If I can't see it, it's not happening.

I had my first day of regional trainings for the year today which I absolutely love attending.  I choose to attend regionals in Katy each year as it is closest to home and I usually get to see friends that I've met along this journey.  I'm sure the staff gets sick of all of my questions but I love to learn and being well versed makes me more confidant in my job.  Maybe law school will be a possibility some day, I'm not ruling it out entirely just yet.

But this post wasn't supposed to be about my passion, this post is about what happened this evening.  After classes Joe and I headed to dinner and whenever we travel for my work we try to hit a particular pizza place that is located in nearly every city to which I travel. Tonight we got there just before the evening rush.  We ordered and then proceeded to have a seat and indulge in one of my favorite past times...people watching.  There was a mother and son directly behind us in line, followed by an older couple, a couple of college girls and then several families.  This is where our story takes a turn.  One particular family had what I assume was a husband and wife and then an additional adult female and they had three small children.  While their parents wound through the line, these kids ran amuck throughout the place.  They played tag, they hung off of the fixtures, at one point one of them nearly knocked over a little old lady who must have been close to eighty years old. With three adults and three children they should have been playing a man to man defense but they were clearly taking a zone approach or playing an intense game of "NOT IT!".  There was an additional group made up of three women and five kids.  At one point one their little darlings was LITERALLY climbing the wall.  This establishment has a wall much like the one seen below except that the gaps between the boards are larger, making it possible for unsupervised children to use them as steps.  Which one of them did, climbing nearly to the ceiling before coming down again.

I get it parents you're tired, you're overwhelmed, you've had a long, tough day.  And the kids need to unwind and burn off some steam after a full day at school where they were made to sit in a chair all day and be quiet.  I get it, I promise I do.  But here's the deal... take them to an establishment where this type of behavior is encouraged.  If you need suggestions, here are a few... McDonald's, Chuck E Cheese, one of those trampoline parks, heck try Chick Fil A, the kids can unwind and the staff will probably say a prayer for you.  What I am saying is PLEASE for the love of Pete don't ruin one of my favorite places, have some consideration for your fellow man, and teach your children some manners.


To explain the title of this entry...as a kid I used to play hide and seek with my neighbors.  And one of them had a younger brother that would stand in the middle of the yard and cover his eyes when it was his turn to hide because he thought that if he couldn't see us, that we couldn't see him.  This seemed to be the parenting style that I witnessed tonight.  I have been guilty of this type of parenting in the past, hopefully we can all do better going forward.

Indecision

I asked the Hubby for a topic to write about on the blog and after much back and forth, we settled on "Indecision".  It seemed fitting since we couldn't decide on a topic.

The past few years I have taken on the role of "Chief Decision Maker".  Did you know that there are about 4,000 decisions to be made Every. Single. Day?!  Ask me how I know.  I used to agonize about every decision...is it the right one? the wrong one? should I research more?  When Damon went missing I learned not to sweat the small stuff.  And recently when my world was turned upside down again I learned that most stuff is small stuff.  When I was a kid and my Dad would make a  decision about a course of action he used to say "right, wrong, or indifferent".  Meaning whatever the outcome, he had made a decision and that was the course that we would follow.  Which brings me to the following meme.

And this was so me for a long time, paralyzed by indecision, stuck in the "what if's".  Miraculously, my ability to make a decision came from a place of absolute despair.  It didn't matter what we ate for dinner, because I didn't feel like eating anyway.  it didn't matter where we went or what we did, because I just wanted to climb back into bed.  But eventually with time and a whole lot of therapy, I got better and the decisions remained easier.  Because at the end of the day, if the decision that I am making right now is not going to affect my life in five years time than it is not life altering, and it doesn't really matter what route I choose to take.

I encourage you to make whatever decision you've been avoiding. You'll be surprised by the weight that is lifted.  Go forth and conquer!  Or go forth and queso if the decision that needs to be made is what to eat.

Savor the Little Things

My absolute favorite part of the day, every single day, is sitting in bed with my husband at night.  He on his phone or reading a book and I on my phone or watching Netflix.  And here comes my favorite part...he will reach over and place a hand on my back or my arm and gently stroke it.  Nope that doesn't sound right, I even used a thesaurus to try and find the right word.  Not rub, not massage, not stroke.  Well anyway, he will reach over and place a hand on my back.  And even though we are each doing our own thing, in our own little world, it's like we're connected.  The rest of the world just drops away.  Everything bad that happened that day is forgotten and everything good that happened is multiplied.  And I feel so loved in that moment, it always brings a smile to my face.

