Tripping

Last week I got up when I normally do - before even the butt crack of dawn - so I could get my usual morning run in before getting ready for work. A lot of the time, when I start my morning run, I'm still half asleep on my feet until I get a few minutes into the run, and my body wakes up.

Unfortunately, on this particular morning, it took a lot longer for that to happen. And since I wasn't picking up my feet enough, the sidewalk decided to jump out and wake me up.

Down I went. I tried to fall so I would land in the grass, but it didn't work out like I had hoped and I scraped my knee. As I limped back home, blood streaming down my leg, I thought about how at least no one saw me go down. Although I'm surprised the people whose yard I was lying in for 5 minutes didn't come out because I definitely did not go down quietly.

I don't consider myself to be a klutz. I really don't. But then I remember the other times I've tripped and fallen during a run. Or how many times I run into a door jam. Or stub my toes, scratch my face, get bruises on my legs.

Or the time I fell over backwards during a handstand in the middle of a performance at a dance recital.

But those are all random accidents. They don't mean I'm a klutz. They don't. I'm sticking to that.

Hump Day Humor: Baby Elephant Finds Its Trunk

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Games

How many holes are there on a standard Chinese checkerboard?

121.

Tuesday Trivia: Games

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer - or best guess - and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

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How many holes are there on a standard Chinese checkerboard?

Independent Woman

Yesterday I came out of yoga to a flat tire. Thankfully it's not something that causes me anxiety as my dad made sure I knew how to change a tire before I could get my driver's license. And since then I've changed at least half a dozen flat tires.

Only I couldn't get the jack out of the cleat - or whatever it's called - that was holding it. No matter how I pulled, tugged, pushed, it wasn't coming out. So I called DH to come help me. I hated doing it. Especially since I know how to change a flat tire.

There's just something I don't like about having someone help me with a task I know perfectly well how to do and am capable of taking care of it on my own. Some might call it a streak of stubbornness. 

Personally, I prefer to think of it as a streak of independence cause that's what it is.

Though I have to say, I am grateful to have a husband so willing and quick to help.

Capstone

In graduate school, one of our final classes was a capstone class, where all the groups work on the same live client and compete against each other for the "business."

My group of friends took capstone a couple of semesters before me and won their class. So when I took capstone my final semester I felt like I could had to win it too because they did. It wasn't pressure I felt from anyone but myself. And when my team didn't win, I was upset at what I felt was a personal failure.

I go through this time and time again. Putting pressure on myself to accomplish something because I know someone who did it that way.

But I don't have to. I can do it my own way according to my own timeline. I don't know if this is a lesson that will ever fully sink in for me as I feel like I'm continually having to learn it and remind myself to STOP COMPARING myself to others.

Life is not a race. It is not a competition. It is a journey. Meant to be enjoyed as we go.

Hump Day Humor: Colbert Super PAC Ad

Stephen Colbert takes on the local ABC affiliate.

The Colbert Report
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ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Movies

Who played Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook?

Julia Roberts

Congratulations davidswinney for being the first to get the correct answer!

Tuesday Trivia: Movies

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer - or best guess - and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

<><><>

Who played Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook?

Dreams

I haven't seen her in over six years. I've thought about her. But I can't remember her once showing up in my dreams in the last six years.

Until a couple weeks ago. I don't even remember what the dream was about. I just remember being surprised to see her and that she was smiling so big and was so happy. She kept telling me how proud she was.

I had even forgotten about that dream until Friday when someone commented on a bridal picture of me on Facebook. "A dark haired combo" of her and my mom is what she said. My heart swelled at the compliment.

My grandmother was many things. And I was only beginning to get a clearer picture of the person she was besides my grandmother when she died. 

I found myself last night looking at pictures from my wedding day wondering what she would have said to me if she had been there. I like to think she would have looked like she did in my dream a couple weeks ago. 

Smiling so big and so happy to see me happy. And telling me how proud she is.

Stella

I had a whole post planned for Monday. Well, it was planned in my head. I was going to sit down Sunday evening to type it out.

Only this little girl had other plans for me:

Stella, my newest niece, made her presence known to the world Sunday night.

Even though I was asleep at my desk on Monday, it was worth all the caffeine I had to drink to survive the day to be there as part of her welcoming committee.

Many congratulations to my brother and his wife on their beautiful daughter. You guys did good.

Hump Day Humor: Mastiff v. Chihuahua

(hat tip Jeremy)

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Animals

What odd-looking mammal is regularly described as a pine cone with legs?

The pangolin, or scaly anteater, of Asia and Africa. It has also been described as an artichoke with legs.

Congratulations to Laura for being the first to get the correct answer!

Tuesday Trivia: Animals

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer - or best guess - and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

<><><>

What odd-looking mammal is regularly described as a pine cone with legs?

Book Review: Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl by Fannie Flagg

Baby Girl follows a morning news show anchorwoman in the 1970s as she deals with the stress and pressure of her job, uncovers family secrets, reconnects to small-town, Southern living and overcomes it all to find her future.

The story is hopeful, romantic and a picturesque look at small town life. The characters are heartfelt and sweet. Some border on the edge of caricature but are so funny I couldn't stop chuckling at them.

This was a book I read countless times when I was younger. I was curious to see how I would feel about it after all this time. While I noticed the writing more this time around, I still found the story as sweet and as enjoyable as ever.

A great book to read if you're looking for a sweet story that won't make you think very much.

Disclosure: No one paid me in any way, form or fashion for this review.

Next month - Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

Hump Day Humor: More Than Words (With Friends)

(hat tip Shauna)

ANSWER - Tuesday Trivia: Planets

Which celestial body is known as the blue planet?

Earth - because its oceans cover more than 70 percent of its surface, making it appear blue from space.

Congratulations to Jeremy McC for being the first - and only - to get the correct answer!

Tuesday Trivia: Planets

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly post of interesting trivia questions. Leave a comment with your answer - or best guess - and come back tomorrow to see if you were right. Happy guessing!

<><><>

Which celestial body is known as the blue planet?

I loved that duck

There is a time in life when it is extremely important to fit in. Especially for young girls. For many this manifests in having to have the right clothes, the right brands, the right accessories. If we're lucky, we grow out of it.

I was no exception when I was 12 and 13. Back then there were many items that all the cool kids carried. The one I absolutely, positively had to have, would die if I didn't, was a Dooney & Bourke purse. You remember those purses from the mid-1990s that were solid color leather with the Dooney duck logo on the side. 

I had to have one. But my parents wouldn't buy me one. So I did chores and saved all my hard-earned money until I had enough. I remember going to the mall with my mom to buy my purse and how I agonized over which one to buy.

A few years later it wasn't as hard to make a decision on my second one.

This weekend John and I were waiting for a table at a restaurant that happens to be in the trendiest mall in Dallas. While waiting, I saw a young girl about 17 or so carrying a Dooney purse that was definitely from the mid-1990s. Clearly my purses are making a comeback.

I knew I kept them after all these years and through all the moves for a reason.

I guess I haven't grown out the need to fit in as much as I thought I had.