What To Do

Hello all!  It's that time again!  Time for Mariah's quarterly life crisis moment!  Today, we'll be focusing in on her eating habits, real and imagined, while she struggles with some of life's questions, such as "Who am I?" and "What am I doing with my life?" and "Where do we go from here?"

You know.
As in, a life crisis I have quarterly.
Like, 4 times per year, not 4 times per life.
Totally normal, I assure you
via

Crafty Shout-out!

Yo peeps.

I need your help, yo.

I've got two problems (but my dog ain't one).

Well, I've got 3 problems if you consider how thug I'm feeling right now to be a problem.  I don't.

Problem 1:  I can't read this without tearing up

Kind of ruins my whole thug cred, doesn't it?
credit here

It was read over us on our wedding day, and it always makes me cry.  Especially now with the whole "laughter of children" thing.  *sob*

Problem 2: I need the above tear-jerker on my wall, in some format.  Canvas, paint, children's wooden blocks, whatever.  I just need to be able to see it every day.  But my creative juices aren't flowing.  So I need your help.  How would you do it?  How do you think I should do it?  If any of you have any idea, please share.

And get this: suppose someone gives me an awesome idea, and I do it, and I love it for ever and always.  Suppose that.  Then I'd probably have to send said person a present of some sort.  I'm just sayin'.  I'm a giver.

Off to do the ugly cry,

TFW

By This Point

Prepare yourself.  Ready yourself.  I'm waxing contemplative.  

I'm also wearing 5 shirts right now.  Just so you know.

I saw a some-e-cards today that paralleled what I was already thinking on.  Something to the effect of "When I was younger, I thought I'd have it all together by now."  I so don't have it all together right now.  Do you?  I'll be 26 this month, and while I know that's not old, I'm nowhere near where my 16-year-old self thought I'd be.

Ah... 16... I'm sure I remember it more fondly than I lived it, but that's the luxury of memories.  I'm sure 16-year-old me thought that by 26 (26!) I would definitely not still be doing homework on a Thursday night.  I wasn't going to still be in school.  I wasn't going to be concerned about money, not even a little bit.  I'm pretty sure I thought I'd have a nice steady job, probably teaching.  My husband would have a nice, well-paying job that allowed us to vacation twice a year.  We'd have kids by now.  I mean, c'mon, 26?! (I'm saying this to myself, mostly sarcastically).  Yeah, 16-year-old me would definitely think that 26-year-old me was messing things up.

I can hear 16-year-old me asking 26-year-old me, what about the good things in life?  Why are you pushing yourself so much, when you don't even know if you love where it'll get you?  And honestly, 26-year-old me is asking, "Yeah, why am I doing that?"

And tonight, I've got no idea.

Happy Un-birthday to me (and you!),

TFW

Numero Quatro

Oh, another thing you don't yet know about me: I can't roll my r's.  Don't try to teach me, I'll just spit all over you, which is really kind of impressive by itself.

You may not understand the title of this post, and I could leave it shrouded in mystery, but I'm bad at that.  Plus, it's just really not a good mystery.  If this were a Boxcar Children novel, even young Violet would have that solved in no time flat.

Goings Ons

Hi all!  I hope you've had a lovely weekend.  I don't know if this ever happens to you, but on Monday morning, when people in my office ask me how my weekend was, I usually have to stop and think and try to remember. "I think it was good..." is my default response.

Not because I've spent the weekend in a drunken stupor or anything, just because... well, I don't know why.  Because Monday morning is a hard time to function?  Because ... I was going to put another reason here, but I couldn't think of another reason.  Apparently Sunday night is a hard time for me to function, as well.

I think this is a cocoon.
Maybe an abandoned one?
It was red a few days ago, but I don't know what that means.
If I had a cocoon, it'd be made of flannel and old t-shirts.

So while I'm still in it, I'm going to attempt to document that this weekend was, in fact, swell.  Let me begin by stating that the weather was gorgeous, and legit Fall was edging out Flummer for most of it.  I've gotten stuff done, thanks in no small part to the music you all suggested.  Speaking of music, church was fantastic this morning.  The worship music was great, and then they opened the sermon with a girl singing "Don't Stop Believin'".  I mean, it wasn't a worship song, but if I thought about it as a mini-bonus concert, it was fantastic.  

Getting Crap Done Music

I'm in need of assistance here.  See, it's Friday, and I've got fun waiting for me, but I have un-fun things to do first.  And, perhaps because I'm not very grown-up yet, or because I'm merely human, or for whatever reason, I'm lacking motivation to get the stuff done I have to do, so that I can move on to the things I want to do.

I want to skip to the end, like eating ice cream for breakfast.

