never fully-clothed or intentionally misinforming

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope, as you read this, you're finding yourselves exactly where you want to be and with whom you always imagined you'd be with. May you find before you a feast more bountiful than you could fathom ever needing, and may you recognize the blessing that is this feast, as so many others see empty plates and feel empty bellies this holiday season. Perhaps the plates, piled high with starches and veggies, will inspire you to acknowledge what you are and have to be thankful for, and, despite what hardships each of us may face, how lucky we are to be alive, satiated, safe, and happy. I want to take a moment to acknowledge a few things I have to be thankful for this year. First, and most obviously, my family. I wouldn't be who I am or where I am without the support, companionship, and love from my family.I'm thankful for my mom and dad for their endless love and support of me; I know if I ever need anything they're behind me all the way. I'

hello strangers. I have no excuses. This is my first blog in months (at least, on Blogger it is.) I did set up at Tumblr. Friedenfotograf.tumblr.com is me. It's mostly tweets, but it's still mine. I might move there. I'm thinking about it. I'll definitely let you know if I do. I can't talk long, because it's after midnight and I need to be up by 6:30 in the morning. But I'm happy - really, genuinely happy -- with my life right now. I'm busier than I've ever been. And working two jobs is occasionally busting my ass, but I enjoy it. I miss my friends, but I enjoy the busyness factor. I miss blogging. I was looking through archives on Myspace --- what did I ever see in that site? And I realize I used to write ALL the time. What happened to that part of me? I've been reading more than writing lately, but still ... miss it. I'm going to try and get back into short-blogs. We'll see. That's why I'm considering Tumblr as a permanent move.

One of my favorite members/clients just called for the second time today. He is one of my favorites because he's always polite, asks to talk to me when he needs something he knows is my job to do, and always says he appreciates everything I do here. Earlier he said I sounded tired and that I should catch up on my sleep all weekend, the second time he called, he said I sounded a little better, but I must have partied far too hard. When I told him I actually worked last night, he said, "wow, you work two jobs... dang girl." I've decided I'm taking that as a compliment. This just in : I hung up the phone after taking a message from him and it immediately rang back. When I answered it, it was him AGAIN. This time I laughed when he identified himself and said, "you just want to talk to me, don't you?" His answer was actually yes. When I politely declined, he was all, "oh, I understand. Could I talk to Fred?" When I turned around to look for Fred

1. Good: The Hype Machine. I wish I had a decent explanation for how incredible it is. I met one of the people behind it's genius last week and the way I discover music is forever changed. Take a looksee. Maybe I'll explain it later. Just trust me, it's worth checking out. http://www.bizzia.com/files/168/2007/10/hype-machine-logo.jpg The Hype Machine 2. Good: Texts From Last Night. A hilarious collection of exactly what you think ... texts from last night. Submitted by friends or recipients, or whoever, these texts are often times worthy of laughter so intense tears happen. People say ridiculous things. So check it out. TFLN . 3. Bad: My aunt died. I wrote about it briefly already. She's sorely missed, that's a fact. And there's always going to be a void in the family where she used to exist. 4. Good: One Sentence. One Sentence is a website that posts stories summed up in ONE sentence each. It's similar to Post Secret in the sense that people reveal intimat

My Aunt died Wednesday night, July 29, 2009. She'd been on life support for awhile while my family struggled with the decision to either force her to fight a battle we all wanted her to win (something I don't have the energy or emotion to write about right now), or take her off her ventilator and let her make the decision herself. They chose to take her off the ventilator and she eventually grew tired of the battle. I don't blame her. Her memorial service was Sunday in Tennessee. My brother, sister, and I drove up there Saturday afternoon - arrived there at 1:30AM Sunday morning. The service was Sunday afternoon and Jeff and I headed back Monday morning. While we were all there for a very, very somber reason, being surrounded by our family made it a little easier to find some positivity. Aunt Kathy brought all of us together, under one roof, for the first time in 20 years. A woman with that kind of power won't ever be forgotten. A woman with that amount of love will alw

