Forgiveness in a Jar....

Dear Mom,
Remember how I had that beautiful Correlle plate when I was younger? Remember how amazing it was? The glassy beauty, the translucent qualities that made my heart pitter pat. The slick, shiny surface that resisted food sticking to it and actually made it a pleasure to wash. Remember how I'd only eat on that plate because it had been a birthday gift and was the ONLY plate I had like that? Remember?
Remember how you said they were supposed to be unbreakable? Right before you slammed it against the table edge.....
Remember then you broke it?
And do you remember how I have rubbed your face in that little fact for *coughs* maybe 15 years?
Well....I forgive you.
Turns out it only took 3 bottles of homemade jam and 15 years of bringing that little story up at every available moment.
*breathes a heavy sigh of contentment*
Well I feel better, how bout you? Nothing like a wild strawberry jam haze of fruit, sugar infused contentment to soothe out the rough edges of history and to make one conveniently forget all the things they did and focus only what was did to them and make them feel in a delirium of homemadey goodness like they could forgive anything and write run on sentences. Ahhhh the power of jam.
Love me
P.S. I can not be held responsible for what happens when the 3 bottles are empty...I'm just saying is all.

My Little bit....

My Nod To Blog Action Day: The Environment........
You know how sometimes you throw a piece of trash in the garbage can and then have to go weep in the corner, curled up in the fetal position sucking your thumb and cradling bits of number 1 and number 2 plastic?
The days when you drag yourself back and lift the lid of the garbage and stare into it's nasty abyss wondering "WHY oh WHY? What sense does this make?" The days you glare down at the things that you've accumulated in your daily life that can't be recycled.
And oh sure you're on the right path, gleefully recycling all the bits of plastic with the proper numbers (which you memorized 1 and 2, yay me!), the tin cans the glass bottles. Chuckling merrily to yourself at your own genius in setting a little basket in the middle of the kitchen to collect the recycling before taking it down to the big can in the garage. Where it sleeps until it's weekly trip to Trash Heaven. You've even developed an eagle eye that can turn menacing in a wink if some one should so much as look like they're going to throw that soda can in to the *gasp* non-recyclable trash.
Your relatives think you're a kook because on Christmas morning whilst they all roll around under the tree playing with plastic dinosaurs you're diving across the room grabbing crumpled wrapping paper from people's hands doing an excellent impression of a Hobbit gone wrong by snarling and cooing t2 And even with the rug burn from the slide to save the paper you're as bursting with joy at saving it as any one person could be.
So you have those days, when despite all your best efforts at not contributing needlessly to the waste and horror of a landfill site you end up cuddling your garbage, sprawled across the kitchen floor whispering to it that you're sorry. Damn sorry that tasty fresh sprouts have to come in a container with a number five, NUMBER FIVE. Goll dang it, why can't my disposal service take number five? WHY didn't I LOOK at the bottom of the container before I bought the sprouts? WHY why why why........ Days like this not even ice cream can fix. (well I mean I'm not saying don't go for the ice cream, you should always go for the ice cream I'm just saying in some rare instances the ice cream can't actually make the problem go away. I know, I'm as shocked as you.)
Ohhhhhh those days, those dark days of depression over being born in to a world where they already had a silly trash system in place, where it's the norm to just tie things up in a non biodegradable plastic bag and cart it away to be forgotten about. The world doesn't have a reset button...that I've found. It's not under any rock in the yard.
I can't stand garbage. The kind that has a life span of sometimes literally minutes. There are cups and containers and straws and all kinds of icky things out there that are meant to exist only as long as it takes for us to shovel the fast food in to our mouths. Is that not insane? Easy solution is to cut down on stuff like that. If you can't.....then tell me where you live so I can smack you over the head with my environmental stick, guaranteed to make you think twice about a piece of Styrofoam or plastic that will be buried lovingly in a hole for a zillion years. Ewwwwwwww.
You don't have to be a waste disposal environmental genius with pink tights and a sequined cape like me...er..hypothetically speaking.... to realize that some things are just wrong. That the world sped along a track so fast it can't get off it with out major reconstruction and rethinking.......
The only thing to do on a day like that, besides sucking down some primo tequila from a lovely (and recyclable) glass bottle is to remind oneself that being AWARE of a problem is better then nothing. And if some one should see me passed out on the kitchen mat, spooning the garbage can maybe it'll make them aware too. One that tequila lasts longer...so to speak....if you mix it with lime juice and TWO (and more importantly) that it might make THEM aware of garbage as well. Just a little bit, and if you add up all the little bits of the world you wind up with one hell of a BIG bit. And a BIG BIT of awareness could and does lead to all sorts of life changing discoveries.
If we all just cried a little bit more when reluctantly resigning the empty chip bag to the trash can then maybe some day chip bags would be recyclable, or maybe we wouldn't buy chips that weren't in recyclable bags OR maybe we'd at least find ways for garbage to have a longer life span. Why use it once if you can use it twice. It's just a little bit but remember...your little bit and my little bit can get together and have a little bit party and soon the world will heave a sigh of relief that we're no longer jamming our nasties in to holes.
Like imagine that YOU are the earth, and you have a population of little critters living on you. (Gross right off the bat right?) Well imagine if the little critters managed to start producing horrific amounts of non-biodegradable, poisonous trash from your very own natural resources and THEN they dig a HOLE IN YOU AND BURY IT! Wouldn't that suck? It would.
I rest my case.
So to reiterate:

