Happy Friday! Random Musings

This day deserves a 'Happy Friday!' answered by a 'hallelujah!' don't you think? What a long week. I am so excited for a 3 day weekend. We're going to Dan's aunt's house for a BBQ tomorrow and other than that, we don't have plans, which is kind of nice. Oh, wait, we do have plans to have dinner with Temerity Jane, her husband, and their baby. I've only got 6 days left in May for my resolutions, so some organization needs to happen. Anyway, here are my random musings from the past little while. You've probably seen some of this on Facebook, but you get to see it again. All in one place. You're welcome.

- I was crazy busy with lia sophia last week. I had shows Monday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Oh, and our monthly meeting on Monday. Five events in a week. I was kind of lia sophia'd out. And then I went to our meeting and some ladies brought up some really fun ideas, and now I'm chomping at the bit for a show. I'm super excited to try some new things. So if any of you out there are interested (even in a catalog show), I'm offering an extra $50 in FREE jewelry to anyone who books in June. Keep in mind I have vacation June 20-24th, and there's Father's Day in there, but I'm available pretty much any other day. Just throwing it out there :)

- Oh, also, I ordered my first real custom jewelry case. The husband of one of the sellers is a wood worker and has perfected the art of creating cases for us. I worked with him to design the perfect case for my collection (as of now, I'll have to up-size later). It should be done any day, and I'm beyond excited. No more splaying my necklaces haphazardly all over a table.

- My flowers that I planted are finally starting to bloom! And, I grew a caterpillar. Okay, I didn't grow him, but I have a caterpillar. He's cute. I named him Vern. Unfortunately, Vern's a bit of an a-hole and bit holes in the leaves, but I guess that's par for the course with a caterpillar. Here's Vern... chillin' like a villain.

And here's one of my flowers. It's kind of ugly. It has a face only a mother could love.

- The other morning, I was having another one of my "I hate all of it" days in terms of my wardrobe. I told Dan I wanted a stylist. He said I have Clover - I sometimes joke that the dogs should pick my outfits when I'm frustrated. Um, Clover would dress me like a gypsy. I'd be draped in sparkles and wrapped in gauze. Clover may be a great dog, but a stylist she is not.

- The other day at lunch, a coworker and I came upon a young bird who'd tried - and failed - to fly. He'd clearly hurt himself and was struggling around on the sidewalk. After we ate lunch, I used our empty plates to move him out of the way so he wouldn't get stepped on our otherwise harmed. Later, one of the facilities guys came to my desk and asked me what the hell we'd been doing. I said we were just trying to make him comfortable. And he told me that I was working against him - they've been trying to get rid of the birds in our courtyard. Get this - they even installed a sound machine in the tree that makes owl and monkey noises to scare them. He must have thought I was nuts because I burst out laughing - we've been trying to figure out where the damn bird-that-sounds-like-a-monkey came from for a while now. Also, the sound machine has a high pitched tone that apparently scrambles the birds' noggins and kills them. Not very nice, but slightly amusing when you think about it. So, (this is for Mrs. ESPN) not only so we make sh!t fly, we kill birds. Awesome. Oh, and the bird was named Fluffy. RIP, Fluffy.

- Dan wanted to prank me. He saw an episode of Punk'd where someone put a fake snake in a toilet for their friend to scare them. This is literally my worst nightmare. I have irrational, irrational fears about snakes and things they're capable of. Thankfully, Dan recognized that this was NOT a good idea and decided not to go through with it. I probably would have died.

- Speaking of Dan "pranks," we recently went to Lowe's and he pulled a funny. Now, when I park at parking lots, I don't necessarily feel the need to park super close to the door. What I find more important is being close to a cart-return for when I'm done shopping. I'm all about convenience. Dan, for some reason does that weird guy thing where they park their precious baby far away so no one dings it. I don't like dings either, but life happens. It's not something I live in fear of. Anyway, we were pulling into Lowe's and he started to park just too far away, for no real reason. We were in my car, he wasn't parking near a cart-return, there was no reason to be randomly in the parking lot where he was. So I jokingly said "could you park any farther away?" And so he did this.

That's my silver Murano, sitting in the nether regions of the Lowe's parking lot. I'm standing at the door exiting the store - the entrance door was actually farther away, but there were people around and I felt like a goon taking a picture of my car while also laughing like an idiot because it really was very funny.

