Oh, I think they like me . . .

I sometimes find myself completely unable to put my thoughts into words.  I love words.  I love the emotions words draw from the reader and the writer.  I love the pictures that they create in my mind's eye.  This blog award really helped me believe my words were really painting a clear picture of my thoughts to my readers.

Susie Q at I Married a Moron - And Survived! gave me the A Blog With Substance award at the beginning of the month, but I could not think of a five word philosophy for my life.  After visiting Robyn's Nest today, her post helped me to develop the matra that I needed to accept this award.  I want to do more to enjoy the right now in my life.  I'm such a planner, I'm always getting ready for the next several months, but I also want to focus on this:

Enjoy the Beauty of Now

Thank you Susie for this Award.  I'm passing it on to the following bloggers:

Robyn's Nest

I'm So Aud

Peaceful Divas

Florida Girl Meets Midwest

Green Monkey Tales

I was given the Versatile Blogger award by CK and Becka at Made by Bedtime Tales.  Made by Bedtime Tales is a whimsical blog filed with great stories and awesome projects.  To accept this award, I have to tell you 7 things about myself you don't know.

1. I sucked my thumb until I was 12 years old.  The end of thumb sucking coincided with when I started kissing boys. I'm not saying there is a correlation, but maybe my parent's shouldn't have tried so hard to make me stop :) 
2. I used to be able to wrap both my legs around my neck, but now I'm old, so I can only do one leg at a time.
3. I want braces on my teeth because I think braces are cute.
4. I love horseback riding even though horses scare me a bit.
5. In high school, a friend and I skipped class, but we couldn't think of anything to do.  So we went to another class and ended up getting excused for missing class because we participated in the other class.
6. My handwriting is horrible.  Sometimes, I can't read it.
7. I love water balloon fights.  When I was in college, we had a HUGE water balloon fight.  At the end of the fight, I was completed soaked from head to toe, including my sneakers that made squish sounds as I walked . . . . into class . . . looking (and sounding) a Hot Mess.

I'm passing this award to:
Marlie and Me
The Happy and Not-So Happy Rantings of a Chocolate Mom
New Jersey Memories
A Sensitive Poet (This young man is so very talented, check out his poetry)


The WOW of the week is "Hot Mess."  Definition #2 is a person who looks as if they've been to hell and back.  Join in on this really fun word meme run by Natalie, Kristin and Liz.  Click on the button for this week's link.

I was So High . . .

The lights were low.  I felt his body pressed against mine.  I could smell his cologne.  I stared into his eyes and he smiled the biggest smile.  My palms were sweaty, but he didn't care.  He grasped my right hand his in left and his right arm was wrapped tightly around my waist.  The room was spinning. . . or maybe we were spinning, but it was all in a slow motion.  I was so high . . . he was so high . . . and John Legend sang us away from the rest of the world.  This was my wedding day.

I loved that song, So High, since the first day I heard it.  For my 28th birthday, my husband put together a slide show of our relationship and that song was the soundtrack.  There is something about song that reminds me of our love.  So when we had to decide on a song for our first dance, there was no question of what OUR song would be.  There no need to consider a rambunctious booty shaking, arm waving, feet stomping tune or some other ballad.  Nothing else would do. 

So as we danced.  I didn't see my friends and family sitting at the tables looking at us or standing taking pictures.  I didn't see the videographer or photographers.  I didn't see my daddy beaming or his mom crying (saw that later in the video).  I saw him.  I saw him smiling.  And I was So High.



This was submitted as part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.  I used prompt # 2, Write about your wedding song. What was it and why did you choose it?

This post also contains the Word of the Week.  Word Up, Yo is a word meme put together by Natalie, Kristen and Liz.  This week's Word of the Week is Rambunctious - turbulently active and noisy. 

Baby, since the day you came into my life, you made me realize that we were born to fly

~ John Legend, So High

Nobody puts Baby in a corner . . .

You know that line from Dirty Dancing where Johnny/Patrick rescues Baby/Jennifer from the corner her father made her sit in (if I'm totally showing my age and everyone here is to young for this movie, here is the clip ).

I wish I had my very own Johnny when I was in Kindergarten because that's what they did to me.  They thought I was a baby, so they literally put me in a corner . . . away from the other students.  Why?? Because I had already completed Kindergarten, but I was only 5 years old.  They didn't want to put me in 1st grade. Ummm. . . hello school board, you do the math. If I started Kindergarten at 4, I wasn't gonna be 6 in time for 1st grade.  They eventually promoted me to 1st grade in January (I was still only 5 years old) after four months of sitting in a corner. 

