Smart.

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Alright Already.

So my friend Betsy (you remember Betsy right?) has been trying to get me to watch Parks & Recreation for the past 3 years or so. She made it quite clear that the show was perfectly in keeping with my sense of humor and that I'd love it. Every time she asked if I had started watching yet I'd say "No... but I promise I'm going to!" but never did.

I finally did. And once again... she was right.

Thank you Betsy. Thank you.

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You win again Bets. You always do.

But I'll get you next time. Just you wait and see... one day you'll LOVE How I Met Your Mother or Glee. And you'll have me to thank. Mua ha ha ha ha.

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Big Bully

I've been called a lot of adjectives in my life, some good, some bad, some ugly... but never in my life have I ever been called a bully. Until yesterday.

In late summer we hired a woman to work in our department with Joy, Helane and me and I'll be honest and say it wasn't exactly a great fit from the start. As the days rolled on, we got things figured out and eventually we started a relationship with this woman. A few weeks ago she announced to us that while it was a "very hard decision" she was going to be starting a new job opportunity. Now that she's gone, we have to re-fill this position and this is what my boss had to say about the situation:



"Okay now that BlahBlah is gone, we're going to have to have So&So start. He's really nice and we think he'll do a really good job... as long as Alli doesn't bully him like she did the last person."

I immediately thought my boss was kidding because I'm the least confrontational person I know. I would honestly rather do almost anything than get into an argument with someone. Am I passive/aggressive? Most certainly. Light-heartedly feisty? To a fault... but a bully? Surely this had to be a joke.

"Wait, are you serious? BlahBlah said I was a bully? What exactly did I do?"

"Well evidently you did something, because you made her cry twice."

Sitting in Conference Room C, I immediately felt my cheeks flush and my brow furrow. WWWWWHhat?! This is a grown woman! Mid-to-late 40s! While I will admit that the first few weeks of having her around were difficult, I in no way snapped at her or made her feel unwelcome! How could I have caused her to have not one, but two emotional breakdowns?!

Joy and Helane giggled and took delight in making it seem as though I was this real scary "street tough" who could make people cry at will...

"That's Alli... you gotta watch out for her. She's the real ring leader. If she doesn't like you, oh watch out... she'll eat you for breakfast."

(I wasn't worried about this though. I don't take anything those two say seriously. Buncha animals.)

But this got me wondering - could I really be coming across as mean and hurtful when all I mean to be is playful? As I said before, this is the first time I've ever been in this situation where I've (allegedly) hurt someone's feelings so badly that they wound up in tears... not to mention an adult who was supposed to be my superior. Maybe I need to cut back on the sarcasm and the awkwardly-timed jokes....

Yeah right.

The "Before I Die" Project

This piece of community art was started by Candy Chang...

What an inspirational project! Candy Chang's website (found here and where all these photographs are from) explains what the motivation is behind this.

After seeing this it motivated me to think about what I would have written on that wall. I think right now if I walked past this wall, I would write "be satisfied with all that I have already been blessed with".

NYE

Here's my problem with New Year's Eve... It's very sneaky. You think you're going to go out and get all sparkely and drunk and have the BEST NIGHT EVER, but in actuality it's a huge, expensive, disappointing pain in the ass. And here's why:

-Anywhere good worth going to requires a ticket to get in. $50 to get through the door and then "drink specails" all night long. And they're "special" in the sense that they're rail vodka drinks with this much booze and this much soda, tonic, water, whathaveyou.

-It's freaking freezing on December 31st and girls (or at least this girl) feel required to wear dresses and heels. So you have to stand outside in line to get into the bar where you paid for a ticket weeks in advance, then you have to stand outside forever while waiting for a cab, all while your legs are exposed. If your date is a decent person he'll give you his coat but that's hardly been the case in my book... Happy New Year! Here's a head cold!

-Speaking of dates, it's my opinion that NYE is worse than Valentine's day in most scenarios. For single people anyway. And as I am a single gal and this is my blog, that's how it is. On Valentine's day you expect and accept the fact that there will be couples everywhere and that single people are the weirdo freak losers who should stay at home and cuddle up with their many cats (hollerrrrr....). NYE is the exact same way and there's even a countdown to a big romantic kiss at one point. Nothing more depressing to a single person than counting backwards from 10 while everyone else around you smooches the one they love and and you stand there quitely having a panic attack. However, that does give us single ladies a chance to make a beeline for the bar where there will most likely be no line as everyone else is in a passionate embrace with their date. "One vodka tonic with a lime for this Bitter Betty please. Aw hell, make it seven."

