I just had to share this video. Those web people out there will enjoy. HOLLA! :-)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Warm fuzzies and spicy crawfish
Woo-hoo for holiday weekends, and an extra high-five for Fridays off in the summer (although the long Monday thru Thursdays stink).
With a four day weekend, I made the trek back home to Louisiana to see my parents and sister. And her fiance. What struck me immediately upon exiting the Baton Rouge airport was the heat. And humidity. And the sweater I wore.
My mom likes it when I dress nicely, fix my hair and put on a little make-up. I did these things early Friday morning before I left for DFW just for her. My outfit looked nice, and was all well-and-good for the car and subsequent plane ride (I usually freeze on the plane), but not the walk to the car in BR. When she saw me, she commented on my outfit and its inevitable fortune of being removed from my body due to its uncomfortable nature. I told her I suffered for her and that the rest of the weekend would be spent in my comfies: pj pants and a t-shirt. :-)
Saturday was great! We had a crawfish boil--my favorite! It was a good time and a great visit with my sister. We kidded around like when we were younger.
It felt different though, as she no longer lives at home with the folks. I was able to spend a lot of time with mom and dad (all to myself). So we made the most of it and vegged out, watched movies and talked. We 'member 'niced. ("reminisced" for those outside the fam).
So here's a toast (as I raise my can of Dr. Pepper) to pj pants, tshirts, blue fuzzy slippers, yummy crawfish, and family.
With a four day weekend, I made the trek back home to Louisiana to see my parents and sister. And her fiance. What struck me immediately upon exiting the Baton Rouge airport was the heat. And humidity. And the sweater I wore.
My mom likes it when I dress nicely, fix my hair and put on a little make-up. I did these things early Friday morning before I left for DFW just for her. My outfit looked nice, and was all well-and-good for the car and subsequent plane ride (I usually freeze on the plane), but not the walk to the car in BR. When she saw me, she commented on my outfit and its inevitable fortune of being removed from my body due to its uncomfortable nature. I told her I suffered for her and that the rest of the weekend would be spent in my comfies: pj pants and a t-shirt. :-)
Saturday was great! We had a crawfish boil--my favorite! It was a good time and a great visit with my sister. We kidded around like when we were younger.
It felt different though, as she no longer lives at home with the folks. I was able to spend a lot of time with mom and dad (all to myself). So we made the most of it and vegged out, watched movies and talked. We 'member 'niced. ("reminisced" for those outside the fam).
So here's a toast (as I raise my can of Dr. Pepper) to pj pants, tshirts, blue fuzzy slippers, yummy crawfish, and family.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Forgiveness, Friendship & Fatigue
It's amazing to me how many things we push to the back of our minds. What's even more notable is that these things can weigh us down. Without understanding why, we may go through our days with the uneasy feeling that we're carrying a backpack full of undetermined contents--weighing about 150 pounds.
I thought that my pushing my anger to the back recesses of my "medulla oblongata" (don't know what part of the brain that actually is, I just remember it from The Waterboy) and pretending the receiver of my anger did not exist would make everything ok. And thusly I have lived the past few months of my life. Although now that I pause to think, I bet I've done this before with other things...hmm...food for thought that I'll save for after dinner tonight. I wonder how much those items weigh?
Cutting to the chase, communication was once lost was re-established between me and one of my close friends. The minute I heard back I felt as though the 150 pounds were instantly lifted off of my shoulders. Things may not be the way they once were, but the weight is gone.
I now think it was by no accident I felt the weight there. I thought my friend had forgotten me. And while I may have pushed this dear friend of years out of my conscious thought, he found his way to the imaginary backpack I carry everywhere I go. All 150 pounds of him.
The whole experience has given me reason to think about things in a new way. I wonder how my actions (or non-actions) are affecting those whom I love. Does anything I do affect my family, my friends? If so, is it a positive way? I'll be thinking about this rather diligently for awhile.
