Lots of things I am thankful for....

I am thankful for Herman

I am thankful that I am in love with a man who understands and accepts that

A. I am always going to want to go see the Disney Princesses live and

B. I am always going to want to dress up like afore mentioned princesses to see the show.

While watching television one night an ad for the Disney show came on showing fantastic musical renditions of 3 of my favorite princess stories and of course in true Erin fashion I just blurt out "ohhhh I want to go see that". Now we all remember how burned I was about the 1 ring circus so it would be understandable that Gus would back away from taking me to another performance at the SIU arena but instead defying all obstacles he literally ran (and the boy runs like a little Ethiopian fleeting from cheetahs) to the box office to buy me surprise tickets for the next night.

He came home beaming tickets in hand and I immediately began trying on my tiaras trying to think of the perfect one to wear :) Anyway this is just a little example but I have found someone who really does understand and love my crazy even if sometimes he is forced to pretend like he does not know me i.e. when I do my patriotic rendition of "God Bless America" at my local watering hole. I think the patrons call of encore are really just an excuse for more mockery.

Anyways, he is amazing and I love that not only is he brilliant but he never acts like he is too cool to take his favorite 9 year old trapped in a 27 year olds body to the show and while he rolls his eyes a little he still helped me pick out a ball gown to wear and I think he was a little proud that I was the best dressed princess of them all. Granted the rest were three and wearing their Halloween costumes but still :)




Um yes and in case any of you are wondering this is my Homecoming dress from my SOPHOMORE year of high school which means this dress is almost 13 years old and I could still make it zip up. Barely but it did which means either I am destined to be essentially the same size my entire life or I was a really big high school sophomore...yikes.

I am thankful for banana

I am thankful for the unconditional love of a crazy puppy who wants nothing more than to be right on top of me cuddled at all times. Yes she is a little trollup and her affection is often doled out excessively and indiscriminately but I really love my little hoochie momma chiweenie.

I am thankful for my familia

I am thankful for an incredibly close, loving and crazy family and I am not just saying that. I am lucky in that my parents still love each other and all of my relatives are in good health and spirits with the exception of a little arthritis and general aging malaise, and really what’s a big aching toe in the scheme of things. We as a clan have been extremely blessed in the lack of tragedy, chaos and general ickyness that I feel is such a part of so many people’s daily lives and it is important to me to give thanks for that.

I am thankful for my crazy betches

I am thankful that even though I have moved far away and am not the best at staying in touch I have a close knit and fabulous group of friends who love me and think that I am fun. It is easy to feel alone out here when you have to beg people to play with you but a quick look at my facebook photo albums assures me that my kindred spirits are indeed out there in the universe and that I am just an obnoxiously long and daunting drive away from being reunited with my gorgeous, classy, bananas group of broads.

I am thankful for gainful employement

I am thankful for being employed. Even though I oft grumble to Herman about the monotony and sometimes downright annoyance at screening substance abusers all day I am making a small contribution I feel to the betterment of society and if I am able to help one person quit smoking because they saw a flyer and called me than maybe I saved a life. I sound so noble don’t I? Also out here there are a lot of people who don’t have jobs and I was one of them for too long so I am very grateful to count myself among those gainfully employed.

I am thankful for 2011 Elm St.

I am very thankful that there is a roof over my head and that it does not leak. Granted sometime the basement might leak a little but much less now after Herman dug the moat around the house:)

Sometimes when I am being grouchy about having to dust constantly or the fact that my BLUE (yes blue) counter tops show literally everything that ever touches them it becomes easy for me to lose sight of the fact that I have a lovely home to live in. It is warm in the winter and cool in the summer and through some trickery even has a big enough space to hang all my dresses. Yes it is in the middle of the Midwest and yes the floors creak and I am in a constant battle with spider crickets but it is a home that Gus and I have made together and I am very blessed to be so fortunate as to be able to call it our own.

I am thankful for being thankful

I am thankful for still retaining a sense of wonder. Now this is a strange one keep with me. Gus and I were driving home from Cleveland and had no audiobooks to listen to so we were forced to talk to each other for 20 hours roundtrip. Luckily he is kind of interesting so it was not that bad. Gus however works in an industry of sorrow if you will. He deals with the darker side of life, drug abuse, neglect, poverty really sad stories of people really down on their luck and he is essentially their last line of defense. Now that is a lot of pressure and he copes with it by playing fantasy football and watching way too many zombie shows.

