Permission

Me, and my wonderful friend Maggie, getting ready for my bachelorette tea party.

Everyone needs permission for something.

For me, I have never been one who needs permission to be silly or kooky or kid-like. I dance in grocery stores. I conduct Christmas Eve Sarajevo in coffee shops (while holding a latte…the song came on, I had to conduct, it’s required…). I go on swings or start twirling around for no reason. I talk to trees and give them big hugs. I am quick to tell strangers I am a mermaid. If a store has a little kid door, you can bet I’m going in it. I fly in the wind all the time. I often use my super-secret James Bond sneak walk with finger guns when I am walking into random buildings. I believe I magically open automatic doors when I make a big “open sesame” gesture. I will wear fruit stickers on my face while out in public. I have to stick my tongue out at every video camera I see.

And of course…playing dress up. I am a huge fan of playing dress up. So having a tea party with boas and fancy hats and crazy glasses was the natural way for me to have a bachelorette party.

After the tea party, I kept my boa and glasses on as we wandered around a street festival. I love watching reactions to stuff like this. Some people try not to stare. Some people look and smile a little. And then there are the ones I love the most, the people who just light up and grin, and say I love what you wearing, I would love to wear something like that. I should do that!

I encourage these people as much as possible. Well, why don’t you? Of course you should! Have fun! Celebrate your inner crazy, let yourself play!

I think a lot of people need permission to be silly. As “grown ups,” people feel like they are supposed to be serious. They have a fear of, what will people think of me? They feel too self-conscious. They think, what if I look silly and people laugh at me?

My answer here is….so what? So what if people look at you? I can guarantee a lot of them are admiring your guts to do something silly. I bet more are wishing “they could do that, too.” And I can guarantee you this too…being silly isn’t going to have you wind up in jail (I’ll assume you will keep your silliness in legal limits!). Being silly and crazy and celebrating your inner five-year-old isn’t going to make it so that the bank cancels your loan or you lose your prime parking spot at work. But I bet that it will make you feel lighter. Freer. Happier. Even if it is just for a few minutes. Go on. Try it. I double dog dare you.

So, this right here is me giving you the permission you are waiting for, for whatever you need permission for. You have permission to be silly. You have permission to *gasp* not be perfect. You have permission do something you have always thought to yourself, I wish I could do that. You have permission to try something new. You have permission to not be so hard on yourself. You have permission to make time for YOU, no matter how busy you are, even if it only five minutes. You have permission, it’s ok.

Now go and do it.

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Meet Bartholomew

For a while now, I’ve wanted a squishable. Big, fat, fluffy friends = Yay! (Check out the galleries of pictures of people with their squishables, they are great!)

B wanted to surprise me, so he ordered me one — the squishable sheep, who was one of my favorites.

I came home last night and met Bartholomew.

This is Bartholomew, Bart when he isn’t feeling formal (and while he is pretty formal for a sheep, he is also a sheep so he’s isn’t formal very often).

Then Bart met Domo.

Domo quickly attacked Bart, but Bart is a pretty easygoing happy sheep, so he didn’t really mind.

Bartholomew quickly spied our rock climbing book, The Rock Warrior’s Way, and started reading it. Sheep, after all, do love to climb!

Then Bart asked to jump on my computer for a bit, so he could let his other squishable friends know that he had arrived safely.

And then since Domo hates to be left out of anything, he decided he had to browse the Web with Bart too.

That was Bart’s introduction to the family! You will see lots more Bart pictures in the future, I’m sure!

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Huh. That’s a little depressing

http://www.bunkbeds.net/velociraptor/

I took the quiz and was told I would only survive for 41 seconds chained to a bunkbed with a velociraptor — and that was after I punched it in the mouth and tried to wrap the chain around it’s neck.

Anyone score any better?

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Sunday Scribblings — My style

So, this week, the topic over at Sunday Scribblings is My Style.

What is my style? I don’t know if I have just one that defines me, my style can change a lot depending on my mood, if I am feeling silly or sassy or professional or somewhere in the middle.

My style can be silly:

From junior high/early high school days, and then more recently

A more professional Flying Mermaid:

A bit sassier:

Sassy and fun:

Sporty:

Rocking the superhero Blue tights and bitch boots

So there you have it, a sampling of the many styles of the Flying Mermaid.

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photos from my birthday weekend

In a few hours from now, I will turn 31 (at 7:31 a.m. to be specific)

B came down for the weekend and it was such a fun birthday weekend. We went to Wet N Wild water park, we went to play laser tag and go on go-karts with some of my friends, and we went out to the North Carolina coast, played in the waves (water is MUCH warmer than Massachusetts water!) and stayed over in Wilmington, where we wandered the boardwalk and watched the moon from our balcony.

Here are some photos from the weekend, and there will be more posts coming I’m sure, with reflections from 30, things I am looking forward to with 31, and more thoughts on my trip. I didn’t even photo-edit any of these, it was a long, busy weekend, but I wanted to get the pics posted

Me at almost 31

I made a birthday cake. Brian and Mikki decided I need to be frosted as well.

