Leap Day

What if on Leap Day, we all leapt everywhere we went?  Would our mothers tell us to look before we leap and mean it terribly literally?  Leap frog should be the national game on Leap Day.  We should leap forward on the time change too.  I know it's "spring" forward, but springing is a kind of leaping after all.  I have to wonder if today is the day that John leapt for joy at the sound of Mary's voice.  If you were expecting something quality today, you probably took a leap of faith...I hope I didn't disappoint.  This post is but one small step in the writing process, but also kind of a giant leap for creativity.

Today's prayer is for my friends and family and my friends who are my family.

The Name Game

Sometimes my sister and I make up random sounding names for characters.  Typically they are describing characters we see in children's books.  For some reason, a list of crazy names keeps going through my head, so I thought I'd find some crazy looking characters online and make up names for them...this was meant to be a writing blog after all.  But when I started typing into google to find some images to use, I came across a trove.  I had to force myself to stop, but here are a few of what I found:

Admiral Paddington

Major General Bandytail

Duke Eddington III

Bearded Anne

Lady Sophia Mitzypaws

The Venerable Madam Whiskerton

Queen Eloise

Young Prince Danderfluff

King Sorfloof IV

Today's prayer is for joy.

I finished with this post and then I realized I missed a couple:

Sir Reginald Bandytail

 Master B. Cattington

Lydia Bristlebottom and Aldalyn

Neurotic Animal

I've had Lexi for about two years now.  The most interesting of her behaviors is how she reacts to getting a new bone.  If I let her take the bones outside, I'm positive I would never see them again.  She has an impulse to bury.  I don't think she can bypass this impulse as other dogs can.  Here's how it goes:

I give Lexi a bone.  She spends the next 30 minutes to an hour running all over the house searching for a place to hide it.  She's succeeded a couple of times in losing bones this way.  I have absolutely NO IDEA where she's hidden at least half a dozen of these things.  Her former favorite spot was underneath a green tablecloth on an end table, which is why I have kept it standing where it is, because I sure as heck want to be able to find where she's putting these things.  There are a couple of rules that she follows most adamantly, though.  Rule 1, she cannot be seen burying the bone.  If I'm watching her, I have to pretend not to notice or she'll just pick it back up and hide it somewhere else.  I let her know I can see her if I know she's putting it somewhere that I don't want her to, because she will jump up as if she's been caught doing something she shouldn't be doing and run off with it.  Rule 2, she can't bury it somewhere if I've moved it from that location.  This only matters if she's seen me move it, so if I want her to have it while I'm gone, I have to move it while she's outside or she knows I did it.

So this week, I gave Lexi a new bone and she arbitrarily decided that she didn't want to bury it under the tablecloth, presumably because she must have seen me move it or figured it out finally.  I was trying to find her new hiding spot, which turned out to be under the first step going upstairs.  For some reason, I decided to antagonize her so I picked it up and gave it back to her, then told her that she would have to do better than that.  Later that evening, I was upstairs brushing my teeth when I heard a clattering noise.  At first, I thought that she was trying to hide the bone in our radiators, because our house is old.  I was not happy about this, because it's a marrow bone and all I could think of was how fast that was going to rot.  Instead, I came downstairs to find her acting as if nothing was amiss.  I discovered her bone tucked very neatly into the corner by front door.  She had painstakingly straightened it so that it was parallel against the back wall, and also flush with the corner wall.  In order to make sure that it was good and buried, she retrieved her duck toy and laid it very carefully over the top of the bone so that it was also parallel and against the wall.

I still wish I would have taken a picture to share because I couldn't stop laughing at how horribly it was "hidden" and yet how ingenious she was to go to such lengths to make sure that it was buried.  Kudos Lexi, kudos.

Today's prayer is for joy.

