Dirt in my Crack January 30, 2007

Had a little problem in the bathroom.  No, nothing like that.  On the bottom of our 30 year old, puke green tub, there are a few deep scratches and in those scratches, dirt has settled.  I have tried more then once to remove the dirt with ajax and bleach and good ol’ elbow grease but nothing ever happened.  Mr.Clean’s magic eraser was suggested to me.  I, of course, was skeptical.  If bleach can’t do it, then what can?  Well, Mr. Clean can.  Not only did the magic eraser take away the dirt from the scratches but it uncovered dirt I COULDN’T EVEN SEE, and, well, erased it!  I tell you this in the hopes that if you too have dirt, scum, or stains that you will give Mr. Clean a chance.

       

           Finally!  Bush is making some sense!

Nobody puts Baby in a Corner January 22, 2007

I attended my friend’s baby shower this weekend.  Sarah, a friend since college, is due in 8 weeks and she had a shower that turned into a slumber party which was so awesome.  I loved getting all the pure girl time and catching up with my homies.  Other friends of mine have had babies but I never was able to go to the shower.  We played some party games like:  “Guess the celebrity baby” and “guess which candy bar has been melted in the diaper” and I must say, I rocked at the games and helped my team win both competitions. 

What’s crazy is that as a woman, I have the capabilties of having another human being grow inside of me.  Now, don’t be alarmed, this may be new to you and everyone’s first time hearing it is a little confusing.  Everyone in this world was once a baby.  Even Arnold Schwarzenager (aka “The Governator”) was once a boob suckin baby.  And we all grow up and live these lives with stories and plots and emotions and we meet all together at parties to celebrate the birth of one more of our kind.  

So great weekend…thanks Amalia, Erin, Jenny, and baby’s momma……….

It’s like a scientific novel.

Baby Got Back and A Uni-brow January 14, 2007

It has been quite awhile since I went shopping by myself and was able to try on whatever I wanted at whatever pace I wanted so today, I decided to embark on a journey to Chattanooga to do just that.  I rolled up at the mall and proceeded to go to all the stores I had to avoid during Christmas.  A couple of things stood out.  One, I have to eat Chik-fil-a when I go to a mall.  It’s like an addiction that has been programed into my hard drive.  And yes, it was extremely tasty.  Two, the quality of clothing for the price is astounding. I was checking out a Lucky Brand short sleeved cream colored shirt and it was very see through and not on purpose.  On sale it was $25…not on sale $40.    It was pretty though but I didn’t but it.  Sometimes I can talk myself out of everything I try on.  This was not that day.  I left my house feeling confident.  I had my brows waxed a week ago, my hair was nice and clean and I’ve been trying to work out some during the week.  In the dressing room, I looked ito the three paneled mirror to be horrified by the magnitude of my ass and then I took a close look at my face.  There were stray brow hairs everywhere and I had a few crusty boogers peeking out and my hair…..I needed more then just a comb.  My confidence was shot as I stood under the glow of the harsh flourescent light bulbs.  Now that I’m back home, I feel much better about myself and I am thankful for the successful “Amanda goes shopping” day.  I will bask in the beauty of it all until Tuesday, when I look at the bank account.

Thanks for coming along……….. January 12, 2007

Jesse, Wil and I were on our way to get some grub in a nearby town this evening……..I was driving the back roads and we went for awhile then it starts becoming more civilized with houses and stores.  With civilization come other cars.  I saw this car start to drift towards the middle line.  Everything began to get slow mo as the car proceeded across the yellow line and was drriving on our side of the road!  For a split sec, I kinda just expected the person to correct themselves, but they didn’t so then I had to make a quick decision:  go on his side or go into the grass/ditch on my side.  I reacted. At first, ended up pushing my headlights not really realizing that I was flashing the person my high beams and then I swirved towards the grass and the other car barely missed us.  My heart was pounding, Wil and Jesse were all like ,”whoa” and we called the po po to make a report so that maybe no one would be a victim.  It’s weird when stuff like that happens because it doesn’t happen very often but when it does, it’s good to take note that everything went okay and that the Sewanee Angels were with us on our trip.