1. I went to Texas, it was amazing, and I will write an entire blog all about it soon. Promises. Promises. 2. When I returned from Texas I made a new friend on my morning commute. I was stopped at a light, and looking straight ahead when it turned green. I noticed the truck next to me didn't move, so I glanced to my left to see a guy in an olive green Nissan Frontier gazing at me, sort of strangely, as I pulled away. Didn't think much of it -- I was rocking out to some music, with windows down and sleep still in my eyes. I'd probably stare at me too. The next morning I saw him again, and he did well keeping up with me and my zippity-doo-dahing down the highway. Until his turn came and we parted ways. That was Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday I saw him again. These two days he made sure to keep up, even passed me on an occasion or two. And he waved. So I gave my usual peace sign, and kept right on cruising. This morning I saw him again and he was weird...er. I had just fin

Sometimes I think about the overall awareness of the mortality of humans. We speed down the freeways in bulk-sized metal machines, pumping with fuel and other fire-starters. We tail people, and swerve, neglect our blinkers and side-view mirrors, all the while going 80 plus miles per hour. Thanks to technology, we multi-task like our lives depend on it, when really they depend on NOT doing it. We reach into the back seat, yak on our cell phones, toddle with our GPS devices, eat our breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, we're so unstoppable behind the wheel... so unstoppable and seemingly invincible. Oh, but we aren't. And I wonder at what point does it dawn on a person that in the blink of an eye, their existence can cease. That everything they thought really mattered, everything they thought they had control of -- all their emails, phone calls, their electronic connections to the world outside, all that crap doesn't matter and never has. But what does matter? Who's to say?

If you're at all a fan of fiction, and like a good beach read -- this one's a winner by my vote. Seriously, I don't read often... and don't really feel like I'm missing much, most times (I do look for entertaining things to read, but rarely will something appeal to me). Anyway, Jennifer Weiner (pronounced Wine-er, I'm sure) wrote a great book when she wrote 'Good in Bed.' Can't see how a woman wouldn't enjoy it. It's empowering and funny and makes you feel genuine emotion for a fictional character. If you're looking for a fun read, pick it up. It's got a sequel, but I haven't read it yet. I'll let you know.

I need to make money-money, make money-money. 1. I’m broke. I put my entire savings in my checking account to cover my bills while I was dealing with Traci’s wedding. You all know that already; it’s old news. But now I need to make money. 2. My mom has signed herself up for a community yard sale on August 8. She got a ‘booth,’ which is really just a table under a pavilion, and she’s going to sell the shit out of a bunch her stuff. She also invited me to join her. Well, to help her, but I can also sell stuff. So I’m rounding up a bunch of shi—stuff I don’t want or need anymore. I have an entire bedroom full of stuff at my parents’ house still, plus random-ass knick-a-knacks at my new house. Things I don’t recognize, things I don’t want, things I’ll never miss = all money I could definitely use. 3. I took some head shots of my friend Michelle yesterday for a little extra cash. I’m not going to charge her much because she’s a friend – my dad says that’ll be my biggest downfall. I befriend

Saturday morning I drove to Gainesville to meet my mom and sister so we could take a drive to Crooked River State Park ( Georgia ). We went to a place that we’d taken a vacation to when us kids were much younger. It was pretty freaking cool. Then it started raining and we played in that for about a minute before we ran back to the car. Got home, let L&B out to play, tossed a bunch of random stuff into a beach bag, got back in the car and headed to Clearwater Beach for the rest of the weekend (which actually turned into being just overnight). When I got to the hotel, J.M. was almost done writing (he was working, I came to crash the job). Once he was, it was time for dinner on the beach at Crabby Bill’s and a nice stroll around the Beach Walk. Talk about a lively and beautiful part of the state. Clearwater Beach – highly underrated. And I can gather that even in the darkness of 9 or 10 at night. The n

