The Purse Is Boss

Lynette tagged me for a meme because my current blog fodder about daycare and respiratory infections has been getting a little old. She’s also mistakenly thinking that I might have something fun and interesting to add to this meme, and I can assure you that I don’t. We’ll blame her for the post that follows.

This meme is forcing me to take a photo of my purse and post it for everyone to see. The meme was very specific in instructing that I may not dig the cute purse out of my closet. The photo has to be the purse that I’m hauling around with me today. Since I'm at work, I also don't have access to that fancy new camera my husband bought, so I'm using the camera on my cellphone.

I’m currently carrying a very simple, black New York and Co. purse. It has two straps and one zipper. It contains my wallet, my cell phone, my car keys and my i-pod. I also have some eyeliner and lip gloss stashed in there, as well as a few Euros that David’s grandfather sent him from Austria, but I can’t find a place to exchange them for U.S. currency.

The purse cost me absolutely nothing as it was a cast-off from my fashionable sister-in-law a few years ago. She is always on the cutting edge of fashion and I have never seen her wear the same outfit twice. I also never saw her carry this purse, which probably explains why it was given to me looking like-new. I’m a bargain hunter at heart, so $0 for a cute purse is an offer I can’t refuse.

Now that I’ve done my bloggy-duty, I’m inviting all my readers to participate in this meme. The rules are simple:

1) Post a picture of the purse you are carrying today. Do not grab the cute purse out of your closet that you now wish you were carrying instead.

2) Share the story of how you got it and how much you paid. This is purely for our entertainment.
3) Daddy bloggers are not excluded! If you don’t have a purse, we’d love to see the masculine diaper bag that you carry around.

4) Tag your friends and link back to this post so they understand why you are torturing them with a writing assignment. They’ll also feel better about their own hand-bags after seeing mine on display.

Enjoy!

I'm IT

Remember recess in elementary school? Did you ever find yourself leaning on the fence chatting idly with a bestest best friend and suddenly someone runs up and tags you for a game you’re not even playing? Remember how you felt when you tried to explain that you were an innocent bystander and you really weren’t IT but everyone was so busy having fun that no one heard you and your only choice was to play along and get it over with? Remember that?

That’s exactly what happened to me today. I’m at work, minding my own business, trying to look busy when I’m really not, when Eric tagged me for this meme.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t mind a meme and certainly not on a day when I’m trying to kill some time at work anyway. My only complaint about this meme is that it requires me to take a photo of myself RIGHT NOW and post it online.

How cruel is that, folks?

So, here’s my glamorous photo.



In the interest of sharing the joy of the season, I’m tagging these folks as well.

Heather at Not A DIY Life

Lynette at Day In The Life Of Ordinary

Brandy at Peanut Butter and Jelly

Self Exploration

I’m taking a Career Exploration & Planning course this fall because I’m trying to use as much of my annual tuition reimbursement benefits as I possibly can. I love this class because it’s all about me, so the answers aren’t in a textbook (and I can’t be wrong.)

I recently completed an assignment on self exploration. My first task was to use five words to describe myself.

My first thoughts were anal, controlling, bossy, insecure, detail-oriented, perfectionist. But then I realized that I’m probably meant to focus on positive qualities, so I tried to put a positive spin on that.

I eventually came up with a list that included:

caring,
proactive,
motivated,
detail-oriented,
and focused.

That sounds better.

The next step in the assignment was to ask two people close to me to use three words to describe me. Then I was to compare their answers to my answers and decide if the results were what I expected or surprising.

My husband said I am caring, loving and beautiful.

My co-worker said I am caring, poised and humanistic.

My initial thoughts focused on all my negative characteristics that I like least about myself, but this assignment helped me to see a glimpse of what the world sees when they look at me. It lifted my spirits to hear these encouraging words.

I want you to have a great day, too. I want your day to be filled with encouraging words, so if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged with this “Dawn Meme.” Your assignment is to describe yourself in five words. Then, ask two other people to describe you in three words. Compare the answers and look at yourself from a new perspective today.

Heather’s Meme Addiction

Evidently, my good bloggy-friend Heather has a meme addiction. You can blame her if you never wanted to know so much about me. Doesn’t every blog need a scapegoat?

