Gotta love that Sir-Mix-A-Lot! 

Anywhooooo….How the hell have yall been?  I’ve been great. 

Minus this…

Yeah…that’s Dan’s former beloved truck. 

It’s a goner.  I was in the passenger side. 

We are both okay…  The bruises are gone physically, but I have a feeling that they will be sticking around mentally for awhile. 

Don’t ever get in a car accident.  Scariest thing that has EVER happened to me. 

Besides that I’m having a great time with my new man.  It feels so good to just have someone to be myself around again.  I was a lost mess there for a while, but all has returned to the center and is found.  I know-sounds silly.  But he’s seriously the best thing that has happened to me.  And it all came at the perfect time.  You find what you’re looking for when you’re not looking for it.  All of those cliches are absolutely 100% correct when you find the right person.  And I mean “love at first sight” and all that crap.  It’s amazingly awesome! 

Hows about some Vanilla Ice? 

Sure!  Love him!

Please play that video and watch it.  Nothing beats that video.  His dancing is da’ bomb! 

I’m having an early 90′s flashback lately.  Sorry.  Enjoy. 

HECK!  While we’re at it!

DANG IT!  Love that stuff.  Wish I was wearing some of those Hammer pants right now! 

Hope yall have a great holiday season.  Unfortunately I work with taxes so I’m busting hump to get ready for tax season.  Which means I have to work all day for the next two Saturdays!  NOT cool!  Why can’t I have an 8-5 job that I absolutely love???  Someday!

Peace and love yall!

Anyway, Dan took his dirt bike and had a great time.  I don’t know much about it other than that it’s a 1996 Honda and it’s a 250cc.  A 250cc is a pretty big bike-I think it’s the biggest dirt bike engine you can get (correct me if I’m wrong, because I in fact know very little about bikes).  Dan returned home on Sunday and posed the question which I had been dieing to hear:  “Babe, do you want to go ride?” 

OF COURSE I DO! 

I have a bad habit of needing to try anything and everything…especially this “guy” stuff (hunting, shooting, driving big trucks, etc.).  I know that I’m still a women and that women will never be able to do everything that a real man can do-but dang it I’m going to try cuz it looks like fun!  This isn’t a new development in the world of Julie-I’ve always been like this.  I will try anything at least once, and get really frustrated if I can’t do it, and try and try and try again until I can or I injure myself to the point where I can’t possibly try again.  I guess I’m hard headed like that.

I wasn’t scared about riding the dirt bike.  Dan made it look so easy, it couldn’t be that hard.  I’ve seen plenty of girls ride dirt bikes and not die.  I knew I could do it.  Dan gave me a brief tutorial which consisted mainly of teaching me about the gears.  For some reason I have brain block when it comes to shifting things-he also tried to teach me how to drive a stick a while back and it didn’t go so well.  There’s just something about having to press something with your foot and hand simultaneously that makes my brain turn off.  I decided that I just wanted to cruise around in first gear.  No shifting to second this time around.  Successfully shifting to second would be far too difficult for me and I didn’t want to try to do it all at once.  So I got on the bike, kick started it, gave it some gas, pulled in the clutch, shifted from Neutral to First and was ready to go.  Just like with a stick shift vehicle-you have to slowly let out the clutch while at the same time giving it a bit of gas.  I do believe that I stalled the bike out about 10 times before my first successfull take off. 

But I did it!  I took off (and I use the term “took-off” very loosely as I was cruising in 1st gear at a snail like pace).  I went around the pasture a couple times then decided to stop to reconvene with Dan and act all snobby about it-like it was no big deal that I had just ridden a huge dirt bike without killing myself.-like I had been riding my whole life-like I wasn’t scared that I was going to flip over the handle bars and get my precious face ran over by the bike.  He was semi-impressed I think and I decided to give it another go.  I was confident about starting the bike, steering and controlling the bike, and stopping (sort of).  So I started it up again…and stalled out again and again and again.  But finally I “took off” again.  This time I was feeling much more confident.  Maybe I should give it a little gas?  Yeah-sounds like a good idea.  Dan will be really impressed then.  Did I mention that I’m still only in first gear? 

So I pulled the throttle and before I knew it my front tire was in the air and I was headed directly for a fence.  I saw my life flash before my eyes (not much to be seen), realized that I may possibly die, thought about Dan and wished I could see the look of terror on his face as I was doing a wheelie and heading towards a fence, and finally I let the throttle down.  Just as the front tire hit the ground and I managed to slow down a bit-I hit the fence.  I heard bones crushing-saw blood in my eyes-felt three teeth fly out of my mouth-and felt the bike run over my precious face. 