- The day before Mother's Day, I went antique shopping with a friend of mine. It was kind of a distract-ourselves-from-Mother's-Day trip. She lost her mom last year, and well, I wasn't exactly psyched about a day that serves as a reminder of my empty ute. Anyway, we went antiquing and it was so much fun. I found some cool decorations for my craft room. We went to this huge antique mall and in a teeny little space in a corner, I found one of the most amusing things I've ever seen. This woman was selling little dolls that she made from an upside-down terra cotta pot, a wooden ball, and various doll hair and facial features. Then she covered them in flowers or whatever. Anyway, this was my favorite:

Eeek! And guess how much she wanted for this puppy? THIRTY DOLLARS! Insane. Those craft pom balls must have gone up dramatically in price since I last glued them to something in kindergarten. Some a-hole probably humored her or told her she should sell them as a joke.

So there's all the good, bad, and amusing stuff that's happened to me. I get to go to emissions for my car today, which, woooot! Fun times. BUT I just discovered that the personalized plate I want is available, so yay for motivation to get my car registered so I can get that, too. I'm considering it a birthday present to myself. June is "justify all splurge purchases as a birthday present to myself" month, and I'm starting a tad bit early.

Hope you all have a LOVELY Memorial Day weekend!

A funny thing happened when I wasn't wearing a bra

Monday this past week was kind of an odd day. Nothing incredibly BAD happened, just a series of annoying things. The strap on my laptop bag broke, I left my wallet at work, the servers crashed 5 minutes before submitting my monthly reporting (at 5:00pm). It was just a long, weird day. And then, when I got home, after I'd finally changed out of my work clothes and got settled in, a somewhat funny thing happened.

Clover and Paisley were barking ferociously on the south side of the yard, indicating that they were probably barking at the neighbors cat. Now, when I said I'd changed out of work clothes, I primarily mean I'd finally gotten to take off my bra and put on pajamas. So I go outside to yell at the girls and tell them to come inside and leave the cat alone. And to my surprise, the neighbor - whom I've never met - popped her head over the wall - as in, she was standing on something on her side - and was like "you guys are barkers! What are their names?" Um, I don't like to meet and/or talk to people when the only thing between them and my tatas is an Old Navy tank top, so it was very awkward. I picked up Paisley to shield my shield my chest and yelled at Clo to come inside. I answered her question about the dogs names, but didn't introduce myself to the neighbor, so she probably thinks I'm rude, but that was not the time. I had to get my puppies - of both the dog and boob variety - back inside.

And that was the funny thing that happened when I wasn't wearing a bra.

Random Musings Friday

Happy Friday! I am incredibly excited that it's Friday for a number of reasons. First, today is the deadline for that big project at work. The end is in sight! Second, I'm going to happy hour with Mrs. ESPN and another of our friends today, and I'm looking forward to girl time. Actually, I got a lot of girl time this week between dinner and pedis with Temerity Jane and her mom Wednesday and my hair cut last night (my hair stylist is a friend). And I get girl time tomorrow with another friend. Dan has to go to a trade show in San Diego, so it'll be just me and the girls (and my parents on Sunday). So, a lot of girl time, which is great. Anyway, random musings...

- Have you all seen the cover of Time Magazine, with the breast-feeding (BFing) child who's old enough to stand on a chair and way over old enough to ask for it? I'm not going to get into a BFing debate on whether you should or shouldn't and what age to stop. I believe BFing is a good thing, but I also believe that mothers should do what's best for them and their baby and sometimes BFing isn't it, and that's okay. But I do admit I personally feel uncomfortable with extended BFing and attachment parenting (which the article is mainly about) is very much not my style. I think the cover is a bit much in terms of shock value, but this is also coming from someone who isn't comfortable watching/seeing an infant BF, either. I also have issue with the cover line, "Are you Mom enough?" FFS, really, Time Magazine? You're going to say that anyone who doesn't BF their kindergartner or co-sleeps isn't "Mom" enough? That's just what the Mommy Wars need - one more outlet telling them they're not good enough for whatever reason. I swear, there are times I feel like biology helped me dodge a bullet. I doubt I'll read the article, but I find the whole thing beyond ridiculous.

- I bought my tickets to Chicago to see my friend Kari, her husband, and their baby! I'm very excited, and I'm looking forward to a much-needed break. I haven't taken any vacation yet this year, and this will be a fabulous little getaway. And bonus, I saved a bunch of money on my ticket. I noticed the other morning that one flight's fare had dropped $55 (!) from the last time I checked. It wasn't the flight I had in mind, but it was only an hour earlier, so I jumped on it. Then, US Airways offered me a $50 credit if I applied for and used their credit card, and I figured "what the heck?" So I saved $105 on my fare. Awesome!

