Spring Forward!

Don't forget -- it's Daylight Savings Time! Make sure you turn clocks ahead an hour when you go to bed tonight!!!

Somebody's got some 'splaining to do....

After being at work all morning, I came home this afternoon and headed upstairs to tackle some schoolwork. Like any normal person, I also had to go to the bathroom. I walked in to the little upstairs bathroom that the Lil Bro and I share only to discover this....




So you're thinking, "Duh, MMSG. It's winter. That stuff is called snow. You got 13 inches of it yesterday. Why are you surprised by this??!" And, well, yeah. If I was outside, a hunk of dirty snow would have been no big deal.


But it was in my bathtub!!!



So, seeing as the Lil Bro is the only other person who uses this bathroom, I marched off to his room.

Me: "Come."

Lil Bro: "Huh?"

Me (leads Lil Bro to bathroom and points to snow)

Lil Bro: "It's snow."

Me: "It's IN MY BATHTUB!!!"

Lil Bro: "Yeah....?"

Me: "Explain, if you please?!"

Lil Bro (shrugs): "I dunno. Is the roof leaking?"

Me and Lil Bro pause and look up at ceiling. It is dry and leak-free.

Me: "Any other ideas?"

Lil Bro: "Check with Dad."

Me (marching downstairs, hands on hips)

Dad: "Yes?"

Me: "Let's play a game. It's called, 'Guess What's In My Bathtub That Doesn't Belong There.' You go first."

Dad: "Snow?"

Me: "Ding ding ding! We have a winner! And now for the bonus round: WHY?!?!"

Dad: "It was in the attic."

Me: "Great. That's fantastic. But, it's no longer IN the attic. It's IN MY BATHTUB! And it's DIRTY!"

Dad: "Indeed. I moved it from the attic. It's melting."

Me: "And you didn't feel the need to put it in YOUR bathtub?"

Dad (feigning shock): "Why, goodness, no! It's DIRTY!"

"The Ghost"

THE GHOST

by: Charles Baudelaire

OFTLY as brown-eyed Angels rove

I will return to thy alcove,

And glide upon the night to thee,

Treading the shadows silently.




And I will give to thee, my own,

Kisses as icy as the moon,

And the caresses of a snake

Cold gliding in the thorny brake.




And when returns the livid morn

Thou shalt find all my place forlorn

And chilly, till the falling night.




Others would rule by tenderness

Over thy life and youthfulness,

But I would conquer thee by fright!

[I've just stumbled across the works of Charles Baudelaire. Naturally, like any Lemony Snicket fan, I was instantly intrigued by this poet's name and had to investigate. This is one of my favorites so far. Wow...I really love how this poem tiptoes back and forth across the line between "beautiful" and "haunting". It gives me goosebumps! The first line is probably my most favorite line of poetry EVER.]

I just couldn't resist

Excerpt from an IM conversation tonight....sorry, dear, but it was funny!


Friend: hi

Me: hi!!!!!!!!

Friend: r u home

Me: No. Are you ready for this?!?!? I decided to take up residence on the moon today. Earth is just too darn polluted!

Friend: oh

Me: :)

Friend: ur kidding right?

Me: Uh, NO!!!!!!!!!!! That's what's so crazy awesome about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was this new program at NASA for high school seniors to go experience life in space for three days! It's an environmental-awareness thing; about teaching us to appreciate all the things we do have on earth, etc....I'M SO PSYCHED THAT I GOT PICKED!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't want to tell anyone I applied in case I didn't get it...it was really competitive and all....but we flew down to the NASA headquarters here in Houston late last night...and "take-off" was this morning at 7am...and now here I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: Is this awesome or WHAT?!?!?

Friend: ok...sure....





Love ya, dear :) Thanks for putting up with me!

Ignorance, continued

Heh. I received this email a few days ago, forwarded from the friend of a friend, and I have to say, it cracked me up :) I know I sent it some of you, but just in case...it seems to fit my current rant quite nicely...

"Yesterday I was buying 2 large bags of Purina dog chow at Walmart, for my dogs Winston, Chief, Gus, and Maximus.

I was about to check out when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. What did she think, that I had an elephant?

Since I had little else to do, on impulse, I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I ended up in the hospital last time. On the bright side though, I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of every hole in my body and IVs in both arms. I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally
complete so I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was enthralled with my story by now.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food had poisoned me. I told her no; I had stopped in the middle of the parking lot to lick my butt and a car hit me.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard!

WAL-MART won't let me shop there anymore."

Here's your sign...

(Any of you who got the above reference to a very pathetic yet very funny country song...Kudos to you)

Ok, in continuing the current rant of Somnite (see below), I have my own two cents to add. Seriously, it's articles like this that make me shake my head an echo my great-grandmother: "What on EARTH is this crazy world coming to?!"

Fish pedicures banned by Florida Board of Cosmetology

"Fish pedicures — the use of tiny, live carp to clean feet — have been made available in several Florida cosmetology salons in recent months.

Now, Florida is banning the practice.

The Florida Board of Cosmetology, housed within the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, determined that fish pedicures are not permitted in salons because they violate two previously standing rules: one that prohibits animals or pets (excluding animals trained to assist the hearing impaired, visually impaired or the physically disabled) in salons and another that sets the standards for pedicure sanitation requirements."
[From the Tampa Bay Business Journal]

SERIOUSLY, people!? What on EARTH possessed you to think that using tiny, live FISH to CLEAN your FEET would be a GOOD idea? (Sorry, went a little overboard on the capital letters there....)

