The girl in the window

Working in a children's hospital and for the local rape recovery center can be hard. You become amazed at some parents, and their inability to protect and in most cases their ability to hurt. I admire all you mothers and fathers out there. I know, from watching others, that being a parent is very hard, and that it can be very frustrating. I also know that this country does not provide very many outlets to struggling parents...this is why we have such a high rate of abuse...
but i do think parenting is perhaps the most important thing you can do, and doing it well is extremely underrated. So to all you parents out there, way to make the lifelong commitment to being good to your kids

This story really epitomizes what good parenting can do....and what bad parenting can do as well
try not to cry...i dare you!

http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article750838.ece

how to keep yourself from losing all your friends.

So last night i am sitting at home with the boy eating dinner. Me with my spinach salad, and him with his entire pizza. Imagine first of all, for effect, how i am feeling about eating a spinach salad while he is devouring all of italy next to me. Then out of pure boy stupidity-i am certain that 95% of men do not think before they open there mouths-he says

"no matter what i do, i just cant put on any weight! it is terrible"

ok lets just think about it for one second.....almost half of this nation is overweight, and most of the other half works pretty hard to keep from getting overweight.....its about time people realized that phrases like this are not going to win you any friends...at all...point blank.

Now he is a man and, as i previously noted, stupid about what comes out of his mouth so i forgive him...but you have all been around the WOMEN who say the same thing! COME ON!!! we are reminded every day when you talk about how much you hate the gym and how you never go and how you are so glad that abercrombie now carries the 00 size cuz frankly, one zero isnt enough, you have to have two zeros to describe you (which doesnt make any sense at all, it is IMPOSSIBLE to have a nothing as a measurement.....and zero squared still equals zero). but i swear to you when you open your mouth between bites of your extremely fattening whateverthehell you are eating to say how impossible it is to gain weight.....seventy five percent of the room wants to kill you. mainly because we havent eaten that way since we were ten....and if we even looked at a donut longingly again...we would have to go out and buy new jeans the next day.

so naturally skinny girls, honestly....we love to look at you, you look great and way to go lucking out on the gene pool there, but no one really wants to know about how you hate that you sometimes shop in the kids department.

Of all the cities......

My job is pretty awesome about letting me travel. So far I have gone to New Orleans and San Francisco, so when i heard a conference was on the horizon, i got pretty excited....

that is until i found out where i would be going.....

the lovely, the underappreciated

dallas

...DALLAS?? what is there is dallas?? I suppose the national network doesnt really care that i ( a lowly research coordinator) doesnt have dallas on her top 500 cities to visit before she dies.....or any texas city for that matter except austin...and san antonio (i swear to all my fellow dems, san antonio was an accident, i didnt even mean to go! although san antonio is kind of fun). but now the gov is spending a ridiculous amount of money to send me to dallas......yee hah!

and here i go again gripeing about free trips to exotic and exciting places like dallas.....i suppose it could be worse........like ummm.....hmmmmm......oklahoma city??

No but really, anyone know something cool to do in dallas?

slowly moving into the 21st century

To all my devoted fans out there.....the whole three of them the time has arrived....NO LONGER am i that hippie friend who refuses to embrace technology with her compost piles, no TV, soy milk, and no internet!!! cross that last one off your list (guess i got a lot of work to do before i am officially not a liberal/hippie/feminist.....anyway......so in complete and utter celebration of the world wide web entering my home....i spent the last hour on perezhilton.com learning about all of madonna's indiscretions.....and i uploaded almost everything that has happened in the past few months in pics......prepare to be pic overloaded!!! YAY. of course i am lousy at the whole uploading pics....so here they are, in no particular order.



check out the two loves of my life!!!! izzy the dog, and michael the boy.