I thought that my pushing my anger to the back recesses of my "medulla oblongata" (don't know what part of the brain that actually is, I just remember it from The Waterboy) and pretending the receiver of my anger did not exist would make everything ok. And thusly I have lived the past few months of my life. Although now that I pause to think, I bet I've done this before with other things...hmm...food for thought that I'll save for after dinner tonight. I wonder how much those items weigh?
Cutting to the chase, communication was once lost was re-established between me and one of my close friends. The minute I heard back I felt as though the 150 pounds were instantly lifted off of my shoulders. Things may not be the way they once were, but the weight is gone.
I now think it was by no accident I felt the weight there. I thought my friend had forgotten me. And while I may have pushed this dear friend of years out of my conscious thought, he found his way to the imaginary backpack I carry everywhere I go. All 150 pounds of him.
The whole experience has given me reason to think about things in a new way. I wonder how my actions (or non-actions) are affecting those whom I love. Does anything I do affect my family, my friends? If so, is it a positive way? I'll be thinking about this rather diligently for awhile.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
What a Tuesday!
Hello gang. I got to thinking that with my being gone, I'm not sure ECU has that one person on campus that seems to have trouble follow her. You know, Murphy's grandchild, "if it can go wrong, it will..." This morning was quite....hmmm....what's a good word? Frustrating? No. Disheartening? No. Adventurous? Not quite, but we'll go with it.
(Jared, warning...this will require some reading...hahaha)
I thought I would share my Tuesday morning story with you all. While it was happening, it was not the least bit funny, but once I made it to my office, I had to laugh. :-)
When I woke up, I just knew today would be an awesome day! I woke up at 6, and it was raining hard and thundering (my favorite way to sleep) so I reset my alarm for 7. (This is not a story about being late for work, the extra hour of sleep was the good part! hahaha)
So, I work downtown. My parking permit is for a garage a couple of blocks down the street from my office building. And yes, it is now storming worse than it was at 6 or even 7. No worries, I have an umbrella. Once I got to the parking garage, I got to thinking that I didn't want to ruin my work shoes (some black flats if you want a visual). Lucky me, I have some flip flops in my car. New ones from Old Navy. So i put those on and put my work shoes in the Old Navy bag, gather my lunch, purse and umbrella and set off.
When I make it to the street and the cross walk I realize a couple of things: 1. my feet are already soaked, but I don't really care. (when else do you have an excuse as an adult to walk in the rain and get your feet wet?) and 2. man, that's like a river there on the road.
And it was, sort of. There was water rushing down the street. The "creek" was about 4 feet wide (no lie). As I'm standing there waiting for the red flashing DON'T WALK to turn into that white light up man running...er...walking, a car goes by and....yep...drives THROUGH the "creek". I am soaked from about the thighs down. I look down at myself, then over to the business man that just walked up. He saw it happen. He looked at me in a compassionate way and says, "oh! and now we have to jump across that." Thanks, sir. I hadn't already contemplated that very thing. As you all know, I'd be lucky to just have that much of a leg span on a dry, sunny day with my Air Jordans on. Yes. Thank you, sir.
So the "run for your life" light comes on, and I do attempt the jump (with umbrella in one hand; purse, bag of shoes and bag of lunch in the other). As I am in mid-air, my right flip flop comes off. (Now is when in the movies it would turn to slow motion...) As I land (in the middle of the "creek") I turn in time to see my shoe floating down the road. Nooooooooo......Good-bye shoe. I stood there in the middle of the road for about 30 seconds trying to figure out a way to get my shoe. But short of dropping all my possessions and diving for it, there was nothing I could do. I slowly turned around to see a car waiting on me to get out of the road. Sorry, ma'am.
All this and I had another wide "creek" to cross on the other side of the 4 lane. I'm not jumping. My pants are already wet anyway. So I walk through. Once I'm safely on the other side I have a decision to make: do I walk to work (2 blocks) with one shoe or do I put on the work shoes--and ruin them? I opt for the hobo look.
