Hump Day

In sequential thought overflow from our trip to Nashvegas and the conversation revolving around Marianne's hair: This is kinda how I felt today.

pahaha... marianne, this is for you.

Yep. It was one of those days. I felt legitimately insane for the larger part of the day today, but oddly enough found it to be unusually productive once it was said and done. My end-of-day email reflected a lot of work that I'm still not convinced I actually did... haha.

I like these low key kind of midweeks. Tonight = quesadillas and absolutely nothing extravagant. SOLD.

his & hers... lol ;)

homemade > restaurant. 'nuff said.

 Welp.. folks, that's really about all I've got for now. It's almost Friday!

Oh.. and Sydni comes home this weekend. SCORE. We may take a trip just for the heck of it, too. We'll see. For now, happy hump day, ya'll (:

xo | cmd  

Weird Tuesday

I'm getting old.

I woke up today absolutely exhausted; the "late night" I had last night with Ali & Marianne in Nashville took more of a toll than I'd anticipated. I seriously didn't think I was going to make it to work on time [I did...], but somehow I pulled off an entire day without passing out. I think.

HOWEVER, I did see this as soon as I turned the first corner in my neighborhood:

hello again, beautiful life... 

Early reminder that I had in fact risen to another day, which means that I'm alive, healthier than some, richer than most, blessed with the eyes to see a sunrise, a job to warrant my driving into one every morning, friends I can tell about it, and a little girl who can paint one that's even better. So yeah... life's good.

That's important to remember on days like this. I'm pretty sure the breakdown I had this evening was prompted by a combination of sleep deprivation, along with the fact that I miss Sydni more than I could explain in any reasonable amount of time. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting her this weekend for the next few weeks; as soon as I know that for sure, that will be settled.... but in the meantime, yeah.... 

* Insert embarrassing unraveling, complete with all the tears, sobbing, sniffling and sniveling of one of these fits. I pulled it together within a few minutes, but for some reason I got overwhelmed at no notice and broke into a spasm of human emotion. Awesome. * 

Luckily for me, I have a dog who apparently is a people-whisperer, and after agreeing to the new harness & tag I found for her [surprisingly cooperative, actually], insisted on cuddling quietly into my leg for the rest of the night. More than that, I have a boyfriend who didn't miss a beat during my meltdown, and gave me both that perfect amount of space I needed in the midst of it, then followed up with a simple but much-needed hug. Crazy freakin' girl.... I know, I know. You folks out there that have someone like him who can read you so well when you don't even know what you're saying - I know you hear me when I say it's pretty cool (: 

k, mom.. i've got my new harness & i brought you my bone....
... so can i please go play? 

I'd be lying to you if I told you I didn't fall asleep at 6:45 PM. Haha. I told you I was exhausted today. It was a long freakin' day. Oh, and to boot? I didn't have a single cup of coffee today. I know - that seemed like a great thing until I realized around noon that I chose the worst day of this week so far to take a mini caffeine hiatus. Oh well. I think I actually forgot to get it; that's how groggy I was this morning. Womp womp womp....

Wow. SO yeah. It's around 10pm and we are waking up for the 2nd time today. Haha. Old folks, for suuuuure. There's clearly not a whole lot else going on tonight, so I'll leave you with a snippet of meatball [aka Stella] doing dog things in the yard. And no, I don't mean potty things. Cute dog things. Hah..

G'Night...........again, blogbots (: 

xo | cmd

Nashvegas!

First things first: Our lovely boss is at it again with her festive sales call gear. With St. Patrick's Day approaching, she is taking full advantage of a costume into which none of us could fit; she wears that sucker well.....

our little leprechaun!

She's hilarious.

Anywho, so last week, we went to see one of Ali's friends [Kali] in a theater production over at McKendree. Well, she's also an artisan. She made a couple of rings for Ali and Marianne; it was for this reason specifically that we made a trip down to Nashville [IL; don't get too excited ya'll...] tonight.

Check out these wire rings!

borrowed from fb ;) | "A" & "M" .. by Kali

Pretty awesome.. and they looked even cooler in person. So... Marianne & Ali met me at my house and the three of us headed off in the direction of Nashville, IL. I'd never been, and neither had Marianne. It was instant hilarity as soon as we hit the exit and started heading into the heart of Nashville. Well... first you have to pass through Little Nashville, which is essentially just a cover page to the actual Nashville: an adorable little town that embodies that podunk feel that I personally just...love.

