Category Archives: Women

Apr4

Pray – especially Pray

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I have been reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ over the last few months. It has taken a lot of time because the ‘Eat’ portion was slow. It didn’t quite keep me reading. Not that it wasn’t well-written, it was, but it didn’t speak to me.

I got sucked ‘The Help’ and then ‘Starting From Scratch’ and then ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’. All of which I really should write reviews on because they are amazing.

Now I am in a lull, still discussing Hunger Games’ and starting to read Water For Elephants. I devoured the entire HG series last year and have been chomping at the bit for the movie.

Anyway, I am sick and in pain, so today I begin to read ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ again. I have ventured into the ‘Pray’ section and I have to say it has been very enthralling.

Gilbert’s candid prose about her experience has me stunned. Everything she says has touched something deep inside me. The passage that struck me was:

“Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying, “Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding.”"

What a way to say something that affects any person who has any type of religion?

I”m not sure about the Love section yet, I am going to start that tomorrow. The Pray was a bit much for me, her struggles and experiences are overwhelming.

I would say even if you don’t think this book is something you would read, pick it up and read the Pray section, you won’t regret it.

Mar26

Hey there Pirates of the Caribbean!

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I am LOVING!!!!! the new show ‘Leave it to Niecy’ on TLC.

After watching her make her kid spit on her finger so she could wipe off said 12 year old’s eyeliner…

Then listening to her dialogue during her mammogram…

And listening to the awesomeness that falls out of her middle child mouth!

I’m hooked!!!

New show on the DVR!

Check it out if you like humorous reality tv, the first two episodes were pretty damn funny.

Mar20

Day 3 – Photos, the Aquarium and the Trip Home

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It is always bittersweet on the last day of any trip, short or long.

You want to stay and grab hold of any experience you missed, but your bed at home is always calling your name.

So we did what any good Girl Scout would do???? right? We took Old Tyme Photos! Don’t we make good saloon girls?

Then we headed downstairs to the Sea Life Aquarium.

We got to see jellyfish.

We walked under sharks. Eeek!

And saw many other wonders of the sea.

Now we are home sweet home.

Awesome trip, amazing experience!

And I am glad I got to share it with my friends and daughters!

Sep11

The Give and Take of Friendship

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So it has come to my attention that many have forgotten the rules of friendship.

The give and take, ebb and flow of a true meaningful one.

You can use this little rant to make your friendships stronger, since we all forget from time to time how to show our friends we are thankful they are…well, our friends.

Or you can use it to help you realize that you have some fake ones, selfish ones, just basically ones not worth your time.

~ Always keep your promises and commitments to your friends. Most of the time the people who care go out of their way to do things for you or to include you, backing out last minute or doing something with someone else after you committed (especially when you flaunt all your pictures on fb or twitter) is just rude.

~ Don’t expect tit for tat when helping your friends or giving them gifts. Give to people you care about because it makes them happy, help them because you care and it is the right thing to do. But don’t keep score and don’t throw your help or gifts in their faces when you need something. It’s just tacky and makes people not want to do ANYTHING for you.

~On the same note as above, when someone does go out of their way to throw you a baby shower or a birthday, at least make the time to go to something important of theirs. When someone spends hundred of dollars throwing something kick ass for you, nothing says “screw you!” like you not taking an hour to show up to their birthday party, wedding, baby shower….you get the point!

~ Remain a loyal friend through good and bad. I realize this isn’t possible for everyone most people are friends with, it takes a lot of effort when someone is going through bad times, but this is a must for your closest friends. Disappearing during the bad times and showing up when things are peachy is a sign of a fair-weather friend, not someone you may want to cut of because you like their company and all. But definitely don’t share your secrets with them.

~ You can have a best friend who has a different best friend. And not is the friend triangle jealousy type of way. All I’m saying is don’t assume that the person you consider your best friend considers you their best friend unless they say it themselves. They may be closer to someone else. It isn’t a bad thing, it isn’t a friendship-ender. It just is. I have had many people call me their BFF or bestie when they are far from mine. It doesn’t mean I don’t like them as much as they like me, I just happen to have friends I consider closer.

 

That is all! For now…..

:)

Aug26

Guess who is turning 30?!

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Come Monday morning I will have moved over to begin the next decade of my life!

I plan on spending the weekend celebrating this event with much wine and many friends. And knowing my hubby and my friends….many, many shots.

There will be a sushi dinner, then back at our house we will have a poker table, much music, a photo booth/video booth, snacks, drinks and craziness!

So I am signing off for the weekend, but I promise to bring stories back with me Monday morning. Especially since all the cool people up at my par-tay will be Vaudeville actors and actresses for a night!

