Pretty Girl Rock

Saw this video a while back, and I don't normally like to watch videos, so it was probably a random flip through thing. And then I heard the song in the car and really liked it. I am finally trying to use my iTunes gift card from Christmas (and a random $10 I had in my iTune account from filling out a survey or something?) and this is one of the songs I bought. I really like that her name is Keri, so Mari works in the song just as easily. :)

It's been a good weekend, and today, Sunday, will be super good too b/c Shawn is home from his quick jaunt to Texas and we can groove together before the start of the work week and impending arrival of some certain in-laws of mine!

Also, bring it Mardi Gras!

Hail the Presidents

What did you do today?

Today I attempted to be a housewife, a given since I was home alone while the hubs was at work. Federal holidays are fun!

Anyway, I made five meals for the week -- onion soup, enchilada casserole, chicken and onion bake, hamburgers, a salad w/ mini burgers. I also went to Target because I could! I made myself fly in and out for the few things we needed, avoiding the clothing sale racks.

I'll never be a worthy stay-at-home spouse, but man it's fun for a day here and there. And that plays into some blog posts I've been meaning to write about.

They're both several weeks old. Once is a Slate article about Mormon housewife blogs and the (non-Mormon) writer's addiction to them. These blogs are an extension of scrapbooking and documenting a family's life. And they present a perfect stylized life.

There are lots of other blogs like that, with and without religious overtones, and I like reading things like that, even if they sometimes make me feel bad through jealousy. Another blog (Those Hardings) wrote about that and how she tries to avoid comparisons. The comments on her post are really good, and I actually found the post via That Wife (a Mormon blog that I probably found via the Slate article in the first place).

It's unlikely I'll ever change my blog reading habits to avoid anything that might make me want to compare my life to another blogger's. And I'll continue to write about only the best parts of things and try not to reveal the girl behind the curtain, if you know what I mean.

The rest of my President's Day involves continuing to watch DVR'ed House episodes in advance of tonight's new episode. I already worked out so I can relax until dinner.

Covet Beads

Had a way fun time at the downtown Baton Rouge Mardi Gras parade. It was family friendly, which meant no flashing required to get beads AND I was taller than the kids around me so could snag a lot of them. Don't I look like a success?

Plenty of purple beads, and looking forward to the next opportunity to beg for these pieces of plastic. Such a funny tradition.

The theme of the parade was "Once Upon a Time" and I even got a commemorative bead necklace with a medallion on it ... but I'm not wearing that one in the picture. Louisiana rocks my socks right now!

The Ledge

photo © 2007 Paul Robertson | more info (via: Wylio)Our next door neighbors in the "Big I" had this half-wall of brick on one side of the house. On the top was a little ledge/lip of brick. It wasn't too high -- I'll have to visually measure it when I'm home next time -- but I remember on more than one occasion that we'd climb up there and take turns jumping to the ground. And I would have to try so hard to psych myself up before I could fling myself the ~6 feet to the ground.

I've been thinking about that ledge and that feeling.

Thursday was my worst day this week and I got a couple calls from colleagues asking if they could "talk me off the ledge." Even though I wasn't actually planning anything or given any indication that I was reaching my limit -- it was evident even from afar that I had taken on just about all any one person could handle, even if that one person is me -- especially given that they didn't know my full capacity. I think they know now.

I was wild eyed and crazy, but I even stopped at the most inopportune time to have lunch with a friend from church that I had planned well before the perfect storm of website-event planning-print production deadlines formed. The lunch was great and during our conversation she said something about me being a very positive person. I think it's all in perception and how much of myself I display in given situations.

Anyway, today was easier, catching up and my heart didn't fly into palpitations like it did yesterday. I'll press on.

Even better: it's a three day weekend! I'll probably still check e-mail lightly, but extra sleep will be delicious. And we've got a couple fun things planned already.

Every Day is Valentine's Day at Our House

One of the blogs I read suggested posting a picture with your valentine, so here's mine. This is right when the "husband and wife" thing was done and the musicians were starting up with the Star Trek theme. We're nerds, but we like it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What Do You Do? Part Deux

Back in November I wrote about what I do as a job. But this week someone asked me "What do you do?" in the context of hobbies or interests outside of work. So really, what do I do with my time?

Much to Shawn's chagrin, TV is a big interest and time suck. I get heavily involved in shows. Lately I've been re-watching old House re-runs and being a swoony Hugh Laurie fan. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.