Not to mention, there is a KROGER there. For all you Ohioans who thought I may've been totally jipped moving to IL, nope... there's a Kroger in Nashville, IL. Sure, it's the size of a Dollar General here, but it's a Kroger no less, and that alone made me happy. 

wahhhh!!! illinois kroger??! .... score.

Oh, and there are enough yachts for sale on one strip of highway to fill up the empty parking spots in the field dealership lot of the neigboring tractor dealership. Marianne was convinced that every silo we passed was filled with poop, as opposed to grain, feed or really anything else, and I quickly decided that if there were to ever be a fabulous yacht club, Nashville IL would...... probably not be... that place. Heheh. I'm really not poking fun, because I grew up in the country and I didn't hate anything about that place. Plus, it produced Ali, and this world would be a bit more dim without her. Everyone wins.

We ate at this place called Girolamo's, which is pronounced something like Gironamo, if for some reason you thought it was like Gyro - Lame-o, like we did when we saw the sign. Luckily, Ali had mentioned the name beforehand, but all I can do is laugh now at the fact that my mind is only recalling the name when I think Gyro-Lame-o. Sorry Nashville. haha.

clover marianne drew | heated conversation
yachts of nashville | girolamo wall art, aka marianne's new home | map of italy 

Oh, and Girolamo's is an Italian joint. It's a really good Italian joint.
I don't have many words for the conversation[s] that ensued over dinner, but what I will say is that it's been a while since I laughed that hard.

A few gems that materialized out of our visit to GIROLAMO'S [and shortly thereafter]... in NASHVILLE, ILLINOIS:

- Marianne self-enrolled herself into an arranged marriage. FRANK, aka SIR to those of us who are not from Nashville, kindly agreed to keep his eyes peeled for a legit Italian boy, in Italy, to whom Marianne will probably be married and live a long and prosperous Sicilian life.
- I recognized the danger of trying to execute a genuine laugh with a mouthful of 7-UP and an ice cube. It WILL end up in your nasal passages and it takes an exorbitant amount of self-control to keep it from coming out of your nose.
- Ali knows everyone... in Nashville, IL.
- Dairy Queen delivers ... in Nashville, IL.
- Marianne's hair can be transformed into the doppleganger styles of: Jimmy Neutron, Carson Dailey, Cogsworth [the clock from Beauty & the Beast], Tim Curry from the original 1985 production of Annie, Goku, Ace Ventura, Wolverine, Steve Carrel, and the much more unfortunate Hitler. It's... amazing.

angry opossum... possum... blech

- We are officially forming a band. Since Rebel Wilson already thwarted the name Fat Amy & the Chubb Chubbs, we may very well go with Ginger & the Re-Re's or something equally-babblish. Oh, and I'm slated as the interpretive dancer for this project. Our first album's going to be a re-make of Lion King. Haha....

- Opossums and possums really are not the same exact thing [thanks, Google], but we'll go with opossum, because it seems trickier, and because we almost hit one tonight. Apparently, Marianne has a pre-conceived vision of these things, and folks, it ain't pretty.

- One of these two things happened in real life: [Setting the scene: A woman came in, clad in a nylon jacket, on the back of which was embroidered the very large, very colorful banner of the 2004 FOOSBALL CHAMPIONSHIP] - Either A) There really was a national championship tournament somewhere in Missouri in 2004 and she earned that jacket.... or B) she bought that somewhere and was just giving us false hope that she may be some sort of local celebrity..... haha.. either way, WICKED cool jacket, but it definitely begged the questions [& prompted further hilarious conversation] in the rules and bylaws of said foosball championships.

these things really exist; i checked ... lol...

Yeah.. that's something I'll have to research later......
.... anyway, we stopped by Ali's mom's house [hi, Mom!] to see her for a bit and visit with her before we made a drive-thru run at DQ... and headed back to Shiloh.

All in all... a.... great.... night. These two girls are a wicked good time (:

Time to go stare at the back of my eyelids and choreograph my routine for the opening scene in Lion King.

;) ... See ya'll in the morning.

xo | cmd

Churchin' ... & Chompin' ... & Couchin' [Sunday]

I'm not ready for this weekend to end. It's been one of the best so far. If Sydni were here, I can almost guarantee this would've been as close to perfect as we could've been. No worries, though, we'll get plenty caught up with the munchkin in no time. 

Anyway, today started off with Rob and I making a trip over to Cornerstone to meet up with Ali and Joey for the late service. I went last week with just Ali; they started a new series this week, detailing the scandalous beliefs and accusations of those surrounding the crucifixion. Interesting stuff. 

