I confess...I'm a fish killer

My husband and I started a freshwater fish tank two years ago for his birthday.  It's been fun.  We have all cichlids except for one.  I don't know what kind he is, but he has survived the supposedly vicious and mean cichlids in our tank.  Well, a couple of our fish got these nasty white spots on them.  We bought some medicine for them.  The medicine said to take the carbon out of the filters for 24 hours after dispensing the medicine.  Ryan (the hubby) has normally put the medicine in, but I put it in this morning because he rushed out the door to work.  

I turned the filter off (that's what hubby had done in the past).  I told him the medicine said we could take the carbon out of the filter and keep the filter on and asked if he thought I should do that.  However, the conversation was via gmail chat and somehow it didn't come across correctly and so I re-explained and was waiting to hear back from him.  It must have been a particularly busy day at work because I didn't get a response.

Thus, the filter stayed off.  I ran to the store to grab some things for dinner or something.  I came back and all the fish were swimming at the top eating at some non-existent food.  I paused momentarily thinking they were hungry (they often swim to the top after I walk in the door...they know their food source).  But then I realized they didn't move towards me wanting food.  Then to my horror I saw some fish on the rocks laying sideways.  I quickly googled what it meant when fish were doing that, and found out that the water was lacking oxygen.

In trying to make the medicine last longer and waiting for a reply from Ryan, I had depleted the oxygen in the tank and the fish were suffocating, or had suffocated.  They were eating the air to get the oxygen they needed.  I quickly turned on the air bubbler we had off  (it makes a vibrating noise and I can hear really well, so it normally drives me crazy).  One fish was desperately trying to swim to the top to get some oxygen but failed.  I literally saw two of them take their last breaths as I was trying to get some oxygen in the water for them.

I killed most the big fish.  I suppose they are bigger and need more oxygen so they went first.  They also happen to be Ryan's favorite fish.  While there were some that survived, I killed Garrus, Dylan, Dylan's brother whose name I can never remember and Lodi

It was all by accident, but that didn't make me feel any better.  Nor did it make it easier calling Ryan on his lunch break and telling him about my accidental massacre.  That's my confession....I'm an accidental fish killer--beware.

I confess...I used to eat corndogs for breakfast

I was just going through the mail with all the coupons and newspapers and junk mail and came across Arctic Circle's ad for an 89 cent corn dog.  And suddenly, I remembered I ate those for breakfast all the time in college.  Yes it's true.  There was a time in my life when most things never looked good and made me literally nauseous and quite frequently triggered a gag reflex for even thinking about the food. And no, I wasn't pregnant.  But man, corn dogs....they just hit the spot.  And when nothing looked good in the morning, out came the frozen corn dog.  Microwaveable frozen corn dogs...I'd totally forgotten.  My poor roommates who woke up and came to have their breakfast and could smell the faint   odor of a microwave corn dog.  Ahhh.....college, bad food and roommates.  What a memory.

Being Famous and in the news

I have been reading magazines while I've been at my allergy shots and other places with waiting rooms.  Sometimes the journalists are brutal to famous people.  All the paparazzi are trying to get pictures of famous people out and about without make-up, dressed horribly, etc.  It got me thinking, what would people try and get pictures of or write about if I were famous.  Unfortunately, I've come up with quite a list.  Now I don't think there's necessarily a problem with that.  I'm comfortable with who I am and I'm not your typical girl.  Here's my list:

1) Make-up:  I'm 29 and make-up is not on my daily routine for getting ready.  I do make attempts to wear make-up consistently.  I'm pretty sure the longest it's lasted is two weeks and I think that was without the weekends counting.  And if I did manage to get make-up on every day it would only include eyeshadow, eye liner, mascara, and potentially lipstick.  Never foundation.  The only time I've ever done that is for plays and Mary Kay parties.  My sister is baffled by my lack of make-up and she would never be caught dead without make-up.  I frequently forget to bring my make-up when I travel, and she would be mortified if that ever happened.  I haven't even mastered holding one eye closed and one eye open to put on eye shadow.  I still pull on my eyelid to the side to put on my eyeshadow.  And doing the tri-colored or maybe quad-colored eyeshadow method is well beyond my skills.  Paparazzi would easily capture pictures of me completely make-up-less.

2) Roots:  I dye my hair and I love it. I dye it all sorts of colors.  It helps to have a sister who does hair.  I've had black, black with hint of purple, brown, brown with a hint of red, red and blonde highlights, orange red and black (I trusted my sister on that one and despite the sound, it was actually pretty), blonde, brown and blonde chunk highlights, and blonde highlights.  However, I have a difficult time remembering to schedule the next hair coloring and thus I get roots.  It's usually several inches by the time I get around to having it done again.  My sister scolds me, but I have yet to get any better about it.  Luckily, most of the color blends nicely with my hair (at least the last many years of dies) so it's maybe not as bad as it sounds.