- We're still fighting hives with Paisley. She's most free of them, but she's been breaking out here and there. The hilarious thing is that when she had them for 4 days straight, I was administering Benadryl and prednisone in rolled up turkey meat. So the other morning, she sat next to the refrigerator for about 20 minutes waiting for her treat. Unfortunately, she didn't have hives, so she didn't need anything, but it was pretty funny that she liked the new routine so much.

- My husband is a little entrepreneur. I bought a lawn mower a long time ago, but it was electric, and Dan didn't like it much. Oh, side note/funny story in terms of electric yard equipment. We also have an electric blower, and in one of my dumber moments, I asked what good it does when you can only stand a (2-foot long) cord's length away from the wall to blow stuff. Duh, Brooke, extension cords. My in-laws still make fun of me for that one. Anyway, his dad recently bought us a brand new mower, so we no longer needed the crappy one. I bought the electric one at a yard sale for $15. Dan sold it for $80. Dan wins.

- It's no secret that I love Toddlers and Tiaras. Love it. Anyway, the most recent episode was the "Me and My Pet" pageant. There were twin girls - one did a routine with a lamb that wouldn't shut up, and the other got stuck with a turkey, poor thing. And then there was a girl who had a snake. Ick. I HATE snakes, and this was some kind of baby python or boa or something. I admire that she loved this thing and let it hang out around her neck and stuff, but I watched the whole intro - during which she let "Slither" do his thing all around her room and her toys - with my body pressed as far back into the couch as possible. At one point, the following conversation happened:

Me: "Oh My GOD! That is... ew! That is my NIGHT MARE!"
Dan's coworker: "A snake in a doll house? THAT's your night mare?"
Me: "Yes! Ugh, oh God this is awful!"

Notice Dan's coworker was watching T&T with me. Awesome.

Alright, I don't really have anything else. Hope y'all have a great weekend! Go visit Shana for everyone else's random musings.

Random Musings Friday

Happy Friday! It's been a busy week, but I didn't write much of anything down for today. I feel ill-prepared. Oh well.

- Remember how I grew some flowers? Well, they've been growing like crazy, but no blooms yet. Still, I'm pretty proud of my ability to grow anything from seeds. And then Clover had to ruin some of that for me when she dug a giant hole in one of my planters. Clover is an asshole.

- I don't understand adults who cut in line (and Shana has a blurb about this too). I was at Food Truck Friday last week waiting in line to order a delicious carne asada fry bread. All of a sudden, two women came up and started talking to the woman in front of me, and the next thing I know, they'd decided to jump in line in front of me. Now, I know that there can be an awkward moment where a friend is somewhere in the middle of a line and you want to talk and be with them and stuff. I get that. If these women had asked, I would have been fine with letting them cut. Instead, all three grown women acted completely oblivious to the fact that they'd just jumped in line in front of me. But the universe and karma act in mysterious ways and one of the women who cut in front of me had their lunch stolen by some person who was either just as rude or wasn't paying attention to the numbers being called. And that stolen lunch could have been mine (although I stayed close while I waited, while these women wandered off to a table far far away).

- Dan was able to join me for therapy last night. It was a little odd because the counselor was running about 20 minutes late, so we weren't sure how long to wait. My appointment had been confirmed by her receptionist, so I knew I HAD an appointment, but I wasn't sure how long I was supposed to wait outside before giving up in the appointment. We decided we'd wait about five more minutes and she opened the door about 2 minutes later and said she'd gotten off track earlier in the day, and just couldn't catch up. No biggie. Anyway, it was interesting to be there with Dan. I learned some interesting things - like he does tell people who ask him that we can't have kids, and that he sometimes doesn't share his thoughts because it triggers me. I'd had a hard time wrapping my head around how this loss could be nothing more than "it is what it is" for him, and in some ways it is just that, and in other ways, he's been protecting me in the same way I protect him.

Anyway, the exciting news is that I graduated from therapy last night (after completing just about 6 more months, so I can cross that off my 101 in 1001)! The last couple sessions have not been as emotional, and I don't feel like I have as much "stuff" to work out. I still have bad days at times, but I can have my little cry or get angry and be over it. I carry guilt for some things, but I've talked about them and can be open about them and I don't feel the NEED for therapy as much I did back in November. And so, we decided that I'd fly off on my own and see how it goes. My therapist has been amazing - I don't know where I'd be in this process without her - and the only tears of the day were thanking her for her help and saying "good bye" for now. I know I can contact her at any time about little stumbling blocks for guidance, but I don't foresee scheduling a session any time soon. Therapy was truly the best gift I could have ever given myself.

Go check out the link up with Shana, and have a great weekend!!