Things I Love - Part 1

I've decided to start sharing with you some of my favorite things. Why am I sharing these things you ask. Because this is my rambling, nonsensical, no rhyme, reason or theme blog and I can. And maybe the three people who read this will also love these things and these new found joys will bring a wee bit of happiness into their lives. Although one of those people is my husband and he already knows this stuff, so no new found joy for him. And I know Sarah will read this and I've probably already babbled on about this to her. So this is for you...other person. You're welcome.

A few years ago during the writers strike when there was no new tv happening and I was shriveling up in the fetal position from the sudden disappearance of my beloved television shows (i.e. my lifeblood) some very awesome, funny people (Joss Whedon, Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion and my forever favorite Neil Patrick Harris) got together and decided to very quickly write and film what is now one of my most favorite things in the whole world and release it free online. It's called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog (yes, it's a musical).

This is one of those things that I can watch over and over, anytime day or night. I play the soundtrack frequently, it always makes me happy. It is funny and witty and sad and clever and fun and I love it and I think you should too.

It's about a guy named Dr. Horrible (NPH) who desperately wants to be accepted into the Evil League of Evil which is lead by Bad Horse, the Thoroughbred of Sin (he's an actual horse, that's funny). Dr. Horrible is plotting an evil scheme to impresss Bad Horse and he is also madly in love with and trying to impress a girl named Penny who is not evil at all. All the while he's trying to avoid run-in's with his nemesis Captain Hammer (who is a major tool, haha, get it, Captain Hammer, major tool, anyone?)

They released it in three parts, one 15 minute act each week. It was available free online for a while and then it went away. Thankfully it was released on DVD after a bit and then eventually on iTunes and of course I purchased both.

Ideally you would commit to watching the whole thing and then send me a message telling me how much you now love it too. You can find the whole thing on YouTube or you could shell out the $4 or $5 bucks on iTunes and own it so you can enjoy it over and over again as well :-)

But you probably won't do either of those things so here are a couple of my favorite parts (frankly every part is great) from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog. You can at least watch these, right?? Right??

Finally!

Okay...wait, what?!

Today is Independence Day AKA the Fourth of July, at least it was when I started typing this soon to be novel of a post. The day we celebrate our independence as a country, our freedom. I'm forever grateful to all the men and women who have served and left behind family and friends and those that have given their lives for that freedom.

So last night as I was lying in bed listening to idiots fire off bottle rockets somewhere on the street behind us, I'm sorry that was harsh, I meant inconsiderate idiots. What? Get off my back, I had a three year old sleeping peacefully and I wanted to keep it that way. I wil extend grace during the appropriate non-sleeping, non tv watching hours of the day. Well, of course all of this got me thinking about the 4th and the subjects of independence and freedom and a few things entered my mind (After I finished mentally cursing the rocketeers of course. Uh, I mean, God Bless us every one...) First was of course, Lee Greenwood because he's like the unofficial Grand Marshall of Independence Day. Second was George Michael because, I'm sorry but Freedom is a catchy little tune. And third was an article I read a couple of months ago in Marie Claire about Afghan women, the injustice they endure and the fact that they have no independence or freedom (and you thought this was going to be a lighthearted post, silly you).

Are you familiar with the term "moral crime"? Yes? No? Maybe I'm the only one who was unaware what they were but if you are also unaware you might want to hide your breakables 'cause you 'bout to get pissed off. At least I hope you are because if this doesn't upset you at least a little bit on some level you may be a robot. Seriously, go check your batteries Mr/Ms R2-Wouldn't want to-BU.

Now,I knew that life for Afghan women falls incredibly short of where it should be but I was unaware that there are women and young girls (some as young as 12) who are in prison for what are deemed "moral crimes". Many of these women are in jail along with their infants and young children (who have been pulled from school to live in prison with their mother), with little shelter from the cold and heat and sometimes without milk for their babies. According to the Afghan Women's Justice Project these "moral crimes" could be things such as:

- Leaving your home without your husbands permission (A law was signed just last year requiring women to ask permission before leaving their homes. Obviously things are still moving in the wrong direction.)
- Refusing to marry your rapist
- Running away from your abusive husband with your child, then being sent to prison for kidnapping - with your child
- Murder-By-Proxy, where a male murders someone and assigns his prison sentence to a female family member

Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?!?!?!?! Unfortunately no, these things are completely unbelievable but unfortunately, painfully very true.

