Lovely Ladies

There is a John Mayer song called, Heart of Life that came on my iPod today. There is a line in that song that just makes me want to tear up  every time I hear it because it is just so true of my life. It goes like this:


    Pain throws your heart to the ground
    Love turns the whole thing around
    No, it won't all go the way it should
    But I know the heart of life is good

    You know it's nothing new
    Bad news never had good timing
    Then the circle of your friends
    Will defend the silver lining

My girlfriends have truly “defended the silver lining” of my life in the last year. The women in my life are simply amazing. I am so amazed that I have been lucky enough to come across all these amazing women.

I am in awe of Bronwyn’s wisdom and ability to stay positive. I am in awe of Staci’s amazing sense of humor and her ability to give great advice (plus her awesome fashion sense). I am in awe of my mother’s strength and ability to give and give. I am in awe of Meredith’s bravery and her ability to make others feel loved and important. I am in awe of Mary Beth’s ability to tell those around her how much they mean to her (plus her ability to sing no matter what’s going on). I am in awe of Lisa’s intense loyalty to those important to her. I am in awe of Kate’s ability to truly listen to you when you speak and to make you feel like she’s feeling your pain with you. I am in awe of Lindsay’s generosity and her ability to make you feel like the funniest person alive by always laughing at your jokes. I am in awe at Tristan’s ability to tell you the hard truth when you need to hear it. I am in awe at Megan’s ability to make you feel truly important and cared for. I am in awe of Sarah’s ability to make friends with anyone within a 20 foot radius. I am in awe at Jenny’s quick sense of humor to make you laugh when you really need it. I am in awe at Brooke’s ability to sense when you simply need support and be there for you. I am in awe at Elizabeth’s ability to care so deeply about her friends.

I have great men in my life too, but I just don’t understand how women can go through life without close girlfriends. I just wanted to say thank you to all of you amazing women. There’s this quote from a Sex and the City episode where Charlotte is going through a divorce and she turns to her girlfriends and says something like, “maybe we are each others’ soul mates.” Thank you for being my soul mates ladies.

Don't you wish we could all be this happy all the time?

Click here to see the whole commercial.... love it :)

The Pieces of a Broken Marriage

Yes, I know I haven't put anything on here in a very long time. I've been processing lots of stuff that I didn't have time to process during the school year because I was so busy. It has taken me a while to come up with anything I'd be willing to share on the internet :)

When a marriage ends, it's like a glass shattering. As cliche as it may be, you're left to pick up the pieces of this relationship that is now laying in shards at your feet . First, you pick up the larger pieces. You pack up all his possessions: the books, the clothes, the beer mugs. You divide up the dvd collection. You take down the photos hanging on the walls of happier times. You wash the sheets so they don't smell like his cologne. You  take off the wedding rings.

After you've picked up those large obvious pieces of glass, you sweep up the smaller pieces. You separate bank accounts. You call the cable company and try to explain without your voice cracking why you need the account switched to your name. You change his ringtone on your phone so a love song doesn't play every time he calls to talk about some piece of paper that needs to be signed.

Eventually, you meet other men. You go on other dates. You start to move on with your life. The pain starts to subside.You forget that there was once broken glass on that spot on the kitchen floor so you stop wearing shoes to protect yourself; you let your guard down. Then one day, it could be months and months later, your foot finds a tiny shard that's been left behind and there is pain again. It might be finding one of his t-shirts buried at the bottom of the hamper or getting a whiff of his cologne when a man walks by you in the mall or hearing the song you walked down the isle to at a friends wedding.

Finally, you're just left with the scars of the wounds the divorce left behind. The scars don't actively cause pain and eventually they start to fade, but every now and then something will inflame that scar. Something will cause you to remember the injury that caused the scar to begin with. It's frustrating. As much as you feel like you're healed, it's situations like this that remind you that someone else has permanetly left a negative mark on you that you are unlikely to ever completely forget.

I'm So Grateful!

I have amazing people in my life. Examples of these amazing people:

1. My friends planned a surprise dinner and then took me to a great Midlake concert for my birthday.
2. I've been sick. My mom has come to bring me food/medicine twice in the last week. One of my friends just called to see if I wanted her to bring me anything on the way home from work.
3. I have a friend who has been traveling around South America for months who took time out to call me and check in on me. I wasn't able to answer, but she said she's been reading my blog. Hi, Elizabeth!
4. I have lots of friends coming to help me paint rooms in my house next weekend to get it ready to put on the market. How great is that?

This is a picture of all of us at the Midlake Concert.

I've been doing a lot of work in my yard lately. I have to sell my house which makes me very sad. I love my house. I love the yard. I especially love that my dog loves the backyard. Sometimes it is very easy to let myself wallow in that sadness, instead of being excited to start over. So one of the ways that I try to stay excited about moving into an apartment is by looking at great ways to decorate my new place. My favorite place to go is http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/. It's great! You decorating types may enjoy exploring this website.

Confessions of the Sunflower Kid

I'm bored. My kids are taking a test. I have so much more I could be doing with my time, but instead I have decided to let you all get to know me a little better and so here are some ...

Confessions of the Sunflower Kid...


1. I like the smell of my dog's feet... they smell like popcorn and mown grass... does this make me weird?

2. I could eat zingers for breakfast everyday. For those of you unfortunate souls who have never experienced their glory, zingers are basically a twinky that has this totally artificially colored yellow icing on top.They are so gloriously bad for you.

3. I have seen Forest Gump and You've Got Mail more times than I would like to count. I just always have to watch them when they come on tv... it's like Tom Hanks takes control of my brain.

Ok... enough procrastinating... back to grading.

New iPod, glass of champagne, and a movie

I've been trying very hard to keep myself busy on the weekend nights. Well, it just so happens that for the first time in months, I don't have plans on a Saturday night. I decided to make tonight a celebration of the fact that I'm okay with that. So here I am with my new iPod, a glass of champagne, and a movie.

SPLURGE!!!

I've been trying to reconnect with things that make me happy through this blog. One thing that I don't have to reconnect with, though, is music. I L-O-V-E my music collection. I have been lugging around my 2nd generation brick/dinosaur of an iPod for 5 years now. Yes, it was often the butt of jokes (especially by my students), but, hey, it worked. My iPod and I have been through quite a bit together: sprint triathalon training, graduate school study sessions, lots of party play lists, classroom setups and takedowns, lots of time reading on the beach. Well, last weekend it finally bit the dust.

RIP Old iPod

Hello New iPod Touch

 

I have a hard time spending large sums of money on myself, but I have decided that this is one area where I'm going to go all out and buy myself the top o' the line iPod touch because, well, I totally deserve it, and it's almost my birthday so yeah, happy birthday to me (a couple weeks early). Today, after work, I will be purchasing this:

YEEHAW!