Add to Cart - aka my Poison

  I'm  a huge "window" shopper - and by "window" I mean if its in my visual window, then I'm shopping!  I love things that are easy and user friendly.  There are no dressing rooms with those god-awful lights and what I (not affectionately) call Camera mirrors - because they automatically add 10 lbs .  There are pictures  and TRUE testimonials of how awesome and enriched my life will be when I have these wonderments in my possession.  I got addicted to "Add to Cart" one year when I decided to Christmas shop at 3:00am.  Oh my goodness!  Add to Cart and I became best friends!!  I just clicked and TA-DAH!! presents automatically landed on my front porch.  It was truly a Christmas miracle!  There were no cars that were gonna cause me to go into parking lot rage, there were no parents yelling at their kids to stop crying, there were no sales people bombarding me with "specials", it was just me and Add to Cart.  I fell in love.  And as anyone who has ever been in love knows - its not always a 50-50 split on the give and take.  But with Add to Cart, it always gives me exactly what I want, with one little touch.  Those three little words changed my life forever.

the Boys are back in Town

Last night I went to dinner with my cousin, who is about to become a grandmother for the first time.  When I walked in to Flips, she was sitting at the table holding a tiny baby boy - which was unusual - not because she had a baby that was of no relation to her, but that it was a boy.  My cousin is the mother of two adult daughters and has never experienced all the most wonderful and exciting things that having boys in your life on the daily brings to the table.  Now her oldest daughter is pregnant with twins and a couple of weeks ago, we found out that they are both boys.  Nothing could have shocked her more, and to be completely honest,  disappointed her.  I, of course, being the only person in our family for at least our generation and  the 2 generations before, was the first to have 3 boys and zero girls - so I thought it was the greatest thing ever.  I still do.  I woke up this morning thinking about, first how sweet and precious Baby Eli was that I also held last night, but also how lucky I got to be in a house FULL of boys for 20 plus years.   My boys are just such fun people.....They bring a completely different vibe into the mix with the loudness and the wrestling and the general messiness that just IS boys. - I found out early on to never, EVER use the phrase "Oh my kid would NEVER do that!!".......As soon as those words leave your mouth, you will instantly become a liar.  Believe me on that one!! They are psychic and basically just enjoy messing with your head.
However, there are so many awesome things about boys that I miss more than words can say since mine have now moved on and left me, but I'm going to take a quick trip down memory lane and enjoy how much each one taught me a wonderful lesson on patience, parenting and determining that no matter how old you are, you are never too old to take a lesson (or 2) from your kids.  
But also, the unconditional, never-wavering, ever-present love that they have for their mom.  Any other female that is brought into a male-dominated household learns very quickly she better be able to hold her own.
So, congratulations to my beautiful cousins, Kimma & Zig and to their kids, Brad & Terra and the newest little rockstars, Jett & Jagger.  Your lives will never be the same and for that you can thank J-squared - they will keep you on your toes, make you think it was actually YOUR idea to get that puppy, snake, lizard, ferret, goldfish (hint on that one - just buy them in bulk!), guinea pig, drums, guitar, paintball gun,  every action figure and lego that has EVER been invented and GUM!!!

PS.  I started this in Feb........and finished it in May.     What can I say?? I  got busy...  :)