-Even if you're in a relationship, this holiday sucks because your expectations for it are always way better than it can ever be! This is true for most holidays but NYE definitely takes the cake. You envision this fabulous night, hype it up, and it's usually pret-tay miserable.

This might not be the case for everyone - some of you might love New Year's Eve. And if that's the case, then I sincerely hope you have an amazing night. And for the rest of us, I wish you a safe, warm, alcohol-filled, and drama-free night!


Should All Acquaintance Be Forgot...

Warm Yourself!

Senior Citizen Flash Mob

Thank you for bringing this into my life, Helane!

Ho Ho Holy Sh*t It's Almost Here



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New

My friend Katie in my office just told me about this website that gives you a daily boost!

Daily Pep Talk From A Best Friend will give you a new inspirational quote whenever you need one and (hopefully) help you to be the best "you" you can be!

I ran across this beauty which caught my eye immediately:

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Check it out! It might be just the push you need to do something amazing today!

Thanks Katie! :)

Grumpy Old Men

This was 100% me this morning while watching the news. 

Little Peanut

I have been bursting with excitement the past several weeks and couldn't tell anybody... but now I have the green light:

MY SISTER JESSICA IS HAVING A BABY!!!!

She is a little over 3 months and according to the tests and ultrasounds, this is going to be one happy and healthy baby! Jess and Scott have decided not to find out what gender the baby is going to be... so it will be a surprise come early June when he or she arrives!

So this means little Buggy is going to be a big sister... I hope she handles everything well!

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A Brilliant Bug

My sister's doggy Lily, whom we all affectionately call Buggy, is the smartest dog you guys.

(Volume necessary)

I wasn't even in the house but she ran around looking for me until my sister got her to stop. I stayed with her a lot in November and we re-bonded. She celebrated her birthday on the 25th with extra doggy treats and a long nap in the afternoon.

I couldn't ask for a better niece puppy :)

Oh Hi



herro kitty!

Sleep Deprivation

I put my Christmas tree up this past weekend. At first, Lyla was cool with it. In fact, she paid little to no attention to it.

But now.... well now it's a different story.

She spent all night last night gingerly batting ornaments off the tree and then chasing them all over the condo. Up and down the length of the living room, rolling the ceramic holiday balls over the hard wood floors without a care in the world. I had to get up no less than seven times to get the ornament away from her and put it back on the tree in a higher location than it was before.

So I didn't sleep well last night. And because of that, I'm sleep deprived. And because I'm sleep deprived, I think this is hilarious.

Click play on the video, let the music play and watch the GIF below.

 

cuttin a rug

You can thank me now, just leave a comment.

For Dad...

K-e-double-n once told me that Ticket To Ride was in his top 3 favorite Beatles songs.

Ran across this today and had to post it.



My Baby Don't Care.

I could probably watch this movie (HELP!) on repeat.

If you haven't yet been introduced, do yourself a favor. There's enough light-hearted, British banter in that flick to last movie-quoters a lifetime.

Enjoy!

I'm Thankful For....

If you're a loyal reader, you remember that Thanksgiving last year didn't go so well for me. This year I plan to avoid the Jagermeister/projectile vomiting route and opt for sobriety. See that? Growth.

People are tweeting what they're grateful for this year, and it gave me the idea to do a post full of things I'm grateful for, in no particular order:

1. Jane, Kenn, and Jessica

2. Puppehs and kittehs, all of 'em, everywhere

3. Cheese

4. Joy & Helane

5. Music. The good kind

6. My iPhone (sad but true)

7. Potato Casserole

8. People with a sense of humor

9. Pinterest

10. My bed

11. Bud Light

12. Alliteration

13. People still reading this list

14. Warm weather

15. The New Girl on FOX

16. Text messages

17. Harry Potter

18. GIFs

19. Anybody still reading this

20. My fellow Romans

That's obviously just a very small list. I'm grateful for tons more. But I think those are the important things.

Since I hate Thanksgiving food, I'm bringing Kraft Macaroni & Cheese to my aunt's house this year. Can't wait to see the kind of reaction that gets from the rest of the family. I'm sure it will begin some sort of argument - and thus be the official beginning of the Holiday Season!

gobble gobble

Happy Turkey Day folks!

You GUYS!!!

After an oil spill takes place, animals are in a tricky spot. Their habitats are compromised and they're left with a small chance of thriving and survivng.

