Imperfectly Balanced

It's been almost a year, and perhaps I can find a new purpose

2007-03-13T21:37:00.000-04:00

Well, this blog has languished as many blogs do. Forgotten but not deleted. However, I am going to try to use this blog for a new purpose, as a way to display my digital scrapbook pages. We'll see if I can accomplish this goal!

In December I decided to give digiscrapbooking a try. Can't really remember why, but I did. Tried it, and found it to be wonderful. Do you know how liberating scrapbooking on a computer can be. Yes, without a doubt paper scrapbooking is wonderful. However, I can't tell you what a difference scrapbooking in my jammies in my bed on the computer can be. It is heavenly.

I'm also totally loving my Photoshop CS2. So, I'm going to be changing the links, etc. around here to connect with the sites that are relevant.

Top 100 Rowing Sites

2006-05-08T13:52:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to get Launch Exhaust listed on this collection of rowing sites, but I'm struggling here with uploading the stupid image.

Let me try again. Yay... now we can see it, let's just see if I can get it to work on Launch Exhaust!

Those Tricky Black Jellybeans

2006-02-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

Will received a parcel from his grandparents for Valentines day. It contained chocolate-covered oreos with cute heart decorations, and a heart-shaped box of Jellybeans. I can't figure it out, but Will doesn't really like chocolate. He'll eat it willingly in ice cream, and he'll eat a straight, plain piece of chocolate, but other than that, not so much. It seems odd given my love and Jay's love of chocolate. Sweet Tooths run in our family. The Jellybeans were a huge hit. They are long gone now! In fact, they were long gone that evening. Will shared some as he continually informed us that they are for "everyone." However, he pulled out a black jellybean, bit into it and spit it out, and announced, "Mommy, that yucky jellybean was tricking me!" Apparently, the black ones look good to him, but they don't taste so good. I agree, the black ones are yucky.

What I have to look forward to...

2006-02-02T16:09:00.000-05:00

A woman on the Steel City Scrapbook group sent this Zits comic out. I guess my hobby will only receive more scorn as my family matures. Are we scrapbookers really that bad?

Sewer Troubles

2006-01-25T08:31:00.000-05:00

They are doing sewer work immediatelly in front of our home, right now. I'm not sure if we are going to be able to get out of our driveway, but we are without a sewer line. Can't flush, run water, etc. Boy, I really hope that we can get out of our driveway and get in to Oakland. Will has been watching with interested. He said, "Daddy's gonna be mad." I laughed. I use that line when Will is doing something that I enforce because of Jay's rules. For example, I don't mind if he climbs on the bannister, but that is a big "no-no" for Daddy. Similarly, I'm way more lax about splashing in the tub, and Daddy doesn't tolerate that at all. I wonder what rule the sewer men are breaking?

The Purpose of Bars?

2006-01-24T15:31:00.000-05:00

I went to Camilla's batchlorette party on Friday. Good times were had by all, but what goes on at a batchlorette party, stays at it. We had a lovely and fun dinner, and then headed out to a Karaoke bar. I guess the youthful drinker gene in me was never activated because even when it was illegal for me to drink in a bar, I didn't enjoy it. (Yes, I was in a bar underage... college will do that to people!) Add Karaoke to it, and I'm in way over my head. While I enjoyed myself, I couldn't help but ponder, why do we have bars anyway?

First, I don't get the smoking-bar relationship. Why in the world do people who would never smoke under regular circumstances, feel the need to light up when they are smushed together with the rest of humanity?? It really isn't that smoking causes cancer. Wake up! Smoking STINKS BAD. Mix cheap beer and BO, hidden unsuccessfully by cheap cologne and aftershave, and you make me want to gag!