The rules of the Who Are You Meme are:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then leaves a comments on those five blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

What was I doing 10 years ago:
Sleeping through physics class and dreaming about how much better my life would be after I graduated high school. Being grown-up is never as fun as it is before you are an adult!

Five Things on my to-do list today:
Get my annual physical with my primary care physician,
deposit Baby’s birthday money into his mutual fund,
study for my Multiculturalism in the U.S. class because I have a test on Friday (YIKES!),
surf the internet for cute summer clothes for the Baby,
actually do the work I get paid to do after I type my blog post

Five Snacks I enjoy:
Cheddar Cheese,
melted cheese,
nacho cheese,
bleu cheese,
any kind of cheese!

Five Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
ride a Zorb,
ship my boss to Ethiopia via Fed Ex,
buy bibles for every child in China,
hire a cleaning lady to live with me,
hire a writer to maintain my blog and write flattering stories about me and my family

Five of my bad habits:
I can’t drag myself out of bed until my alarm clock rings for the fifth time,
I’m habitually late for work no matter how hard I try to be on time,
I can’t cook without splattering something on the stove (I don’t consider this a flaw, but my husband does),
I procrastinate returning phone calls,
I always leave the clean underwear in the dryer until my husband asks me if there is any clean underwear in the house
(I’ve told him that I’m just encouraging him to be a nudist because he is hot, but he’s not buying it.)

Five places I have lived:
I’m boring, so I have only lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Cleveland, Ohio

Five Jobs I've had:
Lay-Away Clerk at K-Mart,
Waitress at Denny’s,
Bank Teller,
Facilities Administrator,

International Human Resources Coordinator

Five people I want to know more about (a nice way of saying TAG):

I hate tagging people for memes and I love breaking the rules, so I simply refuse. If you were strong enough to read this entire post, I congratulate you for your endurance and I offer you this opportunity to participate in this meme if you can't think of anything else to write about today.

Fridge Meme Explained

Heather over at Not A DIY Life tagged me for the fridge meme recently. Any normal person would use this as an opportunity to post a picture of their refrigerator for Wordless Wednesday and be done with it, but you know I can’t resist the temptation to speak.

I suppose your home says a lot about who you are, so I feel a need to explain the current condition of our kitchen. When we bought our house, it had been vacant for over 6 years following the death of the owner’s mother. Evidently, the house had not been painted or the carpet replaced since the house was built in 1956. Luckily for me, I married Bob Vila and he promptly fell in love with this fixer-upper.

Since we moved in, we have painted every wall and ceiling in the house and removed all of the carpeting to reveal beautiful hardwood flooring. We finished the second floor of our bungalow to add two bedrooms on the upper level. I strongly recommend a 16-month DIY home renovation project to any couple that is eager to test the endurance of their love.

The kitchen is somewhere on our remodeling list, right after we do something with the green and pink tiled bathroom with pink fixtures, which is somewhere on the list after adding a family room, laundry room, home office, and second bath in the basement.

I’m not really in a rush to remodel the kitchen because it has character reminiscient of the Leave It To Beaver Days. I am absolutely in love with our 1951 Magic Chef gas stove, which appears in photos right next to our fridge. The stove came with the house and it works perfectly. We’ve considered selling it on Ebay or Craigslist as an antique and using the money to buy a new stove and fridge, but the old stove won’t fit through any of the doors in our house. Was the house built around it?

I seem to be on a tangent. Wasn’t this post supposed to be about my refrigerator?

Anyway, the fridge is just your basic, white refrigerator. It is covered with family photos, magnets, memorable quotes clipped from magazines, kid craft projects, our monthly dinner menu, expired coupons, and a marker board that we try to use for messages but ultimately just becomes a place for adolescent graffiti.

You may notice that all the papers and magnets are strategically placed far above Baby’s reach. This is a new improvement made after we realized that Baby liked to pull papers off the fridge and push them around on the kitchen floor. Who needs toys?

You may also notice my treasured Winnie the Pooh cookie jar that sits atop the freezer. My Dad gave this to me as a birthday gift one year because Pooh was my favorite childhood friend. Pooh used to sit on a low shelf near the sink, but Pooh has a porcelain butterfly sitting on his foot and that beautiful butterfly has wings on springs. How tempting is that? Pooh had to move.

So, there you have it. Another rambling post filled with more than you ever cared to know about me!

You can thank Heather for your suffering.