Worky work work work....

Email to Clock, because I knew she'd appreciate this:

So, I just had one of the guys bring a touch-up tube of paint in to me. It's a small tube - about 0.5 oz. It has two applicators - one is a brush (very much like nail polish) and the other is a pen-like top where you press down and the paint comes out. Anyway, the guy brought to me a tube that's labeled silver but has red in it. So, we chatted for a bit and he left, and I decided to grab a stickie note to play a little with the pen-like applicator. So I made some dots on the stickie note and decided I was done and put it down. I glanced back over at the stickie note and noticed I had inadvertently made a very phallic representation with dots of red paint. So, I grabbed the tube of paint and added some more dots to make it one giant blob in case anyone walks or stops by, all the while thinking about Super Bad and the 8%...

Mistaken...Yet Again....

Funny conversation after hanging out at the bowling alley:

Andy: You're a democrat, aren't you?
Me: No. I'm hippie liberal, but definitely am more libertarian.
Andy: Seriously?!
Me: Yep. I'm way socially liberal. And I'm more about people having choices.
Andy: So what do you think about the helmet law?
Me: My godfather received a kidney transplant. I have pretty strong feelings helmet and seat belt laws. I figure if you are not a minor, you should have the choice. I am all for enforcing that minors or people who cannot legally make decisions for themselves being forced to comply with helmets and seat belts. But if you're an adult and don't want to be safe, who am I to say? And if you're not smart enough to protect yourself...well, there's other people that may benefit from your decision to be unsafe.
Andy: I agree with you. The government shouldn't legislate morality.
Me: I agree. But I also think prostitution and drugs should be legalized and taxed.
Andy: I'm impressed, May.
Me: How so?
Andy: Because you're willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

I feel the need to add a little caveat. I do believe in education. Strongly. I think people should be educated so that they understand the choices they are making. But beyond providing the best information possible, there's not much to be done.

I do find it funny how it seems if you're perceived as being socially liberal, it automatically dumps you into the category of being a democrat. I've never been registered as a democrat. I've never pulled a straight ticket while voting. I had a hard time voting for Obama because I didn't think he (and his party) were right in not standing up in support of gay marriage and gay rights in general. There were other reasons, too, but that was the main one.

So, I've decided on a few other issues, too. Pleural marriage - have at it. If some man is crazy enough to want to take on many wives, feel free. I personally think it's ludicrous - why would you want to invite that chaos into your life? I don't foresee many women taking on many husbands. Plus, I'm sure that would mean a new religion would have to form first so that women had some kind of reason to believe they should need or want many husbands. I wonder how hard it would be to start this up just to see what would happen...*wicked, wicked grin*

Back to libertarianism...given that I don't belong to any particular party, this is the one that probably most fits my beliefs. I've had a couple of people argue with me about whether or not it's a conservative philosophy (smaller government, lower taxes, more freedom). But I think the overall concept is quite liberal - the idea that people can and should be responsible for themselves is certainly not conservative. I think at times it gives more credit than is due, but I'd rather run with that than try to save or protect people from themselves (generally, an impossibility - human's level of stubbornness is ridiculous - I know...I'm human).

So, those are my thoughts for today. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Thanks for the Encouragement...

Yet another swim meet today - this one was at OU. The Michigan Open - last chance to qualify for States and / or improve seed times before States. I just love the smell of chlorine.

So, I got to the meet, found Miss and sat down between her and another mom (we'll call her Insensitive Lady, or IL for short) from Justin's team. I got there just as Miss was explaining that Jamie wasn't going to be there today (exhausted and sore from a long day the day before - healing is hard) and the conversation went as such:
Miss: "No, Jamie's not going to be here today. But we have Aunt Carrie!"
IL: "Well, it's certainly not as good as having Dad here."
Me: *trying to hide my irritation* "Sorry?"
IL: "I mean it's nice that you came, but it's just not the same."
Me: "No, I suppose not. I do try to make it to as many of his meets as I can. I always love to watch Justin swim."
IL: "Oh, will you be at the State Meet?" *spoken in a tone to test me to see if I knew when it was*
Me: "I wouldn't miss it, though I'll likely only be there on the 6th and 7th." *take that, Insensitive Lady!*
IL: "Do you have any kids?"
Me: "Nope."
IL: "Are you married?"
Me: "Nope." *now witnessing the look on her face that says we officially have nothing in common*
IL: "Oh. Well. There's still time for you."
Me: No response. Conversation over.