This walk is generally a beautiful walk as it is the block that contains the Water Gardens. Not so beautiful today. As I passed the mini-physical plant operations of the Water Gardens, all the workers are huddled in the control room with the door open. They seem to be having a meeting. As I approach, they all stop, stare, then notice the one shoe. They whisper. What am I to do but smile and wave with my handful of purse and bags?
I continue on to my building. Almost there. One more street to cross (another "creek", albeit a much smaller one). Then our security guard sees me and comes out with his huge umbrella. He walks me up to the building and noticing my soaked pants says, "You need a bigger umbrella." I assure him that would have made no difference. He then notices the shoe. The one shoe. He says, "Uh...what happened to your shoe? Is that the only one you have for the day?" I told him the other one floated away. He just looked puzzled. When I got inside the foyer of our building and began putting on my nice shoes, he just shook his head. I told him, "This will be funny once I get upstairs. I just know it." We both laughed.
Sure enough, once I made it up here and told this story to my coworkers, it was funny. As we're all in stitches, my supervisor asks (very innocently) "Why didn't you call one of us to drive down and get you?" (See, three of our staff work 7:30-4:30)
My reply, "Yeah. I didn't think of that until JUST NOW." As I stood there soaked we all laughed again.
What a morning. Luckily, one of my suite-mates likes the temp to be about 63 degrees at all times and our secretary just bought me a space heater. It works quite well in drying out pants and sweaters. And feet. And bad moods. :-)
I know this ended up a little long, but wanted to write it so that you might picture me telling it to you.
I miss you all so much! I hope you have an awesome Tuesday.
Love,
Sue
(Jared, warning...this will require some reading...hahaha)
I thought I would share my Tuesday morning story with you all. While it was happening, it was not the least bit funny, but once I made it to my office, I had to laugh. :-)
When I woke up, I just knew today would be an awesome day! I woke up at 6, and it was raining hard and thundering (my favorite way to sleep) so I reset my alarm for 7. (This is not a story about being late for work, the extra hour of sleep was the good part! hahaha)
So, I work downtown. My parking permit is for a garage a couple of blocks down the street from my office building. And yes, it is now storming worse than it was at 6 or even 7. No worries, I have an umbrella. Once I got to the parking garage, I got to thinking that I didn't want to ruin my work shoes (some black flats if you want a visual). Lucky me, I have some flip flops in my car. New ones from Old Navy. So i put those on and put my work shoes in the Old Navy bag, gather my lunch, purse and umbrella and set off.
When I make it to the street and the cross walk I realize a couple of things: 1. my feet are already soaked, but I don't really care. (when else do you have an excuse as an adult to walk in the rain and get your feet wet?) and 2. man, that's like a river there on the road.
And it was, sort of. There was water rushing down the street. The "creek" was about 4 feet wide (no lie). As I'm standing there waiting for the red flashing DON'T WALK to turn into that white light up man running...er...walking, a car goes by and....yep...drives THROUGH the "creek". I am soaked from about the thighs down. I look down at myself, then over to the business man that just walked up. He saw it happen. He looked at me in a compassionate way and says, "oh! and now we have to jump across that." Thanks, sir. I hadn't already contemplated that very thing. As you all know, I'd be lucky to just have that much of a leg span on a dry, sunny day with my Air Jordans on. Yes. Thank you, sir.
So the "run for your life" light comes on, and I do attempt the jump (with umbrella in one hand; purse, bag of shoes and bag of lunch in the other). As I am in mid-air, my right flip flop comes off. (Now is when in the movies it would turn to slow motion...) As I land (in the middle of the "creek") I turn in time to see my shoe floating down the road. Nooooooooo......Good-bye shoe. I stood there in the middle of the road for about 30 seconds trying to figure out a way to get my shoe. But short of dropping all my possessions and diving for it, there was nothing I could do. I slowly turned around to see a car waiting on me to get out of the road. Sorry, ma'am.
