Still Alive!
August 26, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Anne Riley does not get my laptop!
I survived boot camp. I did not pee my pants, but I almost puked.
Went strong for about 20 minutes, doing great to keep up with all the other boot campers, and was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to hurl.
Friends, the grass next to the stadium bleachers was spared my breakfast, but just barely. I started back up, but continued at my 75%. In the instructor’s words, I “hung in there like a champ!” She said that some didn’t finish, but I did.
I want to go back, to do better, to do all the drills at my 100% without stopping to hurl. Sweating is good. Getting sore is good. Being tough is good. Fall down? Get hurt? Rub some dirt in there, you’ll be alright.
Then go put on a crown and have a super girly tea party to counter the icky! Go team!
Giddy Up
August 23, 2012 § 3 Comments
It’s good to be prepared.
Early tomorrow morning, I will wake and attend a boot camp with a friend of mine. She’s a class regular and her eyes lit up as she described it. “It’s awesome. The first time I did it I puked and peed my pants. You’ll love it. Do you have a yoga mat?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Do you have 10lb weights?”
“I have 5lb weights.”
She frowned. “I’m sure someone will have an extra set you can borrow. The instructor will get mad if you bring anything less than 8lbs.”
I am so afraid.
It is a good fear. In the past decade (with the exception of child bearing years), depending on the holiday season or the size burrito I chose to have for lunch, my weight has fluxed up and down 5-7 lbs or so. Nothing major. We try to be healthy people. That hasn’t changed a ton, but I’m noticing flabby places I didn’t used to have. Plain old running isn’t cutting it as exercise anymore to curb the jibbly bits. I’m told this comes with age and I’m like, Sheesh. ARE WE DOING THIS ALREADY?
So, a killer boot camp might be just the kick in the patootie I need. In the event that I don’t survive, I would like to leave my laptop to Anne Riley (please clear my Google history). This blog will be used for the sole and complete purpose of posting Nathan Fillion pictures. The occasional LOLCATS and shoe deal will also be appropriate.
Thank you. If this is the last we see of each other, you are beautiful readers.
We have a date. A date with pain.
Updated Things
August 17, 2012 § 4 Comments
Hello! IT’S BEEN A WHILE. How are you? I’ve been great. Busy. Summer. Lots of children. Gnashing of teeth. Swimming in Water. Assigned Reading Lists. Snarling and Frothing. You get the picture.
I have new published fiction! If you feel like reading them, mosey on over to the Published Work page on the left of your screen and take a gander. One is in print, pictured below, and isn’t that the most beautiful cover you’ve ever seen? I love it.
The June issue of scissors and spackle.
A Warning for Bloggers. One that doesn’t involve an investment opportunity from a South African company.
July 21, 2012 § 5 Comments
Best-selling romance author, Roni Loren has a post circulating the social media outlets and I thought I’d share it here as well. She was sued for using a picture on her blog and spells it all out for us here. I appreicate her helping out all the small folk.
I’m going to have to sort through all my posts and find Creative Common License pics or ones I take myself because if I’m sued for blogging I might have to start drinking again or all the time writing by hand.
This is my picture. I own it.
I’m so proud to be a woman today.
July 5, 2012 § 3 Comments
I saw this on facebook and had to share it here. This girl is incredible.
A 14-year-old, Julia Bluhm, has defeated Seventeen Magazine, the most widely distributed teen girls’ magazine in the U.S.–at least for now. Because of Julia’s online petition asking Seventeen to run unaltered photos to show its readers what real beauty and real girls look like, which was signed by 80,000 people, the editors of Seventeen caved. In Seventeen’s August issue, the magazine’s Editor in… Chief announced that the magazine vows not to use Photoshop to alter the face shape and body sizes of its teen models, and that it will feature a diversity of models with different body shapes, races, and hair textures — a coup for girls and women. Now it’s up to us to keep the fire to Seventeen’s feet. Though chances are that Julia will likely do that for us.
Monday Brought Boogers
June 18, 2012 § 5 Comments
My 4yo picked this flower and told me to put it in my hair. As you can see, I did. Then he said, “You look beautiful, Mommy. I think you have a booger.”
We both laughed so hard.
I’m so thankful to have who I do in my life, and that those people love me for who I am. Just me.
“To be nobody but yourself in a world that’s doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.” -E.E. Cummings
Thrill Bridges
June 10, 2012 § 3 Comments
For the love, no one here name their kid “Thrill Bridges” because they think it’ll look cool on the back of a football jersey. Good grief.
Okay. My children and I spent a week with my grandmother. She is seventy-six, still works full time, and is so full of life. She has lived in the same small, Alabama town for most of her life. In this town, rush hour traffic does not exist and the phrase, “If you hit the Piggly Wiggly, you’ve gone too far…” is probably uttered to every visitor at the Shell Station.
The last time I spent a week with my grandmother, I was probably in high school. This past visit was amazing. Full of many full circle moments, the most memorable being a few trips to the city pool.
The pool is nothing special. It’s what you would expect a small town city pool to be. As a kid, I jumped from the two diving boards countless times, and I enjoyed watching my two older children do the same thing. One diving board is probably fifteen feet off the ground and the other is a little less thrilling.
My six-year-old daughter jumped from the smaller diving board several times and after watching her older brother on the big one, wanted to try. She climbed up there, gripped the hand rails, took three or four steps forward, and then got scared.
The life guards let me tread water in the deep end so I could be right there after she jumped. Her brothers cheered her on, and step-by-step, we talked her forward. One of the life guards asked how old she was. She told him and he said, “Well, if you jump, you’ll do it before I did. I was eight when I jumped.”
That probably did it for her, thinking she could beat a teenage boy. She got to the edge, stared into the deep, and jumped.
When she bubbled to the surface and met me, the whoops and hollers around the pool made her smile so big. She did it one more time and then quit.
All this got me thinking about thrills and what we do to chase that feeling. How some thrills are wonderful, and some are unhealthy. The unhealthy thrills are so addictive. They might take on a life of their own, or go a direction we don’t expect. Stopping is hard. Sometimes the best way to insure you aren’t tempted to cross that thrill bridge again is to burn it.
But jumping off the high dive? Perfect. Watching my daughter do it made me want to jump again. So I did.
How much fun with this be? I’d do it. Would you?
