Happy Little Trees

I love my jeep. I bought it because I knew that years would pass, and I would always like driving it. A jeep only gets sweeter with time.

But something has happened in our relationship that I didn’t predict. My jeep has gotten very expensive to drive. My tires are a little oversized (I didn’t pimp it out myself, it was used when I bought it, and came that way), which adds to the problem. I calculate that in the city, which is sadly where my jeep has to do much of its roaming, I probably get about 12 miles per gallon. Due to traffic, sometimes, I get less.

For the past several weeks, I’ve done all types of calculations looking at various reliability and mpg ratings for smaller cars, and I’ve figured up that I would probably save money per month buying a used car, rather than keep driving my jeep.

When I start to think about what car I would buy, it makes me miss my jeep already. I picture myself going to the parking lot, and getting into a little shiny box of a car with 6 inch wheels, and it isn’t appealing.

An alternative plan I’m toying with, is sending it to live with my mother. She gets to drive through the country side more than me, and has a house renovation project going on, so the extra storage and hauling capacity that the jeep could offer her would be a help.

I always thought that my jeep could be passed down to my kids. They could use it to learn to drive out on the farm, kind of like a lot of my friends learned to drive on their grandpa’s old Ford out in the field. Where do I get ideas like this? I think I’m trapped in between city-thinking and country-thinking. I’m a white collared worked with a bit of a redneck wring around the collar.

I'm waiting a few months to save some money (and pour some more into my jeep) before I make the official decision. And I'm keeping my eyes opened for old Corollas and Civics--trying to warm up to the little, shiny tin cans. Maybe I'll just imagine my Corolla with monster tires, mudflaps, and a horn that plays Dixie, and I'll feel better about it. Aw, geez, somebody get this girl some chaw to wise her up! Kidding. Really. Just kidding.

I feel ill. Just a few weeks ago, I was bragging that I never get sick anymore since I’m Miss Home Remedy. But today, I feel ill; stuffy head, headache, bleh.

I had a sore throat all day yesterday, and then this morning woke up about 3 hours before the alarm, with a headache, and unable to get back to sleep. I finally fell asleep (after the alarm went off) but still feel bad.

When I finally made it back to sleep, I had the strangest dreams.

In one dream, I was trying to make sure everything was in its normal place, so I knew if it was a dream or not—or if I was still stuck in the Land of Sleeplessness. I noticed a picture in the wrong place, so I assumed it was a dream. I was rushing to get ready for work, and when I saw myself in the mirror, I noticed that I had on some dark lipstick applied Joker-style on my face.

Then, the phone rang, and I crawled back in bed with the phone to talk. It was God.

First, he told me which Theologians I needed to read, and I tried finding a piece of paper so I could write them down. Then, I asked him if I would ever get married, and the phone got kind of fuzzy on the line, and he kept asking me what I had asked, and I asked again. His answer was unclear.

Wow. The irony of dreams.

Today, I found my name in someone’s else blog with a request to complete this. It was like finding a prize egg—or a nickel with my name on it!

Rules for the game:
1. Put these rules at the beginning of your post.
2. Answer each question (see below) in your post.
3. Tag five people at the end.

What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was shoveling snow in the mornings in Tahoe City, CA and working with the A+ Program which was an afterschool program for students at a church. I lived with Miss Paige and Miss Ashley. They cut Campbell’s soup labels all day (to trade for a van), and I worked with the 4/5 year olds. The tales you can tell when you work with that age are priceless.

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Invest wisely.
2. Tithe it.
3. Help all my family start their own businesses.
4. Start a non-profit for widows and orphans (I might do this without becoming a billionaire).
5. Build a Christian camp/retreat center in my hometown.
(and also get a puppy)

Five jobs that I have had:
1.Quality Assurance person at Premium Allied Tool & Die (checked for bent parts and leftover tumbling materials)
2. Afterschool care worker (Bowling Green and Tahoe)
3. Camp Counselor
4. Adult Literacy Tutor
5. Teacher

Three of my habits:
1. Floss my teeth at night.
2. Read my e-mail immediately and obsessively.
3. Read fashion and fitness magazines obsessively.

Five places I have lived:
1. Dundee, KY
2. Rochester, NY
3. Tahoe City, CA
4. Asheville, NC
5. Houston, TX

Five people I want to get to know better:
Carissa
Laurie
The Traveler (yes, this is a girly thing to do, so you can pass it to your honey If you prefer, but I'm sure your answers would be interesting, too)
Alyssa
Abby

Who else reads my blog? Anyone? Anyone? Brandi?

In other personal ponderings...

Today, I'm wearing a blouse that I'm scared might be a maternity top. The label says, "Love Squared." Definitely sounds like a mommy and me brand. Who can tell these days with the empire waist craze? I told my current co-workers that if anybody asks if I'm leaving this job because I'm preggers, I'm burning this shirt.

I was walking in the hall to lunch, and the man from the credit union who has never spoken to me before said, "Cute top!".

Statements like that from straight men weird out women. Maybe God was using him to encourage me to not burn this top.

Brenda shared something with me called The Flight of the Conchords. We watched the DVDs she had. It was stinking funny. But it requires a unique humor to laugh at it. Since one of my natural intelligences is humor which means I can laugh at pretty much anything (even things that other people do not find funny at all), I loved it.

Click a bit or two on the link and see if you can watch some clips. It's an HBO show, so kids under 17 do not need to be clicking, because not everything is appropriate (oh great, now I've made them want to watch!).

Text mishap of the week:

Me: Have you seen Flight of the Conchords on HBO?
Friend: No but I've seen this other one on the discovery channel that was all about it and it was really cool

Not everybody will get it. And that's okay. We're still friends.

I went to D.C. last weekend, and had such a great visit with Brenda, and got to see Yee Peng and Tim's new baby, Emelyn.

It had been three years since I had seen Brenda, and she is still just as fabulous as ever. I learn so much from her and love that she always introduces me to cool music, media, and styling products.

On this visit, we went to a concert with Ari Hest, who is absolutely talented (and handsome--whoah). And then we also heard Ingrid Michaelson. I kept thinking she sounded familiar as she sang. She was so funny and quick witted and smart, she reminded me a bit of my friend, Laurie (who also sports similar glasses). And it's like Ingrid has suddenly been thrown into rockstar mode, and it's a breath of fresh air, from normally over serious musicians. She was real, honest, and I enjoyed the show, and she did finally sing some songs instead of making us laugh.

Seeing Yee Peng and Tim was a special blessing. Their wee one was just born April 16th. It was so neat to see them in the role of being new parents; honestly, it was quite beautiful to see (in spite of the fact Yee Peng wouldn't let me take pictures of her). I got to act like the baby paparazzi for a bit. It was quite fun.

I loved seeing D.C. in the spring. Here's more pics of the adventure.

The lovely and talented and hilarious, Ingrid Michaelson.

The tulips were amazing!


Brenda my frienda.

More to come...but here's a peek from my trip to D.C....

Pete the Frenching Dog

Some places in our country feel sacred. I feel that this is one.



Introducing Baby Emelyn, daughter of Yee Peng and Tim


Baby and Daddy

Two very important days to write on your calendar this month:

April 29th - FREE CONE DAY! at Ben & Jerry's

April 30th - 31 cent cone day! at Baskin Robbins from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

and you might want to add:

May 1st - "Hire-a-trainer" day...or "Diabetic coma" day