Ok…totally kidding.

But I did run into the fence.  Luckily I was going slow (I honestly felt like I was going 80 mph) and the fence had lots of brush on it so it was pretty cushy.  The bike stalled out and I turned around to see Dan rushing up on the 4-wheeler.  I hopped off the bike and said “Shit!” about ten times.  I was mad at myself for not being able to react to the bike the way I should have.  All I had to do was release the throttle, squeeze the clutch and hit the brake.  Apparently my brain can’t think about doing three things at once when said brain thinks it may soon cease to exist.  Dan said in his deep, calm voice, “Baby-I don’t think it’s anything worth swearing about.” 

Oh jeez…way to drop me from a building back to reality.  He does that to me sometimes when I get all worked up about things that don’t really matter.    And he was totally right.  It wasn’t worth swearing about.  I didn’t die.  Didn’t even get a scratch.  Didn’t harm the fence or the bike; which was of course my main concern.  And didn’t get my precious face run over.  All was good and well with me and the world. 

I took a few deep breaths, collected my thoughts, thought about the bike and what I did or didn’t do to cause my little accident, and started it back up. 

By the end of the afternoon-I was doing pretty well.  Feeling more confident on the bike-without being cocky, and having more fun.  I even shifted to second to get some more speed (a huge milestone for someone who’s brain refuses to comprehend the idea of shifting/clutching).  And didn’t do another wheelie again that afternoon.  Success! 

Here’s a pic of me on Dan’s bike.  Don’t I look like I kinda-sorta know what I’m doing?   

And here’s a picture of Dan on the bike.  Ladies be warned…. 

<3

Hope yall have a great day!  And do something dangerous! 

PLSF

As some of you may know, I’m from small-town; Northern Michigan and have moved to the BIIIIIIG city of Houston. For someone who was once a real-life, farm-hand…I think I’ve adjusted quite well. I’ve swapped my tennis shoes and Coor’s Light for high-heels and wine. (Speaking of shoes: I need to do a whole post about my fabulous heels that I own).

I found this at the grocery store the other day:

Good idea or stupid idea???

Pre-Toasted Toast

Yes folks, is toast.  In a bag.  Call me small-town, but I had no idea that this even existed.  Obviously it’s marketed towards the Hispanic since it’s made by Bimbo.  But really…it can’t be good.  Isn’t the whole point of toast the warmness created by the toaster to melt butter? 

What do you think?  Am I not seeing the point here?  I personally don’t own a toaster (shocker!) but that’s because I have an addiction to Peanut Butter toast and wanted to avoid the whole temptation all-together.  NOT because the simply task of toasting bread is too labor intensive for me. 

In the meantime, while you’re pondering, take a look-see/listen at the YEAH TOAST song that ws on the Bob n Tom morning show.  Someone was night enough to create a flash video to go along with it. 

When I’m in a shitty mood I just listen to that song and it makes my frown turn upside down! 

Love and Toast….

PLSF!

Bottles of urine on the rooves and potatoes in the halls. FML!

Loner

I don’t make this stuff up.

PLSF

“Let’s Play….What’s on the Roof?”

But after closer inspection I decided a title with the word urine in it would have a much more exciting effect.  Although I may have to pull out the game-show-esque title out in the future. 

Let me explain. 

The apartment complex where I live has some pros and cons.  One of the pros happens to be parking.  There is a TON of parking, most of which is covered.  Covered parking is a great thing, especially when you live in a hot state like Texas.  Covered parking can mean the difference between third degree burns on your palms or just profuse sweating upon entering the vehicle.

There's my Vibe!

I took that picture from my balcony.  I look directly out to the covered parking.  This is a good thing as I feel that I can keep an eye on my car.  Because I like to pretend that if I saw someone stealing it, I would be able to deter them from the safety of my balcony.  Yeah, right.

Anyway…the corrugated metal roof of the covered parking is a sort of storage area for various items such as leaves, sticks, pine needles, etc.  And by etc., I mean-various non-natural items like beer bottles, beer cans, and other random trash. 

I’ve never personally seen anyone throwing trash onto the covered parking roof, but it obviously happens. 

We got the beer bottles…

Recycling is fun!

I do believe that’s a Bud Light and a Corona…a big one (40 ounce?). 

Then there’s random things…

What the!??

You can see the myriad of items in this picture.  In the forefront you will see another huge beer bottle-still wrapped in the paper bag the bum left the party store with.

