free (fringes) love

{So it turns out I broke the internetz trying to get this link to work.  Anyway, read on, and please visit free fringes to participate in Lovelinks #8.  You can still link your post here, but we won't see the pretty thumbnails!  Erica has promised me a hosting gig AFTER my switch to WordPress, which is now imminent - stupid Blogger...}

I have a confession to make:

I have a secret crush.

I can’t help it.  My crush makes me feel special.  My crush makes me feel like what I have to say is interesting and important.  My crush also makes other small blogs feel the same way.

So I guess my crush is kind of a blog hussy.

But that’s okay.  There’s enough love to go around, isn’t there?

Erica at free fringes is the creator and fabulous host of Lovelinks - a brilliant new feature that highlights the smaller blogs (like mine!) and brings them together with fabulous readers who will help spread the love - or at least make you feel a little less lonely.  

AND it's easy peasy to get involved by linking your favorite posts of the week that could use the love: either someone else's or your own, then vote on your favorites.  

Winners will receive a fabulous button and bragging rights for the week (sorry, a years' supply of macaroni is not included.)

I am flattered to have won Lovelinks #7 (acceptance speech?  I can barely get a sentence posted!)  So I was bestowed the honor of hosting this week's Lovelinks #8

Want one of these?  Then link up!

Give us your best post of the week, or share with us your favorite obscure posts from when you were just messing around instead of working on that spreadsheet.

Submissions are open beginning at midnight Tuesday (5/24) until midnight, Thursday (5/26) then the fun begins:

1. Visit as many links as humanly possible

2. Leave relevant comments on your favorites

3. Come back and vote for the one you loved the most - voting is open until midnight Saturday (5/28) then the winner will be revealed!

4. Don't be mean or stingy: Karma will bring you back as a cockroach

What are you waiting for?  Click below to link up (and stop making me look bad, or Erica won't let me play with her stuff anymore!) 

[Edited by Erica M---for your link to work, you'll need to add this hyperlink somewhere in your post: lovelinks #8. Just something like: this post was lovelinked this week at lovelinks #8. Very simple]

Reboot

Okay, so I took a little *break* and I feel like I have some ‘splainin’ to do.

Sometimes, I have these weird panic attacks.

They start out in the pit of my stomach - where the little butterflies start flittering.

Sometimes the butterflies grow.  And grow.  And grow.

Until they turn into something different.

When that happens, things start to go awry.

The shame of it is, that nervous, tweaked-out energy usually translates into some of my best material - I’m pretty funny in calamity!  But I can’t get it together enough to concentrate on any one thing for longer than a nano-second.

The kids generally don’t realize I’m in mid-crisis;  partly because I try not to visibly freak out, if at all possible.

And partly because they make me screamy anyway.

Normally, Derek’s there to talk me down from the imaginary ledge, and I can get back to a place where I can function normally.  At least for a little while.  At least until the next one happens.

I can’t figure out why they come and go the way they do, and usually I can work through them, but sometimes, they just get a little too big and demand attention. 

Kinda like a third child.  Or worse, a second husband.

So I do what I can to make it through, until the anxiety decides to retreat back to it’s dark little cave.  Although that periodically takes some creativity on my part.  This time, I needed something a little crazy to get back to “normal.”

So naturally, I dyed some of my hair purple.

I feel much, much better now...

Technical Difficulties

After a series of mini panic attacks, I was happy to have ridden the wave and come out relatively unscathed.

Then the ‘big one’ came rumbling through.

Luckily, Derek was there to talk me down from the proverbial ledge, and the anxiety has ebbed back down to a low ‘hum.’

Still, while the *humming* continues, I feel like I need to take a step back from a few things and focus on getting the beast back in it’s cage.

So while I am basket-weaving, hiding in my closet and talking to my dog, I hope you’ll bear with me here.

I’ll still be lurking around, trying to re-work a few things and stay in the loop, but right now, I kinda feel a little like this:

Thanks to everybody for your awesome support and understanding...

~ Chris xx

Shiny Objects

Things I did last night instead of writing the post I had planned:

Watched a re-run of The Office even though I’d already seen it

Dwight:  Who’s Justice Beaver?

Jim:  He’s umm...he’s a crime-fighting beaver.

Comedy Gold!

Looked online for - wait for it - a Star Wars Galactic Heroes Millennium Falcon playset.  Jack is out of his mind over Star Wars, and has asked only for the Millennium Falcon and a light saber for his birthday.  The light saber is definitely out of the question until it’s warm enough to be an outside toy (for those of you not familiar with the Star Wars Trilogy, I am sorry you are confused.  Also, crawl out of your cave every now and then.)

Started with a Google search.  Amazon?  Yes, sir, I am a Prime Member, let’s take a look... Oh. Those fucking thieves.  Oooh, a fondue pot!

Looked up recipes for fondue for forty-five minutes.

Checked Craigslist.  Craigslist gives me the creeps.  Washed it off my hands while I thought of a better alternative. 

While washing hands, spotted a gardening catalog on the counter.  Perused catalog.  Pondered the benefits of growing my own geraniums from seed rather than buying from the local garden shop.  Come to the conclusion that either way, they will die in the pot, unplanted.

Decided to try freecycle.org - this site is kind of like Craigslist for hippies because people are just giving their shit away (good karma, though) - and found the following listings in my area (* = actual quote):

a single bar of Ivory soap (one. single. bar.)

Photo of Dave Thomas* (from Wendy’s or Canada?)

Old Nail Polish*

24-pack of hot dogs

tricky food processor*

I can’t decide which is more dangerous - the hot dogs or the ‘tricky food processor.’

Resolved to (finally) just go to bed.  While trying to fall asleep, my intended post literally flows from my mind in eloquent, concise prose.  Sleepiness terminated.  Back downstairs to capture the brilliance!

Opened the computer to a clean, blank page.  All signs of excellent mind-post vanish along with prior knowledge of spelling and grammar.

Cleaned out my e-mail inbox.  Cripes, my mother-in-law forwards a TON of bullshit with subject titles like “FW:Fw: THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR KIDS - DO NOT DELETE!” Briefly consider marking her as ‘spam.’

Banished to eBay, forced to pay a gazillion dollars for a fifty dollar toy (but still a few dollars less than Amazon.)

...And that’s how I roll.