I however have a really hard time listening to these stories and it is easy for me to become very deflated and sad as I begin thinking about the tragedy of life on a global scale. Deep huh? What I am thankful for is that I am able to get out of that and twist it into positive things. I am glad that I have retained a reserve of optimism even in the face of what seems like overwhelming gloom. Sometime you just gotta Pollyanna that shit up. I still believe that everyone fundamentally has some good in them. It might not be a lot but it is there and I don’t care if that makes me seem naive or idealistic because I think those traits are positive ones.

I am always going to cry at Folgers and Visa commercials. I am never going to enjoy watching someone lose or have their dreams dashed. I am always going to get excited about the Muppets, and the Disney Princesses and I will continue to sing along to musicals and wish my life was more like one. That is not going to change, in fact having Gus provide some perspective to my life I think has made me a better person. As they say you can’t have light without the shadows, it just makes you appreciate the sparkle more.

I am thankful for bunny life

I am thankful that Gus has not killed our bunny and made her into dinner.

I am thankful for Bruce

I am thankful that Bruce Springsteen is making a new album and embarking on what I am sure will be an incredibly spectacular world tour.

thankful for Mexican ...

I am thankful that I have a fabulous Mexican restaurant nearby and that everyone there treats me like family and the queso flows as abundantly as the margaritas :)

I am thankful for you...

I am thankful for you all, my fearless readers who call me out on month long hiatuses and lack of insights. Your quiet support radiates through my computer monitor and forces me to be more insightful about the everyday occurrences of my life. You have given me the gift of reflection and an outlet for all of my nonsensical ramblings and observations. Thanks loves J

So much to be thankful for!

I just wanted to wish you all the best Thanksgiving ever. I for one have lots to be thankful for and need to do a better job of appreciating how amazing my life truly is instead of just focusing on whats wrong with me and what I don't have.

I got lots of love and that is good enough for me :)
Herms and I will be going to Cleveburg for Thanksgiving to eat lots of pie with my fabulous Cassidy crew. Can't wait to see everyone and I will update you with lots of pics from our Northern adventures!

State of the Erin Address

Hello lovas!

I returned from a fabulous trip home a week ago and while abroad in the old Commonwealth I was widely chastised for my failure to write on my blog more. The accusations are true as evidently my last entry was mid-July. My bad. It was actually really touching how many of you guys told me that you missed reading the old blog, and that you felt like you did not know what was going on in my life because I never updated anymore. All fair and valid points made by you my dear friends/family. I think my favorite request for more updates came from my Grandpa Greene who told me that after reading my last entry he came to the conclusion that "if I was not offending someone, then I was doing something wrong". Love it, so with the full force and backing of my awesome Grandfathers approval I will commence with my 'State of the Erin' address.

I recently returned home from an awesome trip home where I was able to literally accomplish every single one of my goals, and see everyone I needed to see and do everything I needed to do. I went to CNU's homecoming where I celebrated my 5 year class reunion (yeesh), I attended a baby shower for my personal hero, the crazy Stephanie Anderson who is going to pop in December, I toured my alma mater Trinity and saw all the insanely fancy upgrades they made to the place (thanks Hilary for being a fabulous and patient tour guide), I saw my high school best friends, my Williamsburg best friends, my college best friends, my parents best friends, I got to go to Ernies and celebrate my grandparents birthdays with oreo pudding and the chasing of fake turkeys named Templeton, I got to have lunch and dinners with dear friends who I never get to see, I went shopping and attended happy hours and the cherry on top was I got to spend tons of time with my parents doing silly things like making salads and watching inappropriate movies. Really fantastic vacation. Could not have asked for anything better and it was positively affirming in that I am still loved and people think I am cool and will invest time in having conversations with me :)

