Thursday, June 12, 2008
it happens to everyone, right?!
Here's the story: I was at an intersection in Lafayette and we were stopped for a red light. I saw the cars start to move on the side of me and in front of us so i started to apply the gas when I realized that the car directly in front of me wasn't moving yet. I immediately hit my breaks but i don't break before TOUCHING his back bumper. It was so light, i didn't even think he'd get out of the car...but he did so i did. There was absolutely NO damage! not even paint transfer! I think he got the lovebugs that were on the front of my car and that's it! And then he's talking about how he's ok--not hurt or anything--but he's shaken up! (GIVE ME A BREAK! It was LESS than a tap!) But it's his wife's car so he needs to call her to see what she wants him to do. He then tells her he was REAR-ENDED (a LITTLE harsh for what really happened) but there was no damage and wants to know what he should do. So she--having not seen anything and going solely on his overblown description of what happened--says he should call the cops and get an accident report done so that, if they ever want to sell the car, there's an accident file on record saying what happened if there's any damage to the vehicle! (Are you following that screwed up logic?! So now there WILL be a mark on the carfax for the car...idiots!)
So then he doesn't want to move the vehicles and we're causing traffic to back up during the lunch hour...so after about 10 minutes, he calls his wife again and asks if its ok to move the cars out of the road and she tells him yes, so we move the cars! (Are you picking up on one of my big issues with this fella?!) So then we wait 45 freakin' minutes for a cop to arrive! When he does, it is THE cutest cop that I've ever seen in Lafayette! He's really nice but i think he was secretly rolling his eyes at the accident he was having to report. He has us both fill out our descriptions of what happened and proceeds to type it all up. He gives the guy his insurance stuff back and then he gives me mine along with a ticket and tells me that we really didn't need to call the police if there's no damage! I agreed and said that it was the other guy's decision! He was really sweet and told me to call my insurance and just let them know how minor it was. I think he felt silly for giving me the ticket, but once they're on the scene, they have to file the report and give the ticket. On the ticket where it asks about the amount of damage, he wrote in "none!" I love that! There wasn't even an option for that and he had to write it by hand!
It was SO completely ridiculous! It was a tap! You're supposed to get out of your car, check for damage, and then just wave and say "No worries!" This is what normal people do, anyway! I hit the one panzi who couldn't think for himself and had to have his wife tell him what to do! UGH!!! Anyone have any advice on who I could talk with to get the charges reduced to a non-moving violation?! I mean, seriously!
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
delayed reaction
The instructions about this tag are pretty simple. I believe I'm just supposed to reveal three random things about myself...but that gets harder when I consider all of the things I've already blogged about in this forum! Lets take a jog down memory lane, shall we? WAY back in the infancy of my blog, I waxed eloquently upon the magic and wonder of Crayola Color Wonder markers (one of my favorite posts, I must say!) That first year of my blog gave me an opportunity to remember my Dad's legacy. I wrote about the impending doom and then the resulting catastrophe of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. On the lighter side, I also wrote about the crushes I'd developed on local and national meteorologists (with an oh-so-embarrassing response from said local meteorologist!) as a result of the obsessive amounts of storm coverage I was watching! As I look back and reminisce, I realize that I've covered many of the significant and not-so-significant moments of my life for the past 3 1/2 years. There have been times when I didn't feel comfortable revealing details, but I have used my blog to express the emotion I felt through the experiences...it's been a good place for me. I've definitely slowed down from my 'blog twice every day' momentum of the first year, but I have tried to stay somewhat consistent in my efforts!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
seizing the day...whatever that means
And I think I've picked up on this theme so readily because that it has been my heart's cry (yes, heart's cry--it may sound cheesy but I don't know how else to say it!) for the past few weeks--longer, really. I try not to talk about it too often because it seems to be a reoccurring yet never-quite-satisfied longing which everyone is probably sick of hearing about, but it hasn't gone away...do they ever? But the thing I struggle with is not knowing WHAT it is that I'm longing for. What will satisfy me at that soul-level? I feel paralyzed by indecisiveness! I would go after it full-force...if I only knew what I was going after!