Maybe it's just me. But seeing as feet (mine or anyone else's) and contact with fish (alive or otherwise) are two of the things that SERIOUSLY GROSS ME OUT, the combination of the two is enough to cause extreme gagging. At the very least.

Can anyone truly tell me that this looks like a desirable thing?!?!

And how do you know that the fish are actually making your feet CLEANER?

They swim around in their own poop, for Pete's sake.

These are also the people who decide that the place to have lengthy conversations is in the only doorway into a room.

I totally stole that line ^ from Somnite. He is currently discussing stupid/ignorant people. Like those mentioned above.

And let me just say, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE!

Come ON, people!!! Is it that hard to move a few feet IN or a few feet OUT of the room in question?!?!!? ARGH!

Or maybe it's just part of the Conspiracy to Make MMSG Late for Everything.

*menacing glare directed towards all ignorant and non-ignorant door-blockers alike*

Bad day

Ugh. It's been one of those days. You know the kind I mean, right? First of all, it's Monday. I was awakened much too early this morning by the phone. Naturally, it was a wrong number. I'm out of toothpaste. Even though I got up on time, I was VERY LATE in getting out of the house; the lateness carried over and permeated my entire day. I was stressed out at preschool, trying to do too many things at once and handle too much responsibility. I almost got hit three times driving to the community college for an observation. I had to leave the observation, which I was truly interested in, early in order to get to class on time. I DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT TO CLASS ON TIME, due to construction, two busses (sp?!?!) and two wrong turns. For the first time ever, I had the displeasure of walking in to classs and slinking into my front-row seat while the prof was talking. Nice job, MMSG. Urgh. Doors were locked when they shouldn't have been; I forgot my gloves; I didn't have time to eat anything until just NOW; I almost ran out of gas and spent way too much filling up the tank; computer repair guy was supposed to come fix my keyboard this afternoon and so far, he hasn't even bothered to show up; I have a test on Wednesday which I haven't studied for and I also have a paper due which I haven't even started....

You get the picture. It's just been one of those days. The days that make me hiss at people (yes. I'm totally serious here. Ask the Lil' Bro. He's been on the receiving end of an awful lot of hissing lately. Sorry, Lil Bro!). The days that make me want to throw things. The days that make want to crawl in bed with a long book and say "Heck with you, you big stinky world! I DON'T want to deal with you anymore!"

Sidebar: Heh. As I'm sitting here griping, I'm reminded of a line from Notting Hill (*confession* This is currently one of my FAVORITE MOVIES EVER. Something about it...maybe it's Hugh Grant's [who plays William] adorable accent....just makes me go weak at the knees. I cry every time I watch it. Pathetic, I know...*sigh*)...

Spike: You couldn't help me with an incredibly important decision, now, could you?
William: This isn't important in comparison to, say, the decision over whether or not we should cancel Third World countries' debt, now, is it?
.....
William (to Anna): Can't we just laugh about all this? I mean, seriously, in the hugh sweep of things, this is nothing! This stuff doesn't actually matter!
Spike (to Anna): What he's going to say next is that there are starving children in the Sudan.
William (to Anna): Well, there are! And this is nothing compared to that!

So yeah. I know. I know I know I KNOW!!! So maybe my problems are inconsequential, in the grand scheme of things. And I know that, gosh darn it! I really do!! I really DON'T want to be reminded of it again, thank you very much; I'd much rather wallow in my own self-pity and moan some more. Leave me alone, Hugh. *glares*

And yet. Somehow, after He rolls his eyes and shakes His head, God always reaches down and touches my heart and helps me get myself back on track, and refocus my thoughts and attitude. Today He did so through a song, as He often seems to do with me when I'm in moods like this. And it wasn't a new song. It was a song I've heard a bazillion times in my life; a song that, admittedly, I sometimes grow tired of and change the station when it comes on, looking for something newer or more interesting. But today, it spoke to me in a way I didn't expect.

It was "How Great is Our God" (<-- sung here by Hillsong. This video gave me goosebumps!)

It really just jolted me out of my I'd-really-like-to-pick-up-my-Statistics-textbook-and-chuck-it-at-this-nincompoop-who's-STILL-tailgating-me-cuz-maybe-THAT-would-get-him-off-my-butt thoughts and made me think.

How great IS our God? How incredible is it that we have a God who loves us even when we're not loving Him, when we're not loving life, when we're not loving all the blessings He's given us? How amazing is it that our God will forgive us for our grumpy, selfish, textbook-throwing thoughts and welcome us back with open arms? How wonderful is it to know that even when I'm having a bad day, God is in control? How blessed are we to have a God this great?!

(Funny how on bad days, everyday knowledge often feels like stunning epiphanies [sp?]).

Saturday morning, courtesy of Hoops and Yoyo

How can you not love this video?!?

Happy Valentines Day!

Quick Valentines-y thoughts, courtesy of Heartlight.com:

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are
loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of
ourselves.

-- Victor Hugo



I thank my God every time I remember you.

-- Philippians 1:3


Hope you all have a truly LOVEly Valentine's Day, spent with people you love, and remembering the greatest love of all:


"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. "
-- John 3:16


[And, before you all get too excited...No. Unfortunately, the fact that I typed "Happy" above does not actually mean that my p key has been fixed. Quite the contrary, in fact; the keyboard was fixed incorrectly and now NONE of the keys on my laptop's keyboard work. *Sigh*. But, I currently have access to the family computer (which is typically hoarded by my dear Lil Bro), since Lil Bro is still asleep. Bwahahaha.]