the story of my life

I love looking back and finding things that I have written years ago. I also miss writing in notebooks. I think I do my best writing in notebooks. They always say that if you are having trouble writing that you should just start and see where it goes. You don't have to have a storyline all plotted out. Anyways, this amused me so I thought I would share... (And I am going to resist the urge to edit it right now.)

She sat there with her pen in hand. Trying to decide what to write. She always veered towards fantasy stories about magic or strange alternate dimensions. Her own life never seemed "brilliant" enough to write about.
Yes, she could see it now. The storyline would go a little something like this...
Girl, aged 25, moderately attractive. Moderately attractive? What's that? Sounds to vain and overreaching to write "she's hot"?? But you want people to know that she's not bad looking. I mean, when describing her people wouldn't just say "Oh yeah, Nikki, she's really nice." I mean, she's better looking that that.
Not that there's anything wrong with being nice. I'm nice. No, I'm not. Who am I kidding?
Where was I? Oh yes, my character description... girl, aged 25, moderately attractive. At times nice (that's my glass-is-half-full way of saying sometimes bitchy.) Who apparently can't keep a straight train of thought going for more than two sentences.
Storyline... gets up, works out (sometimes), goes to work, hangs out with friends. Riveting. Yes, I can see that captivating the hearts of audiences worldwide.
So instead I write fantasy stories. And not fantasy stories about me either- but about teenagers. Why? Do I have some sadistic wish to relive my teenage years?
Or is it that teenagers make for more interesting characters because of their willingness to make such rash decisions? I mean, think about some of those plots... ooh, a door opens to another world, what will my character do? Will she rush right in? It's not much of a story if she doesn't. But would I rush through a door to another world? Let's think about this one... How long will I be gone? What if I get fired? Who will pay my rent, my bills? What's the weather like there? I should bring some clean underwear? What kind of story would that make? She stumbles across a strange portal to a magic world... she starts to stem through and then decides... I better go pack a bag. Cuz let's face it- I can't even go out to the bar without my big purse. Who knows when I'll need my chapstick or tampon or lotion or gum or toothpicks- yes, that's right, I even carry toothpicks from time to time.

hit the nail on the head- depression

So a friend shared a great link on Facebook yesterday. It is a website with pictures of famous people doing things that you wouldn't expect.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/14-photographs-that-shatter-your-image-famous-people/

I found in fascinating. Because it is true that we end up having a very limited view of people. If you think about all the different facets you have to YOUR personality... why would a celebrity be limited to just the one idea we have of them?

Anywho, that is not the point of this post. The article also gives a description of depression that I think is so right on the money:

#6. Kurt Cobain Eating an Entire Pizza

Via Flavorwire.com

... it's still a shock to realize sometimes the man just sat down and ate an entire pizza like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

This is something everybody should understand about depression, by the way. Tell me you haven't at least once heard somebody say, "I refuse to believe it was suicide, I was just out with Mike two weeks ago. He was laughing and joking and eating an entire pizza like it was a video game power-up."

Via Flavorwire.com
Then later played "Cat Puppet" with his daughter while doing a high-pitched cat voice.

Well, depression works that way. Movies have given us a skewed idea of how it works, because there, when a character enters his "dark period," it's with a montage full of sad music and drinking and moping in dim rooms. Real life isn't like that. Not only do moods fluctuate, but even when you're at your lowest you find yourself in social situations where you're not allowed to show it. If you're in a dark place but can't get out of your nephew's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's, you're going to put on a smile for the camera. You feel selfish bringing everybody else down. You put on a cheerful mask.

Then, ironically, if you start playing the role of the tortured artist later, you have to worry about the opposite -- being photographed in a moment of being goofy and carefree.

Read more: 14 Photographs That Shatter Your Image of Famous People | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/14-photographs-that-shatter-your-image-famous-people_p2/#ixzz1uvv2GsMX

do you like this song?

So yesterday I had to give a one day combo which is a thirty minute herbal wrap followed by a one hour massage.

Only the therapist in the room before me (I only work second shift on Sundays) was running late. So I only had about two minutes to put my room together. But that went fine and I got my client and put her in the wrap and then I left her to heat up and relax for the thirty minutes.

