Happy 4th of July

Ah, one of my favorite holidays…

The first time I saw fireworks was at Red, White, and Boom in Columbus, Ohio.  It was quite impressive.  I spent the entire half an hour (which felt like two hours) hiding under a blanket.  But, now I love fireworks.  And I love what the 4th day of July stands for.  She is a proud day, for sure.

So, HAPPY 4TH!!!

A Posse Dog

When I was young we got a dog from the Athens Co. Dog Shelter.  He was a wee puppy (we kids were so excited!).  A few days after we brought him home, he came down with Parvo.  Fortunately, after three days at the vet’s he was in the clear. 

The pup loved to explore, so my Grandpa Moe named him “Posse”, because he said the dog plus us kids made up our own posse.  The pup grew into a big, gentle, long-haired dog.  He had a small patch of white on his chest, but other than that was all black.  He fit the Belgium Shepherd breed standard almost perfectly.  As the AKC says they should, Posse “reflect[ed] the qualities of intelligence, courage, alertness and devotion to master. ” 

Posse patrolled the farm for about a year.  Then, one day, he was hit by a car and died.  I was devastated.  He had been my obedience dog for 4-H that year and I had high hopes for showing successfully together.  Besides that, I’d lost a best friend.

Today I was reminded of my friend Posse when I was browsing the Franklin Co. Dog Shelter’s website, as I tend to do from time to time.  Check out this guy–he looks almost exactly like my Posse.  I love his eyes–they say, “I can’t wait to find a friend to guard & a job to do!  Can I be yours?”. 

On my lack of a social network

There’s nothing worse than lacking a local social network of friends. 

Well, I suppose Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs applies, as always.  If you’re starving, food takes precedence over friendship.  However, even Maslow recognised that, once needs necessary to biological existence are met (food, water, steady body temperature, safety, etc.), a sense of belongingness is the next critical void to fill.  Maslow stated that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation, which involves both giving and receiving love, affection, and a sense of belonging.

As I mentioned, Maslow indicated that ‘deficiency needs’ are met first.  Once those are met, the satisfaction of ‘growth needs’ must be met in order to drive one’s personal growth.  Belonging is categorized by Maslow as a deficiency need.  WIthout it, the person will be unconsciously tense and anxious.  And will be prevented from moving forward to satisfy ‘growth needs’.

And that is where I’m stuck now.  Don’t get me wrong, I have an amazing network of friends (and family), but they’re all at least an hour and a half away.  I have one friend within an hour.  Thank goodness she is the amazing woman she is (we’re very close), but I’m still hanging without a local network.

This has been eating at me for three years now–since we moved to Dayton.  It’s not that I have much ’free’ time, anyway, but the comfort of having friends close by is missing.  It’s (by necessity) helped my husband and I grow as close and as reliant on each other as we have become.  But I’ve often worried about what would happen if, say, we got stuck away from home for the night.  There’s no one in town that we could call to go over to the house to take care of the furries. 

To belong is to affiliate with, feel appreciated by, and be valued by others.  As well as to return the same companionship, appreciation, and value to one’s friends.  And it’s a lovely thing when it happens close to home.

I keep telling my hubby we need to open a ‘couples bar’.  Seriously, I mean if you’re single you can go to a bar to meet people.  What about those–like us–who want to meet people to make new friends, not find a one night stand?

Tagged and doing something about it

Thanks to Terra’s tag, I’ve been brought back here after a (obviously long) hiatus.  I’m still having a horrible time managing my spring/summer schedule, but that’s a different story. 

Back to the tag–I probably confused the hell out of Terra when I left her a message 5/31/08 that said: “Better late than never…THANK YOU :)”.  And then what?  Yep, never completed my post.  Poor Terra, I’m a horrible friend in the summer.  Ask all of my friends, and they’ll confirm.

I get to pick which meme I want to do, but I think since I’ve waited so long it’s only fair that I do both. 

~

#1: The Seven Random (or Weird) Facts Meme

The Rules:

Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

Share seven random and/or weird things about yourself.

Tag seven people at the end of your post and include links to their blog.

Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Let the Randomness/Weirdness Begin:

1) One of my biggest pet peeves is morning breath.  I hate it on myself, or on my husband.  Most people brush before wake-up kissing the first few times they wake up together, right?  I still do it.

2) I like being tall because it helps during arguments.  When we were younger, my brother (who’s four years younger than me) would defensively say, “Just because you’re taller doesn’t mean you’re right!” during a dispute.  I still have that advantage over just about everyone. :)  I never really understood what the advantage was, but I guess it’s harder to fight when you’re looking up.

3) I am obsessive compulsive about many things.  One is that I have to thoroughly clean the house before I go to bed or leave on a trip.

4) I’m allergic to most weeds & trees and ALL grasses.  (And I want an outdoor career because why?)

5) I’m 24 and I still get horribly motion sick in the car.

6) I have an outie.  It’s so much an outie that when I get pregnant my belly button is going to go out so far it’ll detach.  I’m kidding, of course, but it’s pretty close.  The down side of having an outie outie like mine is that I can’t get it pierced.  I tried, but it can’t be done.  Big bummer.

7) One time a few friends and I picked up some guys on the expressway.  Yes, in our car, driving down the highway.  Hey, what can I say?  They were hot & were driving an Escalade.

~

And…

#2: The Six Truths Meme

The Rules:

Link to the person who tagged you.

Post the rules on your blog.

Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

Tag six people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Truths/Habits/Quirks:

1) I’ve never paid much attention to birthdays, besides my 18th and 21st.  But, 25 has me freaked out.  And it’s only a little more than a month away.

2) I’m addicted to experimenting with my hair color, shape, style, etc.  (It’s auburn–a reddish brown color–right now.)

3) I’m worried that some day my metabolism will change on me.  I’ve always been slim without having to try, but I think I’m too lazy to work out if anything changes.

4) I love to people watch.  At restaurants I always sit facing the door so I can watch who’s coming & going.  I tend to get distracted in church.  It’s a bad habit, but I enjoy it.

5) As much as I hate admitting this, I’ve always wanted bigger boobs.  However, I would never get implants.  So, I’ll have to be happy with my 36B’s.

6) For the life of me, I can’t walk in heels.  It’s quite hilarious at times when I try.  My husband laughs at me (which I’m OK with).

~

And now, to tag!  And you don’t have to do both, pick one if you prefer.

1) Jessica at New year, new name, new me - we share headaches and a love of mistchevious black kitties.

2) Christina at vorare - she found my 101 in 1001 list via Day Zero, was willing to share a helpful BC story, and I admire her as a strong, intelligent woman.

3) Chris at Life, love and happiness - who tagged me a long time ago and I’m ashamed to say I haven’t done the meme.

4) Miss Margo at The Barn Blog - one of the best & most informative equine-related blogs I’ve found.  I love it!  

~

As a side note, I’ve confirmed several truths today.  I’ve listed them in no particular order of importance:

~The Hess family cannot, for the life of them, keep a secret.  Grandpa Hess called me today.  He repeated the latest family news to me, as he always does because he always hears the latest gossip first.  Which is all fine and dandy except when I’m the news.  The best part is, I could tell him exactly who told him (my dear aunt) and from whom she got her info (my cousin, who knew it wasn’t supposed to travel).  I was pissed for about 2 seconds, then I realized that it’s funny and there’s not a darn thing I can do about it, so there’s no sense in being mad.  Plus, it’s (usually) nice to have a close family.  (Oh, and the ’secret’ was that I’d bought a project horse…who is supposed to be a profitable venture, but I won’t know until he’s sold.  I didn’t want anyone to know about him until he’s proved that he’s not a mistake!)

~No matter what the species, females call the shots when it comes to sex.  As mentioned, I have a two year old project horse.  A gelding, mind you.  Today my mare decided she likes ‘robbing the cradle’.  I won’t go into detail about how a mare becomes a slut, but she was THROWING herself at him.  The poor baby didn’t know (or care) what had come over her, and he was very, very confused.  Pea, I concede that you call the shots, but next time pick something that has balls.

