afraid of not doing the author justice by hacking up her words, but I did find that I was refreshed after reading it.
I've only ever made one sale on my shop, just one. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled that at least one person was able to enjoy my product. To know that someone loved something that I made had me giddy.
Quick story:
I was at work when it happened. I was sitting at my desk at school after a long day of teaching over 120 small children feeling.just.exasperated. I had a few minutes before my afternoon duty at the car-rider pick-up area so I decided to go through some emails to waste time. As I was perusing my inbox I noticed a letter from Etsy....could it be? I always recognized the emails that were asking me to pay my online bill for that month (come on, everyone knows what impending bills look like) but this one was totally different. I opened it and the next few moments when like this--
Audible squeal with hands slightly raised and fists clenched, dashing out the door, stampeding across campus to the gym, bursting through Coach Cooper's office door, jumping in the air and pronouncing loudly "I sold a painting!" to a very confused Coach Cooper who promptly gave me a high-five and congratulated me.
I love the satisfaction of knowing that someone appreciates my work enough to display it.
The reason I mention this is because I like my shop and I will continue to run it but today, after having read that article, I feel free-r. I had been reading Etsy's "Quit Your Day Job" series. I had been using Etsy as a platform to get me to a place where I didn't have to do any other job but to make art. Hell, I'm not even married and I don't even have kids but that was the long term goal and I wanted Etsy to help me get there.
I felt so frustrated that things didn't seem to be working out. It seemed like everyone else was doing well, so what was wrong with mine? I'm also a part of a group The Art Colony and they have forum's to discuss all facets of making art and in one discussion they agreed that hardly anyone makes serious money on Etsy. Me being me, I didn't want to listen.
I woke up this morning in a bit of a funk (I'll explain in subsequent blog posts I'm sure) and now I feel like I have more clarity. Isn't that so strange???? I feel like I want to create MORE! Maybe it was just me getting overzealous about everything, maybe it was me having unrealistic expectations, maybe it was just me fixating on how things "should be" rather than just appreciating "what is" but I just feel so.much.better.
It's really not just me. I'm not chained to some unsuccessful venture that everyone else obtained with ease. I didn't fail at this!
I had a rough night but I feel so great today (admittedly a bit tired, but great). I think I'm going to spend today continuing to knit my mom a scarf and maybe I'll break out some oil paint today. Who knows?? Things seem limitless today :)
Let the dogs out, eat breakfast, boot up my computer and write about something that has been on my mind for a very long time.
Before I got on Blogger I decided to check out Etsy and I noticed an article discussing "crafting". Before long I was clicking on every link they had which led me to an eye-opening article here. The article under the link I just gave is titled "Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy" written by Sara Mosle. It's a little dated but I think that it still holds rather true even in current times.
What I like about this article is that the author takes a look at the data, percentages and numbers of existing members to form an opinion. Based off of her research, she maintains that married mother's (or soon to be mother's) who are at home with children are the likely candidates to be seller's on the site because they are holding "out the hope of successfully combining meaningful work with motherhood in a way that more high-powered careers in the law, business, or sciences seldom allow". What that means is that, in a way, Etsy is catering to that to increase flow onto the website and all-the-while falsely encouraging the idea that you CAN be a stay-at-home-mom and make lots of money. The author also states that it's a fantasy because only an extremely small percentage of people have claimed to do well enough on the site to sustain an actual lifestyle. Upon further inspection of the income of those seldom lucky ones you come to find out that they are not really making a living at all solely on the site and aren't the breadwinners for their family.
I'm not going to go into any further detail about it because I really want to encourage you to read the article. It's well articulated and I'm afraid of not doing the author justice by hacking up her words, but I did find that I was refreshed after reading it.
I've only ever made one sale on my shop, just one. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled that at least one person was able to enjoy my product. To know that someone loved something that I made had me giddy.
Quick story:
I was at work when it happened. I was sitting at my desk at school after a long day of teaching over 120 small children feeling.just.exasperated. I had a few minutes before my afternoon duty at the car-rider pick-up area so I decided to go through some emails to waste time. As I was perusing my inbox I noticed a letter from Etsy....could it be? I always recognized the emails that were asking me to pay my online bill for that month (come on, everyone knows what impending bills look like) but this one was totally different. I opened it and the next few moments when like this--
Audible squeal with hands slightly raised and fists clenched, dashing out the door, stampeding across campus to the gym, bursting through Coach Cooper's office door, jumping in the air and pronouncing loudly "I sold a painting!" to a very confused Coach Cooper who promptly gave me a high-five and congratulated me.
