Pet Peeve Monday

Yes folks, you read that title correctly. A Peeve struck me today (not literally, thankfully), so it is with great pleasure (wait...are we in the Chic-fil-a drive thru or something?) that I temporarily revive the glorious tradition to bring you this Peeve.

Whether or not I've already chronicled it before beats me. I couldn't muster the patience to go through the archives to see. Pardon me if you've heard this one before:

Don't you just hate it when someone leaves you a long, detailed, somewhat rambling voice mail full of words and complete thoughts and other ponderings, and then, toward the end of the message, they say their phonenumbersodarnfastthatyoucan'tpossiblywriteitdownorrememberit, causing you to have to listen to the entire rambling message full of words and complete thoughts and other ponderings just to hear the phonenumberagainhopingthistimeyourhandcankeepupwithyourbrain fast enough to decipher what in the world the phone number is?!?!

I really hate that.

ps: I can't believe Blogger's spell check doesn't recognize "phonenumberagainhopingthistimeyourhandcankeepupwithyourbrain" as an actual word. Seriously?

Reason #326,571,220 that Jeremy is a lucky, lucky man

I mean...there really aren't enough keys on the keyboard for me to type all I felt when I came across this picture earlier today. I mean...just...well...

FIRST OF ALL, parental units, why in the world would you give a person this night shirt for her 14th birthday? And why would you then encourage her to pose for such a picture? This confirms my long-standing, seldom stated theory: people only have children so they'll have someone new to laugh at.

I'd also like to state, for the record, that a picture from this same birthday shows me posing with this night shirt while holding the new Bible I also received.

This just explains so much. So, so much.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo. Muuuuuuuuuuuuch.

Also: nice hair.

How life works

God is laughing at me. Not maliciously, mind you, but He's chuckling. He's laughing at all the times over the past 10 days when I've said (to anyone who will listen), "I'm really looking forward to a quiet July." No big plans on the work or social scene, plenty of time to recoup and recharge from a busy Spring/June before a very busy fall. Maybe even enough time to daydream at my desk (gasp!).

All that came to a screeching halt yesterday afternoon around 2:30, when I got a call from one of the chaperones scheduled to go on a trip with some of the youth. A trip which leaves Saturday. As in tomorrow. Due to unforeseen circumstances, said chaperone can't go on the trip. And we all know what that means.

In less than 24-hours, I will be driving a 15-passenger bus filled with excited teenagers to Salkehatchie. My quiet, zen-like July has been turned on it's head and replaced with hammers, ladders, singing, and a community bathroom.

Remember me? The type-A one who loves to plan and make lists and "mentally prepare" for everything from a pedicure to a staff meeting? You can imagine my mental state and the analyzing of facts that is going on in my brain right now. Thankfully, I saved my packing list from last year (yes, really), so it's a matter of digging out those items, cleaning off my safety goggles, and as Jeremy put it yesterday 'pulling up my big girl panties.'

And you all know how I love to pack some panties.

All this begs one final question. Has anyone seen my air mattress?

Remembering a memory

Today, while unpacking the last bit of supplies that I hauled to Belize and back, I remembered a memory from the trip. I shall share it with you now.

Each afternoon in Belize, I was in charge of taking the older kids (12 - 18 years) to the neighborhood park to play (or terrorize one another. Depends on how you look at it.). While the boys played sports, the girls crowded around a picnic table and I helped them do a craft. If you know me very well, you know my picture does not appear beside "crafty" in the dictionary, so I took my most basic tricks and hoped to wow them. I'm not sure if they were "wowed", but they also didn't mutiny. Success? I think so.

One of these mind-blowing, life changing crafty activities was the creation of tissue paper flowers, wherein a person makes a flower out of tissue paper and a pipe cleaner. I was deep into the explanation of stacking the tissue, folding the tissue, trimming the tissue, using a pipe cleaner to make the stem "like so" I kept saying as I demonstrated, separating the tissue into petals and fanning them out..."like so", "like so", "like so". They were captivated. Mesmerized. Like putty in my hands, I tell ya.

After I finished my expert explanation and demonstration of the art form which is the tissue paper, a puzzled-looking girl raised her hand.

"Yes?" I encouraged. Such a patient teacher, I am!

With furrowed brow, she held a single green pipe cleaner between two fingers, twirling it in the air as she inspected it skeptically.

"You Americans use these to clean pipes?"

Freedom!

Disclaimer: I'm about to talk about money, which I know can be sort of socially uncomfortable. So buckle up.

It was the summer of 2000. I was about to enter my junior year in college. 20 years old. My friend, Chrissy, and I went to Destin, FL where my parents were vacationing to enjoy a little sun and fun. While there, I purchased this bed spread at the Ralph Lauren outlet:

It doesn't photograph well, but trust me. I loved it then, and I still love it now despite the fact that it spends most of it's days as the stuffing of my duvet cover.

I purchased said bed spread with my brand spanking new credit card. It was my first ever credit card purchase. It wouldn't be my last.

Using the theory of "first in, last out," I am proud (?) to say that I have finally paid for this bed spread. After years of charging wedding gifts, bridesmaid dresses, trips to see friends, and even the occasional grocery/gas purchase, I am FINALLY free of credit card debt.


Ya'll. What an amazing feeling. Yes, it's a little out of my comfort zone to admit that it took me 11 years (probably almost to the day) to get that balance, which at times loomed LARGE, down to $0.00. But yea! I did it.

Happy Friday.