Quote Of The Day

"You are as young as your faith;
as old as your doubt;
as young as your self-confidence;
as old as your fear;
as young as your hope;
as old as your despair...
You are as young as your dreams."

Recently, I found an old friend on MySpace- my best friend for a few years in one of the elementary schools that I attended.
Our exchange went something like this:

"Hey girl! It's Shari 'X' from waaaayyyy back in elementary school, remember me? I was searching names from my childhood and found you! :) How are you?"

response: "Hey! OMG Yes, I remember you! How are you?"

me: "Hey! :) I'm doing fine. How are you? We have a lot of catching up to do! eeeek we are 37 now. EEEk!!! :) The last time I remember seeing you was at Showbiz Pizza when we were teens. :) During when I was going through my "punk" & rebellious phase. LOL
I was just telling Rickey (my significant other) that you and I were best friends from 3rd grade through 6th. I kept moving away-back and forth in 5th and 6th grades, though.
I was a teenage mom- got pregnant at 16. He is 20 years old now. So strange to have a child that old. I see you also have an older daughter? I'm going to check out your page more. :) Did you recently have another baby? I also have a 13 year old son named Dylan. Jason is my oldest. I was with their dad from age 16 until age 30 and I've pretty much been with Rickey from 30 til now.
I'm glad I found you. :)"

her: "Yeah Ariel..is 17 I guess we both know what we were doing in our teen years....This is her latest picture.
I got pregnant and had a stillborn daughter(Patience)last April...in my 21wk of pregnancy.... and now currently just shy of 28wks pregnant with my first boy...Im not with the father(looooong story)....
I'm over in xxxxxx.. Are you still in xxxxxx? I get over there now and then to visit family...I was actually there about a week ago baby shopping with my preggo friend Heather..and swung by the big xxxx to see my grandma and dad...Heather used to live there too.. sooo of course we had to go by our childhood houses and old stomping grounds...We didn't know each other then, but found out we knew a lot of the same people... Small world... Always so bittersweet to go back on memory road...
Wish I knew then what I know now..haha.
You don't have a lot of stuff on your myspace page, you must not have been on here long.
It's so nice to talk to you....

Looking forward to hearing from you.."


me: " Your daughter is beautiful. :)
I'm sorry for your loss. :(
Do they foresee any difficulties this time? When is he due? Congratulations and I hope everything goes well. Re: the father-I understand about long stories. I have some myself. :) Such is life.

I really just haven't spent time decorating my myspace page, even though I'm on it everyday. At first I sort of just wanted to keep it simple. Could you see both of the picture slides? On one of them we recently went to Jekyll island (labor Day weekend) and it poured rain the whole time and the most fun we had was playing in a flooded parking lot. I also have a blog and I mainly do updating stuff with that.

I live in XXXX. I haven't been to ___ in years. I have an Aunt who lives there, but we're not in touch often. I went back to ____ (near there) over a year ago to revisit my old stomping grounds (I was born there and lived there before I met you in 'X' and lived there again from 7th grade through HS so I really consider it my hometown.)
and I got so depressed because so much of it has gone to crap. Really run down. Like you said...going back is just bittersweet. So much of the best parts of my life were from back then, but you can't ever really go there again...

I think I'm done with the having babies part. I think about it occasionally and then I feel glad that Dylan is growing up and...you know."

no response.

On myspace, if you have one, then you probably know that you can look in your sent items folder and see if someone read your message. After a few days had passed with no response, I checked and saw that she had read it. To me, etiquette dictates that when someone e-mails you, you should reply within a decent time frame. Over a week went by, and I sent her another message:

me: "Hey there. I never got a reply from you on the last message I sent. I was wondering what your due date is. Have you picked out a name? (of course, you have :))

I was thinking back to X Elementary and how cool and unique the playground was. I also remember having so many fun times at your house; spending the night, and once going to a b-day party you had. Your mom had us do some silly games. I remember another time going to church with you on some bus and being pissed off 'cause I forgot to bring
a dress and had to borrow something of yours to wear. :) the things we remember... haha."

no response. I checked and she did read it.

