Random Wednesday Thoughts

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I just love breakfast. It is my absolutely favorite meal of the day, hands down. I could eat breakfast foods all day long everyday of the week for years and years. In college my favorite themed-dinner night was Breakfast for Dinner. I always, always made sure I lined up at 4:50 p.m. for that one.

Sometimes, when I am sitting in my cube, drowning in incoherent emails, phone messages without points, and layers upon layers of never ending piles of paper to work through, I often wonder if Dan would be cool if his wife with a BA and MA dropped everything and worked part time at a craft store and spent her other time reading books she checked out from the library.

I think I tailgate too much. This is an awful habit. But I just want to get where I am going! Today! Drivers going well below the speed limit in the left lane for no good reason cause crashes.

Nothing makes me happier than organizing. So many of my coworkers have offices that make me cringe. Whenever I am in one of these offices that, to me, look like fire hazards due to the sheer volume of paper, I have the desperate urge to put things in files and in drawers and toss out everything that is way too old to be useful. It just kills me.

When I was little I would have given my eye teeth for one of those motorized cars you can sit in and drive. You know what I am talking about? I wanted the pink Jeep one real bad. I begged and begged and never got one. After I got too big for such things, my parents bought one for my little sister. I am clearly not over this injustice.

Every day my work email inbox is over its size limit. Every. Single. Day. I keep trying to delete, move things to archives, but to no avail. It is like Outlook senses when I am going to send an important email and then decided ?Now is the time to give her the alert that her mail box is too big ? ha ha ha, guess you are going to have to delete!?

Today is clearly a scattered day. I am using all my strength to power through until the weekend because we have Big Fun Plans. Come on weekend, I know your out there ? just do not send anything to my work email, it might not get through ;-)

Project Family Room Curtains – Complete

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With the new addition of my fancy new curtains, the family room is starting to look put together.

I wanted to tie in the colors from the posters on the wall above the sofa ? the dark green, golden yellow, and deep red ? on the curtains. But I do not like the to-the-floor, super heavy, Victorian-look. I wanted something lighter, more fresh, modern, and streamlined.

So, I spent some time scouting around magazines and Web sites to find a look I liked. I recommended taking the time to look around and see what might work in your space before committing because looking at fabric can be completely overwhelming.

I finally saw this look in a magazine where the designers took a tab-top curtain and dressed it up with contrasting fabric. I decided to replicate this look using a striped fabric for the main piece and a contrasting, patterned fabric for the bottom, accent piece.

My mother-in-law implemented this design, and she did a stunning job. They look so custom and chic, exactly what I wanted. And they really warm up the room, making it feel not so blank and empty. We kept the rods simple; they are about one-inch in diameter with a fun finial on the end.

And there you have it ? a pretty much complete family room. What do you think?

Marriage Is Like A Three-Legged Race

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Between us, Dan and I attended a whopping totally of about three weddings. All for relatives, mostly during an age where we did not know what was really going on.

Our wedding was really, our first wedding. This proved to be quite difficult during the planning phases. What kind of flowers did I want? Well, I do not know, for what? Where were they going? What did other couples do? Where did I want to sit? Umm?preferably at a table. How did I want to wear my veil? Well, I was thinking on my head.

And so it went. We just had nothing in our mind to serve as a comparison. So we sort of made things up as we went along and did what we felt like, which, I think turned out pretty well. I would marry him all over again, any day of the week, any place. He is a keeper.

Since we had such a fun time at our wedding, we could not wait to attend upcoming nuptials for our friends. We figured this would be much easier and way more fun to be part of the party rather than the focus on the party.

So we could not wait for our first wedding attendance as married people, and we got our chance this past weekend for our friend Lauren and Greg?s wedding at the Hay Adams.

We knew this would be a fancy affair, so I dug around for my faithful black dress and outfitted Dan in his black suit and red silk tie. This was definitely the sharpest we have looked in a long time. We clean up pretty good. And we definitely stood out on the Metro as the fanciest people.

To say the wedding was lovely would be an understatement. We danced, we drank, we ate fantastic food and helped ourselves to the dessert bar. One of the funniest moments was when Dan, my rather large husband, ate lobster bisque out of a teeny tiny tea cup with a spoon the size of my pinky finger. Very sophisticated ;-)

I liked seeing weddings from the other way around. When you are in it, the day is sort of fuzzy. I felt like I was only partially aware of most of what was happening. It was only afterwards that I started to piece together the fragments of the day.