All this and I had another wide "creek" to cross on the other side of the 4 lane. I'm not jumping. My pants are already wet anyway. So I walk through. Once I'm safely on the other side I have a decision to make: do I walk to work (2 blocks) with one shoe or do I put on the work shoes--and ruin them? I opt for the hobo look.
This walk is generally a beautiful walk as it is the block that contains the Water Gardens. Not so beautiful today. As I passed the mini-physical plant operations of the Water Gardens, all the workers are huddled in the control room with the door open. They seem to be having a meeting. As I approach, they all stop, stare, then notice the one shoe. They whisper. What am I to do but smile and wave with my handful of purse and bags?
I continue on to my building. Almost there. One more street to cross (another "creek", albeit a much smaller one). Then our security guard sees me and comes out with his huge umbrella. He walks me up to the building and noticing my soaked pants says, "You need a bigger umbrella." I assure him that would have made no difference. He then notices the shoe. The one shoe. He says, "Uh...what happened to your shoe? Is that the only one you have for the day?" I told him the other one floated away. He just looked puzzled. When I got inside the foyer of our building and began putting on my nice shoes, he just shook his head. I told him, "This will be funny once I get upstairs. I just know it." We both laughed.
Sure enough, once I made it up here and told this story to my coworkers, it was funny. As we're all in stitches, my supervisor asks (very innocently) "Why didn't you call one of us to drive down and get you?" (See, three of our staff work 7:30-4:30)
My reply, "Yeah. I didn't think of that until JUST NOW." As I stood there soaked we all laughed again.
What a morning. Luckily, one of my suite-mates likes the temp to be about 63 degrees at all times and our secretary just bought me a space heater. It works quite well in drying out pants and sweaters. And feet. And bad moods. :-)
I know this ended up a little long, but wanted to write it so that you might picture me telling it to you.
I miss you all so much! I hope you have an awesome Tuesday.
Love,
Sue
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Abuse is a serious thing
Sometimes when watching the news, reading the paper or hearing about things going on in friends’ lives, I pause. While many things tug at my heart I thought I’d pass on information about abusive relationships.
I am saddened to admit that there will be men and women that abuse their spouses/significant others and there will always be the victim that allows it.
Abuse does not have to be merely physical beatings or sexual in nature, emotional abuse is very real and damaging as well. Helpguide.org gives some information on abuse as well as lists of sorts that give warning signs. I found the following to be most interesting:
SIGNS OF AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP
Does your partner:
• act excessively jealous and possessive?
• control where you go or what you do?
• keep you from seeing your friends or family?
• limit your access to money, the phone, or the car?
• constantly check up on you?
This is just one section of many. I think sometimes we may just chock up this type of behavior to being a little jealous or controlling, but this constitutes abuse.
I don’t know if anyone reads my blog, but if you do, please take the info found on the helpguide site to heart. Take stock. Pass on the info to your friends (not just female friends either). We have this wonderful tool at our fingertips, let’s use it to educate ourselves and our friends/loved ones.
Visit http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_types_signs_causes_effects.htm
For more info.
Much love,
Susan
I am saddened to admit that there will be men and women that abuse their spouses/significant others and there will always be the victim that allows it.
Abuse does not have to be merely physical beatings or sexual in nature, emotional abuse is very real and damaging as well. Helpguide.org gives some information on abuse as well as lists of sorts that give warning signs. I found the following to be most interesting:
SIGNS OF AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP
Does your partner:
• act excessively jealous and possessive?
• control where you go or what you do?
• keep you from seeing your friends or family?
• limit your access to money, the phone, or the car?
• constantly check up on you?
This is just one section of many. I think sometimes we may just chock up this type of behavior to being a little jealous or controlling, but this constitutes abuse.
I don’t know if anyone reads my blog, but if you do, please take the info found on the helpguide site to heart. Take stock. Pass on the info to your friends (not just female friends either). We have this wonderful tool at our fingertips, let’s use it to educate ourselves and our friends/loved ones.
Visit http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_types_signs_causes_effects.htm
For more info.
Much love,
Susan
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