A few words on chicken

I am sick of this media shit storm that has taken over the country regarding Chick-Fil-A!

Now now, don't get me wrong... I do NOT patronize their company... but I haven't in years because the information that everyone is freaking out about has been available for much longer than the most recent quote by the CEO.

Here's the catch people, this is what we all need to understand and then move the EFF on... They are free to support whatever causes they please. It's their constitutional right! And here's yours... you don't HAVE to give them your money!

I disagree with their politics, although I respect their religious foundations. There are hundreds of other chicken joints in the country, ones with better food and lower prices, ones that are open on Sunday (which in my opinion is the best day to eat fried chicken), and probably one or two of them will also cater to your political/moral/personal values. 

Does no one remember shit hitting the fan a few years ago because Target wouldn't let the Salvation Army ring the bell outside their stores??? Oh everyone was pissed! Just about as pissed as they are at Chick-Fil-A now. Did any news sources pick up that Target also told an LGBT softball league that they couldn't circulate fliers in their parking lot? No! Why? Not as big of a deal at the time. Target doesn't let ANYONE sell/fundraise/etc outside their stores because they don't want a discrimination suit against them for allowing some but not others. I agree wholeheartedly, make a policy and stick to it dammit!

If you are interested in where the money you are giving a company is going, then you can get online and Google it! Not very difficult!

Companies such as Target, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Domino's pizza (just to mention a few) have had their names in headlines in recent years for charitable contributions on both sides of the political fences. 

If you care then you should educate yourselves, be aware! If you disagree, then spread the word! But let's not all act like Chick-Fil-A being a christian business with christian values is any kind of damn surprise to the populous!  

So shut up and buy you're chicken somewhere else!

It's up to you to educate yourself, do not be herded by the media, and this is a prime example of that!

Summer 2012

It's half-way through July and I feel like I haven't really enjoyed summer yet.

I could start bitching about the ungodly temperatures we've been experiencing and possibly rant about global warming, etc but I won't.

I think the main reason I haven't enjoyed summer yet is because I haven't done a bunch of summery things.

To me summer is swinging at the park, lots of swimming, barbecues, vacations, days of laziness, late nights with bonfires, and a lot of nothing to do.

We have been on vacation this year and I spend most every Saturday lazing on the couch until Rupert can't stand it anymore but something is still lacking!

I think I may need to take a three day weekend and live at the lake to get the full feel for summer! (Watch out Julie, this means you!!)

Maybe it's just the result of being at this point in my life. Rupert's too big to get away with some things and too small to get away with others. He's a full blown maniac 99% of the time, requiring constant attention or he'll run to China (so my kid!) and so I need to figure out new ways to have fun and really enjoy the hotter months!

Somewhere in my head summer still boils down to lots of beer drinking and partying with friends, which is not always conducive to raising a little boy :P

Rupert on the other hand, has been having a blast this summer. His daycare does themes every week about things they are going to learn and they incorporate seasons, holidays, etc. So thus far he has spent every Tuesday having water day, has learned about ocean life, outer space, and has had a luau. He adores swimming now that he has a vest that he feels safe in and has even started jumping off of the diving board. Dare devil!

One thing that has made this summer feel like a childhood summer is that a lot has changed.

Remember when you'd go back to school and it was always awkward for the first few days because it was like everyone was strangers?

That's how my life has been recently.

I've been developing new friendships and rekindling really old ones. There's something about that feeling of starting something new that makes me feel invigorated and youthful!

Also, tomorrow we will be welcoming my first nephew into the world! My sister is scheduled to be induced tomorrow morning and I think I may be as excited as she is! I've been knitting up a storm and trying not to spend an arm and a leg on baby boy stuff. This child is going to be beyond spoiled and I can't wait to have a hand in it! Plus, in a few years Rupert will have a male playmate in the family :)

I will blog about him and post lots of pictures later this week or next week, promise!

Here are some of the more fun things I have done this summer:

Mom and I drinking wine on the beach at night

Rupert and I swimming on Mother's Day

I got to go to Indiana and see my bff Melissa for Memorial Day Weekend

Swimming with E and the kids at the lake

Flinking in a friend's pool

Elizabeth gigantic prego

Rupert on the slip and slide at Madilyn's birthday party

Heather and I have a girls night in Gatlinburg

 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

There's been a lot happening in my little world recently. Not all good, not all bad... so I guess that really makes it about the same as everyone else's world then huh?

Let's see here... As of last Friday, I quit smoking. Like quit quit, hopefully my last time quitting too! But I have to say, this has been the easiest of them. I don't think I was ready to quit before and this time I feel like I am. Shew!