I read books (currently reading One Thousand Gifts as part of an online book club and loving it -- more on that later) and I write letters (accepting pen pal invitations if anyone is interested in receiving snail mail). I write here on this blog, and you know I read a lot of blogs. The number in my Google Reader is always increasing, and my stats as of today:

From your 311 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 3,612 items, clicked 12 items, starred 2 items, shared 9 items, and emailed 2 items. Since August 10, 2006 you have read a total of 177,505 items.

I don't read every post of every blog, but I scan almost every title. (And there are a few blogs that I read every word of ... mostly of those people I know IRL and a few that are just so good I can't stand to miss it.)

I crochet. Gran taught me when I was 16, the summer that she had a broken some bones and I helped Grandpa take care of her. I put it aside for a while, but right after college I got started again. I'd never put together that timing, but I must have used crochet as part of therapy to nurse a broken heart because that's when I started making scarves for everyone with their initials stitched on. I've since created loads of baby blankets (I'm at that age still where everyone around me is popping out kiddos), and a couple of larger afghan projects for my Gran and mother-in-law. One project that is in constant hibernation is a bedspread I wanted to make for Shawn and me within our first year of marriage. I think I've made 3 or 4 of the dozens of squares required. Sometime I'll turn back to it, maybe in time for a house?!

Shawn and I have our bikes now, so we do some of that. I work out most days, but I wouldn't say I do that because I enjoy it. I do it to increase my odds of getting what I most want in life. And it doesn't hurt that my legs become strong, I breathe easier and my clothes fit better.

There are other things I do, like cook dinner, do the laundry, buy the groceries, shop for clothes, webcam with my Owen Max, fiddle with my hair and wish it longer, etc., that seem less like hobbies and more like life.

On Being an Adult

Doesn't this make your heart hurt?

When Owen was just a wee one and he would get frustrated by not being able to do what he wanted or would otherwise have a waah attack, I would sing "It's no fun being a baby, no fun being a baby."

All the while I knew that even if it's not fun, it's even less fun being an adult (at least in some ways).

I've got a list of things I need to do as an adult, or at least the adult I want to be. Some are daily and others are bigger/longer term.

Today I checked something off -- I established care and had a doctor's appointment in our new home town. I had copies of my medical record from my last doctors, but there is so much that just gets dropped from one move to the next. Will be nice to have some continuity. I've had physicians in Oklahoma, Maryland, Virginia, New York and now Louisiana. I guess that's what it's like to be a rambling girl.

Much more to do in my quest for true adulthood (which I write completely tongue in cheek)...

Six Months Ago

We were leaving New York in the wee hours of the morn.

We haven't lived in Louisiana for six months yet, as we traveled for about a week before we got here.

Things are surely different than they were six months ago. I'm pushing myself socially, and I'm working. I don't know if I'm doing a good job at anything, but I'm trying.

I should be more positive in this space. Ha.

Social Media Policy

Sharing what I saw yesterday on a Strategic Public Relations blog. Oh, Doofenschmirtz.

Off to work at a campus closed for ice that didn't happen. Hope the heat is on in my building. I should be able to park closer to it though, so there's that.

Two Dishes

The replacement casserole dish arrived yesterday. Now I just need a recipe and a reason to try it out ... I'll keep looking.

Talked w/ Shawn reliving a conversation I had in which I presented myself terribly, like a know it all (shocker, right?), and I felt so bad.

Shawn pointed out that I can be like that sometime -- Ms. Bossy Britches and he described me like the little kid trying to tell the adults how it is. And even if I'm right and the "adults" do need to have things explained, I come across so badly.

Yeah, I can totally see that...

Wintry weather going on down here -- LSU even shut down. What the what?

You Can't Do That on Television

Or actually you can't do that on the Internet. Or I shouldn't do that on the Internet.

In my quest to read the entire Internet (yuck, yuck), I've found myself down a rabbit hole similar to what I found when we had bedbugs. Doom and gloom and even when someone has a happy experience it's always ... I don't even know the words to describe it -- wistful, melancholy, that-can-never-be-me?

I'll have to keep my blog going on my weather observations (seriously, a 50-degree swing in 24 hours - wtf?!), gripes about work (why do you think I'm trying to read the entire Internet, and soon it will be so busy I'll be traveling nonstop), crochet projects, book reviews and mushy gushy stuff about Shawn (although let's be serious, I should cut that out too/it's sort of embarrassing to him I think) and Owen.

