Life is great with friends like these

My friend Mary was sweet enough to send a few pictures along from a wedding we were in this weekend, in fact she was one of my bridesmaids. She is one crazy gal.

Looking at this picture was a stark reminder of what great friends I have. Even though there a few missing from this picture, this is a pretty good look at my core group who has been around for what seems like years now. These girls are my sorority sisters, confidants, they keep my secrets and share all of my dreams.

About half of us are married now and by adding our husbands we have added a whole new dimension to our friendship. These guys tell us when we are being petty little girls, they move our huge furniture and look out for us when we are alone. They have entered our realm of pink and fluffy clouds, Kate Spade handbags and Decor magazine reading. The best thing is that as our lives change, we always come back together to celebrate the joys in life and share the burden when life has become really hard on someone in the group.

There are a million girls out there with pictures like this and I know you feel as lucky as I do. I have girlfriends who cherish life and bring a smile to my face and a warm feeling in my heart when look back on these moments.

To all my girlfriends- Thank you... And that will never be enough

What is that smell?????
I guess sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. Our company has been pretty fortunate this year. They have been hiring several new people and the place is pretty full at this point. It is so full that we have had to turn half of the conference room on the floor I work on into a storage room. In order to avoid heavy construction, a divider was placed in the office yesterday morning. That is the good part. The bad part is that this thing smells like dirty feet. I am not kidding about this. The divider is at the end of the hall from me and as I sit at my desk, I can smell this wretched smell. I am not sure it was made any better by spraying Febreeze. It has not seemed to make any impact on the smell. We have a meeting in the conference room this afternoon, and I just want to see if anyone says anything. We are so polite these days, I doubt anyone will ask if someone has gotten comfortable and taken their shoes off.

Creatures of habit

I have been wondering for a couple of weeks who has been walking around the ceiling of our office building. My office is on the top floor, so we are fortunate to have such a nice view of the world around us. But, almost every afternoon I hear light steps above my head and I always wonder what it is. I have just assumed that the maintenance crew stays pretty busy and they are tramping around up there every day.

Well, I now understand where the phrase "creatures of habit" came from. This morning we were meeting with a potential client in our conference room. The exterior wall is completely covered with windows. Just before the meeting kicked off, my boss said our good luck charm arrived. He was looking out the window so we all did the same. I am sure I looked shocked because when I looked out a rather large buzzard was hanging out on the ledge just outside our windows.

The building I work in is fairly new. It was completed only six years ago, on land that was once a farm. From what I have now learned, our building stands where a barn once stood and buzzards once ruled the barn. Now that the barn has been replaced with an office building, can you say "moving on up"? the buzzards still perch here. So, it is not the maintenance crew above my head every day, it is locale buzzards. If it would stop raining every afternoon, I might just run up there one day and see how many of them perch there during the day. And right now, just above my head I there is a creature of habit. He is making his way to the edge of the roof and off he goes.....

Check out your magazine
Another topic posed by The Bert Show. I have not been reading teen magazines for several years so I am totally out of the loop on their content. Well, thanks to last week's topic I am up to speed on these teen magazines. When I was reading "Bop" and "Seventeen", it was covered with photos of boy bands, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson and ads for jelly shoes. Apparently, these days the contents have changed dramatically. They now have surveys that are titled, "Are you ready to have sex?" I think I speak for many other parents when I say that I do not ever want a teen magazine to determine or even attempt to determine if my 15 or 16 year old is old enough or mature enough to be having sex. I can not imagine what moms and dads are going through these days. When I was 15 and 16 years old, I was just driving a car, cheer leading and hanging out with my friends. I was not worried about being old enough to have sex. I was not, just in my personal opinion and I knew that. I think it is sad that kids and they are kids, this age are faced with things like this. I just wish that they understood they have years ahead of them to think and worry about these things. Not now, not when they should be getting their driver's license, going to dances and having sleep overs. They do not need to worry about planning their first encounter with sex around when their parents are not going to be home or when their boyfriend of the month can get his mother's car.

