Adventures in Sisterhood. Hey, I Have a Little Sister!

At the Lloyd Center after ice skating--welllll, ok, it was more like ice walking but whatever

In this week's mentor adventures, I will try to convince Edith to climb a tree. A few months ago I convinced her to eat a crepe—she whispered she might puke, but luckily that didn’t happen. Nope, instead she ate a sliver of the $8 ham crepe and decided she preferred the M&Ms on my frozen yogurt. This was after we had spent an hour traipsing around the Portland Art Museum and hypothesizing about paintings, with her shirking at all of the naked women. She’s afraid of most things, BUT, I expect as much from someone who’s about a yardstick tall.

Edith doesn’t talk a ton, but when she does she asks a lot of questions, which means I answer a lot of questions. When I was told my mentee match would be an 8-year-old, my immediate response was to Google “8-year-old.” (How tall is one of those anyways?) Youtube gave me a good idea of what they sound like. The first time we hung out, we discussed law enforcement: I still don’t know why policeman eat donuts, and our own Grandpa was a policeman. 

She had stumped me, just like when we went to the park and I crushed her three times in a row (<--haha, get it?) in tic-tac toe; I considered letting her win, but thought it best to teach her the harsh realities of life, early on. “It’s ok,” she said after the fifth round, “I was letting you win.” I’ll be damned…by letting me win, she ended up winning. So, ok, she’s smart.

When I first met Edith, almost a year ago, she wore her hair pinned back in baby clips, though now she has bangs that are brushed to the side, like Selena Gomez. Katie Perry is her favorite singer, and Beyonce is her favorite performer (two different things, she informed me). She does not like Michael Jackson—even post-mortem, I feel relieved by this preference. She spends a lot of times indoors playing video games, and I have to rapidly change the subject if she gets on the topic of French fries (this happens more often than you’d think). She’s gained some weight since we started hanging out; her belly bowls out under her T-shirts now—which unfortunately is a very familiar site. Basically, she’s a Latina version of my own 9-year-old self; having a miniature-sized doppelganger can be very unnerving, but also enlightening.

Apparently the Portland public library does this program where you can sign up for a time slot to read books to underprivileged dogs (yup). I’ve been wanting to do it for a while. If I can’t get Edith up a tree this week, we’re going to the library.

-J

p.s. It has been two months since the last post, you steenking slackers!

A Call To Action

Call me a cheater but this post is merely a sounding board for us to chat about a potential sisters' trip. We need to start planning! Due to cost I feel it's prudent to meet on the West Coast- San Fran? Jenna, I know you might be going with Jo soon but I'm pretty sure you'll be fine going back again. That city tends to steal your heart! Plus, I'm pretty sure San Fran with me & Kali would be a different experience than with Jo ;) And Kali, when do you move to AZ? Honestly, I'm thinking this trip may need to happen after the holidays as my weekends are a little crazy until then. But if Kali gets back to me about when she moves perhaps we can set something in motion.

I also thought maybe we could just ask Ma & Pa to pay out way...that could be our Christmas presents. Let me know what you be thinkin...

always,
m

Dream on....

[WARNING: If you are already in a bad mood, you may not want to read this as it will include quite a bit of gloom and doom b/c I have been in a funk as of late. If you wish to continue reading, do so at your own risk.]

So as of late, I have been in a funk and here's why: I'm recontemplating my career path/choices I made in the past. I remember thinking when I was a sophomore in college, "I'm not gonna worry about that now, I have more time..." or "I'm not gonna make a decision right now on my career, because I have more time, I'll make that decision when I'm ready."  That continued for weeks, which then turned into months, which then turned into years, and 5 years later, I am still no closer to having a career than I was when I was 21, thinking those exact same thoughts.


