KirstenL4W

Those of you who read my Twitter stream might remember a couple of tweets in which I said I would be doing another On the Internet post that same day. That never happened, thanks in part to my husband’s new DIY Network addiction. He got me watching it as well, and the week ended up being filled with talk of home projects. Some of these are on The List now. Of course, if they ever get beyond the talking and list-making stage, I’ll be blogging about it. But for now, here’s what I’ve been seeing on the internet this week (and earlier). Bear with me, I’m cleaning out my email - I have a habit of emailing links to myself when I’m not at home.

• While my husband is a gamer, I am not so into it. But apparently I am turning into a gaming fangirl, to some extent. I love the web series The Guild, and this week a song and video that was premiered at ComicCon (ComiCon?) was made available for everyone to have. You can watch the Do You Wanna Date My Avatar video at the very awesome Felicia Day’s blog, and she links to where you can buy it. Excuse me while I watch it again (as my husband watches Blizzcon on PPV). Oh, and you’d better hurry up and get caught up with The Guild, since season 3 starts on August 25.
• Fu For Thought, a home decor blog that has exclusive interviews with HGTV’s Design Star contestants after their show gets canceled, has moved. Click on the link to go to the new place to read all sorts of home design goodies.
• I’ve gone ahead and joined Goodreads. It’s like a social networking site for people who read. You can list what you’ve read, are currently reading, and want to read, and you can also friend people (like me) and get recommendations based on what you liked and such. I’ve blogged before about how I like to read before bed, so this will be a good way to find new books to read. And I do have more Bedtime Stories planned (one of these years) as I have finished 3 books since the last post.
• Here’s a Table of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad for those who want something a bit (or a lot) geekier than the sniff test.
• Wired recently post a list of 100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About. It’s definitely a sign that I’m getting old when I can remember most of the stuff on that list.
• For Harry Potter and/or Twilight fans, MSNBC recently did a HP vs. Twilight faceoff. I must admit that I am a fan of HP (read all the books and seen all the movies that have been released thus far, and have all available movies on DVD), but when Twilight-mania started sweeping the country, I just couldn’t get into it. A test is to pick up a book, try to read the first couple of pages, and if I want to read more, I buy it. I didn’t get past page 1 in Twilight, so I don’t think I’d be able to get through the entire series. Plus, I think that the HP series was so completely well done, and was one of the few stories in the fantasy genre that I actually get, that it would be hard to top, at least in my opinion. But this faceoff was fun to read, and it didn’t make me want to read Twilight one bit more than I did before.
• Another MSN article (I read the news stuff at work) is Top 10 Songs the Web Brought Back. Be glad I didn’t Rickroll you on that link!

Phew! I got my emailed links cleaned out, and I think that’s everything I wanted to tell you about. Until next time, happy surfing!

I have to admit, I was not the most popular kid in my elementary school. I mean, I was well known, but only because my Gram was the school secretary. I was not well liked and did not have very many friends. I was painfully reminded of that this evening while surfing through a particular social networking site that we will call Bookface.

I have a love/hate relationship with Bookface. It’s great because I can keep up with people far better than any other method out there, but it sucks because I get violently pulled back to a period of my life I’d just as soon forget. Take tonite for example. I saw that and old classmate on my friend list was tagged in a photo. It was an old class photo from elementary school. I have the same photo - showed it to my husband just last night, actually. Then, I flipped through and saw the class photo from the following year. My face had a big red X on it. Yeah, that’s how popular I was in school. It instantly brought back all those old feelings. I don’t even know what I did to deserve that kind of hatred back then. As best I can remember it, I just wanted to get on with the school day. I wasn’t a bully, I didn’t tease anyone - I just wanted to get along. I wasn’t “special”. I was, and still am, quite smart. I got pretty decent grades. I wasn’t better or worse than anyone else in art or music, just average. I kinda sucked at gym, except the high jump for some reason. Couldn’t run the 50 yard dash in under 10 seconds, but I could clear that bar.