And that is why marriage is like a three-legged race. Because neither partner really knows all the answers or the best way to go about life together. It is sort of like one step forward, two steps back, sometimes. But, at least you are hooked together. So you can hobble along together and as you get better, the three legs can go faster and move more fluidly. Soon, you cannot remember how you existed before you tied yourselves together.

That would have to be my best advice ? stay together in your three-legged race, and make sure to keep your eyes on your own feet rather than what other couples are doing. Working together is as much hard work as it is fun. I think it is meant to be a bit of both. Anything worth doing is challenging, right?

Woodland Creatures, Beware

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Dan does not usually call me at work, so when I saw his number pop up on my work phone, I knew either 1) something serious happened or 2) something seriously funny happened.

Good thing it was the latter.

Turns out, our Belle was up to no good yesterday. Dan let her out to sun herself in the yard, and when he went to check on her, she was no where to be seen. So he went outside and called her, and he saw her head pop up in the way back of the yard.

Our backyard slopes down, and we have a stone/dirt retaining wall near our back fence. And Miss Belle must have caught the scent of something really interesting because she was lying on her side, digging a massive three-foot hole into the retaining wall.

Dan reported she was absolutely covered, snout to tail, in dirt and other backyard debris, so much so that she had to get a bath, which she was not too pleased about. But such is the price you pay when you are attempting to dig a hole to China in my backyard.

And, we also discovered other areas in the yard where Miss Belle seemed to be on the prowl for assorted woodland creatures. Ah, our little digger. I am not sure how we are going to prevent her from excavating our backyard. When she gets a scent, she is a dog possessed. And it is really yucky whenever she happens to catch anything, like the time she had a dead crow in her vice grip of a mouth (please note: we do not know if she killed it or if it was already dead; we do not actively advocating killing creatures).

So, creatures of nature, please be on the lookout for our not-so-little huntress of the backyard. Or you might be next.

Pass the Candy Corn, but No Pumpkin, Please

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Although the weather still feels hot and muggy this week here in Northern Virginia, the end of September is rapidly coming to a close.

This means fall should be coming in for a landing any time now. This also means that the season of holidays is quickly approaching.

And now this also means one of my strongest neuroses is creeping to the surface along with the holiday displays three months too early at the CVS.

Confession: I do not like holiday decorating. I do not like displays; I do not like season-specific items. Before you think of me as a Scrooge, I do like the holidays themselves, and I like other people?s decorations. I even enjoy other people’s holiday displays, the Macy’s windows, new holiday flavors at Starbucks. I just do not like that stuff in my home.

My neuroses became more apparent to me this year since we have a house. When we lived at the condo, we did not do any holiday decorating because I did not think we had enough space to store that junk between my ever-expanding clothing collection and Dan?s electronics collection. So we did not get a pumpkin, cornucopia, or Christmas tree display items.

And this suited me just fine because I do not like extra stuff eating up space. Also, I view days as just what they are ? days. And, to me, everyday is special, so I do not feel the need to add items in celebration.

Apparently, other people do not share my sentiments. I recently attended a party, and one of the ladies there said she could not stop herself from buying Halloween decorations. I almost choked on my Doritos because I cannot think of anything more unappealing to me than purchasing Halloween decorations.

First, as I covered before, anything in a costume scares me, so I prefer not to remind myself of that fear. Also, when I think about the money I would spend on decorations, I cannot help but wonder how many tops I could get an Ann Taylor for the same price. And, the shear amount of crazy holiday décor just smothers me. When the stores start putting out their displays eons before the actual holiday, I find it suffocating ? candles and streamers and banners and wreaths and lights and candy and holiday-specific cups, plates, plastic tablecloths. Just too much for me.

But since I have a house, and people find my lack of holiday decorations disturbing, I thought I would try to dip my toes in holiday décor. Just a teeny tiny bit. I am currently contemplating purchasing a pumpkin, but I am not sure if I can take it. Maybe just a gourd to start ;-)

Home Body

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I do not like vacations.

Growing up, my family did not take too many vacations, and the ones we did take always seemed plagued with some sort of calamity.

