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Everything gets in the way

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Things have been busy.  And stressful.  And sometimes, even when I have time to myself in the evenings, I’m so worn out from EVERYTHING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED EVER that I can’t do anything but sit on the couch and watch Scrubs.  Sometimes I can stretch my brain far enough for Mad Men, but that doesn’t happen as often as it should.  So I haven’t been here.  And I’ve been trying not to feel guilty about it.  I feel guilty about other things – no, not guilty (not about everything, but definitely about some things).  Responsible.  And that’s tiring.  Weighs me down.  So I let this go.  Not writing doesn’t hurt anybody.  I let other things go, like book club.  We were reading good books (most of the time), but fitting in the time to go to the meetings turned into another responsibility, another obligation.  I have other obligations, ones that are more important to me, so I let that one go.  I’m tired of ignoring my friends (hi, friends!).  What other things can I let go of?  Selling the house ought to open up some time (no more open houses every single weekend), but then moving will take over with all the packing that entails.  But then we move.  Will free time appear the way we hope it will?  Emily’s wedding will be past us soon – that should free up some weekends.

So am I back?  I’ll try.  But it might be at the expense of other things.  I don’t like having to choose.

Wanna feel better?  Visit the Bloggess’s Pinterest page.  Some highlights:

 

 

 

 

And…you’re welcome.

 

It never ends

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We’re being all companionable today, sitting next to each other on the couch with our laptops on a rainy Sunday, and wait a second – does that rain look white?  Is that SNOW?  It doesn’t look like it’s entirely snow, and it’s not exactly sleet – what the hell?  Is it STICKING?  Is the ground white?  Okay, everybody, take a deep breath.  No, there’s nothing white on the ground, but that rain looks really odd and snow-like.  Ugh.

Sorry about the momentary panic. We can move on now.  To some headlines written but never published.

[A couple of hours later.]

We’re back from the gym, and while we were gone, my fears about the weather were realized.  There is now a white slushy ickiness all over the ground.  I repeat: there is white slush on the ground.  In my YARD.  On March 30th.  I give up.

Stop with the flip-flopping, Mother Nature, or we’ll stop voting for you

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Wednesday was the last day of spring.  We said hello (again, grudgingly) to winter yesterday.  Then we pretended to see someone else on the other side of the room and gave it the cold shoulder the rest of the day.  (Hee.  Cold shoulder.)

To make me feel better, I like to look at this picture (from Reddit), captioned “Minnesota Yeti Caught on Film“:

The picture is even wintry, in keeping with the mood and weather of the day.

Winter musings

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I should love February.  It’s got a three-day weekend in it, it’s short (a plus in winter), and oh, yeah – it’s got my birthday in it.  If anything would be make like this month, that should do it.  But it’s DREARY.  Winter is still here and the sky is always gray and it’s still cold and just yuck.   Yuck and ew.  My birthday only helps for a couple of days.  It doesn’t make me stop wishing February would just end already and let spring get here faster.  Of course, then I’ll be disappointed by early March.  I’ll be all, “Yo, March!  What’s up with this cold weather?  Don’t you know it’s supposed to get warm as soon as you get here?  What’s wrong with you?  WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?”

A solution: move south.  Or west.  Likelihood?  Very very very very UNlikely.  Besides, I don’t hate winter.  It’s just not my favorite season.  I like it in small doses.  I like it when I’m warm and dry and cozy inside and looking out on the nasty and wet cold weather.  Fires in fireplaces are nice – I wouldn’t get that if I moved somewhere without winter (well, I wouldn’t appreciate them as much).  And snow is pretty, until it gets gray and slushy.  I can pretend I’m a tracker when I see rabbit footprints in the snow.  Snow makes me wonder what a real tracker would make of Riley’s footprints now that he’s missing a foot and has an odd gait.  I don’t find myself pretending or wondering those things when there’s only mud or sand outside.  Maybe I would in sand, but it would be about birds, not rabbits, and they’re not as cute.

There – I can be positive about winter.  Was that convincing?  Maybe I need a daily mantra.

Winter’s not so bad.  Winter’s not so bad.

No, I need it to be more positive.

The sun’ll come out tomorrow.

Nope.  Too positive.  Also untrue.  Also also, no need to burst into song.  That could get awkward, especially at work.

Turn that frown upside down!  Turn that frown upside down!

Psychotic.