I start wondering what her problem was. Did I say something that somehow offended her? Was communicating with me boring...was I just passé to her? Should I send another message? Should I just forget it? Am I overreacting, getting pissed, feeling rejected for no reason? I started thinking even if I let it go, I should just delete her as a friend on myspace since she obviously didn't regard me as one. Certainly many years had passed and we could easily have nothing in common now, but simple and friendly chat was harmless and I couldn't understand her lack of interest...we had just barely started.
I went back and forth and the more I thought about it, the more I thought about it... lol
Oh yeah, also, you can tell when one of your friends is online...it flashes " ____
is online" and I had noticed frequently
that she was.

Several more days passed and I wanted to just put closure to this, so I finally sent her a goodbye message:

"______, Obviously, you aren't wanting to renew our friendship.
On MySpace, of course you can always tell if someone has read your "sent" messages... and you've read both of my messages, but didn't respond, even after I politely pointed out that you never answered the previous message. I'm confused and offended and I won't bother you anymore. I was just looking forward to reconnecting. Maybe you are going through stuff in your life and e-mailing me isn't on your list of priorities...and that's fine, but it's rude and offensive.
I'm a positive person, and I don't like leaving things on a negative note-- actually it isn't negative. I wish you the best, Shari"

and I deleted her.

so there.

Then soon comes a response:

"Hey girlie... Don't mean to offend you... I jump on and off,,,, sitting in this chair makes my back hurt and butt numb....and my daughter is on alot more (since she's back in school) so I usually only have opportunity to glance through mail and get off... I wanted to be able to sit down and write more but time is getting away from me with this pregnancy at the moment and I have so much to do to get ready..and only me to do it... So Ive been really focused on that.... I usually sit down here and check mail while Im eating........ But all is well here-had my 29wk doc appt today and everythings looking good. I go every two weeks now... Whoa Its getting close.... Im so huge already and compact so Im really starting to get achy sitting in one position for long.... I promise Ill catch up soon.... Here's my number... that would prob be better, but even then don't be offened if I don't return call right away....Imjust so moody right now....that I have to be in a good mood to talk... Im too old to be pregnant... haha
Talk to you soon.."


gulp

me: "uggghhhh. :( I jumped to conclusions. I forgot about how engrossing pregnancy and even life can be... OMG I deleted you as a friend last night because I thought--well, you know--and now I'm giggling and embarrassed and am adding you again lol. I'll be in touch soon and won't take anything personal. You know how us females are...ultra sensitive.
I'm glad you're doing well and oooohhh I feel for ya suffering- ugh.
:) glad we're still friends."

So, why did I share this? Um, because, well, sort of just to show something vulnerable about me.

I'm still playing around with that text design program. There is a lot to learn as far as shadowing, animation frames, shading colors, lighting from angles, etc. It's pretty user friendly-especially for a beginner like me. I'm not close to picking out a long term design to put on here, so it will change frequently until I land on something I'm satisfied with. Maybe I won't have a permanent header and I'll just change it whenever I feel like it.
Not knowing how to export the designs and save as an animated GIF file was preventing me from transferring it to the blog. Then I discovered that I have to use an image host provider on the internet, because blogger wasn't saving it properly. I'm sure I could take different steps, but that's where I'm at now. And I've also learned that not every free image hosting site is equal. On one I used, it gave me the transfer code and it saved correctly for the post, but sometimes it would load the animation on here really slow or there would be a box with a red x when I would open this page. So next, I was searching google for "fast load free image hosting" and found a better one. It's strange, but what the image looks like when I make it- is still a little sharper and better looking than after I transfer it.

All this stuff made me want to make other changes with the template.
I like my little smiley guys doing the wave over at my links on the sidebar. :) I'm going to continue making changes here and there.

-working on a header with that program I wrote about before.