• Recycling.... GOOD
• Non-Recyclable things..... BAD
• One time use thingies that have a life span for as long as it takes to eat a bag of chips...BAD
• Giving the bag away to some one by using it as innovative wrapping paper.... DAMN GOOD.
• Avoiding buying non-recyclable chip bags in the future GOOD but not completely possible until somebody starts selling organic chips in a recyclable bag.....OR I learn to make my own.......stay tuned!

(note I don't say I'll just give up chips, it's important to be a realist)

(this beautifully gift wrapped bottle is housed in not one but TWO empty corn chip bags, a little slicing and dicing for that sassy fringe at the top. Tied together with a savedtwist tie that boasts the word *organic* from some produce we'd bought and all topped off with the gorgeous sour cream container flowers. Just cut our flower shapes and stack on a pin for that lovely layered flower look. Not only is it cute, the wrapping was FREE and best part gave a second chance to items normally thrown straight in to the trash.)

Fifty's Fricking Nifty...

Wooooo Hooooooooo!
Jeepers Creepers, would ya look at that??? The FIFTIETH Blog entry. Wow, I dunno about you but I'm kind of impressed with myself.
It all started waaaaay back in the day (about 7 months ago) when I found myself reading quite a few Blogs online. They were fun, addictive, fascinating little hand made gems on the internet. Sneaky, voyeuristic glimpses in to people's lives. What people? ANY people. Whether it's the anti-me living in New York who pops pills like candy and apparently considers drinking a hobby. Or the crafty woman with the insanely pretty back yard and craft stories galore, or even better the gal with a Blog full of nothing but recipes and cooking anecdotes. Oh *sigh* so much fun. I can read about the life of a woman in Denmark, what some one in Seattle had for breakfast or about the day to day routine of a fabric designer with 5 kids. (this one is more of a horror story...FIVE KIDS....My God...I can barely handle 2 cats)
The more I read the more I wanted to make a Blog too, cause why should the world only hear about them, WHAT ABOUT ME???? Plus I figured besides the fun of creating a Blog for myself, perhaps a family member and friend or two would get a kick out of it. I could share a tiny glimpse in to my own world. Cause honestly how often do people stay in touch these days? Seriously, not much. But it doesn't mean you just wanna go "o.k., delete this person from my life." That's where a Blog comes in, you can throw a little bit of yourself and your life up on a web page in a few easy clicks and voila! If you feel like being nosy about me, there I am. And if you happen to have a Blog, OHhhhhhhhhhhhhh so much the better. Show me your laundry, your art work your gripes about the human condition. PLEASE, show me.
I think they're brilliant. Like wee little news sites about a single person or family. And since a blogger can just put up what ever they want you don't have to have the regular back and forth of conversation. Like how often do you walk up to a person in real life and say "I sure love Margaritas and curse words are damn fun." HAHAHAHA I exaggerate....sort of....But on your Blog you can do that. You can do more if you're so inclined, and if you like things anonymous. Like you don't want people to know about the pink feather boa fetish. No big deal, BLOG ANONYMOUSLY. Do I do that??? WHO CAN SAY.... IT'S ANONYMOUS.
Oh, I heart Blogs.....
I counted and there about 25 Blogs that I like to check in on and read that are written by complete strangers. I enjoy them so much, screw the news I don't want to hear the horrors of the world. I want to know what a woman named Yves did on the weekend or how Melaney enjoyed taking the bus. For a long time I was a Blog lurker. That means I was a regular reader of some Blogs but never commented. I just enjoyed anonymously and left the way I came, silent but deadly. Er...wait...I didn't mean it like that.