I have likened the difference in So. Ill Erin and Commonwealth Erin to the differences between Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus. For those who don't know I am obsessed with Hannah, the wigs and the sparkles etc. really speak to me. However, in all actuality in my current life I am much more like Miley, simple hometown girl from Tennessee. Shes the same person with lots of different aspects. I feel like sometimes I fit into both places perfectly, and then other times I feel like I don't fit into either place at all. When I am at home I enjoy my friends, family, great restaurants and activities and being in demand with people who actually want to see me, but at the same time I miss my house, and my boyfriend and being a little calmer. When I am here I just want to be there, but when I am there I just want to be here. It is all very confusing really. I hope that someday I will be able to consolidate both sides and live closer to home and not have it be such an epic adventure everytime I want to see the people that I love. *fingers crossed*

So that's something I have been mulling over for a few weeks. On the less philosophical home front Gus and I have blatantly ripped off a tradition that my parents and their "peeps" started of making big fires and sitting around them gossiping and drinking. While I was gone Gus made a little brick patio and bought an adorable fire pit and I went out and picked out 5 pink plastic Adirondack chairs and we are hoping that this fall/winter sitting around outside a fire outside will catch on and we will entertain with lots of smores and hot dogs and such. We had a few friends over Sunday night and for its inaugural run the fire went super well. Gus is still working out the dynamics of making the 'perfect fire' at one point he lit himself on fire with lighter fluid and he is currently missing much of the arm hair on his right arm :) Its cute though watching boys around a fire they all turn into cub scouts looking for twigs and criticizing the embers or what not . Hopefully there will be much bonding and ghost stories around our new toy. We have been trying to think of a good name for the fire pit experience. Since it has stars and moons on the sides of it my girlfriend Allison decided to name the firepit "Uranus" so that when I text her to come over she can reply "hurray we are going to set Uranus on fire!!!". Tragically I think the name might stick if left unchecked so I have to stop the madness soon.

Also, as you all know since I have not stopped talking about it I am currently addicted to Pinterest. If you are not on Pinterest you need to be RIGHT NOW. Seriously do it, it will change your life for the better. www.pinterest.com. Go. Make it happen. I will wait.....

Great you are signed up for Pinterest. Awesome.

Now let me tell you how it has changed my life. It is a board full of amazing inspiration, ideas, recipes, creativity, joy, beauty, brilliance, craftiness. I cannot emphasis this enough, my girlfriends told me about it and I scoffed and then joined and then became addicted. I will not lie to you, it is an addiction. Also I have found myself saying this alot "found it on Pinterest!" and then Gus rolls his eyes but he loves everything I make from it. I don't know how the world has lived so long without this site but thank the sweet baby Jesus that we no longer have to live without its aspirational perfection. I hope to see all of your boards very soon pleaseandthankyou.


Now if you are one of the naysayers that I have encountered let me just say this, the most common argument against Pinterst is that you just don't have time for it, but I say as a rebuttal you just don't have time not to Pin. There are so many great tips and ideas that you wander around thinking "why didn't I think of that???" It really is a literal lifesaver and has awakened a very long dormant creativity within myself. The glue gun is back out, I am playing with fabric and acrylic paints again. It is like a time warp back to 2005, I feel like a kid again :) Do it, you will thank me later I promise.


There is more stuff going on I am sure. I will write to you more as I remember. My grandpa asked if I needed a voice recorder to take dictation of all of my 'blog thoughts' honestly I probably do but I think that the extreme stream of conscious randomness that goes through my head daily might be too much for a shiny little machine to handle. I will try make notes on post its or some such thing. Maybe I can make a Pinterest board of blog ideas :)

Love you guys <3

The great weight debate

I have not written a honest to goodness heartfelt blog in a minute I realize, but that is because I have gotten in a bit of a social pickle with my honesty in past blog entries and rather than censor myself I just declined to write at all. They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, and that words hurt etc. and apparently that is true. My friend Allison and I have this joke that every time I send out an email or an invite here in So. Ill I manage to offend someone. Either I have a strange sense of humor that no one else gets or I am just outright offensive. For example I asked that my guests not bring Wal-Mart potato salad to Easter because it was a nice meal which was evidently offensive. I don’t get that one at all, its offensive to me that anyone would even entertain that thought of doing that. I also declined an invite to go berry picking on a 96 degree day because and I quote " I don’t like to play day laborer on the weekends”. Ok now I can see how that might be a little offensive.


Meh, that's just me though.


