Old Lady Rants

I have no issues admitting that I am an old lady, trapped in the body of a 30 year old. My parents would tell you that I have always been kind of an old lady. I remember as a child asking my Dad how I should go about getting insurance. He assured me that eight year olds don't have to worry about that, and when the time came, I would find an insurance agent without a problem.

Last week Cory and I were driving to work along the Coralville strip and I was telling him a story of some kind when all of the sudden my ears were assaulted by the awful bumping bass in the car next to us. I could feel the little hairs in my ears shaking, and I could no longer concentrate or remember what I was talking about. I believe I did utter the words, "Isn't there some kind of law about how loud you can have your music in the car?!?! I can't hear myself think right now! That guy is going to ruin his hearing!"

Yes, I am old. But maybe the most tell tale sign of my advanced maturity is my complete loathing of the popular acronym that the kids are throwing around these days, FML. I see it on Facebook all the time, from generally younger friend, but sometimes high school classmates who obviously have never had their lives touched by any kind of real tragedy, otherwise they would know how insensitive and obtuse it is to declare "F--K My Life" over something as trivial as a missed opportunity to go out for a beer, or a pair of pants that are suddenly too tight.

I am certainly familiar with melancholy, and self pity is not something that is below me, but I can't ever see the humor in FML. I hate it. If no one in your household is suffering from a terminal illness, please give it a second thought before you callously dismiss the blessings in your life to complain about your less than perfect day by damning your whole life. It isn't funny.

I think I am done now.

While on the subject....

Of nostalgia...another gem I came across.

http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

This is amazing, and just what I love about photography, true captured moments.

Abandoned Houses

Our family makes a lot of trips up and down twelfth avenue and years ago I noticed the big abandoned white house. It stuck out in an area ripe with 1950s block like ranches. It looked like a stately old farm house that had probably once known the laughter of lots of children, running in and out, letting the screen door snap shut behind them as they bound down the porch stairs and out to explore. The house has several porches, including a huge second story porch. I could picture the woman of the house resting in an old wooden chair, gazing at the stars and feeling the cool evening breeze while enjoying the silence as her children slept off their exhaustion from the long summer day.

You could say that I had invested something of myself in the house, and I would have jumped at any opportunity to explore it. Last summer, I got that opportunity, though I have to be honest and say that it had lost some of its appeal. Over the past few years I have seen a lot more activity at the house, and as it turns out, it was being completely restored. You can learn more about the house here: www.bigwhitehouse.org

Leila and I made a trip through the house on the 4th of July. I wish I could say it was everything I had dreamed of, but of course it wasn't. The memory of the way things might have been was too far removed, but it is still a beautiful home.

I thought of the big white house this week when I came across this: http://www.100abandonedhouses.com


How amazing and sad and beautiful. I flipped through the pictures wondering how this could have happened. When did it all go wrong for these beautifully designed homes. What happened to the people that lived here? I guess you could say, I have a thing for Abandoned houses. I want to know what went wrong and I want to imagine them at their best, happiest times. I really want to fix them.

The butt tree

On our walk back to the car after leaving the birds behind Leila yelled out, "Hey! Look, its a big butt tree!" She pegged that one.

Sunday Funday!

I feel like it has been a long time since I have really put anything on this blog. Winter has been a dull season of cold and I haven't felt too inspired lately. With the great thaw starting to set in I am happy to post about a fun adventure that we went on today. I love free fun, and the raptor center was definitely worth the trip, even after our long walk and cold noses. And the beautiful sunshine made 45 degrees feel pretty nice.



One of the owls!

The cutest of all of the owls.





Tired baby


Never tired baby


Leila really enjoyed the birds. Tonight when I laid down in bed with her and asked her about the best and worst part of her day, she told me that the best part was seeing almost all of her family, and the worst part was feeling sad for the birds with hurt feet and wings. She is such a sweet little thing.

My high for today? Getting to enjoy the outdoors in reasonable temps. The low - Had to be when at dinner with Grandma Sandi and Papa Ed Leila said that she still didn't know how babies get in their mommy's tummies. I told her to ask me again later and I would explain, lets see how long it takes for her to ask.

This is how I feel lately too. Maybe it is cabin fever. Maybe it is just me, but lately it seems that every evening is filled with never ending choirs of whining.

It seems like everyday I see something on TV or on the internet that makes me question myself. Am I feeding my family the right things? Are we all getting the amount of activity that we should? Do we watch too much TV? Am I giving my kids ADD by letting play video games? And then things like this make me realize that trusting my instincts will always be worth more than the advertisements I have been fed. And I didn't even have to douche with Lysol with come to this realization.