RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Would you like to know something that sucks?  I've realized that all it takes is one person to misunderstand something that I've said and get angry about it, and for about a month afterward I'm going to be double checking and explaining myself to everyone, just in case there is more than one way to interpret what I said. I didn't actually realize I was doing that so much until this morning, and now I'm annoyed at myself. It's a part of my anxious nature, and I am tired of it.


I know I shouldn't worry so much about things like that. I know that rational people figure if they are misunderstood, then it's the other person's problem. I just hate anyone thinking I'm being mean, especially when I'm really not intending to be. Being purposefully mean to people makes my stomach hurt and I feel awful about it for days afterward.

Yeah. I realize I'm over explaining myself here, too.  Don't worry, it'll pass.

2) The weather has been freaking terrifying here lately. 

It started getting warm much earlier in the year than it normally does, so for the beginning of February we've had some beautiful, spring-like days. One day it was almost 80 degrees, which is nuts to begin with, but mainly it's just been an early spring.

I guess we may be paying for it, though, because since Sunday we have had terribly wet and wild weather. It's was sleeting and then started raining almost non-stop, we've had thunderstorms, and last night I happened to be up late and the wind was blowing so hard I legitimately thought at one point the windows in the living room were going to blow inward.  It was scary!  We usually have weather like this is early April and May, but it's rare this early in the year.  I hope this doesn't mean it's going to be super tornadoey (shut up, it's a word) and then be 90 degrees starting in April. 

3) Apparently, some lady came to church last Wednesday night and hid so that she could sleep in the church once it was locked for the night.  This is not the first time someone has attempted this, but it is the first time someone successfully accomplished it.  Well, until she came out of hiding to go to the bathroom and she set off the alarm. One of our deacons had to come up to the church and meet the police, and the lady was caught. I'm pretty sure God worked it out so that I wasn't the one that had to come in the next day (It was last Thursday) because I don't think it would have ended well for her.

I have a fear of this exact thing happening, because sometimes I'm the first person to come to the office in the mornings.  I know people think I'm joking when I talk about grabbing the bat I keep behind my desk and investigating strange noises, but that is not a joke. Obviously that's the stupid, white lady thing that happens in horror movies right before the monster rips out her spleen, but since I have a responsibility to the church, I do my best to check things out to make sure everything is ok.  If she had managed to stay all night and I'd been the first one in and found her here, there is a very good change that poor lady would have gotten hurt.  I don't want to end up beating someone to death if I can help it.

As it turns out, it's a very sad story. The lady isn't mentally well and no one is sure if she has a place to live, or if she's scared to stay at her own place for some reason, but she felt safe at the church and figured that she would just sleep here. I'm sure wherever she was hiding was much nicer than wherever she normally sleeps, but unfortunately we can't allow stuff like that to happen. We aren't a shelter, and we can't allow people to wander around in our building all night. I'm not sure what happened to her, or where she ended up, but I hope she found a place to go where she felt safe. To be honest, it's all to easy to imagine doing the same thing if I were in her shoes. 

Sometimes this job hurts my heart so much.

4) Y'all, I hurt my stupid back again. Our circuit class got cancelled when our instructor was injured, so I haven't been doing enough strength exercise to keep up the gains I made with upper body stuff. I don't know enough about how to do that myself anyway, so any weight training I've done since was just sort of guessed at. Since I didn't want to completely give up altogether while we're waiting for the class to resume, I decided to do the most basic of what I was taught and do planks.

I forgot that was the stupidest thing I could do. I've hurt myself that way before. I don't know if it's the particular muscle group that is used or if I'm going them wrong without supervision, but I pinched a nerve in my back again and it is causing all kinds of problems.  I already have a bum back, but when I was doing those classes, I was working the right kinds of muscles in the right kind of order to actually help my back feel better.  Now that I haven't been doing that everything hurts all of the time, and with the new pinched nerve, it's worse.  I'm not incapacitated, but it's just one of those nagging pains that never goes away. My back feels like it's literally on fire.  If I sleep weird, which I did last night, I also wake up and it feels like my entire body is full of ants. It's the same feeling when your foot goes to sleep, but everywhere!  I hate it!

I know I should go back to the spine doctor, but she wants to give me shots in my spine. IN MY SPINE!  It might make me feel a little better, but I can't stand the thought of it. Not yet.  *shudder*

Anyone want to come and give me a massage? :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Look, let's just get this out of the way. I know that it's odd that a 41 year old lady took a day off to celebrate her own birthday, but that's what I did.  I took that day off and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

My mother always made sure that I had special birthdays growing up. We didn't have much (although I didn't know that at the time) but she always made sure I had a cake and gifts, and when I got older and we had a little more money, I had the requisite roller skating parties and sleepovers, and one magical year I even had a Showbiz Pizza (AKA Chuck E. Cheese) Party!* 

This is accurate.