Not that I've ever done that.  And, hypothetically speaking, if I had done that, it's really not like music would have helped.  Hypothetically, of course.

But today, it feels like music would help.  The problem: ever since music started costing money (i.e.- napster became illegal and disappeared/went legit), I haven't really added any songs to my music collection.  And, curiously enough, the music I found inspiring back then (uhm, at... 14?) is not really doing it for me any more.  

Enter you.  What music really gets you inspired, gets you moving?  I'm talking fast-paced, exciting, non-explicit music that I can rock out to on my headphones whilst getting crap done.  I recently got a gift card in the mail from the Blood Donation Center or Red Cross or somewhere for 5 free songs, to thank me for giving blood.  Hi, have we met?  I'm an American Hero.

My playlist so far:

Yes I have a Zune.
No, I don't wish it was an iPod.

Crazy Train (Black Sabbath)

Foreplay/Long Time (Boston)

Eye of the Tiger (Journey)

I Got a Feeling & Pump It (Black-Eyed Peas)

Rock You Like a Hurricane (Scorpions)

We Built This City (Starship)

Centerfold (The J. Geils Band)

So this should give you an idea of where I'm starting from.  Yes, I know only two of those songs were actually recorded while I was alive.  I can't help that I'm ahead of my time.  I'm not opposed to new music, I just never really know what to look for.  I only know about the 'Peas because of Sunday/Monday night football. 

Grateful for your assistance,

TFW

Call me? Call you?

I've never been a phancy phone type of gal.

Them peoples at Vee-rizon, they don't love it when they see me coming.  They don't get excited and there are no fist pumps.  I walk into the store, pull my number, and then wait patiently.  Because I'm a sweet heart like that.  Then the smiling sales person comes up to me, and ask how they can help me.  Then in this dance we do, I tell them exactly what I'm looking for, and wait for them to provide it.  I'm a little demanding, so they're not always able to accommodate me.

Here's what I ask for:

• Something that makes calls, and maybe texts.  
• Pictures are okay, but not necessary.  
• Free is best.

This has been my modus operandi for the past... 5, 6 years?  Something like that.  And its worked for me.  They're not phancy phones, which is good since it takes me, on average, 27 hours from purchase to first time dropped on pavement.  The phones I end up with generally last for the entire 2-year contract time (although sometimes I get a wild hair and renew my contract early!).  

The phone before the previous phone.
Its small.
Mine had less buttons that this.

Seasonal

Handsome is concerned about my liver.  Apparently, the other organs in my body can just giveout, that is not an issue, but my liver, no, we need to protect that.

In order to do so, H. has started a campaign against my use of over-the-counter allergy medicine.  Let me be clear: I am not abusing it.  I have a 24-hour allergy pill that I take about 3 days a week, and when I’m congested (once or twice a week, max), I take a decongestant.  I know, its out of control.  Especially for someone who has had seasonal allergies for all of her teen/adult life.  Oh, and in the winter, I don’t take any allergy medicine.  Because that’s not a season in which my seasonal allergies bother me.

Sarcasm aside, I see this level of use as acceptable.  Handsome does not.  He claims that if I stop taking the medicine, my body will learn how to deal with allergens all by itself.  He also claims that if I do not stop taking the medicine, I will do irreparable damage to my liver and it will just up and quit on my and then where will I be, eh?  I’m not sure where he gets his information, although I assume he makes it up.  He makes most things up when he’s talking to me. 

I’m not getting on here to ask you for a vote, and although I did wax (wane?) sarcastic there for a moment, I’m also not on here to mock my wonderful caring husband.  What I did get on here to do was to ask you this question:

Do you know of/have you tried any home remedies for seasonal allergies? 

If so, how did they work? 

I’m looking for everything from lemon juice in your milk to a change in behavior, such as putting AC filters in your windows.  Give me your best shot here people.  The future of my liver may be at stake.  And although I’m a Universal Donor blood type, I’m not a Universal Receiver, and so, due to bad planning in the blood-type-department, if I do end up needing a transplant, Handsome will be unable to help me.  And that would earn me a whopper of an I told you so.  No one wants that.

Taking OTC allergy medicine as directed apparently with abandon,

TFW

What to do with T-shirts

If you're anything like me (not that I assume you are, but hey, we've still got Breakfast at Tiffany's, right?), you've got stuff lying around.  There's a lot of stuff lying around my house, which I will discuss at length at some other juncture.  The stuff that I'm focused on tonight is T-shirts.  Tshirts.  Tee shirts.  However you write it, most everyone wears them, and most people have a lot.  I think.