Missing Piece

I had no idea how much I would miss Angela until she decided to get pregnant and have a baby over our lent blog.  I rather miss her articles.  I hope you all do too.  She's a great writer and this is the time during the year where I feel like we draw really close to each other and get a better glimpse into our current lives and thoughts.  It's hard keeping up a friendship long distance.  It seems like even though we have technology to keep us together, it is very easy to forget to contact someone.  Suddenly when they aren't there anymore, you have regrets over not spending more time with them.  The time we have goes so quickly too.  Yesterday it was Monday, and tomorrow it's going to be March.  I can't believe how fast the time's gone.  In a few more weeks, we're going to be getting ready for the Easter Vigil.  More than that, though, my niece is about to start driving, my oldest nephew is almost in high school, my younger nephew is starting kindergarten, and I'm about to turn thirty.  When did time start slipping by the way mom and dad said it would?  I still remember being a child and feeling like growing up was going to take forever and ever.

This post got away from me again.

Today's prayer is for Angela and Family.

Stagnant

I totally forgot to pray yesterday.  I don't even know how that happened.  And I almost forgot to post tonight.  I suppose with everything that has been going on this week, it isn't entirely surprising, but I am sorry I haven't been overly invested in these posts lately.  I feel distinctly like I lack inspiration.  This is pretty much how life has been going for me for some time.  I feel like all my creativity is just gone.  Maybe I need to buckle down and do a writing regiment to inspire my muse.

I have also decided that I need to get more exercise so I went ahead and ordered an elliptical.  I'm actually really excited about this.  I've been wanting to get in shape more lately and I don't feel like I've been doing enough to do that.  Maybe I'm just feeling stagnant.  Maybe I'm also feeling the weight of year 30.  Either way, I just feel like I need to make some changes with life.

Today's prayer is for peace.

Raining and Pouring

Things have not been going well this 2016.  I could go through the list of stuff that I've been through in the past two months, but I suspect I wouldn't be the only one.  From the few people I've talked to, it sounds as if the year is either going incredibly well or incredibly awful for most people.  And the incredibly awfuls have been significantly higher statistically.  We were supposed to get this huge snow storm today and I was really hoping that we'd get a snow day, but it didn't stick and it also it didn't snow all that much, so I guess it's on with the grind.  At least I like my job.

Today's prayer is for peace.

Super Annoyed

So pretty much since three in the afternoon, things have not been going my way today.  I don't want to discuss the details because I've rehashed events enough for the day, but I do want to say this:

If you are in a vehicle, you stop for pedestrians.  Period.  It doesn't matter that you don't think they should be walking where they're walking.  It doesn't matter that they started to cross the street and you're delayed.  It doesn't matter that you're in a car and can force them to move to not inconvenience your selfish self.  Stop.  Your.  Car.  You can easily seriously injure or kill someone and they aren't going to make you that much later anyway.  Think of how much time you waste on any given day with staring at your phone or online or doing other pointless stuff.  It's about as long, or less so, as you'll spend waiting on a pedestrian.  Oh yeah, and if you drive away after striking someone, you're pretty much the biggest dick ever.

Incidentally, I'm alright.

Today's prayer is for peace.

Baby

I don't want to give too much away because it's not my news, but we won't be hearing from Angela for a while.  She and John will be rather preoccupied with the growth of their family.

Congratulations you two!  And welcome Marshall!

Today's prayer is for the [redacted]s

Poems

I haven't written any poetry in years, not since a series of incidents which caused me to become far too embarrassed about what I write occurred, culminating when I was in my first year of college.  I don't know what happened really.  I know my poetry was never really good, that it certainly wasn't ever something that was going to be stunningly fantastic.  I seem to recall last year I wrote a poem in our blog, which was the first one I had written since high school.  Today, I started work on another.  Really it's less of a poem and more of a song, though, because some music came to me while I was working on it.  I only started the poem and intend to finish it, so maybe I'll post it up once that's done.  I'm actually kind of excited about, but I think I need more time to consider the next verse, and hopefully my inspiration didn't come from being stuck in between exhaustion and wakefulness.

Today's prayer is for mercy.

Just a picture

I'm last minute blogging today.  I don't know why I kept putting it off but now I don't feel like writing.  I think my brain shuts down after 8 pm.  I guess I've trained it to be that way.  Instead of meaningful content, here's a cute picture instead. 