still bitchin

Its been pushing a year since my first foray into the retail environ and I now feel like I've earned a degree in psychology.  And I will just say - Women are crazy.  I mean as shoppers.  I don't mean that in necessarily a really bad way, and I'm not including ALL women - only about 78%, but seriously - I'm talking about SHOES.  Maybe it just irritates me that they take so long to make a decision.  Its not rocket science, its not botox or a boob job - which they CLEARLY did not spend enough time contemplating those choices - its SHOES.  SHOES!!  The one thing you HAVE to wear to eat in restaurants or walk around in any public establishment.  I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm and probable obsession over what is arguably the most important article in ones fashion repertoire, but I honestly do not understand the dilemma some women put themselves thru trying to decide on a pair of shoes.  Or how they go about buying them and the drama they put themselves thru to rationalize a purchase for themselves.  I have said since Day 1, Men are my favorite customers.  They know what they want,  or what their female person of interest wants, they see it, it works, Done. There's no "well, I could wear it with jeans or a dress" or "OMG, So&So is gonna kill me"  I promise you, ladies - HE DOES NOT CARE.  and if he will honestly KILL YOU,  then YOU  are an idiot for being with him in the first place and you don't deserve to wear cool shoes.  So, get off the dadgum "Debt Diet" that Oprah keeps preaching (and hows about you take a look at her Louboutin's while she's telling you not to spend money before you take her advice) and go take control of your own brain and get what you want.  And if you don't want to buy shoes - or anything else for that matter - Then DON'T GO TO THE CANDYSHOP!!!   But, if you do, then be WOMAN enough to make a decision and own it.  Welcome to the 21st Century.

The Circle

Its been a hot minute since my last blog.  I've never considered myself a writer - my sisters are the word wizards - but I do, on occasion, feel the need to verbalize, and obviously today is one of those days.  The past couple of years I have been on a self-searching mission....not that I was missing in action or anything, but more of a trying to find the person I am on my own.  Turns out I will probably never find that because I have too many people in my life to ever be on my own, which, if you think about it - is awesome.  If anyone had told me 2 years ago the things I would experience, I probably would have gone the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" route  to determine which side of the grass I would be on.  So, I guess its a bonus that I didn't make use of any fortune-tellers at the time.   I won't list out all the drama or all the crazy thats been gettin all up in my head but I will say I have the very best friends and the very best family a person could ever want.  I have a job that I pretty much enjoy 87% of the time.  I've met so many new people and have friends all over the place and I LOVE THAT!   I love that I got to travel all over the place and dance in front of thousands of people.  I love that I have a kid that has a wife that lets him BE HIM and he has his dream job and is absolutely fantastic at it.  I love that I have a kid that has a dream to be a rockstar and is living that dream every single day - I love that he's making his own path and not following all the rules to be who he wants to be.   I love that I have a kid thats got my sense of humor and also an IQ of Einstein - I love that no matter what - he GETS me. I've also hit the jackpot in the mom/sisters life lottery - no matter what, my sisters and mom will be there to save me - either from myself or anything else.  They have watched me go through some good times and some bad times.  Never judging, but always willing to listen and help in anyway possible.  There are no people  in this world that love me like they love me.  Everyone should be so lucky!  I would say I've got a pretty good life and sometimes it takes a little bit of thunder and lightening to shake things up so you can enjoy the rain.

Side note (or footnote or whatever you want to call it note) - I wrote this a little over 6 years ago, but was recently inspired to blog again, so I thought I would re-publish a couple of past blogs.  If you enjoy it, feel free to "subscribe" or whatever - Its free, hopefully entertaining for the most part and who knows, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two! ;)

Rock on.

i was just reading an issue of Oklahoma Today magazine - the letters to the editor section, and I'm positively amazed at how absolutely stupid some people are. There were a couple of  complete idiots that wrote to say how horrified they were that the mag would publish or "waste" an entire issue on Rock, the music genre....not the mineralized stones that are ironically being slung with great force straight to the face of my dear friend.   Anyway, it made me open my eyes to the fact that we live among some very narrow minded and selfish people.  Who are they to say what EVERYONE should be reading or writing or singing about? They smacked on the lyrics, the beat, the wardrobe, the personal artistry of not only the people that make this music, but the people writing and acknowledging them.  I felt like I had been carted back to 1959, and I wasn't even alive then!  I would like to send these people a years subscription to Rolling Stone magazine just to see if they would go into cardiac  arrest while reading the first 5 pages of any issue.  :) That must be all that devil-worshipping music I listen to that makes me so evil. lol.

So, heres my shoutout to OT mag and to Rock n Roll.... I know how to rock. I know how to roll. and I know how to read.  And I'm having a helluva good time with all of it.  If you don't like the music, turn your hearing aids down.