I would love to sit here and blame it on shows like Everwood, Dawson's Creek and The OC, but I don't believe that is the root of the problem. Shows like that certainly do not help, but I do not believe that is what makes kids grow up too fast. I was watching Beverly Hills 90210 when I was 16. Brenda and Dylan were worrying over if Brenda was pregnant or not. Because my mom talked to me about virtues and because she was honest with me on the things that I had to face by making a choice like that, I wasn't placing myself in that position. I do believe that the media does not help in raising healthy, well adjusted, kids who act like kids when they are kids, but it is not their responsibility- it is the parents of the kids. That is where the link is either strong or it is broken. Kids are going to find out about sex, drinking, drugs, whatever else there is even if their parents avoid talking to them about it. I think because my mom was always open to discussing issues with me, I stayed informed and out of trouble. When I heard things that I did not know, I came home and asked my mom about it. I am sure she worried a couple of times when I came home and asked her a few other things, but she never flinched or went crazy because I asked. She helped me keep the lines of communication open so I learned things I did not understand and I never felt scared to talk to her about it. But, it was her influence as well as her honesty that I kept me out of trouble, I think. She was present in my life at all times. She knew my friends, what we liked, what we were doing and she gave me room to make choices. Good or bad, she let me make them and I feel comfortable with many of them that I made back then.

I have to say, I was a little shocked when I stopped at the store and thumbed through a Teen Cosmo. Yikes, I do not know if I am going to buy things like that for my daughter. I was not real impressed. I miss the color pictures of the cutie movie stars from back then that I use to tear out and post on the back of my door. These guys were always fully clothed. Sure, their collars may have been turned up and they may have applied a lot of product to their hair in order for it to stand up as it did, but they have been replaced by half naked guys who look 30 rather then 17. Their jeans are unbuttoned and half unzipped, not much different from the ads in the adult Cosmo that I use to buy.

I no longer have any of my old magazines from my teen years. Does anyone out there still have theirs? I would be interested in hearing if my memory serves me right. Or, did my mom censor the magazines that I read and never bought the ones with the New Kids On The Block half naked?

We are going to join the Garden Club
You know you have officially arrived into the smug married club when you are no longer individually invited out for drinks or a road trip, but rather you are invited as a couple to toddler birthday parties, anniversary dinners and the neighborhood garden club.

Our invitation took place against the back drop of an accident on the street parallel to ours. Around 10 PM last night we got a call from Greg's sister. She was calling to check and make sure we were both home safe and sound (Yes, she is the best sister-in law there could ever be). So, Greg and I had to go out and see what was going on. It is really beginning to look like we have become a boring, nosey married couple rather than a smug married couple.

While we were looking around, we struck up a conversation with a woman who lives in our neighborhood. I do not really remember how we went from discussing the accident to discussing gardening, but some how we did and ultimately we were invited to join the garden club in September. I answered for Greg and I, so I am sure I will be the one who has to go to the events. I think it will be a good thing if not for us, for our yard. We pass houses in our neighborhood that are proudly adorned with signs that read "Yard of the Month" and I have to say I get a little envious. I want to be the yard master of the month!!! So, we will join the garden club and I know we will find out that we destroyed some rare and beautiful plant that took years to grow. Greg and I are not expert gardeners- yet, and we have gone a little crazy with the Roundup. If it was not a flower, or we could not name the plant, we killed it. I am not sure what our neighbors really think, although Greg and I think we should get "Most Improved Yard" because what was out of control when we bought the house is now killed, cut down or under control. We are really getting somewhere now.

Greg convinced me to let him cut down the butterfly bushes.. yes I said beautiful, purple, and somewhat healthy butterfly bushes. So, I have to convince him to cut down the holly bushes. They are blocking the sun from some purple flowers that look a lot like daisies.... No, I am not sure what they are. I should probably look those up..... I clearly need to be joining the garden club so I can learn that poison ivy is not considered good ground cover and those wild strawberries growing in the yard would not be good to eat. I think I need to invest in "Gardening for Dummies". Has that book been written yet? If not, it should be.

More from the Bert Show
Another interesting morning on The Bert Show. This morning among some of the great topics they hit on, one was "What Drives You Crazy About Women?" This is opening up trouble, I think but it was funny. You would think that there were tons of guys calling in listing the hundreds of things that women do that drive them crazy. The truth is that more women were calling in then men. I am not sure if it was because there are too many scared boyfriends and husbands out there who do not want to be in the dog house when their significant other hears what they have to say, or if it is that as women we really have a bone to pick with each other.