Second, what are the social advantages of bars? I really don't understand. I guess you are supposed to meet people that way, but I dislike paying 5 dollars for a beer that I can buy for $0.75 at the beer distributor. I feel like I'm being ripped off. However, I'm stuck in a bind. Don't drink, and loathe my surroundings or drink and be ripped off. Then, there is the fact that to speak to anyone you must yell, repeatedly, short phrases in the vain hope that the person next to you hears you. By the end of the night, you're yelling, plus the smoke-filled room leads to severe sore throats.

Karaoke, now that was a new experience for me. I've always avoided those places, but it was fun to see 10 other women singing in a group (yes, I did participate once). The large group size when we sung actually led to us being heard over the crowds. Otherwise, I couldn't see or hear who was singing. All that could be hear was the occasional note that was so off-key that the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Who decided that giving microphones to drunken people who are tone-deaf when they are sober is a good idea? What is the draw in this? I thought the point of karaoke was to hear quasi-decent singers, and actually attend to the karaoke. Here it seemed as if it were more a distraction from everything else.

Then of course, you add in the one strange guy who won't leave your group alone. (We had 3.) One was advising us on the purpose of life. One was drooling over another friend of mine, and one was groping all of us. Reminds me of Julia Sugarbaker, my hero from Designing Women:

Ray Don: "Allow me to introduce myself -- Ray Don Simpson."
Julia Sugarbaker: "There's no need for introductions, Ray Don, we know who you are."
Ray Don: "You do?"
Julia: "Of course. You're the guy who is always wherever women gather or try to be alone. You want to eat with us when we're dining in hotels, you want to know if the book we're reading is any good, or if you can keep up company on the plane. And I want to thank you, Ray Don, on behalf of all the women in the world, for your unfailing attention and concern. But read my lips and remember, as hard as it is to believe, sometimes we like talking just to each other, and sometimes we like just being alone."

It probably didn't help that several in our party were drunk, and doing silly girlish things that have been known to arouse men. But that will happen at a batchlorette party.

What do you do anyways?

2005-11-29T22:42:00.000-05:00

I'm in graduate school for psychology, clinical psychology, well, clinical-developmental psychology. People get really confused about that... I've frequently been told that I'm studying to be a child psychologist. Well, sorta. I'm not even completely sure what a child psychologist is. At work, we banter around terms like, "she's a child person," or "he's a couples person," and what that generally means is that the person is trained in seeing children or couples. Sometimes we get more specific, "She's good with little kiddos," meaning that you could send a preschooler to that psychologist. I don't know if that's what people mean when they say that I'm a child psychologist. Well, that's not really true b/c 1) I'm not a psychologist yet 2) I'm training to be a clinician, not just a developmental psychologist.

I'm interested in Infant Mental Health. In otherwords, I study little children with something really wrong, either in the parent-child relationship or within the child.

Martha Stewart on Sirius

2005-11-26T18:08:00.000-05:00

Driving back to Cinncinati from Pigeon Forge this afternoon, I got to listen to Martha Stewart Radio, and I was quite impressed. I learned how to do a number of cool things with acorns and pinecones. I'm feeling very inspired, so I think that some of my family may be getting pinecone and acorn wreaths for Christmas. I've got to run out to Michael's soon!

If you have checked out Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius I suggest you give it a quick gander.

Weekend is here again.

2005-11-05T10:09:00.000-05:00

I have very mixed feelings about the arrival of the weekend. First, because I love being at home (its my favorite place to be!), and second, I get to spend time with the family. However, it also marks the end of a week, a week were I haven't gotten enough done-- still working on finishing the midterm for my class (I've got too many questions right now), plus I have data to analyze that I have been working on for 2 weeks, more data to code, and a second data set that I would love to work on. Then I have a silly paper that I must write for class, its only 6-10 pages, but that makes it basically a time suck! The list could go on. Saturdays just mean that I haven't gotten to enough of it, that's all... I could work tomorrow, but my ID has been deactivated.

The cool thing is that I'm working on getting access to my office computer from home. Hopefully when that is set up in a few weeks, I'll be ready to go. Now if only I could keep Will from wanting to "help me," while I work.

