Things that occurred to me today....

Pretty sure Glade needs a new marketing manager. Why would you name an aerosol air freshener scent "Fruit Explosion"? Did it not occur to them that the most frequent use of said air freshener is in a bathroom? Inappropriate...

Dear Facebook Friends: I love each and every one of you, and I mean you no harm when I say any picture you post of yourself in a mirror automatically loses major coolness points when there is a toilet in the background. If I have to explain it, it's not even worth the effort.

If my boyfriend dropped by my workplace to say "hi" at lunch, it would be very odd for someone to come and sit in on our conversation and act like they were a part of it. Yet if I am Skyping with him at lunch, some of the new people at the office think it is perfectly acceptable to come in and interrupt me and try to carry on a conversation with me and/or him while I'm trying to talk on video chat. If you need me for work, by all means, let me know. Seriously, I will help in whatever way I can. But if you're just trying to be social, there are 7 other hours in the workday to ask me about my life. He's in Germany for heaven's sake, and I get to talk to him for one sacred hour during the workday. Go away.

There was a deer standing on the side of the road when I drove over to my friends' house shortly before dusk. It didn't even flinch. I think deer are slowly taking over the world. Either that, or spiders are. I am afraid to know how many spiders are in my house for every one of them I kill. *shudders involuntarily* Dear Catchmaster Sticky Traps: PLEASE do your job. My flip-flops are begging for a leave of absence from the war on arachnids.

I tend to like the way other people put things into words better than anything I've ever written. Some of my friends should be syndicated authors. The inspiring/funny/ironic things they write on a daily basis never cease to amaze me. The phrases and vocabulary they use and the analogies they draw are incredible - so inspiring.

I talk too much.

It would never, ever occur to me to go to a doctor if I had a rib out of alignment, no matter how painful it was. Generally, someone who cares about me has to beg me to get me to go to a doctor for any reason.

I have more drafts of blogs that I have never posted than I have actual blog posts. Basically what this boils down to is a whole lot of things I felt compelled to say that weren't necessarily good public displays. And I probably still don't censor myself enough.

Oldest children, especially girls, can be incredibly bossy. I say this with full knowledge that I fall into this category. That being said, children make me smile. My friends have the cutest kids ever, and the best part is they like me too. There's nothing like the sweet friendship of a little kid to make you feel like your life is worthwhile. I've always thought children tend to be better judges of character in many respects than adults are, so when a little kid likes me, I take it as a huge compliment from him/her. Walking into a room and getting a big smile or a hug from a little person is like the sun coming out on a cloudy day. I don't think that could ever get old or mundane.

Even though I have a lot of months I barely make ends meet, ever since I've been on my own, I've never truly considered myself to be poor. There are days when I feel sad because I see a pretty dress I want and I can't even begin to buy it. But truthfully, I have everything I need, and I have been blessed so much, there really isn't anything I want that badly. I am so thankful for the blessings I have. The only thing I want badly that money can buy is a plane ticket to Germany. :-P

Tonight I'm thankful for...

The beautiful friendships in my life. The wisdom of those around me who are living life to the fullest and finding God's paths for their lives. The precious moments that make this life all worthwhile. The laughter, and the tears that make us wiser, stronger, and more fit for the journey ahead.

The moments in my life where I couldn't see the plan God had for me, and often questioned what He was doing. Those times when I doubted, I now see how much better His way was than mine could ever have been.

And although I have by no means 'arrived' now, I can see where I have been and where I am now, and I'm so thankful to be here versus there. I'm thankful now that things didn't go 'my way'.

Life is about precious little moments... a hug from a good friend. A shared laugh. Indulging in a slice of decadent white chocolate cake at ungodly hours of the night. The little bird I set free today from flypaper. The giggles of kids at play.

I am so very blessed.

"Roll back the curtain of memory now and then. Show me where You brought me from, and where I could have been. Remember I'm human, and humans forget. So remind me..."

Late night productivity

I suppose that I should have skipped the nap earlier... I was babysitting for friends, which didn't actually require any alertness, since the kids were in bed, so I passed out on the couch for a couple hours. Considering the fact that I have written a letter to my grandparents and finished my loan consolidation form since 1a.m., the nap may or may not have been counter-productive. I will never understand how it is that I am so much more productive after normal human beings have long ago drifted off to sleep than I am during normal waking hours of the day. I suspect something is hard-wired oddly in my DNA. Right now, I feel like I could quite easily stay up another 2 hours and re-organize my room, which also is in dire need of attention. Something about having a closet the size of shoe-box is counter-productive to keeping anything in its proper place. By the time I've expended massive amounts of time and energy re-arranging items enough to wrestle one of them out of the bottom of the closet, I have lost all interest in putting it back once I am finished with said item. Bad habit, true story. In my defense, when I had a walk-in sized closet, my room was never, ever this disorganized for any extended length of time. So, I blame it entirely on the closet.

The rest of my house is generally spotless for the most part, and quite uncluttered. I will never know why the builders of this house put two walk-in closets in the larger bedroom (my rooommate's) and one miniature closet in the smaller room. But I would dearly love to have a talk with them and expound on my views of their overall short-sightedness.

Otherwise, it is a perfect little house. Our landlord is A-mazing, and you can't beat that. But I would gladly give up three feet of the living room to have some more storage in this place.

That being said, I have decided it is time for some major house-cleaning, and I am about to unload a bunch of my stuff either into the dumpster or donate it to charity. I have too much stuff I don't even ever look at or use, and there is no point in it sitting around taking up space I don't have. Plus, it makes it ten times harder when I have to move, which I inevitably will and probably sooner rather than later. Might as well be prepared now. It would almost be easier to toss some boxes of stuff without going through them, but that would be taking the easy way out, and I'm sure I would wind up missing stuff later that I'd wanted to keep.

Tomorrow is a day off for me, so I suppose I should get cracking on this diabolical project. I'd really rather go to the dentist and get a root canal...

On a more positive note, my boss didn't yell at me today for anything, although some of the patients did a fair job of making up for that... The boss did announce that he is selling the building we are in and moving locations in June. I would dearly love a job with some stability for once in my life, but since I don't have one, I'm halfway ready to say to heck with it all and up and move. Europe is sounding better by the day, but really anywhere I don't have to kill spiders on a daily basis and wind up dripping wet from the humidity and heat 5 minutes after stepping out of the shower would be an improvement in my mind. I am grateful for the blessings I have in my life, so I don't mean to sound whiny. I am merely pointing out there is room for improvements, and I'm about to make some of those. If you don't like something change it, or deal with it. At least, that is my philosophy...

Truthfully, I just know I am restless here, and this has never been a part of the country I wanted to settle in long-term. The longer I stay here, I am just prolonging the misery and other than the friends and family I will leave behind, I am not remotely sorry to leave. Life is constantly changing and moving... I used to be afraid of that, but not anymore. I think change keeps us sharp, keeps us from becoming stagnant and apathetic. I'm excited for the possibilities of where life could take me next. I will only have this freedom to go and do whatever I want now while I'm young and not tied down. Why look back on it someday and regret missed opportunities? So, my foot is itching, as the saying goes... while I'm figuring out what to do next, guess I'll keep praying about it and looking for the best options. Oh, the possibilities!

Nocturne/Bohemian Rhapsody - Lucia Micarelli

Lucia Micarelli - "Kashmir"