~I know it sounds mushy, but my husband is the greatest man on earth.  I should know, I married him for it after all, didn’t I?  But seriously, he’s great.  Yesterday he took me out to brunch and then to the driving range (for the third time ever, and first time in the past two years).  He is trying to teach me to play golf.  We’ll just say he has the patience of a saint, as there was much hushed whispering of four letter words, throwing down golf clubs, and stomping off the driving range on my part.  I just don’t get the stupid ’sport’ and I definitely don’t like not being good at it.  Anyway, after the driving range, we went on a sunset trail ride together.  And today he cleaned stalls while I made dinner.  He is as perfect as they come. 

~

Now, want to know something really, really sad?  This post was saved as a draft on 5/31/08…with just the first two sentences written.  That barely qualifies as worth saving.

It was a beautiful Friday until…

I received a call at work today that I can’t post about (for legal reasons), but it brought my nice Friday afternoon crashing down.  It’s related to the auto accident I had a while ago.  We’ll just leave it at this:  I spent a few minutes looking through the yellow pages for lawyers after I got off work.

This sucks and I’m kinda scared.  I hate being scared, it’s the worst feeling ever.  Plus, we REALLY don’t have money for shit like this.  I don’t even have a car right now–I need our economic stimulus plan check for a car, not lawyer’s fees, damn it.

Without having much information to go off of, does anyone have advice, tips, suggestions, or a similar story to share?

(Now I get to go home & ruin my husband’s Friday evening.)

Book Review #1: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

I recently finished ‘reading’ (via audio book, thanks to The Dayton Public Library) Stephen R. Covey’s highly touted book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  I’d heard a lot about the book, as I think most everyone has, thus I had high expectations for its contents.

Let me first introduce you to the 7 habits.  As defined in his book, Mr. Covey’s 7 habits are:

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think win/win
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw

Of course, there’s much more to these ‘rules of living’–an entire book’s worth actually!

In my opinion, 7 habits is a book comprised of 75% common sense and 25% Mr. Covey’s inventive thinking.  Now, don’t get me wrong–I see or hear of people every day who are in need of a good dose of common sense.  And in my opinion there is plenty of room for a self help book based primarily on integrating common sense into one’s routine, thus forming habits.  However, I myself found the book a bit of a letdown.  After all the hype, I was expecting something profound in 7 Habits.  While Mr. Covey was quite ingenious, and has developed said ‘common sense’ quite extensively to get to his 7 habits, I found the WOW factor lacking.  While the book gives everyday examples and solutions, I found that the solutions given were methods that I already know and use.  Thus, nothing profound. 

I read a review that stated, “If you were paying attention in life, you already  know the Seven Habits,” and I agree.  My feeling is that those who are at a level of comprehension and understanding to be reading self help books are probably above the “common sense” level that the book covers.  For the rest of America, this book could be quite helpful.

As an aside, the gentleman who reads the book for the recorded version has an intriguing accent! 

Help me reach my goal! Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

I know, I’m a horrible horrible person.  My last post was over a month ago.  March 19th, I think.  I promise I’ll get better (spring is just crazy).   In the meantime, here is my plea for help for a good cause:

As of recently, I am participating in March for Babies because I believe in the March of Dimes mission to save babies. Please support my fundraising efforts by sponsoring me in March for Babies today.  I will be walking in the March for Babies event at Sawyer Point Park in Cincinnati this Sunday, April 27th.

 

Your online contribution to my march is fast, easy and secure. You can donate directly from my personal webpage with a credit/debit card or PayPal.  As I mentioned above, I have only 3 days to reach my goal! 

 

The money we raise helps save premature and sick babies. Premature birth is the #1 cause of newborn death and the biggest threat to babies’ health today, and through March for Babies, the March of Dimes is funding important research to find out why premature birth happens and what can be done to prevent it.

 

The March of Dimes mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

 Thank you for your support!