This is the tree - a huge Magnolia tree. :)

The A to Z Survey


1. A is for age: 37

2. B is for beer of choice: n/a

3. C is for career right now: Business management

4. D is for your dog's name? Gizmo

5. E is for essential item you use everyday: Soft and Dry

6. F is for favorite TV show at the moment: Gilmore Girls

7. G is for favorite game: Spades

8. H is for Home town: Why do I always think this is a trick question to find out personal info?

9. I is for instruments you play: guitar, piano

10. J is for favorite juice: both apple and orange

11. K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: n/a

12. L is for last place you ate: Home

13. M is for marriage: yes?

14. N is for your full name: There you go again, wanting that personal info...

15. O is for overnight hospital stays: childbirth

16. P is for people you were with today: Rickey

17. Q is for quote: "Let there be light." - God

18. R is for Biggest Regret: I don't have a definitive "biggest" one.

19. S is for status: Rickey and Shari, Brad and Angelina, Charlize and Stuart

20. T is for time you woke up today: fairly early

21. U is for underwear you have on now: There you go again... must be some reason you wanna know. ;)

22. V is for vegetable you love: potato any way you can make it.

23. W is for worst habits: biting nails, overeating, not exercising regularly, using swear words too often, it continues...

24. X is for x-rays you've had: d is for dumb one

25. Y is for yummy food you ate today: Lemon pepper chicken and tomato sandwich

26. Z is for the zodiac sign: go fish

Rant Of the Day

It irritates me so much when people forward e-mails to you like, "Pass this on immediately to at least __ (# of) people, or horrible luck will befall on you." I sent out a mass e-mail to certain people at the beginning of this year, saying "Happy New Year 2007. Let this year be the year you no longer forward those types of e-mail."

http://sharisnewblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/tonight-i-made-this-email-up-and-then.html

It worked because I've gotten almost none this year. However, today I got one that said "look carefully at the picture." It was of the Virgin Mary. Innocent enough. I like getting some forwarded e-mails with funny stuff or touching stories or pictures so I didn't think anything at first. Then, below the picture was, "So and so thought this was junk e-mail and deleted it. His child died 8 days later. Pass this on to at least 13 people or..."

That really pisses me off. First of all, no, I don't truly believe it, but if I DID, then I am now obligated to spread negativity on to others to save my own ass. I am occasionally superstitious, and this type of e-mail always leaves me slightly cringing/unsettled. Anyway, I replied to the person asking them specifically to never send me these types anymore. We'll see what kind of response I get.

Guess the Celebrity















This is a picture I took of a very, very, very famous person's driveway.
Can you guess who/where?

This is from inside the house. Can you guess yet?





Here's his bed, round, furry, and with mirrors and music....

LASTS
LAST:
1. thing you ate: leftover corn succotash from Cheesecake Factory mmmmm
2. beverage: water
3. kiss: Dylan leaving for school
4. hug: Dylan
5. movie seen: 3:10 to Yuma...not my typical choice in movies...but it was good. Great acting.
6. cd played: Boys II Men
7. song listened to: Going The Distance...messing with this blog and myspace
8. bubble bath: yesterday...philosophy-powdered sugar cookie scent. :)
9. time you cried: Friday (during 3:10 to Yuma)
10. time you danced: last night at the end of the VMAs Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Timbaland

Charles just posted about sending something funny about a dumb crook to Jay Leno at the Tonight Show and his excited anticipation that it could potentially be used on the show "what if" and it made me think of something I read the other day:

http://www.celebitchy.com/
Kevin Costner makes blogger’s dreams come true


In January a guy started a blog at blogspot called “If I Blog It They Will Come” with the express purpose of getting a picture of Kevin Costner reading his blog. He said once Costner sent in a picture, he would move on to other celebrities.