I got an opportunity to take an impromptu trip to Indiana and spent a wonderful weekend with my best friend in the world, Melissa. We even went back to our neighborhood and I got to see my old house, visit with the neighbors, eat my favorite pizza, etc. AMAZING. Plus, to make things even better, I got to meet up with my cousin Jake, his wife Lindsay, Aunt Roz, and Uncle Dave for drinks. We went to this cute place called Amore on the square in Crown Point and had delicious martinis. Never did I think that I would walk the square with a buzz... but now it has happened :p

I'm getting ready (well, July) to hit my one year anniversary at Dow and am hoping that they will decide to make my position permanent. I really like what I do and the people that I work with, so if this could become a permanent thing... huh, I'd be set!

I've been doing a lot of soul searching recently (not new) and seem to be finding my way to the truth (totally new). I think that the next few months might just hold some life changing decisions for me but I am looking forward to it. I want to grow and change and become the person I want to be, the parent I want to be. Change is exciting but certainly scary!

Rupert is officially 4 and a half and is completely obsessed with his next birthday. I've tried to explain to him a thousand times that he has six months to go but he just keeps telling me that he wants a Spongebob birthday with a bounce house and a pool... yeah right, I'll be more inclined to believe him in five months but certainly not now!

My sister, Elizabeth, is as big as a damn house with her third baby right now. Three kids, blargh! This one is a boy and they say they are done after him. I'm super excited for them and can't wait to meet my ONLY nephew! There will be a four year age difference between him and Rupert but they'll bond dammit because they have to, they're the only boys! :)

Otherwise it's just the same work and play, work and play as every other day. I'm just trying my best to mellow out, follow the high road, and do something right for a change... we'll see.

Melissa and me circa 1990

Melissa and me dancing at Celebration Station circa 1988

Melissa and me, Memorial Day weekend 2012

Corn fields look like my childhood

My childhood home looks remarkably the same

The Crown Point Courthouse

Lindsay, Uncle Dave, Aunt Roz, me, and Jake at Amore

Mr. Attitude aka Mini-me

Summer Reading

This summer I am going to catch up on some much needed reading!

I have a PILE of books that I should start with but that's too easy, so I had to get new ones... but I will get to those others soon. Swear.

I'm kind of exhausted on vampires, werewolves and the paranormal in general right now. Not sick of it but exhausted of the same story being washed, rinsed and repeated in every book.

So I started looking for new things and started reading The Hunger Games, oh wow... if you haven't read those books, do it! Seriously fantastic. I am getting ready to start the last one and I can't wait!

Also on my list of books is Guillermo Del Toro's first vampire book (yeah yeah, I know, I just said no vampires). It's a completely different spin on the usual sexy undead lover thing. It's a strain, like a virus, certainly different and really good. It's the first of a series, so once I finish this one, it's on to the rest!

I've also decided I need to be fulfilling my spiritual side as well. So not only will I read about people being terribly ravaged to death by a bloodthirsty government or a vampire but I'm also going to start learning the bible.

There is a massive list of books that I'd like to read and I swear it gets longer every month with new releases in series that I need to catch up on.

So this is just my jumping point aka the books that are going on vacation with me.

If I'm going to sit still, my mind will be busy!



Nightmares

Recently I have been plagued by awful nightmares, not just the usually cracked out ones that I always had. (Chris regularly tells me that I shouldn't smoke crack before bed :P) These have been much worse though. The kind where you wake up in a sweat, on the verge of tears, they loom over me the rest of the day and I lose all sense of security. Ugh.

I've been told that I have an overactive imagination (which plays into my G.A.D.) and it's been mentioned that it might be because of all the "demonic" things I watch. I'm not sure if it's the combination of the two or what but it's been killing me!

Usually my dreams are all crazy and strange and at least half the time involve sex with a crush or celebrity :) Recently they have been scary, like running for your life scary or the world is ending. A friend of mine has been giving me "homework," telling me different things every night to focus on  and it seems to be working. I'm just hoping this mental influence will keep up!

If nothing else, I can always resort to my high school/ college years cure for nightmares... watching The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. As long as I'm asleep before heffalumps and woozles, I would sleep like a baby, but if I saw the heffalumps and woozles I'm done for. Those things are still scary!





A Line-storm Song

It's been too many years since I got to spend any quality time with poetry.

So, randomly and in haste, I will peruse poets.org just to read a few pieces and move on.

Today I came across a poem that I instantly fell in love with. 

Whitman, Frost, Thoreau, etc have always been my favorite poets so it came as no surprise when I glanced back to see who the author was and it's Frost. 

For your reading pleasure (sigh):

A Line-storm Song
By Robert Frost

The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift,

The road is forlorn all day,

Where a myriad snowy quartz stones lift,

And the hoof-prints vanish away.

