Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Holey-Moley

When you live 36 years as a single person, there is a strange thing that happens.
There are huge important chunks of your life that your future someone will be completely unaware of through firsthand experience.  They will not have lived life with you, they will only get the retelling, which is forever clouded by time and emotion.

My someone will never know my Dad, how he was larger than life, loud, bold, with an amazing singing voice, and whip smart.
My someone will never know my Step-Dad, scholar, poet, kind to the end. They will never know how he suffered, or how my tiny mom cared for him.
My someone will never know Retail Linda, working nights and holidays, and loving and slaving for a company and ideal. They will never know those 15 years of Stockholm Syndrome fueled servitude, loving it, hating it, needing it.
My someone will never know a lot of things.

I went to the dermatologist a few weeks ago and had a big ghastly mole removed. It was smack dab in the middle of my back, jutting out awkwardly, out if sight and reach from me, but always a cause for concern and angst in the summer months. I told the dermatologist that it was time- it needed to go. And after the knife quickly sliced it away, and as I saw the familiar shape of this strange protrusion being held in tweezers in front of me for the first time, I got strangely sad. 

My someone will never know that mole.


Tuesday, May 26, 2015

36


36, when you tell people that is how old you are turning and you can see in their eyes. They are thinking, "wow, that is older than I thought..."

36, when you are officially closer to 40 than 30.

36, when medically they say your eggs start dying exponentially.

36, when a best friend tells you in all seriousness to consider freezing your eggs.

36, when you have friends done with having kids.

36, when your mom had you, and you were the 6th child.

36, when you never thought you'd still be alone.

36, when people have learned to stop asking about your dating life.

36 different times you've tried online dating sites.

36, when you look at pictures of men and think, "Wow, that dude is old." And then you realize you are older than them.

36 times you've watched You've Got Mail.

36 seasons of the Bachelor that you keep watching because CHRIS HARRISON! And LOVE!!

36% of your DVR filled with things you know you're never going to watch, but you can't delete them. You may get to the last two seasons of The Originals, right?

36, where you enter a new demographic, and are no longer in the coveted 18-35 TV viewing range, but your TV viewing habits are in the 12-18 range (hello, CW Network, I'm looking at you) so it's fine.

36 books sitting in a pile for you to read, but you have to do homework instead.

36 dollars (or thereabouts) spent for your Hulu+, Netflix, and Pandora accounts each month.

36 times a day that you pet Mandrake. With your foot. Because that cat is Guano Crazy.

36 times a day you are glad you don't work retail full time.

36 pairs of shoes in your closet, but you wear three.

36 times you looked at new shoes online, just in case. 

36 pounds you wish you could loose. 

36 days without Diet Coke, and no you don't feel better, and no you haven't lost weight, and yes maybe it's okay if it is eating your insides out when you drink it, because really what is the point of not drinking it?

36 days without sugar, except for that one time you couldn't handle it anymore and started eating Nutella out of the jar with a spoon, and then that other time that you were at Swig for the first time and you HAD to get the sugar cookie. And you ate the whole thing. And then you wanted to puke. And you haven't lost weight and maybe it's okay if it is eating your insides out when you eat it, because really what is the point of not eating it?

36, when you never imagined you'd be getting a Masters Degree. In Business. Because you still aren't quite sure how to spell business. (Thank you spell check).

36 more years till you pay off student loans.

36, when you support yourself and make a good living.

36, when you still feel like you're 22. But you're not.

36 times you laughed at yourself. Today.

36, when you have to think about how old you are when someone asks.

36 -the age that has no songs about it, but for some strange reason 23 has TONS- Dave Matthews Band, Blink 182, Incubus, just to name a few- and you wish you knew why 23 was significant, and did you realize 23 was significant when you were 23, and you wish you can make 36 significant.

36 days until the Tan-orexia really starts to set in, and the computer sun shade comes out of storage.

36 days until you were supposed to be born, and  you are really glad that you aren't a "midget Cretin" like the doctor told your parents you would be, but really couldn't they have stopped praying for you to grow big and strong at a future balance of like 5'4" and 120 lbs?