This might not work for me.  I just googled daily positive affirmations, and oy.  So not me.  Maybe the bursting into song thing is better for me.  I could go with Oklahoma (Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day) or Mr. Rogers (It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood) or Sesame Street (Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away).  Or Dean Martin (Good morning, life).

Whoa – as I was typing this, the sun came out.  Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up.  (Okay, sure I could, but that would be cheap, and I will not stoop so low.) Aaannnd it’s gone.  But hey, it was there for a few seconds.

New phone!

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I am now the proud owner of a Google Nexus 5, and it only took about 40 minutes in the store.  It still seems ridiculous that it takes even that long, but at least we didn’t have to wait for someone else to finish up.

From this thread on Reddit come a few websites that are cool.  (That is an awkward sentence.  I’m leaving it, though.  Ssh.)  The Nicest Place on the Internet shows short videos of people smiling at you and giving you hug.  Seriously, they seem like very nice people.  You can mute the music.  Also, The Internet is Useful: descriptions of and links to websites, apps, books, etc., that are actually useful.

You are welcome.  Pardon me while I go watch nice people smile at me.

Eh, it’s Friday. Don’t expect too much.

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I like to think I’m a patient person, but sometimes I just run out.  Most of the time it’s work-related.  Hardly ever friends and family.  Occasionally the general public.  And when it’s work-related, it’s not everyone.  But come on, people, do your job.  I’m not going to do it for you.
I wrote that this morning.  HOURS ago.  Whatever was bothering me then couldn’t have been that bad – I don’t remember being bothered by anything after around 11 this morning.  That’s a good way to finish a Friday, right?
Consider this a public service announcement: be better than this.

Deeply uncool

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I wasn’t going to talk about it (I was trying to be cool), but it just got so much better, and I can’t help myself.  The other day, The Bloggess came to visit my site.  How do I know?  She commented (TWICE!  Sorry – still trying to be cool), and I got all excited and happy and stuff, but you know, that was it, and I moved on because I can be cool about it (I can try to be cool about it – I may have told half a dozen people already).  BUT, three days later, she posted her weekly round-up, and in her list of shit-I-didn’t-come-up-with-but-wish-I-did-because-it’s-kind-of-awesome is the link to the leaping llama!  That she saw here!  Yes, I know I didn’t create it, but I found it, and she came here and liked it, and that’s small and not a big deal, but she’s cool and it’s nice to know she liked it enough to share it with her followers and…I don’t know where I’m going with this.  I’m glad I could help?  I feel like I’m part of that?  Something like a combination of those two things and just yay.

Also from her most recent weekly round-up (linked above) is this list of really funny theoretical moments just before GIFs start.  And here’s the subreddit they came from and where more can be found.  (This is another one I think is really funny.)

LOVE this (from Hank Green, Vlogbrother).  I had to listen to the one about the kleptomaniacs three times – he mumbles the beginning, but it’s so worth it.  Literally.  (Hee!)

Because I don’t know how to post gifs on my blog, here’s a link to an adorable one from Reddit.  And because I DO know how to post pictures, here’s the cutest killer kitty you’ve ever seen (also from Reddit):

And that’s enough stuff I found on the internet today.

How to waste time (enjoyably)

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I spent my weekend (the parts when I wasn’t cooking) watching random internet videos.  (John thinks I don’t know how to internet correctly, but really, he’s the one who’s wrong.)

Watched some My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Hart, some Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’? by Anthony and Ashly Burch, some Geek and Sundry Vlogs…

Devil Baby Attack video from Dooce is HILARIOUS.

Knowing your audience is important, dude.

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When I got in to work this morning, almost the first thing I heard (overheard) was one coworker explaining the Han Shot First controversy to another who could not have cared less, judging by her completely disinterested tone.  Coworker #1’s enthusiasm was not the least bit dampened by Coworker #2’s total lack of interest in learning who the hell Greedo is.  (Was.  Whatever.)  I can’t decide who I feel more sorry for: the Star Wars enthusiast in need of a like-minded buddy or the business analyst clearly wishing the oblivious fan would let her do her work.  If I hadn’t been on my way to a meeting, I would have jumped in myself. I probably wouldn’t have contributed much (Han shot first – what else is there to say, outside of some grumbling directed towards Lucas?), but at least Coworker #1 wouldn’t have been left hanging.

What caught my eye on the internet yesterday (and by internet, I mean Reddit)?