Here are a few things that women were calling in and listing-

* Women are not supportive of each others career decisions. Ex- If a woman decides to work rather than stay home with their children, some will accuse each other of not being good mothers.... I better not get started here.
* If you compare female friendships to male friendships, women pent up more frustration and anger towards one another, they can be overly critical, rude, disrespectful and plan petty.
* Women turn into completely different people when an attractive man walks in the room.
* When women get drunk they tend to take off their clothes. Now, I have to disagree with this- I know more men who have taken their clothes off after drinking too much, rather than women.

It is interesting because I think some of this is true. I have never heard a guy talk about how one of his friends always has to have the latest style in clothes, must have new shoes and has been looking for the perfect dining room set. I have never heard a man say one of their friends is always trying to be the center of attention or is always trying to show everyone up. I have heard girls say it. Not so much now, but at one time I heard it a lot more.

With all that said, Do you want to know what I love best about women? They are great at adapting to changes in life. They know how to get stains out of my favorite shirt, they know what it means for a women to get married, they remember important events in your life, they celebrate life's joys, they are strong in spirit, they will stay up with you until 4 AM when your heart is broken and when you have the worst possible day- ever, they hug you and listen to every detail without offering any solutions to fix it. They just listen.

Who has been going through my trash?
I just think this is really weird.... Our trash is picked up on Mondays so usually Greg and I put the trash by the curb on Sunday evenings when we are preparing for the week. Last night we placed one can with a cardboard box and a pizza box sitting neatly on top. That was around 9:20 yesterday evening. This morning at 5:30 AM when I was leaving for the gym, the boxes were gone but the trash bags were still in the can. I know the trash is not picked up before noon on our street. I just thought is was strange... So, as I was exiting our street I looked at the trash the neighbors left and it looked as though they had some things misplaced, or I was just trying to make myself feel better.

This is not the first time that something like this has happened. When we first moved in and we were still throwing out old fixtures and things we were replacing, I sat some metal shelves by the curb that had been hanging over the toilets in the bathrooms. The frames were metal and painted white. The shelves were glass and sat loosely on the frames. The glass was still lost somewhere in the basement, but I wanted to be rid of the shelves since they did not seem to go with the look we were going for. When I got up the next morning to go to the gym the trashcans were still there, but the metal shelves were gone. That just struck me as weird. Who goes around late at night and takes people's trash? We live in a quiet, family filled neighborhood. We have met almost all of our neighbors and everyone seems to always be looking out for one another. We can let our neighbors know when we are going to be out of town and they will pick up our mail, put out our trash and keep an eye on the house, just as we would do for them. So it just seems strange that anyone would be walking down our streets, checking out what we have in the trash. Maybe that is just me.

I have been trying to figure out what type of person would be doing this. Is an a local artist who uses certain items from neighboring trash cans to make sculptures that they will sell for hundreds of dollars one day? Or could it be that the homeless population is much higher in our area then I realized and someone is taking our trash and using it in the camp they have set up. Who knows.....

Has anyone ever had this problem? Am I the only one?

Welcome Luke
Well, that cute picture is not my nephew- but that is a cute baby. I am lame and do not have a digital camera, so my adorable pictures of my new nephew are protected and enclosed within a disposable camera. I will get with it one day.

I have to say, I am completely amazed at the whole process of birth. My sister wanted me to be there, so against my own weak stomach and little tolerance for those in pain, I was there. I helped count the contractions, stroke her hair and hold the trash can. I had no idea that you could get sick during labor. My sister was awesome though and gave me hope that I might live through my own labor. My mom was awesome as well. Since she has been through labor three times, she knew everything that was going on which was great because I was clueless and so was Chris. We just counted and held her hands and relaxed when the contractions subsided.

Unfortunately, everything was not a walk in the park. Luke's heart rate went down a couple of times so ultimately they performed a C-Section. Bless my sister's heart, she started having contractions on Wednesday evening at 11 PM and just before 4 PM the following day, they decide it would be better to get it over with. Baby and momma were both getting pretty tired. So, at 4:16 yesterday afternoon my nephew was born with a full head of dark curly hair and long fingers and feet. He is perfect and I am absolutely in love! I can spoil him all I want and when I done I can return him to his momma and daddy to deal with. What a life.....

