Mama

© 2006-2009 Maddy

I admire your heroic determination in what you do, your fearless zest for life, and your ability to just share so much joy and love to my sisters and me. I wouldn’t be half the person I am today if it weren’t for you.

Happy Birthday, Ma.

I love you!

How Do I Dial 1.800.XOXO?

“For more information, please call 1.800.XOXO.”

“If you know the name of the party you are trying to contact, please type in the first three letters of his first or last name.”

“1.800.GOOG.411″

I don’t know about you but I absolutely despise those commands. Why? Because I can’t figure out the actual numbers on my phone that has a QWERTY-keypad. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve stood there looking at my phone trying to quickly figure out which numbers to press before I get hung up on. With a growing amount of people owning smart-phones, most which have QWERTY-keypads, I think it’s rather archaic to have alpha-number commands.

Even Google isn’t on top of it. I love Google and its 1.800.GOOG.411 function though so I have that saved on my phone. (Notice how I haven’t said, ‘…so it’s all right’?) Aside from that, it’s gotten to the point where I don’t even bother picking up my phone to call when I find out the organization doesn’t put out the actual numbers.

Who’s with me on this?

Never Ever Have I…

…sprained or broken anything, or gotten stitches.

Until this weekend. Sort of.

I was on my way over to check out our badminton court* when I rolled on both my ankles after taking one step off the porch. My left foot gave out and my body twisted mid-fall so that I pivoted on my right foot to land on my right side. To make it even better, as I was falling, my mind was suddenly filled with all these random thoughts. Sort of like how your life would flash before your eyes but instead of seeing my life I saw the consequences of my fall.

“Should I call out for P and Z for help? No, no. That would be embarassing.” “Oh crap. Don’t tell me I finally broke something.” “Uh oh, am I not going to be able to go to yoga? Maybe I can get a hold on my monthly membership.” “Why isn’t the BF here?!”

All of that in the span of a few half seconds. Yeah. How epic.

When I landed, I did get kind of teary-eyed because it hurt. But, I did start giggling when I realized I was fine. Fortunately, nothing was broken or sprained–both my ankles buised and swelled slightly but I hadn’t completely lost the ability to walk. It doesn’t hurt much anymore except for when I’m on stairs and walk for a considerable amount.I’m also staying away from yoga for another day or two.

…bought something that expired ten days ago.

Thanks, Whole Foods!

In pursuit of a mostly vegetarian diet, I purchased some fake meat from Whole Foods yesterday. Soy bacon, soy chorizo, soy ground beef–all that good stuff. When I was unpacking my grocery bags though, I noticed that the ground beef expired… on August 15. Ten days ago. Lovely, right? I’m usually pretty good about checking the expiration dates but I guess free truffles right by the fake meat section doesn’t help my focus much. Anyway, I called Whole Foods, explained to them what happened, and they told me to come in to get my refund. I did just that today. I got a double refund and new soy ground beef that expires two months from now.

So, there you go. My first (almost) sprain and (not) delicious (very) expired fake meat.

*Yes, we have a badminton court.

Saturday Night

The Boys have gone off to a BBQ of sorts and I opted to stay home. A nice opportunity to have the house to myself, slowly unwind and ponder random thoughts.

I lit the tiki torches in the back porch and made a delicious mug of homemade Mayan hot chocolate. While that was heating up, I grabbed a sweatshirt, some magazines, the moleskin, pens, and my laptop. Now, I’m sitting on the couch facing the river, wearing my comfortable college sweatshirt, watching the stars come out and sipping my mug of homemade Mayan hot chocolate as I listen to Norah Jones (and the crickets). I’m not sure how long I’ll stay out here for… It’s starting to get chilly but I may grab a blanket and open up that bottle of white wine (I’m sure the BF won’t mind?) once the hot chocolate runs out.

Oh, my ankles are bruised but I’ll talk about that next time.

Can You Catch It?

© 2004-2009 Maddy A.A collage I did way back in 2004.

I’ve always dabbled in the arts and I even considered myself an artist at one point. Over the years, I’ve unfortunately lost the luxury of time that I can devote to art. Art remains a strong passion of mine and I now consider myself an artist at heart. I’ve still got the creativity, patience, and skills when time is on my side and the mood strikes.

On that note, I thought I’d share with you this collage I did out of boredom in 2004. I think I was stuck in the middle of somewhere remote with nothing but magazines and my sketchbook. I think it’s rather fitting–combines both art and time.

Now, let me use this to segway into this portion of entry that’s brought to you by your friends at Timex. If you check out Timex’s webpage on Zappo’s, you’ll notice a nice selection of men’s and women’s Timex watches. I’m sure you can use some of the watches availabe on their page for kid’s, too.  I say that because, believe it or not, I owned two or three Timex watches as a kid. Affordable and durable, which I’m sure my parents realized were essential for kids.

Their watches are especially ideal for those who are looking for watches and are sports/fitness oriented. They’ll also work for you if you’re into technology since they incorporate that into their watches. Like I said though, it still works for adults though especially if you’re into the outdoors. Their watches would be great if you’re a casual outdoors (wo)man and need it when you go on your adventures  since a lot of their watches can do more than just tell you the time. Every time I go camping, kayaking, and what not I always wish I had a watch like that because it would just be so much more convenient. I guess that’s one more thing to add onto my to-buy list.

To sum it up, Timex equals watches with a sports and fitness focus and with technology incorporated into it. That said, it’s worth checking out. (Oh, Timex does have “every day” watches that aren’t too sports and fitness-oriented–and by that I mean watches with leather and metal bands and analogue faces. So don’t scratch Timex off your list just because you aren’t into sports or the outdoors).

Well, now. Wasn’t that an interesting post? Art, time, and watches.