After I became a teenager the parties stopped, but my birthdays were still treated as something important by my parents. My mom always made a special dinner for me, and every year until he passed away, my dad would wake me up singing happy birthday.  Granted, I often have had bad luck on my birthdays, which led me to boycott them for a while, but the memories of the good stuff always stuck. I think that's now why I like the idea of "doing something" for birthdays, because I fondly remember so many of my own from being a kid. Not just for me, though. I like to make a little fuss for all the people I love on their birthdays to pass that along. Everyone deserves to feel a little special to celebrate being alive, I think. 

Since I didn't want to subject anyone else to possible disasters, I decided that I'd take the day and wander around to do whatever the wind told me to. Really, that meant I got to sleep in and then lie around for a while watching YouTube videos (a habit I really need to break myself of) until I decided to get ready and go out!  My mom called me to sing Happy Birthday (she took over when my dad died) which was my cue to get out of bed, and Sara sent me flowers, which were delivered while I was mostly undressed.  Sorry you had to see me like that, delivery man!  I got in my car and drove to the only place I really planned on going, which is an Asian market on the other side of town. I know that sounds weird, but I love going in there and buying stuff that I'm not 100% sure what it is or how to fix it. That's always kind of an adventure in itself.  Of course, I did go there looking specifically for something I'd seen on the internet, but I also managed to find several other things that looked interesting.  I didn't buy anything too weird, but now I have an ass-load of instant boba tea, Haw Flakes, and pandan flavoring. (Yeah, still not sure what that last one is, but it's green and I'm going to use it on something.)

 

Next, I was planning on going to a fancy-ish shopping center and walk around for a while, but the universe decided (and by that mean that I didn't turn at the right exit) that I should go to downtown Huntsville and have lunch there instead.  A lot of hipstery places and boutique shops are starting to open up in the the old business district down there, so I also decided to walk around and see what I could see.  I went to lunch at a tiny place that I've been trying to get Steve to go to for months, but he never seems interested enough. It's called Domaine South, which is place on the square that sells wine, cheese and sandwiches. I think you're supposed to have a reservation, but since I was alone, I snagged the last seat at the bar and had a nice ham sandwich and an amazing piece of cheesecake. From there I walked across to the Harrison Brother's Hardware store and looked around for a while, and then I walked in and out of some of the places I'd never been before.  It was nice and relaxing, really. I ended my excursion by getting hot chocolate from the hipster coffee shop on the corner and then went home and took a nap.

The nap was important. I'm an old lady now.  Heehee.

Steve came home from work and he brought me a birthday cake. A real, live, birthday cake!  Not once, before being married nor after, has he ever done that. I realize that it probably sounds like I'm being snarky, but I promise I'm not. I thought that was nice and I was surprised! He doesn't usually do things like that, so it was both weird and very sweet. Since we usually don't go out on my birthday (as Valentine's Day is kind of a pain in the ass to try and go out during) we were going to grab some dinner and bring it home, but decided on the spur of the moment to go to a local hibachi place before things got too crazy. I really like the food at hibachi restaurants, but I do NOT like enduring the show portion of things. I know that makes me a stick in the mud, but unless I know everyone sitting at the stove-thing, it's always awkward and you feel the need to talk to strangers and Steve never talks to anyone, and I end up having to interact, and I would just rather enjoy my dinner and enjoy the company of the person I came with.  Also, I like to get my food all at once and not have to eat one thing at a time as the cook finishes it.  At any rate, we got to eat good food and go home and have cake, and that was a nice way to end the day.

Now, if I might be allowed to be a bit sentimental for a second, I do want to say that the best part of my day wasn't the cheesecake, or the exploring, or even the nap (although that was way up there) but the fact that so many people that I love were a part of it.  I got messages, phone calls, and a video that I loved wholeheartedly.  I've been reminded - often - over the past few months that you don't get to keep people forever. You have to love them and enjoy them while they are with you, so it wasn't just that they remembered me and reached out (and I know how easy it is to forget about people who aren't near you all of the time) but that they reminded me that they were still there in my life and I love them even more for that. 

So until next year, happy birthday to me! :)

*That was my 9th birthday in 1987. I had an accidental mullet, permed, from a bad haircut and I wore a wildly patterned button up shirt that Weird Al Yankovick would have been proud of. Oh, and a pair of sky blue Converse high tops. I don't remember that birthday specifically because it was at Showbiz Pizza, but because I was dressed as Screech from Saved By the Bell.  No pictures survive, so don't even ask. Heehee. 