3) My wardrobe: I once had a comment on a teacher rating website that said I dressed weird.  It's kind of haunted me a little bit and made me reconsider how I dress.  I can't think of anything particularly "weird" that I wear...in fact I would say I'm on the really normal side.  I have some maroon dressier pants...does that qualify as weird?  I wear a lot of the same outfits over and over....more so because I know they match and go well rather than pure love for the outfit (although I do have a few of those).  In fact, I recently enlisted my sister to come pair outfits for me out of my closet because I was sure I had more outfits than I was wearing but was too hesitant to try it out on my own.  I confess I even took pictures of the outfits so I can look at them in iPhoto and remember that those two things really do go together.

4) Jewelry: On most days my jewelry consists of my wedding ring.  Somedays I get earrings in (and frankly if I can sleep in them without it hurting the side of my face, the earrings are likely to stay in my ears for much longer).  If it's a good day I'll have a necklace and earrings.  I am simple when it comes to jewelry.  Even my wedding ring is simplistic.  It's not huge and flashy, but it's still very pretty.

5) Hair do: Suffice it to say, that I often get the most dressed up to see my sister Brooke.  Why her and not the guys?  Brooke notices.  She notices, if my hair is done, she notices if I've painted my toenails or fingernails, if I have jewelry on, if I've plucked my eyebrows and other minor things like that.  She'll compliment me on those things.  Thus, I'll get dressed up simply because she notices.  Particularly with my hair.  My hair has varied in length and my favorite is the day when I get my hair done.  Try as I may to replicate what the hair stylist has done, I've utterly and miserably failed every time.  Don't get me wrong, it's not like I have hair sticking out everywhere, or I have massive bumps sticking out, or other egregious hair errors, it just doesn't have the same....the same pizzaz to it.  I've tried ratting like they do, I've tried using hair spray like they do, I've tried using the same kind of comb, I've even got a really nice hair dryer for Christmas one year, I've used the same pomade, but to no avail.  I suppose I'm just missing that last little bit that makes a huge difference.  I suppose if I were famous I would have someone to do my hair so maybe it wouldn't be something I'd be photographed and talked about.  Then again, there's no way I'd sit day after day for someone to do my hair.  Somedays, the ponytail is the way to go.

6).  Flip flops: You may be thinking, flip flops, really?  I don't think anyone has been mocked or talked about in a degrading way concerning their flip flops, but hear me out.  My feet are flat.  Maybe not all the way flat, but pretty dang close.  My knees make visible movement when I hold my feet in a manner to create an arch.  Back to flip flops: the flip flops I wear often (in the summer) get worn down, but the way in which they wear down is where the mocking would begin.  I have no idea if flat feet actually have something to do with this or not, but the fact of the matter is the way in which I walk, my big toe is strong and wears down the flip flop until there is nothing left and my big toe is just touching the ground.  My flip flops appear to have crescent moons at the top instead of a spot for the big toe.  Why not get another pair you say?  Somehow I fell in love with those flip flops...not just any flip flop, but that particular pair.  There's been two that's this happened to now.  The first pair has gone missing (which I'm still upset about).  I wore the first set everywhere: hiking, walking, climbing up waterfalls, the store, the beach, pretty much everyone.  And I still wore them when my big toe had nothing under it.  They were great.  They were so comfortable and my feet loved them.  The second pair is sitting in my closet.  I just recently resigned to getting new flip flops.  I bought Reefs this time.  The first pair were from RiteAid (I know, I know....who would have thought.  I'm telling you though, they were amazing!).  The second are from J. Crew.  The Reefs are my new favorite.  I love them.  We'll see how they hold up over the years.

I confess...I hate leather seats

   A few months ago, I went car shopping.  My husband and I decided to stop by the Lexus dealership that is near our house despite knowing that was out of our range.  The salesman was insanely nice and not pressuring at all.  We sat in one of the cars which of course had leather seats.  I mentioned something about the leather seats and my dislike for them which came as a surprise to the salesman.  

   Where does my hatred come from?  Leather seats in the winter are frigid.  Now I'm fully aware of seat warmers, but I still think that leather is colder than just cloth material.  In the summer, leather is insanely hot.  Recently, they've added air conditioned seats to cars.  But I still don't like leather.  

    Skin sticks to leather.  If I'm in a skirt or shorts, my legs stick to the seat, which just is awkward.  Plus leather condones sliding.  You turn the corner, and your butt slides to the side.  On top of sliding, it produces a sound that just sounds unrefined---in a luxury car.   No thank you.  I'll take cloth.  

