Thank You!

I want to give a big shout-out and thank you to Al Gore for inventing the Internet!

Man, I just don't know where I'd be without that guy.

As I'm sitting in bed typing this post, I'm trying to reflect on this past week, but I can't because it's literally freezing here in Florida. It's been in the 20's every night this week, (wink, wink Mr. Gore - didn't you win something for your work on global warming?)

Science people question - Is unreasonably cold weather an indication of global warming?

So as I reflect, I can only think about how cold it's been - and yes - that's what we've all been talking about.

Work has been insane this week. It's like I said in another post, the new year comes around and it's like you woke the sleeping dragon (or the furry one from The Never Ending Story "Atreyuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.") Super busy from start to finish. Not that I'm complaining. It's fun being busy.

But that's not the topic of this post.

The topic is about Al Gore. And how he invented the Internet and caused me to become addicted to facebook which has since caused me to purge my account which was effective at 5:00 today.

You know, I really used to enjoy facebook. It was fun connecting with people from the past, specifically college friends. But then it became an obsession and I was checking it all the time and trying to really keep up my page and then I thought..."is this what I've become?"

Not really.

It just became too much. Not to mention, I feel like facebook became this place of annoying applications, random quizzes (although I did really enjoy the "Baptist Hymns" one. I rocked that quiz like it was my job!!!) and a place for people to indirectly brag on their lives. So many times I wanted to comment back to people:

"Nobody cares. You're a liar. Shut up already. Go away. You're annoying."

But that wouldn't be the Christian thing to do. So I decided to just pray for them.

LOL - kidding. I didn't do that either. Maybe I should have?

The real thing is, I don't really have 248 friends in real life. I may know 248 people, but of those, I probably get super annoyed with 163 of them. I found it strange why certain people wanted to be connected to me. Now I will say, facebook did allow for some "rekindling" of friendships and for that I'll be grateful.

So now I'm facebook free. It sorta feels weird. Sorta like when we disconnected our TV. It's like I only hear crickets in the background. It'll pass though, I just know it. Not to mention I really wanted to put my energy in just one online application and that's my blog.

I'm hoping to post more frequently and maybe vary the topics a bit.

I would like to hear from you all though - please. Would you rather my blog format be:

1) Daily recaps of life

2) Only funny stories

3) Stories with an array of emotions

4) Serious posts

5) Worship ministry posts

6) Music posts

7) Family posts

8) Combination of any of the above

Then I'd like to know if you like my blogs that are:

1) short

2) medium

3) long

And may contain:

1) photos

2) no photos

3) videos

Just some quick questions since the blog is all I'll be doing "recreationally" online. Except for shopping, reading, paying bills, banking, looking up recipes and reading reviews.

Much love to my blog readers.

And Al Gore, of course.

The Birds!

I live in Florida. A fount of all things wildlife. I live in a county that is also very "live." Our bay is live, our forests are live, our skies are live - just all very live.

It's nothing to drive to work and see any of the following: deer, hogs, coyotes, opossums, raccoons, bears, rabbits, squirrels, armadillos, turkey vultures.....

you get the idea. There's stuff everywhere.

However, there's a strange phenomenon happening at my office involving all avian creatures. You see, there's an enormous tower in our back parking lot. It's directly in front of my window, just quite a few feet away from it. It's becoming a landing perch for the birds.

And I don't mean like two or three birds.

I'm talking dozens upon dozens of birds. The tower appears to be some sort of haven or sanctuary for the birds. I suppose it's like a nice Borders or a cozy street cafe where people scope out the best seating and hover around until they can snag it from you and claim it as their own. For many days now, the tower has been COMPLETELY COVERED with turkey vultures from 8:00-8:45 and then from 4:00-5:00. It's weird. There are dozens of them.

I think the turkey vulture is sorta like the common criminal or thug. They're kinda loners until one of them has something the other one wants. Then the whole posse turns up to get a piece then they all go their separate ways. They're bullies. They're ugly and they poop everywhere (I'm not sure that criminals poop everywhere, but you know what I mean.) There's a big circle of poop in our parking lot because of them. I don't know why they have scheduled times for meeting at the tower. It's like they're going to talk about their day, then they come back for a quick re-cap and discussion on their take-aways. I don't like them. They don't trust anyone and they're so skittish.