 

 

Rain, rain go away

I feel a little blah today, probably because I had a migraine yesterday, so today I have that wonderful “post-migraine hangover”.  It has nothing to do with being hung over, but your brain feels very similar to when it’s been abused by alcohol, except instead it’s been abused by Serotonin, beat back into shape by Imitrex, and is understandably worse for the wear for a day or so.  My husband and I have been fairly motivated lately, I guess we deserve a day or two to be lazy

That’s why my blog has been neglected for the past few weeks.  We’ve been working in the barn until 10 or 11 at night most nights.  But the barn is looking great and we’re very close to having our first boarders!

 The past two days I’ve come home from work to find my adorable, innocent kitty locked in the bathroom by my exasperated husband.  Now don’t get me wrong, the bathroom is Mick’s domain–he eats there, his litter box is in there, and God forbid anyone think they’re allowed to close HIS door–with him in or out–and limit his freedom in or out of HIS bathroom.  But when he’s in trouble that’s where he goes for ‘time out’.  Tim’s been finding a teddy bear that generally sits on a shelf above the refrigerator in the middle of the living room floor, covered in cat hair.  Dead giveaway.  Besides the hair, Mick’s the only one with the run of the house during the day while we’re gone.  That crazy cat had to jump on a very tiny little counter, then jump straight up to the top of the refrigerator, then reach up onto a 6″ by 4″ shelf for the bear.  I should explain that my cat has an inexplicable obsession with beanie babies, teddy bears, and all things soft and plush.  Oh yeah, and he likes to chew them open and eat the stuffing out.  Damn orphan kitties and their weirdness.

Today I went in for my allergy shots and the nurse asked me if I was allergic to Benadryl.  I almost laughed out loud!  It’s really not funny, but wouldn’t that be awful to be allergic to the drug you’re taking to help STOP an allergic reaction?  I’ll tell you what else is funny.  The same nurse and I were discussing why I seem to break out in a rash after some of my allergy shots, but not all.  I mentioned that sometimes the rash is in the shape of the band-aid, but that we’d already ruled out my latex allergy because they use latex-free band-aids.  The nurse thinks I’m allergic to the adhesive on the band-aids.  They have another patient who is.  Now why didn’t I think of that?  But then again, who ever heard of something so silly?  And–worse–if I confirm said allergy, how does one avoid band-aids for life?!?

 It’s rained so much for the past so many days that I can’t even remember when it started raining.  Sunday?  Monday?  I think?  When I woke up this morning I could see more muddy water in our yard than solid ground.  Our little Ms. Swamp Dog loves it.  Kori the Corgi thinks we’re torturing him when we let him out to do his business twice a day.  If I try to get him go out a third time he glares at me.  I swear this morning he asked me with his dark, sad eyes to buy him doggie diapers so he doesn’t have to go out in the rain any more! 

My husband and I have been married 10 months today.  I gave Tim a kiss and wished him a “happy anniversary” when he got home from work this afternoon.  He replied, “I knew there was a reason today felt special.”  I love that man so much!

More photos from my lap top

Karli “attacking” her kong.  GOT…TO…GET…PEANUT BUTTER…OUT…OF…HOLE…SLURP-SLURP!

My dorky husband trying on the scarf I knitted for him.

My cousin and I at Rolex a few years ago.  Note my sunburn–so it must have been the second or third day.  We were shopping for Derby hats.

This was Mr. Peeps, later renamed (by necessity) Mrs. Quack.  She was found wandering in a park after Easter last year.  I volunteered to take her home and turn her into dinner (lol).  The night I brought her home, my husband wanted to let her swim in our bathtub and eat fish food.  Of course, she never became dinner.  However, she did lay lovely big duck eggs for us, which we ate and they were delicious!  Unfortunately, Mrs. Quack grew very large and thus very slow, which got her eaten by a fox.  Not so much the happy ending. :( 

More “Mr. Peeps”.

Mr. & Mrs. and the Prince of the house

I moved some photos from my lap top to our desk top today.  They’re a hodge podge collection, mostly from the past year.  It was kinda fun looking through them.

I really like this photo of Tim and I–except Tim’s got ‘crazy eyes’ and I look like a humpback!  As you can tell from the date, it’s quite old.

I believe we may have been drunk in this photo ;)  And yes, we’re often that matchy matchy–it’s sad.

‘Prince’ Mick.  He knows who rules the house.