I know that personally, I have many t-shirts that evoke strong memories.  My favorite team, my hometown, my high school events.  Even ... a number of years out of high school, I have many shirts (not that I can wear them all... or should) that take me back there, to the glory days.  I have shirts from events I've participated in, and even got one from work this week.  And don't even get me started on the outrageous number of fire department shirts Handsome has sitting in his closet.  Really, it ought to be embarrassing.  

Aside: I like Handsome very much.  Just in case anyone is checking.  This house hunting process has been... unpredictable, but I am glad he's my partner in all of this.  He even offered me icecream after some disappointing news.  Because he loves me.  Thats what icecream means.

Aside: If you're concerned about the number of "aside"s in recent posts, I can offer you no promise that it will end soon.  I guess my mind is sort of scattered lately, and I like to give you my thoughts in "real time", so that you can know all of me and then decide your opinion.  I'd hate it if you thought I was a focused thinker all the time, and then met me and were disappointed.

Anyhow, about the T-shirts.  My favorite thing to do when the tee shirt monster gets too be too large is to cut him down.  And I do mean cut.

This is my baby rotary cutter.
Baby, as in "smaller than regular sized".
Not to be confused with a rotary cutter for use by babies.
Oh, and about babysitting your children... yeah, we're available! :)

The Hunt is On!

Alrighty folks, this one's gonna be short, but I'm in need of some assistance, and you are my potential assistors.  assisters.  assistants.  I'm not sure how to say it.  What I'm saying is, I need your help.

Handsome and I do this little dance every year, it seems, where we start to get the itch for a home of our own.  Like, to be the person who owns the home.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and just throw these words together.  Sometimes, we want to be homeowners.  And the itch has struck again.

I've been thinking about "When I have a House", as you can see by the Pintrest page that links to.  But its all been in the abstract, because I thought the time when we would have a house of our own was a long ways off.  But then Handsome points out some facts, like how much we've paid in rent these last 3 years, and how cheap houses are, and how much lovely sweating I could do if I had a house of my own to re-no (pronounced  ren-no, as in renovate), and I get to thinking about it for serious.

I've got some questions for you

Think of this as a type of Seventeen-esque quiz.  You ever do those?  Consider that question numero uno.

I've got things I want to know about people in general.  You, dear reader, dear dear darling reader, are my sample.  I could talk to you about how I need at least 30 responses to estimate for the world at large, according to the law of large numbers, but I'd have to call my sponsor if I started that stuff up again.  Hi, my name is Mariah, and I'm a recovering mathematician.  Now you say, "Hi Mariah!"

Anyhow, I've got some questions.  If you want to answer them anonymously, thats wonderful and does not detract in any way at all.  If you do not want to answer them and other people already have commented, no sweat.  However, if no one else has commented and you think about maybe doing it, let me push you over the edge and guilt peer pressure you.  C'mon!  Do it!  Doooo iT!!

How I Feel About Things

Hello!  April is nearly over, and I can't believe it.  Truth is, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

This is my favorite tree in the whole world.
I know how I feel about it.  Its May's coming that has me tied in knots.

I have a lot of feelings.

Sometimes I feel strongly.

Sometimes I feel "eh.."

Generally, like a lot of women people I know, I feel a lot of things, and in varying degrees.

I've made a list for you, here, of things I feel strongly about.  And things I feel "eh" about.

I feel strongly that everyone should have a birthday cake.
I feel strongly that dogs are better than cats.
I feel "eh" about requiring my dishwasher to remove every speck of food from a plate.
I feel strongly that rainy days are just as important as sunny ones.
I feel "eh" about wearing socks to bed.
I feel strongly that physical labor is a wonderful tool for working out being worked up.

The thought of watching a basketball game makes me go, "eh."
The thought of watching the Pittsburgh Steelers kick the tar out of any other NFL team makes me go, "Yippee!"
The thought of wearing stockings makes me shrug my shoulders indifferently.
The thought of finding candy in my Christmas stocking makes me fist pump vigorously.
The thought of helping others makes me smile REAL BIG.
The thought of going for a run makes me think about something else.

I feel "eh" whenever someone suggests going to a concert.
I feel strongly that everyone is good at something.
I feel "eh" about the emphasis placed on the wedding day.
I feel strongly about following recipes, and then tweaking them.
I feel "eh" when people just want to complain and are annoying.  Even when its me.
I feel strongly that each person has inherent value, even when they're being annoying.
I feel "eh" about things of the organic persuasion.
I feel strongly that a pitch black room, and a bed laden with multiple pillows and heavy blankets with a fan running is the perfect sleeping conditions.

Just in case you were wondering.

And now I'm wondering.

As we start this new week, this last week of April, how do you feel about things?

Testing the fatality of curiosity,

TFW