Finding new things


I found a new site the other day and I just went back to visit it. Last week I was looking for some information on the Marta Transit in Atlanta. I thought I knew what the address was so I just typed it in. To my very pleasant surprise when the site loaded it was a site for a woman named Marta. The picture at the opening of this entry is from her site. I hope she does not mind that I am showing off her work. She keeps a chat board that so many people have visited. There are guests from places like Iceland and she had made friends with them all. It is a wonderful site. I think she has a future in this.

If you go to the site and look at her pictures you might wonder why I picked that one out of all of the beautiful pictures on the site. It just reminded me of a picture I took when Greg and I were driving one day. We were sitting at a stop light and there was a sign at a construction area that said "Your Tax Dollars At Work". Next to it was another sign that someone spray painted "Free Drit" on it. Not that we should be laughing at someone else for their mistakes because I do things like that all of the time, but we did get some amusement out of it.

So, go and enjoy Marta's beautiful work. She has an amazing eye for some of the smallest things.

What Stops You?
Going through the act of changing my job has prompted a lot of thoughts lately. I guess this is maybe what happens when you begin going through so many changes in your life. It is beginning to feel like a complete overhaul. I believe the biggest thing is that I have become so introspective lately.

I would like to think that I have been the captain of my fate from day one. This really is not so. I have not been limited by anything more then my own fear. Fear has kept me from doing things many times, but not so much anymore. There was a significant level of fear in changing jobs because I had to take on so many other areas of the industry that I was not completely sure of. Fear often kept me from exploring all the things that I could do, in high school and in college. Fear is what kept me from writing for so long too. I know it is hard to write and I know it takes complete dedication to see your first novel sitting on the shelf at Barnes and Noble or featured on Amazon. But through things like weblogs, anyone who wants to write, can. What is even better is that I have been able to read gifted writers who I may not be able to read otherwise and make a few friends along the way. Hooray for Blogger!

By stepping out on faith I am finding that I can do what is right and still do what I want to do. Living out your dreams seems to be nothing more then just going out there and doing it. It takes work, time and even patience, but it can be done. Every day welcomes the chance to take on new challenges and to start new. The more I live the more I realize that I have one chance at this, so here goes.... I look back on twenty-seven years and I am excited about so many of the things I have done. I hope to look back in twenty-seven more years feel that I have continued to live each day with all that I have and to enjoy what life has to offer.

Let nothing- not even fear, stop you.
NRC

Forever Surfing
I was reading an article this morning that featured the president of my new company. In the article, other companies and programs were mentioned that I thought I would like to research. As I finished the article I jotted down a couple of notes and started surfing. I soon found that those few names and companies led me to a few other things and soon I was going from one topic to the next. Just before I decided to get back to work, I realized that I could literally surf the internet forever. There is no end to the things that you can find or learn about. I am afraid that I will never be able to say that I can not think of a topic to write about. There are too many things on the internet. Maybe I should start a list of blog topics. That way, if there is a day when something does not come to mind, maybe this could become a resource for blogging. Then I could add another side bar that lists the latest things that took up my morning or afternoon. Geez, pretty soon this blog will have to change topics and names. This may no longer be "Sitting in the window of my soul", but it could become "Surfing through the internet's soul." Well, that is a loose way to use the word "soul". I know, the internet does not really have a soul, but it goes along with the current name of the blog. The description would have to change as well. It could be something like this- "Ways to waste your time and ruin your eye sight on the internet."

Surf Happy
NRC

The New Kid In Town

Greg told me this morning to have a great first day at school. And he was not kidding. I am so excited about my new job. The team is excellent! I have a lot to learn though. I have about 6 different user names and passwords for things, which is thankfully going to change of the next year as things are streamlined. Even though I have a lot to learn and do, I have some great resources to help. This is beyond exciting. And at my first day, I will be off for user group meetings this week. I am thrilled!

Great things about this new job is a relaxed dress code. They have a "campus" type attitude which could be dangerous. I do not know about you guys, but when I was in college I only dressed up on the day that my sorority picked as the day we would wear our best. Otherwise, I went to class in flannel pants and a t-shirt or sweatshirt. I do not believe I can do that here. But, I can wear jeans and I am thankful for that. Black skirts and jeans seem to be my staple dress.

Here is to new beginnings, new challenges and a new job.

Cheers