What's more is all that is needed for a woman to be convicted of a "moral crime" is for two or more men to accuse her of it. That's it. No trial. No evidence. Just their word against hers and she's sent to prison.

The article shared the story of one such girl named Badia, a 16 year old girl, who ran away from her abusive 40 year old husband who beat her almost everyday since she was married off to him at the age of 12. TWELVE. After giving birth to a daughter and fearing for both of their lives she ran away, barefoot and into the snowy night. She was soon caught and is now in jail with her baby girl for leaving the man who beat her. Unbelievably, her husband was considered kind in her village for not having killed her and their daughter after taking a second wife, because Badia was considered useless and a burden for not giving birth to a son. Excuse me while I go punch a wall.

This brings me back to my last post. If you think about these things it's easy to get overwhelmed and feel like the problem is too big, too overwhelming, too "set in its' ways", too far away. But there is something that we can do. You can visit the AWJP website (the link is below) and sign the petition. Also, in an effort to raise funds and awareness Marie Claire commissioned a great "Not Guilty" T-Shirt which sells for $25 (pic below) Oh wait, not it's not because this stupid thing won't let me post the pic and I'm sick of messing with it so please just visit the site and see it and buy it or at least lie to me and tell me you did. Ugh, technology, why you do me like this?! Anyway, the proceeds are going to the Afghan Women's Justice Project. Their mission is to demand and provide humane treatment and legal defense for Afghan women and children incarcerated for gender-based inequality and injustice. The AWJP will distribute the funds to non-profit groups that are working to improve the lives of imprisoned women.

If you'd like to sign the petition, order a T-Shirt (and come on, we know that we all love a good t-shirt!) or learn more about the Afghan Women's Justice Project you can do so here AWJP.org

Or if you're like "I've got enough t-shirts, stop with the t-shirts already!" you can also go to that site and make a donation, no t-shirts involved.

And you can read the full Marie Claire article here Marie-Claire-Article

Heads up

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. - Leo Buscaglia

I'm a pessimistic person by nature. Surprised? No? I didn't think you would be. It's just who I am. I will always prepare for the worst possible outcome of any situation, even if that situation is a day at the beach. I will prepare for a shark attack and a case of sun poisoning. I mean, I'm still fun. At least I think I am, I try to be. I love to laugh and I think I have a pretty darn good sense of humor. But, for better or for worse, I tend to notice a lot more of the bad and evil in this world than the good. While some people will always see the glass as half full I will always see it as half empty and another friggin dish to wash.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still joyful, still love hearing heartwarming, positive stories and I enjoy life. I know that life is filled with amazing things and amazing people and I am surrounded by a lot of them. It's just that there are times I get overwhlemed by this world and all of the bad in it. I struggle with not wanting to be ignorant about things happening but also trying to find a balance between being educated, doing my part and still finding the joy and goodness in this world and in myself. It's easy for me to end up depressed thinking about the kind of world my son will grow up in and to fall into what Shane Hipps calls, "Empathic Overload" and "Empathic Paralysis".

I saw Shane Hipps speak at a Catalyst conference a few years ago and he said something that has stuck with me (even though I can't remember the exact quote and will probably screw it up). Basically he said that we as humans were designed to be empathic but we were not designed to know about all of the suffering in the world all of the time. But as media and technology have progressed that is exactly what has happened and there are positives and negatives to this development. The positive is knowing what is happening and being able to make a difference globally and the negative is that we get overloaded and overwhelmed and eventually become desensitized to it and paralyzed thinking there's just too much to fix so we just don't do anything at all, globally or locally. After Googling Shane last night in an attempt to not completely screw up what he said (what would we do without Google?!) I found this great article speaking about Shane Hipps and what he says about this. You can read the article here RLC-Article-Shane-Hipps And you should read it. It explains all of this much better than I can.

So for me, I'm still working on finding that balance and avoiding "Missional Paralysis" (another thing Shane speaks to). I'm working on tipping the scales to the side of life giving thoughts rather than life draining ones and doing what I can instead of becoming paralyzed. But to some extent I am who I am so when I sit down to write, more often than not my focus goes to the negative thoughts vying for attention in my head. So, good or bad, that's probably the direction some of my posts will go in but I promise I'll try not to linger there :-) I guess I just felt like giving a heads up. Jeeze, I sound so depressing!! And this is me AFTER I've found hope in Jesus Christ and I know that this life is not all there is. Can you imagine what I was like before that...poor Jim.