So what was it? Was it the horrible thrift store wardrobe my stepmother dressed me in long before thrift was cool? Was it the fact that my teeth didn’t grow in straight? Was it my red hair? The other kid in my class with red hair wasn’t subjected to the ridicule that I was, so that couldn’t have been it. It must have been the giant bull’s eye that was my aura. That’s it. My aura was a bull’s eye that was visible to everyone under the age of 16 except me. There, I’ve solved it. That’s why it still haunts me today, why I wrestle with feelings of inadequacy, and why I’ll probably never be as confident as I pretend to be. Some people might say, sure, kids will be kids, but is that kind of cruelty called for, either as children or adults? It’s not always so easy to brush off and forget about when it continues for years. Even today, I’m not so sure I’m completely free from it, which does nothing for my self esteem.

Part of me wants to delete my Bookface profile, because so much keeps flooding back whenever I see a name or picture from the old school days. The other part of me enjoys the people who are my friends now, and has a bit of a curiosity as to what my old classmates are up to. I don’t know if I can ever really be friends with them, even 25 years later, but it’s hard to try and be the me I am now and not let those old feelings take over. It’s about killed my evening.

Remember when I said that I was trying to have more discipline about posting? Yeah, that hasn’t happened. Mostly because I worked in the garage over the weekend. Mister and I hung shelves to organize our stuff from a pile into something that looks more organized. Of course I don’t have pictures, because I’m just that good about blogging and documenting every mundane aspect of my life for all the internet to see.

Anyway, on Sunday I went grocery shopping (yay!) and then sat around being sore from the day before. I sat around on the sofa downstairs, not in front of the computer. Hence no scheduled posts, so I’m writing them on the fly. I’m not so sure I like that. I felt so organized and so ahead of the game when I scheduled posts last week. This week, not so much. Perhaps this weekend I’ll be able to knock out a few posts. Along with shopping for my nephew’s birthday. Which brings me to another thing - what in the heck do I get a 16 year old boy?

Ten days ago, my oldest niece turned 10. I sent her a package with some presents in it, and a card that included my phone number. I was hoping she, or her father, would call so that I could wish her a happy birthday. That didn’t happen.

A week later I called my sister. She said that Messy J had received her present and said she was going to call me. I’m still waiting.

I used to be close to Messy J, but there’s a lot of mistakes made on the part of both her parents that keep me from being as close to her as I used to be. It all started when I announced I was moving to Vegas in 2003. Of course, my family was upset that I was leaving, but I was selling my condo and would have the money to establish myself independently. I planned a trip to come out and set things up in Vegas for my arrival a month later.

A week after my Vegas trip, my sister went on vacation to Florida to visit a friend who had moved down there. While she was there, she met a guy and decided that she would move down there to live with him. As soon as school was out a month later, she packed up her kids and moved in with a guy she met on vacation. This totally took the heat off me, since I was going about my move in a prudent manner, and everyone turned on my sister. No one thought that this was a good idea.

While I thrived in Vegas, my sister was arguing a lot with her guy. I went to visit her about 6 months after we both moved, and I only stayed a few days at her place before moving to a hotel because of the fighting and yelling. I hated leaving the kids like that, but my own sanity was at stake. We sort of made up before the end of my trip, and I left on decent terms.

Throughout 2004, things got worse for her. She argued a lot with everyone, withheld contact with the kids at whim, and broke up with the guy and moved into another place. That place didn’t last long, and I don’t know the details of where she was after that. I do remember, however, that Bubba and Messy J got put in foster care in February 2005 because my sister had gotten on the radar of family services, and after a number of “diluted” drug test results, she finally failed one. The arguing between her and everyone else got worse. I ended up being diagnosed with acid reflux, and I got myself into therapy and got on Paxil because I was having a lot of anxiety due to the turmoil.

During the summer of 2005, the kids were finally able to come home. Since Bubba doesn’t have any relationship with his father, he went to my dad’s house. Messy J ended up at her father’s house. I’m not sure that’s really the best place for her, since her father isn’t exactly an upstanding citizen and has his own issues with various substances, and has a temper. The biggest thing since she’s been there is that he changes phone numbers as often as most people change underwear, so I can’t contact her. At least they don’t move too often, so I can send mail.