Asymmetry

photo © 2010 KO_Photos | more info (via: Wylio)I have a crooked smile.

I have a crooked hairline and now a crooked haircut that's literally and figuratively growing on me.

I'd walk a crooked mile for this crooked life of mine, which reminds me of this nursery rhyme.

The asymmetry isn't all bad I guess. I'm getting used to it. I'm changing my blogging habits to allow growth, or something akin to that. If I published everything I thought or wrote ... it would be something else I guess. I don't do draft posts. I type, I publish, then I think. SO ... trying to think before I write leads to fewer posts. Change the process change my world, or at least my blog.

Remnants of old style chronicle of life: today I woke up at 7 a.m. when Shawn left. And I stayed up, even though that's earlier than I get up during the week (I know, lazy bones). Today I have done all the laundry. I have had too much coffee, including some at the coffee shop where I did my Bible study "homework." Today I have watched a lot of TV -- basically cleared out my DVR list (easy to do when you start at 7 a.m.).

I'm still thinking about how Medium ended, which is the pretend part of my real-or-pretend post on OSU, in that the TV series finale made me feel sad and introspective in a similar way to the sadness I felt in response to the anniversary of something real that happened.

I have been finishing books and not writing about them -- two of late being Evolving in Monkey Town and To Have Not. Those are easy enough blog posts to jump start my 2011 count. Crochet projects are easy too -- and that's another thing I did today -- wash and block and photograph my latest blanket for a grad school friend's baby.

Today I walked in the sunshine and sat outside in the 70-degree January weather. Southern Louisiana isn't all bad, at least weather-wise. This is my home now, so I have to make the best of it.

Yellow Granny Square

Yellow Granny
Originally uploaded by silvermari

Finished a crochet project today. Now just need to get it in the mail. It's a simple pattern -- just one big granny square. Then I added a popcorn stitch edging -- really love that. The yarn is a soft butter yellow (perfect for either gender), and it has a little sheen to it. Goal to get it mailed in the early part of next week. The baby is coming soon!

Real or Imagined

Ten years ago a plane crashed killing ten men affiliated with the OSU basketball team, including two players. I was a sophomore, the same age as one of the players who died.

I don't have any specific memories other than seeing the news in my room in Indiahoma (happened on a Saturday and I went home ... a lot) and waiting in line to go to the memorial. The memorial itself, not in my memory banks. (I wrote about it though, but it's sappy weird 20-year-old musing, so not republishing here.)

Now I read articles about it, and that boy, and feel so sad. It feels almost selfish. I lost nothing. But I was part of that community, and like all of us, I still bleed orange.

Word Nerd

I've had this post it at my desk, tracking all the things that bug me, grammatically, that have come up in my new job. Some aren't specifically unique to this job, but I'll list them anyway. IF I were a real blogger I would do a series, add explanations and links to the reasons behind why these things are wrong (i.e. why my way is right), but this is the best I will do for now...and no one will care about this but me.

• e-mail not email (although Google disagrees so maybe eventually I'll have to relent)
• adviser not advisor (i cannot imagine ever relenting)
• third comma in a series: "peanut butter, bread and jelly" not "peanut butter, bread, and jelly"
• click here/check out the link below (just SEO bad practice)
• hotlink/hyperlink (ick)
• nonsense abbreviations -- I hate hate hate that they call the communications team the "comms" team ... makes me want to say vom-dot-com every time
• underway as one word is almost always wrong ... although in my current job sometimes it's right, as in when you're talking about a ship or other sea faring vessel getting underway
• hyphenating after an ly word -- just not done
• two spaces after a period (there have been a few articles about this lately -- see one in my Google shared items on the right sidebar)
• over/more than (over is only for things physically over something else, but when it's one thing is bigger than another it's more than)
• entitled -- stories, books, plays, reports are not entitled to anything. they are titled something, and in most cases you can leave it out entirely and just say the title
• this is personal preference but i hate when the letters after a number are superscript. so 1st so the st are the same size as the number. it's a default in Microsoft products and I always change it/teach mine to NOT change it automatically.

don't bother copy editing this -- i don't hold myself to exacting standards, esp in this blog. is that bad?!

Bummerware

broken_corningware
Originally uploaded by silvermari

I got our Corningware French White set from my mom's house in August when we were home. It wasn't until right before Christmas that I got it out of the box and discovered that the biggest casserole dish, the one I needed to use, had a crack in it. Blasted!

