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Ford Thunderbird
Life

Vroom!

Eighteen. That’s how old I was when I got my license. Unlike most kids my age, learning to drive just wasn’t up there on my priority list, which is amazing to me now because I LOVE to drive, for the most part.  (When we exclude eleven hour car trips and daily commutes, and even the commutes weren’t so bad.) It was also amazing because I worked in high school.  I got my first job as a sophomore, when I was maybe fifteen.  I worked in the Men’s Department at Sears and thought I was the shit because I had to dress up and at that age, I hadn’t yet learned that wearing heels was not a good idea for a job you had to stand on your feet for hours on end.

But I worked in the mall from fifteen up until long after I got a license and a car.  And you’d think being forced to take the bus would spur my interests in obtaining my license and essentially, my freedom.  I can’t tell you why except it just was something that never felt like it needed to be a top priority.  Between a very busy and heavy AP/Honors workload at school and my job, I didn’t feel like making time, maybe.  My parents had also explained that I would need to pay my own way and get my own car as well as have limited access to their vehicles and since I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do either on my paltry part-time retail wages, I just didn’t even bother.

The first time I drove by myself was to my high school graduation, in my parents red Grand Prix.

A week after I started driving, I got my first ticket: for turning left on a red light.  Because I wasn’t paying attention or some synapses weren’t firing correctly in my brain.  I thought it was a stop sign so I treated it like on.  Stopped, look both ways and went.  With a cop RIGHT BEHIND ME!

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August 28, 2011
Finding Joy!
Life

Wednesday

I’ve been forced back into my Benadryl habit since I decided to forgo it Monday night and woke up the next morning feeling like someone was sitting on face and keeping me from breathing while simultaneously scratching my eyes out.

This means tonight you get an annotated entry which is basically just me telling you about Wednesday’s joy.

— The lady I was following on the moped on my way into work. In her floaty skirt, bright yellow heels and Ladybug helmet.

— A coworker bringing her three week old little girl in all swathed in pink with that dewy newborn hair and squishy little baby face.

— Realizing that I am in good with the one department that no one else is and getting them to do the stuff for me they normally make everyone else wait on.

— Sally Hansen Crackle Nail Polish overcoat in Ink Splatter

— Mad Men. (OMG y’all, I am so late to the party on this one.)

— The Talk. We’ve had this on in the breakroom at lunch and I really enjoy the dynamic of Sharon Osbourne, Sarah Gilbert, Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete. And Julie Chen.

And just to throw in things that are not awesome or joyful but I have remained relatively calm about because shit happens and that’s life.

— Baxter has tapeworms, which is literally the grossest ‘effing thing I have ever seen in my life. We started finding what looked like dried rice pellets in place where he slept (i.e. OUR BED, which is vomit inducing itself) and the moment Steve Googled it he realized they were dried tapeworm eggs that secrete from the butt and just kind of hang out back there. And needless to say, when we checked his poop – there were definitely visible. This is not life-threatening and it’s not uncommon for dogs to get them (it’s usually caused by them eating something they shouldn’t – like a flea or a lizard or rodent – and, well Baxter hunts and eats everything). It had not affected his behavior. It just means he had to take a pill and we have to wash EVERYTHING that we have found his ass nuggets on (and fabulous term coined by Steve – let’s see the fun the search engines have with that one!). It also means he has to sleep away from us and we would really prefer he keep his worm butt as far away as possible.

Until then, I’ll be in the corner vomiting. From all the wine I drank to forget about the worms. Then I’ll pass out because of the Benadryl.

Oh LIFE, you are awesome!

Image found here.

August 3, 2011
Great Smoky Mountains
Life, Places

Rare Jewel

The Smoky Mountains are a rare jewel. … Why not have a place where you can still see the stars? There is a value to keeping things primitive.  – James Dawson

Today’s joy is only this: in October, Steve and I are packing up the pups and taking a road trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we plan to spend an entire week enjoying the Great Smoky Mountains in the Autumn and each other’s company. Continue Reading

August 2, 2011
Finding Joy!
Life

Finding the Joy

Remember how in my last entry I mentioned that I needed a good rainy day or weekend to sort of justify my grouchiness and grumpiness?  Then I hit publish thinking that wasn’t going to happen because you don’t get multiple rainy days here in Charleston – you get oppressively hot and bright days where the sun beats down on you and the humidity smothers your entire being then in the evening, you might get a really really good thunderstorm as the weather breaks but it’s always back to the same thing the next morning.

Except that following morning, I was startled awake by the sound of Baxter freaking out and of course, being the mama bear I am when it comes to the fur babies, I shot out of bed and ran through the house looking for him only to find him having a literal shit fit at the patio door because he had been caught in a torrential downpour.  This is all fairly uncommon for him as not only has he NOT figured out to bark at the door when he’s ready to come in but he also seemed no where near as affected by thunderstorms and rain as Sammy, who cowers in fear if he hears a storm on TV.

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August 1, 2011
four23org-grim
Life

Grim

Every time I turned around this weekend, there was death.  It was in Norway and London.  It was all over the local news, with bodies found behind grocery stores and boaters driving into piers.  And it was a bit closer to home than I preferred, as a friend of mine lost someone to a drunk driver and a former coworker was gunned down in a murder suicide while leaving work on Friday evening.

For the most part, I wasn’t personally connected to any of these, with maybe the former coworker being the exception, but our acquaintance was rather vague since she worked at a different branch than I did and most of our interactions were over the phone and through help desk tickets.  Regardless, all of these events just seemed to mushroom into this huge black cloud of darkness and grimness that has plagued my mood throughout the past few days.

It’s strange because I can’t exactly explain how I feel or necessarily justify why all of this should affect me.  It’s certainly not something that I could use as an excuse to, say, call off of work or stay in bed and pull the covers over my head.  It’s not personal.

But it’s a grim look into a really crappy state of human affairs and that could have it’s toll on anyone.  Sure, we all go on with our lives because they weren’t people we knew but every once in awhile, that reminder of what happened or the thought that there are people suffering because of senseless violence or stupid decisions creeps back into the recesses of your brain and that sadness just settles into a small part of the heart.

It is sad and painful to think of how far that kind of suffering reaches and most of the time, you just don’t let it get to you but then you remember that people are out there grieving and you remember that it wasn’t so long ago that you grieved and you really don’t wish that kind of pain on anyone.

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July 25, 2011