Jabba

I'm not going to say anything except I meant to post this weeks ago when it happened. But yeah, just make up your own story behind this.

Edit: If you didn't click the image to make it bigger, the white box on the left says "Sandwich". It helps move the story along to have captions.

Fish with Hands!

If this doesn't help you believe in evolution, not much will. Check it out!

Baby Problems from Grey's Anatomy

Of course Youtube cannot provide the perfect combination of clips but bear with me. This, right here, is reason enough to make me regret ever watching Grey's Anatomy (not that I don't already hate my inability to stop watching). I have been crazy this entire season because of one story line. I'm sure you all will understand why if you watch. Close to home is an understatement. Of course this story ends happily and I...well wait for another post this week. I may have a lot to say on the matter if I get a few minutes.

Engagement rings

Just an FYI to all...you may want to remember this and tell my future boyfriend if he's ever about to propose.

I read an article recently about a woman who refuses to give back an engagement ring after the wedding was called off. It made news because it was a crazy expensive ring. Everyone's pissed at the woman because apparently engagement rings are a contract for marriage. If the marriage isn't happening, the contract is no longer valid, and therefore she should give it back.

So everyone knows, I will never give a ring back. Hopefully I will never accept a ring from someone I don't actually marry, but just go with me. I also may end up with a ring and not actually get legally wed. I don't really care if tradition calls a ring a contract. I think that's the most unromantic way to look at the situation. I may toss it in the ocean or something crazy like that, but I consider it mine to do with as I please. It is not my finace's property that's on loan to me until I follow through on some promise.

Here's how I see it. Man decides he wants to marry girl. Man gives girl a gift (the ring) to symbolize that he loves her enough to promise himself to her forever. It's not a gift saying hey, I'm gonna give you this ring so you have to give yourself to me forever. That sounds too much like a man buying a guaranteed lay or something ridiculous like that. I know many people still look at marriage in this way, but I refuse to.

So yeah, if someone gives me a gift, I'm not giving it back, even if that person is no longer in my life. I have gifts from my father but I didn't burn them or give them back just because he and I don't speak. Same goes for an engagement ring. I won't wear it anymore, obviously, but it meant something to me at some time, so I would want to hang on to it.

I also think the woman should give a man a gift upon an engagement. It may not be a ring, since guys don't really like them usually. But if he's saying "Here's this gift, love me forever" she should respond with "Ok, love me forever too, here's a nice watch (or whatever). I realize this is pretty much what wedding rings are for, but if the guy does something at the engagement, why doesn't the woman? In this same vain, if a girl doesn't want a diamond ring, any other gift is acceptable.

The Big Move

I feel like such a nomad!

Wait, let's back up. So I had my last day of work at W&N then left the next morning for St. Louis. I may not get a vacation for awhile, so I took the time to visit the family. Here's what went down there:
~Grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary party. Saw people I didn't want to see, but the grandparents were happy I surprised them, so that makes it worth it. And my aunt and I snuck out to the car and had some wine tailgate style. It was like we were high school students sneeking out for a cigarette or something. So funny!
~Tornado warnings meant I hung out in the basement for awhile, but the house did not blow away.
~Went fishing with Connor and Harrison, in the rain. We got very wet and didn't catch anything. Well, Connor almost caught a duck. A duck in a group of 3 guy ducks chasing one girl duck.
~Saw a great Italian movie with Julie. I cried! Especially at the part where they played "Goodbye My Lover" (James Blunt) cause, well... you can figure that one out. Still, good movie.
~Had a wine from Hawaii that was made from pineapples. It may have been this Maui Blanc but I forgot the name for sure. Good stuff.
~Had a family dinner that included a toast to my leaving Maryland, complete with Maryland wine. I love the St. Michael's Long Splice!
~Saw Matt's new place and stole a bunch of the Cascade he does tests on in the lab. I will have dish soap for awhile now.
~Bought some Missouri wine
~Got stuck at the airport for an extra hour, which felt like 5.

Then I came home, went to see Baby Cameron (and got John to come over to see him and hang...he even held him) and said goodbye to Kathy and Saureen.

Finished packing.

Went hiking with John at Patapso "one last time."

Moved to Alexandria!

The move was very hot, but it got done. Then, I thought I was going to be staying at John's Saturday night and driving back down to VA with my car and the last few things I had in MD on Sunday. But he was trying to make other plans (to visit a friend in Alexandria!) so he just dropped me off and said goodbye ("forever"). So I pack up my car by myself and leave for VA all alone and sad. Then he calls and says his plans fell through, so I ended up back in Baltimore after all!

We had a good night of beer then said goodbye on Sunday for real. Terribly sad, I won't go into it.

