Blogging Coincidences?

I used to blog a lot. Sometimes several times a day but I haven't really blogged in the past couple of years and I didn't give it much thought. Maybe I was too busy trying to live day by day.

Well, this past summer I participated in a summer blogging event with the Reverb Broads. They provided prompts and while I didn't use each prompt, I did blog quite a bit considering my radio silence until that point, so to speak.

Tonight I wasn't sleepy and rather than fight uselessly to go back to sleep, I opened up blogger. My previous blog redirected to a personal domain that my ex bought as birthday present but it's since expired and I haven't felt like removing the redirect. I liked not being able to read my thoughts from when I was still with him.

For whatever reason, I got curious to see what I wrote about and I deleted the redirect. My last post was March 1, 2011, exactly two years ago today.

This image quote didn't already exist so I had to make one! Come on internet people, aren't there image quotes for everything already? :P

This made me think about my ex for two reasons. First of all, March 1st, was a silly joke between us and every year we would try to be the first one to wish the other person, "Happy March 1st day!" We didn't do this with other months, just March. The reason why we started this silly tradition is silly, but it was a tradition that we did for 6 years. The second reason why this reminded me of his was because around this time, two years ago, is when Dan and I announced our separation and divorce.

It seems like a coincidence but like V, I don't believe in coincidence. 

I never really thought about why I paused blogging until just now. Subconsciously I was probably trying to sort out the various emotions I was experiencing privately without it coming back to haunt me, after all, "The internet is forever." This is a good thing for sure but at the same time, blogging was a nice hobby and avenue for self-expression.

I can't say that I am for sure going to continue blogging, but the urge is there again so that's a good sign.

What was your hardest parenting or partner moment?

Since I don't have a child I'll have to go with the latter. 

This is difficult because I have so many difficult partner moments. My marriage was young and short but filled with intense love and equally intense fighting. A lot of it is extremely personal so I don't want to get into details. 

Even though we had some fierce arguments, the hardest part was always forgiveness. I am filled with compassion, empathy, and love but it's hard for me to forgive. In fact, I still have some things in my heart I need to forgive him for.  Don't misconstrue this though, I am glad to be divorced now and I have moved on with my life and I no longer want to be with him. But I still have bitter grudges in my heart that I need to let go of. 

I'll finish this with some quotes I've collected from Pinterest that help me remember what's important.

 

List 8 reasons it's okay to lie

The original prompt is to list 8 reasons when it's okay to lie. I don't like to lie. Life is easier and better without it.


Instead of the original prompt, I will tell you 8 lies I have told in the past. 


1) When I was 4, I was living in the Philippines at Clark Air Force Base. My younger brother Jason, was probably 2 or 3. I went into my parents room and dialed 9-1-1. Someone answered and I hung up. A few minutes later a couple of policemen arrived at the door. My mom was really flustered and asked me if I called them. I said, "no, it was Jason". Since he was such a cute kid, he didn't get into trouble. And that was that. 


2) When my family moved to Florida a year or two later, my parents took me and my brother to Disney World. The whole time my dad was telling us how awesome Space Mountain was going to be so Jason and I were stoked, even though we had no idea what it was. It turns out that Space Mountain is an indoor rollercoaster. All I remember about the ride was that I was terrified out of my skull and I never screamed so much in my life. After the ride was over, my dad teased my brother for screaming so much. Jason denied it of course since it was me but I kept quiet and let him take the teasing. 


Man, I seem like an awful sister. I cannot continue. I can't think of any other harmless lies I've told.

What skill have you learned in the past year that you are proud of?

Expressing my feelings. It seems elementary that this is something I only learned in my 26th year on this planet. To be more precise, the better lesson I learned is that my feelings matter.

I grew up walking on eggshells, making sure I didn't upset my father. It didn't help much, he was chronically angry about anything and everything.

Until this year I've always followed the lead even if it wasn't what I wanted because what I wanted didn't matter.

I'm not sure when my eureka moment happened but I realized that I do matter and my feelings matter.

Slowly I "stood up" for myself.

"It upsets me when you don't call me back."

"I'm sensitive about _______. Please don't tease me about it."

Maybe I'm only learning this now because I'm surrounded by such great people and have built myself a support system that I've never had before.

I'm grateful to the people in my life and I'm grateful that I learned how to voice myself.

What are your favorite decorative items/pieces of furniture/household features?

This question is just too broad for me, especially since I live in an apartment and I haven't really had a chance to show my decorative skills and flair.

This doesn't stop me from collecting images and ideas for my future home. I have a board on Pinterest dedicated to such things. It's common among men to make fun of pinterest use among females. But if anyone were to look on my Pinterest boards, you'd see that my "Fantasy Wedding" board only has 61 pins compared to my 303 pins on "Future Home Ideas".

Most of these pins are ideas that are functional or ergonomic is some way. For instance:

Slide out doors for the kitchen for babies/pets.

Hidden cabinet for toilet cleaning supplies because I hate having the plunger just sitting out. 

Sometimes the pins are inspirational and serve as a reminder of a feature that I hope to create one day. 

I would like to have a family movie night outdoors to enjoy the beautiful weather. 

This isn't the style I would like my house to be in but I love the  open doors and the feeling it brings to the home. 

Until I am able to build my home, I'll continue to pin and pine over on Pinterest.

Summertime favorite recipe

Who doesn't love to BBQ in the summertime? I love grilled meat, veggies, cool drinks and potato salad! I love potato salad but I haven't had any good potato salad in such a long time that I've sworn it off. It shouldn't be too hard to make a good potato salad, but yet people screw it up. Never use miracle whip, that is disgusting. You have to use a little bit of mustard but not so much that your potato salad is yellow. And the potatoes need to be cooked all the way through but not be mushy either. Store bought potato salad is even worse. One day I will eat some good potato salad again but in the meantime, I'll just make this grilled potato salad that I found via Serious Eats . 

I made it for Memorial Day and it was a hit. The Vidalia onions caramelized so beautifully. 

I only made a couple of changes. I forgot to add the thyme and I couldn't find sherry vinegar so I just substituted balsamic vinegar. Oh, and the potatoes. I used Idaho potatoes because I oops'd.

Despite the changes, it still turned out well. It even reheated well the next day too. 

Come up with a new Constitutional Amendment

Members of Congress live in a bubble. It's time to pop that bubble. If I could come up with a new constitutional amendment, I would propose a few changes. First I would implement a salary cap that keeps up with inflation along. Then I would limit terms, and monitor their finances.

I'm not sure what the cap should be at though. Minimum wage would be too extreme. No one is able to make a living off of minimum wage but congress members shouldn't be making $165,000 a year either. According to a report from 2008, the average congress member was paid $165,200. That is insane. I can't imagine why they need so much money to pass laws. Keep the cap low enough to deter people from running for office just for the money but high enough that people will not be tempted with bribes.

Too many congress members stay for life. I think this is bad. It stalls progression. The members are not current with life in America. Term limits would prevent the stale issue.

In addition, their finances need to be monitored so that they do not profit from insider knowledge and use that knowledge on the stock market. They also won't be able to accept any campaign contributions either. Everyone gets a fixed amount they are allowed to spend. No more buying votes.

Being a Congress member should be about serving the people but instead its become about serving their own needs or serving the needs of their friends.