these three things (of orient are...)

Once I took one of those intensive summer classes, the kind that is 3 hours every day for 6 weeks.  A great way to knock out language credit AND a great solution for natural procrastinators--the semester is so short you don't have TIME to get behind!  So I had that class every morning from 9-12, and I worked every afternoon at this awful debt consolidation place ("Our philosophy is in our name..." anybody?  anybody?) from 1-6, and I had an internship on a local congressional campaign from 6-9.  Every day.  And it was crazy, but also PERFECT, because I was doing three totally different things with three totally different crowds using three totally different parts of my brain.  And it was then I realized the magic of These Three Things.

To feel awesome I need at least three distinct things going on.  Just one and it takes over your life; just two and they fight with each other for dominance.  Three is the magic number for me.

(Do you remember the old, old video from junior high health class with the catchy tune: "The health of man!  Is like an!  Equilateral triiiiiii-ANGLE!  Completely dependent on the length and strength of each siiiiiiide!").  This is my equilateral triangle of feeling normal!

Anyway, what I'm saying here is that I am inching closer to finding that magic balance again and am loving it.  Since I have tiny kids in a time-intensive stage of life, my family is obviously one of my things.  And my newish job is another one of those things, and my assignment at church is another.  Between the three of those things I feel like I have major time commitments through which I consistently deal with different crowds (the 2-and-under crowd, the college student crowd, the teen girl crowd) and use different parts of my brain (the mom part, the lawyer part, the churchy/mentor part). 

So the three things CHANGE pretty consistently but if I have more than three big things or fewer than three big things I go nuts or battle mental/emotional atrophy.  Whaddayathink?

gross and great

Stuff that is gross:

• I have the weird (and dumb) habit of putting open soda cans in the fridge.  I drink part of one, and it's delicious, and I want to drink it later, but cold.  So, sometimes I do things like spill them.  Other times, like today, I do things like...take a giant swig out of them and then realize they've been sitting next to the minced garlic for a few days.  Don't recommend it.
• I am taking a sample GRE so I can teach an upcoming class (random, I know) and it means that I am studying math for the first time since (literally) the 1990s.  Bahaha!  Remember FOIL?  Pythagorean theorem?  I am digging deep into the recesses of my brain and clearing COBWEBS out and it is hilarious.
• Did I tell you I'm doing this boot camp thing, every damn morning?  Well, I am.  And it is making me buff.  But it also means that I spend about 90 percent of every day terrifyingly sore, and it also means I get up at the buttcrack of dawn, and despite my best efforts, I cannot seem to stop saying "buttcrack of dawn."

Stuff that is great:

• I watched the series, yes, SERIES finale of Friday Night Lights recently and I don't get this way about many TV shows but, wow.  Dare I say best show ever?  I am really going to miss Dillon, Texas.  RIP, FNL, RIP.  
• I weaned my cute baby recently, and though I love her and breastfeeding, this is the first time I've been neither pregnant nor breastfeeding since...wait for it....June 2007.  And it rocks.
• We went to Wisconsin Dells last weekend, or as our kiddo calls it, "Consindells."  Want to know why?  Because it's the middle of February in the Midwest, aka, everyone goes batshit crazy unless you spice up your life somehow.  And you know, sometimes a mini-road trip is all you got.  So we hit the road and were AMAZED at the monstrosity of the incredible/tacky/amazing indoor wonder that is the "Waterpark Capital of the World."  Have you been on a super big, super scary waterslide in the last decade or two?  Because trust me, it's time.
• I helped teach a little preschool class of 2 and 3-year-olds the same day I helped coach this running thing for 9- and 10-year-old girls.  Guess what?  Dealing with groups of kids in those age brackets?  NOT.  THAT.  DIFFERENT.  

Annnnnd, that'll do.

selfish insight of the day

I just realized that how much I like someone is pretty much always directly correlated to how much they like me. 

Is this true for you?

in reality I'm somewhere in between

Things that make me sound meaner/grumpier than I am:

• I am pro-pregnancy and pro-reproduction, but there are few things I dislike more than bare belly pregnancy shots, especially at like 6-12 weeks when it's an excuse to flash your nasty snicket midriff.  BLECH! Okay, okay, we get it, we get it.  You're slender and buff and vain.  What do you want, a trophy? 

• I am pro-gratitude but sometimes, thank you notes can add distance and in certain situations they are weirder than they are nice.  Agree or disagree?  Example: I don't have a sister, but if I did, I wouldn't send her thank you notes for basic things, because that would be treating her like my great-aunt instead of my sister.  Once in a while, for something special?  YES!  But when you're good, good friends and/or closely related, most of the time you're kind of past thank you notes.  Certainly, there are occasions that call for a thank you note here and there, but in general, if we are close, I just assume we are grateful to/for one another, period.  Ubiquitous thank you notes add a layer of awkward formality, and it also makes me think about all the times they probably think they should have received a thank-you note from me and didn't.  COME ON.  If you are reasonably close to someone, they love what you got them and can just TELL you they appreciate it, note = redundant, mmmkay? (I am pro-thank-you notes in most situations, but regular ones involving dear, dear friends or relatives are always startling.)

• There are some notable exceptions but generally speaking, owning an ipad makes you 35 times more likely to be intolerable.

Things that make me sound nicer than I am:

• Remember how I just learned to sew?  I made our sister missionaries rice bags!  I couldn't help it!

• I love my new-ish job and feel a startling and somewhat absurd amount of pride when things "click" for students and it melts my ice-cold heart.

• I can't help but leave babysitters little treats because my 13-year-old self loved that.

bulletin board voodoo

The other day I found our two-year-old perched on a chair, leaning on our bulletin board and poking holes veeerrrry carefully in a few Christmas cards that are still up.  What?

She quickly explained, "I'm just making it so they can seeeee!"

Sure enough, there are holes right in the eyeballs of a number of you.

So if you're coming over any time soon, our creepy-looking level is at an all-time high.