In case you were wondering...

This just made me laugh.

Hello, Reality!

I feel like I've been on another planet for the past month or so. It feels like I've been isolated in a cave where I can do nothing but face myself, think about myself, sometimes hate myself, love myself, accept myself, and reject myself. It's been me, me, me for way too long. The past couple weeks have felt like a complete time warp. There have been amazing and terrible things all intertwined into this journey I'm on. Last week, one of my dear friends gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Last week I also witnessed the tragedy of what alcoholism and drug addiction bring a person to do, or in this case, not do. It also brought on a swarm of gossip about me from the workplace that I had to swallow. It's a hell of feeling to be confronted with the fact that in a meeting of twenty-ish people, not a single soul could stand up on my behalf.

Then fresh into this week I was terminated from my job over said gossip. At first a rash of anger, followed by sadness, more anger, a little spite, some smiting... I turned a corner yesterday as I started looking at my part, as I stopped to literally list on paper the things in my life I'm grateful for. A side note: toilet paper totally made the list. It's all about perspective.

There's a lot to process, and thank God I don't have to do it all today. I have this beautiful chance to sit back, reflect, and figure out what kind of direction I would like to head toward. I met with a dear mentor friend of mine this morning, and she gave me hope. She gave me permission to look at my gifts, the things I'm good at, and the things I love doing. I've been so wrapped up in the negativity and the hate. I've been wrapped up in the things people don't think I can do and in the ways I've already given up on myself. So to have a reprieve where I get to appreciate my brain, my talents, and just myself...I'll take it.

Breakfast Table.

I'm on the Winter Retreat. I'll do more explaining, Happy Holiday-wishing, catching up, etc later. Right now I need to capture and share the brilliance spoken at the breakfast table this morning.

Jess: "I don't like eggs."
Dan: "What?! You don't like eggs? That's like saying you don't like happiness."

Also according to Dan, not liking blueberries is also like not liking happiness.

I love happiness.

I Have A Confession...

I have had this blanket essentially since birth. I say "essentially" because in Preschool the knucklehead custodian decided to wash my blanket, and it was destroyed, so my mom gave me my sister's identical blanket as a replacement. Lindsey had no problem with this until later years when she decided she had been shafted and demanded another blanket. Regardless, this beautiful, delicate, piece of fabric has been around and VERY LOVED for 25 years.

This past Thanksgiving, I was with my friend Jaime's family, and my blanket was exposed because apparently it's filthy & not all 26-year-olds take their childhood blankets where ever they go. Turns out, I'm just that unique. I don't HAVE to have it with me. I'm not that psychologically damaged. I would just be crushed if I left it at home and something happened to it.

Thanksgiving brought up the possibility of/need to wash it. It's taken me a few weeks to swallow that fact since my first blanket was so tragically lost in a washing accident. However, tonight I finally mustered the courage to give it a bath. And I was incredibly shocked at how nasty it was. Suffice it to say, I'm slightly embarrassed.

Of course I documented this momentous occasion because as I was prepping to wash it I realized it had been probably 10 years since it had been bathed. I know, slightly hazardous to my health, but now it's all clean!

The first bowl of water (brought to you by the makers of Ajax Antibacterial Dish Soap in Orange):
The dirt left in the bottom after the first wash:
After 4 bowls of soapy water and a few rinses, we have a cleaner blanket!
So I realize this thing hardly resembles a blanket, but humor me people. It's MY BLANKIE. And... it's almost an heirloom. Also, I can now see the original stripes of pink, blue, and yellow, but I'm afraid it will never be fuzzy & white with a delicate satin trim again.

Really?

This is what's wrong with the world, and I am so not referring to Global Warming.


see more pwn and owned pictures

Text reads:
"I was watching inconvenient truth the other day and theres the bit where it shows the sea level rising really high and flooding most of the world. Well i live near the sea, and don’t want to drown, so i got to thinking. Maybe if we lower the sea level a bit, when the water level rises then it won’t rise high enough to flood.

Anyway, heres the plan. Everyone who can should take a bucket of sea water and pour it down the sink. If lots of people put the effort in, we could lower the sea level substantially and create a better world for our children to live."

There are NO words. None.

Baby, It's Cold Outside.

It's officially getting "cold", and I couldn't be happier. I love Winter. I love Fall & Winter & Spring. I grew a greater appreciation for fun Summer activities this year, but I definitely don't like being hot and sweaty.

Honestly, I have nothing interesting to write about. I don't have any funny stories or anecdotes to share. I'm going on 4 weeks of dealing with the cold from hell & various side effects it & medicine to treat it have brought. For that reason, life has been boring because I haven't done much.

This is almost so boring that I'm tempted to not hit the "publish post" button. I'm almost too bored to continue typing it. BUT... I like torturing people, so I'm going to hit the "publish post" button now so all you blog stalkers don't have to continue reading the yucky poo story.

Saturday.

Kansas City woke up this morning to a beautiful Fall fog. LOVE IT! It was amazing to see the brightly colored trees contrasting against the dreary fog, and I was seriously in heaven. My heaven has Fall fog.

I had a community event at church this morning, which was really the only reason I was out of bed in time to see the fog. Anyway, I got home from church ready for a nap because this cold has zapped every ounce of energy I have. I decided a nap in my dad's bed would be the best choice because his bed is SUPER comfortable, Dad was gone fishing, and my room was full of sunlight. Now, the rest of the blog post is gross. It's not intentionally gross, it just is. There's your warning, moving on...

I was in my getting to take a nap routine, which involves emptying my bladder, so I went into Dad's bathroom to pee. I noticed there was a number 2 surprise just hanging out in the toilet bowl (I wish this was as gross as the story got, believe you me!), so I did a flush and run and went to another bathroom. Pretty instantly I heard something I knew was not a good noise. Dad's number 2 toilet water was overflowing. Freaking sick. I kind of just stood and watched in amazement because seriously it was gross & remember Dad was out fishing.

I will be honest and tell you I was totally tempted to let it wait for Dad. It was his mess after all. I just happened to flush it FOR HIM. Anyway, I ran downstairs to grab my phone to tell Dad he was going to have to clean up when he got home, when I heard water dripping from the CEILING in the bathroom downstairs (conveniently located directly under Dad's bathroom). At this point I knew I couldn't just leave it, so I ran out to the garage and grabbed the shop vac. I lugged it upstairs where I was greeted with the worst smell known to man. I had a huge dilemma because I've been SUPER NAUSEATED all week, what with the loss of equilibrium and balance from the sinus/ear infection, and today was the first day I didn't wake up ready to vomit. So I searched for a mask of any kind to guard from the smell, but all I could find was a towel to tie around my face. I spent the next hour of my beautiful Saturday vacuuming up poo water, disinfecting walls & toilets, and opening every window in the house to air out this sucker.

I'm grateful it's a perfect day to have windows open. I'm also grateful my brother returned the shop vac when he borrowed it. Lastly, I hope Dad had a great time fishing.

P.S. I wish I could take credit for this lovely Fall photo, but I stole it from http://www.wunderground.com .