I know Messy J has had a rough time of it. She’s got some emotional issues because of the what’s happened over the last five years, and is no longer the vivacious little girl I once knew. She has very sad eyes now and is very quiet. I miss the little girl she was - the one who was always laughing and smiling. I miss being able to talk to her and hug her and tell her I love her.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to think about her, because it just hurts so much that there’s nothing I can really do to help her. A part of me thinks that if I hadn’t moved to Vegas, my sister wouldn’t have decided to move. I feel like my moving set this all in motion. When questioned about her decision to take her kids and move 1500 miles away to live with a guy she just met, my sister said, “Well Kirsten’s moving, so I can too.” I try not to feel guilty about it all, because I know that my sister would have fucked up no matter what, but it’s hard.

Happy Birthday, Messy J. Aunty misses you more than you know.

I’m trying to kick my butt into having some discipline about posting more regularly (that is, more than once a week). The plan is to try and publish 3x per week - two regular posts and one link roundup. My first link roundup was very popular, thanks to my very first stumble, so that made me feel really good and made me want to do more of these. This one will be looooong since it’s been a couple of weeks.

That being said…

• I have my very first guest post today! A while back, I posted a comment on a Top Ten Blog Tips post entitled 10 well-known blogging tips - and what I think of them, and it inspired me to actually write a guest post. It took a few weeks, and Ben helped me come up with the last tip, but I did it, and he’s publishing it today. Go check out my 10 Tips for Personal Bloggers.
• Since I wrote about my favorite color the other day, and forgot to mention this, I’m mentioning it now. There are two blogs that I’ve been reading for awhile now that are dedicated to turquoise. It’s light reading and some fantastic eye candy. Check out House of Turquoise and Everything Turquoise. They’re part of the Decor by Color group of blogs, so if turquoise isn’t your thing, there are other options as well.
• Because I am a home decor whore, I read a lot of home decor blogs. AtticMag recently had a picture of a gorgeous mosaic tile floor in a bathroom that reminded me of the Roman style mosaic floors. I love mosaic, and I told Mister that as soon as we have the means, we are having a floor like that in our bathroom. And for all you fans of Polyvore, who want something more house-based, check out My Deco. You can’t upload the pic directly to your blog like polyvore, but you can save a screenshot using a Firefox addon like Picnik.
• A blog I stumbled on this week, The Future Buzz, declares that Blogging Never Went Away. Amen to that! Don’t listen to the articles on the internet that try to tell you blogging is dead. My theory is that the people who say that are trying to get rid of any perceived competition. If you love it, blog to your heart’s content!
• A music blog that I found recently features a high proportion of music that falls into the “angsty chick music” genre that I prefer. (Thank Mister for the name of that genre.) Music & More even has full length song samples of the artists that are featured embedded into the post so that you can add those albums to your list of CDs to buy.
• Jordon just got home from two whole months backpacking around Europe, which is something I think a lot of people want to do or wish they had done when they were younger. I did it for a month in 1996, though I didn’t see nearly as much as Jordon did. I don’t think Jordon will be forgetting this trip anytime soon, or ever. This is exactly the sort of thing I talked about when I told you all to step away from your comfort zone. Good things can happen.
• My friend, Fresh Peaches, did a recent feature on artists that make vinyl wall decals. Wall decals have been popping up all over the place lately, and they’re great because there’s no limit to how you can use them, they can easily be removed, and they are way cooler than wallpaper or traditional art. Check out the offerings from Dali Wall Decals or their cool sister site, Badass Wall Decals. The best thing about them is that you get a lot of personality for not a lot of money! Budget decorating, anyone?
• This might be old news to some of you, but a few weeks ago Dave2 witnessed a miracle.
• Did I mention that I did my first guest post this week? Because I totally did. Read it here.

So that’s what I’ve been seeing around the internet this week. Have a great weekend!

This is not a true story about someone I may or may not be related to. But it is too funny and needs to be shared with the world at large.

It all started with a Facebook update:

“i will write a book about last night!!! I put a crack in the mooon! last night was explosive,…… No pun !goin to the hospital hit the cell!”

This was posted the day after the 4th of July, by someone who is known by, oh, everybody he’s ever met to not always use the best judgment when it comes to activities that could land someone in the hospital. Out of concern, I called him.

“Hey, it’s me, I just wanted to see if you were still alive.”

He called back the next day and told me the whole story.

