Tell a joke tuesday

Hosted by: Wayne at Wayne's Window to the World


My cousin sent me this joke in an email:


Johnny's Mother looked out the window and noticed him "playing church" with their cat. He had the cat sitting quietly, and he was preaching to it.
She smiled and went about her work.
A while later she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water.
She called out, "Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!"
Johnny looked up at her and said,
"He should have thought about that before he joined my church."

Just a lil' something

Friendship

There are very few consistent friendships in my life.  People whom I thought were there for the long haul have left me high and dry, and others whom I believed to be just strange specks of conversation dusted on my life have engrained themselves into my heart.  

This weekend was supposed to be a friend weekend.  I went down to New Orleans to connect with one friend and instead I reconnected with another.  

Friendship is a two way street, right? But has there ever been a friend in your life that you wanted to maintain more than he or she was willing to maintain you?  In my life there has always been the friend that I've had to chase around--the friend that I loved more than I was loved. Sometimes it takes me only a short bit to realize this and to drop them, and with others it takes me much longer to realize.  

And once dropped, there was a 0% reconnection history... until now.  I hung out Saturday with an old dear friend of mine that, as of a few months ago, I thought was lost forever.  We were best friends, and when I lost his friendship I felt lost in the world.  A lot was going on and the only steady person I had wouldn't return my phone calls, stopped talking to me, and all together left me. 

But chilling this weekend brought back the same tranquility and comfort that it had 4 and a half years ago.  We will never be what we were, but at least I know he's there.  He's allowed to exist in my world again and I guess I'm there in his too.  

Flip the coin... Another friend(?), who is not at all a friend--not even an associate. Instead this person is an opportunist and all around a selfish person, whom I've resolved to drop. I'm ready now. It was SUCH a long time coming, but I'm ready now to call it quits on trying to pick up pieces. 

Feels peaceful and frustrating at the same time, but it must be done. 

Photo Friday

Lia got a princess tricycle for Christmas, and it has all but decayed and turned to dust in the backyard. On the rare occasion she condescends to sit on it, I jump all over her trying to teach her how to move her legs. But like all annoyingly overbearing mothers, I repel her! So here is a rare snapshot of Lia on her bike :)


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

How much of you is there in here?

I like to write. I've been writing my whole life. Since I was a silly little kid, I would keep a diary that was part poem, part song, and mostly nonsense. But I am not a story teller. Poetry is my medium. I'm not saying I'm any good but everything I write is personally connected to me. While I am capable of writing about things that I haven't experienced, they are things that I can empathize with or feel deeply about. And the way that I portray them in my writing is the way I see them.

Now here's my question... A novelist or story teller: How much of them is in their writing? I'm currently reading a really perverse novel, by a well-known actor, and I wonder where he thought this stuff up? Is it inside of him? Is that why he felt he needed to express it in this story? Authors who write very violent novels, are they themselves harboring a very violent person deep within, who is placated by the telling of violent stories? I would imagine that if I were to write a novel, it would contain my perspective, my feelings... even if those were forced feelings conjured up from deep within.

Does anyone have any insight on this that they could share with me?

FRUSTRATION!!!!!!!!!!

The other day I spent a little time clicking through blogs. I read one post, clicked on comments, then went on over to visit the pages of other commenters.

WELL! i found one blog that I just loved. I loved her writing style, grace, topics, humor, but for some reason I didn't save the link or subscribe to her rss feed.

I've been spending a small eternity looking for this blog again. Trying to retrace my steps. Even googling key phrases with NO success.

Its appears to be forever lost in the blogosphere.

Tell a Joke Tuesday

with lsu down by 4 in the 9th inning its pretty damn difficult to be funny, but I need a distraction!

Hosted by: Wayne's Window to the World

Little bit of Baseball Humor!

It just so happens....

that as a citizen of the lovely state of Louisiana, one can never get too comfortable when it comes to winning. 

when rooting for the Saints, you PRAY, you BEG, you YELL, you CURSE!  you usually LOSE! but you feel it. Its always a close game. You always think this will be the big win!  And then they let you down. Beat you down to the freaking ground.

When rooting for LSU, you CHEER, you GESTICULATE, you BRAG! you usually WIN!, but only after a gut wrenchingly close finish... its never easy.  At one point you think you've got it in the bag; at another you think you're gunna be sick.  

