Back in the saddle again

I finally posted on my other blog. My 100th post, no less. Since it's been SO long I figured that nobody actually checks it anymore, so this is my shameless plug for you to go check it out now. Hopefully it's worth your time.

Flashback Friday

President's Day is just around the corner. And President's Day 2002 was another one of those memorable days in my courtship with Mike. So, please excuse the cheesiness. It is what it is.

During this time I was working for the Host Broadcaster for the 2002 Winter Olympics which basically means I was working 10 hours a day 7 days a week. During this time I had also been sort of seeing Mike off and on. Nothing too serious. But he had President's Day off and was trying to convince me to call in sick so that we could spend it together.

If I recall correctly getting the day off involved a little white lie, because NOBODY got time off during the Olympics. And I hate to rationalize what I did by saying the ends justify the means....but it did get me one step closer to the man who would eventually be the father of my children, so I have a hard time feeling too terrible about it.

So, I got the day off and we decided to head downtown to see some of the Olympic sites. Being a holiday and having half the world in our state it was crowded, to say the least. It took forever to find parking. And the venue we decided on visiting first had a 2 hour wait just to get inside. 2 hours! But the crowds worked out to my advantage I must say. As we were maneuvering our way through the throngs of people I made my move: I reached out and grabbed his arm and said "Don't lose me!" As if that's the only reason I wanted to hold him!

We stood in line for 2 hours for the chance to push a bobsled. But I held my arm in his the whole time, so the wait didn't seem nearly as long. At the bobsled "event" visitors got a chance to compete in a heat of 12 for the fastest pushoff time. The top in the heat got Pins (which if you were around for the Olympics you know that pin collecting and trading was a big deal) you got a Gold, Silver, or Bronze pin for placing.

So, I told him I was very competitive and that if we didn't take home the gold we couldn't be friends anymore. I guess he felt there was a lot at stake because bless his heart he pushed hard and fast! So fast in fact that he couldn't stop and stepped over the stop line, thus disqualifying us. Too bad, too because we were last in the heat and the current winners time was 2.88. We came in at 2.76. Good enough for the Gold! Dang that red line. Oh well. To prove I wasn't going to hold it against him I let him hold my hand the rest of the night. Wasn't that nice of me?

The highlight of the day would have to be when we were over at Washington Square. over in the little mountain man area they had like a mock ghost town facade and bales of hay and there was some country music playing. We were the only ones there and he spontaneously started leading me in a country swing. For all my years of dance training I'm embarrassed to say I did a horrible job. I was laughing to hard. But it sort of felt like a scene in a movie and so of course I loved it!

We also hopped on Trax and went to get a look at the Olympic Torch. It was actually really cool! The flame against the dark night surrounded by all the nation's flags. It could've actually been quite romantic, but I kept making dumb jokes because I'm a dork like that.

A week or so after President's Day Mike had an assignment in his English class. I can't remember the exact assignment but he was struggling with it, not knowing what to write. So I told him I'd do the assignment, too. Give him some inspiration. This is what I wrote:

What was once well-tended grass has been reduced to mush by the slightly warmer weather which has melted the snow coupled with the recent increase in foot traffic. Each step I take across the now muddy terrain makes a slight sucking noise. My feet are cold as I stand on the not-quite-frozen ground. But my hands are warm, especially the one he’s holding, which comes complete with the “this is the first time he’s held my hand and I really like it” butterflies in my stomach. I look over at him and then up at the flickering orange flame against the dark night sky, and I wonder if there is any possible way to capture the magic of this moment in a bottle.

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

His words startle me back into reality. “Huh?”

“I was just thinking about how surreal it feels to be standing here. It somehow makes the world seem like a smaller place.”

“I know exactly what you mean.” He’s absolutely right. It still boggles my minds to think that important people from all over the world are gathered right here in my own backyard. The scene before my eyes has been broadcast into the home of millions all across the world. My heart swells with pride to see Old Glory waving in slight breeze of the night, next to the flags of 78 other nations.

“Where’s Romania’s flag?” I ask, knowing that Romania holds a special place within his heart. He points to a flag with three vertical stripes. “There, the one that’s blue, yellow, and red.”

I glance over at it and then up at the dancing flame once again. I wonder what stories it would tell if it could talk. It came from half way around the world to get here, carried by thousands of different people, all heroes in their own right. And now I’m looking at it. Just watching the flame makes me want to be just a little better.

Just then a thought pops into my mind “I wonder what they’re going to do with the torch when this is all over.”

“Probably sell it on e-bay,” he laughs.

“I think they should leave it right where it is. Not only is it beautiful, but it’s also represents everything good in the world. Peace, heroism, patriotism, achievement, and friendship.”