He was quite flattering to Mr. Costner, calling himself a “genuine fan,” declaring that his efforts were sincere, and penning countless open letters to Costner referencing his work, making conversation, and begging for a picture. The blogger was relentless, writing 20 posts a month until May and then kind of slowing down over the summer to about two a week. He said he was on a mission and wouldn’t give up.

Finally in September his dream came true and he got two pictures of Costner reading the blog!

His first post from January 24, 2007:

The primary aim of this blog is to get Kevin Costner to visit a blog about Kevin Costner and send a picture of himself looking at said blog.

Once we’ve achieved this with Mr. Costner we shall move onto other celebrities. Perhaps, we’ll go down the list of his Field of Dreams co-stars, perhaps we’ll just seek out random celebrities. In any case…the game is afoot.

Before signing off on this maiden posting voyage, I shall first say that this blog is not in the interest of defaming any public figure. It’s mere goal is to acquire photographic evidence that the public figure in question has seen this blog.

So with that in mind…Mr. Costner…a word, please. Mr. Kevin Costner, you are a fine actor-director who has warmed our hearts and expanded our minds through your fine work in the cinema. You have educated us on the plight of the American Indian, captured the emotional fervor we all feel over America’s Pastime and while Al Gore was busy inventing that Internet thing, it was you who provided us with a frightening picture of what the world might be like after it is destroyed by global warming.

Kevin Costner, we honor you by making you the inaugural subject of this here blog. We merely ask that you honor us with a photo of your blog patronage…a simple request that we hope you deem necessary to grant.

Thank you for your time Mr. Costner…we have enjoyed you in many films and eagerly await your next motion picture. We are certain it will be phenomenal.

And in the latest entry, they’re positively effusive to have received some e-mails and pictures from Costner:

Dear Mr. Costner,

Where to begin? We started this site with a faint glimmer of hope that our postings would somehow get your attention. Out of all of the Hollywood stars, you always came across to us as one of the more genuine, down-t0-earth good guys. However, we were under no illusion that our efforts would impress you enough to actually warrant a response to our good-natured badgering, but respond you have. We here at “If I Blog It They Will Come” were quite taken aback by the generosity you have displayed in sending us these photos. We know you’re a busy man and we’re flattered that you would take the time from your hectic schedule to do such a nice thing for a couple of your loyal fans. You’ve metaphorically led us to our dry land, dug up “the dom”, and built our Field of Dreams. Is this Heaven? No, this is Kevin Costner doing us a solid.

http://ifiblogit.blogspot.com

Now why didn't I think of that? ;)
I remember how I felt when I emailed something to gossip blogger Perez Hilton and he used it on his site. I was so elated. :) It's all about the connection, no matter how small it may seem it can mean so much.

Going The Distance...

Vocabularic Inspiration Of The Day.

I'm thinking right now....looking for a good word to exemplify...just something significant in substance.

Anybody got one?

Over Labor Day weekend we went to Saint Simons and Jekyll Island. We had a good time, even though it rained almost the entire time. I also realized I never want to move there. (something we were considering as a possibility at some point) The beach is beautiful (even though the ocean isn't blue) but the town itself is...just rundown and grungy looking. (even after removing the dreariness factor from the rain) I had envisioned it to be a prettier, more quaint area. Also, there is a terrible smell that comes up from the marsh - like rotten eggs/sulfur. Someone said a factory there (that constantly blows smoke) causes it, but Rickey thought it could be a normal marsh smell. I don't think so. It didn't smell "oceany".

We played (4 wheeled) in a flooded parking lot by the ocean,-that was FUN :)- walked in the rain, played at the beach, found sand dollars, sea shells, and just relaxed.

I never get political on here. I stay away from controversial topics and just try to keep things light and breezy. Here comes the but...BUT, Rickey and I were just discussing the Michael Vick situation and how Whoopi was defending excusing saying that it wasn't surprising and that this was natural (indicative) for where Vick comes from ("part of his cultural upbringing" and "comes from an area where this is not questioned"). I'm gonna call bullshit on that one.
pitBULLSHIT.

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