How can one appropriately respond to this without picking a fight? Regardless, a few ideas came about while texting this to Danielle and Tia:
Danielle via text message: "Oh, you have to bitch slap her for that one."
My text back to Danielle: "Next time that happens I'm going to tell them I am a barren widow and they should step off."

There are just so many irritants with that comment. What if I was a lesbian? What if I couldn't have kids for some reason? Why would you assume that your choices in life are the only ones someone would aspire to? Why would you assume that the only way to feel complete is to have a husband and children? When's the last time you jetted for the weekend without having to tell anyone where you were going, how long you'd be gone, or feeling like you needed to prepare everything for your family so that they could survive a couple of days without you?

A short while later, I noticed that embroidered on her tote bag was "Women of Faith." I could only think to myself, "Well, there's still time for you, too!"

Barnes & Noble

Haven't been in a while, so I stopped in today after lunch with Bridget (gotta love an extra day off!). I picked up Florence + The Machine (craving Kiss With a Fist) and think that may end up in heavy rotation in the car. I think this is the year I continue with the trend of reading biographies / autobiographies, so I grabbed two. "The Pact" is about three guys from inner-city Newark who decide to beat the odds and become doctors, and "My First Five Husbands...and the Ones Who Got Away" by Rue McClanahan. What the guy who cashed me out must think... I think this is worse than when I bought "The Diary of Anne Frank," "Grandma's Dead: Breaking Bad News With Baby Animals" and a Flogging Molly cd.

Why I Love Mom...

Email from Mom on New Year's Day...no wonder where I get this personality from...

Hi,

Just wanted you to know that we got bad pizza from Jets tonight. I have a piece of the pizza we originally got in the refrigerator. We returned the rest when they brought us a second pizza. The second pizza smelled bad so we didn't even taste it, just put it in the garage. I called Jets back after the second bad pizza and of course no one else has complained. I spoke to Candace who said she is the owner's daughter on the second call. I also sent an email to their customer service on their web site.

Nancy was here too and had some of the bad pizza. If we die or become incoherent, you know what's going on.

Love,

Mom

Amazing...

...how a few small steps can be so incredible and significant.
...how three short months can seem so incredibly long.
...how I'm reminded constantly how determined and stubborn he really is.
...how that determination and stubbornness have seen him through this far this fast.

It's amazing that everyone's acceptance of a horrible incident comes at such varying stages. Limitations I accepted when it first happened are ideas that others wouldn't consider. But their belief that everything would be just fine is one of the few things that allowed them to get through the first giant phase of hard parts. It got them up the first hill only to be left staring up at a mountain.

How do you recover from every limb in your body being broken except one? How are you able to soldier on with hardly ever questioning why this happened? How do you accept that you'll probably never be able to do certain things with your son when those things are such a huge part of your relationship with him? How do you stay strong for everyone? So many questions I'll probably never ask him because I already know the answer is the same to each one, and it's so ingrained in who we are and how we've been raised. You just do.

Congratulations on the most recent milestone. There're many, many more to come.

Yikes!

Hmmm...it's been almost two months since I've been on here. I'm becoming like the people I pester about how they don't blog enough. Man, it sucks when that comes full circle and smacks you upside the head.

On a brighter note, I was inspired to actually blog today after a trip to the post office. So, I've ranted about the post office before. Justifiably so. This time, I was shocked and amazed at the level of customer service. The super nice lady with white-blond hair at the downtown Lansing branch rocked the house today. I went in to ship a care package to S, in Philly working on becoming a PA (miss you, by the way!!). Not only was Ms. White-Blond super friendly, but when I told her I was shipping homemade caramel-chocolate-nut brownies (which by the way, are neither hazardous nor a liquid, which is how the question came up...), which are affectionately known as Goo and Les Goux depending on which circle I'm running in, she complimented me on having friends so wonderful that I would take the time to ship a care package. She then asked if I had friends on the west coast ("Not yet, but one of my other best friends is moving to Sacramento tomorrow, and I plan on sending care packages to them, too!") and took the time to explain the flat-rate priority mail gig and give me several boxes to take home so that I would have them there, ready to go, for the next batch of Goo to be shipped. Ahhh. Such a refreshing experience at the one place that usually lets me down.

Rock on, Ms. White-Blond at the downtown Lansing post office! You made my day!