An Inspirational Story

Every once and awhile a story comes along that touches your heart and makes you think. The boy below was Ben Breedlove. Notice the past tense. Ben died on Christmas day from a long time heart condition. Just days before he died, he made two videos chronicling the times he cheated death. Ben was 18 and in his senior year of high school. He had his whole life ahead of him. Instead, he perished on what is supposed to be a day of celebration and love. It really makes you think about life and death and the events that lead up to the moment where your heart no longer beats for you and you pass on. Death is one of the most accepting things on this earth. It cares not for age, beauty, gender, race, religion or love. It will take you in any way it chooses and sometimes, it can be unfair. I could confidently say I am not afraid of death. I am more afraid of what I'll miss when I am gone. So for now, I live my life and hope I get the chance to see it through. Not everyone is so lucky. Ben was not lucky. But what he did with the life he had was enough for him. He is proud of what he has accomplished. And even though he wasn't able to play sports with his friends, he made it work. He was not afraid of death. And in making these videos, he gave his parents of semblance of peace in knowing that he was not afraid. Note the smile and the slight chuckles at some of what he says. He knew of the fate that would eventually come to collect. And he accepted. Watch these videos, laugh, cry or think. And the next time something doesn't go your way, think of Ben and he turned a diagnosis that wasn't in his favor into something great.

Fun Facts and Stupid Things

Fun fact of the day:
              "The average American spends 14 days in the bathroom"
Who knew. I mean some people can read entire books on the toilet, and I guess that includes baths, showers, getting ready etc. Just thought you all should know.

Stupid thing of the day:
              "I was driving to work the other day, and I was behind a brake happy mid sized car. The back was filled up with so much stuff that they couldn't see out the back. The entire 15 minutes I was behind this person, they were washing their back window. Really? This isn't going to help you see out the back through your crap. So dumb."

And nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, Things that Perplex Me Part Two:

11. Hot Air Balloons
                 First of all, who thought to use a balloon to fly a little tiny basket up into the air. And how do they stay afloat and not crash to the ground killing the three people that can actually fit into the basket. So weird

12. Acting
                 Who was the first person who decided to be another person for an hour or two for entertainment

13. Chips
                 Hmmmmmmm, maybe I should fry these potatoes to make them crispy and then season them

14. Fingerprints
                 It is truly fascinating that we all have different fingerprints. And that people can tell who are through them

15. Toes
                 How can such a huge body rely on such little appendages to stay upright. I guess I missed something when training them because I fall a lot

16. Eyeballs
                 So much to see out of such a little hole

17. Cremating people
                 Think of how many people are in the air right now? Gross but maybe true............

18. Shaving legs
                 Who thought that the hair on a woman's leg was so repulsive we should shave it off. I mean, its tedious. Hair is natural. And why don't men have to shave their legs?

19. Cotton candy
                 Puffy sugar...nough said

Thats all I have for now! A hodge podge of stupidness....

Pictures

Why is photo booth so fun. I hope this picture is coming to you in great spirits. I sure had fun taking a series of pictures, when I was alone. I tend to get bored and do stupid stuff when I get left alone. So lesson to the wise, don't leave me alone. At least don;t leave me alone without nothing to do. Now pictures, capturing a moment in time and freezing it to forever live in the world on paper or in a camera. Pictures can tell a million stories. For example. This picture at first glance would to me imply that I'm dumb and decided to take extremely unattractive pictures of myself with my computer. In actuality, I just got done taking my final and really just wanted to do something with a computer that didn't involve hitting submit quiz. I like how it distorts my face and makes my teeth into beaver wood chompers. My original purpose for this photo was to put on my sisters facebook wall to make her happy. Good thing she isn't on the book anymore because I feel that I would have regretted sharing this picture with such and audience. So of course, instead, I am sharing it with this audience base!

This picture could have more than a million stories to it. My sister, cousin and I could have been preparing for a tribal war dance around the fire. We could have just been being us and painting our faces with ridiculous patterns just for giggles. Sara looks like a deranged Rudolph with a Captain Hook mustache. Alison looks like and Angry War Bird, which is funny since the game did not exist at this point in time. We may have on to something with that... I look like the paint threw up on me and then tried to save itself with the cross on my head. In reality, we were about to perform a caper. We have a tire and it needed to be exposed of. We went to drop the tire off and it fell out of the car, rolled down the hill and landed perfectly where a tire would be. It couldn't have gone any better. And the Sara supermaned herself into the car and yelled drive. It was pure gold. Us being badasses. Usually doesn't turn out well. And us, the deranged criminals that we were are now respectable members of the community. Alison is now married with a baby and a job, Sara has a career, and I, being the best, am a damn good nanny and student.

Now of course, these pictures are polar opposites and I actually have no idea where I was going with this blog, but then again do I ever. So I leave you with this, a picture, you can decide the story. Caption contest! Winner gets a shout out in the next blog! I know, you are all just clamoring to be mentioned next....

Perplexing Things

Now I don't know about everyone else, but I have a lot of lists. My bucket list, to do list for the day, week, month, year etc, my time travel bang list, my "if I had a million dollars" list and the list that I personally think is the most interesting, my list of things that perplex or fascinate me. So I will share a few of the things on that list now. This is coming up because I realized today that I really like making lists. So here we go! Top 10 things in no particular order!