I love the satisfaction of knowing that someone appreciates my work enough to display it.
The reason I mention this is because I like my shop and I will continue to run it but today, after having read that article, I feel free-r. I had been reading Etsy's "Quit Your Day Job" series. I had been using Etsy as a platform to get me to a place where I didn't have to do any other job but to make art. Hell, I'm not even married and I don't even have kids but that was the long term goal and I wanted Etsy to help me get there.
I felt so frustrated that things didn't seem to be working out. It seemed like everyone else was doing well, so what was wrong with mine? I'm also a part of a group The Art Colony and they have forum's to discuss all facets of making art and in one discussion they agreed that hardly anyone makes serious money on Etsy. Me being me, I didn't want to listen.
I woke up this morning in a bit of a funk (I'll explain in subsequent blog posts I'm sure) and now I feel like I have more clarity. Isn't that so strange???? I feel like I want to create MORE! Maybe it was just me getting overzealous about everything, maybe it was me having unrealistic expectations, maybe it was just me fixating on how things "should be" rather than just appreciating "what is" but I just feel so.much.better.
It's really not just me. I'm not chained to some unsuccessful venture that everyone else obtained with ease. I didn't fail at this!
I had a rough night but I feel so great today (admittedly a bit tired, but great). I think I'm going to spend today continuing to knit my mom a scarf and maybe I'll break out some oil paint today. Who knows?? Things seem limitless today :)
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Not My Usual Kind of Posts
I'm not good at letting other people in. I'm more of a hold-people-at-arm's-length kind of person. Contributing to conversations and being friendly, sure, I'm ok at that. Some of my friends recall having to wait around a year for me to return their phone calls or to come to an event that they asked me to come to, or even telling them about myself for at least the first 6 months. Goofy stuff, I'm sure I told them, but personal stuff? Not at all. It's not like I didn't want to go or call to be an ass, it's just that I kind of need a warming-up period. I'm a turtle and I'm not sure if you're crazy yet so I'm testing the waters. I've had too many incidents where I've had people go crazy over not calling them back on the same day....when I had just met them a week prior.
I say this because I have had this blog for about a year and a half (me thinks) and it seems rather unsuccessful. I look at blog's from other people and I see that they have like 1,000 friends and people contributing to their blog's etc.etc. and I've wondered "What the hell is wrong with mine?" I figured the infrequency of my writing was playing a part but when I read other people's blogs I realized that they get into SUPER DETAIL. Like, crazy, embarrassing shit. Not only do they talk about every miniscule moment of their day but they also recap their whole life story. Thinking about what I'm going through on almost a daily basis for everyone else to read makes me cringe a little. It's as if my body is rejecting the notion that other people, who are total strangers, get to read about the mess that was my divorce, the baby momma drama that I deal with from my boyfriend's bat-shit-crazy ex-wife, my doomed Etsy page (that actually made me laugh a little), and my love for running. I'm just not that trusting!
Yup, I get it. I signed up to do this. But I'm so horribly, horribly private. I swear you'd like me if you met me! I feel like constantly blogging about myself is narcissistic. Like "Hey, guys! I'm awesome and my life is wonderful and here's a whole list of reasons why you should adore me!" One thing I detest about habitual bloggers is the inevitable negative rut they can get in so they share it with everyone and their last 7 posts are about how horrible things are so they pull on the empathy of everyone and that's how they keep their blog going.
Is all this really what it takes to have a "good" blog?
How about this for starters: I'll tell you some things about myself. It will be a random assortment but at least it's something.
Here are my "babies". Mia is my curious 3 year-old Husky, Bailey is my rowdy 1 year-old Pitt mix, and Reese...ah, Reese, he's my spunky 7 year-old lop-eared bunny.
I'm turning 29 in December and, no, I don't actually have any kids. My ex-husband was a bit unstable and kids weren't a good idea. I wanted to have at least one kid by the age of 27 but it wasn't in the cards and by then I was legally separated. So my herd of furry animals will have to do for now.
My boyfriend, Andrew, and I met through a friend because he needed a date for a military ball.
Being 5'11" makes it hard to meet guys who are taller than me sometimes, so you are correct in noticing that I'm taller than him :-) We have been together almost 2 years now and we're about to do the long-distance thing with me leaving for the Army and having to spend a year in California for language school.