I've always been curiously drawn to this passage in Proverbs 13: 12 which says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." I'm drawn to it because I feel like my hope is deferred and my heart is sick, but I don't know what I'm longing for! I long for fulfillment and purpose. I want to do something that makes a difference. I want to have meaningful interactions with strangers and colleagues and friends. But I don't know how to make that happen! My days so often unravel into a jumble of frustration and disappointment and I definitely don't feel like I'm "sucking the marrow out of life."
For so long I've done what I thought I was supposed to do. I'm a rule-follower at heart, and I don't know how to function when I'm not following the rules. But I feel like, in order to truly do those things--in order to really live life--I'm gonna have to make choices that won't please everyone...and I've been a people-pleaser for so long. I've lived my life playing it safe...and I'm realizing that it hasn't gotten me anywhere I want to be. I chose teaching because it was safe and practical--teaching is a great job for a mom, ya know. Except I haven't become a mom...and while I love literature, I don't particularly love teaching. I am living in Lafayette because that is sensible and practical. My family is here. We all go to my mom's house for lunch every Sunday and that makes her happy. I am single because life is easier that way. I avoid intimate emotional attachments because those are often messy and involve me making myself vulnerable and bare--something I try my best never to do.
But I'm becoming aware that the safe choices I've made have, on some level, become the velvet cage in which I've enclosed myself. And I don't know what the next step needs to be. I am both ready for a change and scared to death to do anything to make that change a reality. I thought that change was going to become a reality last summer, but yet another unravelling and with it, a year of uncertainty, frustration and trial. So here we are on the cusp of another summer...back at square one, so to speak. As so I wonder: When will it come together? When will things 'click'?! What part do I have in making that happen? What part is out of my control? And why, even when I've accepted that I'm not in control, do I still feel responsible for the outcome...or lack thereof?! I realize that I'm not making much sense at all. I'm sure I'll come back and read this in the light of day and cringe at both the coherence and content...but it's what I want to express right now. It's what is real and painful at this moment. I will end with a poem by Langston Hughes which expresses these sentiments much more eloquently than I could ever hope to do:
Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink
like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Saturday, May 03, 2008
ready to ride!
Grayson loves helmets...and glasses. This picture just makes me laugh! Watching him walk around with that helmet on always makes me think of Dark Helmet in Spaceballs.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
it's a baby!
A profile shot
The top of his head--when Grayson saw it, he said "gawww, that's big!" Where does he come up with this stuff?!
A foot
A face shot--this pic is a little creepy!
Does anyone else ever think of the episode of Friends where Rachel can't see the baby in the ultrasound when you see ultrasound pics? It always makes me laugh!
Friday, March 28, 2008
my appreciation for smart-alecks in all forms
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak,--yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress when she walks, treads on the ground;
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
introducing Thomas Cooper Frey
Cooper was born around 2:00pm this afternoon to my dear friend Joni (Hanks) Frey. Cooper was originally due on March 11th, but he seems to be a laid-back guy who was in no hurry to arrive--but arrive he has! Cooper is Joni and Tommy's first child. As I thought it best not to alarm a 6-hour old infant with bright camera flashes, these pics were all taken without flash in a dim hospital room...so they're a little blurry.
Tommy and Cooper
Awwwwhhhh!
Erica and Cooper
Me and Cooper
(Erica did not have the same qualms about using a flash...and Cooper didn't seem to mind!)
I think Erica pinched him or something...
I leave you with a foot! :)
I'm sure more pictures will follow in the days and weeks ahead! You know how I love taking pictures of babies!!
Easter, part one: the hunt!
Easter, part 2: pocking eggs!
It works like this. You take your hard-boiled egg, and your opponent would take his. Both of you would hold them with the pointy end exposed, and the two of you would rap them together until the point of one or the other broke. The broken egg became the property of the person with the intact egg. This would go on until nobody had an uncracked egg.
Here are some pics of this strange but really fun tradition!
Erica and Presley are really excited about their freshly dyed eggs!
Peyton and Presley are modeling with the eggs!
The girls are getting the hang of it!
Explaining to Pawpaw how it's done.
I just liked Presley's expression in this one.
The victorious pock!
Grayson and mom ditched the pocking for a serious conversation.
Erica with the last egg standing!
Presley with the victorious egg!
What do you do with a bunch of cracked, hard-boiled eggs? You peel them, of course!
Eva is saying "get off me!" You can tell that she has older siblings...and a pesky Pawpaw!