Izzy's first swim....and no, i did not name her after the terrible character on greys anatomy!!! NO TV PEOPLE!!!!!! she looks soggy, and she was not too happy that we threw her in!! but she got us back by eating four shoes.....all from different pairs....aaaah dogs

double arch in moab.....pretty special

mike and i, in the arch....tender moments right here for the WWW to see....i feel so open and vulnerable

DOG!! izzy is really good at a few things...eating things like candles and wood chips, and making old man noises in her sleep

people kept warning me a puppy is like a child(i know you moms are just laughing hysterically to that notion...but for me..this is HUGE)....although my puppy is only 7 months old...and she is already potty trained(how many of your babies can do that?!)....and i can lock her in the back yard for five hours and no one calls family services

she already knwos how to sit, shake, lay down, and strike a profile pose....ready for the dog park and the run way

remember when i told you all i waas going to mexico about seven months ago??! here is proof!

MT biking in S. utah with the boyfriend

canyonlands!!!

Druid arch in canyonlands.....beautiful...just dont get lost like we did...turned 11 miles into 15...whoops

more druid arch...us being sappy-asses.....mike looks like a total schmoe



thats the end!!! turns out i really didnt have THAT many pics....i just dont really take that many pics to begin with...but hey now that i have the internet i will try to keep them coming

PARIS withdrawals

I know i know, when i write about how much i miss Paris on a regular basis it probably makes some of you want to throw up......i am SPOILED, I KNOW IT!!! but damn do i miss paris today........and most all days. I have started to speak french to my dog (that is right, i got a dog, pics to follow...i get the internet on tuesday!! YAY) and while speaking to me dog it makes me cry that my fluency is so terrible

anywho, today i remembered one of my favorite late night haunts......

This place "the foot of the pig" hahahah, is like Paris's Denny's equivalent. It is open all night, the waiters are awesome....and (unlike denny's) the food is amazing( unfortunately not as cheap either...but in paris money doesnt count right?)!!! Nothing in paris is actually open all night, so this was a regular hot spot for late night youngsters...

I had my first steak tartare here....that is raw beef people....i am just crazy like that!!! It was pretty good

Weird fact....there is also a pied du cochon in atlanta, the parisian owners opened one there when it got more popular...weird choice....

Expose for the day (no pics yet, i am a slacker)

I can think of about twenty people off hand who will be shocked by this post.....but this is my post of things i really dont like but pretend to cuz everyone else seems to think they are AWESOME.....and the biggest one i can think of is...

disney land! how sad for me huh?? i mean, it is OK...its just when i get surrounded by other peoples kids running around, i start to hyperventalate "where are you parents?? where are your parents?? anyone could just take you!!!!!" runs around in my head constantly. Then there are the really little ones you are afraid you may step on......plus everything is so expensive...i just want some water, thats all....its like an airport, water at disneyland costs more than a meal in the real world...

and next....cruises! I know!!! what is WRONG with me???? it just seems like you never have the time you need in the place you want, plus then you are stuck on a boat with a BAJILLION people wanting to run around and play bingo and there is no room by the pool for relaxing unless you want to sit up front with the uber peppy/slightly scary cruise "host" singing to you.

speaking of cruises....my co-worker (that one who wants to be everyone's best friend even though she is totally mean and devisive) came home from her cruise with those braids in her hair with beads on the end...and i have been biting my tongue not to be mean....but my blogging friends wont care....so really lady, you are 55 years old...i know you want me to invite you and your whole family to hang out with my friends who are all less than half your age but the braids arent making you look any younger....ok now i am really mean...but she does stop by my desk on a regular basis to tell me my job is SOOOOO much easier/less important than hers (while she has tried to get my boss to fire me so she can take my job)......

and for those still reading...here is a really good expose for today. I definitely picked my nose at work today!! hahaha!!! that is RIGHT!! i admitted it....sometimes you just got to get the little bugger out and tissues arent around. that is the reward you get for making it to the end!

Ok, again negativity.....but then i think, well wait, this is good for everyone....because i will be one less person crowding the most wonderful place on earth and cruise ships.....yay for less crowds!!!!

Quick update

I have moved!!! which means i will soon be adding an addition to my life......a dog!!! WOOHOO!!! anyways, life has been busy busy busy, but soon i will have pics posted of mike's and my trip to moab for hiking and trip to st. george for mt. biking.

it may be awhile but i will get them up there. This next month brings weddings and trips as well, so hopefully lots of pics!