Last night was really hard, it being my first night here. I was lonely even though my roomies are really nice (one was at work, so that didn't help). But I was also really excited about the whole new life I have ahead of me. I really just don't do well adjusting to new things. I've decided the last few days have been part of some "moving bi-polar disorder". I go from happy to depressed with the flip of a switch.

So today was the first day of the new job. All orientation, no real work. So we'll see how I feel tomorrow when I'm suddenly busy. I met a lot of cool people who will hopefully help me be social. The girl in the cube next to me is actually from Missouri! We talked about gooey butter cake and she knew that Truman is the Harvard of the Midwest! Made me less homesick. Or more?

Anyway, I need to maybe unpack another box...or watch TV and sleep. So that's enough for now.

Tulips

In the fall I planted what was sure to be a beautiful bed of tulips. Then John and I broke up and I had many moments where I cried over tulips. This was our garden. At our house. Something we built together. and so on. And I was not going to be there in the Spring to enjoy it. Yeah, I do tend to attach my feelings to things.

Anyway, as life turns out, I don't live at the house any more but I still have access to it! It helps having an ex with little motivation to move the rest of our crap out of there. Anyway, long story short, I went and liberated some of my tulips (read-cut some and put them in a vase) so I took pics too. And I didn't cry.

Alexandria!

So, I got a new job...proposal editor. Woot! It's boring stuff, when you get down to it, but it means more money, a new city (Alexandria) and hopefully a new start. I'm of course freaking out about leaving John and having to meet all new people, but ultimately this is a great opportunity to get my life back on track.

Now I just have to find a place to live!

Baby Baths

I have realized, once again how different I am than all my "friends" out here in Maryland. I always just said it was because I was younger then them. That one day I would catch up to the marriage crazy or now, the baby fandom. But I just don't see how that will ever happen. I cannot turn into these people! I believe I have too much common sense.

So yesterday I was with certain friends and their 3 month old was scheduled to have a bath. Mother took forever to get everything ready. A bedtime outfit, new diaper, towel, baby tub in the big tub, wash cloth, the space heater to keep the bath room nice and cozy. Yes, that's right, when the kid gets a bath, they turn on a space heater in the bath room. Now, I guess this makes some sense if there's a blizzard outside and you don't want to turn up the heat in your entire house, but when it's 75 outside and the place is warm?! The kid will do fine in the bathtub without a space heater. Seriously. Now, maybe she took so much time getting ready because I was holding the baby and she didn't feel like she had to rush. But really, it shouldn't be so hard just to give the kid a bath.

I also learned in this adventure that mom had never given baby a bath alone, dad had always been there to help. And she was a little freaked out. And that many books were read in order to learn how to properly bath a baby.

I guess I was just given a great benefit in having little brothers because not knowing how to bath a baby seems so ridiculous to me. I just don't understand it. I try to tell myself this person is a new mom and has never been around babies, but the worrying and all the reading and the calculating of feedings and everything just drove me nuts. In my mind motherhood does not have to be so stressful.

She of course just thinks I am naïve and once I actually become a mom I will be just as crazy. But please, god, let me stay my normal self even when I have a child!

The blue jeans project

I'm apparently writing short pieces about the adventures of blue jeans. I don't know how I feel about this yet, but at least I wrote something. I am worried by the fact that this idea came from John, and that's where my inspiration came from, but I will take the muse in whatever form I can.


Catalina

These jeans are not stained with the blood of baby seals. They were not worn by Catalina or any of her other wildlife activist friends as they lay in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya, in front of the Canadian consulate, protesting animal slaughter. They were not the only defense against the sticks that men repeatedly raised and lowered, splitting wood against Catalina’s long, lean legs. They did not absorb her blood as the Seal Saviors reenacted the cruelty done to baby seals every year along the Canadian coast.

These jeans were not worn when sushi feel from Catalina’s mouth into her lap, leaving a stain of soy sauce above her knee. These jeans did not hear the waiter tell her that she had just eaten the baby seals she had fought so hard to save. Or his laugh when he said it was actually whale. Or his apology when he finally admitted it was the very legal and not at all cruel spicy tuna that she had ordered.

These jeans were not torn and then patched after Catalina feel along the seaside. They were not caught in a wire when she first spotted the baby seal sitting on the rock. They did not soak up the sea water as she pulled her camera from her backpack, excited to capture the perfect spots on his miniature head. These jeans were not torn as her foot slipped above the algae as she wound up and pitched a rock in the direction of a sailor obviously intent on harming the innocent creature.

These jeans are not stained with the blood of baby seals.

Some days ya gotta dance

After wanting to go dancing all week, I did. Yay dancing!