half icecream half human hybrids

Whatever Tickles Your Fancy: Click on Mrs. Scoop to go to Icecream People, a whole blog devoted to art of people who are made of icecream. For real!

a recent picture

I'm actually not in a ton of recent photos. It's generally just me and Isaac and I am obviously usually the one behind the camera. My family (parents, siblings, etc) rarely take pictures at gatherings and when we do, Isaac is usually the subject. Anyways, here we go:

This was taken last week. It is post-14 mile bike ride on a 100 degree day, so excuse the appearance. I also look especially chubby in this picture, especially my arms.

ANYWAYS.

I'm at my girlfriend's house and that is her darling baby who took my sunglasses off my head and put them on herself.

She is my little friend.

Life continues to be fabulous. Somehow despite having no official obligations I feel like my days are totally crammed and my house is a continuous mess. There's still so much fun to be had before schools starts again and we are totally making the most of it. I'm loving this summer.

How are things with you?

wish I could be more eloquent

Sometimes I sort of understand why young Mormon kids get married ASAP to the first person they click with; just to check themselves out of the insanity of the search.

Dating is emotionally exhausting.

Dating with a kid is emotionally exhausting.

Dating with everyone else's expectations and constant pressures is emotionally exhausting.

Dating someone with emotional baggage is exhausting.

Dealing with your own baggage while dating is exhausting. I'm taking my toe back out of the pool for a while...

yay Lilith!

Last night I got to see Sarah McLachan, one of my favorite artists of all time perform at the Lilith Fair. I had resigned myself to no more concerts pretty much ever, because they are so expensive, but I got an e-mail offering 10 dollar lawn tickets and I couldn't pass it up. We just caught the last three acts which were Sara Barielles, The Courtyard Hounds (Dixie Chicks minus Natalie Maines) and Sarah. She played all the stuff you would want to hear (Adia, Building a Mystery, Arms of the Angels, I Will Remember you), and some more obscure fan favorites (World on Fire my favorite song of hers, and Icecream as an encore). She also played three songs from her new album which I really enjoyed.

Sarah's music was the soundtrack to some difficult times in my life. I listened to Mirrorball and Afterglow probably thousands of time during my pregnancy. I also love Sarah McLachlan because she is so passionate about so many different causes (she is the one in those supersad animal commercials) and she really puts her money where her mouth is.

So well worth ten bucks in my opinion. We also didn't have to pay for parking and my friend paid for tolls, so cheap night all round. And perfect weather to boot.

a picture of me that is more than 10 years old

This was taken of me my sophomore year at Pitt. If it's not ten years old, it's pretty close. It was taken on this newfangled contraption, a camera that put your pictures right on the computer: a digital camera! Seriously, these pictures were the first time I had ever seen or heard of one. This isn't my dorm room, it is down in the engineer guys room (co-ed floor with girls wings and guys wings).

My room...

And just for fun.... (in case you couldn't tell, it is a flyer for LOCKERS)

a picture I took

Easy... I always take the pictures and am rarely in them. I'll keep going with the old school Isaac theme. Isaac as a curly haired baby, looking at a picture of his dad with my school stuff behind him.

Photo that makes you angry/sad

These were pictures from when my old job, where I worked with kids with autism and severe behavior problems. It's sad of course, because the student who inflicted these on me (and yes, those are exactly what they look like, individual finger marks as a result of being grabbed and squeezed) was in such complete crisis, which is terribly hard to deal with. Behavioral meltdowns are a crisis and are exhausting mentally, physically and emotionally for everyone involved.

It also is a stressful time personally for me because my particular job description at that point in my career at this school was to help de-escalate kids in crisis, and it seemed like there were constantly kids in crisis. This really took it's toll on me day after day and was very hard to deal with. In addition to working full time at a physically demanding and stressful job, I was in grad school full time, running around constantly, getting very little sleep and not seeing my baby for long stretches. It was a hard time in my life. In the end, it was worth it and I did what I had to do to finish school and get where I am today. I don't remember tomorrow's topic, but hopefully it is more cheerful.