Kind of like the Yard Dogs Road Show attire below.

Can you wait to see the pictures? I can’t!

Check out Flash-back Friday hosted by Cooking for my Captain and Cooking Mimi, button is on the right ——->

Aug22

Copious Amounts of Coffee and Turtle-Loving Dykes

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So my Saturday night plans seemed pale in comparison (not really, but it was equally as fun!) to the Friday night Olive Garden dinner and drinks and desserts (and ultimately a raucous and probably annoyingly loud but hilarious conversation between 3 couples). We followed dinner up with an equally entertaining poker night and round of inappropriate and hilarious commentary.

On Saturday, I planned to go see The Help with my Book Club ladies (some are my same girlfriends from dinner and poker) and then discuss the book and movie over coffee. Little did I know my night would end with talking about copious amounts of coffee to a police officer at a sobriety checkpoint.

The movie. was. AMAZING! I really mean it, I am hard on made from book movies. I tend to adore the book and despise the movie unless it can stand alone in it’s own merits. Truthfully, a lot was dropped from the book to the screenplay, but it was necessary. The book was chock full of well-developed characters that there was no way to stuff it all into a movie. Alas, that is a different post, for a more serious time.

On to Copious Amounts of Coffee and Turtle Loving Dykes…..On the way home from a 3 hour-ish discussion at IHOP, one of my friends and I were corralled into a sobriety checkpoint. They had like 15 guys milling around at the checkpoint and we were basically the only people on the road. Seriously, that’s our tax dollars at work!

Anyway, we pulled up and I rolled down my window. The cop asks the obligatory, ‘Ma’am have you been drinking tonight?’ To which my friends answers, ‘Copious amounts of coffee!’ and I say, ‘Coffee, coffee and coffee!’ The cop look taken aback and waved us quickly on. I am sure he was wondering if it was safe to let us overly caffeinated crazy women on the road but had no idea what to take us in for.

Then as we get back on the road we realize what we must have looked like on top of the caffeine excitement. We were both in sweats and t-shirts, definitely not club attire. Hey, that how we roll when going to a movie and a book club meeting, yo! We also had smeary makeup and swollen eyes, not sure what he thought about that, but it was an emotional movie…..so….um….yeah. Don’t worry we took the pic below at home, not on the road. Didn’t want to give him a reason to pull us over!

Suddenly my friend yells, ‘Is that a turtle in the road?’ She has a thing for turtles. It wasn’t, turtles don’t fly up on there side like a paper bag when a car drives pass, so we were good. I asked her what she would have had me do if it was a turtle? Pull a crazy u-turn after leaving the sobriety checkpoint to save a turtle? She said yes.

That cop would have probably just thought, ‘Those crazy coffee-drinking, turtle-loving dykes!’ And then he would have taken us to jail. : )

Aug14

Glad to be of service…..not!

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I WISH! I WISH!

 

….because instead of working on the work I should be doing that has been putting food on our table….

….all I have been doing is housework and playing with the kids and taking care of everything else!

So I wish for no housework, no cooking, no cleaning…but I don’t really want to be a man.

And just please, please let me get my work work done! : )

Aug11

Screw You Uppity Ms. Who-dee Who!

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As an adult female I have often been surprised by the dictatorship of local women’s clubs and volunteer organizations. The women leaders are often self-absorbed, snooty and bigger bullies than the ones from playgrounds past. They probably are the ones from playgrounds past honestly.

While reading ‘The Help’ by Kathryn Stockett (I’m only about half way through so don’t worry this isn’t a review), I chuckled through some of the situations where Skeeter is made to feel like she will get ‘kicked’ out of the social circle for her opinions. It was funny because I have often felt the same way.

It is in all actuality awful that I have encountered this where I have. Very often the taglines of places that have been the worst are the ones claiming they are for the advancement of women and girls or a safe place for women to share stories and shoulders to cry on.

There are always cliques in these groups. The mean girls, er,  desperate housewives, I mean women leaders who run the show, making up rules as though go along. They change things without notice and scold you for not just having E.S.P. so you would know. They sweetly threaten kicking you out through clenched teeth and a fake smile. Most of them have been around forever and know how to manipulate those above and below them to get what they want. Everyone talks about what good people they are, helping out, volunteering and make the community a better place. More often they are controlling, rude and selfish people underneath.

I wonder if organizations and clubs realize that often these people drive away some of the better members and volunteers. Several have driven me very close to the edge of quitting, walking away, no matter how much good I did as a whole through the organization.

Why are women catty like that? Why can we not just get along? What is it about someone new to the group that shakes our security?