ARG! Why do they do this to me!!???

Tonight is a great night, though.  LSU beat Texas.  Game 1 out of 3 is OURS!  GEAUX Tigers!

Random Post Redux-Housing Search

 Thank you Kel for Random Post Redux!  Each Saturday she gives you the opportunity to post a "previously used post." 

Looking back at my old posts is kind of horrifying. Posts that I once thought were genius, after a few years aren't so impressive. 

Anyway, here's a post of mine from May of 2006. Enjoy!

Housing Search

Trying to find and buy a house is like trying to kiss a racoon. You know its going to be hard but not impossible...

It turns out to be a living hell and you end up with stiches on your lips. Well I'm going to have stiches in my butt when they stick it to me with the mortgage and the realtor.

Every aspect of it sucks. You're constantly double guessing yourself, and you always wait out to see if anything better comes but it only gets worse and you feel you missed out.

At this point I feel like I've been searching FOREVER and I'm never going to find anything, and if I do find something its going to be a 150,000 dollar 2 story dorito bag under the expressway!

I'm getting desperate.

Funny Friday

Kel at The Hesitant Housewife is hosting Funny Friday! Here's my attempt at humor :)

Funny Video:

Sarah Silverman's got a great Secret!

Rock of Love on SNL

Quotes of Late

Jasmine: Now if only he were a vampire! He'd be perfect.

Jillien: We should start a band?? Who would play the damn instruments?!

Jessica: How's that for TMZ?!!

Melissa [in a text]: You guys have got to hurry-- the guitarist wearing all red [one piece jumpsuit] is sooOooO cute!

Grandma! What large ears you have!

The better to hear you with, my dear- replies the cunning wolf dressed as an elderly woman he had, only moments before, gobbled up like Grandma Pot Pie.


Now I present music, for your ears, that I've only just heard for the first time over the weekend and have consequently fallen deeply in-love with it all.

First a band on the RISE!: Carney

Walking into the House of Blues in downtown New Orleans, I'm taken aback by a sound. What sound?! You may be asking yourself. Well let me just tell you, it was the sound of Reeve Carney belting out his eerily hypnotizing melodies into the dim but unusually clear atmosphere of one of New Orleans's most diverse venues. On this very stage stood (well more like gyrated) Lady Gaga; where Rachel Vette and her band of brothers rocked out with their socks out- straight from the west bank for our viewing and hearing pleasure. Although all these thoughts may not have surfaced to the front of my consciousness, I was aware that this sound was joining the likes of my favorites. This voice was going to stay with me forever. All this before I ever saw their faces. Even before I watched them sway from side to side, pulled by the release of some inner energy- an aural soul...

Not only is their sound so incredibly a 60's, acid trip, take-a-chill-pill, extravaganza of harmonics-to top it all off: They are all GORGEOUS! Lead by 2 brothers Reeve and Zane Carney. This family's got it all. Check em out!! They're on tour now with The Veronica's. Honestly if given the opportunity I would see them again.


Next is Flow Tribe: a rare acoustic performance that left me speechless.

Always about you

How can I go to that place
That place where all was well
And all was fine
And all was clear
and well defined?
Where once there was just you and me,
There's only thoughts of
What we used to be.
So many hurts and silent fights
Too many times I find
Its my will against your might.
Apologies that forever fall flat
Crushed by your need to be always right.
A constant pointing of the finger
And our anger always seems to linger
Even when we appear to be okay
Below the surface there's nothing but
Shade-
Shadowy surfaces hiding the pain
Of little offenses that can't go away.

Random Post Redux

Okay so every Saturday Kel over at Hesitant Housewife is hosting Random Post Redux, where you repost one of your old posts. I had the MOST BUSY weekend of my life, so I didn't participate. BUT fortunately my home slice over at Please Try Again did and you must check out Kel's post as well. Its TO DIE FOR :)

There is nothing more fun than playing tag, and Alex over at Please Try Again has tagged me. Here's the great concept:

~Open your first photo folder
~Scroll down to the 10th photo
~Post that photo and story on your blog
~Tag five friends to do the same.