And you know what, it pisses me off. I'm mad at myself for not taking more initiative, doing more research, even doing more soul searching. I'm mad at myself for not finding a true passion/calling and pursuing it, no matter what anyone else said.  I've heard some older people say, people in their 50+ say, "Oh, don't worry, I still don't know what I want to do with my life either."  That does not comfort me. I don't want to be in my 50's still wondering if I missed some opportunity or over looked my big "ah-hah" moment because I was too busy busting my ass at a $10/hr job. That would just be so sad it's ridiculous, but I think it happens. I think it happens a lot. People get busy living life, and worry more about where their next paycheck is going to come from, instead of finding their niche in life.  And I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to be that person, and if I'll always be that person. And it makes me sick. It keeps me awake at night. It makes me feel like a complete loser, and sometimes, it even makes me cry. Not knowing/understanding now looking back, why I got 2 completely useless degrees, that are in NO way marketable in this economy makes me want to scream. I am beyond frustrated. In fact, I have a hard time even talking about this subject out loud, because when I do, I normally burst into very angry tears. I'm mad at myself for not having a back up plan, and for settling for something that was generally easy to get my bachelors in, and not really challenging myself. Grad school is another story,  that program was definitely NOT easy.

I also feel misunderstood. My husband has known what he's wanted to do his entire life, and started his journey towards his final goal when he was literally in elementary school; so my predicament is incomprehensible to him. "How can you not know?" He asks, as if I'm from another planet.  I wish I was more like him,  I wish I had set my sights really high, and just went for it like he did. I wish I had figured it out when I was a child, and then just pursued it, but I didn't.

My question now is, how do I fix this? How do I "pick myself up by the boot straps" as my Mom would say and find my calling? Go back to school? Thought about it, it makes me want to vomit but if that's the only way I can figure it out, than maybe that's my one and only option. Maybe I need to go on a vision quest like the Indians used to, but is that even legal now? Wasn't there peyote involved in vision quests?

I'm obviously just going through some major growing pains right now, and I probably need to stop thinking so much and just do something about it before my head explodes.  It sounds so simple, but is so incredibly hard for me to do. Why? Why is it so hard for me to just pick a USEFUL career and pursue it? A REAL career plan too, not some pipe dream, long shot, billionaire dream of a plan, like becoming the next J.K. Rowling. What are the odds of that actually happening, like 1 in a bazillion? I can't answer that either, maybe I'll find that answer too, on my vision quest.

-K

Just Around the River Bend...

I look once more... at how to live in the now.

So whoever said, "to know where you're going you have to know where you came from" must not have known what it's like to have baggage. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't acknowledge your roots and how they've shaped who you are. However, it's easy to get stuck on past events & let them mold you in counterproductive ways.  I have vowed to let my memories (good & bad) live in the past-- they will not influence who I am going to become.

What stemmed this post was Jenna's comment about how being in the present is so important-- I can't stress it enough. Obviously the past two years of my existence have been anything but easy & it's amazing how hard it can become to just be when your brain is full of crap. It's amazing how much perspective you can get by just breathing...ahhhh... It truly does able you to appreciate the now. Soak it all up because- like we said- it will all be over soon.

And that's my soapbox :)

m

p.s. Kal- Au contraire (sp?), sometimes you get to have "milestones" more than once. BTW my next wedding will be in Kauai- see above ;)

I wish that I knew what I know now....

So my sisters have been getting after me about blogging because I've been very negligent I know....so I sat here staring at a blank page for a while, and the first thing that came to mind was this simple phrase, "I miss the days when things were different." Let me explain. I actually remember a time when Jenna and I were probably around the ages of 11-12 and we were sitting downstairs in the basement of the 1201 house watching some show, and there was a girl on it that looked like she was in her late 20's probably and I remember saying, "I can't wait until I'm like 26 or 27 because then I can do whatever I want." and I remember Jenna saying, "I don't, because then you're old." Well guess what? I turned 26 this year, and not that I'm old, I'm still a "spring chicken" as my Mom would say but I feel like things are different now. I have so many more responsibilities now, I'm married now for one. Almost for a year now too, which has gone by way too fast. I was just in  one of my bff's weddings this weekend too and it was a beautiful wedding, honestly, and they are a beautiful, inspiring couple. You can honestly see how much they love each other when they look at each other. One night when we were getting ready for bed, she said to me, "Before you got married, were you ever sad?" Instantly I knew exactly what she was talking about because we kind of have this weird ESP thing when we speak to each other.  I told her yes, I was. I definitely wasn't sad about marrying the man of my dreams. My husband is amazing, honestly, words can't describe how much he inspires me, makes me laugh, or how much I love him.  I was sad because a huge milestone in my life was about to be over.