Everything's amazing and nobody's happy.

Recently I flew back home to Illinois from California and it was a great trip filled with amazing, heart clogging food, great friends, teeny, tiny, beautiful babies, bad dart playing and creepy clowns. I'll write more about my trip later but right now I would like to write about my flight, or the thoughts on my flight home to be more specific.

After boarding my flight (window seat in an exit aisle, awesome), I made the perfect amount of small talk with the guy next to me. You know, the amount that says "Hi, I'm not interested in talking to you for the entire 4 hours that we'll be sitting next to each other but I will talk to you for three minutes to show you I'm also not a complete jerk." We confirmed that we were both flying home to California and not on vacation and then joked about all the extra leg room we have in the exit row and how I required none of that extra leg room (cause I'm short), good times, good times.

Now that all of that was out of the way it was time to take off and now I'm finally getting to point of this blog post. Haha! Gotcha sucka! That's a complete lie. There is no point to any of my posts. Anyway, we take off and I am amazed every time I fly that this whole flying thing actually works. Because in my mind, it shouldn't, this 2 trillion ton contraption should not be flying through the air no matter what any smart person says. It is amazing! And while this is happening everyone on the plane looks bored or annoyed or like they have better things to do instead of acknowledging the fact that we are hanging out in the clouds. Of course I also look bored and annoyed while staring out of the window because I wanna fit in, but inside I'm on a roller coaster with my hands in the air screaming "Ride the G!".

All of this made me think of the hilarious little YouTube video people know as "Everything's amazing and nobody's happy" by Louis CK. I'm pretty sure everyone has seen this but it's flipping funny so it's worth another watch. Seriously, the bit about the rotary phone, so funny!!

P.S. I almost watched a movie on Netflix or posted this while on my flight since I had free inflight wireless but I chose to read a book instead. A paperback book. Crazy, I know. Now watch the video. Watch it!!

Rant, anyone?

The other night I was watching a new show that I enjoy called Franklin and Bash (What?! Me watching tv?! Cheesy, bad tv?! Imagine that.). Franklin and Bash are two "hip and cool", "up and coming", fight for the little guy lawyers who have just been hired into a firm full of stuffy, no fun havin, follow the rules, bring in the big bucks lawyers who have a kookie boss who likes to shake things up. (I smell highjinks.) We know Frannklin and Bash are the hip ones because they play COD, wear board shorts in the office and use phrases in the courtroom like "tap that". Textbook hip lawyer stuff. Franklin and Bash are played by Mark Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer. AKA Zach Morris and that skater dude from Clueless who loved little Brittany Murphy and her drawings of Marvin the Martian just the way they were. You know, before she was all "Rollin with the homies".

Anyway, F&B were going to be trying the case of a girl who claimed she was fired from her job for being too beautiful and therefore too much of a distraction in the office. After being briefed on the details of the case they head to the lobby to meet said beautiful girl. Now, because of years spent watching after-school specials and Saved By The Bell I knew to expect a poor misguided, delusional "unpretty" girl waiting for them in the lobby. The typical poor ugly duckling that hollywood usually portrays by gussying a girl down with ill fitting clothing, massively thick glasses, terribly frizzy and unruly hair (sometimes a ponytail) and maybe a few giant zits to top it off. But to my surprise the girl turned around and she actually was beautiful! No zits, no ill fitting clothing, no frizzy hair, no bad glasses...What?! I did not see that coming. And to top it all off she was sweet, likable and good at her job.

Now, to try and paint a better picture here I'm going to do something that is going to cause me to be annoyed with myself and that is to say that she was not what I perceive the general population has deemed beautiful. Meaning she was not a size 00 (size 2 is no longer skinny enough. Now your clothing has to be made by elves and fairies who use thimbles as a guidline for waist circumference), there were no DD's in effect and her legs were not perfectly sculpted, smooth stilts. But let me tell you, she was beautiful.

So this is where I got annoyed. F&B excused themselves to go discuss her appearance with a colleague and said that the case was a lost cause because the client was in fact, not beautiful, not pretty and, get this, "not even last call in Alaska pretty". What the hell F&B?! I thought you were my boyz (that's right, boyz with a Z sucka). It was at this point that I paused TiVo (I love you TiVo) and took a minute to gripe to Jim about all this... and now I'm griping to you about all of this... whoever "you" are... is...