Let's go over some things on this fine, sparkly Wednesday. 1. I asked my dad if he would be willing to work out a deal with me for his Jeep Wrangler. It's absolutely awesome. Needs some love, no doubt, but nothing I can't handle. His exact words were, "you can have it." I about shit because for months now I've been thinking about what kind of deal I could work out with him to get it and here he just says I can have it. Too cool. On the list of things it needs: new brakes/brake line, new ignition/ignition switch, a thorough washing. The first step to getting it is to call my insurance company to figure out how much it would cost to insure the mother. Most likely more than my Focus, you think? haha. This information will determine if I can even afford to have it. If I can, I'm going to talk to some friends who work on cars for fun. See what they know about Jeeps and their parts. Maybe I can get cheap or even free labor in exchange for food. Boys are like tha

Random Photo Tuesday is becoming a flop. But it shouldn't because I actually have fun writing those blogs... Anyway, I didn't do one this week, because I knew I had this blog to write. Now, in all honesty, if I'd have been less euphoric, I probably could have written this on Tuesday and it could have counted as a RPT blog, but I wasn't. And I didn't. So whatev. By now, if you've got any other affiliation with me (facebook, whatever), you probably know I went to the beach on June 20. But please, allow me to tell you the story. Originally written on 6/25 About a month ago I got a phone call from Gary; it's been about eight months since I last talked to him. Why does that hurt? Because before October of last year, which is when he moved, we were seeing each other four or five times a week -- and spending quality time together, at that. I kept saying I'd make the time to come see him, but I never expected my summer to be as busy as it's been, and I'v

I'm not sure how I feel about people keeping things as serious as a daily commitment to public writing from their husband/significant others/friends/people that are "important" in their lives. I can't help but wonder what would happen when someone unexpected, someone that you never wanted to read it, discovered it. I know a woman who's been writing a public blog since 2007. Usually she writes about her husband, her children and the general on-goings of her life; although, she never wrote their names, and goes by an alias herself. Anyway, her writing never seemed like a big deal to me. Then her husband found out about it. And when that happened, I started to think about the things she'd write -- the things I knew/read as comedy, but things perhaps her husband would be hurt by. When it's at the expense of someone who has zero idea he/she was being written about, I have a hard time feeling sympathetic in the wake of the repercussions. I feel like he has every

Frozen Grand Central from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo . If you had the ability to revisit a moment in your life, what moment would it be? Tell us. (I've known about the flash mob in Grand Central for awhile, but I got the idea for this post from SoulPancake )

If you watch any television, perhaps you've seen the AT&T commercial about TOMS Shoes? If you haven't, here's the vid: Anyway, TOMS has been around awhile - 2006, I believe is when they took off really. And even before the commercial came out, I'd seen their site and considered how cool it would be to get a pair of shoes, knowing I'd be shoeing another person, for free. The problem is, I've never been able to wrap my head around getting one pair of shoes for $50. Just seems senseless. I had the completely wrong mentality. I might have only been getting one pair of shoes for $50, but I was buying TWO pairs. Just because I wasn't seeing the second pair doesn't mean I wasn't buying it. In fact, I was buying them for someone who needed them much, much more than I did. If I had an unlimited arsenal of fundage, I'd buy myself a new pair of TOMS every month. But I don't... yet. So what I decided to do, because we're all aware I'm still w

Okay ... maybe I've been under a bit of stress lately. I'll admit, I have a tendency to carry a packed schedule. And for the most part, I can do this quite well. But there are times -- and I think they come in waves -- that I need to gtfo and decompress. This is why you suddenly find out I went to the beach, or was MIA for an entire weekend. It happens. It's been happening for my entire adult life. Those who know me, either embrace it, or get over the fact that I'm not changing. But I have to confess, even for me, the schedule lately has been an overwhelming one. At the end of May I was looking at my calendar and realized from that day through the middle of July, there isn't a single vacant weekend. I wish I were kidding. As much as I love being busy and having parties, volunteering, getting together with friends for coffee, and all of that fun stuff, if I don't get to take a long, retardedly hot shower every few nights and turn my phone off from time to time,