36 times you obsessively check to see how many people read a post after you publish it, and you wonder who reads it, and why, and you don't think you're that interesting really, but you try to make yourself interesting, and you want them to laugh. To think. To be entertained for a moment or two.

36 birthday's celebrated with friends and loved ones because your BFF gives you lectures about self promotion and making things happen for your birthday, and she will be so mad at you if you just stay at home, an ostrich with your head buried in the sand alone, like you are naturally inclined to do.

36 years of loss, learning, fun, adventure, friends, family, cats, clothes, stories both read and shared.

36 years of a pretty good life, and now waiting to see what the next year will bring. 

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

What Grade are you Getting in Life?


2014. The year of the Buzzfeed quiz. Clogging up your Facebook newsfeed even more than the baby pictures of your college friends, they were the new Myers Brigs. The new Color Code. The new strength finder. Learn your deepest desires and dreams and who you really are by taking a Buzzfeed quiz.  They look into your SOUL...

I am an ISFP (Introvert 44%, Sensing 50%, Feeling 50%, Perceiving 89%), a white mixed with a yellow, and an Adaptor. 

And thanks to the Buzzfeed quiz onslaught, I also know other insightful things about myself and my interaction with the world.


Mindy Kahling. Which is amazing because I love her. Read her books. Watch her show.  Liz Lemmon and Leslie Knope have left me, and now I have Mindy Lahiri. (On Hulu, thank goodness. I mean what happened when Danny went to India?!)


It’s a Small World, because I always have a smile on my face!! 
(that means my work on my R.B.F. is paying off...Follow the link... It's a true struggle...)



Not that big...


Duh. Wisdom, insight, humor. Brilliant.



Stefan, of course. The "best friend." And, you know, if Caroline can't work out her issues, I'm available Stefan...


What Harry Potter book are You?

I mean, Buzzfeed was really looking into my soul here. Because HBP is my FAVORITE. AND they even chose the greatest quote EVER for the picture. I have a bracelet that I almost never take off with this very quote.

And then: 


...an F.

Last fall I took this quiz, and I got An F!!!!

I got an effing F in LIFE…

In my schooling I have never received an F. Mostly A’s, a few B’s, a C in PE (Never an athlete, this one...) but NEVER an F.  As a teacher my mom would say that those who received F’s in her class were actively working towards getting a bad grade.

Guess what.

I just retook the test.

My grade=

 A-!!! 

All grades just posted for my first semester in Graduate School. Straight B's, baby! I've never been so pleased at mediocrity in my life. As one classmate said, "B's get degrees!"

But it felt really good to get an A in something.


Thursday, April 30, 2015

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish...

Behold, I give you the fishermen of the Salt Lake Valley. 





I know it's not a Monday, but a gal will do anything to procrastinate studying for finals, as I did last night.

Like collect fish pictures from friends.




 

As aforementioned, I hate fish. I think fish are terrible. 
Probably one of my favorite things on earth is swimming in the ocean, but if you want to give me a panic attack have me put on some snorkel gear to see what's underneath.

I don't need to know that they are there. We can just peacefully coexist, them slithering below, and me bobbing on top. 

And don't even get me started on eating them...


 

With all of these amazing pictures, it does beg the question, what is it about fish that compels all of these men to post pictures of them?


 

Here are my working theories:
  • They are super outdoorsy
  • They love to fish
  • They are showing that they can provide during the Apocalypse
  • Hitch told them that women like guys that fish
  • There are directions when men join Tinder instructing them to post a fish picture
  • SLC is very Christian so they are just showing actual representation of a man taught to fish
  • It's some sort of phallic Freudian euphemism

 

Before all y'all get all up in arms with thoughts like, "Linda! They are all perfectly nice men! Why don't you go out with ALL of them!!" 
Remember- I'm not on any dating site right now. 

Who the hell has time for that AND work AND graduate school? 

I've always said online sites are a part time job with the time and energy you have to invest. And I've chosen to invest my time and energy elsewhere.

You know, I'm investing my time in work and school and a blog that like 10 people read and over an hour to blur out faces and names... 

Priorities, people. Priorities. 




If you are going to talk to me about fish, this is the only thing I would be interested in...