Seriously, I know this is nothing new and people have ranted and raved about this for a very long time but this girl was beautiful and they are flat out calling her ugly. It's like the bar for beauty keeps getting raised and unfortunately most of us girls do care at least a little bit about being able to reach that stupid bar. Now, we're not striving to do chin-ups on the bar but we at least want to have a chance to attempt a chin-up and then dangle there awkwardly when we don't make it.

At least when tv shows used to use an "ugly" girl they made an attempt to make the "ugly" girl look like maybe she wasn't having the best hair, skin, clothing day. And even hearing me say (write) that annoys me. That there is even a standard for what would make someone appear ugly. Why do frizzy hair, bad clothes and a not so great complexion have to be deemed ugly? I know my life would be a whole lot easier if hairy legs, zits and frizzy hair were in. I'm just sayin, I may have cured cancer or solved world hunger if I wasn't spending so much time shaving, plucking, exfoliating and straightening.

I'm not saying that I'm never guilty of being judgmental, of course I am. We all are. I just hate it. That's it. I hate judgeyness. I hate it when I see it in myself and I hate when I see someone being negatively affected by someone else's assessment of them. That's all.

Oh yeah, cause I know you(re) all dying to know. In the end F&B realized that once they got to know their client they really liked her and they decided that they were going to find a way to win the case for her. Not because they thought she was beautiful but because she truly believed that she herself was beautiful. Kind of feels like a back handed compliment but whatever. I'll totally watch it again next week, ugh.

Allow Myself to introduce... Myself

There are moments, here and there, sprinkled throughout my days when positive thoughts about Me enter my thought process. But, while I’m having these positive thoughts there is a saboteur waiting to pop up and spoil everything. It's Myself. Every time I turn around Myself is badmouthing Me for no good reason. If we're being honest, Myself is kind of a bully. Every time Me accomplishes something Myself is there to tell her it was a fluke, whenever Me receives a compliment Myself follows it up with a critique, when Me looks in the mirror Myself is right there to tear her down. Nothing Me does is ever good enough for Myself. It seems like Myself has had it out for Me for a very long time. And I feel like Myself didn't like Me before Me and Myself ever really got a chance to get to know each other. Which is too bad because Me is actually a really nice person and I think that Me and Myself would really hit it off if I could just get Myself to give Me a chance. I think Me could win Myself over but Myself has just been too set in her ways to give this relationship a chance.

I don't think Myself really wants to hate Me, she just doesn't know any other way to feel about her. Myself is just treating Me the way she was taught to treat her and believing what she was taught to believe about her. Myself has a few unresolved issues from the past (doesn't everybody) and she's working on them. And It. Is. Hard. Jeeze. But, I is not not giving up on getting these two together (At least trying not to give up, they can be exhausting, and don't even get Me started about We and Us.). I is determined that one day Me, Myself and I will get to sit down and have a nice, friendly conversation while listening to great music, watching Keegan play, eating great food and TiVo'ing some cheesy TV to watch at obscene hours of the night. Some of Me, Myself and I's favorite things.

Laugh

It was a long day. I wanted to laugh. Once again, enter YouTube. These two videos always make me laugh. Enjoy :-)

First one, funny. And the lady is laughing at the end so I don't feel too horribly bad for laughing along with her.

Second one, funny. Kangaroos are awesome...and dangerous...and sometimes appear to be drunk and belligirent. I do feel a wee bit bad for the people getting punched but if you wake a kangaroo up early to come one your morning show (I hear they like to sleep until at least 9:00am), attach them to a leash and put boxing gloves on them, well then, you're basically just asking them to punch you in the face.

Unstop-A-Bulls...

It's over. Actually it's been over for a bit now but I've been avoiding it. The Bulls are done for the season. I blame myself really. I wasn't able to watch most of the games in this last series and they undoubtably felt my absence and it affected them more than I thought it would. I give you my sincerest apologies. I'll try harder next year. To deal with my sadness and disappointment I've been reminiscing. Thinking back to the days of the Unforget-A-Bulls, the Unstop-A-Bulls, the Unbeat-A-Bulls. The days of Jordan, Pippen, Stockton, Kerr, Grant, Cartwright, Harper, Kukoc, Longley, Armstrong, Rodman, man, I loved them. I have always been and will always be a Bulls fan but I seriously loved. those. guys. My room was covered in Bulls paraphernalia, I watched every game, saw them in action at the United Center more than once, acquired boxes of b-ball cards, had several conversations that revolved around them and many a mood that depended on them. I was heavily invested. If the Bulls lost, you didn't want to be around me for a while. Especially if you were a Jazz, Knicks, Lakers or even worse... a Pacers fan. I mean, Reggie Miller?! Ugh, seriously just, ugh.