Prince and Weinies January 9, 2007

I went to my first toga party saturday night.  It was one of the best nights I’ve had since moving to Tennessee.  It was all seminarians and family of seminarians in order to celebrate the seniors finishing their testing.  The night started out calm and normal.  Had some snackage and drank some gin and tonics.  I went to reload on the drink and asked him to put a bit more gin and he filled the cup 3/4th of the way.  I couldn’t even pretend like it tasted good.  So, I switched to beer and started dancing.  My friend Therese and another seminarian named Matthew danced around all the other folks who were not dancing.  At first, it was tame.  We had great robot moves to “whip it”,  we did our best James Brown.  People would join us then leave after a song or maybe two.  I stuffed myself with brownines and cocktail wenies and beer.  As the night wound down, the dance floor cleared out and it was only myself and Therese left to dance to all the 80’s music we could muster up.  And then , it happened.  “When Doves Cry” came on and we not only acted out the words but crawled on the floor like Prince in the video, swirled streamers around ourselves, and ended with our arms fluttering like doves.  It was truly magical. 

On our way out, we were offered the rest of the weinies.  I shook my head “no” and Wil said “yes” so now we have a huge tupperware full of cocktail weinies.  You are what you eat Wil…you are what you eat.

humana humana humana January 2, 2007

When I was in college, I took a communications class where I leanred how to speak to an audience.  In the class was a guy that I definitly had a major crush on.  This made the moments where I gave speeches particulary tricky because I would get even more nervous then usual because he was sitting out there looking at me.  We actually became classroom friends and he would walk with me across campus and then we would go seperate ways.  It was the end of the semester and he never asked me out so I had decided to take matters into my own hands and so I gulped and let the words exit my lips on one of our last walks.  “You wanna do something sometime?”  That’s all I could muster.  Well, he just smiled and said no thanks.  I was heart broken but not for very long.  I would see him around and he was always so nice and my heart would always flutter.

Last week at the bank, a car drove up to the window and there was a guy sitting there in his black volkswagon with snowbaord rack on top.  He had a coloful tabogin with messy black hair and some facial hair and a great smile.  I took his check and proceeded to cash it.  He talked to me a little and I talked back and I got all stupid;  I couldn’t make eye contact and I just kept grinning.  Well, he drove away and my coworkers noticed my reaction.  This guy looked so much like the guy from my class that I resorted back to my insecure self.  It is amazing that after all this time and a marriage I can still feel that way.  I wonder if I will ever out grow it? I hope not.

Another year…… January 1, 2007

It is only a few hours until 2007.  I think about the past year and how so much has happened.  I quit teaching, I moved, I started a new job (or jobs), made new friends and struggled to keep old friends, I’ve gained weight, I’ve lost weight, I had posion ivy on my face, I went to the beach twice, I celebrated my 27th birthday, I celebrated my 2nd year marriage anniversary, I went to the weddings of good friends, I congratulated friends on births and soon to be births, I prayed as a close friend gave his mom part of his liver so that she could live, I morned the loss of two of my former students, I struggled with following my heart, a saw natural disasters on the news, I heard of war ……. and now a new year faces us.  I want this year to be even better then last.  I want to have more happy days then sad, I want the sun to shine more days then rain, I want to listen more then be heard, I want to eat better, I want to be a better friend, I want to be a better wife, I want to pray more, I want to wake up each day glad that I am alive.  I want war to end and peace to begin.  I want to be with my family more.  I want to be more aware of mother earth and her pains and thanksgivings. 

The pages are blank once again waiting to be written upon.  I choose, whether I color inside the lines or out, if I write a romance, a horror, or an adventure.  I am the the author of these pages.  A joyful year to all my friends who read my blog and all my friends who don’t.  Happy New Year!