by on July 3, 2008

Happy Birthday, Liz!

Today is Liz Strauss’ birthday. Birthdays are fantastic days of reflection and celebration in my family, and I hope you have a fabulous day yourself.

I just found out about this special day about 7pm while I was sitting in class and my eyes perked up a bit. My mind flashed to this post and it became a creation in an instant. I didn’t have time to put together anything elaborate, but I hope this has some meaning to all of us who know Liz. Cue story.

The day was December 2006, and I had just stumbled across Liz’s blog through a link from some of the big blogs I started delving into in order to learn how to write better content and reach more readers. I saw her hypothetical questions and a post by some guy called Chris Cree. Skimming some more, I found SOBs and B.A.D. bloggers, too.

Then I did it. I left a comment.

My blogging life changed. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging, Relationships Tagged With: , , , ,
by on July 2, 2008

Another Day in the Waiting Room

Warning: I am in fine form today. My words are sharp and on target, though far from politically correct. If you want watered-down PC crap, go somewhere else, because I don’t subscribe to that mumbo jumbo.

Today as I walked out of the elevator on the third floor of my doctor’s office, I knew I was in for quite an entertaining wait. There was already a line in the hallway of grumpy old farts, and I do mean grumpy. I was a bit ticked at myself for not being first today, but I soon realized that would not have been possible with this crowd. (Also, I’d like to be clear that not everyone in my book gets the opportunity to be called a “fart” by me; just the crotchety, idle seniors who would be labeled “jerk,” “meanie,” and several derogatory terms in their younger days. They are afforded the niceties of being labeled a “fart” by attaining an amazing age despite their lack of social grace.)

Scanning the hallway, the first one in line was an old bow-legged man, as wide as he was tall, shifting back and forth, hands in pockets, with his wife standing statuesque next to him with her arms crossed. Next to them was a white-haired woman sitting on the floor spouting off her dislike of the situation non-stop.

Thankfully there were two more people buffering me from them, because I sincerely wanted the freedom to laugh to myself over their antics, and they didn’t disappoint my desire for premium material.

The seated woman just kept coming with volley after volley of anti-doctor, anti-society, and anti-Bush statements that took everything I had to both not laugh out loud and tell her how unfounded and idiotic her ideas and feelings were.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Humor, Personal Tagged With: , , ,
by on June 29, 2008

Life as a Possible–or Probable–Narcoleptic

Asleep reading a long time agoIt seems like I might finally know why I fall asleep all the time, and it my not just be that “button on my butt” that I inherited from my grandpa. It might actually be narcolepsy, which is also genetic–makes sense to me.

The cool thing about having a sister-in-law studying psychology is you get free diagnoses from time to time. On our way back from Orlando last weekend, I (as typical) fell right asleep in the van with everyone chatting and laughing. I was completely oblivious to everyone. Apparently she looked it up as a joke, and it kind of matched in their minds, without knowing the full extent of my sleep patterns.

I have always been able to fall asleep on a dime when I’m tired, unless my mind is busy. Ever since I was 16, I could fall asleep in the chair watching movies with the family. I have fallen asleep during explosive action movies in the theater in the afternoon. I can fall asleep within 3 minutes of picking up a book, which makes studying REALLY hard. I fall asleep at work, just for a minute or two, but it’s the nodding that drives me crazy. I nod and fight the eyelids when I’m driving to the point where I will go take a nap in a parking lot to keep going. All it takes is 5-15 minutes of sleep, and I’m good as new–for a couple of hours.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: , ,
by on June 24, 2008

Rainy Season Is Here

When we moved to Florida 13 years ago (Gosh!!!! Has it been that long?), we jumped into a full-tilt rainy season the first summer here. What constitutes normal? Rain, rain, and more rain, almost every day during the summer.

I call summer as any day in May through November here. There may be the odd day that is actually a comfortable mix of temperature and humidity slapped in there somewhere (usually a work day), but those are few and far between after May. When I walk outside in the morning to go to work at 4:45 am, the temperature is usually between 75 and 82 degrees with 90-99% humidity. Basically, it’s a deodorant check right off the bat, “yup, I’m covered.” Somewhere between 10 am and and 8 pm it is supposed to rain somewhere in the area for some amount of time. Every single day, unless there is a high pressure front pushing things away.

The last 3 years or so have been gradually drier and less normal, until most ponds and lakes are showing visibly lower water levels. That all changed the weekend, as it has rained somewhere in the Tampa Bay area between Clearwater and Lakeland every day without fail. It’s so cool to see rain on our retention pond and lightning in the distance. My favorite lightning is the completely black sky at night with the cloud to cloud lightning that reveals the clouds that were previously unseen.

I think it’s time to start taking weather photos. What is the weather like in your neck of the woods?

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: , , ,
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