I started this blog as a forum to express what I was going through, and to share my experiences with my peeps back home. The trouble arose when I relayed frustrations about situations out here that were then read by people who took offense, and now they don’t talk to me or invite me to things. To be fair though I never said anything in blog form that I would not have said in real life, I don’t know if that is really a good justification for inadvertently hurting people’s feelings though.So long story short that is why I have not been as forthright with you as I have been in the past.


To fill you in on what I am currently pondering I have been thinking much about the subject of weight. In particular mine obviously and really trying to go back to the roots of my issues with food/happiness/love and how they all play into my life. A few summer ago I went on this big great health kick and lost tons of weight I was working out everyday and followed my Weight Watchers guidelines like they were biblical decrees. That super healthy period of my life though was motivated by loneliness and boredom, My life was basically work out and cook painstakingly healthy meals because I had nothing better to do. The same can be said when I came back from Ireland thinner, I walked everywhere and was so homesick that I made myself physically sick and food just did not seem that appealing. The thinnest I have been in the past decade was a direct result of mono and you should read some of the stuff I wrote in that period, holy melodramatic batman. Which leads me to beg the question what about misery makes me healthier, or at least thinner?


Why is it that when I am super happy I gain all this weight, which in turn makes me less happy?
What a truly vicious cycle.


I don't think it is an uncommon plight at all. You see and hear about people who suffer tragedies all the time who lose dramatic amounts of weight, and of course the dreaded 'boyfriend weight' where you finally feel comfortable and loved so you eat more cheese and drink more beer. What is the balance?


I have never been, nor will I ever be a 'thin girl'. This is not self-pitying or self deprecating and I don't feel bad thinking or saying that. I have never wanted to be 'thin', all of my role models throughout my entire life have been curvy if not downright plump and I think they are beautiful. That being said I hate arm fat and muffin tops and not having my clothes fit properly, so there is definitely a balance to strike between being healthy and feeling good about yourself. I have been on some form of Weight Watchers since I was 8 years old as I have always been a big girl, who needed special shoes and could not fit into Mudd jeans in middle school. Thats fine, and I am glad that I was taught how to eat properly from a young age.


However, there is a distinct difference between knowing what to do to be healthy and actually living it. It is one thing to know that Taco Bell is not a healthy choice and it is another to not crave nachos Belle Grande at 3pm on an idle Tuesday. I did not grow up around food that was bad for me. There were never chips, or cookies or junk in the house. I remember alot of stir fry's and eating Boca burgers before they were mainstream. Mom bought some junk for scrawny Jonny which I hoarded and ate with shame in dark closets while shunning my well intentioned Snack Wells supply (I bet I could compete in a contest involving shoving a Jelly Roll into your mouth in record time), but there was never overt bad for you food at my disposal. One cannot remain sheltered forever though and there will always be birthday parties, and sleepovers and as you get older it turns into birthday parties with wine and pasta instead of pop and pizza. Both are fabulously fun and dangerously detrimental to a diet.



I think of it like being a zombie. You never realized how good something tasted that was bad for you until you try it. Blissful ignorance if you will. Then after that first time someone told you that pizza taste better dipped in ranch dressing all you can do is walk around crying "brains". As my Aunt Marcy would say it is a slippery slope and it does not take a giant leap in circumstance to go from putting too much bacon on your salad at a salad bar to putting to many egg rolls on your plate at a Chinese buffet. In fact I am going to go ahead and compare bacon to any other gateway drug, it leads to nothing good except perhaps delicious B.L.T's, carbonara's and the perfect thing to dip in syrup at breakfast time.

SEE!

See how easy it is to go from being a health nut to a fantasizing fat kid?!? Is this just me or does everyone have this problem. It is clear that I have food issues, which I think is comparable to other girls who have "bad boy" complexes. Instead of liking the guy in the leather jacket and mussed hair, I fall in love with the Sergio's boys who bring me chimichangas.


*Just as a momentary point of clarification does recognizing and acknowledging that I do this make it more or less disturbing? *


So here I am now at the realization that I am not treating my body very well and need to get back on track. It is not to look good in a bikini because that ship sailed for me when I was five years old, it is more about just being more confident in my appearance. Ultimately I think I would like to be able to wear my prom dress again, because it is vintage and pretty. Gus and I have (re) joined Weight Watchers and I am doing it online because the nearest meeting is in, you guessed it KENTUCKY. Bananas.