Recently, the tower has become desired by these little finch birds. At least, I think that's what they are. They're little and they're cute and they hop around everywhere. They fly around together in huge flocks/swarms. These little birds are your "town liberals." They're always in groups, always chirping, always demonstrating, always getting in others' business. And they're really funny to watch. They totally whipped up on the turkey vultures the other day took over the tower. Now, never mind that I saw one dead yesterday with guts hanging out. Not sure what happened there. Perhaps it was an Al Qaeda bird? Nonetheless, they are the current owners of the tower. And I sorta like it that way.

Then we have the dove. Doves? Dove? Is it like deer? Whatever. They're really never on the tower. They're always on my window sill. I sorta classify them as the "moms" of the bird world. Soccer moms, yes that's it. They're soccer moms. They're always pruning and fixing themselves. They're are always two or three of them together. They're cute. Noisy when necessary and a nice shade of gray. On my parent's property, they always hang out in between our homes and literally give me a heart attack when they fly off. How do they make so much noise???? I almost get diarrhea every time. Seriously. Every time.

Sea gulls. Parents and in laws of the bird world. These birds know no boundaries. They aren't really intimidated by anyone and they get all up in your business. They take what they want without asking and you always know they're around.

(There is no correlation between these birds and my parents or in laws. No sir. Not one. Just to set the record straight. I mean, sure my mother broke into my house on Monday with my child and stole about $14 in groceries, but I mean, she offered to pay for them.)

Did I mention that these birds squawk and squawk. I love it when the tourists come here and think..."Oh honey, this will be cute. Let's feed the little bird a piece of bread!" And then you know what happens? It looks like a scene from a Hitchcock movie. There are like a million birds everywhere. You can't escape!!! They're dive-bombing you left and right and circling you like you owe them something. Not to mention they have weird webbed feet that totally gross me out. And they harass one another.

(This has been intriguing, no?)

Life is so easily comparable to bird world. Really this post was going to be about the vultures and my tower and how I'm like 16% scared to go to my car when I get off because I think one might attack me. Those things are so gross. But it has turned into a sociological comparison of human interaction.

And birds.

Which totally freak Sarah out.

Birds.

You're welcome.

The New Year

Last time we spoke it was New Year's Eve. Now it's the new year. (Do you always capitalize New Year? I mean, I was using "new" as an adjective two sentences ago....whatever.) So I'd like to wish you a formal and official HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Are you sick of hearing that yet? Lord knows I am. I mean, it's even made it's way onto people's email signatures. Really? So, when do you stop celebrating the new year? Perhaps I'm just too jaded to really enjoy it. I've never, ever been "into" New Year's Eve or Day. I've rarely watched the ball drop. Frankly, I just can't stay awake that long. I mean, I can, but you probably don't want to know me the next day. Or see me. And definitely not talk to me.

But I digress (as I do in 99% of my blog posts.)

Anyway, it's a new year. The crazy, obsessive side of me loves to sorta sit back and watch everyone jump on their bandwagon of choice. Everyone's hustling and bustling around. I went to go make a deposit at the bank yesterday and you would have thought the entire town of Port St. Joe had refused to do any banking during the past two weeks. There were so many people inside. Doing all sorts of crazy banking.

I need to stop here and talk about banking.

I don't know what it is, perhaps it's a small town thing, but people here are always doing all these crazy transactions at the teller windows. Like it takes people like ten minutes at the window. People here love to do all their banking in person. I think it's a small town thing. Therefore, you may ask why I'm standing in line too? It's because I work directly across the street from the bank. It takes less time to walk over to it than it would to get in my car and drive over. So I'm in there a lot. I've never had a complicated transaction. All my transactions are only deposits. If I need a withdrawal, I just go to the ATM. Not the teller. So I always wonder what people are doing to take so long at the window.