I really dreamed about my wedding my entire life. I specifically remember an instance when I was 5 years old, playing Barbies with Mara and talking about my wedding. And it really is over in the blink of an eye. Over my friends wedding this weekend, we were talking about how a wedding should really span over about 4-5 days because of all the preparation and the time, and the 20+ years you spend fantasizing about this one day that really is all about YOU the BRIDE. And your handsome prince, of course. Let's not forget him. :) And in the span of 12 hours it's over and everyone goes home at the end of the night. It's the most amazing day/night of your life and while you're SO happy that you married the person you've been waiting for your whole life, you're also sad that this amazing day has come and gone just like the rest.

The next milestone my husband I have is babies. People are already asking about when we're going to have them.  But, I have to admit that we are both really excited about having them.  Baby fever hasn't quite kicked in though, give it another year or so.  But, once again I'll be really sad when this milestone comes and goes. It just seems like when I was younger, I was always wishing that I was older, to have more responsibilities, to be on my own. Now, I'm just wishing that time would stop, that I could sit on our back porch with my husband and my family and just drink everything in, before everything changes again. We'll be moving again at the end of this year. We're not sure where we're going, but we should find out here within the next month or so, and things will keep right on rolling. I love going new places and meeting new people. But, I just want to sit still for a while and listen. Does that sound too "Pocahontas"-y? A little bit, I admit.

A tour of our home, in photos

Ok, I'm looking back in the archives and realizing it has been too long since someone has posted. And I also see that it is my turn, oops. So, in keeping in line with the previous topic of favorite house memories, I thought I'd give you a tour of my new home, here in Portland, delivered in the form of a photo essay!

Lucky for you, I devoted this past weekend to home improvement projects. And by home improvement projects I primarily mean clearing a path in my room so that I can walk through it without slipping on glossy New Yorker covers and getting stray pieces of thread and clothing articles wrapped around my ankles. Anyhow, after two months in these northeast digs it is beginning to look like we are settling in.

This weekend we installed this slick pull-up bar in the door that leads from the backyard into the basement. The door/pull-up bar is also a direct shot from the kitchen, which means when I’m waiting for my macaroni to boil or my chik’n nuggets to bake, I bide my time either hanging from the bar or jumping up and wiggling my chin to the top of the bar. So, hopefully I can lose the 15 lbs I’ve packed on in the last year. Between this and my spontaneous windmilling and punching-bag simulations, I should be able to whip my arms into shape.

In other, slightly related news, it appears that at some point in between last summer and this summer I have developed an ass. It wasn’t until the Big Freedia concert a couple months ago that it became apparent (though I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person that has had this revelation at one of her concerts—because, seriously, AZZ. EVERYWHERE. omg). My profile used to drop distinctively straight from my bottom vertebra to my femur, but now there’s some undeniable cushion happening. I think it might be from all of the biking I do, or the fact that I climb up and down my stairs at least 20 times a day.

Anyways, back to the tour.

This is the hammock we installed on our front porch. Here we drink apple cider, eat ice cream sandwiches, consume other foodstuffs, and hope that our neighbors aren’t going to blast the Wicked soundtrack again.

 This is the fire pit Michael built in the backyard. He didn’t even use a compass or any circle-making tools. The symmetry is so incredible that it could almost be a crop circle or some other alien intervention, which kind of makes me suspicious of Michael.

 This is why you don’t go outside without shoes on.

And this is why you don’t (and couldn’t anyways) break into our house if you’re a zombie. Note the stake, Undead.

I edged around these steps this weekend. Where there used to be overgrown dandelions and unruly grass, there is now only cold hard cement—just the way we like it.

This is our exterior bathroom. It’s not an outhouse though. It was for the servants, for when they had servants in 1910. On the left is the miniature door that we wonder what we can stuff with, and on the right is the mysterious brick that we found inside the toilet, which still flushes btw.

I installed these shelves this weekend. Mar, in case Genevieve asks, I got the brackets from IKEA, they’re metal and they’re called EKBY. And the wooden plank I got from the Rebuilding Center for a dollar. There’s a bunch of wood glue on the bottom of it. But it was a dollar.

