The Great Cosmic Parking Lot

Los Angeles Times, 10/4/77

OK, people.  It's late at night and I bet there are typos here, but I do want to get this post out, even if it's in rough form.  Let me know where you find inconsistencies and I'll work on them.  I know I'm missing citations and all that, but this is really more like a first draft of where I want to go with discussing my views on these things. 

I got a very interesting comment on one of my blog entries and wanted to make sure that I addressed it within a reasonable amount of time, but the topic of religion is so vast and requires so much context that I think I'm going to have to address it by iterations before linking those discussions with my experiences with mental illness.


Comment on Why Get Out of Bed:  I am fascinated by your claim "If Jesus were real, then you would be willing to get out of bed." I would love to hear more from you about what would constitute Empirical data for the existence of a higher power.

Gratitude: My "Perfect" Husband

www.zazzle.com image

I am trying to think of what to write for tonight.  My husband says that he would like me to take this opportunity to expound on his many virtues.  (I am reading my words aloud as I type.)  Now he says he doesn't want me to write about him.  He needs to keep his mouth shut, says he.  This is what he gets for giving me a hard time.  Ha ha.

Oh, how I LOVE my husband.  Let me count the ways:

1.  He makes me laugh.  A LOT.  Often.
2.  ummmmm....

Oh, Pinterest, How I Love Thee!

An evil friend of mine just turned me on to the time-sucking black hole that is Pinterest.  Now all I want to do is sit and pin things I like to my boards and look for new stuff to pin.  I think this may be a shopaholic's methadone.

Get Off My Chest - Part 2

Image: Masterfile.com

2.  To my high school field hockey coach:  I know this is pathetic, but I have been needing to get this off my chest for about half my life.  Consequently, I remember details of events that should have long been forgotten because I have been wanting to rebuke you these past 20 years.  If you even remember me, which I doubt, you might guess what I'm going to rant on here.  More likely, you have no idea what a hand you played in who I am today and this is going to be a bit of a sideswipe. 

Get Off My Chest - Part 1

http://m.tacker.org/blog/830.la-z-boy-redford.html

Now that I am here, safely ensconced in an overstuffed leather comfy chair at Starbucks and the kiddos are in the free childcare service that they have here at Annapolis Mall (Annapolis, MD, USA),  the less-than-a-respectably-adequate-mother-passing-her-children-off-to-strangers feeling I always get from taking advantage of that service is being diluted by warm, reassuring chai.

I have a few things to say to certain people.  Some of them are long though, so I'm going to break it up. 

Wheatgrass Juice Shots

http://www.floridaherbhouse.com/
wheatgrass_juice_powder/wheatgrassjuicepowder1.htm

WOW are there a lot of "Mommy blogs" out there!  I had no idea!  If I tried to read even a significant number of them that are mainly about depression or post-partum depression I'd have little time for anything else.  Here are a few that I've bookmarked for future reading:

Postpartum Progress
Life UneXpected
The Reluctant Mom's Blog
Depressed (but not unhappy) Mormon Mommy
PPD Survivor

Just a quick note for tonight.  My kids are hooked on Smoothie King.  We have one located here in the Waugh Chapel shopping center in Crofton, MD (USA).  I've had a couple of different smoothies and they were both great.  Today for some reason I decided I'd try something they offer, a 1 oz. shot of wheatgrass juice.  Anyone try this before? 

Of Soda, Chai, and Addiction

http://www.thenextgreatgeneration.com/2011/09/
how-to-be-a-starbucks-addict/

 Hello.  My name is Julie, and I have been a Starbucks Tazo Chai Tea Latte addict for eight years.  I have been to the point of getting two Venti (Starbucks' Large size) chais a day, and also went cold turkey for some eight months when pregnant with my daughter.  At present, I get one, usually Tall (Small) though sometimes Grande (Medium).  I also am a recovering Coca-Cola addict, the addiction I had prior to chai.  I was off soda completely for several years, but last year got into drinking Dr. Pepper again and I've been fighting that for a year or so.  I don't buy any to keep at the house, but I do have them when I'm out, and we eat out more than we should.  I usually end up having maybe five or so a week.  This absolutely must stop!

The Payoff of Laziness?

The Paper Source: Cupcake Apron

 So the other night I came up with around 45 possible topics and I don't want to do any one of them right now.  So I'm just going to go with the events of the day and see where the stream of consciousness takes me.  Hopefully I won't ramble too badly.


My daughter is in bed with me.  She just came in. Apparently she's cold.  She may have just been missing me.  I was not home for bedtime tonight as I was attending my Women's Cognitive Therapy Group.  This is the group to which the X and Y post's exercise belongs.  I came away with two assignments:

1) Choose a body part each day that I can accept for just that day without judgement.

2) Come up with a list of the payoffs of inactivity in the household to me.  What's in it for me when I decline to do the chores I need to do, considering that I then feel really bad about it. 

SIGH.  I suppose I can do this.  I don't know about the body part thing.

Bedtime

http://www.just-pooh.com/pictures-view.html?id=1203

I fell asleep with my daughter again.  I usually don't but the last two bedtimes I have.  Our bedtime ritual with the kids is SO much more involved that it ever was for me growing up.  As a kid,  my sister and I would say good night to my Dad---you could not just disappear, you had to announce you were going to bed and say good night---go upstairs, brush teeth, get into bed, say The Lord's Prayer for Mom, and that was it.  There was no haggling, chasing, cajoling, whining, threatening, etc.  My husband doesn't believe this by the way, despite the fact that this is the accounting he receives from myself, my sister, and my dad.  With my kids?  Ha.

New Resource Tabs

Dear Diane and Readers,

I hope you have been enjoying the blog! I am having breakfast today at The Nautilus Diner with the husband and kids. We slept late because the kids, especially my poor daughter, kept us up last night. She must have eaten too much ice cream, a blue cotton candy flavor with KitKat pieces and gummy bears, last night at Coldstone Creamery, or something she ate was contaminated.