Their actions made just about as much sense as this street sign that is prominently posted at the corner of 6th and F Streets, NW - right by the Verizon Center where the Washington Wizards play basketball (click to enlarge if you can't see what the to one says).

Soooo  . . . can I park or not?  I actually called this sign in and the lady at the call center said, "It says what?? That doesn't make sense." . . . . . Exactly.

Something else that doesn't make sense is my need for things to be in order.  I'm that person you see in the grocery store turn a can right side up and keep on walking.  This is how I store my food in my cabinet.

Why do we have 8 cans of blackeye peas?  It's my husband's doing.  I think he's saving for the apocalypse.  In contrast to the organization I have in about every other aspect of my life, below is  pic of my work bag.  I can barely find my keys in that thing (daily issue) and I'm almost sure if I looked, I could find a receipt from 2008 when I bought the thing.

It doesn't look so bad in the pic, but believe me, it's bad.  LOL.  Everything sinks to the bottom and I think the bag eats it.  Oh, here's a bonus.  The roll of Smarties candy that I have in there that takes all of 10 seconds to devour, takes about 20 minutes of jogging to burn off the 100 calories I took in.  Doesn't. Make. Sense.

Lastly, something that most folks wouldn't guess about me is that I'm pretty mean >>>Insert Shocked Face Here<<< I know!!! Truth be told, I'm pretty nice most of the time.  I try to look out for my fellow homo sapiens, but there is a point in time when if you try to speak to me . . . you will be met with some really choice words.  Bottom line.  Do not wake the sleeping monster.

Case in point, I was in my dorm room napping on a Saturday afternoon.  My friend called my room and woke me up.  Here's how the conversation went.

Ring . . . Ring . . . Ring . . . Ring
Me - groggy and sleepy - Hello??
Friend - Oh, hi.  I didn't think you'd be in there.
Me - iritated - So why did you call me?

The conversation ended pretty quickly after that.  I'm generally not that snarky.  My response didn't even make much sense since people call people they don't think to be home all the time to leave messages (which is what she explained), but like I said, I'm a different person when someone wakes me up.

I can't be the only one who has encountered things that just don't make sense (please please say I'm not the only one cause that means the problem lies with me, LOL).   Whether within you or around you, what have you seen that just leaves you saying "huh??"

I was able to get two stories into one post (LOL).  I hope it makes up for the fact that it's been a week since I posted.  Work has been a killer.  Although it's too late to enter the post, I still used the Word of the (past) Week in this post.  The new WOW will be up tomorrow, check it out at either Natalie's, Kristin's, or Liz's blogs.

* Special announcement - In my penpal post, I said my blog was my private life that no one knows about, well, my best friend has entered blog land!!!  I confessed to her that I'm been living the blog lifestyle for a while now, LOL.  Check her out, she's just getting started.  Image of Paradise

I got punched in the face . . .

Okay, so clearly that's not me, but work with me on this.  photo credit

Back in my senior year of college, there was a major snowfall.  My friends and I decided to revert to childhood and have an old fashion snowball fight (hey, I was only 19 years old).  So we were out there having a good old time.  A guy friend  and I started wrestling in the snow.  It just so happened that his girlfriend saw us playing and apparently didn't appreciate the physical nature of our play. So .  . . . she decided to put me in a head lock.  Ummmm . . . wrong move.  We slipped.  Her left eye met my right knee.  She spent the next several days wearing dark sun glasses. In retrospect, I wish I would have just punched her in the face.  LOL.

Earlier this week, blogger decided to punch me in the face.  I sat there and typed my post about my first date with my husband.  I proofread and pushed the publish button with pride.  I received emails stating that I  received comments, but each time I viewed my blog, there was NOTHING.  gasp. . .  I whined to my husband, "Babe, my blog is brooookkkeeeennnnnn!!"  His response, "Awww . . . " I wish I would have punched him in the face.  Instead I just scowled at his nonchalant response do my SERIOUS dilemma.  I posted a question to Google Help and Bonnie tried to help me to no avail.

So I decided to try something different.  I emailed everyone in response to their comments.  I had great conversations with so many of you that day.  In particular, Christina and I chatted back and forth for hours.  From there, we've decided to collaborate on something pretty special that's forthcoming.  Stay tuned for more about that. I wish I would have started responding to you guys that way before because it was great having those conversations.  Hopefully Google won't feel the need to punch me in the face again, but I definitely appreciate the lesson learned.  How do you keep up with followers/visitors who comment on your blog.  Do you respond via email?  Do you comment back on their blogs?