Besides art, I love to run. Last Saturday there was a funeral for an 8 year-old girl who I taught. She was killed in a car crash because some guy wasn't paying attention and didn't slow his truck down and rear-ended the car that she was in the back seat of. It was tragic. She was a sweet little girl. I went running to clear my head, and what initially was supposed to be a simple 4-miler turned into a half-marathon. It was very Forrest Gump. In light of the tragedy I realized how fleeting life is and on my 4th mile I kept thinking how good it was to be alive. I kept running and on mile 6 decided to do the full 13.1. I finished it, my legs practically gave out walking up to the house but it was rejuvenating emotionally.
I'm horrible at decorating. My house with my ex-husband looked like a bachelor pad. The house I live in now looks like a bachelor pad. I love painting walls with bright colors but when it comes to furniture, hanging stuff on the walls, general "making a house look like a home" stuff I'm terrible. I'm very minimalist that way. I love the IDEA of decorating and then I think about spending money on inanimate objects that have no purpose and that it's one more item I have to pick up and move when it comes to cleaning. It frustrates me. I'm a creative person but not with that. My creativity was severely stunted when it comes to home decor and landscaping.
I'm dorky and like to use big words like "superfluous," "cogent," and "ostentatious," and other words that my friends have to ask what they mean and then accuse me of looking up a word in a dictionary to use each day.
As for reporting on things that I did today, Andrew and I went and sold some rings we had for extra cash. It feels good to get rid of them and not have them around anymore (I haven't gotten around to selling my wedding ring yet, I just got it appraised) and the extra cash is nice too. We wanted hoagies for lunch so we went to Jimmy John's and I got my fav #5 Vito Italian hoagie. Dee-lish. More importantly, I took a nap today. I was up at 6:30 am for no good reason so I needed to compensate. I'm also looking forward to grabbing drinks with a girl I used to work with at school who, like most people I meet, didn't get to know me very well in the 3 years that I worked there but I finally decided to open up and spend some time with her recently...ironically after I quit and just before I'm about to leave. Fail.
I'm just God-awful.
I say this because I have had this blog for about a year and a half (me thinks) and it seems rather unsuccessful. I look at blog's from other people and I see that they have like 1,000 friends and people contributing to their blog's etc.etc. and I've wondered "What the hell is wrong with mine?" I figured the infrequency of my writing was playing a part but when I read other people's blogs I realized that they get into SUPER DETAIL. Like, crazy, embarrassing shit. Not only do they talk about every miniscule moment of their day but they also recap their whole life story. Thinking about what I'm going through on almost a daily basis for everyone else to read makes me cringe a little. It's as if my body is rejecting the notion that other people, who are total strangers, get to read about the mess that was my divorce, the baby momma drama that I deal with from my boyfriend's bat-shit-crazy ex-wife, my doomed Etsy page (that actually made me laugh a little), and my love for running. I'm just not that trusting!
Yup, I get it. I signed up to do this. But I'm so horribly, horribly private. I swear you'd like me if you met me! I feel like constantly blogging about myself is narcissistic. Like "Hey, guys! I'm awesome and my life is wonderful and here's a whole list of reasons why you should adore me!" One thing I detest about habitual bloggers is the inevitable negative rut they can get in so they share it with everyone and their last 7 posts are about how horrible things are so they pull on the empathy of everyone and that's how they keep their blog going.
Is all this really what it takes to have a "good" blog?
How about this for starters: I'll tell you some things about myself. It will be a random assortment but at least it's something.
Here are my "babies". Mia is my curious 3 year-old Husky, Bailey is my rowdy 1 year-old Pitt mix, and Reese...ah, Reese, he's my spunky 7 year-old lop-eared bunny.
I'm turning 29 in December and, no, I don't actually have any kids. My ex-husband was a bit unstable and kids weren't a good idea. I wanted to have at least one kid by the age of 27 but it wasn't in the cards and by then I was legally separated. So my herd of furry animals will have to do for now.
My boyfriend, Andrew, and I met through a friend because he needed a date for a military ball.
Besides art, I love to run. Last Saturday there was a funeral for an 8 year-old girl who I taught. She was killed in a car crash because some guy wasn't paying attention and didn't slow his truck down and rear-ended the car that she was in the back seat of. It was tragic. She was a sweet little girl. I went running to clear my head, and what initially was supposed to be a simple 4-miler turned into a half-marathon. It was very Forrest Gump. In light of the tragedy I realized how fleeting life is and on my 4th mile I kept thinking how good it was to be alive. I kept running and on mile 6 decided to do the full 13.1. I finished it, my legs practically gave out walking up to the house but it was rejuvenating emotionally.