Me and Mikki being silly before going to play laser tag. And because I fully expect B will post this in the comments if I don’t post this here…we played girls vs. boys, and Mikki and I loudly declared that we would kick the boys’ butts. Technically our team won, but B scored almost three times as many points as I did…although I maintain that he cheated…

Me and Mik — one of my very bestest friends. I heart her.

View from the Wilmington river walk

This is Rick, he makes roses from palmetto fronds — they never die, he said. B bought me one and I took pictures of Rick making one.

A door to a bar in Wilmington. I think their warning before you enter is just brilliant.

Sitting on the balcony, on a gorgeous Southern night, enjoying the moon and music filtering up to us from the street below

The Intercoastal Waterway

A drip castle. B had never made one, and for that matter,  he didn’t know what one was. We didn’t make this one, but it was so pretty and perfect, I had to get a picture.

Scenes from the beach

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My crazy pup

Mama, don’t you want my toy??

She gets very obsessed about her toys. And also kind of looks like a gremlin.

I think they both want the toy!

What?? I got sumfin in my teef or sumfin?

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Do you ever get the feeling…

That you are being stared at, and then you turn around to find….DEMONS on the other side of the door???

Or at least Demon Dogs, possibly marked by The Beast?

It happens, my friends. It might go unreported in the news, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real.

You have been warned.

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Try new things!

Like Belly dancing! Go on, I dare you.

I am starting belly dancing lessons tonight!

I will be taking lessons once a week with some ladies and friends from work (there might be other people there, but I think we are the majority of the class).

It is something I have always wanted to try, I think it will be fun and great exercise, and if there are side benefits…well, let’s just say that is ok too 🙂

My friends E, G and I had been talking about belly dancing, and then when we found a program nearby that was offering lessons starting this week, we begin talking to other women at work, to get them interested. We got some people I didn’t expect, and I LOVE that…when people have this inner, fun side that you don’t expect, and it comes out in neat ways. I try to encourage that out of people as much as possible, actually.

So wish me luck as I shake my hips and laugh with friends and try not to fall over and kill myself in the process 🙂

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7 things you might not know about me

I was tagged a long time ago by Random Myriad to play this and am just now doing it (Sorry it took me so long to play!)

Here are seven random facts/stories about me:

1) I can say the alphabet backwards, very quickly, without thinking about which letter comes next. But even better, I can SING the alphabet song backwards, complete with the end of the song, “Me with sing you won’t time next, CBAs my know I now.” I figure if I am ever pulled over for drunk driving (note: I almost never drink and have never been more than very lightly buzzed, so this isn’t a huge concern), this would be a good skill to have, as I would fail the walk the straight line test even completely sober — not a girl with a great deal of balance! 🙂

2) I used to be so terrified of fire that I had to sleep with my bedroom door open a crack so that I could see the light of the smoke detector in the hallway. I would wake up several times throughout the night and look for the smoke detector light, to make sure it was still on.

3) I have been known to sleepwalk (and also talk in my sleep). I once almost walked out of my parents’ house. I locked myself out of my dorm room in college once, and my RA was gone, and my roommate was gone, and the  housing director in my building didn’t hear me knocking, so I had to call campus security to come and let me in. They thought I was drunk and were not impressed lol. I also used to wake up in the middle of my floor in my bedroom at my parents’ house, and my room would be so dark that I would have to crawl around on the floor until I found something that would orientate me, so I could find my bed again. When I am sleepwalking and sleeptalking, I can hear myself saying things, but I have no control over what I say.

4) I moved to 7-and-a-half different houses within a three-year span of time, but it looks like I am going to be a little more settled for a bit. I will be in this house for another year, approximately, at which time I will be moving into my own house with B. I am very excited for that!

5) I traveled briefly with this nice Scotsman while I was in Ireland. Well, technically, we didn’t travel together, but we ended up at the same hostels a few times, so one night we went out to dinner together. Only problem was that I really couldn’t understand anything he said, and after a while, I felt bad asking him to repeat what he said again, so I just started agreeing with him. It’s very possible he could have proposed to me and I said yes, not knowing what I said yes to! Lol

6) I used to believe that lightning bugs weren’t real, because I had never seen them. But I have seen them now and I think they are really neat!

7) I first fell in love with B when we were kids in college, and he was my first boyfriend. I still continued to love him after we broke up, and continued to hope that he would come back to me, but at the time we weren’t ready for each other. Ten years later, after both of us were always thinking about the other, we are back together, and in August, he will moving down to North Carolina to be with me, and this time, it’s forever.

If you feel like playing, link back here if you like, but I don’t want to tag anyone 🙂

Happy Monday!

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Flying Mermaid, playing

Why, who’s that, hiding behind the flower?

Oh look, it’s the Flying Mermaid!

Giant birthday glasses. And yes, I’m going to buy them to wear throughout my birthday weekend (and yes I realize I’m blurry and the background is clear. Damn macro mode and forgetting to switch out)

Finding my inner rock star

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