My story begins as most stories do- at the beginning. My daughter Lia is probably the most girlie girl ever born. In her two short years of living she has grown to love princesses, make-up, high heels, Hannah Montana, dancing, singing etc... I am the mother of a 2 year old tween. Its not rare for us to hear the distinct Clack Clack Clack of Lia walking around the hardwood floor in a pair of mismatched heels. She's actually gotten pretty darn good and walking in them and perhaps has a future in the modeling industry. Lets just hope that she ventures out into modeling after she's graduated from Oxford with a degree in biochemical engineering, won a Nobel prize for discovering a new planet and has gotten a gold medal in swimming at the Olympics, of course. (by the way the book she's holding is called Garden Spells.... EXCELLENT!)

Here's where I tag 5 people, but I don't know 5 people. So I'll just tag one and hope she can keep the love alive:

Amy at Amy's Blogspot

Just so you know

Remember that time I ran away?

Nothing inside me to make me stay.
Not because I wanted to leave
A feat my heart could never achieve.

Till now I think of that very day--

All because of the words I couldn't say.

Or better yet the words you refused to hear
Out of indifference, discomfort, anger-- maybe fear?

Still I moved steadily farther

And part of you I remained no longer.

A stranger of the most awkward kind

Because of secrets that are no longer just mine.

Tell a joke tuesday

A man walks into a psychologist office wearing nothing but a see-thru shower curtain.. The psychologist turns to the man and after a moment's evaluation, he says: "I can clearly see your nuts."

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.- Rita Mae Brown

Unless all you remember are the bad things.

I have the craziest memory. I barely remember things about my childhood. I'll sit and chat with my family or with childhood friends and they'll bring up old stories, but I have not even a faint recollection of it. "How could you NOT remember that, Jillien!?" they ask.

I just don't.

But I do remember when a girl in math class yelled at me and tried to embarrass me in front of all my friends. I remember the fights, the injustices, the little hurts that seemed to have only been scabbed over and never healed.

I wonder if that's just the type of person I am.

Newest Raisin' Canes Chicken Fingers Slogan:

"Rice Owls taste like chicken!"

Yay go LSU!

Now to get it straightened out... I did not graduate from LSU.  I just happened to marry an LSU alum and live in LSU country and be born in LOUISIANA, which automatically makes me a huge Saints fan, LSU fan, and supporter of all teams in the SEC :)

Lia's my slice of perfect pie.

The early summer Sun is dangling from a string one foot above my head. the beads of sweat race down the back of my neck seeking shade under my t-shirt. Think cold thoughts. You're walking on the frozen plains of the north pole. The freezing winds are burning the skin on your face. Fresh crispy air fill and sting your lungs. And instead of pushing a stroller you are pulling a heavy wooden sled, where all of your life's possessions rest softly and enjoy the free ride. Splash. The sound of water and children's laughter break me from my dream. The children, newly freed from their academia and social hierarchies, are swimming in pools in their big back yards. Protected by tall wooden fences- pale yellow fences that still smell faintly of Home Depot. My yard is small. And my daughter has no pool. And my fence is made of old, brown boards we took off of the former fence when ol' Gustav decided to blow it down. I'm just trying to get to fun. I just want to take my daughter to music class and watch her dance and sing-watch her love me and show her I love her. Instead its ungodly hot. Instead of singing, she's sweating. And instead of dancing, she's sitting in a stroller. But we do make it. I watch her smile and play and run. She went along for the ride without a single cry or whine. She thought nothing of the strangeness of not traveling in her familiar car seat, or if she did think about it, at least she had the decency not to comment. Not once did she mention the heat or the bumps or the bright sun. She was perfect. God gave me a slice of perfect.

Its the summer

and i'm left feeling desperate.  Maybe I'm still so fresh out of  school that I feel the year doesn't start in january and end in December.  Instead MY year begins in August and ends in July.  The final 2 months of my year are the hottest and the ones with the most time to think, reflect, regret, reckon.  

They say the first 3 years of a child's life are the most important. My little one happens to be turning 3 in the fall.  Right in the beginning of my year. And like a person with a New Year's Resolution who finds herself mid october with the same dead-end job and 5 extra pounds on her already rump bodice, I'm kicking it into high gear these last few months.

I'm not as patient as I should be. I'm not as attentive as I need to be. I want to be a great mother. More than I want to be anything other than being myself, I want that.