He glances over at me, smiles, and gives my hand a slight squeeze. A warm comfort floods over me and I somehow know that my life will never be the same because of this moment. As I look at him his gaze returns once again to the blaze lighting up the night sky.

My eyes wander over to another part of the stadium. Large orange letters spell out the words “light the fire within.” Standing here next to him with cold feet, looking at the fire burning for the entire world to see, I think I understand those words for the very first time.

What do you say to that?

I saw this clip over at Amber's. For those of you who don't know her she is the Crazy Bloggin' Canuck. I laughed so hard I just had to repost it. Enjoy!

Problem-Solution

Do you ever find that there are just too many brilliant, witty, creative, bloggers on the intranets and just not enough hours in the day to read them all? Try as I might I can't make it through them all. I want to, really I do. But bums need whiping and dishes need washing and floors need scrubbing and Candy Land needs playing and babies need snuggling and, well, you get the point.

But I have found a solution. This has got to be one of my new favorite blogs! It's Blogtations. It's all the best writing from the web all in one convenient location. Never again trudge through paragraphs and paragraphs of sub-standard writing to find the one true gem worth reading. Every thing on this page is worth reading!

I especially like the Mouse Over Blogtations. (Right hand side.) That's some funny stuff, I tell ya!

So why are you wasting your time reading this....there are much better things to be reading. So get over there. Now. Really. Go. Get out of here. There is nothing left here. I'm done. Are you still here? Hello? Hey, where did everybody go?

Another first

I've noticed a trend among bloggers. They give away free stuff in order to get more people to visit their blog. And then they encourage you to post about the give away on your own blog, thereby reaching even more readers. And they entice you to mention their blog on your blog by promising you another free entry in their drawing for free stuff. And I've never fallen for it. Nope, not me. You can't entice me with free stuff.

But, you see, my amazing, talented, creative, crafty cousin has started Magnet Monday and gives away all sorts of fun things that stick to your fridge and I'm so inspired by her plus I really just like her a whole lot so I would totally post a link to her giveaway on my blog and she doesn't even have to promise me an extra entry in her give away. I'd do it for free!!!

So if you like Magnets, or if you like Twilight (she's a huge fan, and even though I'm not we're still friends) or if you just like me go check her out. Or, if you don't like me, don't hold it against her and go check her blog out anyway. You'll be glad you did.

A message to all my blogging buddies

When I first started blogging I would occasionally stumble upon a post where somebody would go on and on about how life was busy and they were sorry they hadn't blogging in a while and they would be back soon and on and on with the apologizing and rationalizing and frankly I was usually a tad annoyed by it. I guess because I never looked at my own blogging as something I HAD to do so I never felt the need to apologize to anybody if I didn't do it. I didn't feel accountable to the blogging world. And I never wanted blogging to feel like something with a deadline or else it would cease to be enjoyable. And since I didn't expect myself to blog daily I didn't expect others to blog daily, either. So I couldn't figure out why people where apologizing for not blogging.

So it's with great humility that I post a "sorry for not blogging" post of my own. Although it's actually more of a sorry for not stopping by your blog recently post. Because currently I have 210 unread posts in my google reader. That's right 210. And I know how I feel when I write what I consider a witty post and get no comments/feedback. So I didn't want all you, my blogging buddies to think that I had stopped enjoying your blogs. I actually still really enjoy them. And I am slowly working my way through all my unread posts. It just may take me awhile. And I may not be able to make comments on every post until I get all caught up again. And I feel really bad about that which is strange for me because when I started blogging I lurked on people's blogs all the time never leaving comments! But now I feel emotionally connected to so many of you and feel like I'm the long lost friend who hasn't called in awhile!

So-don't give up on me. I will return. I just need to get back into the swing of things.

I also have one more quick thing to mention since I'm all in the apologizing mode. When I first ventured into actually commenting on blogs I was SO impressed when I would get a personal email back from the blog author. And so I tried to do the same for those who would leave comments for me. So I went along for quite some time hitting the reply button on the email notifying me of a new comment. I'm now much chagrinned to admit that it's only been recently that I noticed that half the time the email address I'm replying to is noreply-comment@blogger.com So to all of you who thought I was unfriendly or stuck up because I never responded I want to say I'm sorry. I actually sent out bunches and bunches of emails!!!! Sigh.

And now I'm starting to annoy even myself with the pathetic groveling so I'm going to go back to reading the 210 posts in my reader before it becomes 211.

Talk to you soon! (I hope!)

Name that Movie Monday

"You're everything I never knew I always wanted."

Do you know it? Give it a guess.

Here is your movie code: 25CH63

Now I'm off. I haven't even showered yet and the laundry is piling up!