Kombucha, just fermentin' and doin its door stop duties. It’s been brewing for 3 weeks now. I think I may let it go for another week yet. It’s starting to get tart, but doesn’t have any carbonation for some reason. 

And so ends the tour of improvements. Beyond working on the house, I’ve been schooling myself. The other day I walked out of the library with a chocolate chip cookie in one hand and two Scholastic books under my other arm, one called ICELAND, and the other called FINLAND. They have captions like, “It is unusual to find a dark-haired Icelander, except among some teenagers who dye their hair to be different.” Which gives me the sense that these book were not made with my 23-year-old self in mind as a consumer. However, in the absence of college, I’m finding I’m regressing to my lifestyle as a 10-year-old in the months of summer, when I would assign myself report papers on Neil Armstrong and the Taj Mahal. 

But! I will say, this research is not without a purpose; I’ve become really intent on applying for a Fulbright scholarship. Tomorrow I have a phone meeting with an adviser at the University of Oregon, she’s going to answer some questions I have about the Fulbright, and give me some advice. As maybe you can tell by my scholastic picks, I’m really narrowing in on the Scandinavian countries. But I’ll keep you posted. I've also been teaching myself Italian, and being pretty serious about it. I've been watching an Italian movie nearly ever night before I go to bed, and maintaining a vocabulary list of new words. I don't want to do a Fulbright in Italy, but I've been itching to master a foreign language, and Italian is what I have the strongest foundation with. So here I am. 

TTFN
-J

P.S. I'm just realizing I still have the weird wide dimensions on my camera. oops. I got really excited for a while that my photos looked like film stills, but obviously it's not really an appropriate camera setting for things like fermenting kombucha.

For Posting's Sake

I'm here. As promised I'm making an overdue appearance on Up Up & Away. Surprisingly, I'm having trouble finding something to chat about... Could it be because my mind has been spinning from this new "transition" I'm going through? Or is it due to using my reserves to stir up ideas for my {Sea of Lovely}? (Yes, that was a shameless plug.)  What I do know is that I miss my sisters and couldn't be more excited for you to be here over Easter weekend.

So speaking of {Sea of Lovely}, I need some feedback from my nerds. I plan to label each item I sell with a name; i.e. the Lola clutch. And naturally I want to use your names for an accessory. Do you have any requests for what type of good I use (or shouldn't use) your name for? Just checking :)

On that note I will wrap up this flow-of-conscious post with this to ponder: is it ironic that I'm now in the City of Destiny & have a view of Commencement Bay? Doubtful.

Photo courtesy of
City of Tacoma Community and Economic Development

♥m

White furry bundles of joy!

I just had to post some pictures of the "dog of the month" for me currently.  Surprisingly, Kraig actually finds this breed "cute" as well. He said maybe "someday" I could get one. Haha!!! Victory at last.

Annnnddd....one more just for good measure. :) These are maltese's by the way.

Happy Monday y'all ;) 

memories, light the corners of my eyes!!

K, so it's my turn for some recall.

Shepherd: I don’t have many memories from Shepherd, as I was only a tike, so my fondest memories are those which I actually remember…

sleeping lengthwise on the steps (because my body was small enough to fit lengthwise). 

Having nightmares while sleeping on my waterbed alone, then running to mom and dad’s room for comfort. NOT getting dressed up as a daisy and having my face painted with green paint. I remember that as humiliating, possibly my first feeling of humiliation.

Cavanaugh rental: Not many memories from this either. Building my first snowman, by myself, modeling it after what I had seen and heard about on TV; I think this is also the house where I fell in love with TV.  I distinctly remember watching and loving PBS shows like Reading Rainbow, 

Shining Time Station. Fighting with mom about wearing jeans. I insisted that jeans were for boys; stretch pants were the verdict. 

Blue house: this is where my memories start to pick up. This was my favorite house. 

Remember when our neighbor’s house burned to the ground? That’s not necessarily a fond memory, but it certainly stuck. Visiting dad at Meridian Oil. Getting jacked up on their sugar cubes, posting sticky notes all over Bill Brown. 