Maintaining a specific weight is so much harder than I initially imagined. I don't know that I'd say my body is used to losing weight now, because I have only lost 20 pounds. But apparently in losing that weight, I've boosted my metabolism or something. Here's the weirdness: In an attempt to not lose any more weight between now and July 11 (because of Traci's wedding), I've changed some of my habits. I've cut back on my walks with the dogs. We still do outside yard adventures, but not so many walks. I haven't been to the gym in a week -- I'm pretty sure I'm going to change my routine for the time being to three times a week, every other week. And I'm a little less careful about what I'm eating. Lately I've been thinking this is too lax of a regimen. This past weekend was bad though, I mean really bad . I spent all of Friday in the car, and dined on fast food for lunch and dinner (which makes me feel sick). Saturday was a bridal showe

Today I'm wearing a shirt that says "Stop the National Forests Giveaway." I traded a guy I know a white, and rather girl-ish, tank top for it during the Fest last year. So I decided I'd write about something environmental. I'm not a globe trotter just yet -- some day, but not yet --But I have seen a fairly decent chunk of the country. And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the place this photo was taken is, and will always be, my favorite place in the world. This place is located near my parents' house in the National Forest. This ledge I'm sitting on with my sister and friend is on the property adjacent to ours and it overlooks the breathtaking Rodman Reservoir. There's something about sitting on the edge of the water as the sun pours down into the reservoir, and the breeze rolls across the wide open, glassy surface that makes my life so much more worthwhile. Lately I've been feeling a little... whelmed. Sometimes over, sometimes under - never pe

1. Went to my favorite deli two Fridays back to treat myself to my favorite lunch meal. I hadn't been in months and months because a.) I'm attempting to lose weight and b.) I'm attempting to save money. While I was standing at the counter ordering my usual, the ladies (who run the place) both noticed I'd lost weight. That felt so freaking good. Also when I left, one of the ladies' (whom are an older mother/daughter combo) husband was outside - like usual - reading his paper and he commented on how slim I look too. I wouldn't go so far as to say slim yet, but I do feel slimmER. Anyway, it was a totally awesome experience. 2. I disappeared two weekends ago. I got to go to Valdosta and go camping with Russ & Karolyn and Jon-Michael. And we all had a super awesome time. The camping was fun because we went with a bunch of Russ' Air Force friends. His boss cooked a pig on a giant grill. There were water balloon catapults, Frisbee, football, paddle boats, and r

I need a date to a wedding. I'm the Maid of Honor. I'll be wearing a beautiful, short, black dress with kitten heals, professional hair and make-up, and, of course, my usual sparkling white smile. As my date, you should be handsome and intelligent and interested in dancing (primarily because I'll need to dance as part of my MOHly duties). The wedding is in Tampa, July 11th. You will have your choice of sea bass or filet mignon. There is an open bar. And hotel accommodations have been made, which means you can't be skeezy, because you'll be sharing a room with me. Think about it. Get back to me.

God forbid some trampy bitch does this to my future kid, I'll be this mom: Today, I called my girlfriend to ask her to the movies. She declined and said she was sick and was going to sleep. Wanting to see the movie, I invited my mom and we went. My mom then pointed out my "sick" girlfriend making out with a guy. My mom threw a full bag of popcorn at her. And to my future son, I apologize for embarrassing you. You'll thank me in the end.

Yesterday I said to all of my ONE reader (hey Samsmama !) that I would most definitely be putting pictures of Nhyya on here today. So when 4 PM rolled around and I realized I hadn't accomplished that. I swiftly quit doing what I get paid to do and started editing and uploading the pictures from my afternoon with Nhyya last week (my boss loves me, HA!). Here's what I have for you: I asked her to smile, but she was so focused on the dogs, this is all I could get. I should have known Blondie would give her some loving. Don't worry, I sani-wiped her face down. Lucy, the far less forward of the dynamic duo I constantly refer to as L&B, was a little off-put by the unrestrained presence of Nhyya, but when I hugged her close to me, Lucy came right over and sat down. This is the best picture I could get of the two of them. And yes, I realize Lucy has no head in this shot. It's hella hard to photograph a toddler AND a very UNphotogenic dog at the same time. Whatchoo talkin