I confess...I think Bob Dylan has a horrible singing voice

   My husband and my brother both are in love with Bob Dylan.  They love his lyrics and my husband loves to play him loud on his record player.  I think if Bob Dylan were to try out for American Idol he would be on the list of people that they put in between the good people to make you laugh.  He wouldn't even make it through the first round of people who get the golden ticket.
   His voice is horrible.  It's not even singing.  It's really just talking with some inflection.  I demonstrated this to my brother one day in the car while Bob Dylan was playing and talked and just changed the inflection every phrase. The best part is that I really sounded like Bob Dylan and I had my brother laughing hysterically in the car.
  They both come back after my mocking of Bob Dylan that he is an excellent musician and his lyrics are amazing.  While that may be true, his voice is lacking.  I have a small problem with understanding lyrics the first time I hear songs.  It usually takes me 100 times of hearing a song to actually realize what the lyrics are saying, despite the fact I can usually sing a long with a song by that point.  My appreciation for Bob Dylan and his musicianship stops as soon as I hear his voice.  I can't get past the wretched sound.
  I'll take the word of my husband and brother that he has really good lyrics and that he is a good musician minus the voice.  I still hold that Bob Dylan has a horrible voice and probably always will.

  There's gotta be someone else in the world that shares my views of Bob Dylan.

Friday Confession

I have a lunch bunch at work.  I must say we are pretty funny people.  We crack each other up and it definitely makes the day that much better.  At one of our gatherings on a Friday, some little confessions came up.  Not really the typical religious kind of confessions but just small, odd, funny, quirky things.

Here is my confession: I like Justin Beiber.  Not as in I'm in love with Justin himself, but I really like his music.  I watched the movie about him and really liked it.  Frankly, I'd watch it again.  Now you know, I like Justin Beiber.

 As a side note, I have a student I taught that looks exactly like Justin Beiber. 

Laundry

I am most definitely not a blogger.  I'm more of a blogger than I am a runner...which says leaps and bounds about my infrequent use of legs moving rapidly.  I do however blog in my head quite frequently.  I guess you shouldn't call it blogging in your head cause I did it before blogging ever started.  Nonetheless, I script things that go on in my life and don't always get the time to write them down.  But today I decided that I have some spare moments as I stayed home from work since I can't breathe well and I'm on day 13 of being sick. 


I do not love laundry.  It is not my favorite thing to do.  It turns out that my sister and I are quite similar.  Neither one of us mind separating the clothes and putting them in and switching them over...or even folding the clothes.  What I despise is the putting away of clothes.  Quite frequently it gets delayed.  It will lay somewhere, usually on the other half of the queen size bed where no one sleeps or the shirts draped neatly over the chair in my room by the computer wait for hangers and to be placed in my walk in closet I'm completely in love with ever since I moved in this house.

On the other hand, my boyfriend...which I guess I don't really mind saying his name...Ryan, LOVES laundry.  I've never seen a man love laundry.  Maybe there are more of them out there.  I swear to you he does laundry probably every other day and if not more frequent.  He takes great care of his laundry.  He uses Tide and downy softener and some good brand of dryer sheets I can't recollect right now.  He even does delicate loads.  I have never in my life done a delicate load.   Ever...I'm sure I should have by now.  But I just throw it in with my normal batch and call it a day.  He changes all sorts of settings on the washer and dryer where mine are the same almost all the time.  I have yet to understand why he loves laundry so much.  He'll come home from work and say I need to wash my work clothes so I have something to wear tomorrow.  But you did laundry yesterday.  That was my underwear, I have to do delicates for my work clothes.  Oh...right. 

But still he could have done it the same day just another load.  I am one of those people who has bought enough underwear to at least last me 37 days (I happen to know that cause I went to Europe for that long and had that much plus some leftover...not a ton but a few).  I love having lots of underwear.  I can go usually about two weeks before I need some pants or shirts again for washing.  I save it til its absolutely necessary to wash and then do it all at one time.  I run out of socks before I run out of underwear...but I do wear several pairs of shoes without socks.  Regardless, I would never do laundry for underwear and not follow with a load of "work clothes" the day after that.

Don't get me wrong at all.  I love that he loves to do laundry...it just entirely boggles my mind.  It's one of those idiosyncrasies that you fall in love with when being around other people for lots of time.  I find it cute that he is so caring of his clothes and really only loves Tide and Downy.

He just came home from a trip today and since I'm home I offered to help with his laundry from his suitcase while he was at work.  And it turns out he needs work clothes.   So that means I'm doing my first load of delicates today.  I'm 28 and it's my first load of delicates.  I'm not sure how many other people change the dials every time they use their washer or dryer, but I guess I'll explore more of my options in hopes that it might keep my clothes I love lasting longer (although frankly most of them have lasted pretty well anyways).  So here's to laundry for the one I love...delicates coming right up.