27

Last year, I posted 27 blog entries. I wrote a few more than that, but decided they didn't need to live anywhere public.

Today is the last day of January, and this is my 27th blog entry for 2012.

My intention this month was to just try to produce, to DO something, anything. Too many days are passing where I can't point to anything tangible that I've accomplished, beyond clean dishes or laundry. This month was about just putting it out there, without over-thinking, or editing myself too much. To simply hit "post" even it I didn't have anything earth-shattering to share, to not worry about the judgements of others. It was about capturing some of the small moments that get lost all too easily.

I didn't have a number in mind when I started, nor any real goal other than "DO!" Last week I happened to see the number of posts of last year and I decided I wanted to meet or exceed that number for this year. Such a small, silly goal, but when you are in the middle of a windstorm or uncertainty about your life and career, it can help to grab on to the tiniest branch, some small goal to achieve.

Right now the optimism of two weeks ago has waned. I had two great interviews... and then nothing. No calls. It's like I can't get past a second date, even when I thought that they liked me. I've applied to more jobs since then, and even have a second interview today (for a job that I'm conflicted on, honestly), but I feel dejected. Even more insulting is that two of the resumes that I sent out last month to jobs that I am, without any type of doubt, qualified for; that were two national nonprofits that I have deep ties to, totally dissed me. Colleagues back in Florida called and emailed the local branches to recommend me. I thought- as did the nice people who went to that trouble for me- that I would at least get a foot in the door, an interview.

No.
Nothing.
One place never responded to the two follow-up calls and emails.

Did I mentioned that I have raised over $20,000 for one of the nonprofits? As a volunteer?

If I were unqualified, I would understand.
If they had an internal candidate, and sent a "thanks, but no thanks" email, I would be sad, but still understand.
But to be so unprofessional, so disrespectful to their other councils, to not even acknowledge my contacts...

Well, I won't be raising money for them again in any way.

It is very, very difficult to break into the cliques here.
It appears you either have to be:
Texan (preferably born in the state, but it looks like they will grant you clemency after about 5-10 years, if you are married to a native).
Rich.
Or, have friends or family who are rich Texans.

Stop my own company? Find a new career track? Start back at the bottom? Move?

Let's see what the next 27 days holds.

When Food is Love In Tallahassee

I'm missing some of my old haunts today, so I decided it was time to pay tribute to three of my favorite places to grab tasty happiness in Tallahassee. If you find yourself in the Florida capital, do yourself a favor and go to one of these places (or all three, in the name of supporting locally owned business!)

Big Easy Snowballs

Friendly family business with an adorable shop and great customer service...
Oh, and did I mention...
SNOWBALLS OF EPIC HAPPINESS!

Don't tell me that you don't know what a snowball is. Seriously??? I'll wait here while you Google it. Back now? Okay then, go get yourself one now.


Lucy And Leo's

Another adorable tiny shop, this time full of cupcakes (and shared space with Textures, a great place to stock up on awesome local art and handmade goodness).

It's hard to go wrong with a cupcake, but my favorite is a fresh Red Velvet, topped with Cream Cheese. In the name of research, I have tried many other cupcake shops during my travels, and this Red Velvet still reigns supreme. The Happy Hour flavors are also fun. But as much as I love the cupcakes, I *ADORE* the canned ham that they take around as a food truck. My love for vintage trailers is legendary and the first time they brought their restored Shasta out to display in the parking lot, I was first in line to see it. I was afraid that they might pull a restraining order against me, keeping me from that hunk of metal lovin'.

And finally,

Angelette's

Angelette's Cajun Cooking will fool you. You will drive up to the strip mall where it is located, and think perhaps that you are lost. But then you will most likely see a group of people outside, waiting to get in to get a hit of some awesome Cajun food.

I was one of the firsts to find this place after they opened and one taste of the Shrimp and Grits is all it took to make me a regular. The owner, Marlo, will chat with you if the place isn't slammed... which honestly, isn't often now that the secret it out. I hope they eventually get a bigger place, but for now it's classy and simple, with great artistic interpretations of fleur de lis on the walls.

I joyfully introduce as many people as possible here, and thus far I have taken about 20 different people who are now also addicted. My favorite dish, besides the shrimp and grits, is the Eggs A'la Dwayne.

LittleMan and his best friend enjoy the beignets... Or rather, the beignet sugar...

I've Come to Suck Your Blood

A few weeks ago, I was having a particularly grumpy/sad day. LM made this for me and slid it under the door. It just makes me smile :)

Finding Family Fun

As much as we love the weekend, we often squander it away, and then feel grumpy about that waste. Money is tighter than ever, but we had exhausted many of the free things that we like to do and we were restless on Saturday. So I pulled out one of those coupon magazines that come in the mail quarterly. Inside was a coupon for IT'z, which is a big family fun zone.