Got a little teary (just a tad) reading this (from Reddit).

OMG ADORBZ!  (Somewhat ironically used because I’m not a teenage girl, but for real, this is freakin’ adorable.  Also from Reddit.)

Missed already

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I made a kinda-sorta-quasi-resolution to post every day for as long as I could this year.  I told John about it yesterday, thinking how cool it was that I’d made it 11 days in, and then I went back and looked at the little calendar widget that shows me the days I blogged.  Where was the link for Friday?  Wait – seriously?  I missed the 10th?  But I remember writing something…oh, there it is.  Safe and sound (and unfinished) over there in Drafts.  Damn.  And also whoops.

Now go look at some maps (via Reddit) while I figure out what I’m reading next.  For real.  They’re pretty fascinating maps.

I apologized to the kettle

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I need tea (soothing, hot, yummy) to recover from today’s edition of this week’s plague and last night’s carousing, so I put the kettle on to boil.  Then I sat down to read The Bloggess’s latest post, but the kettle started to whistle too soon, and I found myself getting irritated with the kettle because damn it, I’m not ready yet,  so just shut up with the whistling until after I finish reading about Jenny’s dead diarrhea unicorn pony.  And then I realized that Pat the Unicorn’s story isn’t going anywhere, and it would be way easier to read if the whistling stopped, and the kettle isn’t trying to irritate me, it can’t help itself, so I poured the boiling water into my mug.  I think I need a nap, but it’s too late in the day for a nap, so an early bedtime will have to do.

Stuff to look at

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I was going to post to a bunch of things individually, but I’m feeling a little too lazy for that, and besides – how long has it been since you visited The Bloggess?  Her links to shit-I-didn’t-come-up-with-but-wish-I-did-because-it’s-kind-of-awesome are kind of awesome this time around (not like they aren’t usually).  The cell phone crashing video is really cute (3 minutes – you’ve got 3 minutes, right?).  I haven’t watched the Wholock video because we’re not caught up on the Doctor yet, and I’m afraid of spoilers.

Check out the llama who thinks he’s Pepe LePew (from Reddit).

I….don’t have anything else, and I don’t have anything to link all of this together, and you know what?  That’s okay.

Bits and pieces

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I have a few hours to myself today, and I think I’m going to use them to catch up on a little bit of the internet.  Just a little.  I’m reading backwards through Whatever (which has already inspired me to buy a new Kindle book –  The Furnace by Timothy S. Johnston.  I put it on my wish list so I wouldn’t forget about it, noticed it was only $2.51, and bought it.), and I don’t expect to get very far (I’m only 10 days back right now), but every little bit counts when I feel like I need to catch up.  Little bits, here and there.  I have tomorrow, but then it’s back to work, so most of the internet will have to remain dusty for me.  Sorry, internet.  Oh, John is about to go upstairs to practice, which means I can watch Pitch Perfect (he’s not interested), and I guess I’ll just have to apologize to more of the internet.  Sorry, more of the internet.

Very serious life-changing goals

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Goal: I want to watch more movies.  Good ones, fun ones, Oscar-nominated or almost nominated ones, it doesn’t matter.  I feel like we miss out on a ton because we just can’t get through them fast enough.  We don’t want to devote enough time to watch a movie during the workweek, and our weekends keep filling up.  There is a list of 25 Critically Acclaimed 2013 Films on Netflix Instant (tweeted by Eric D. Snider), and I think we should make an effort to see them.  All of them.  Well, as many as possible.  If you’ve seen any of them, did you like them?  We could use some help prioritizing…

This kind of thing is on my list, so it’s okay

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I’m staying home again today, resting.  Needed.  I’ve spent nearly two hours this morning online, catching up on Dooce archives.  (I haven’t been on her website for what seems like – and might actually be – a year.)  Now?  I feel guilty.  Like I should have spent that time doing something else.  What?  I don’t know.  How is this not resting?  Apparently, I should be more productive when I’m resting.  I suppose I could be learning something (French, MinutePhysics, Khan Academy), or I could be reading my book (I’m re-reading The Book Thief so it’s fresh when I see the movie – not always the smartest move, but I can’t help myself), or – hey! – I could be updating the book list on this very website, and maybe I will do those things today, but first I need to convince myself that two hours staring vacantly at someone else’s old blog posts isn’t wasted time.