I'm horrible at decorating. My house with my ex-husband looked like a bachelor pad. The house I live in now looks like a bachelor pad. I love painting walls with bright colors but when it comes to furniture, hanging stuff on the walls, general "making a house look like a home" stuff I'm terrible. I'm very minimalist that way. I love the IDEA of decorating and then I think about spending money on inanimate objects that have no purpose and that it's one more item I have to pick up and move when it comes to cleaning. It frustrates me. I'm a creative person but not with that. My creativity was severely stunted when it comes to home decor and landscaping.
I'm dorky and like to use big words like "superfluous," "cogent," and "ostentatious," and other words that my friends have to ask what they mean and then accuse me of looking up a word in a dictionary to use each day.
As for reporting on things that I did today, Andrew and I went and sold some rings we had for extra cash. It feels good to get rid of them and not have them around anymore (I haven't gotten around to selling my wedding ring yet, I just got it appraised) and the extra cash is nice too. We wanted hoagies for lunch so we went to Jimmy John's and I got my fav #5 Vito Italian hoagie. Dee-lish. More importantly, I took a nap today. I was up at 6:30 am for no good reason so I needed to compensate. I'm also looking forward to grabbing drinks with a girl I used to work with at school who, like most people I meet, didn't get to know me very well in the 3 years that I worked there but I finally decided to open up and spend some time with her recently...ironically after I quit and just before I'm about to leave. Fail.
I'm just God-awful.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Thrifty Me
Ok, so remember my blog post about my car "Jenny" and how I was super proud to have paid her off and legally owned a car for once in my life? Yup, selling her. I figure I'm leaving and I don't want to pay full price for car insurance and I don't want Andrew burdened by another car if the Army tells him he has to move while I'm gone, so, selling her. It's one of those things where Jenny always could have used a little more cleaning and time paid towards maintenance (like new tires) but I never got around to it. Well now I have to do it all at once.
One thing that's needed taking care of is the back seat. This car was originally my ex-husband's and he used to throw all his junk and dirty bags for work in the back seat, therefore the seat and vinyl seat belts got filthy. FILTHY. The straps were a dark brown color when they should have been silver, and well as the seat (which was originally light gray so you could see all the nastiness). He told me he'd get the car professionally cleaned before the car swap we had but when I had gone to pick up my car at the dealership and he had already taken mine I realized that I had been had. I tried cleaning it myself but to no avail so I kind of let it go for awhile.
Fast forward to yesterday.
I went to the dealership to get a regularly scheduled maintenance as well as have them get their guy who details car's to come in as well as the paint guy who tried (and failed) to spot paint an area of my car that got hit by a shopping cart. The maintenance itself is like $330. With everything else he estimated it to be a total of $700. $700??? Nope. Nope. Nope. I'm trying to get rid of this thing, NOT invest in it some more. I Googled all morning how to get those stains out of the seat belts and what to do to clean the seats. $14 later my seat belts are relatively clean, my seats are freaking sparkling AND to avoid paying a paint guy who literally cannot match paint colors to save his life (I have an alabaster white car and he used a beige color to cover up the spot so it looks terrible) I found a company online who sells paint pens for any type of car so that I can just do it myself. Take that stupid Mercedes dealership.
I also re-opened my Etsy shop with some new items. When I did the Sketchbook Project I had never worked with color-pencils and I really wanted to give that a try so that was the medium I chose to explore and with that I incorporated animals. Before I sent the book out I scanned the images and I re-worked them a little in Photoshop as well as drew new ones in my spare time. I thought these were cute little drawings.
Bonnie and Clyde
Larry
Ricardo and Maria
Woodpecker
Tree Frog
The last 2 don't have names because I just couldn't think of anything that seemed appropriate. They are really cute (to me, hah) and I hope they sell alright on Etsy. Lord knows I haven't had much luck there.
I'm so sleepy so I'm going to relax and snuggle my dogs :)
One thing that's needed taking care of is the back seat. This car was originally my ex-husband's and he used to throw all his junk and dirty bags for work in the back seat, therefore the seat and vinyl seat belts got filthy. FILTHY. The straps were a dark brown color when they should have been silver, and well as the seat (which was originally light gray so you could see all the nastiness). He told me he'd get the car professionally cleaned before the car swap we had but when I had gone to pick up my car at the dealership and he had already taken mine I realized that I had been had. I tried cleaning it myself but to no avail so I kind of let it go for awhile.