The roadside flowers, too wet for the bee,

Expend their bloom in vain.

Come over the hills and far with me,

And be my love in the rain.

The birds have less to say for themselves

In the wood-world's torn despair

Than now these numberless years the elves,

Although they are no less there:

All song of the woods is crushed like some

Wild, easily shattered rose.

Come, be my love in the wet woods; come,

Where the boughs rain when it blows.

There is the gale to urge behind

And buit our singing down,

And the shallow waters aflutter with wind

From which to gather your gown.

What matter if we go clear to the west,

And come not through dry-shod?

For wilding brooch shall wet your breast

The rain-fresh goldenrod.

Oh, never this whelming east wind swells

But it seems like the sea's return

To the ancient lands where it left the shells

Before the age of the fern;

And it seems like the time when after doubt

Our love came back amain.

Oh, come forth into the storm and rout

And be my love in the rain.

APA 2012

This weekend Chris competed in the Regional APA Tournament in Nashville.

He qualified as a 3, was a 4 at the tournament and then got bumped up to a 5 before the finals... a little kick in the ass but he managed anyway.

Julie and I spent two days in a smoky dive watching and waiting, hoping and praying, and trying to send every ounce of our good juju to Chris.

He played "like a boss" (Julie's phrase of the weekend) and kicked complete ass!

We are so outrageously proud of him!

Now, he is a Nationals Finalist and will be traveling to Las Vegas in late April to compete!

Everyone is thrilled for him and I think he may still be in a bit of disbelief, it's a dream come true!

So here are a few craptastic phone pictures from this weekend.

Enjoy:

Day 1:

Warm ups

Mmmm, beer

Me and Julie

Bucket of Beer

Chris after his first day of winning

Day 2:

BAMF in my sunglasses

One MILLION dollars!

Competing

Me and Chris after his first win

Chris and Julie

National Finalist!!

Julie and Chris, they may be excited!!

Me and Chris

Plaque

Sunset on our way home

Sunset with Chris's camera

Sleepy Rupert

Music Binge

Saturday night, after our lovely dinner, we were driving home and I put on Pandora and heard some new artists. It inspired me to get looking for new tunes. I feel like it's been ages since I was really enthralled with music and I found a bunch of stuff that I think I'm really going to like.

Here's my list of cd's:

100 Greatest Dance Hits of the 90's :)

Joss Stone - Soul Sessions

Joss Stone - Introducing Joss Stone

Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

Joss Stone - Colour Me Free

The Fratellis - Here We Stand

The Fratellis - Costello Music

The Russian Wilds - Howlin' Rain

Rachael Yamagata - Elephants Teeth Sinking Into Heart

Gotye - Making Mirrors

The Cranberries - Roses

The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow

Joss Stone - LP1

Duffy - Rockferry Deluxe Edition

Duffy - Endlessly

Sarah McLachlan - Laws of Illusion

Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs - God Willin and The Creek Don't Rise

Robin Thicke - Love After War

Olly Murs - In Case You Didn't Know

Sarah Jarosz - Song Up In Her Head

Noel Gallagher - High Flying Birds

Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong

Meditation of Ancient Egypt

Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas

One Direction - Up All Night

Fitz and The Tantrums - Picking Up The Pieces

Sharon Van Etten - Tramp

Emeli Sande - Our Version Of Events

David Guetta - Nothing But Beat (2 discs)

Black Keys - El Camino

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Amy Winehouse - Lioness: Hidden Treasures

Neko Case - Blacklisted

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

Neko Case - The Tigers Have Spoken

Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials

Joss Stone - Mind, Body, & Soul

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights

Il Divo - Wicked Game

Ed Sheeran - +

Looking forward to a few weeks of nothing but new music :)

My Valentine Pictures

At the Harris house we don't make a super huge romantical deal out of Valentine's Day.

We celebrate it by exchanging something small and spending time together.

Usually, Chris and I try to go on a date in the weeks surrounding Valentine's Day, but it's really just an excuse to date!

V Day 2012 was fun and I got to spend more time with Rupert than usual, which is always wonderful.

I worked half a day so that I could go to the party at Rupert's daycare that afternoon. Super precious.

Then we went home and waited on Daddy, had some great dinner (thank you Chris) and watched Titanic. Then we all went to bed together and snuggled. Perfection.

So here are some pictures from my day:

Party at daycare

Rupert's handmade Valentines:

(For My Grandpa "I love you because you have a hockey game" Love Rupert 2012)

(From the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, I love you)

Present from Chris:

I love that he decorated the bag, it looks perfect!

Super snazzy new travel mug that I had been dying for!

My little Valentine:

I love you this much!

Nope, only this much.

Just kidding, this much!