Anyways when I started my own Blog and started getting comments I realized something. Comments are amazing. Writing my own Blog gave me a whole new perspective on Bloggers and Blogging, an insider's perspective and ya know what? I started De-lurking. If I read a Blog and enjoyed it I'd leave a comment from time to time. Like "hey I tried your ice cream recipe and it was delish." or "I think having Japanese kids do work mentoring in a hotel sounds cool." or maybe even "Hey, cool Art." Nothing earth shattering. Just a few words to acknowledge my enjoyment of their Blog. After all it's all ORIGINAL writing, ideas, photos and thoughts being shared...FOR FREE!
To some Bloggers I know it might not make a difference but to other Bloggers it could make their day and give them a reason to keep doing it. To keep writing and sharing original material on the internet. Contributing something fresh and new and utterly fascinating!
I wish more family members would Blog. How cool would it be to have a network of Blogs by family members so you could catch up on interesting tidbits. You might be thinking "Ever hear of a phone?" Yes but I don't really phone chat, do you all? With each other? And what about family that don't even know each other, in-laws that never met or spoke, that sort of thing. The cool thing about a Blog is it doesn't have to be life altering news, it can be photos of your new shoes, a favorite recipe or a poem you wrote about your love of Survivor. It could be lists of your favorite shows, books you've read and would recommend or 32 reasons why you think pavement is better then concrete. Photos of the Grand Kids, what you dreamt last night or a detailed account of what the dog rolled in last weekend. There's a reason Blogs have gained so much popularity, besides the whole voyeurism thing with stranger's lives you got the whole passive participation in to family and friend's lives. A way to peek at what cousin Bob and Aunt Nancy are up to with out actually having to go for a visit.
Damn, Blogs are fricking awesome. Aunt Nancy can blab about her love of freeway off ramps and I don't have to stand there face to face. Cause the sort of expression I might wear whilst listening to a passionate description of an off ramp is perhaps one Aunt Nancy would take offense to. But in the comfort of my own home, in my cozy little computer chair I can roar with laughter, snort water out of my nose and gasp in uproarious delight at Aunt Nancy's fetish. Then, once the shaking and uncontrollable giggles are under control I can write a quick "interesting hobby Auntie Nan" and all is right with the world.
Oh Blogs, thank-you for existing, thank-you for providing this new creative outlet to the world where people can blab family secrets, recipes and new hairdos for the whole world to see and enjoy.

The Little Prints.

Last night as I rolled my chair away from my desk I happened to glance down at the carpet. Oh my, what was this? If you're from the boonies like me you immediately think deer! Why I've got deer hoof prints in my carpet. How strange. I called Alan over to see this miraculous sight and of course to warn him that we may have deer lurking in our living room.
After careful, thorough examination of the tracks Alan says it's not deer but wheel marks from my office chair. HA! Ha I says to him, then explain to me why I've seen tracks a zillion times before EXACTLY like these in the woods back home.
Alan smiles craftily, a glint of humor sparkles in his eye and he says "The woods were full of office chairs obviously."
Oh.....