Ode to My Friend Karyn (sorry it's a bit sappy)

I am reading this book right now that is about best friends and it follows them through their lives. It is kind of a good book, it's getting better, but the last few chapters have really struck me. Reading about their friendship made me so grateful that I have a wonderful friend like you.
There was a passage that made me cry (just a little though)
"That was the thing about friends. Like sisters and mothers, they could piss you off and make you cry and break your heart, but in the end, when the chips are down, they were there, making you laugh even in you darkest hours."
I think of how many times I have been down, and just talking and giggling with you changed my whole day, and made me see the sunny side again. I think back on our friendship and of all the fun times we've had, and the hours that we have spent on the phone. Talking about nothing; like what we were eating and what the texture of that food was. Or the the deep and life changing things, like our religion, kids, husbands and just how we view this crazy world.
I am always so relived when you say that you have the same thought and think the same odd thoughts. When I am having one of those days where I think that I am the only one who has ever felt this way or thought some crazy thing, and when I tell you, you say "Me Too!" I love hearing that "me too". I know that even when you don't think the same way as me, you always listen, never tell me it's wrong, just try to see where I'm coming from. I love that I can just let out the real me, without any sensors (although sometimes you might wish that I do sensor some of the things that come out of my mouth) and I know you won't judge or talk badly about me to someone else. When we go out and no matter what we do I always have the most fun I could have. We might annoy other people, but I think they are all just jealous that they aren't having as much fun as we are.
I have always cherished our friendship. I never thought I would have such a close female friend, but reading this book has made me realize what a rare and wonderful thing it is to have a Best Friend. I picture us living in some old folks home, ages and wrinkled, maybe a little senile, but still laughing and talking.
Thanks for being my friend, I am so lucky to know you, and even more lucky to call you Friend.

Green

I am green.  I am vivacious light and energy.  I am the brightest spring and the darkest night.  I am an endless forest, and I’m the tinkling sound of a stream parting through it.  I am grass on a summer day. I am energy trapped and made brighter by the want of release.  I am more than my composite parts.  I am synergy.  I am the color of a new life, a secret life.  I am the color of imagination.  I am a thrill, an adventure.  I am a fairyland mist, cool and sprightly; I sparkle with effervescence.  I am moss in a meadow, a childhood blanket.  I am promises yet to be revealed.  I am whispered secrets of things to come.  Pleasant things.  Lucky things.  Happy things.  Magical things.  I am night and day together, an abyss.  I am a hideaway.  I am at once both rest and verve.  I feel serene.  I am a rushing river held in a wink, a knowing smile, a sparkling radiance, an Olympic rain.  A wonderland.  I am your favorite place to hide from the world, your secret treasure.  Your imaginary friend.  I am green.   

Feeling like I'm in the club

Today we set up a trampoline. We bought it Saturday but the huge amounts of snow prevented us from setting it up, much to Jake's dismay. So when Adam got home this afternoon we spent an hour setting it up, and then the kids jumped on it until dark.
I stood in my kitchen looking out the window at my 3 kids jumping on our brand new trampoline, and I felt like I joined the middle class.
Like us buying a tramp officially puts us into the Middle Class.
I feel like we are living the American dream, that we have a checklist for being the "perfect" middle class, white family living in the burbs. On that list there is; have 2.5 kids, own 2 cars, own your own 4 bedroom 2 bath home with the small patch of green grass filled with swing sets, sandboxes and various kid toys. Have the small garden, basketball hoop, and flowerbeds filled with petunias. Also on that list is making sure you keep fit, look nice and make cookies when your kids get home from school. Go out to the movies and dinner, take your kids to Chucky Cheese and Disneyland.
And make sure your own a trampoline.
So now I have become one of the Stepford Wives, although I am fighting the mold with my rock music, vampires and Stephen King and my love of sarcasm.
I hope I don't get a mini van soon.

My Amazing Musical Skills

I know that this post is silly and lame, but that is what we are aiming for, right?
So, lately I have been thinking that I should learn a new instrument, and I am leaning toward the drums or the guitar.
Now, let me start off with saying that although I can play the piano and the violin, I can't play either of them well.
Every 6 months or so I decide that I should start practicing one of them and become so good that I could just sit down and amaze people, which is most of the reason to play an instrument, to amaze people right? Anyway, what always happens is that I will play everyday for a week or two and start getting a little better at it, then all my enthusiasm fails, and my playing dwindles down to every other day, then once a week then to just looking at the piano telling myself how good I could be if I just practice, and so the cycle continues.
So when I think about learning a new instrument, I have all this knowledge of how I REALLY am, but I tell myself lies.
I tell myself that if I have a new instrument I will be so excited to learn it that I will play all the time(which is such a lie. It would be so hard that I would probably get frustrated and give up within a week) and I think that I would take a guitar with me when we go camping and play around the campfire (which is another lie. I don't really know any campfire songs, and if I did, I probably wouldn't want to lug a guitar camping just for a few minutes around the campfire). If I learned the drums, I could rock out and maybe, just maybe be asked to join a band and travel around the world with my drums (I don't even need to explain this lie).
Now one the downside to both, at lease the one downside that I will admit, is that they both would cost money, and it would really be selfish to spend all that on me, when I could have my kids do it. And I already have a whole bunch of lies I could tell myself about them.
Maybe they will join a band :)

A Lesson From a Tampon

Okay, first I must apologize for the very simplistic metaphor, but that's just the way they come to me.  Now, to explain it:

I don't like to follow the rules.  If someone says I should write a story some way, I really don't think I should.  But the problem is, I always do.  Dang, why is that?  Don't I trust my own instincts?

And that is the whole purpose of this blog, according to me and my dear friend.  Because we like breaking rules.  On purpose.

What does this have to do with a tampon?  Lots.  You see, every time I go to open one, I look at the stupid plastic package that covers the slender stick.  Every time.  Which way are the arrows facing?  Which way is it properly opened?  Well, guess what?  I hate opening them the way the arrows say I should, and yet I look, every time.

It's the wrong end, people!  Isn't it far more logical to open it on the end you will actually hold?  Okay, sorry.  Making an effort not to get too carried away and/or graphic here.

My point is this:  Are we not all like that a little bit?  Do we sometimes have to make a conscious effort to ignore rules?  I'm really not saying rules are bad.  I believe most are, in fact, helpful (even if I haven't figured out how those blasted arrows are yet).  However, I like to take every rule with a large grain of salt, heck a whole bag of it is better.  Because, isn't having fun the point of writing?

Every day I ask myself again, why did I start this, this writing stuff?  To have fun!!!!!!!  (Over-use of exclamation points.)

It was definitely not to follow rules.