But then fast forward approximately 8 hours...when I roll over to get up in the morning and he reaches over to do the same thing.  And I could rip his arm off and beat him to death with it.  It is amazing to me what a lack of sleep will do to a person.  I've never been a great sleeper.  When I was younger I didn't need a lot of sleep but now I have a hard time falling asleep and once I do fall asleep I can't stay asleep.  Oh, and did I mention that I'm not a morning person?  The only time I am a morning person is when I'm on vacation.  Every other morning just leave me be.  When I used to waitress I had a rule for the other waiters not to talk to me until noon.  If they tried, I would just point to my wrist where a figurative watch resided.

All of this to say that I adore my husband but God help him in the morning.

Decisions, decisions...

So I thought that I should write something every day to keep the practice up, but then I thought that I shouldn't write unless I have something actually meaningful to say.  Not profoundly earth shattering meaningful but that I should write with a purpose.  But today nothing is coming to me, no funny stories, no life changing diatribes, no commentary on the human existence.  So how about this?  I'll try to make a list of topics to discuss and you all are free to suggest topics as well.  Want to know my thoughts on global warming?  Want to hear about my favorite trip?  Want to know the name of my first pet?  Drop me a note and I will try to hit them all.  Otherwise I'll probably only update the blog when the mood strikes me, which if history has taught us anything could be awhile.

P.S.  Be warned though, much to my Dad's amusement I am becoming more like him everyday.  Which means don't ask my opinion on something unless you really want to hear it.  My filter is often broken and my give a damn is busted.

I'm Back

I'M BAAACCK!!!

Ok, so here's the deal.  I stopped blogging back in 2013 and since then a lot of life has happened, sold a business, started another one, changed jobs, was blessed with a grand baby, experienced heart break that caused me literal pain, over came and soldiered on.  Many times over the past few years I have considered starting this blog back up but with my current job I was concerned about any repercussions for voicing my opinion on any manner of thing.  And then it hit me that the President of the United States has social media, and there doesn't seem to be any repercussions for his use of it or him expressing his opinion so let's give it a shot, shall we?

So today Joe and I went to Barnes and Noble so that he could use a gift card that he received for Christmas.  Is there anything better than a bookstore? If when I die, I wind up in a bookstore, I will know that I have arrived in heaven.  I had a joke here about how I would know that I had taken a wrong turn but it seems that I am still censoring myself just in case, but trust me it was funny.  Before we left I asked our son if he wanted to come with us, he considered it for a moment but once I mentioned that we were going to the bookstore it was a hard pass.  We tend to spend a considerable amount of time at bookstores, because for us it isn't a shopping experience it is more like a walking meditation.  There aren't many sections at the bookstore that don't pique my interest.  As I search the hobby section I wonder what new thing I can learn today, as I search the philosophy and self-help section I wonder about the person I can become, and if I just don't want to be me for awhile I can always escape into any manner of fiction book and become someone else for awhile.  So many books, so many ideas, but such limited funds.  Shoot!  Today I liberated two books for myself...a Get Your Sh*t Together Journal and You Do You, both by Sarah Knight.  I'll try to follow up once I've read them, but I expect between our current therapy regimen and these books I will definitely be ready to take over the world in a matter of weeks, so you have that to look forward to.

After touching every book in Barnes and Noble, twice, we headed for sustenance.  Mmmmm, Freebirds.  Then we made a quick pitstop at Michael's ( the craft store) so that I could pick up a small embroidery hoop for a new hobby that I'm attempting because apparently one million unfinished craft projects isn't enough.  Ahem, any way, I had to walk down every aisle even though I just went after one item because it's the rule.  I don't make the rules, I just follow them.  And as I start to head down the next aisle I encounter Influenza Iris.  This lady, and I use that term loosely because she is NO lady, is coughing her damn head off.  Which, fine, it happens but this lady is coughing full force just open mouth onto everything.  She didn't even attempt to cover her mouth, no turning her head into her shoulder, nothing!  So Iris got to keep everything on that aisle to herself because no ma'am, I don't need no flu with my arts and crafts.  I actually made it out only spending $2.05 so maybe I have Iris to thank for that. Thank you Iris!