I am going to keep you updated on my progress but I don't want this to be a talking point when I see you. I don't want you to look me up and down and say to yourself "gee she looks the same", or "did she always have that many chins?". I don't want this revelation to be a point of contention. If I see you and I am dipping curly fries in ranch then so be it. I do not give you the right to judge or criticize because at the time I clearly thought it was a good idea, and I am the only one responsible for making sure my zipper goes all the way to the top without needing some form of hardware to assist. I hate when people express the desire to change themselves and then their actions are nit picked and derided, it really is a lifestyle and nothing happens overnight. Not saying you guys would do that to me, but I think the second you tell yourself you can't have something (Chick-Fil-A cookies and cream milk shake) then all you do is want that thing even more.


I am telling you about my past and present and hopes for the future so that I can know in the back of my mind that I am accountable for my decisions and there are people out there who wish me success. It is more than a little ironic though that Hermie is out here studying the affects of marijuana on the brain and all this research was just done linking fatty foods to the same pleasure responses that drug addicts get. Interesting indeed. I will try to keep you better posted, while maintaining the honesty and integrity of my thoughts and real time responses. For now I think it would be fun if you guys wrote in the comment box what your food addictions are, your comfort foods if you will. It would make me feel better to know that as the former ousted leader of the Fat Kids Club (I have since been overthrown by my super skinny brother) that there are other recovering addicts out there just like me.


Puff, puff, pass y'all :)

April 31st

Thanks for sticking with me guys I have now (technically) done a blog post every day in the month of April. Booya. I will try to keep up the good work :)

April 30th

I just love that whenever my boyfriend sees any redneck game that involves a gun and a 'big buck' he just has to play, and let me just add that the girls in these games were not as slutty when Jon Greene was playing these things, yeesh. No woman in her right mind would wear than on a safari for crying out loud!

April 29th

Sooooo this is not normally underwater. This is an ampitheater in our local park on the banks of the Big Muddy River. Needless to say the river, much like the mighty Mississippi has gone way above and beyond its normal flood levels and it has been pretty wet around here. But while levees are being blown up a matter of miles away we just sustained some basement flooding so we are lucky. I do not want to float away down the Big Muddy what a gross way to go out.

April 28th

Marcella T McGee came to visit us in So. Ill and it was wonderful! She instantly bonded with Anna, we ate toasted raviolli in the restaurant where they were invented and we watch the royal wedding of the season! It was a fabulous visit and I can only hope that she has returned to Cleveburg and tell the tale about how while small and midwestern Murphysboro and Elm St in particular are still a fun visit :)

April 27th

So this is Grace Egan Hutton! She is my friend Laurens baby and she has finally made her big debut into the world! Hurray! Lauren has informed me that Egan is a family name but also means 'fiery one' which she said was appropriate because little Grace gave her so much heartburn. They decided to wait and find out the whether baby precious cargo would be a boy or girl so I had to buy all unisex stuff for shower presents but the Huttons better watch out because I really know how to do pink and sparkly wayyyy better than yellow and sexually ambiguous :)

Congrats you two I am so happy for you and cannot wait to meet Princess Grace!

April 26th

Thanks for all your concern guys but we have not blown away yet. Our basement however is very wet and gross indeed. Gus has been waging a war with our sump (?) pump but so far it is to little avail because it won't friggin stop raining no matter how whiny or pouty I am. Stupid rain. I need it to stop asap because I am super tired of being damp and having to share a bathroom with Hermie again. Boys are super gross. Anyway if you want to see our riveting newscast from my county it can be viewed here.....

http://www.thesouthern.com/app/videos/#vmix_media_id=84289871

April 25th

Mumsy requested that I post pictures of the bunny cakes.

These are funfetti cupcake style cakes with cream cheese and regular frosting

decorated with glitter gels, sprinkles, m&ms, skittles and mini Cadbury eggs

nom.nom.nom

April 24th

Now THAT is a bomb ass table setting if I do say so myself :)

Carlos from HOP! Which I hope you have all seen he is so cute and funny looking. I put a Carlos lollipop in our Easter basket that we exchanged. Loooove his face!

Our lovely 10 pound Smithfield ham which came out perfectly... and to think I was so worried about making it!

Everyone opening their Easter baskets!

All the lovely Easter ladies.

