Meet Michael

   Michael is six foot, four inches tall and somewhere around two hundred fifty pounds with a broad chest and long torso. He has a working man's hands that are surprisingly soft and attractive. He has a big, round belly and long, skinny legs. On his right arm is a tattoo of the sun and, on his left is the moon. He has his last name tattooed on his back from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. Atop his head there is a line on which hair no longer grows due to a scar from a car accident years ago. The rest of his hair is short and clean-cut and he has a goatee. Michael makes friends easily as he has a nearly unnecessary amount of energy and an over-the-top, larger-than-life personality that seems infectious to everyone around him. He is funny, silly and a little crazy, but flies off the handle fairly easily and can be very serious when discussing things he is passionate about such as his children and their mother. He is an incredible father and treats his girlfriend like the best friend that she is. The two of them have been together for four years, have two young boys and have never been happier than they are now. Michael is a big teddy bear. He loves to snuggle and is very affectionate. He works full-time as a cook in a busy restaurant and goes home late each night, tired from the day's work, but after a quick shower and a couple beers he's right back at it, being a silly, clumsy goofball. He has watched wrestling every Monday and every Friday since he was a kid and, if provoked will give a long, detailed, semi-heated explanation of why it is such an amazing sport, even though it is fake. Michael is the most incredible man I've ever known and I'm excited to spend many more years with him!

PS - No, we're not having more kids. NO WAY.

Junk in the Trunk...drawer actually, but trunk sounds more amusing

   Am I the only person in the world that keeps a large collection of the strangest assortment of items that will likely never be used? I mean, everyone has a junk drawer, but mine is a bit over the top. It's barely closeable. About once every six months my boyfriend gets frustrated and goes through it, pulling out all of the items he deems unnecessary to be kept. And with each item, I have a miniature heart attack thinking, "What if someday we find ourselves in a bad situation that can only be made better by that piece-of-shit cheap orange crayon? What if one of the boys breaks the orange Crayola and they NEED that one?!" Although I realize I'm a small-scale hoarder, there is logic behind it and it makes perfect sense...to me at least. For each individual item there are a several different possible occurrences that would require the use of the object. In my mind, if it's possible it's going to happen, but not until the day we throw that item out. I think this way because it's happened SO MANY TIMES! I swear I'm not crazy. Looking through the junk drawer, I see the aforementioned orange crayon, four Color Wonder markers (which only work on Color Wonder paper...which we don't have), the receipt from the purchase of the couch that we no longer  have, two empty CD cases (likely from the early 2000s, the CD's to which I no longer have), three empty pill bottles (hey! You can keep a lot of stuff in those things!), two nearly empty containers of hand sanitizer and about a million other random items that I've collected and thrown in there on a whim over the last six months. I'm beginning to run out of room in there. I guess it's time to let some things go!

December 2, 1987

   It was December 2, 1987, early in the morning. My mother was at home, packing a duffel bag full of baby clothes, diapers, wipes, nursing gear and personal hygiene products she would need during her 3-4 day stay at the hospital where she actually worked. She had a C-section scheduled just a few shorts hours away and was ready to get things going. My father had decided, for whatever reason, that a huge breakfast from Shoney's all-you-can-eat buffet was in order that morning. Because my mother was required to fast for 12 hours, my dad went on by himself to gorge on greasy bacon, artificial eggs and those little shortcakes with strawberry compote (ugh) and the thickest whipped cream you've ever seen (mmmm). They had planned for several months now that the baby, which was a girl, would be named Aja after the Steeley Dan album my father so loved. In all honesty, I had to look up the lyric interpretation of this song and, hilariously enough, the song is actually about a bordello and includes many drug references. It is, though, a difficult song to understand and I assume my parents just really loved the sound of the name Aja. Back to the story, Dad had just finished his giant breakfast and headed home to get Mom all loaded up and headed to the hospital. It was baby time! During the procedure, the doctors informed my father that he could watch if he wanted, but it was a fairly bloody procedure. Dad stood up and looked over the curtain. I cannot blame him, as it was his child being brought into the world and he is a very protective man. Turns out peaking was not a good idea. Dad immediate became woozy and it must've been apparent, as the nurse calmly said to him, "Sir, if you go down, I cannot catch you." He sat back down in the chair provided and continued feeling ill until they handed him the birth certificate to be filled out and signed. On the line provided for the child's name, my light-headed father wrote "Asia". Yes, this is a different spelling than the song he was so excited to name his child after, but hey, he was lucky to still be conscious. So, while I was named after my dad's favorite album, it is not obvious by simply looking at my name, as the spelling indicates I was named after a continent. I have decided, though, over the years that I prefer the spelling I ended up with and I'm glad my dad is such a goober. Never heard the song? Here ya go...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG2seugAgnU