“Me and my buddies were at the fireworks in [insert small town here] hanging out. When it was over, we were looking at the pile and noticed that there was a canister that still had a wick in it. We found 5 of them, actually. So we took them.”

“Obviously, being you, that’s what you’d do.”

“So we took them back to my house and were trying to figure out what to do with them. We wanted to set them off but they’re too big for the neighborhood. Then someone mentioned that the putz down the street blew up my garbage cans with some M-80s. So we brought them to his house.”

“Good idea, since it’s in the same neighborhood and his yard is half the size of yours.”

In my mind, I’m sitting there trying to imagine what 5 commercial sized canisters of fireworks looks like when set off from the backyard of a quarter acre lot. I couldn’t wait to hear the rest.

“So we brought them over to Putz’s house at like 4 in the morning and set them off. It was the funniest fucking thing I’d ever seen in my life! But then we realized that every neighbor within a 5 mile radius would be calling the cops, so we took off running.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if The Family heard it - I’ll have to ask my dad.”

“As I was jumping over the 4-foot chain link fence, I hit my balls. I reached into my pants and they were all bloody. Putz said he called me on the phone because he figured it was us, but I didn’t hear the phone ring. I must have landed on it and answered it when I fell on the ground. All he could hear was me saying, ‘Oh, my balls, my fucking balls!’ I tore my ballbag open! They’re coming out - they’re all grayish and kinda look like steamers without the butter.”

“Thanks for the visual. So did you go to the hospital?”

“No, I was at a cookout today and some of my friend’s moms are nurses. One of them looked at it and put some of those little white bandages on it. They’re not staying on, though.”

“Well, it’s hard to get a bandage to stick to sweaty balls. You should still go to the doctor.”

“Yeah, if it doesn’t get better I might do that.”

Then he said the funniest thing that I have ever heard come out of his mouth.

“Kirsten, I have a date tonight. What am I going to do?”

“Well, I know what you aren’t going to do. How’s about you show her your torn nutsack? According to your FB updates, you don’t seem to have an issue showing everyone else.”

A week later he told me he was still laughing about the whole incident, even though by the time he went to the doctor it was too late to stitch them up and he had what he called “the never-ending ballbag period.” It’s people like this that, if you happen to be related to them like I may or may not be, make family get togethers loads of fun.

Aquamarine, teal, turquoise, blue-green, greenish blue, sea-green.

I have a thesaurus and I know how to use it.

So, aquamarine. Why on earth would someone be compelled to write a blog post about a color? How much can be said about a color?

We’re both about to find out. You see, turquoise or whatever you want to call it happens to be my favorite color.

I don’t know how long this has been my favorite color, but I’ve never been a pink kind of girl. That’s my sister’s territory. I’ve always leaned towards blues. Heck, even when I was 5, we went to the carpet store to pick out new carpeting for our rooms. I picked a rug that had all the colors that you would see in a peacock feather. It even had the same shiny quality to it.

Never let a 5 year old pick out carpeting that will be installed in your house.

Over the years, I continued to pick out blues and greens as my favorite colors. I also subscribed to the theory that because I’m a redhead, I must only wear cool blues and greens lest anything else clash with my hair. I applied that theory to a nearly everything else around me.

I also realized, sometime during early adulthood, that a pale aqua similar to beach glass was the most soothing color in the world to me. It still is. That’s probably why, in my early years of blogging, I made this button:

Because like the color, blogging is soothing to me.

You’ll be surprised to find that I don’t exactly have much aqua in my house. Mister isn’t a fan of the color. Not sure why, because it’s a very pretty color. The guest bath has aqua in it. It’s also the bath that I use all the time since I don’t like showering in the phone booth that the builder thought was a good idea in the spacious master bath. So I aspired to make the not-so-spacious guest bath have a spa-like feel to it, with soothing colors and all the stuff I need to have to make myself pretty. I also was able to get my hands on the guest room, using the bedding I’ve used since I first moved here to Vegas. I don’t have a picture of the guest room, but you can see the bedding in this picture of my unmade bed in the apartment I was living in when I met Mister:

Very soothing. You’ll notice that I changed the background color of my blog to something that suits me more. Something like aqua. :-)

What is your favorite color? How prominent is it in your wardrobe and home?