My gorgeous table setting with seating for 10... take that formal dining rooms! ha!

April 23rd

Easter egg dyeing time!!! I went a little crazy we wound up coloring almost 36 eggs yikes! Totally fun though, I forgot how fun it was to write silly things on the eggs....

He made lots of Jesus eggs, don't worry ;)

My first succesful batch of bunny cakes, made with funfetti and love a Greene tradition continues!

Super fun egg coloring party!

April 22

Good Friday is upon us and thus my preparations for Easter weekend kick into full gear. Last year I spent my Easter sobbing at a very nice brunch because I missed being at home so much. This year in order to fight off the homesickness I have been proactive and planned my own Easter events.

Tomorrow we will be decorating bunny cakes (a Greene family tradition) and dying Easter eggs and then on Sunday I will be hosting my first Easter dinner. I even got a Smithfield ham and everything so I could rep my VA roots. With a little luck nothing will go terribly awry and if I does we have also stocked up on lots of wine.

So now I shall spend the day cleaning and puttering and preparing and hopefully everything will be lovely. Wish me luck!

April 21st

Dontcha just love this pic. This is my oldest friend (literally like since kindergarten) and I on one of her birthday trips to DC. Why would I post such an embarrassing picture of myself for you all to see? Well its kind of as a tribute to an ohmyhowfarwehavecome moment.

See Dani blogs as well here - http://martinisandmakeup.blogspot.com/
and it is super great, and I am not just saying that because I love her madly which I do :)
She now lives in DC and has a fabulous and glamorous life that the rest of us aspire to but she is always willing to share her tips and tricks. Some of my happiest memories are of playing dress up with Dani and now we get to do it as grownups with checking accounts and cosmopolitans, fabulous!

Anyways you should check out her blog because it and she are awesome. True story.

April 20th

In honor of 420 i.e. the day that potheads smoke (more?) and act like it is some kind of spiritual holiday I have posted this gem of a tanning poster. Since boyfriend specializes in mj research everybody around here is all a twitter for the next big pot study. Hurray, the means that I will be talking to stoned boys on the phone all day. *Sigh* Happy holiday though to you who partake ;)

April 19th

As some of you may or may not know we have had crazy storms going through our area the last few days. Lasts night the weather was absolutely crazy and I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and not in a good way. Of course my freakish boyfriend insisted upon sitting outside on the front porch and 'watching the weather' so if some morning you wake up, turn on the Weather Channel and hear that a Quaker blew away in the storm don't be surprised to find out that its Herman. Anyway we survived with no damage or water in the basement. Saints be praised, so since he is in love with the rain I made him into a sunshine lover instead.

<3

April 18th

Mumsy requested that I post a picture from my proms so that everyone could take a trip down memory lane together. Awwww. How young and cute and innocent we were back then.

Thats it I am crashing the Murphysboro High School prom. Forever young I say!

April 17th

So I know that I keep posting pictures from the place where I am tanning but it is just a hilariously surreal place. I was put in room 7 today and this is what the sign on the door said and I could not stop cracking up. Knowing me I would be worried about incurring the judgment of the posse of 18 and 19 year old girls who work at "Tan Yours Buns" so I was of course super grateful that they went ahead and put my mind at ease....

I will be able to sleep a little better tonight knowing that in room 7 at least, there is no judgment :)

April 16th

I really am a massive creeper with my camera phone but this is a blurry pic I snapped of a super cute prom couple who I just fell in love with. Gus and I went to Cape on Saturday because Ms. Paula was having a big warehouse sale and I thought there would be jewelry deals involved, which there weren't and it was tragic.

The upside though was that we got to try this delicious Italian restaurant called 'Bella' that we had never been too before and we were there at the perfect time to get dinner and a show. The place was full of prom couples with a line of limos and mini-vans waiting outside. It was like a fashion show that I could watch while drinking wine and eating pasta. Truly the best of both worlds.

It made me really nostalgic about my own prom and made me want to go back a decade (yes, eww a decade) and do it all over again. Gus did not share my sentiments his prom date had the flu and threw up in his Chevy Nova thus eternally scarring him. You win some you lose some but I am thrilled that prom season is upon us!

April 15th

Friday I was super excited because it was circus day and I looooooooooove the circus. I have to admit that I was a little taken aback when it was announced that Ringling Bros. was coming to the SIU Arena because it is a super small venue but then I just figured that the circus is magical and they would make it work.