Fast forward to yesterday.
I went to the dealership to get a regularly scheduled maintenance as well as have them get their guy who details car's to come in as well as the paint guy who tried (and failed) to spot paint an area of my car that got hit by a shopping cart. The maintenance itself is like $330. With everything else he estimated it to be a total of $700. $700??? Nope. Nope. Nope. I'm trying to get rid of this thing, NOT invest in it some more. I Googled all morning how to get those stains out of the seat belts and what to do to clean the seats. $14 later my seat belts are relatively clean, my seats are freaking sparkling AND to avoid paying a paint guy who literally cannot match paint colors to save his life (I have an alabaster white car and he used a beige color to cover up the spot so it looks terrible) I found a company online who sells paint pens for any type of car so that I can just do it myself. Take that stupid Mercedes dealership.
I also re-opened my Etsy shop with some new items. When I did the Sketchbook Project I had never worked with color-pencils and I really wanted to give that a try so that was the medium I chose to explore and with that I incorporated animals. Before I sent the book out I scanned the images and I re-worked them a little in Photoshop as well as drew new ones in my spare time. I thought these were cute little drawings.
Bonnie and Clyde
Larry
Ricardo and Maria
Woodpecker
Tree Frog
The last 2 don't have names because I just couldn't think of anything that seemed appropriate. They are really cute (to me, hah) and I hope they sell alright on Etsy. Lord knows I haven't had much luck there.
I'm so sleepy so I'm going to relax and snuggle my dogs :)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
I Promise I'm Alive!
I know I didn't blog about this before, and not many people knew, but for the last several months I was in the process of joining the Army. As of last Friday I swore in and am officially in! I will be leaving at the end of September and I will be gone for a very long time.
Thinking back a year ago this wasn't the direction I was going in. I was trying so hard to get my art work off the ground and make that my occupation and I had put so much effort into it that only selling one painting in the span of a year really struck a blow to my spirit. Don't get me wrong, I still paint and can continue to do so, but in terms of possibly getting that off the ground didn't seem to feasible. I started to feel lost again and being 28 I remembered something a few months ago that I have forgotten for a long time...I wanted to join the Army. I wanted to do that even before I went to college. When I looked more into it I found out that 29 is the cut off for active duty and I decided to throw my hat in that arena for a change.
I have a 6 year commitment and I will be a type of linguist so I will be going to language school for a year in California. I have always wanted to learn a language well enough to be conversational and getting the opportunity to be in one of the best school's in the world is exciting.
One of the more difficult things is leaving my animals, my boyfriend, my friends, and my family. I haven't lived near a lot of my friends in a long time nor my parents but being available to see them every so often makes it easier and now I won't even get that. Leaving Andrew and "our kids" is the worst. He's in the Army so his schedule makes it crazy hard to see him as it is but he's proud of me and that makes me feel very fortunate.
I have been slacking in my creativity lately but I think I want to have one more burst of artistic indulgence before I leave in September so I will keep you posted!
Thinking back a year ago this wasn't the direction I was going in. I was trying so hard to get my art work off the ground and make that my occupation and I had put so much effort into it that only selling one painting in the span of a year really struck a blow to my spirit. Don't get me wrong, I still paint and can continue to do so, but in terms of possibly getting that off the ground didn't seem to feasible. I started to feel lost again and being 28 I remembered something a few months ago that I have forgotten for a long time...I wanted to join the Army. I wanted to do that even before I went to college. When I looked more into it I found out that 29 is the cut off for active duty and I decided to throw my hat in that arena for a change.
I have a 6 year commitment and I will be a type of linguist so I will be going to language school for a year in California. I have always wanted to learn a language well enough to be conversational and getting the opportunity to be in one of the best school's in the world is exciting.
One of the more difficult things is leaving my animals, my boyfriend, my friends, and my family. I haven't lived near a lot of my friends in a long time nor my parents but being available to see them every so often makes it easier and now I won't even get that. Leaving Andrew and "our kids" is the worst. He's in the Army so his schedule makes it crazy hard to see him as it is but he's proud of me and that makes me feel very fortunate.
I have been slacking in my creativity lately but I think I want to have one more burst of artistic indulgence before I leave in September so I will keep you posted!
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