Why I love snapdragons and hate juniper trees

My cousin, Mike, and I would race to Grandpa's side when we'd hear his Zippo flip open. We knew he was lighting his pipe again and for whatever crazy ten year-old reasoning, we'd take turns blowing out the flame. Looking back, I have absolutely no idea why this was fun, but we sure got a kick out of it.

My grandpa was a neat old man. He always wore overalls. He always smelled like tobacco. He let me dig up potatoes, pick corn and pull up carrots. I would follow him when he made his watering rounds and ask him what each plant and flower was. I don't remember any of them except the snapdragons. I remember those because we'd pick the little black seeds and collect them in old glass jars. That man despised juniper trees; thought they were a nuisance. So I always have, too, by default, I guess.

He helped me build a wooden box once. Mike and I had this favorite tree in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. It was huge and had the perfect limb to sit on and dangle our feet below. The limb was pretty high up and you definitely needed two hands to climb the tree, but we needed to have sodas while we were up there talking about life (we'd get parched with all that talking to do). So Grandpa came out to his workshop with me and we constructed a wooden box. It was just the right size for a couple of sodas. Then we tied a rope around it to pulley it up to our limb. I still have the wooden box. I keep art supplies in it, and I think of my grandpa every time I look at it, and remember that he was the one who always told me I could.

Love 'em

I found this poster on another blog, which looks like it came from here originally, but anyway, I really liked it. Great design. (You can download it here.) I was thinking "right on" when I first came across it, and then it got me thinking... Do I really love these people? It sounds good. Probably because I am supposed to, but do I really? The one I posted above was actually the original version which got some slight tweaking and replaced murderers with Republicans and scam artists with televangelists (although I might argue they are one in the same, oops - did I just say that?). I almost think this makes it even more relevant to me. I have a much harder time not judging & hating those "in" Christian circles even more than out. I have a lot to work on! I can only imagine the things Jesus is shaking his head for at me. He's got His work cut out for Him, that's for sure!

Shouldn't every day be Saturday?

I went to the gym this morning and instead of going to class, Katie and I sat in the hot tub to soak our aching bodies and then we went across the parking lot to Village Inn and ate bacon. Who else would have done that, I ask you? I have good friends.

Today I baked bread for the very first time. Well, not like banana bread. Real bread, with yeast and everything. Whole wheat! And, much to my surprise, it was rather tasty. Also? Kinda fun to knead!

In the spirit of using up stuff in the pantry this week, and because I was feeling so good about my bread success, I decided to make whole wheat pizza for dinner. The dough is currently rising, or I would show you a picture.

Which reminds me: awhile ago someone requested photographic evidence of my insanity. Because I'm lazy it has taken me weeks to produce, but I am nothing if not an approval whore, so here it is.

I have some whey protein powder (chocolate and vanilla) that I used a scoop or two out of each, but could hardly gag it down. I hate to waste it because it was so expensive. Does anyone want it? I'd deliver.

State of equilibrium

I've never been good at balancing anything but my checkbook... and heck, I haven't even done that in years. I'm pretty much always one extreme or the other. When I find something I like, I'm obsessed with it. Like, I will listen to a cd on repeat for weeks. Seriously, all day, every day, for weeks. Things I think are a normal part of life some friends have pointed out as being, shall we say, a touch OCD*? And conversely, things I don't like I can avoid like the plague and have a deep intolerant passion for, and I think even during my short blogging stint on this site we've all seen that.

It's a fairly recent thing that I've been noticing just how crazy I am about stuff. Like part of the reason I am so on-again/off-again with MySpace is because I'm checking it every 12 seconds and next thing I know I've wasted three hours and it's just not healthy. So, naturally, I cut myself off completely. Makes perfect sense, right? So anyway, I've been obsessing noticing this obsessive behavior so much lately that I think I'm becoming obsessed about being obsessed! (ha! is that possible?) So in an effort to not analize and research the crazy, I'm just going to try to relax and balance small things in my life... maybe it can carry into more important parts of my life.

So, in 2008, I'm going to try to be a little less extreme. We'll see how that goes. Don't hold your breath.


*Funny thing, I was reading something about OCD the other day and it mentioned having thoughts like needing to go turn a light switch on and off three times or else something bad could happen to your mother. While I haven't had that thought exactly, it was rather disturbing because I can totally relate to thinking weird things like this... and then doing it, even though it is completely irrational that the light switch could have anything to do with your mother, but you know, just in case. So, typing that out just now? Yeah, should probably go get that checked out.

Road trippin'

I'm not sure which is more fun, all the planning and hype for a road trip with friends, or the actual road trip. It's all pretty sweet!