Generally, this is the type of place I avoid at all costs. They reek of wasted money, violence, and ill-behaved monsters (and their children). In fact, when we have passed it before on the interstate (usually while driving to the DFW airport) I make it quite clear that it would be a great father/son activity. You know, to do without me, while I am off getting pampered by a legion of beautiful Greek men who feed me grapes.

Alas, grapes are out of season.

After performing a variety of computations worthy of that guy from A Beautiful Mind, I finally came to the best use of coupons so we could get some serious bang for our buck.

So off we went. First stop was the AYCE Buffet, full of pizza, pasta, salad and dessert. You must purchase the buffet to get into the facility. The food was edible, and child-friendly. I compare it to a CiCi's pizza place- nothing I would choose at free will, but it gets the job done. This place also had baked potatoes and one of their pastas was pretty good, so I consider that a win.

We went on a Saturday night, so it was busy, but we got the boys an "unlimited activities" game card (that buy one, get one free coupon definitely made that possible!) so we were off to get in line.

First for the bumper cars...

(yeah, I am totally getting in on the bumper cars when we go back on a less crowded day. As it was, I didn't want to make the poor kids wait any longer.)

Then it was on to the race track, in which my guys got a really slow car. There was a lot of waiting all around.

And then there was the mini-bowling, which we did for a long, long time. It was a great combo of bowling and bocce ball.

We did tons of videos games and ended five- yes, five hours later- at the laser tag. This was the first time we have all done this, and it was a blast.

It was not a cheap evening, but we made sure to eek out every last dime's worth :)

We'll be back!

I'm Sorry to Inform You...

I am not a site for exploring manatee sex.

I have no pictures of manatee penises.

My apologies.

(This is what I get for looking at my stats page. The traffic sources are truly frightening).

And Now I Present... The First Report of Kindergarten!

LittleMan had to do a "report" for his kindergarten class. Basically, they had to pick a sea animal and do three facts and an illustration. Here are some things we learned:

Facts About the Leafy Sea Dragon

(this picture is from the Wikipedia page about the animal. The Internet never ceases to amaze me).

Habitat: The leafy sea dragon lives off the Western and Southern coasts of Australia.

Leafy Sea Dragons grow to about 14 to 18 inches.

They are related to the seahorse.

The leafy sea dragons have no teeth, and they eat very tiny shrimp-like creatures. They also have no stomach, so they have to eat constantly so they don’t starve.

Their eyes can look in different directions at the same time.

The leafy sea dragon picks a partner and stays with them their whole life.


I'll admit- even I learned a lot in this project. Since most of his class wanted to do their reports about seahorses, I tried to get LM to think beyond the most common animals. We played on Google and found some cool stuff.

Now go find yourself something weird and new to learn a tiny bit about today!

To Be That Mom

I always bought lunch as a kid. I remember a lot about standing in the lunch lines, and the various meals that I loved and hated.

I don't remember ever much having a packed lunch, except for field trips.

But I do remember what other kids brought in their packed lunches (and how bitter I was when the skinny popular girl had Little Debbies every day with her lunch and I wondered why she could eat that and didn't get fat, while I did. And how sad it makes me to realize I was thinking that in the second grade.)

Never mind all that. Back to the topic.

I've been packing lunch for LittleMan in his Marvel Superheroes Lunch Bag since the beginning of school. He has bought a school lunch a handful of times, but doesn't seem to care for it and I am always unimpressed with his reports back of what he did buy. And I've stay fairly organized in this endeavor, with a special cabinet, refrigerator drawer, and freezer section dedicated to the special treats I buy or make ahead for his lunch. Sometimes I even get hyper organized, and pre-package a bunch of bulk items.

The main goal, of course, is to make sure he has healthy food that he likes eating.

But a close second to that goal is a deeper, more insidious one...

I've always wanted to be the kind of mother who puts loving and encouraging notes in a lunchbox.

And so, I am.

These are just from the last three days, but they represent a lot to me.

I could make a bunch of neat notes with cool pictures and cut them out and have them waiting to pack with lunch. In an hour or two, I could knock out enough cute notes to last the rest of the school year.

Efficient, yes, but it defies my point. The note isn't about perfection. Or efficiency. It isn't about being frame-worthy. It gets wet and crumpled in the box, and then later in LM's pocket, where he likes to pull it out a lot to look at it.

These are just little snippets, either from books that we like to read together or things that we say. They are not treaties on the nature of love. I don't need to write a novella.

Little notes written on the paper from a cute set my sisters gave me for Christmas. A little picture of the Eiffel Tower in the corner, which LM loves to tell people that his mommy and daddy have visited. And hopefully we can someday take him and have a family picnic beneath.

The notes.
They are quick, impulsive, messy, private, and important, just like our family.
They are now.
And someday, they will be later. The past.