After the holidays I started searching for a replacement. The set came with lids - so I already had a glass one and a plastic one, but the new dish itself cost $25. I e-mailed customer service and asked if they could give me a discount, since I had a never used one w/ a crack (although the warranty expired 12 months after purchase).

The customer service agent actually wrote back and told me they were sending me a new casserole dish no charge. Whoopie! I knew better than to celebrate publicly though, because the picture shown here is the one I received -- even more broken than my original.

I've written the customer service guy back and sent him the link to this photo on Flickr. The package also contained another woman's name and address, so that adds to the shadiness. Basically I'm bummed all over again.

NYC Timelapse

NYC - Mindrelic Timelapse from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

My Flash keeps crashing so I can't watch this, but I looked at it at work and e-mailed it to myself.

Bike Helmet Hair

My mom sent me this image over Christmas break to use as a blog image when I go on my next bike ride. We're planning to go today. We'll see how the plan succeeds - hopefully without me falling.

Although my hair is not orangey-red like this image it is practically that short again. I went for another hair cut from the same woman I didn't like last time. I took pictures from Ladies Home Journal and thought I could get a Sela Ward style with layers and choppiness and movement. Instead I've got a short helmet with lots of weird shortie pieces and some kind of stacked back. Maybe it will go better when I wash it, but I doubt it will work with my curls.

I think I just need to suck it up and try somewhere else - I need someone who can give me a versatile style that works curly or straight. There ARE Bumble and Bumble trained stylists in New Orleans. Can I justify a 3-hour round trip for my HAIR? Yeah, I probably could. We'll see what I do. I think I want to try growing it out again, but I was at the point where it was fitting back in a pony tail, so I was wearing it in a pony tail almost every day. And I don't know if I can break myself of that when I grow it back out.

These are the kinds of things I worry about, so OBVIOUSLY I've got a pretty great life.

Beta Bursts

Photo by Katie @ French Bakery

Despite a slow down in actual posting, I still compose blog posts in my head almost constantly. I could write about Shawn's failing hard drive and his successful (knock on wood) attempt to resurrect it while he waits for the new part to be shipped.

In New Orleans this weekend I had brain posts going about shopping, walking, smells, the hotel and its view, weather, food, street cars and my lame attempts at photography.

Because of a series of things, I went to a UMC that was on the street car line and felt so warm and happy there. The pastor spoke to me before the service, and I was so moved by her sermon that as she was hugging people on the way out, I made the move and hugged her myself. (I'm not a hugger as a general rule.) I thanked her and told her I wished I lived here -- and she said "me too" and "hey that's a thought." Although I don't think Shawn would be down with that commute!

She had some suggestions for other UMC's I should try in Baton Rouge (I haven't really written about my quest for a church here, or the way I've stiffened to the two most obvious choices).

And today she sent me an e-mail to say it was nice to meet me and reiterating her suggestions/inviting me to come back any time. I love communicating online, and I think it's so nice of her -- to connect in a way that's meaningful to me.

So my first longer-than-two-hours trip to New Orleans was a success. I'll look forward to going back and hope I can sustain some of the renewal I felt. So far I'm not doing that great, but there's always tomorrow.

View from 2053 up Canal Street

My Favorite Gift

My sister made me this AMAZING casserole carrier after I was coveting Gran's at a church dinner a couple months ago. My dad made the handles and the base, my mom bought the accessory spoon, Aunt Lee Ann helped and Gran loaned her old trusty sewing machine for Beth to get it made. And how perfect is the fabric? I bet it's called silvermari swirl or something, right? Now I just need a pot luck and killer casserole recipe... TBD on when it takes its maiden voyage.

I got some other great gifts for Christmas 2010 too, and today the package from my inlaws' finally arrived. I got my wished-for iPod clock radio so I can groove to my tunes and/or NPR in the house. Huzzah!

From myself to myself I got a new cell phone that also arrived today. The unlocked phone from Amazon really works (I wasn't eligible for a new phone from AT&T until this September because of losing the new one last March). My purple phone finally cracked -- the hinge was coming apart and the battery charger didn't do a great job without it being jiggled every few minutes. New technology is exciting, although I need to get my contacts moved over (thought they were already on my SIM card ... whoops).

And it's webcamming night with a certain little monkey moo! Darkness lifting ... I hope it stays lifted.