Anyway, I'm choosing to remember the seasons when things ended the way God intended, with a Bulls championship. But we live in a fallen world and so things don't always work out the way they should and sometimes Jordan gives not so great speeches at Hall of Fame inductions but again, let's not think of those things. Instead let's watch some highlights of the Dream Team courtesy of YouTube and bask in the Awesomeness that was the 1990's Chicago Bulls. AND the video is accompanied by a little diddy called I Come Off by Young MC... Young MC!! Man, I miss those days!! I'll stop living in the past... eventually. Thank you to YouTube and to those individuals who take the time to upload almost anything I have any desire of ever seeing ever, because my VHS player is broken... yes I still own VHS tapes... shut up.

I told you this would happen...

I told you I would be terrible at this whole blogging thing and that I would forget all about it for months (or years) at a time and that's exactly what happened. It's been four months since my last post and I didn't even remember on my own. I had a 2 minute conversation about blogs earlier today and I thought "Hey, I had a blog once." and then I felt bad for abandoning it. I didn't necessarily feel bad for the few wonderful peeps out there who wanted me to write this to hear my ramblings (love you friends :-)) I felt bad for my poor neglected blog and started worrying that all the other blogs out there that get updated all the time and have fancy layouts were making fun of it and saying things like "She's never coming back you know." and "She probably found a better blog and moved on." and "You suck." (there are some really mean blogs out there) and I said to myself "Hey self! No one talks to our blog that way!". And so here I am to post a few more ramblings and to try a little harder not to forget you...blog.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. ~ Colin Sautar

Prepare yourselves, (imaginary people I invision reading this blog), it’s a LONG one. If you're reading this and you have spent any significant amount of time with me you have probably learned about a few of my, let's just say, "quirks". So, in an effort to get a better handle on some of those "quirks", I’ve started going to counseling. That's right, I am intentionally going to go and talk to a stranger about more than weather and television, crazy, I know. But yes, after several years of avoiding it, some gentle encouragement by a few well meaning peeps and a little voice inside my head... I made an appointment last week and in an even bigger shocker, I actually went! I didn’t “accidentally” get lost on the way to the appointment (which, I totally could have used that excuse, I mean I JUST moved here, I don’t know my way around this place, Jim wouldn’t have been able to question me at all), and I didn’t get a sudden onset of terrible cramps that morning or anything like that. I actually made it to the building, got in the elevator and rode all the way up to the 15^th floor and my mind can do A LOT of thinking in 15 floors.

For the first 7 floors I was deciding what floor I should get off on so I could turn around and head home to do something I thought might be a little more enjoyable like floss my teeth. Then the elevator seemed to be slowing and I thought we were going to stop to pick up another passenger which didn’t actually happen but then, naturally, my mind began playing out the many scenarios of what would happen if the doors did open and a seemingly normal looking person loaded on and as soon as the doors shut on the giant, sound proof metal coffin we were riding in, this person went crazy. So as any smart person would do I began planning out my defense strategies and double checking that I had my mace in my purse (of course I did). So after what seemed like several minutes but was actually just several seconds I spent the last 3 floors of my ride reviewing my thoughts during the previous 5 floors and was reminded once again of why I was going to counseling in the first place.

Finally, I made it to the office and an hour later after revealing an introductory amount of my dirty laundry the therapist did not give me the response I was expecting which was "You are crazy. I won't be able to help you. You should probably just leave now.", instead he was very nice and said there were some things we can do to work through my issues and get me to a less crazy place (my words not his :-)). He also said I was a "dream client", which I'm pretty sure is therapist code for "just the right amount of crazy and you pay your bill". So I made another appointment, that I actually plan to keep!

Well, it’s late and I’ve typed enough and those booby traps aren’t gonna set themselves! So I leave you with wise words from a wise man “They climbin’ in yo windows, they snatchin yo people up…” ~ Antoine Dodson (spell check is going to LOVE that last sentence)

Dynell

My friends, they are so beautiful.