Learning to ride my bike by myself out of stubbornness, no training wheels—holla. Hanging out with the Pierce’s. Kali and I going on adventures on our bike, collecting rocks from behind the Pedersons’ house.  "Running away" to the van in the backyard, only to soon realize we were getting hungry, and it was kinda dinner time anyways. The house on the hill that awesomely gave out kingsize candy bars (this was remarkable to me at the time). Mom braiding or putting curlers in my hair at night. Swimming in our little baby pool and running around in the spinklers. Playing with the gack we got in the mail through Nickelodeon. Riding our bike down to the quick-e mart on holly st, and across the jankyass bridge across from the baseball field. I remember tinkering around on dad’s computer, ms-dos…blue screen. Wow. Discovering Sadie underneath mom and dad's bed, bloody and giving birth to her first litter of puppies. 

1201 house: the plays kal and I would put on. Hearing and seeing mom clomp up the steps one Christmas eve night, then hear her grumble and curse SHIT as she dropped all the presents. Watching the Real World and Party of Five with mara (Scott Wolff—my first love). Hanging out with Kal in the basement, rollerblading to Ace of Base, having Barbie pageants, learning to play the piano (going to the Redman’s house with their crazy kids and messy station wagon), and having a man come to tune the piano, only to have him throw up his arms in defeat…that ivoried beast predates the Civil War.

Rogers’ condo: The model shoots Kal and I did with the disposable cameras. Frequenting the fitness center and practicing basketball but never improving. NOT the orange farts kali unleashed while we were three abreast. My god.

 Yup. I just posted that, one of the infamous tubb-o pictures. From one of our modelling seshes. Though this was taken in the blue (grey...?) house.

Sunflower Lane: This is pretty much the house where I matured and reached adulthood…everything from playing with barbies to puberty to discovering the Internet to the first time I got drunk…it all happened here. It’s hard to even choose fondest memories. I had a great time with my friends the summer after my senior year. We would drive around back behind the house, out by the old cemetery, and listen to music, go UFO hunting. I became interested in constellations and stargazing. There was the surprise 16^th birthday party that Lindy, Casey, and Jessie co-conspirated; it made me feel so loved! And the time Kali invented her own jingle, “I hate piano!” in an effort to get out of piano lessons (it definitely worked). The first time I used Google; the times when Kali and I would go into yahoo chat rooms and mess with people. The first time I put on my (borrowed) hockey gear, when I was 11, in the kitchen; mom and dad took photos. Sleeping in during the summer, getting 10+ hours of sleep every day—unfortunately I have a feeling that lifestyle will never recur. Oddly enough, waking up to the sound of the dogs' toenails clicking on the pergo, and mom clinking pots and pans as she was unloading the dishwasher; it was like waking up to the sound of someone taking care of you.

-J

Roots Recall

Oldest sister here reporting my most fond memories from over the years...

Shepherd: Hutchie sleeping at the foot of my bed, pretending mom's flowerbeds were "Wonderland" & singing "Golden Afternoon" to them, dad taking me for snowmobile rides, feeding the ducks & getting the easel dad made for my birthday.

Rental in Sidney: sharing a room with K & listening to her chow down on the bunk bed rail...pretty sure there was nothing left after the little beaver got done with it. And Why did J get her own freaking bedroom when she was only 3 years old?! I also have vague memories of Kali acting like a dog & I was seriously beginning to wonder if the middle child was going to end up in the loony bin.

Little Blue House: playing with Sadie's puppies in the Barbie Dream House, sneaking down to the gas station on our bikes to buy candy, secretly discovering how to shave my legs with a bowl of water in my room (I have scars to prove it) & "ice skating" w/ our shoes on the "pond" that developed in mom's garden.


Grey 1201 House: rollerblading routines in the unfinished basement, Barbie pageants with the nerds, & listening to my Bed of Roses soundtrack endlessly when I had a thing for Christian Slater (I still love his voice;)

Condo: the three of us sleeping in the same room (the portion that K&J weren't sent off to g&g's) & K blowin' it up after eating too many oranges night after night... I'm still not sure how we all survived that. Those dry lightening storms were pretty wicked too; thanks for reminding me about those, Kal.

Sunflower Lane: The first week after moving in I remember having a slumber party with April B. & we had such a good time. Since I was a teenager & too "cool" to hang out with the fam this house holds my fondest friend memories: Jace coming over to watch X Files since he didn't have cable, Utter's 18th bday while the parents were away & the aftermath (there were a lot of strawberry daiquiris), co-ed slumber parties, & my last 4th of July in Sidney where the boys were blowing up ant hills with M-80's. Also, visiting the neighboring Cardigan Corgi, Flash, & of course getting my first real kiss on the porch.