I hug you.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) For Steve's birthday, I ordered two DNA kits from 23 and Me.  I knew that he'd been curious about his heritage for a long time, and since they were running a two for one special, I thought that would be a fun thing for us to do.

If you've never done a DNA collection sample, it's kind of gross. You have to spit in a test tube, and not just a little spit. You have to give them a LOT of spit!  I don't like to spit on things, but it was for science!  We sent our samples out on the same day, but Steve's came back first.

Everything was just as Steve figured his would be. European and Scandinavian, plus a few odds and ends here and there. He was thrilled!  As far as he's concerned, he is a Viking.  Heehee.

Mine were not as I suspected, but not in an exciting or exotic way.  We are supposed to have a significant Native American portion in our family, but nothing that indicated that was in my DNA profile.  I already knew that there isn't a specific, say, Cherokee, marker for DNA or any other specific first nation tribe for that matter. I'd read somewhere that was because the peoples that eventually became what we think of as Native Americans came from somewhere else thousands of years ago, so the DNA profiles for them would show up as from some other continent. So I expected to have that kind of marker in my DNA, because my great, great grandfather was allegedly full blooded Cherokee. Well...not so much. My profile said I was 99.5 percent European.  Specifically, English/Irish, French/German, Swiss and Scandinavian.  The closest thing I had to what I could consider a connection to any Native American connection is .2% Filipino (and that was categorized as Native American/East Asian.)  I also have .3% African, but I'm pretty sure everyone does.

So no surprises there for me!  I'm not Japanese, or Russian, or the great, great, great, great granddaughter of a Spanish conquistador.  I'm a little disappointed, I guess, as I'd hoped my heritage was a bit more exciting, but hey, "I yam what I yam" and I guess that's not so bad. :)

2)  Speaking of the (alleged) Native American members of my family, my sister is following up on some leads that are supposed to connect us to them and she's found a lot of information about the people were are supposed to be related to. I don't have all of the information yet, but she did tell me that our (alleged) however many great grandfather Old Tassle had two brothers, Double Head and Pumpkin Boy, and those guys retaliated against some white settlers that were causing a ruckus, killed them, and then ate them.

Man, I hope we are related to them! Why would anyone want a nice, normal, calm set of ancestors when you can have CANNIBALS?! Amiright?

3) So tomorrow is my birthday and I've taken the day off of work to do...I don't know what yet. We all know that my birthdays can be a bit of a disaster, so it's best if I don't carry that juju magumbo into my workplace. There are things I'd like to do, but who knows if any of them will happen?  Making plans is sometimes a recipe for disaster.  Maybe I'll go out and get myself a birthday cake!  Maybe I'll sit at home in my pajamas all day and watch YouTube videos of people unboxing things! I'd like to have a fun day, because if you can't treat yourself to fun on your birthday, when can you?  We'll see. 

4) Oh, y'all, I was scared to death last week while I was at work.  I was alone in the building, and I heard what sounded like a closet exploding open and things falling everywhere.  It was loud, and it was a very scary thing to hear when you're someplace alone. I checked the two offices right next to my desk and decided that whatever happened, it was out in the church itself.  I grabbed my baseball bat and started investigating.

I don't know if you've ever had to walk into a bunch of dark rooms in a big, empty building, but it's nerve wracking. There are literally dozens and dozens of places that someone could hide if they had a mind to, and since I can't see every door into the place, there was a chance that someone had walked into while we had other visitors going in and out. If they were there and hadn't said hello to me, it wasn't a good sign. 

So I'm walking down every hallway, flipping on lights, kicking open doors, and clutching a bat in both hands, because I was ready to beat someone's ass if I had to.  It was very tense.  It got even worse when I opened one door, and a baptismal robe (person shaped, of course) swung out at me. I nearly wet myself.  So, after I walked everywhere, upstairs and down, and didn't see anyone, much less whatever had made such a loud sound, I was starting to think I was going crazy.  You don't hear a sound like that and it be nothing, you know?  I finished my search and was just about to make another round when I happened to peek into the pastor's office. It was his stupid golf ball clock. It had a pendulum that caused it to move a tiny bit and over time it would occasionally slip off of its nail.  It did so and took another framed picture down with it, and golf balls exploded everywhere, which is what made the sound.  On the one hand, I'm glad there wasn't a stowaway in the church, but on the other, the clock pretty much exploded and scared the crap out of me in the process. After being poised to whale on someone with a baseball bat, picking up golf balls and bits of wood was practically anti-climactic!

5) I feel like there was more I wanted to talk about, but I can't remember it right now.  Eh, I'm an old lady, it'll come back to me at some point!