Favorite Words

   This is a fun assignment. Coming up with the five words I like more than any others. I'm thinking way too far into this. There are so many to choose from! In order to begin this process, I will produce a list of all of my favorites and narrow it down closer to the assignment's due date. Here we go!

1. Passionate
2. Momma
3. Anesthesia
4. Unique
5. Wango
6. Circumstance
7. Macchiato
8. Love
9. Concurrent
10. Trials
11. Encounter
12. Vino
13. Sugar
14. Puzzle
15. Baby

Missing : Mind

A woman in Springfield, Missouri has allegedly lost her mind. Asia Eli, 26, says it may have been stolen right from her head at some point during the past week, but it could have been missing for as long as 2 years. Ms.Eli claims she has not checked on the status of her mind much in the last three years and is unsure how long it has truly been gone. This mind is thought to be deep, open and larger than life. It was, at one time, very sharp, but have dulled quite a bit in previous years. Asia is offering a reward for finding her mind in the form of a hug, as she does not have much else to give. Anyone with any information regarding this mind is encouraged to call the Springfield Police Department.

Respect

If there was one phrase I would say I live my life by, it would be "treat others the way you want to be treated". Though it's not always an easy task, life hands you a lot more lemons when you act the way God intended for us to act. This includes treating people with respect. All people. Admittedly, I do not always succeed to doing so, but it is important to keep trying to keep up this lifestyle. In my opinion, Karma is a very real concept. I have had terrible luck my entire life, but when I'm not as kind and caring as I could be I always wind up regretting it, whether that's because it remains on my conscience or because it seems afterward I have a raincloud above my head, following me everywhere I go. I find that when I make an effort to treat everyone the way that I, myself, want to be treated life is more simple in the best possible way. The world has a way of biting you (or at least me) in the ass when you fail to follow through with this concept. In closing, let me just remind you that it is vastly important to treat everyone with respect, regardless of how you truly feel about them or how they treat you. God, in my opinion, takes this into account at some point or another and that's the last person you want to piss off!

Candlelight Vigil

This evening I packed up the boys and headed out to the candlelight vigil for little Hailey Owens on Commercial Street. Never in my life did I imagine the number of people that would show up in honor of this sweet girl's death. I've never seen anything like it. 10,000 plus people filled the streets for 4 blocks with candles, posters and flowers. There were lanterns and balloons sent into flight toward the heavens to meet up with Hailey. Her family, as they walked along the path cleared for them, were clearly moved by the percentage of Springfield that came to show their support. As my children and I were walking the half-mile from our parking spot to the ceremony I listened to the family behind me discussing their niece, who was Hailey's best friend, and how she woke up this morning and finally broke down. It's heartbreaking the number of people effected by this, but inspiring how many of us went out there, fought traffic and walked all that way for a short 45 minute ceremony to honor this angel whose life was unjustly taken from her just 4 days ago. There is talk going around that the clowns from Westborough Baptist Church showed up for the specific purpose of boycotting the vigil. I cannot think of a legitimate reason for this. It simply does not make sense. Do they think Hailey did something wrong? Why does she not deserve to be sent off with a celebration? To me this is almost terrorism. Worse, this is terrorism on a dead little kid and her family.  Luckily between the boisterous motorcycles of the Hell's Angels and the huge turnout, making it impossible to navigate through the streets to make a point, they were run off. Springfield has always been a tight-woven little big town, but tonight, we deserve a pat on the back. Tonight, I was proud to be a member of this community.