Let me just start by saying that I am incredibly blessed, I know this. I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful child, we are all healthy, we have a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and food in our bellies. I really have nothing in my life to complain about. And I am so thankful and incredibly humbled that God has called me and allowed me to be a part of the PlantVentura team and to be a part of building His Church. And I am super thankful that He called us to sunny California and not somewhere like Siberia or someplace like that. And I will write loads about being thrilled with all of those things but at this moment I am sad and I don’t want to turn this into just another place where I put on a smile and pretend everything is perfect. That's just not what Trapper Keepers are for gosh darnit. So, for the next few minutes I’m going to allow myself to just be sad.

We have been officially moved to California for one week now. On some days it feels like we just drove in from the airport and on others I feel like months have passed by while I wasn’t looking. But it’s only been a week. One week since I said goodbye to my family and friends and sobbed and did the “ugly cry” way more times than I care to admit. But if anyone deserves an ugly cry, it’s those people. How in the heck did I get lucky enough to have the friends that I have??? Honestly, it boggles my mind. Friends, who over just the last few years have come to know more of me than anyone else in the previous 30 years before them. And now we are 2,000 miles away from each other (or on different continents in the case of dear Sarah) and I don’t like that one bit. Thankfully, I mean seriously, thankfully, two of those amazing friends are on this crazy journey with me and they have also left behind family and friends and we can sulk and reminisce and make new memories and rejoice when friends come to visit, together. I am so grateful and happy to have them here with me, to be together.

But, my heart is breaking for my friends back home and I know their hearts are hurting too. I hate that we are apart, I hate that it took me preparing to move across the country to realize just how dear they are to me and I hate that we are hurting. Especially since I never fathomed that I would ever have people in my life (not related to me) who would like me enough and care about me enough that it would hurt them when I went away. Or that I would let others so far into my heart that it would hurt me to be away from them. I never thought I would experience the pain of being separated from dear friends. Not because I thought none of us would ever move but because I never thought I would have such dear friends to begin with. Knowing you have friends you love who love you right back and experiencing the hurt of being far away from them is a beautifully painful and oddly comforting thing.

A blog?!  What in the heck was I thinking?!

 Well, here’s what I think I was thinking:
- I have moved!  What?!
- To California! Get out of town!
- To be part of a church planting team and start a church! Don’t be ridiculous! (Balky Bartokomous reference. Perfect Strangers. Cousin Larry…anybody?)

Then I thought:
- I'm starting on one of the craziest journeys in all my 32 years of life and I should jot down my thoughts while on said crazy journey.
- I have moved 2,000 miles away from almost everyone I love and for some reason they want to hear my ramblings and this might be one way to keep in touch and let them know I have not become a hermit...yet.
- And even though I am not a writer, a creative or a celebrity (I mean it makes sense that they would have blogs); I have been told by a few people that "blogging" can actually be a good thing not just completely terrifying and baffling like I think it is. I mean, put my internal monologue on blast for people to read?! Shouldn't that stuff be written in a My Little Pony journal and hidden under my mattress or something like that? Yes? No? Well, time will tell. 


So here it is! My blog! And while by definition I think this is a blog I’m not quite comfortable with that. Because I have seen many a blog in my day and they are all quite awesome. They’re all very informative and creative and pretty and inspiring and thought provoking or they have great tips to offer to make your life better.  Well, my friend, my “blog” will be none of those things so let’s just get that out there right away. In fact I like to think of it more like my Online Trapper Keeper or OTK for short. Just one big, crazy, messy binder full of run-on sentences, half-finished assignments, crammed with loads of different subjects that I will doodle all over, bury at the bottom of my locker and then forget in the lunchroom.

BUT there is a good chance that this thing will be chock full of ridiculous ramblings, random thoughts that may or may not make sense, things I love, things that annoy me, grammar and spelling mistakes (lots and lots of them), things that make me laugh and of course the occasional paranoid delusion thrown in for good measure (Paranoid ramblings are kind of like my watermark. You know it’s an authentic “Dynell” if it contains some bit about balancing a glass on your doorknob to warn of intruders. Actually, I think that counts as a “great tip” for your life!)  Wow, I bet you’re really excited to read this thing now aren’t you??

Well, writing this first post was exhausting and if you’re still reading it then kudos to you my friend. I think we both deserve a break to go search for some Perfect Strangers clips on YouTube. See you in a few months OTK…just kidding…I hope.

Dynell