I was wrong. Well technically I was right. I was suspicious when I checked the website and noticed the show coming to Carbondale was on a different circuit as the big city shows and now I know why. Ladies and gentlemen the circus I attended Friday night was a ONE RING CIRCUS. I did not even know that that concept existed but now I do.

There were no tigers, three elephants and way too much emphasis on the THREE (yes three) clowns. Now having just taken my entire family to the circus a few years ago with almost front row seats I know what a circus can be and this guys was not it. Plus to add insult to my disbelief was that everyone kept falling. Seriously there were like eight falls and mishaps in the show. The best part of the circus is knowing that the acts have it under control and are going to make that double back flip onto the back of a moving horse. These guys missed the memo, and the horses back repeatedly.

Towards the end I could no longer watch the show because I was so anxious that I had inadvertently paid to see a Romanian acrobat fall to her death. So in true So. Ill style an event that I love and cherish was turned into a night of terror and disappointment.

The highlight though was I got that super sweet wand that I am holding in the photo. It is pink and sparkly and whirls around really fast and all the cool girls at the circus (granted they were 8) had them, so obvi I had to have one too. Gus was a super good sport and I stopped pouting once I had my magic pink wand. No more understudy circuses for me though, I guess I will have to man up and go to the Lou for the real thing next time :)

April 14th

I choose to post a funny pic of Anna Banana today because today is her first time going to the vet since she has lived on Elm St so it is her day of reckoning as it were. We took her last year to get flea medicine and what not but this is going to be her big check up visit to make sure she is all up to date on shots and such and super healthy.

I think that I am more nervous than she is although to be fair she is the one hiding under Teddy :)

April 13th

So yesterday while trying to pick a fancy beer to have with dinner we can across this little gem. How funny is this?!? My favorite part is the tempered over burning witches....

No we did not buy any because while it is hilarious 12 dollars for a six pack seemed a tad bit exorbitant to me. After choosing another option we proceeded to our local family video rental where lo and behold they were playing Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life on all the tv's. Coincidence? I think not!

April 12th

This mornings super fun and completely undoctored picture of the day is brought to you by 17th St. BBQ. Gus and I love going there for super casual dinners as it is delicious and crazy close to our house (we can walk there, and let me just add it is neat being able to walk to restaurants/bars from your house I am a big fan). Last night it was sunny and rainy at the same time so we went and sat outside and that is when I observed this little gem.

Also last night marked a milestone in our 17th St. history because last night I grew a pair and worked up the courage to introduce myself to Mike himself. Mike is the Mike of 17th St. BBQ fame, he has been on tv and traveled all around the world doing BBQ -ish related things. You can learn all about his super epic feat here.

Anyways so after a pint or two I worked up the courage to go introduce myself and tell him all about how much I love my cute local little bbq joint (ironically I do not really care for their bbq but it does not really hinder my experience that much). He was completely gracious even after I told him that I was the Mayor of 17th St (on FourSquare of course) he seemed very impressed by my loyalty and love of his little meat empire and it was super awesome getting to finally talk to the legend himself. When you guys come to visit I will take you to meet Mike, promise!

April 11th

What we do for fun in Murphysboro. No lie.

This was taken on a trip to our local Rural King which specializes in everything you would need to live the country lifestyle. BUT while it smells funny and is filled with camo overalls it does have some perks.

The biggest being they sell 50 pound bags of rabbit food for like 5 bucks. Others being that they sell baby bunnies and chicks which are super cute to look at, and the piece de resistance they sell unshelled peanuts by the pound. Since peanuts weight almost nothing you can get a crap ton of peanuts for well for peanuts :)

So from time to time we go to play at the Rural King, while I have given into their salty and cute temptations I will never stray down the dark and evil Carhart aisle, don't worry.

April 10th

It would appear on this Sunday two weeks until Easter that the employees at the Murphysboro WalMart might have had a little too much time on their hands.....

I can just picture a few guys sitting around Saturday night saying we are really bored and Coke sent us this diagram of what we can do with the cans so lets go, and here was the end result.

At first I could not even see the bunny but at I walked further away it all started to make sense. Gus thought it was a shark so at least I am not the only one :)