1. The roadway system
                -How did this even come about? Ever single time I drive(and since I spend pretty     much most of my life at this point in the car, thats a lot) I think "how did someone think of this? Roads end, begin, merge into other roads, the clover leafs, the exit ramps, entrance lamp, the all the way across the country roads etc. Just fantabulous, baffles my mind. That and stop lights and how they are always in sync and not causing crashes. Just awesome. Shout out my frand Sean who is now in graduate school studying this very thing that perplexes me.

2. Why the ocean is blue
                -I know that I could probably google this, but I would rather leave it mulling around in my head. Water is clear in its best form, so why it appears blue is just so cool. And why some oceans are bluer than others. Again, fantabulous.

3. Math
                -Well, math perplexes me in a way that is more academic. I just don't understand it and I don't have the patience for it. But what perplexes me in a non-academic way about it is that it is the same all around the world. No matter where you go, it will always be the same. 2+2 will always equal 5!

4. Airplane traffic
                -The airplane's themselves don't perplex me, they just are cool. The actual airplane air traffic is so cool! So many planes in the air at one time and they are arriving at destinations on time(most of the time) and intact(lets hope most of the time).

5. Whales
                -Are really big. Nough said.

6. Addresses
                -How are there no duplicates? Who decides what your address is if you build a house? So many questions, not enough answers. I wonder who has the address number 1. There has to be one somewhere in the country or world.

7. License plates
                 -So much information in those little tiny plates

8. My brain
                 -Brains in general don't perplex me. They mostly just gross me out while occasionally amazing in between. My own brain is what perplexes me. Sometimes I wonder how I came up with some of the things I say and some of the things I think. If you know me, you know what I mean. If you don't, I think you can guess just from being a reader. One moment I can be really smart and the next... squirrel!

9. Tootsie Rolls
                 -How can a candy that looks like a turd and isn't really chocolate be so good?! And how do they get it inside the suckers? And duh, how many licks does it take to get to the middle...

10. Finger Nails
                 -Where do they come from? Why do they keep growing? So weird, kind of like hair...But I guess that is for another day.

Until next time folks!

My sister and I

So there is this woman, her name is Sara and she is my 24 year old sister. I don't know what it is, but we have one of the weirdest relationships on the planet. One minute we could be at each others throat about to kill and the next we could be on our asses laughing so hard that in the next minute we are fighting for the bathroom. We haven't always liked each other. There was a moment, when I was born, when she thought I was really cute. Then I began to grow up and become cuter than her(duh) and then came the big whammy in our relationship. I learned to speak. And that is when it all went post baby down hill. I was sassy, I still am sassy but can control it(somewhat)(who am I kidding, I have no filter). We would fight constantly. I actually threw a rollerblade at her head once. She will say I hit her because she is dramatic, in reality I missed her. But all of my teasing was not completely unwarranted. She was once throwing one of those polls with the orange flags on top that you see on soccer fields corners into the air. And she, like the gem that she is, actually didn't catch it and it hit her in the eye and gave her the most wicked black eye since I broke my nose. Of course I was jealous, so that just made the teasing worse. But that is how our relationship was until about her senior year in high school when she finally realized that I was pretty cool and I realized that she wasn't a raging biatch. We realized that we were never going to live together like we used to, being able to speak when we woke up in the morning in our adjoining bathroom. She could no longer yell at me for being in her room and stealing her clothes(we learned that it only got worse because now she wasn't home to defend her territory). Either way, we got a lot closer and it was pretty nice. Now, instead of epic fights between us, epic things started happening to us. It was like once we stopped trying to find things to fight about and in turn found things to laugh at. It is all about the little things with us.

This is when our relationship got good. Especially in the last few years. It seems like every funny stupid thing that could happen to people in front of us did. There was the man who was crossing the busy street at the really busy intersection who actually danced across the street, and not in a good way, but an extremely funny hilarious way. There was the man on the small bike with very tall handles who tried to make the light on Grand and didn't seem to know where the increase resistance thing on his handle was. I don't know if he made it because I was too busy laughing my butt off with her. Then there was the grand finale, we were walking down grand ave one day, with our bear of cuteness Otis and we passed a store that was under construction. There was a guy outside of the open window on a ladder who was talking to the guy inside. The guy inside the store who apparently did that thing where you step on a rake and it comes and hits you in the forehead except it hit the guy on the ladder. And he was not expecting it. And Sara and I, unclassy as ever, laughed out loud right in front of him and kept walking. What were we going to do? Stop and make sure he was okay? He was laugh crying, he was fine haha. But those are the types of little things that happen to us. Some things we can see from far away and not be speaking but both start laughing and be laughing at the same thing. It's one of those sister telepathy things that happens to us and I love it.

I love our relationship now. We get dinner, or she makes dinner and we grade papers together, or we try to work out together. We run 5k's on a whim without training for them. We buy colorful lawn furniture and we cuddle now, which is a big thing for us because she never even used to let me near the bed she in. It is great and I love it. And I sure hope it stays that way. Love your siblings people and remember that its the little things that make life great.