K is right, recalling moments like this is very nostalgic. I say the Lechner Ladies do San Fran this fall after K&K is relocated to the NW or sooner if possible!

Oh, sweet memories

Hey, I thought we were supposed to be doing favorite memories from all the houses we lived in? Or was that just a suggestion? Well, I'm running with it.


Shepherd, MT  house 1985-1990: Riding my mom's horse Lightning, feeding our pet ducks, and trying to ride our one horned goat named DJ. Mara telling me that I had to share the spotlight with baby J when she was born.


Orange(ish) house that we lived in when we first moved to Sidney: 1990-?  After putting down our adorable 3 legged dog named Hutch (that could open Christmas presents, and McDonald's cheeseburgers) I wanted another dog, so I pretended to be one until I got one. Jenna has posted about this in a post entitled, "Why I hate cats!"


Blue house 1992 (?)-1995:  Watching Mrs. Skidden hit our street sign with a school bus. Trying to catch rabbits under a box with a carrot tied to a string, posting "Do NOT DISTURB UNDER CONSTRUCTION" signs on Jen and my door while we were rearranging furniture, when Jenna broke the bunk bed ladder, and holding a funeral for "Dracula" a garden spider that my dad killed. Being told to call a boy on our bus named Domanick "DomaDICK" by my dad when he kept bullying me. Mara making us pretend to be her children in grocery stores.

1201 house: My favorite house that my parents ever lived in, I'm not sure why but I loved it. Having wrestling matches with Jenna in our shared room. Roller skating to ace of base in the back storage room when it still had a cement floor, spying on Davey "CROTCH-ett" the weird neighbor kid. And raising a few litters of Sadie's puppies.

Brian Roger's condo - Even though Jenna and I were sent to G&G's that summer while Mara, and my parents lived in the condo while our 2060 house was being built, Jenna and I did stay there for a few weeks out of the summer. Sleeping three a breast on mattresses on the floor, watching the lightning storms out Mom and Dad's windows that summer, ORANGES (teehhehehhe) and going through Mr. Roger's highschool memorabilia (ridiculous). 


2060 Sunflower Lane - the last house that I lived with my parents in. I have a lot of really fun memories in that house, especially with my high school friends (one of my friends repeatedly fell down the stairs, or slipped on the floor in that house).  Backing into a high school boyfriends truck in the driveway. Going on bike rides with Jenna, watching Mara kick a hole in the wall while doing her leg exercises, saying good bye to all of my friends from high school before going to college. Making the toilet overflow in the basement and blaming it on Jenna, and making her work the plunger. ;) Trying to make chocolate cookies and spilling cocoa everywhere. J and I didn't know how to run the washing machine at that point so we washed all the rags by hand and then put them out to dry on the back porch, where they all froze solid. We thought we did a great job cleaning but I specifically remember Mom coming home and coming into the kitchen, looking around, and saying, "What'd you guys do?" we told her we made cookies and cleaned up after ourselves and she said,"Well you did a piss poor job." Changing Mom and Dad's answering machine greeting (see post below entitled "Jordan!!!! Where the eff are you?!") Watching Mara and J play Mancala, and J getting pissed and throwing marbles. Giving my parents dog Riley his first bath when he was a really small puppy, right after we found him.

Oh this is making me all nostalgic. We need to plan a sisters' getaway trip. Mara you pick the location and set a time line and Jen and I will make it work.  And.....break!

Hearts, Half-Off

My favorite part of Valentine’s Day? The day after Valentine's Day, when the picked-over hearts and chocolates go on clearance. (Because, as we all know, hearts and teddy plushes are no longer relevant after Feb. 14^th. Henceforth one shall only speak of eggs and bunnies.)

I bought a giant peanut butter chocolate heart for a quarter. It was like I was at the General Store, and it was 1950. And the shelves kind of look like they were raided and plundered for a '50s fallout shelter...However this is Walgreen’s, on North Lombard St, so the shelves generally look like it's the height of the apocalypse.

