Challenge Accepted

The challenger: KaraV

The challenge: "write 4 parent trap related haikus"

Small Lindsay Lohan,

I once thought you were a twin.

Kids are so naive.

Loved you on a boat

Then I threw stuff at your head.

Let's split up the twins.

Give the 4-1-1.

"Gasp, did I get you wet Mer?"

"Just a little Hal."

Meeting the parents,

"You can call me Aunt Vicky."

She looks familiar...

Challenge status: Complete. Take that Kara!

Kara's challenge: 6 sentence original back story for Momo. To be completed in the next 24 hours. Let's see it.

Oh, PS: You want to know the difference between you and me?

I kid, I kid. We both have a lot of class.

Haikus (Cop Out)

Yeah, I committed to myself that I would blog every day this month. I am so tired right now though. But I have to do it. So my signature cop out blog post will be ridiculous haikus.

Absurdly tired!
I went running for a bit
And it wore me out.

Oh those leftovers.
I keep you cold in my fridge
Then forget you're there.

This creepy stomach,
It's how I feel with peanuts.
Nut intolerance?

Curse these darn trojans!
They're not true views on my blog.
No viruses please :(

What will be a good
Topic for me to write on
When tomorrow comes?

Children are Insane

Just a sweet, sweet spaghetti shower

I read this article on Buzzfeed a while back, "26 Reasons Kids Are Pretty Much Just Tiny Drunk Adults."

I lack the knowledge of what it's like being around large groups of truly drunk adults. But I'd imagine this is accurate. This is Buzzfeed we're talking about after all.

For real though, the youths (as I like to call them) are totally nuts. Any human being from the age of 1 second to .... roughly my own age are all crazy people. I have some reasoning for this, so stick with me.

1. They do these things that are totally normal in their own minds but make generally no sense at all. I once heard of some crazy kid who thought it would be really cool to go to school as a "monkey trainer" for Halloween -- in 8th grade. How is that a cool thing to do?

2. They will learn things when they want to and no one is going to tell them otherwise! You can't force a kid to figure out that a square block goes into a square hole. No. They will try their darndest to shove that sucker into the round hole until they become outraged that it won't work. Every time I see this I just want to say, "Look! Does this shape look anything at all like the other shape?! No!"

3. Every idea is awesome and should be treated as such. Mmmmmm, nope. Not true. Adults have the good sense (usually) to recognize when an idea is complete garbage and should not be followed through with. Toddlers, kids, and teens? They are truly brilliant and can't pass up a good plan. How is it a good idea to put a pair of scissors in your Spanish teacher's chair so that when he sits down it becomes a really, Really, REALLY unpleasant experience. The logic here is truly amazing.

I totally can't wait until I have some insane children of my own. Knowing me, they are going to constantly be up to either horrifying or nonsensical tasks. Oh, the future is looking bright.

So I like watching kids play at the park. Sue me.

H-h-h-h-halloween

I don't know why, but I always think words sound cooler when you kind of stutter over the first sound. It gives it a rapper feel, in my opinion.

Anyway!

My costume this year was AMAZING. Real life, I put so much searching and time into this sucker. I knew that if I was going to be this, it would have to be well executed. Yeah, I think I pulled it off.

Three trips to DI, three random thrift stores, failure at K-Mart, and one Target trip later, this is what we had:

Photo Credit to Brittney Thompson :)

Yes, I was an old man for Halloween. I have to say, this was probably one of my best costumes ever. And I thoroughly enjoyed getting in to character. I spent the better part of the day slowly walking up to people and saying things like, "Hey sweet cheeks, you look like my next nurse" and "I'll give you a quarter to rub my feet." I like to think that people appreciated it.

I have to say though, acting old actually gave me a lot to think about. I didn't want to be an old man in a disrespectful way because I really love my grandparents. A lot of my childhood memories would not be the same without them. They were all so sweet and great to be around.

But I thought about who I wanted to be when I got older. Pretty much, I just want to be awesome. No matter what type of old person I am, I want people to look at me and think, "Wow, that old lady is so much cooler than I could ever be."

If this comes through owning six cats, so be it. If it's because I'm really grouchy and sit on my porch and throw stuff at people, that's terrific. If it's from having a giant carpet bag filled with candy and wearing a muumuu everyday, all the better.

Regardless of who I become, I want to be a person that I like and who other people can appreciate. But, it would be really cool to frighten a few children along the way.

This is Where it Starts

So here it is. (I don't know what it is about starting sentences with the word "so" but it makes it feel like I've been thinking about it for a long time.)

I said over a year ago that I was going to revamp my blog...but I never did. Instead, I did one better and created a whole new blog! Okay, it took over a year to do it but whatever. I never said I would revamp it in a timely manner.

After a discussion with a very trustworthy friend (holla at your girl!) I've decided that I need to start writing more frequently. At some point in my life, I would love to have a novella written just for my family and friends to read and appreciate. But there's no way that's going to happen unless I can get back in to writing mode first. Commitment! I'm going to post at least once a day for the rest of the month. It's not much but it's a start.

I hope that this blog can be a combination of personal and stand-offish, funny and serious, spiritual and (dare I say) slightly sacrilege. Because I feel like that's kind of who I am. Which brings me to the blog title.

It comes from a quote I read from Emily Dickinson a few months ago. I was instantly obsessed with it. In a letter to a friend she wrote the line, "...I am out with lanterns, looking for myself." I think that everyone is constantly trying to figure out who they are or who they're going to be. But this line just described it so well. A lot of time we're out there actively looking, and all we have to go off of is the dim light of a lantern that we're holding. Oooooh, chills!

At some point I'm sure I'll find a piece of myself but there's always more to find. This is a special glimpse into some brain thoughts along the way. Get excited. This could get pretty weird sometimes, but hopefully it will be a good time!