It's Bishop from earlier this week playing in the sandbox.  Everything was warm and dry and there was only one spider that kind of looked like a black widow.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't because it was way too small.  It was an impostor.  Of course that doesn't mean it's not poisonous.  I probably should have killed it instead of just kicking it out of the sandbox. 

Fries Guys!

So as promised from yesterday, today's blog is about curly fries.  Most importantly, it's about why curly fries are the best fries and how Arby's has the best fries of any fast food place for being the one to offer them on their menu.  How can I definitively say that curly fries are the best fries you might ask?  I invite you to ruminate whilst I illuminate you to the facts.

I present to you evidence 1:  straws.  Everyone knows that bendy straws are superior to straight straws, as they allow for maximum consumption with ease of effort.  However, if presented with the choice between plain old regular straws, bendy straws, or crazy straws, EVERYONE loves crazy straws.  And what do crazy straws look like?  They are curly and loopy.  Ergo, curly straws are better than straight straws and bendy straws.  They are the best straws.

Enjoyable, but inferior

Much more crazy, much more awesome!

On to evidence 2:  roller coasters.  There are a few kinds of roller coasters that you might find yourself able to ride.  Some just go around on a regular track and while it's entertaining and enjoyable, everyone knows that the best rides are the ones that have loops.  Loops are curly.  Ergo curly roller coasters are better than straight-tracked roller coasters.

Okay, yeah, we all rode one of these, nostalgic and fun for kids

Hell yes!

I submit evidence 3:  games.  There are many games that are well known and enjoyable to play, but what's the stereotypical game that's practically always referenced in television shows?  Twister.  Twister makes you twist around to win the game, and being twisted is a kind of curly.

Uh...huh...

You know what, this one may have gotten away from me a bit here.  Also, what the hell is going on with that box cover?  Is that guy pointing out how uncomfortable this is?  I hope this isn't an actual family.

On to evidence 4:  movies.  Everyone likes movies and everyone knows the best movies are the ones that end in a twist.

Did you think I was going to talk about Twister?  WHAT A TWIST!

In conclusion, twisty things are like curly things which qualifies them to be counted as part of the twisty/curly argument.  People prefer curly things to regular things.  Ergo, curly fries are the best fries, and Arby's-being the leading supplier for all our curly needs-has the best fries.  I mean, I know they offer regular fries too, but if you're going to Arby's and you don't order curly fries, I just want to know why the hell you're bothering to go to Arby's at all.

Today's prayer is for the church.

Free Ranting

I had this great blog post in mind today about curly fries.  I mean, I legit had it all planned out in my mind what I was going to say.  Then I picked up a friend of mine and we went to the bookstore, and on the way home, he poked me into ranting about a bunch of deep things.  When we got back to his house, he playfully insinuated that he intentionally prodded me to make me rant.  He is not the only one.  At least two other friends have admitted to intentionally poking me me in an attempt to get me to rant (not mentioning any names, ANGELA), others have acknowledge how easy it is to get me going, and others have jokingly prodded at me as a nod to the fact that I rant a lot; although I find it doubtful that the latter actually want to hear what I have to say on a given subject when they do so, and it is far more likely that they are just pointing out the fact that I've ranted at length on some particular thing previously.

When I asked my friend why he prods me in an attempt to get me to rant, he said that I always make him think way more deeply and critically about something than he usually does.  At least I have that affect on people.  Most of the time my ranting sounds like pointed ramblings about nonsensical or inconsequential things, and I know I tend to harp on certain points again and again.  I don't know why you crazy people enjoy my cantankerous nature.  You're the weird ones.  I'm just crazy insane.  But I love you all and I appreciate the way you put up with my rantings.

Anyway, my friend said that my stream of conscious ramblings are like "free writing" but in the verbal sense.  So I'm apparently a "free ranter".  And I don't charge either.

Today's prayer is for Tommy.  Tomorrow's blog will be about fries.

As a special postscript, I apparently have at least three tags about "rant"s, "ranting", and "angry/rage/rant" in case there was any trouble in believing that I rant a lot.