New Zealand activists took it upon themselves to do something to help penguins affected by a recent oil spill, and they did it in one of the cutest ways... ever...

penguin sweaters

Here's a blurb I found on Nosh about the sweaters:

"Aside from keeping the penguins warm, sweaters also help prevent poisoning.  While they are already soaked, it’s eating the oil in an attempt to cleanse themselves that causes most cases of poisoning.  Sweaters are providing a strong barrier."

halp us!

no two alike!

fancy penguins

Good work, humans. Proud to be one of you today.

It's Funny AND Educational!

Looking for some new reading material that will make you laugh, and teach you some facts about the good old U.S. of A? Check out Name That State - my friend Katie's new blog!

Katie travels a lot for work, and therefore has learned a lot about places she had never been before... smalltown Tennessee and the backwoods of Mississippi, thet list goes on and on. She travels to these real classy areas and then gives them new state names dripping with wit and sarcasm. 

It couldn't be a cuter blog and I'm so proud of her for putting it together! Check in frequently to see what kinds of gems she's finding out there.. you won't be disappointed!

'Merica

Oh and Also...

Evidently this song is sung by the Pointer Sisters but until today, I always thought it was sung by RuPaul. Just listen to this and tell me you can't imagine him singing this... sounds like a man to me!!

This is ruining my childhood!!!!

Santa Baby

I grew up listening to the A Very Special Christmas c.d. over and over again around the holidays. Just seeing the cover of this gets me excited!

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This c.d. is long gone now, though. Gone to wherever lost c.d.'s and dvd's go in our family - to a neighbor, in the basement somewhere, out of a moving car window... whathaveyou. I just downloaded it again on iTunes though. Thanks Steve Jobs.

Back in the day, my sister and I would dance like white girls to Run DMC's "Christmas in Hollis" (I still know every word by heart... doy...). My mom's favorite was "Merry Christmas Baby" by Bruce Springsteen, for obvious reasons, and we would always roll our eyes and say, "Daaaaaad.... that's so weird...." when he would louldy sing "Walkin' Round in Women's Underwear...." instead of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" with Annie Lennox. Typical Ritchey shenanigans.

This c.d. brought me so much joy as a child, but also lead to so much confusion. In Maddona's version of "Santa Baby" (the best version, in my book) she sings, "Santa baby, slip the sable under the tree, for me". At one point in my childhood my dad drove a mint-green Mercury Sable, similar to this beauty:

Beep-Beep-mm-Beep-Beep-Yeahhh

so in my head, when Madonna crooned "slip the sable under the tree" I imagined that she wanted a Mercury under her tree. "How neat," I thought, "Madonna wants the same car my old man has!"

Several years later when I heard the original version by Eartha Kitt, I thought, "Damn they had Sables back then?"

It wasn't until my early twenties that I realized that a sable is also a luxurious fur. Which makes more sense for Eartha and Madonna to want under their tree than an American made automobile (although they both ask for convertibles, too... that's my justification).

It's this and so many other things similar to it that lead me to believe that I need to be tested for a mental disability.

Gambling Kitty

This kitty looks like my Mia!

I've Had Conversations Eerily Similar to This One...



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GPOYThursday

Get. That. Dirt off your shoulders.

The Universe

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I think once people realize that this is exactly the way life works, things start to become a little less dramatic. If life hands you something that completely devastates us, we have to try to remember (as impossible as it seems at the time) that there's a reason for it.

I'm not the most religious girl, but I saw a quote on Pinterest that really gave me a new way to look at prayers...

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I have a flair for the dramatic. I always have. Whenever something slightly bad happens I tend to think of it as the worst thing that's ever happened to anybody anywhere. I can admit this, and I know that it's a horrible trait to have. But I want to be better about it. I want to be able to let things roll off my shoulders easier. Hopefully if I keep these two quotes in mind the next time I find myself in a less-than-desirable situation, I'll react a little better.

Here's hoping anyway...

Catching Up!

It's been a few days since I've been able to write! Work has been absolutely crazy these last couple of days, and I've been busy watching baseball at night!

My amazing, talented, beautiful friend Monica just started her very own blog called Mrs. New Bud that I insist that you pop on over and read! Monica just got married in September so her blog is about life as a newly wed, along with any other fantastic thoughts that she has!

I finally carved my pumpkin last night! Can anyone guess what I carved? Anyone?

Meow! Have a puuurrrrrrfect Halloween everybody!



My Kinda Treat



Karen Walker

Boom.



Pardon the offensive language, but this pretty much sums up my view on things.

You are SO boring.

Evidently I wasn't paying Lyla enough attention last night between the blogging and the baseball game, so she passed out next to me.

