Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 13)

Yes I am aware that I wrote an entry about my Little Rock half marathon experience in March and it is now the end of August. I have had a tough couple of months. Lots of things out of my control went wrong. Lots of things in my control went wrong due to panic and poor decision making as a result of said panic. I had a freakishly harsh “acidic stomach” combined with a gallbladder attack which caused enough pain that I suddenly became acutely aware of my mortality. Also, I had a bad roommate. Depression kicked in.

I took time and took care of myself.

I have a lot on my mind and this quotation seems to fit.

Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can’t cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It’s just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live though it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal. Therapists and friends and other people who live on Planet My Baby Died can help you along the way, but the healing—the genuine healing, the actual real deal down-on-your-knees-in-the-mud change—is entirely and absolutely up to you.

From Sugar on the Rumpus “how to get unstuck”

Sometimes so much happens in such a short amount of time that it seems a blur and there isn’t time to sit back and have quite reflection over it all. But it is Birthday Month. And on Sunday I will be running a 10K. So… good things are a happening.

This is day 2. I am aware it’s February 3rd but I was away from the computer. Sometimes I need to read or hear these words. So here you go.

Every so often one of these secrets will take your heart string,wrap it around your neck, and try to choke you with it.

Over the course of the year, I, and you, see a lot of videos. Some of them are “okay” and some of them are just freaking awesome. This is for those.

It doesn’t snow that much in Arkansas and as a result, the state pretty much shuts down when it does. It snowed at the University of Arkansas. Some bored dudes made lip dub of Katy Perry’s Firework. Apparently, the need for shirtless barely legal males dancing around in the snow is high and this thing caught on like wildfire. It even got the attention of Katy Perry herself. It got the attention of national magazines and Katy Perry, herself. It currently has over 1,433,914 views. I think that says it all.

Jessie Miskelley, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin, otherwise known as the “West Memphis 3,” were released from prison after accepting a deal involving an Alford plea. As a native Arkansan who watched this unfold while I was in college, I never thought they would see freedom. I am still stunned by it, frankly. It’s not a perfect ending but it is an ending just the same.

Okay most of the time, I want to stab my eyes out when people post videos of children doing silly things. This one, instigated by Jimmy Kimmel, is epic. Jimmy Kimmel asked parents to tell their children that they ate all of their Halloween Candy. Hilarity, and tons of crying, ensues. Also, the phrase “YOU SNEAKY MOM” is a permanent part of my vocabulary.

If MTV went back to its roots and showed tons of videos instead of reality programming involving teen moms, KeSha would be a multigazillionaire. This is the music video for “Blow” Yeah the song is a fun little dance number but OH man. This video is over the top fun snarky deliciousness: Unicorns that bleed rainbows, James van der Beek, Meunster “the lactose liquid gold,” James Van der Beek’s head mounted like a deer (come on Dawson’s Creek fans who endured his Joey whining for six years, you know you want to see this). yeah you want it. “We’re pretty and sick. We’re young and we’re bored.” Let the crazy out kiddos. Let it out.

This one is old but I just saw it this year. Cat video bombs for the win.

Sometimes a video isn’t necessarily awesome for its content but it’s awesome to remind the rest of us that there is injustice in the world. The UC Davis pepper spray incident.

This year, like most years, I walked in the Little Rock Race for the Cure. I know there is a lot of controversy about all of the pink items and those criticisms aren’t completely unfounded. Ask questions and read the fine print if you are going to buy something whose profits are going to benefit the Komen Foundation. In fact, I would say, “hey if you like pink, the item is cute, and you’d probably buy it anyway, buy it and consider any donation good gravy.”

But I like the races. Yeah, I have read snarky commentary on “what does ‘awareness of breast cancer mean?'” But at the race, survivors of Breast Cancer get their own special pink shirts. People run in memory or in honor of other people. The race itself is a celebration of life. It’s an acknowledgement that breast cancer affects the lives of loved ones. It’s an acknowledgement that we’re not alone in the struggle. Also, its’ a damn fine fun party atmosphere with bikers, marching bands, country line dancers, and a whole host of other folks.

you can’t beat that for a Saturday morning.

This was my time. They are a law firm in Little Rock.

Gotta love the firemen

You can’t talk about breasts without the naughty talk.

The Harley Davidson club shows us how it’s done.

I promise you every historically African American fraternity was represented this year.

The local TV station is on the route.

BELLY DANCERS dancing

TAE KWAN DO!

I told you. Everybody was there.

I hated high school. I hated the stupid rules. I was awkward and insecure. I got picked on just enough to stoke the fires of that insecurity. I began counting down the time until I graduated from there in tenth grade.

Somehow I ended up back in my hometown and on the committee to plan my high school’s 20 year class reunion.

I do believe this is the very definition of hell freezing over.

So I was the person who was in charge of finding the alums and telling them about the reunion. now a good majority of them were already on Facebook. It was fascinating. It was fascinating to see how people changed and how they stayed the same. It was fascinating to see what people remembered about high school. It was fascinating to see the people that I thought were so confident and together back then admit that they too had struggles. I guess that’s the point of high school— trying to make your way in an environment that doesn’t make sense when you don’t even know who you are yet.

Since it was such a small place with a graduating class of about 120 with a large portion of those same people starting with us in kindergarten, it really was like a family reunion. That’s not to say that each and every person was your favorite person in the whole world but at the same time you loved them all the same and are glad that they were around.

So I guess I kissed and made up with high school. I am glad I went. Apparently, everyone else was glad too.

This song has been stuck in my head for the past three days. Also, I cant’ sleep. So I thought I would share.

I am on the cusp of big life changes. Or taking more control over a bad situation and making it good.

There’s so many unknowns in my life right now. gah