You will also see another-half filled-Corona bottle, a roll of clear packing tape, a sparkly red item, and a string of metal wire cable stuff.

Who does this stuff?

Then we get to the next roof item…

The bottle of urine.

Thirsty?

Now you may be thinking that this is a bottle of something other than urine.  But believe me…it’s urine…pee..piss..whatever you want to call it.  I thought at first that it could be apple juice.  Apple juice is almost this same exact color.  But after further inspection, thanks to the zoom on my camera…I’ve determined it to be a bottle of urine.  Apple juice doesn’t come in bottles shaped like that and you can clearly see the blue label half-way ripped off.  I think its a Nestle brand bottle actually. 

Unfortunately I have to look at this bottle of urine on a daily basis.  It’s just sitting there, staring me in the face-taunting me.  I can’t and don’t want to attempt to remove it from the roof.  So until the apartment complex gets around to cleaning off the roofs (which may never happen), I will have to look at the urine every day. 

After a close examination of the urine bottle, I realize that the half-full Corona bottle show in the previous picture contains a liquid that is the same exact shade of pee-yellow. 

Who is living in my part of the apartment complex that feels the need to not only pee in a bottle (that can be justified in the right scenario) but to continue to throw the bottle onto the roof of the covered parking? 

I’m hoping that they don’t make a habit of it.  I don’t know how many more urine filled bottles I can take. 

And if the bottle filler happens to be reading my blog please take a recommendation.  Drink more water and less Corona.  Your urine seems to be very dark yellow which can be an indication of dehydration.  The lighter your urine color-the more hydrated you are. 

You may be disgusting and repulsive, but I’d hate to see you living your life in a constant state of dehydration. 

Drink up bottle filler…drink up. 

*Readers:  if this little issue continues to occur, we will definately be having a “What’s on my roof?” contest!  I know you’re excited.  Can it get more exciting than urine filled bottles?  Possibly.

PLSF

Hello to all of my super duper dedicated readers.  Yes…..I know….I’m a horrible blogger.  But I know that people also hate reading about how people are too busy to blog. 

So I won’t say that. 

But I will say that I have missed my lovely blog and my lovely readers.  I’ve missed you all dearly. 

Nothing new/exciting has happened to me in my life lately.  I haven’t really had time to do anything, and that’s been ok with me.  I like me job and like the overtime that I’m getting.  I’m also very grateful to even have a job…so I’m going to do the best that I can to keep myself in the position that I’m in. 

One new development is that I’ve started attending church service again.  I honestly haven’t stepped into a church for years (except when my Grandma forced me to last Christmas) and I like it. 

Amen.

I found this article among my files at work the other day and really enjoyed it.  I thought you might too. 

What is our role in

creating change?     

Margaret Wheatley

Proceed until apprehended!  Diana Vander Woude

­­­­­­­­Several years ago, I read of a Buddhist teacher who encouraged people filled with despair over the state of the world.  His advice was simple and wise: “It’s our turn to help the world.” I love this statement because it reminds us of other times and other people who stepped forward to help create the changes that were necessary.  We do live in an era that is unique in at least two ways.  For the first time, humans have altered the earth’s ecology and created consequences that are just beginning to materialize in frightening ways.  And we are aware immediately of tragedies and horrors everywhere in the world, no matter where they occur.

But for all of human existence, no matter how terrible the time, there always have been people willing to step forward to do whatever they could to create positive change.  Some succeeded, some did not.  As we struggle with our own time, it’s good to remember that we are standing on very strong shoulders that stretch far back in history.

In working with many people in very different cultures, I’ve learned to define leadership differently than most.  A leader is anyone willing to help, anyone who sees something that needs to change and takes the first steps to influence that situation.  It might be a parent who intervenes in her child’s school; or a rural village that works to get clean water; or a worker who refuses to allow mistreatment of others in his workplace; or a citizen who rallies her neighbors to stop local polluters.  Everywhere in the world, no matter the economic or social circumstances, people step forward to try and make a small difference. 

Because a leader is anyone willing to help, we can celebrate the fact that the world is abundantly rich in leaders.  Some people ask, “Where have all the leaders gone?”  But if we worry that there’s a shortage of leaders, we’re just looking in the wrong place, usually at the top of some hierarchy.  Instead, we need to look around us, to look locally.  And we need to look at ourselves.  When have we moved into action for an issue or concern that we cared about?  When have we stepped forward to help and thereby become a leader?