Post church meant a trip to Crackerbarrel. DeShawn met us there and we had some good old country breakfast fun. 

macgyver mode to replace a missing tee
ali's first attempt to re-define "genius" ;) 

By fun, I mean eating a copious amount of food and making the best out of a missing-peg-situation with that triangle peg game. None of us were able to get it all the way down to 1, but 2 wasn't all that shabby, and it was well worth it for the food & company. 

only four of us... haha.. 

... and by food, I did mean food. Haha. We had some still left on the plates when we finished, that's for sure... but it was delicious.... and coma-inducing....

.... = midday nap.... (: 

= WIN. 

We're back up now, and completely fine with resigning ourselves to an evening of couched-up nerd mode: Rob on COD, me on blog.. and tattoo designing [to be shared oh-so-soon....], and Stella to whatever pup dream she's having right now... haha. 

Let's see if this week can be a little nicer than last week. Hoping for some Monday - Friday work week MANNERS... heh.

Happy Sunday, blogbots! 

xo | cmd

Saturday | St. Louis

I decided yesterday before Friday even started that it was going to be a great weekend. 

.... So far, I'm still right (: 

Today = Something of a late start, but it was entirely worth it. I got some gorilla bread finished before 11am, which in and of itself was something random since my original plan was the traditional weekend scrambled eggs & potato deal. So yeah, definitely not an awful first step.

Poor Stella spent a loooong time cooped up yesterday, so it was the yard and some sunshine for her right away this morning: 

big smiles... for a gorgeous day!!

We finally got ourselves together and hopped in the car with an entirely blank agenda. That's what we usually do. We took off in the direction of St. Louis, knowing we would eventually find something that would interest us. It didn't take us long. 

Stop #1: Union Station in downtown St. Louis. 

union station | st. louis, mo
++ my new favorite shot of us .. just sayin' (: 

We walked around Union Station for a little bit; it reminded me of a blend between Easton Towne Ctr in Columbus [Ohio] & Newport on the Levee in Newport [Kentucky]. Whatever the case, it was pretty awesome, if nothing else than for the change of scenery and the fact that I'd just never been there. I decided today that I'll be back, probably with the D90 in hand.... hah.

Stop #2: Food. A must, for any weekend excursion, no matter where you are. Rob & I share an affinity for places off the beaten path, or in this case, right in the middle of it, but off the radar of the corporate food chain. Plus, it's nearing that fun little Irish holiday, so it seemed fitting all together for us to make it a pub stop. Llywelyn's it was. I'd never been, but I know now that I'd go back. 

in honor of my two favorite gingers...haha

Oh, and when we were finished, the server reminded us about their participation in one of those famous MDA fundraising things. We bought a clover, and I decided I would include my two favorite gingers, in honor of us being at an Irish pub and neither of us actually being Irish. Good times ;) 

Stop #3: His house. We stopped to check his mail and a couple of other things, and maaaaay or may not have snuck in a power nap here... [[*yes. Insert nap here.*]]

Stop#4: Broadway Oyster Bar! This part wasn't scripted, either, but as is nearly always the case with us, nobody would've known. A couple of his friends were there, plus Aaron Kamm & the One Drops were playing.... so the question would've been why NOT?

Yeah... we made that happen. 

yes, yes.... and yes, please.

Stop#5: HOME. That's now... and that's a wrap on another great day, folks. 

Today = WIN.

xo | cmd

Oh, Beautiful FRIDAY [International Women's Day!]

First things first: Happy International Women's Day! [&yayyy, sort-of-obsolete-holidays! haha]

... found this on my fb earlier; thanks km!!

So.... It's been a long time since I've been so excited for a Friday that didn't serve as an introduction to anything specific for the weekend. Today really was just another Friday, but I've been stoked about it all week.

Oh! Before I get to Friday, let me share with you something I forgot to yesterday because I was so busy ranting about degenerate behavior...... I tackled a recipe given to me and can't say that I hated it. I did think of a few ways to doctor this up for the next time around, but for the first attempt, not too shabby.

pull-apart pizza bread!

[Yumm.]

Anyway, back to today - I think it was because this week has been pretty brutal as far as work's concerned. We've been over-the-top busy for the first time this year, and with an essentially new staff blending together over all of the ramp-up projects, it's been both a challenge and a truly incredible thing. [Yeah, teamwork!]

That, and I took an actual lunch break today for the first time in over 3 weeks. It may seem like a small victory, but when you're in an office from 7:30am to 5pm every day and the only time you use the front door is only at those two times, stepping outside midday for an hour almost seems like a foreign affair of some sort. I almost didn't know what to do with myself, even though it's just Glen Carbon and I've been spending 40+ hours each week here for the last two years. Still pretty funny. There was a different energy in the office today, which was a refreshing contrast to earlier in the week when I wasn't sure if we'd all make it with our sanity in tact to today. I've got a killer team, that's for sure. (:

rompers!

