break

I realize that half of the blogging community feels the same way. And granted, I stopped blogging earlier than just today, and that this isn’t the first time that I’ve done this. And I only have 3 readers who have stuck through it all anyway.

But I thought that I’d make it official: I’m going to take a break from blogging.

We just moved into our new amazing heat-filled house, and there is more to do than blog. Maybe one of these days, I’ll do a side-by-side of how things used to be. I’ll use this time to learn how to make a house look freezing.

Have a great February. I know I will

Conversation

Taco Bell Girl: *sticking head out drive-thru window* Hey! Do you know how to speak Chinese?!
Me: Ah, no. I was adopted…
TB Girl: Oooohhh, so what language do you know?
Me: Well, I was adopted here in South Carolina, so I know English.
TB Girl looks disappointed and moves to get my food.

Me: May I get some fire sauce, plea…
TB Girl: So, how do you say “good-bye” in Chinese? Is it hola? Or chingchongchangchingchingchongchingchongchingchong (imagine about 20 more chingchongs)?
Me: *fully offended at this point* No. But, almost.
TB Girl: I thought you were Chinese!
Me: No, I’m actually Korean.
TB Girl looks more disappointed, as if I’ve lied to her and shoos me on my way.

*************************

Sigh. I must say, it’s been at least 10 years, but I was actually offended by this conversation that plunged me back into my childhood days.

It made me feel better after Petey gave me a big hug and my husband threatened to go down to Taco Bell… and you know. Kick some ass.

In my small town SC town, stereotypes reign. Sometimes, I feel bad for judging the two major stereotypes the way I do, and then… well. Something like this conversation happens.

*deep breath.* OK, I’m fine now.

Guest Post

No, it’s not me. It’s about something more important than me.

My name is brandy. And I have a blog.

And a plea.

I use my blog to showcase the crazy I meet everyday, share the stories of the kids I teach and document my love for tequila, dairy products and the abdominal muscles of Ryan Reynolds. Rarely do I talk about personal issues on my blog- as personal as the dude that I adore (who I actually met through my blog- single ladies, let that be a very good reason to blog, the possibility of meeting someone as wonderful as my man), but I need your help. And it involves my dude.

He’s a guy who made math comics for my class, so they would love learning about addition. He’s the kinda guy who sends my friends gift cards when they are having hard times, who remembers every story I ever told him, who was the first person I celebrated with when I got a teaching job. He’s the guy who sent flowers to me at school- dozens of my favourite pink roses just because he loves me. He’s a guy who has spent a year patiently explaining (and re-explaining) everything there is to know about football during the important games when silence is preferred. He’s made me word puzzles and comics and stayed up late playing Scrabble with me (even though I beat him almost every time). He’s listened to me cry about school and family and jobs. He is everything I never knew I needed and everything I always knew I wanted.

The holidays have hit us hard. He’s recently been told he may have something called multiple myeloma- an incurable cancer, that gives a person an average of five years of continued life. Though this news has came as a shock, he continues to be exactly who has always been- spending his time worrying about me, rather than worrying about himself. He’s the most selfless individual I know- (he stayed late on Christmas Eve to work, so his co-workers could leave early) and a post like this would never be something that he would promote or encourage but when I’m overwhelmed and feeling helpless, the blogging community has always given me tremendous support and comfort, two things I desperately need at this time.

As I write this, the future is uncertain and we aren’t sure what’s happening. He’ll need to see an oncologist soon, to verify what’s going on in his body. My hope is that everyone who reads this think positive thoughts and if you are a person who prays, could you add him to your list? (You can refer to him as ‘brandy’s hot awesome dude’). If you don’t pray, please keep him in your heart.This cancer is only a possibility and I believe that the prayers and positive thoughts of people can make sure it never becomes a reality.

I want to give a big thank you to the blog owner who scraped their original blog plans and graciously put this up. My goal is to get as many people as possible to see and read this post. If you are reading this and want to help, copy and paste my plea into your blog or send a link through twitter, so more people can keep him in their thoughts. I would be so very grateful (even more grateful than I am to my friend who first showed me the picture of Ryan Reynolds on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. If you haven’t seen it, google it. You. Are. Welcome).

I realize this all sounds dramatic, a Lifetime movie in the making- but this is life. Right now. And I’m throwing away any hint of ego and am humbly asking for you to pray or think kind thoughts. If you are able to pass this on, thank you and if you know anything regarding MM- please email me (my email is on my blog). This isn’t a call for sympathy or a plea for pity. It’s just one girl hoping you can think positive thoughts for the person she adores. If my current heartache provides you with anything, let it be with the reminder that life is short, love is unbending and no one knows what could happen next. Maybe it is silly, but I really do believe that positive thoughts can make a huge difference. Thank you for reading this and if you haven’t already? Please tell someone you love them today.

I did.

Eating for stress

Confession: I’m a stress eater. And when I eat during stressful times, I don’t just eat.

I eat and eat and eat and eat until I can’t move without feeling pain. And I always eat kind of disgusting combinations. For instance, just the other day, I heard some rather disturbing news, and I proceeded to eat a huge bowl of cereal (not so bad, right? plus, it was cinnamon toast crunch), some spaghetti (about a meal’s worth, in fact), a large amount of chips and salsa and 2 huge pickles. Right after dinner.

I could hardly move from all of the food in my stomach.

I guess I never really wanted to admit this to myself. You know, that I have some sort of addiction that I partake in whenever life’s worries get me down.

But I do, and I’ve come to terms with it. Almost, controlling it, even.

It all made sense to me after looking at pictures of me in my wedding dress. I wasn’t fat, per se, but I wasn’t as I usually was. And even now, I’ve lost weight without really trying. I still haven’t gotten down to where I used to be, about a year before I got married.

Who would have figured it was because of the way I’d eaten the few stressful months before my wedding, during my grad school graduation time and starting a new job?

Now that I’ve noticed it, here’s hoping that I can keep it under control. Because if I don’t, I’ll have adult onset Diabetes by the time I’m 26.

And that’s soon. Two days from now, in fact.

Ugh. Yes.

I did it. I started my Twitter back up. What can I say? I like getting quick updates about things that I wouldn’t normally get. New songs, xbox 360 games, friends I haven’t talked to in forever (since I deleted Twitter anyway). It’s pathetic, I know.

And since I went on a 6.5 hour trip (one way) and 5.75 trip (the other way) to Raleigh and back this past week, my head is swimming with many blogging ideas. Hopefully now that I’ve completely re-done my computer, and have hopefully have more typing time (I am a teacher, after all and the season of no school is upon us), I will write more. I’ve found that it does a lot for how I cope with certain issues. Without it, I have to deal with my issues by talking them out, and Lord knows that that does not work. Ever.

For now, I’m going to go watch more of the History Channel and snuggle with a pup I haven’t seen in 4 days. I really have the life, you know?