Last week I picked Nhyya up from her house after work and we spent about 4 hours running errands. I'll post pictures of this tonight or tomorrow (I promise you want to see them). Nhyya, for those who don't know, is my goddaughter. She's the most amazing little girl I've ever known. And such a bright and intelligent human being. I'm taking Nhyya and Detra out to a nice dinner tomorrow after I get out of work. And after that, I'm taking Nhyya to pick out her first baby doll. They're moving to California on Sunday and I'm emotionally overwhelmed by this. (I won't say distraught, because that would be dramatic, but I'm really, really, really, really upset.) So you can get an idea of why I'd be sad, here's an old picture of Detra and Nhyya at a local pizza joint.

Flew to California with my sister & met up with a bunch of friends who'd flown from New Hampshire and New Mexico, to see the Price is Right a couple years ago (to bid adieu to Ol' Bobby Barker). While we were there, we went a Tonight Show taping. I started to get the feeling, while we were in California, that all show tapings involve audience Q & A sessions in commercial breaks -- which is awesome. There were (as made apparent by the photograph) six of us at the Tonight Show, but despite our enthusiasm, we didn't get called on to ask him a question (although I had no idea what to ask had I been called on ... maybe something about chin implants?). And of course we were kind of hoping to get some sort of interaction with him. And we really didn't want to go home disappointed. But as he did his sign-off, it became disappointingly clear we weren't going to get an opportunity to shake hands, high five, or make silly comments about his chin being much larger in pe

I haven't done a single thing today other than shower, sit with L&B outside for the five minutes it was actually sunny, and grill some hamburgers for me and Susan. I don't mind it this way. I really don't. It's been pretty damn nice actually not having anything to do. But I want to talk about Thursday. I got on some kind of thrilling energy swing on Thursday. I did 100 wall push-ups and 20 crunches AT WORK. After work, I took the dogs for a 15 minute brisk walk around the neighborhood, then went for a four mile bike ride before running my errands. And then! After my errands I went the gym to sweat out in the sauna and do ten power laps in the pool. I've never felt so powerful.

I love this so much I have to RT (retweet for those who do not tweet), but if I do, it's goes over the max 140 characters. So I'm putting it here. "The nod...when I"m out cycling and someone goes past it's like "hey, we're doing awesome things let's be friends for a second" This RT comes from a blog called 1000 Awesome Things . It's pretty neat really. And I only discovered it because I read this guy: Rob Anderson , who's latest blog is called 100 Awful Things (yes, an intentional opposition to the 1000 Awesome Things). I'm going to make my own lists (of both) some day -- probably the same day I do this: Sorry Samsmama , eventually I'll get around to it. I promise. Pinky swear even. Anyway, enough of the back story. Here's why I love this one-liner from 1000 Awesome Things. Yesterday I was riding my bike (I'm writing more about yesterday after I finish this blog) and as neared the railroad tracks that I mentally mark as m

Every single day at work I get beckoned to someone else's desk to type their thoughts out into an email or a letter or some kind of contract. It doesn't really bother me because I actually really love typing. Yesterday a friend of mine and I were having a conversation via YahooIM (yeah, I use that) and she made some comment about how quick I am to respond to her with entire paragraphs of conversation... haha. woopsie. Then this morning my boss had me sit at his computer and type a letter he was dictating to me. I was typing faster than he was thinking. And that kind of makes me chuckle. Anyway, curiosity got the best of the entire office apparently because when I turned around, the whole staff was watching me type his letter (the whole staff, mind you, is like four people). They caved and someone finally asked about how many minutes I thought I typed per minute and I had absolutely no clue. But I'm a google-fiend and immediately found a free wpm test online. Here's my f

This will probably always be my favorite SNL skit. I have such great respect for Natalie Portman. She's such a great sport. (this is inspired by LOTD 's recent post of Natalie on Between Two Ferns.) "No more questions."