Then I undid the wrap and then we do the massage in the same room.

And as I started the massage I heard the little disk-skip noise that the CD does at the end of the CD when it starts over again from the beginning. And I thought to myself... that's weird because it is a 80 minute CD and I only started it about 40 minutes ago. And then it hit me... I had accidentally hit "repeat one" instead of "repeat all" when I stuck it in... which means that she had been listening to the SAME song on a loop for her entire 30 minute wrap!!!

Oops!!!

Now, it is random relaxation music and it is possible that she didn't even notice because, quite frankly, all the music sort of sounds alike anyways, but I felt really badly. She was happy at the end though.

And then my second client was rewarding herself for finishing grad school by NOT having to hang out with her mother-in-law of Mother's Day. I love my clients.

bad mood buster

If you are ever feeling sad, just do a google image search for "puppies."

My god, the cuteness!!!

How can you not smile at that?

scattergories

My wedding showers (we split it into two because my extended family is so big) were this weekend and my sisters outdid themselves with their awesomeness.

For me one of the highlights was when we were playing Scattergories on Saturday night. For those of you who have never played I will quickly explain... you are given a list of categories and a letter (chosen at random) and you have to come up with a word to go in each category.

My sister made the categories be bridal themed so we had such things as:

Something old
Something new
Place to get engaged
Alternative to champaign to toast with
etc.

So you are given the list, then you are given the letter that your answer must start with and then you are given three minutes to come up with your answers. But you want your answers to be unique because if anyone puts the same thing as you, you both have to cross it off and don't get a point for it.

My sister Chestra's husband, Brian, walked in to the room in the middle of the round while we were all silent and had our heads bent over our papers and goes, "So this is what you guys do at these things!" because it looked like we were all seriously taking a test!

My favorite category/answer was "Alternative to a bouquet that the bride can walk down the aisle carrying" and our letter was L.

What would you put?

I put lemons. Other people put licorice, lingerie, lollypops and lightbulbs. We all decided that a glowing bouquet of lightbulbs would be pretty cool.

But my favorite answer was my Aunt Linda who put down "little puppy."

Oh my god! I now want to walk down the aisle carrying an adorable little puppy dog! How cute would that be?!?!

america is pretty awesome

I'm not always in love with everything my country does, but I will say... living in America ROCKS!

I just was reading about the Afghan girl from National Geographic.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text

And it made me think (again) about how easy my life is. I mean, I can find things to complain about in my life, but my life is soooo easy.

My mom has cancer... but she has easy access to top notch medical treatments.

My shoulders hurt... from playing volleyball... not from working in the fields all day.

I weigh more than I would like... because I have access to all the food in the world that I could possibly want and money to pay for it.

My little apartment won't hold all my stuff... where to start with this one... my warm, comfortable, with running water, electricity, plumbing, heat and air conditioning that does not have vermin in it, apartment does not have room to hold my oodles and oodles of useless stuff that I have simply to pamper myself, not things that I need to survive. Boo hoo.

The girl in the story is sad because she never got an education. She doesn't know how to read or write. Reading and writing are probably my favorite activities in the entire world. I honestly can't even wrap my head around what life would be like if I couldn't read. Sure, some of us are better or faster readers than others... but to not be able to do it at all??

And the girl in the story is not allowed to even look, let alone smile, at a man that is not her husband. I think of all the wonderful interactions I have with men, that are not Michael, and how sad if I couldn't talk to them and joke around with them.

This stuff is really still going on in the world today.

Thank you, Universe, for this easy life. I will take full advantage of it as my way of thanking you.

zits

I'm thirty-two years old and I still get pimples. Not nearly as bad as it used to be, but they are still there. When will they go away? Well, if my 70 year old mother who still gets them is any indication, then never.

But I was thinking about the question that people often ask which is "what is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?" And I don't usually have a good answer. Either A) I don't get embarrassed very easily or B) I have blocked them all from my memory!

But my zit today reminded me of a very embarrassing moment I once had...

It was in sixth grade and a boy I had a huge crush on was staring at me and I was super excited and he came over to talk to me and I was even more excited and he goes, "Your zit is bleeding on your cheek."

OMG!!! Sixth grade was hard!