Made it home before dark which our son had jokes about but here we are.  I spit this out onto the page with very little editing and even less forethought so hopefully this will be more coherent in the future or maybe I'll just stop doing it all together again, only time will tell.  My love to you all!

A Light in the Darkness

      After Damon went missing I was sad and angry for a long time.  And then one day I came across a blog that made me laugh.  And I felt so guilty.  But underneath that guilt I felt a tickle of happiness in the pit of my stomach.  And I craved that, that lightness, that joy.  So I devoured that blog, reading through the archives until eventually I had to wait for the author to write another.  That stranger gave me back so much that I didn't even know was missing.  And I will forever be thankful to her.  

      Once again I find myself in a dark place.  A dear friend has suffered a tragedy and I feel helpless.  I'm having a hard time processing it.  I learned a long time ago not to ask "Why?" because many times there just isn't a logical answer to that question. And while I honestly believe that everything happens for a reason, there have been a handful of times that have made me question that belief.  And I have yet to come up with the answer to those situations.

      So for now I will try doing what that stranger from so long ago did for me, I will try to spread laughter and light.  I will keep surrounding those around with me with love and hope that it is enough.

Disney- Part 3

Since we had success with going to the park in the evening the day before, we decided to hang out at the condo this morning and go to the park later in the day.  The place we stayed at was a timeshare but you didn't have to be a member to stay there and you didn't even have to sit through a sale pitch.   Mom saw an advertisement for it in a magazine and it turns out the daughter of a friend of hers had stayed there and recommended it so we decided to give it a try.  It was great!  We rented a 3 bedroom condo which was made up of their 2 bedroom and 1 bedroom units with a connecting door.  So we ended up with two full kitchens,  two sets of washers and dryers, three full baths, and enough room to sleep twelve.  The condos also had a waterpark, two swimming pools, mini golf, paddle boats and daily activities, all of which were included in your stay.  We took advantage of the waterpark this morning.

This day we went to Hollywood Studios about 4:00, just in time for the rain.  Yay.  Once again I had a list of things to see and do but unfortunately I didn't have the times listed for the different shows.  Learned the hard way that although the park doesn't close until 9:00, a lot of the shows have their last show at 5:30.  And some of the shows won't go on in the rain for obvious reasons.  So we ended up missing quite a bit at this park.  We did get to see the Grauman's Chinese Theater, where we rode the Great Movie Ride.  While it was nice to see the different movies, the acting of the tour guide was so over the top I thought Swag was going to bail out of the ride just to get away from her.

Such happy children...

Mary Poppins

Wizard of Oz

We also had to check out the Star Wars simulator.  Now remember that notebook of mine with the all the info of who would like to do what rides?  Yeah, I don't like simulators and didn't snap to the fact that this was not one of my rides to ride until I was strapped in the seat.  So what do you do?  Close your eyes, breath deep and get your barf bag ready.  Luckily I didn't end up using it. Whew.

                                

By far the coolest thing we did at this park was the Backlot Tour.  We just happened to be walking past when they were yelling last call for their last show of the day.  Consisting of two parts, the first part was a water special effects show and the second was a tram ride through the backstage of Disney.  Besides seeing iconic pieces of film history we also got to see the warehouses where both the sets and the costumes are created.   I think it would be awesome to work backstage at Disney, to be a part of making the magic happen.  I both enjoy and appreciate all the work that happens behind the scenes.

Another highlight of the tour was a special effects demonstration for an action movie.  In the scene a tanker is deserted in a desert canyon, when it bursts into flames and then a dam breaks and water comes pouring down the canyon.  Avery and I just happened to be sitting right in front of where that 10,000 gallons of water was headed and the look on her face was priceless!  

Luckily the water went safely below us and then we were taken around back where they showed us how it was done.  I believe they said the entire scene could be reset in 3 minutes, with all of that water being pumped back up to the top.

We split up for dinner with Mom, Granny, Mister Man, and my nephew going to a 50's diner.  And Joe, Swag, Little Miss and myself going to Pizza Planet from Toy Story.

After dinner we left Hollywood Studios and headed back to The Magic Kingdom.  We arrived just in time to catch part of the fireworks show from outside the gate.  

Granny didn't get to see the Castle lightshow the night before so we parked her in front of the castle and headed off to do a couple of things that we missed the day before.  In Tomorrowland we rode the People Mover and then on the other side of the park we rode The Haunted Mansion.  On our way out we once again caught part of the Mainstreet Electric Parade with Little Miss lamenting the absence of Cinderella again.