-J

They Don't Make Sheets Like They Used To

Alright, alright...sorry I'm slow with the posts but you guys know I've been working on my little "Lucy Says." project!

Today I was shopping @ Goodwill for linens. Recognize this fabric?



Sheet from Goodwill= $3; Nostalgic print= priceless

When I spotted this golden oldie I almost gasped. This print is probably circa 1984 (mom can confirm my guess). I still have the matching pillowcase from ma & pa's old bedding!! On the way home I was thinking, "Why do I remember the most random details in life but often omit detail-oriented experiences?" For example, if I had any drawing skills I could sketch out an exact replica of the orca fountain that used to reside in the North Park kiddy pool. But if you asked me to recall what the inside of Neuschwanstein looks like...uhhh...drawing a blank. All I remember is that creepy lady behind us on the tour who was breathing like Darth Vader & wearing Z-Coil shoes!!

So is it just me or do our brains file some really random elements of life's daily minutia?

And what's with today's crappy sheets? All of my "vintage" ones are soft & wrinkle-free straight out of the dryer but all of my new sheets are wadded & look like they came from the bottom of a hamper. I refuse to iron them!! And I think it's b.s. that you have to blow tons of $ on egyptian cotton sheets to give me the same experience that my beloved 80's threads do.  Besides, we all know that egyptian cotton leads to no good.
See Brittany Murphy's strife in "Uptown Girls" (R.I.P. Brittany):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8PdTNHjNiI&feature=fvw

peace.
♥m

Life in 3 Dimensions

Why

does this 

keep happening

to all of our childhood characters? 


What was wrong with Bambi before? Is it that he needs a high gloss sheen for relevancy in the 21st century? Not only that, but the figures are a bit awkward, and the color palettes are revolting -- they're all over the place.

And is Crackle raising the roof here? Because he really shouldn't be. Not after what they've done to him. 


As for Lucky Charms, the top image is what I grew up with, in the '90s. Then they began to play with dramatic lighting effects, confirming any suspicions of creepiness. Their first character was adorable.

As was the sugar bear of Golden Crisps:

Here's Toucan Sam's makeover, through the years

And that horrendous purple...

I'm half expecting cereals to start including 3d glasses as in their boxes. 

What's so wrong with 2 dimensions anyways? Why can't we just leave these characters flat, living life in and on their boxes?

-J

Recovering reality TV junkie

So here is my confession of the day, (well, the beginning of several confessions today) and it will not shock anyone that knows me. I USED to be addicted to horrible, reality television. To save money, we don't have cable, we have a HD antenna, so we get 5 channels which actually cover several of the shows I really like. However, we don't get MTV.  Fortunately, MTV posts everything on their website, so I honestly go to bed the night a show airs like....oh say, Jersey Shore and I'm giddy because I know that when I wake up, MTV will have posted the new episode and I can watch it quite comfortably in my pajamas at 8 a.m.  the following morning. Kraig also bought me a DVI chord for my computer so I can plug my computer into the TV and watch it on our 50" big screen. Now that's love. :) Unfortunately, this also enabled my addiction immensely.