With it being Friday, it would've seemed natural for Rob and I to make some impromptu plans of some sort and end up out for the entire night somewhere. We stayed true to the last-minute nature we do so well and ended up at his friends' house, where we all spent the night relaxing, as opposed to the noise and crowd of being out somewhere. Definitely needed sometimes (:

There were some playful pups there, and I think they had enough energy and play to make up for double what we weren't doing just lounging back. Didn't mind it one bit...

Speaking of four-leggers, my poor meatball Stella spent the majority of today and obviously this evening locked up in her room, so we made it back here to let her out and stretch the legs some, while we sat and tuned up the guitars for a bit on the couch before calling it a night.....

..... which is where we are now. This may or may not be backdated, but hey, that's not important ;)

WEEKEND, here we are. I missed you....

xo | cmd 

Bullies... All Grown Up... But Not Really.

... and no, unfortunately I'm not talking about adorable pitbullies.
I'm talking about adult humans, who have both the capacity and the ability to distinguish right from wrong, up from down, and cruel from compassionate.

You'll have to excuse my rant, especially if you're the one(s) responsible for this, because you crossed a line that I've never had to face, but know plenty who have... and the saddest part of it is that YOU have too.

Here's the scoop:

In one of those arbitrary moments of Facebook newsfeed scrolling, I came across THIS picture: 

this makes me sick

Let me explain this:
1. I blocked out faces because really, that's unecessary.
2. This was originally of a girl and a guy standing together. The person who edited this picture did a hack photoshop job of another girl's face and hair onto the girl's body and posted it online for the rest of us to see. The girl whose face was put on here is a girl we all know; she's a sweet girl who, in high school, had something of a slight social disability. In any case, the picture was posted and immediately hit with a range of comments from people thinking it was hilarious to people asking for it to be removed.

It makes me sick. Yeah, I know... Cori, this type of thing happens all the time; your little rant isn't going to stop or change people. Bro, I know. I'm not trying to change the world, but I was honestly just left in a state of simple sadness and pity for the people who did this to her.... but not only just for her.

I think after brooding over it, I may actually feel more pity for the people who actually think this is funny. It's crazy to me, too, since in the slew of comments that had made it there by the time I first saw it, there were only 2 or 3 out of 10-15 that I didn't recognize as people who I knew had met her, likely had classes with her, or crosssed her path at some point in high school. REALLY?

.... No, it wouldn't be any less of an offense if it were a total stranger, but it certainly speaks even more volume to your character for the fact that you are that callous to do that to someone with whom you've had actual contact.

Folks, I know we live in a world that is breaking and fraying at the seams a little more each day. I'm fearful at times that Sydni and any other children I should have will face in their adult lives a society with absolutely no moral compass, value system, or filter of any kind. I force myself to shut out the inkling that boundaries will be completely non-existent by the time they are grown, and that a basic respect for LIFE in general will be something of an obsolete, historical theory as opposed to something tangible taught by and fought for on the behalf of parents to their kids.

A little known factoid about me, while we're at it [this will make sense, bear with me]: I'm an advocate representative still for the AFSP. If you haven't thought about the impact that these kinds of things have on people, you should take a second to read through a handful of those stories. It sounds like a far, dramatic cry, but it's not. I've seen that, firsthand, and it's real.

I'm encouraged, though. In the moments of anger I had after seeing that, I was met by several classmates who took a personal stand as well against the posting and expressed the same disgust. It isn't even a scratch in the grand scheme of things, but it helped to know I wasn't completely alone in the disappointment I was feeling.

For any of you out there who have a relative or friend who battles every day with a disability or handicap of any kind, this is for you... I pray that you're free from this kind of idiocracy and that you have a peace in the face of what you're handling. I'm encouraged by this to re-dedicate nothing short of my best efforts as a parent to raising my daughter the right way: knowing and believing that human life is valuable no matter what it looks, acts or sounds like. I pray that if I fail at teaching, that at least I can succeed at instilling in her a compassion and the courage to stand up for those around her who can't do it themselves... even if that means she's standing alone.

I suppose I'll stop ranting now... but I hope that if you've found yourself in the position of going along with the crowd just be cool..... it's not worth it. I hope maybe you heard something here, if that is you... and if it's not.. welp, thanks for hangin' in there with me (: 

Tomorrow's FRIDAY!

Let's make it count (:

xo | cmd