Poor attention-deprived kitteh.

Till Death Do Us Part

forever

In a relationship, married or not… You should read this.

Marriage:

When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day. She requested that every day for the month’s duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife’s divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me. On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn’t tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it’s time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life lacked intimacy. I drove to office…. jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart. Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead. My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push through with the divorce.— At least, in the eyes of our son—- I’m a loving husband….

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don’t share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage. 

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Disclaimer: This wasn’t written by me. I saw it on the internet and decided to share it here.

My Turn to Weigh In...

Here's the deal:

I'm a fence-rider. I am as middle-of-the-road as a person gets when it comes to politics. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've even told myself that "I'm not smart enough to understand politics, so don't even bother".

I sat down to write about how I wish this whole "Occupy Wall Street" story would blow over already. I had heard about it on the news and I had seen protesters outside of downtown St. Louis and my opinion was, "Those people need to get a job and quit their bitching. If I can do it, so can they".

But then I did some research.

And what I found out surprised the hell out of me.

I won't shove my opinions down your throat (not my style), but I will share the protest signs that made me stop and think the most.

I'm a little nervous about this guys... what the hell is our country coming to? And what will be left of it for our children?

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Some of these protesters are free loaders. Some of them are young, ignorant people who didn't want to go to college and don't want to have to earn a living. But most of them really  aren't. Most are college educated adults who are stuck... and I can relate to that. I won't go so far as to say that I'm part of the 99%. I have a job that pays me fairly. I own a condo and a car, and I pay taxes with every paycheck. But I'm not exactly thrilled about where I am job-wise right now. Corporate America and I don't mix well, just as I feared we wouldn't. So I'm certainly not part of the 1% either.

Where do I fit in?

All these people who are "mad as hell" for their personal reasons have every right to be. But who's got ideas? Who knows how to fix it? Until people start coming up with ways to rectify this, I'm afraid that Wall Street will continue to sweep this under the rug. Sure it'll be annoying for them and maybe it will even inconvenience them. But it sure as hell isn't going to change things.

So... what now?

 

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Happy 1st Birthday, Life's Circles!

My silly blog is 1 year old this week!

Make a wish!

Thanks to everyone who stops by every so often to read my off-the-wall thoughts and observations! Someday I hope to write something really profound and interesting, but until then, this blog is all I've got.

It's nice to be able to have a place besides Facebook and Twitter to rant and rave, and (as I'm sure you've noticed by now) I love being able to add pictures and movie clips to my posts.

So Happy Birthday, Life's Circles! Here's to at least a few more birthdays before I move on to something more important!

GPOMe&MyFriendsThisWeekend 10/19

This is how Betsy, Lacy and I looked for the majority of Saturday:

Oh Guuuurl....

Mmmm-Hmm.



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What's Your Sign?

I totally buy into the whole astrological sign concept. I just looked up characteristics of Gemini (my sign) and it was pretty spot on!

According to Astrology-Online.com (a credible source if there ever was one), here are the traits of a Gemini:

Good traits:

Adaptable and versatile

Communicative and witty

Intellectual and eloquent

Youthful and lively

Not-so-good traits:

Nervous and tense

Superficial and inconsistent

Cunning and inquisitive

It also said that we Gemini get bored easily. We need constant change and novelty in order to stay interested.

#yup.

the twins

What does your sign say about you? Do you think it's accurate? Or do you think this is all a bunch of hooey?

Jackpot...

Wanna watch Hocus Pocus?



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Click here!! The full movie on redux.com!

"FOR YOUR INFORMATION... HE'S A LITTLE LEAGUER!!!!"

MIZ - ZOU!

Good old Helane went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch today and brought me back a fortune cookie:

Switch out the words "desert sands" with "Highway 70" and this thing is scary accurate!

The University of Missouri - Columbia is celebrating their 100th Homecoming this fall, and I'm making the journey down to CoMo to partake in the festivities! Whether or not you believe that MU invented Homecoming, it has to be said that we do it pretty darn well!!

Mizzou Columns

If you haven't read of my love for the city that is Columbia, you can delve further into that relationship here.

So tomorrow I'm leaving work early, and the lovely Lacy and I will be roadtripping it down to Mizzou to stay with the also lovely Betsy.

(sorry for the sick "paint" handwriting - I'm a lefty and used my righty)

If this fortune cookie is any sign of things to come, I think this weekend will be one for the books. Just the emails we've been sending back and forth trying to get some sort of a plan together have been making my sides hurt.

I'm excited y'all.