Life & Love

First try at my new curling wand! Not too shabby for a rushed on-my-way-to-work job, if I do say so myself 🙂 Can’t wait to experiment with it!

(And just ignore the awkward twisty-pose that makes me look bloated.)

All the pictures on my Facebook newsfeed of friends with their moms made me sad – especially the wedding day ones. Love and miss you Mama, no matter what you say 🙂

This is me with two of the few reasons I attended my high school reunion over the weekend. Rachel is on the left. She is an accomplished pianist who now teaches and specializes in the Taubman method. She has become a master of homeopathic healing methods. Meredith lives in Boston and is earning her PhD in geophysics at Harvard. She is learning to play the fiddle.

Neither of us were in love with our high school experience, so we bonded over being overall misfits in an elitist school that was the inspiration for the now infamous Mean Girls film. Going back was a combination of curiosity, closure, and of course, reuniting with those who made the experience better.

However, it must be said that the reunion with the rest of the class went pretty well, too. Any event like that will have its awkward moments, but everyone was nice, and hearing what the girls have been up to was inspiring… and humbling. Now that I live in a place where it’s a surprise to learn someone has a college education at all, hearing about all the “Oxford”, “PhD”, “Princeton”, “start-ups”, and other miscellaneous accomplishments made me wish I’ve done more with my education and expanded my credentials… until I plummeted back to reality with the realization that my dad is not the CEO of Motorola, and my mom is not the President of the ABC News Washington Bureau… yay for being the financial aid kid… 🙂

Anyway, the weekend overall was a mind-boggling whirlwind. All my worlds were squeezed into a 24-hour time frame! I met with college, post-college, and work friends, then did the high school thing, then met with family. It was so good to see everyone…. but my head sure is spinning 🙂

Today marks the beginning of Mental Health Awareness month. Today also marks the beginning of my mother’s homelessness.

According to the Mental Illness Policy Organization, people with untreated psychiatric illnesses comprise one-third of the homeless population. My mom suffers from Paranoid Personality Disorder and Delusional Disorder, and she has no insight into her condition and thus refuses treatment. It’s been more destructive to her and to our family than any kind of cancer.

Take some time to learn something this month as we continue to find hope for those who struggle with this every day of their lives.

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Life These Days (In a Nutshell)

– Work is so busy! But in a good way. We have the Elected Officials BBQ coming up, two BizMixes, a bunch of Ribbon Cuttings, and the Safety Awards with the Department of Labor. I am thankful every day I have a job here where I feel useful and valued.

– Monday was Month 3 of deployment! I must say – my days go quickly, but the time on the calendar is dragging rather slowly. It feels like it’s been way longer than three months. In some ways, this deployment is easier than the first. In other ways, it’s harder.

– I’m heading home to DC this weekend, partially for my high school reunion, but also to see my girl friends, since my trips home are generally stretched too thin to see much of them! Should be fun (though I’m still a little nervous about the reunion! And whatever will I wear?!)

– I’m officially moving out of my house June 1, since our realtor is an idiot and screwed up our lease terms. It’s a huge/expensive pain in the tushy, but I’m grateful I found someone willing to rent me their house for 3 months…before we pack up and move yet again for GA!

– My search for cruelty-free beauty/hygiene products continues! As it turns out, all lists out there are kind of… inconsistent. It seems that brands are opening their markets to include China, which requires animal testing on everything. So rather than lose the Chinese market, companies are reversing their position on animal testing. HOWEVER, the EU just passed legislation forbidding cosmetic animal testing going forward, regardless of where the testing was done.. so it will be interesting to see how the companies adjust. I guess I need to decide how serious to get about this. Le sigh!

– I went to the doctor yesterday for my annual physical and am happy to report a clean bill of health! I did receive my 10-year tetanus/ whooping cough booster, however… and my arm still aches. Aren’t those diseases obsolete yet?!

– Finally, I need a good book to get hooked on, as I am relying far more than usual on TV to entertain me on lonely nights. Actively taking suggestions!

Love this. Love Alice (and Dinah.) Alice in Wonderland one of my fave books/movies of all time! Wizard of Oz is pretty good too. I need a whimsical brunette BFF who loves sparkly red shoes…

“Lilly loved all animals but these were her favorite.”

A fellow cat lady who loves pretty colors, parties, and dresses – Lilly and I are total soul sistas!