Thursday, August 15, 2013

stream of consciousness

ever notice how the longer you put something off the harder it becomes to do it? and then it's just the opposite when you do something more frequently. that's how it is with me and writing. i know i just posted yesterday but it felt good and i wanna to do it again.

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found this prize at the end of someone's driveway this morning:


wonder what people would do if i left this at the end of my driveway...


hehe, look how wigged-out she looks ;-) we had this exact same car in red when i was a kid. or maybe it was yellow. let's meet in the middle and say it was orange. i loved that little orange car...

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i'm such an obnoxious grammar freak (says the girl writing in all lowercase). i just used the "contact us" link on a website i was browsing to inform them of a misspelling i'd detected. #grammartool

in my defense, they were very grateful. i would want to know if there was a misspelling on my website. after all, it's the face of your business. you're welcome, littletotsmusictogether.com. (it's still there, by the way. see if you can find it...)

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i could probably write a whole post on this, but i have totally become one of those people who uses text and email as a crutch to never ever ever have to pick up a phone. especially at work. it's really a problem. terry asks me all the time, "why don't you just pick up the phone and call him?" whenever i have to inform him that so-and-so still has not responded to the 87 emails i've sent.

why not indeed? when i was a kid, i had no choice, so it was a discomfort i was forced to confront on a regular, healthy basis. i was actually making some emotional progress until the damn internet and cell phone pranced onto the scene.

it's gotten so bad, that while lamenting the fact that we never see each other anymore, i actually said this to jule:

"dude, i have an idea! we should talk on the phone like we did back in the day!" 

way to go, socrates. you should start a blog. 

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so, i always forget when it's a holy day of obligation. today, for once, i remembered. and by "i remembered" i obviously mean "my mom reminded me". i've felt like such a bad catholic lately and so i was all pumped to go to mass with her and my dad, and what happens right as we're ready to head out? the baby falls asleep. i wake her up, she freaks out, i rush into thomas' room to calm her down, and what happens then? she calms down. and falls asleep. again. 


now my folks are at mass getting showered with grace and i am sitting on the edge of thomas' bed lest she roll off of it. i know it's the intent that counts, but, i mean... geeze. i kinda felt like i needed this. oh well. time to shake it off, put down the computer, and think holy thoughts.

i'll leave you all with a couple of big ol' "i'll miss you" faces from the woman of the hour.



Wednesday, August 14, 2013

this old apartment

i've often wished i could update my blog the way i update my facebook status, in spurts. because i don't always (and to be honest, i don't USUALLY) have a whole essay's worth of information to put out there. so i decided to give it a try using some handy-dandy "* * *"s... =)


i've been reading "seeking the beloved" for a few months now (i used to fly through books - meet the new, domesticated theresee). it's basically a bunch of reflections on the writings of john of the cross. i read something this morning that really stuck out to me. it's from john's "ascent of mount carmel":


"it makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord. 

even if it is tied by thread, the bird will be held bound just as surely as if it were tied by cord; that is, it will be impeded from flying as long as it does not break the thread. 

admittedly the thread is easier to break, but no matter how easily this may be done, the bird will not fly away without first doing so. 

this is the lot of those who are attached to something: no matter how much virtue they have they will not reach the freedom of the divine union."

just that first line says it all. love, love, love it.

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i've been dreaming for, well, months, of letting her scamper around in nothing but a diaper and a tutu like a little pixie baby. today was the day...



(we've reached a point where, as long as she isn't killing herself, this kind of thing is perfectly acceptable)

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can we talk for a minute about how much i can't wait to get out of this awful little apartment? i should probably put a positive spin on that and say how much i can't wait to get into this adorable little gem:




       
i wish i had photos of the bedrooms because they are the best part, but these are all the listing had, and i didn't know if i was allowed to take pics when we were at the showing. suffice it to say they are both huge with their own separate full bathrooms and enormous closets! there's also a huge finished basement.

let me just run something down for you real quick...


this 2 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom townhouse in the middle of historic leesburg, just 8 minutes from the leesburg outlets, with tons of windows, hardwood floors, a deck, yard, white picket fence, on a corner lot twenty steps from the playground (it's catty-corner to our yard) and a nine-minute walk from church - not to mention everything i listed in the last paragraph - this precious plum is only $150 more per month than our tiny 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, dark, yardless, carpeted apartment with a tiny washer and dryer (the townhouse of course has full-sized appliances because it is perfect). 


it's been the bane of my existence that i can't just pop out my front door and go for a walk with the baby because 


1.) i have to go down a flight of stairs and out to my car to get her stroller since there's no room in the apartment for it

2.) there are only short spurts of sidewalk sprinkled throughout the complex


3.) there is literally nowhere to take her except around the complex itself. there is a playground, but even though it's in our complex, our complex is big and it's actually significantly further away than the new playground, plus it's even more difficult to get to because of the lack of sidewalks, AND it's literally RIGHT next to a creek/sewer so there are a ton of mosquitos. 


at the townhouse, we can step right out of the door and either walk right (as in the direction) to the playground, or left to walk around downtown and window shop. 


so to summarize...? um... WINNING!!!