However, my addiction got in the way of a lot of things. When I didn't have a job, I would put off dusting, or vacuuming because I had to watch Grey's Anatomy from the night before. Thursdays are a doozy because so many of my favorite shows are on that night, so Friday morning, I'm not free until at least noon. Luckily on Fridays I don't go to work until 2 p.m. :) It got ridiculous though. Kraig would come home from work and there'd by dishes in the sink, and dirty clothes all over the floor and I'd be sitting in front of my computer, eating or drinking like a zombie. He'd ask, "What'd you do all day?" Very cautiously because he knows, EXACTLY what I've been doing all day. And I'd answer, "Oh, I washed some dishes, and stuff. I don't know." again, cautiously, he'd ask, "What do you mean, you don't know what you've been doing for the last 12 hours?"  "Really, you've been gone for 12 hours?" the reason these questions were asked so cautiously was because I got very sensitive about being unemployed and even though all I was doing was watching TV for an insane amount of time at home, I didn't want to be scolded for it, or called lazy. Even though, that's exactly what I was being. So one day, and one of my friends texted me and asked if I could take care of her dog over Thanksgiving. I said sure, and went over to her house for all the details and to meet her furry child. When I got to her house, I immediately felt ashamed and embarrassed. Her house was spotless. I'm talking, eat off the floor spotless, everything in their "office" was organized, labeled, and put in adorable decorative boxes. Even her fridge was organized.  She even had a "menu board" on her fridge, for that week dinner was planned out for every night. In an odd way, I found it comforting.  So if it's so comforting, why haven't I done it to my house? I started home that day, and as much I tried to justify all the reasons that our house didn't look like hers, I couldn't come up with any good reasons. I immediately went home and started organizing our office with a file cabinet I had bought, and finally cleaned off our dining room table so we could actually eat off of it. And when I was done, and Kraig came home I think his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. I was so proud of myself too, for actually getting organized and labeling things and putting things where they are supposed to go. I didn't watch TV at all that entire day, and for once I didn't miss it.  I was too busy getting our house together.  I started reading again too, and writing. I started blogging and I started getting my creative juices flowing. It felt like I had been lost for a while and finally found my way back to the era of "pre-reality tv." It's like a black hole that sucks you in, and you have no conscious sense of time or energy wasted watching the trash. I was POW to reality television. Over Christmas, M had her teevo full of episodes of Jerseylicious, and as much as I wanted to watch some of them, I knew that this was my test, like putting a shot of Grey Goose in front of an alcoholic and seeing what happens. I passed with flying colors and immediately closed her "recordings" window.

On a random note, and response to Jen's previous post. I also hate cats. At work we have a clinic cat named "Fannie" and she's without a doubt, pure evil. She hisses and bites the clinic workers if you get too close, and one day I went to pet her without really looking at her, (we have several other clinic cats that are very friendly) and she stiffened up and turned and hissed at me, and I immediately was transported back to a sunny day in Shepherd, MT when I was outside with Mara and got bit by a stray cat with rabies.  "Fannie" drew blood on a fellow clinic worker, while she was working on a computer a few weeks ago. We saved her life, and gave her a wonderful place to live and she's so ungrateful. Dogs aren't like that, I've seen stray dogs that have gotten hit by cars and brought in, and they seem to know that you are going to help them, and they cooperate and they're friendly and loving and so grateful.
Have you ever seen the movie "Constantine?" Cats all genetically have some type of soulless internal portal to hell, and if you sit in a chair with your feet in bucket of water and stare into their eyes, you're headed straight into Satan's workshop. And you want that in your house as a pet? So, I salute you Jen and your giant middle finger to Lucifer's furry minions.

An empty space where Bun was

The Case Against Cats

My roommate had a couple friends staying over last week, and they brought their kitten. Pearl. She was a white Siamese cat with huge eyes and extra toes. 

After spending a couple days with her I found myself walking out of the house with swollen lymph glands and fine mists of white fluff stuck to my cardigans. This was enough to ignite my cat hatred. And so I came up with a list of grievances.

The case against cats:

1. They carry a disease, which they transmit in their shit, that makes you go crazy...Toxoplasmosis     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis
2. BTW they shit and piss in the house, on purpose. And you get to clean it up. And then get toxoplasmosis. (I can make excuses for creatures like rabbits who piss in the house – their brain is the size of a pea.)
3. They stare at you when you don’t know it – general shystyness. 
4. My sister Kali was bitten by a cat with rabies at a young age, causing her to, as a possible defense mechanism, walk around on all fours like a dog for years, barking at me, and pinching me, peeing her pants.
5. They carry rabies.
6. They offer no skill set, unlike dogs, who coevolved with humans and offer protection, comradery, and even hunting skills, if you so wish. Have you ever seen a seeing-eye cat? No, because they’re too busy licking themselves or coughing up the bits of themselves they just licked, which you then clean up. Unless you’re blind.
7. They have names like “Pearl.”
8. Their toy of choice is a Ribbon Dancer
9. They stink, literally. And of course the finicky bastards hate water, making baths impossible.
10. You have to buy the surface that they piss on. Yes. But really? They can’t just piss outside? Is the concern that if you let them out to go to the bathroom, they may run away? Because if that's the case, maybe you should reconsider -- maybe your cat doesn't want to be with you anyways. Why don’t we leave them in their alleys?

-J