Went to Tampa to pick up a Maid of Honor dress on Saturday. This is the dress (but mine is black): xr.com/czn I've lost twenty pounds since I ordered the dress, although I'm still not convinced that's noticeable. For the most part, all my old clothes still fit. I'll get into this later. I had convinced myself that the 20 pounds would make no difference with this dress. And then I put it on. As I walked out of the fitting room, Traci's mom looked at me and said "you'll definitely need alterations," as she pinched an inch of fabric together on either side of my torso. She said the next size down, however, would probably be too small in the bust. I got redressed and then went to the alterations fitting room with Traci to get her into her wedding dress. Once she was in her dress, I thought about that smaller size a little more. The way David's Bridal (DB) is set up, they typically have various collection of sizes in the store, but they may not have

as a form of supplementary income: Imaginary Girlfriends .

My good friend Melissa sent me a care package from California. UPS takes forever, but it finally arrived yesterday. It's all stuff from Trader Joe's because the closest one to me is in Atlanta. Uhm... get to Florida, please? So the box she sent has all sorts of cool food stuff in it: Stevia extract packets (which I've been curious to try) dried blueberries dry roasted sliced almonds sweetened ginger chips mixed wild mushroom medley dried passion fruit candy bar No-Pudge Fudge brownie mix (!!!!) green tea mints AND... almost all of Hungry Girl in CD format!

I read a site called Texts From Last Night . If you don't, you're truly missing out. But I found this one while I was going pages and pages back in the archives. I died laughing. (731): I just ate 10 fun sized 3 musakteers.. I'm pretty sure I'm about to start my period. (601): Talk to you next week

Because I don't have any other photos of us on my laptop, here's a screen shot of a picture of Susan, Ryan, and myself after a dinner at 'Your Neighborhood Applebee's.'  Ryan and I met a few years ago through a college newspaper class. He was responsible for updating the newspaper's website; but aside from that, was not part of the course. I was a new student, and objected to the seemingly blase attitude our teacher had toward Ryan's absences, despite his strict attendance policy for the rest of the students.  It wasn't until I cornered Ryan, still virtual strangers, and asked what his "deal" was that I actually learned he wasn't really a student in the class. That explained the teacher's indifference. And Ryan earned the new nickname, "Phantom" for the simple fact that no one ever witnessed his presence, but there were always signs that he had recently been present.  That was several years ago, and since then we've contin

1. Today Travis, Heidi, and Susan are coming over to the house to have cheeseburgers off the grill and play some board games. We like wholesome fun like that. 2. My boss is going to a meeting tonight to officially approve reimbursing me the $350 for the web programming class. If you've been following awhile, you know what that means. That means I've launched the new site for the labor union and am finally the webmaster here. When I created the site, I thought it was awesome, but the more I look at it now, the more I think I could have done more. But consider it just launched at the beginning of the month, it's probably best to not refurb it so soon. =] Here it is if you want to take a look: www.ibew222.org . 3. I am 100 % satisfied, and quite pleasantly surprised with the new design of my blog. It's way cooler than anything else I've used or had or made. =] I'm hoping some time soon I'll have something legitimately worth your while to say. But for now, I'

I am still so unhappy with the format of my blog. My bff, Patrick, has a tumblr and I love the way it works. I love it a lot actually. So today I'm attempting to put my finger on the specific things I love about it and recreate them for my blog here. I just don't want to move again. UGH. So don't be surprised if you stop by some time soon and things look different ... again.

I have a confession to make to my spark buddy, Melissa: I did not go for a run last night. I'm terrible, I know. Here's what else I know: 1. I have never made such great progress in getting into shape as I did when I was jogging regularly. 2. My knee starts to stay in a constant state of noticeable discomfort after I've jogged for over a week. 3. I miss the liberating feeling of running. 4. I miss the empowerment of cross-training (biking, swimming, running) So I've been perusing the intarwebz for motivational media this morning. And while I hate Nike for their shoddy work ethic, jacked up prices, and apparently tiny clothes, I love them for their motivational material. I just have yet to find any media more inspiring to me than the following advertisements. And ... "I am addicted. I've collected footsteps before dawn. Seen places I never knew existed. Run to the moon and back. Been a rabbit for the neighborhood dogs. Obeyed the voice in my head. Let music carr