Lost Potential

I'm stealing this from a newsletter that I receive... but to give it context it has been one year since I found out that my baby was no longer growing. This has been a really hard few days so far. For the most part I've been doing ok but having anniversaries come up can be really painful.

As an aside, if you know someone who has ever gone through a miscarriage. Stop pretending like it didn't happen. Sometimes the best thing you can do for them is actually bring it up even if it is painful. It's nice to know that people other than myself remember. Not talking about it doesn't mean we've forgotten, it just seems like you have.

Lost Potential

"Last year I attended a workshop presented by a specialist in grief named Dr. Cable. Dr. Cable said many important things about the grief process, but as a bereaved parent one thing stuck out in my mind. He said that if you ask a bereaved person to describe his deceased mother, he will say, 'Oh, she was so sweet. She always wore flowered dresses and loved to bake cookies.' But if you ask a bereaved parent to describe their deceased child, she will say, 'Oh, he would be five this year and just starting kindergarten,'  or, 'She would be twenty-two this year and graduating from college.' You see, we bereaved parents grieve the lost potential of our children. Our children don't stop growing up in our minds. We grieve again and anew each year as our child would have been a different age."

Chris Anderson, The Compassionate Friends, Walla Walla, WA

Summer Time And The Livin' Is Easy

It's SUMMER TIME as far as I'm concerned. Living in a college town has it's perks... for instance - I think it's HILARIOUS to drive down the main street in my town and hear drunk people fighting. I seriously do. I'm just glad I don't live on those streets hehe (but then again, they're absolute dumps so pretty much ONLY students live there and I'm sure they don't care).

To clarify, I mean couples having those "nothing" fights that Dane Cook jokes about. You can bet I drive a little slower down the street if I see a couple about to break up over the fact that the dude said hi to a girl he's known since kindergarten. ALL windows are down. I don't care if it's -20 degrees. This needs to be heard in surround sound.

Of course with students comes traffic. And lots of people in line at Target... and other minor inconveniences such as the fact that the bathroom at work is extra dirty because I share it with the students who take classes in my building.

But it's summer time. The first weekend after moveout.

Ho.Ly. ShARt. It's a different world and I love it. I can turn left onto busy streets without waiting for 25 minutes for a tiny clearing of cars!

But I digress.

Probably the best thing about summer working at the university, is SUMMER HOURS. 7:30-4:00. We come in earlier, take a shorter lunch, and leave earlier.

Today is the first day back to summer hours and I must say my body has not yet adjusted to that extra half hour less of sleep I got. So yeah, that's pretty much the point of today's post.

Also, I have less than 60 days til due date. (58 to be exact)

WHOOOMP WHOOOOMP!

Iowa Not So Nice

Pardon my french, but WHAT THE FUCK, Iowa?

It's May 3rd. Last week this time I was over the moon with the 70 degree weather we were experiencing, and just earlier this week I was outside wearing shorts and flip flops. Today there is accumulation.

And yes, it is STILL snowing.

View from my office... Enlarged to show texture.

This weekend is supposed to get warmer and we're going to get rain...

Ok, I get it. You're playing a joke on me, yes? Hahaha, you win. It was funny now...

Oh Uncle Joey, somehow you bring light to everyone's life*

*excluding Alanis Morrisette