Header for Jay's Blog

2005-10-30T01:44:00.000-05:00

What's my purpose here anyways?!

2005-08-25T19:43:00.000-04:00

One of Jay's FC rowers noticed that I have a blog. It's not that I do all of that much with this. I walk through life thinking, hey that would be a great blog post... but then, these days keeping the Spam off of Launch Exhaust is enough trouble. Who'd have figured that I'm much more proficient than Jay at the computer thing?!

Right now, blogs are all of the rage. I know that in the scrapbook world, they have become this great forum for showing off your stuff, probably because Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske have them! (Don't worry if you don't know who they are, you can always do a google search on them.) I guess I could put this one in my signature for my scrapbook groups, and possibly get a little traffic, leading me to my next question, what are the purpose of blogs anyways and why am I interested in having others read my thoughts?

I know why Jay started his blog, in fact, in many ways, I convinced him to translate his writing to the web rather than simply via email. I like the purpose of that site, it makes sense to me. But, there are so many individual personal blogs, that are basically diaries. Are we all exhibitionists? Is this the diary equivalent of the cell phone??

Of course, I know that for me Launch Exhaust has been a great way to distract myself from more important tasks, like work. Maybe I should do this with my own hobbies?! A distraction, I kind of like that. You know, I've got a paper that I'm supposed to be writing right now. It makes it all the less shocking that I'm posting, right?!

A Call in the Dark

2005-05-02T00:39:00.000-04:00

It's well after midnight, see the time stamp below? Well, I was downstairs scrapbooking, working on a couple of CJ's I needed to get out tomorrow (that would be, Circle Journals for you non-sbers out there.) I headed upstairs at midnight, my general sign out time, unless inspiration has really hit me.

Jay is in bed, asleep. Will is in bed, asleep. I'm in the bathroom brushing my teeth when the phone rings. I pause for a minute, thinking I'm hearing things, but no, it is really the phone. I tromped downstairs, just as the phone rings for the third time. My heart is beating a little fast because who calls us at this hour-- Most of our communications come via the cell phone or computer these days. The last time we got a call this late, it was Zach. He likes to call Jay late at night, particularly when he's drunk. But, he calls Jay's cell.

I get to the phone, and whisper, "Hello?" as I really don't want to wake the rest of the house. "Hi, Carol?" It's a wrong number. I'm annoyed, relieved and curious. I can't help but wonder why Carol is being called at this hour.

As far as I'm concerned, there is no such thing as a good late-night phone call, with the exception of Zach. A couple of years ago, Jay and I were visiting his grandmother, and around 4am the phone rang. Jay, who was sleeping right by the phone, answered it. It was a wrong number. Jay hands up, and a few minutes later, the phone rings again. It's the same person, but this time, they are refusing to believe that they are the wrong number. The caller is some man looking for this girl he had just met in some bar who had given him that number. He became convinced that Jay was sleeping with this girl, and thought the girl had tricked him. It was a rather funny exchange as Jay was half asleep, and this guy was yelling at him demanding that this girl be placed on the phone

Then about a year and a half ago, the phone rang rally late one night, about 2:45am. The phone had rung a couple of times earlier that night, once at 1am, and then later around 2am. The caller was Jay's mother to tell us that Jay's grandmother had passed away. She had started to have heart attack around 1am, and the neighbors had come over to assist with that situation. We were were closest relatives, so the neightbors called us but we slept through it. I still have a lot of guilt about not waking for the phone. I doubt that it would have made any major difference, but we slept through the whole thingl

See late night phone calls do not bode well-- I hope that Carol is prepared.

A new place!

2005-04-30T20:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I've been thinking that I have so many non-rowing things to say, thoughts about psychology, thoughts about scrapbooking and paper arts. Just thoughts... , I told Jay today that I was going to start my own blog, not just post on Launch Exhust. I've promised that I'm not going to stop posting on Launch Exhasut, rather I'm going to start an alternative forum for me to think about life. So here it goes!