Like when I was in the 5th grade, and my family decided to take a trip on the Big Red Boat (the Disney cruise ship) and then on to Disney World. Before the ship even left the dock, my family ended up in the ship?s emergency room because my cousin got his fingers slammed in the door to the dining room, and my sister ended up with a double ear infection.

Or anytime we took a car trip to visit my Dad’s parents in Ohio, I am pretty sure I vomited at each and every single rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turn Pike.

And then there was the time where we wearily checked into our hotel, made our way upstairs, and let my little sister use the swipe card to enter the room only to find that it already had occupants inside?on the bed….definitely not sleeping.

So perhaps a combination of traumatic vacation experiences plus my strong preference to sleep in my own bed led me to dislike vacations. I much rather prefer stay-cations where I explore my own city and at the end of the day head back to the comfort of my own home. No creepy hotel people, no vomiting, no trips to the ER.

Also, since I have not been accumulating time off for that long, I like to hoard those precious hours. I would rather have a bunch of time saved up in the bank, so when I finally get over my vacation-itus, I can go some place for longer than two days.

This brings me to my current dilemma. Dan?s company is sending him out to London for a work trip, and he wants me to come along. We would leave on a Wednesday, he would go to meetings Thursday and part of the day Friday, then we could have those evenings plus Saturday and a little time on Sunday. I have never been to London. This could be exciting. I am pretty sure I can entertain myself while Dan is in meetings.

Or, we could take a long weekend trip somewhere ? maybe Northern California, Miami, Vegas. Then, we could have more of a trip together since Dan will not be working.

We are trying to plan for this trip in December. Should I go to London? Some place in the states? Truth be told, I would just rather stay at home and make a day trip to DC to do something local. But, Dan likes trips, and I am making it a goal to try not to feel nauseous about going out of town.

Thoughts? What do you think I should do?

Just For Fun

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I decided to try a new mini book technique without book rings. Since this is my first attempt, some of the pages do not line up exactly right, but I am okay with that.

This book is 4″ x 6″ and made only with cardstock, cereal boxes, a pen, a glue stick, tape, and the pages torn out of a recent JCrew and West Elm catalog. The entire book probably took me just about an hour.

I like making things like this because it reminds me I do not need fancy stuff to make a meaningful scrapbook — even if it is only meaningful to me. I just sat at the kitchen table ripping and gluing while chatting with Dan as he made dinner. By the time he finished making our delicious frittata, I completed my book.
Try challenging yourself with just a few tools and supplies and just an hour of time.
You never know what you could come up with :-)

I Do Not Think Weed Whack Master Is In My Future

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I shared my story about my lack of lawn maintenance skills before, and since then I think I made tremendous progress.

Until this past weekend?s events when I proceeded to kill our entire lawn.

Well, let?s back up a little. Dan decided that we needed to tackle some more weeding projects and finally purchase a weed whacker. So we trouped over to our Home Depot, and I convinced Dan to buy me to ergonomic weeding tools ? some sort of little spade thing and something that looked like a long fork with two prongs, so I could attack those weeds with gusto.

Then we made out way to the weed whacker aisle, which contained bunches of those machines that looked sort of like torture devices. So we picked one out and also selected a bottle of Round Up for those nasty weed networks that no amount of yanking could unearth.

Back at the ranch, Dan mowed, and I started tearing out weeds with my new tools. This proved way easier than my previous method of grabbing the roots with both hands and using my body weight to pull those stubborn weeds out of the ground. So along I went, digging and pulling until things started to look less like a jungle and more like a nicely landscaped area.

About this time, Dan finished mowing and started to hook up that weed whacker contraption. I really wanted to try it. It looked like fun! VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM whack whack whack! Yes, I definitely wanted to do that. So, Dan obliged, settled the whacker on the ground, and told me to give the cord a yank. So I yanked, yanked, yanked, and after a couple more hesitant yanks it sprung to life. And it was way scarier than I though. Gingerly I picked it up off the ground, careful to keep it as far away from my body as my arms could reach. This proved to be terrible technique as I just managed to whack off grass here and there and occasionally graze the areas where I was supposed to be whacking. Also, we learned the hard way that one should wear pants while whacking because those shards of weeds hurt when they come into contact with bare legs.
So, I admitted I was a little too scared of the weed whacker and decided I would do better with the bottle of Round Up. While Dan continued whacking weeds in the back, I took the Round Up and attacked the weed network in the front yard. I remembered Dan saying something about not using the Round Up too close to things we actually want to keep alive ? like the grass ? so I tried to be pretty good about just targeting the weeded areas.