This blog post followed the #2 prompt from Mama Kat's Writing Workshop - I wish I would have…Describe a time when you didn’t take action, but later wished you would have.  Join in on the fun.  Click on photo for link.

How it all began . . . .

*UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who has left comments. I received them in my inbox.  There still seems to be a bug in the comment display, but I'm glad that the comments are finally displaying.

Happy Belated Independence Day ladies.  We had a quiet weekend.  We pretty much stayed indoors for most of the weekend, but today we got out for dinner lunch and a movie.  We saw Grown Ups with Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Kevin James and Rob Schneider.  The movie was HILARIOUS and sweet.  As we were leaving the theatre, we drove by a place that is really sentimental to us.

It's where it all began . . . .

I met my husband in August of 2006.  We had our first date at Smokey Bones Restaurant.  I was usually cool and confident when I went out with guys, but there was something different about this guy. . . . Maybe it was because he didn't seem disarmed by me like guys usual were. Or  . . . maybe it was because he was 6'4" and super handsome.

In any case, as I sat across from him at the table, I couldn't look him in the eye, blushed throughout the entire meal and fumbled over my words.  I had no idea what was wrong with me.  Dinner went well, so we walked over to the movie theatre and watched the oh so romantic, Talladega Nights . . . . .

Several months went by and our romance progressed.  He wined juiced and dined me.  We traveled together.  Went bowling.  Watched the Superbowl.  I mean it was great.  The guy was smooth.  He even bought me a puppy.

I was smitten.

But it wasn't up to just me.  I came with baggage.  I came with a pet snake that he had to accept.  LOL, that didn't come easy.  I also came with a fixed in her way, grumpy, will bite you if you piss her off Siamese cat.

Like I said, the dude was smooth.  He even won her over.

I think it even shocked her.

So today, for the first time since August of 2006, we went back to the theatre where we saw our first movie together.  It was cool to be back there.  It was nice to reflect on the long way we've come. 

And the story continues . . . .

I participated in two memes in this post.

iHappy Mondays is a meme created by Mummy-time.  I was introduced to this meme by Tiny Little Reveries, who has a great blog that I follow.  iHappy Mondays is a meme where you post pics that make you happy that you took with your iPhone (or from your regular camera phone if that's what you got, LOL). 



Secondly, of course, I participated in the Nerd Mafia's Word Up Yo meme.  In this meme, you use the Word of the Week (WOW) in your post.  This week's word is fumble.  I used the definition - to make, handle, etc., clumsily or inefficiently.

Even when I'm sad . . .

Could it be that I'm not starting with a childhood story??  Maybe I'll think of one by the time I get to the end.  I've noticed a lot of the ladies in my blog circle participate in a Writer's Workshop by Mama Kat, so I thought I'd try my hand at this workshop.

The focus that I selected was: 10 things sure to put a smile on my face when I'm sad.

1.  Babies - I'm not one of those who thinks every baby is ooooh soooo "cute", but I think every baby is adorable.  Their baby smile. Their baby smell. Their baby antics.  Babies are perfect.

2.  Shopping!!!! - I love shopping.  The outlet mall is my Mecca and I'm sure to get a smile out of every trip.

3.  Reminiscing - When my friends and I get together, every conversation starts with "remember when . . . "   Looking at old photos also puts a smile on my face.

4.  Birthdays - Although I'm not thrilled with the candles on my cakes increasing, I love birthdays.  My friend Audrey @ I'm so Aud is celebrating her birthday today (and her official blog launch).  If you can, stop by and wish her birthday greetings on her special day.

5.  Reading - A really good book can drag me out of my funk and into the life of the story.

6.  Eating - I love food.  Pasta. Cookies. Pizza. Cake. YUM!!!

7.  Swimming - I'm an island girl.  I love going to beach. Sand between my toes.  Sun on my back.  Wading through the beautiful blue refreshing water.

8. DANCING!!! - I can work these hips like a stripper, LOL.  I will dance the night away.  Great workout.  Great stress reliever.  Talk about a two for one.  Bonus is when my husband joins in with his awkward dance moves.  Definitely leaves me in giggles.

9. Singing - I can sing myself into tears or flip it into singing myself into happiness (which is usually accompanied by fits of dancing).

10.  Traveling - I love to travel.  I wish I could do more of it.  Cruising is my most favorite travel method.  After cruising it's hard for me to come back to reality.

* I know the usual answer of "my husband" is absent.  He has a amazing knack of being both the biggest joy and biggest annoyance in my life.  LOL.  So he just gets an honorable mention . . . LOL.