In Memorium

I had a really snazzy post about laundry I was planning to be my next post, but in light of current events, plans change.
Obituaries are, in my opinion the most impersonal words in a daily newspaper.  They are short, give basic details on times and places and survivors but tell very little about the person who's death they are announcing.  That does not do my friend Shirley McKinney any justice.  So before the brilliant minds at the Herald Journal have their say, I want to do my best to pay tribute to one one of the greatest women I have ever known.
Shirley McKinney was an amazing wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.  To me however, she was actually none of those things.  She was in effect simply a friend.  The difference was that Shirley was not simply a friend to anyone.  She was ever so much more and to have been loved by her was to truly know God's love embodied in a human being.
Her porch was home to many, and as a young teenager there was no more safe and wonderful place in the world.  I spent many Sunday afternoons and evenings sitting in the swing with a blanket wrapped arund my shoulders and her arms around me.  Her heart was always open, her ears always listening and even when scolding was fully warranted it came in the most gentle and loving of forms.
In the past few years I have not stayed in contact with her like I should have.  Time seems to weave us in different directions throughout the years.  One thing has never changed, I could always drive up in that drive way and know that I would be met with more love and understanding that I deserved.  Many times in my adult life when I have been confused or scared I have taken the trip in my mind back to that front porch and felt her arms around me, praying for me, comforting me.
Tonight Shirley is on a very different front porch, rejoicing with the Savior that she taught so many about.  She loved to sing, and everyone who heard her loved to hear it.  Tonight she is singing in a new choir and one of these days we can all go and join her.  Until then, we can grieve her passing but give praise for she is waiting for us with the same loving arms she met us with here on earth.

Goodbye "09 and all your "Huge Times"

Well that was the mantra, "Huge Time in '09."  Did I live up to it?  Who knows, but I do know I have loved much and been loved more than I could have been asked for.  I have come together and fell apart in so many areas of my life, but sitting here at my desk drinking my super strong cup of hot organic peppermint tea I think I actually lived under the radar this year.  I kept waiting for something big and I missed alot of little, which is not very me. 
But the truth is...
I bought and paid for my first car that I actually bought myself.
I said goodbye to Blanche, the greatest gift I ever recieved.
I bought what might be the last of my host of bridesmaids' dresses.
I saw two of my best friends get married to wonderful men.
I saw two Carolina Gamecock football games with the greatest girl in the world.
I met an awesome girl named Sarah and then watched her move away to an amazing job in DC.
I made a bazillion scarves for the people I love.
I watched the person who is suppose to love me the most desert me.
I loved someone so much it hurt.
I watched my dear friend lose her dearest friend and sister.
I got back a sister I had lost years ago and with her the most amazing kids in the world.
I spent a year without laying eyes on one Wild Woman.
I used up 90% of my alloted cell phone minutes talking to Wild Women.
I dressed up as Marilyn Monroe.
I realized I have the best cousins in the world (even the dorks who pull for Clemson.)
I bought a Clemson tie (yes, this was big)
I bought two Gamecock boas (best money ever spent)
I did the Macarena with the best church family in the world.
I went to see the Wild Things with my little sister.
I saw the best guy I know move away to Baltimore and leave me with a bunch of Grandmas.
I sang second soprano (badly)
I cried in the rain.
I danced in the rain.

All in all not a blow out year but certainly not a bust.  Thanks for the memories 2009.
Cheers!  and let's live it up in 2010!!!!

About that thing called love...

"Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."
Charlie Brown in "Peanuts"

Charlie Brown is one of my favorite cartoon heroes. Nothing makes me laugh quite as much as him and his illusive football. The truth of the matter however is that Charlie and his cronies always get to the heart of the matter. For all the humor it is very little fluff. It’s all substance when you break it down.
Valentine’s Day; dirty words for a single gal in her late 20s. I have always been good with the infamous V-day by myself, and have to say that the ones spent with significant others usually end up ticking me off due to way to much pressure and expectation. All that being said, the worst has to be spending Valentines looking into the eyes of one you love with all your heart and knowing there is nothing coming back in return. I’m a sensible girl. I don’t go gaga for much other than a new Alan Rickman movie at the Spartan 16. I, however, once or twice a decade fall so stupid in love with someone I cannot have that all my sensibilities and good intentions can be deemed null and void. Three times in my life I have had this happen. Middle School, freshman year of college and of course now in my blissful adultness I am stricken again. Two questions remain. Why do I only fall for men who are so out of my league? And why must I fall so hard?
There is no greater personal agony. Ok, so yes there, is but you go around with the sneaky feeling that everyone you know wants to shake you and tell you to get a grip, and yet don’t because they want to love you and support you even in your insanity. It’s positively beyond reason and you can’t stop your self once you start falling. All you can do it hope that someone puts a giant inflatable pillow out before the ground jumps up and smacks you in the face.
All that to say, as I decorate at work and church for this holiday of hearts and flowers bathed in shades of Pepto-Bismol, and fill out my Snoopy valentines for the masses I am a puddle of silly girlish giggles desiring once again what she cannot and shall not have.