So I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed. And pretty soon I used up the entire bottle of Round Up. Apparently, that was not such a good idea. Dan is pretty sure nothing will grow in our front lawn for eons. Oh well, I do not care because I like a minimalist look anyway ;-)

Blogosphere Fun

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I just love blogs. My morning routine is just not complete without checking out my favorite bloggers and seeing what they have to say. I appreciate how each of them give their readers a glimpse into their lives, share their experiences, give tutorials on do-it-your-self stuff.
And one blog I enjoy reading is Llama Tales, and the lovely Llama nominated me and six other bloggers for the Kreativ Blogger award. According to the rules I must:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4. Name seven things about yourself that people may not know.

5. Nominate seven Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they’ve been nominated

So, without further ado, here are seven bloggers on my radar:

1. She Blinded Me with Library Science
2. Inside BruCrew Life
3. My Life As A Wife
4. Learning to be a Wife
5. That Is All
6. Suburban Euphoria
7. Newlyweds Next Door

Okay, now seven things about me:

1. When I really like a certain food, I will keep eating it for days, weeks, months on end until I cannot stand it any longer.

2. I am pretty sure I drink at least 10 cups of tea a day. Green, chai, white, Earl Gray, you name it, I drink it.

3. If my office building was burning down, I would make sure I saved my Brother P Touch before heading down the stairs and out the building.

4. I cannot stand anything Precious Moments. To me, there is just nothing Precious about them.

5. I am still terrified of anything in a costume, e.g. clowns, Chuck-E-Cheese, et al

6. I like my house to be in such neat order it looks like no one lives there. Martha Stewart magazine, call me, we are camera ready.

7. I arrange my clothes in color order — ROYGBIV.

So there you have it – seven things that you may not know about me. As I re-read this list, I am sensing a common theme… ;-)

I look forward to seeing what the other bloggers come up with — Happy weekend!

Lessons from 6th Grade – Why Change Fails

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After my super-inspiring training yesterday, I spent a good deal of time thinking about change and how change happens – both individually and as an organization.

And, to illustrate my thinking, I believe the best example is my elementary school experience with Public Humiliation as Discipline Techniques.

Now, I do not know if educators use these techniques today, but I sure hope not because as a method of attempting to change behavior, they pretty much stunk.

Okay, so, when I was in 6th grade, we had this system where my teacher wrote your name on the board if you committed a disciplinary infraction. The degree of the infraction mattered not. If you talked without raising your hand, name goes on the board. If you forgot your homework, name goes on the board. If you spit in someone?s food, name goes on the board (that actually was helpful because you knew to keep your lunch away from the perpetrator). And, once your name went on the board our teacher added marks next to your name if you committed additional infractions.

And on it went, sort of like a 6th-grade version of the Scarlet Letter, only this was like the Scarlet Name.

But, here’s the thing about this Scarlet Name/Public Humiliation as Discipline. It never ever worked. The same kids (at this stage of the game, mostly the boys) continued to make disruptions during transitions, failed to walk super straight in line, and spoke without raising their hands. And their names always, always went on the board, day after day, to the point where my 6th grade self wondered why my teacher even bothered wiping the board clean at the end of the day because I could accurately predict who?s name would end up on that board again the next day.

This method of Public Humiliation as Discipline never worked for those kids because they did not want to change. First off, as I said, most were just being nine or 10-year-old boys, so that represented one issue. But the other issue is they did not care their names were on the Board of Humiliation. Now, I would be mortified if my name wound up on the board, so I eagerly followed the rules. But these others did not want to change their behavior just to avoid the Humiliation Board.
The same is true individually and in our organizations. I really do not think people will change unless they want to change. And it is really difficult to inspire people to change if they do not care about the incentive, e.g. keep their name off the board.
So perhaps what we need is a better design for change. Something that people want to do. And clearly something other than the Public Humiliation Board. A new tactic and approach. Designed with the people in mind, people like those food-spitting 5th grade boys ;-)