So anyway, there are all these people in line at the bank. I simply sign my check, write my account number on it, bypass the line and hand my check to the teller and she looks at me and says, "checking, right?" I said, "Yes, that's right." I don't want to say I was skipping the line. Because it's not like she did my transaction before anyone else's, because she didn't. It actually took her like 40 minutes before she did mine because I was stalking her, I mean, monitoring the transaction online.

So yeah, anyway, everyone's hustling and bustling. It's like this new year is a slate cleaner. People like to reinvent themselves. They just wake up on Jan 1 and are a completely different person. So keeping with the theme of the new year, I would like to now give you my list of things that I will attempt to do better/differently this new year. Please keep in mind that most of these will be broken before Feb. 1.

Just being honest.

1. House love. I am resolved (no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight - for you Baptists out there.) to make our home a priority. The things we've been putting off like crown moldings, a backsplash, the yard, the driveway are hopefully all going to be a reality this year. I know yard work is hard and it takes a lot of time away from family, but I'm just going to have to do it. The yard isn't bad, at all. It just needs some weed treatment, new sod in places, etc. So, my house will be a top priority this year.
2. Weight loss. I am starting back on Weight Watchers after we grocery shop this weekend. I want to shed about 45 pounds by summer. I lost 30 in three months on WW, so I think I'll be able to do 45 by July.
3. Husband / Father. I really want to be better at both of these. I want to, ok I don't want to, but I am GOING to help Sarah out more with house and child things. I want us to be a dynamic team where we tackle everything together. Meaning, instead of her cleaning the inside of the house all alone, I'll help her and we'll just tag team everything when we can - which is basically what we do now, I just need to support her better.
4. Musicianship. This is going to be the year of my choir. I plan on pushing them more this year than ever before. I don't want to waste a single minute of rehearsal time. I want to see at least six new members join.
5. I don't want to be annoyed with words and phrases like: "sexting," "teachable moment," "friend (used as a verb)," "Obama (used as a verb or adjective), "Economic Crisis," "Housing Market" or "laser focused."
6. Actually, I think I'm removing number five from the list because I think I do still want to be annoyed with those and other words.
7. I want to make sure that my loved ones know they are loved. I want to tell them more often because I don't think I do that enough. I'll start now. A big "I LOVE YOU" goes out to: Sarah, Celie, Mama, Daddy, Mammaw, Nanny, Adam, Marci, Joy, Phil, Jenny, Glen, Chris, Susan, Charlet, Ashley, Ken, Susan, Patrick, Yvette, Lori, Kevin, Brooke, Sarah, Boopas, Melaine, William.....ok, this is harder than I thought. I can't list everyone. I mean, I'd like to, but I'd end up hurting someone's feelings, which I probably already have.
8. I only want friends who are like family to me. Most of those are mentioned above.
9. I want to make sure that "things" don't get in the way of relationships. Just because my best friends live four hours away doesn't mean I can't put stuff on hold to visit them. We're visiting this year!!! It's the year of the visit!!! You may hate us by 2011.
10. I want to stop wasting energy being annoyed with BS-ers. They are who they are. They know everything about everything and they're gonna BS you until you believe them. I can't worry about these people any more. I spent way too much time in '09 worried about BS-ers. (as a note, I apologize for using "BS." It isn't a nice word, but I don't know how else to say that. Maybe BC-ers?)
11. No more fast food. As much as it speaks to my very soul, I want to stop eating it. Except for Chick-fil-a which I adore and do not consider it unhealthy except for the fact that it's a fried chicken sandwich and fried waffle fries.
12. I want to make an active attempt to back-hand college kids who think they have people fooled. So parents, if I accidentally drop a bow on your kid, please know it's for their own good and someone needs to put them back into reality. "Hey kids, yeah you, I know you're partying hard at college. Kraft mac and cheese doesn't put 25 pounds on you that quickly."
13. I want to stop relying on the Internet so much. It is a time suck.

I'm tired now. I can't list anymore. So let's see....in the time I've written this post, I've officially broken 3 of my resolutions.

If anything I'm consistent.

This was way too long.

I'm hungry. Off to MacDonald's!!