The process that creates change in the world is quite straightforward.  We notice something that needs to be changed.  We keep noticing it.  The problem keeps getting our attention, even though most people don’t notice that there’s even a problem.  We start to act, we try something.  If that doesn’t work, we try a different approach. We learn as we go. We become very engaged with the issue, spending more and more time on it.  We become exhausted by our efforts, but still we keep going.  The issue keeps calling to us.  Any time we succeed, no matter how small the success, we gain new energy and resolve.  We become smarter as we learn more about the issue and understand it better.  We become more skillful at tactics and strategies.  As we persevere, and if we are successful, more people join us.  Sometimes we remain as just a small group, sometimes we give birth to a movement that involves tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of people. 

This is how the world always changes. Even great and famous change initiatives begin this way, with the actions of just a few people, when “some friends and I started talking.”  Including those efforts that win the Nobel Peace Prize.  

In 2004,  Wangari Maatai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in organizing The Greenbelt Movement which had planted over thirty million trees in Kenya and east Africa.  Wangari was a biology professor at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.  In a meeting with other Kenyan women, she learned that the fertile and forested land of her youth had been devastated.  All the trees had been cut down for coffee and tea plantations.  Local women now had to walk miles for firewood, and the water had become polluted with chemicals and run-offs from the plantations.  

She knew that the solution to the plight of these women was to plant trees, to reforest the land.  So she and a few women decided to begin immediately.  They went to a large park in Nairobi and planted seven trees.  However, five of these trees died.  (The two that survived are still there today.)  Their initial success rate was 28.5%, discouraging by anybody’s standards.  But they didn’t give up.  They learned from that experience and the women carried their learnings back to their villages.  Gradually, they became skilled at planting trees.  Other villages saw what they were doing and, over time, a large network of villages became engaged in tree planting.  In less than 30 years,  thirty million trees were flourishing in 600 communities, in 20 nations. Villages now have clean water, shade and local firewood, improved health and community vitality.

What if they had given up when the first five trees died?  What if they had walked away and left it to the government or the U.N. to plant trees? 

And yet, how is it possible to go from two trees to 30 million trees in just 27 years?  Or, to go from a mere dozen men to 9 million people acting as one unified body in just a few weeks, as happened with the Polish Solidarity Movement?  This exponential growth is one gift of living in a network of relationships.  If the issue is meaningful, people pay attention, see its value, and begin to talk to others.  Such passion moves like wildfire through our networks and communities. Suddenly, we’ve reached millions of people and created large-scale change.  And it’s always true that these large powerful changes begin with only a few people who decide to help.

We can rely on this change process.  If we have an idea, or experience a tragedy, or want to resolve an injustice, we can step forward to help.   Instead of being overwhelmed and withdrawing, we can act.  We don’t need to spend much time planning or getting senior leaders involved; we don’t have to wait for official support.  We just need to get started.  When we fail, which of course we will, we don’t become discouraged.  Instead, we learn from our mistakes.  We look for openings and opportunities that present themselves, even if they’re different than what we thought we needed.  We follow the energy of “Yes!” rather than accepting defeat or getting stuck in a plan. 

And we never know at the beginning where we’ll end up.  And it doesn’t matter. Wangari Maathai calls herself an “accidental activist,” stepping forward to plant those first few trees because it felt like the right thing to do. She didn’t know that she would end up in jail, or have her reputation deliberately destroyed by her government.  She didn’t know she’d win the Nobel Peace Prize.  All she did was take that first step, and then the next, and then the next.

This is how the world changes.  And this is why we need to step forward for what we care about. Little by little, step by step we can resolve the frightening issues of this time and restore hope to the future. 

After all, it’s just our turn to help the world.

It’s Monday!  I haven’t been at work since last Tuesday.  The more days  off in a row….the harder it is to come back to work.  Luckily, we get New Year’s day off this week so that will soften the blow of being back to work. 

Unluckily…New Years Day happens to fall on a Thursday.  That means that I will have to come back to work on Friday.  Dang it!!!!

I am gearing up for the New Year as I’m going to be making a few resolutions.  Mainly—consistently exercising.  I’ve got a few more in mind but I will share those at a later date.

***Fingers crossed***I should have my Internet up and running this evening.  PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

Later peeps. 

J

Can’t wait for 2009!

Wishing you (my loyal blog readers) a wonderful Christmas…or whatever! I will be spending my first Christmas away from home…doing a lot of nothing. Please send gifts…er…money!

WoooooSaaaaaa!  I need to freakin’ relax.  Talk at you peeps later!