My Weaknesses

Puppies.
Nuggette.
Leftover chocolate.
Facebook.
The Williams-Sonoma Catalogue.

and Amazon.com.

Don't get me wrong, places like Target and White HouseBlack Market make my skirt fly up, too. But you can buy anything on Amazon! Christmas present for Dad [Wine areator]? Amazon.com. Work's external hard drives for the office? Amazon.com. My new camera? Amazon.com.

All of this with the option of free shipping on orders more than $25? you betcha that's Amazon.com.

This sounds like a really bad paid advertisement (I don't make a dime, unfortuantely). But honestly, lately I've been on a kick making my own convenience foods at home. Homemade peanut butter, cornmeal parmesan crackers, butter, and fresh mozarella cheese, that kind of thing. Most of the ingredients I can find in the bulk foods section at WinCo, but rennet and citric acid for making cheese aren't located on Aisle 5. But a quick check on Amazon let me purchase them for less than $5!

I can get lost on that site for hours, unfortunately. Whether I'm looking for a baptism gift for my niece or looking at reviews, price comparisons, or even gift ideas, it's my drug of choice.

Needless to say, my credit card is well aquainted with their billing department. All for the sake of stimulating the economy, right?

Judging

Sup?

You did what?

With who?For how many cookies??!?!?!?

Tough Toons

Tough, but pretty darn accurate:

brother, can you spare a dime?

I'm lookin' for some change.

Which is odd, because normally I'm the person who sticks with tradition. If the world ran things according to my comfort zone, we would still be using the old 5, 10, and 20-dollar bills, the nation never would have switched to this digital TV thing (thus rendering my favorite old bunny ear antena useless), and Facebook would have stayed with it's original design and layout.

(We'd probably still be under the rule of England, too, but let's look at the smaller picture.)

In short, being stubborn and a fan of routine rarely allows me to leave my comfort zone.

I can't believe I've been out of college for almost 2 years now. That makes me something that the rest of the world considers an adult, but I'm still stumbling around wondering how I went from a carefree college student worrying about finals and which dance club we would frequent that weekend, to this person whose conversations with friends now include terms like "mortgage," "bills," and "interest rates." -shudder-

Basically, I'm now this boring adult who bases decisions what is considered the responsible action, rather than doing things for myself, at the spur of the moment, or out of pure stupidity or ignorance or simple carefree bliss.

But isn't that what being in your 20s is about? Doing things because you can blame them on the decade of your life where you're allowed to blame it on your age, and people will simply nod their heads, understand, and then tell a story about their own decade of stupidity? I have at least 7 more years before I really need to think about getting a car that will accomodate a dog, carseat, and at least 4 other soccer team children, rather than getting the Jeep I'd truly love and enjoy. I have at least 5 more years before I need to consider which kind of washer/dryer combo would work best at each price point. And I have at least 2 more months to go out and enjoy my sunshine-filled weekends before summer is officially over and I go back to the doom and gloom of a Portland winter.

The pure pressure of it all can be so daunting at times! Knowing what I should be doing as a responsible adult, and then knowing what I truly want to do, simply because I can. I'm not tied down in any way except for my job and a few family obligations, so isn't now the time to take the time to just go somewhere? Take a trip, take chances, and enjoy the simple thrill of it all?

I'm trying to step outside my confining bonds and think about what else I can do in and with my life before it's too late. I'm thinking either dying my hair blonde or researching an internship position in London. I've always wondered how I'd look with blonde hair, and I've been dreaming about living in London since I was 6 (I think it stems from wanting to live in a land where princesses actually exist!). The little voice in the back of my head is telling me to save my hair folicles and keep my hair at its dark brown mahogany color, but I was blonde as a kid, so why not again now? Another little voice is telling me to save my money for a house I'd like to buy someday, invest the money into my retirement, or just put it in a rainy day fund.

But living in Portland, I've learned that sometimes, you have to accept the fact that today might be your rainy day.

sometimes it takes a million tries to get the million-dollar shot

Which I proved last week when playing with my niece and my new camera.

Case in point:

Awww, I love this picture. Just chillin'. And quite the fashionista.

Nugget is officially Nugg-ETTE!

It is my pleasure to introduce to you my beautiful brand-spankin'-new niece:

Maria "Mia" Rose Lundeen

Born July 3, 2010, 7:54 pm

8 lbs., 1.7 oz.

20 inches long

She has her mom's nose, dad's shaped head, MY dad's chin, and 3 aunts who are planning to spoil her rotton.

Tis the Season for Chicken Pox

Fortunately, that ship sailed through my life about 20 years ago.

And after re-reading that, I feel incredibly old, as I now have the legit ability to reminice about events that happened almost a quarter-century ago.

Questioning my own mortality: just the way I wanted to start my Tuesday morning.

My manager came in this morning, and gave the lovely news that her adorable 2 year old daughter was exposed to the chicken pox this weekend (by a 4 year old granola child, who has chest-length blonde hair and wears dresses...and is a boy. Um, okay.) Now my manager is wondering if she's going to have a spotty, itchy, miserable daughter in about a week. As an individual who has suffered through the chicken pox not once, but twice in my lifetime, I can totally feel her pain.

And don't tell me that "you can't get the chicken pox twice!" Let me guarantee you, IT CAN BE DONE.

(My sister, on the other hand, has made it through 26 years of life without getting it even once, after being exposed multiple times. Including the Christmas my cousin had it and my mom did her darndest to expose K - she still didn't get it. Lucky bugger.)

The thing I remember most about having the chicken pox, besides getting yelled at for scratching, are the oatmeal baths. I didn't really understand their significance at the time, but a sock full of mushy oatmeal? BEST. BATHTIME. TOY. EVER. Oh sure, it helped with the itching and all, but frankly, getting to spend an hour at a time in the tub for the sake of my health? It was a dream come true! I'm sure that the experiences were much less fun for my parents, but at least they weren't the ones "suffering."

While I now have a greatly reduced risk of getting the chicken pox as an adult, I just found out that there is a correlation between having chicken pox as a young child, and the odds of getting shingles as an adult. Great - not only did I suffer twice as a kid, but I get higher odds of getting an even more painful virus as an adult?

Thanks, Universe.