Not Hopeless

Tom Petty was runnin' down a dream. American Idols and Next Top Models are chasing one of their own.
Novelists, poets, and filmmakers have tackled the theme of ordinary people struggling to fulfill a dream that will either go realized, or remain a dream for the remainder of their life.

Lately, I have been making a dedicated effort to arrive at mine.
It doesn't involve me becoming a huge success (although that would be a bonus); but it does end with me spending the rest of my days doing something that I really enjoy. Actually, my dream is a combination of things; an amalgam that reflects the mixture of qualities in my character.

I wonder how people decide on a dream. I know how I arrived at mine finally, at the ripe age of 27. i often wonder if that's a bad sign- will I not be any good at what I want to do? Most successful people that I'm aware of, seem to have known what they have wanted to do for a large part of their life.

But this brings me to my question: What is your dream, and how did you decide on it? I wish i could ask this of some of the greats and not-yet-so-greats.

I grew up really really very sheltered. Being a dork came naturally enough for me, so my parents' commitment to removing popular culture from my everyday life only served to further draw attention to the kid that might as well have already had a club foot or something.

And then I went off to college...and among other things I had not encountered within my controlled and sheltered life, was cable television. What wonderful, mind-numbing-but-scintiallating entertainment I had been missing out on! As a child, weekdays had belonged to 60 Minutes, National Geographic, and Jeopardy, while weekends allowed for some lighter fare- Looney Toons, Spiderman, Batman, and X-Men; or, as I got older, morning news. And now, the possibilities!

In the beginning, I tried to keep things high brow; I was after all, trying to prove my medal as a psuedo-intellectual student that was more interested in Sartre than in The Real World...but after some light experimentation things quickly spiraled out of control and I found myself watching Laguna Beach and Disney Channel movies. Yeah, embarrassing; blame it on my upbringing. I missed out on a lot of mental "junk food" and I was greedily taking in whatever was easiest to ingest after spending hours fumbling through things that made my head hurt in a way that nothing else had before: numerous scientific abstracts about research done on married couples, divorced couples, single people, and statistical data on household demographics in City X, Y, or Z. Derrida, Joyce, Chomsky. I was in over my head...
With more of a workload than I had ever been used to, I was all-too glad to escape from it through that lovely little glass screen perched on my dresser.

I'm still a bit of a rookie when it comes to navigating through the array of options I have out there, but I have at least come across some good stuff I feel I should share.

American Dad, for one, is great. And in my opinion, it's far better than its more popular McFarlen creation, Family Guy. I watch some pretty lame stuff that I don't want to admit to here, but we'll say that one involves a team of gymnasts. Yeah...preeeetty lame...

So, let's stick with the animated stuff:

The Venture Brothers. Brilliant. It makes me want an arch-nemesis to call my own. One that dresses as something ridiculous (like the Monarch in Dr. Venture's case); maybe a dust mite? I would find that one an appropriate nemesis...I have some wicked allergies, after all.

American Dad. Irreverent, funny.

Archer. Ridiculous.

Max and Ruby. Haha. Well, it's the only one of Alyssa's shows that I don't zone out to, besides Sesame Street. Actually, pretty enjoyable, if not so slow paced.

Ok, so I've written nothing of substance yet again. I'm calling it a night. I'll try to post a Day-In-the-Life-Of post on Wednesday.

Sleepless Nights, Quotidian Days

Alyssa's sleeping habits have been a bit erratic the past few weeks. I won't weigh you down with the details, but definitely, it was not an easy two week period. Today, she took a three hour nap. Weird! She's approaching her second birthday and I'm hoping that this has been a blip caused by a growth spurt; this perhaps was our welcome into her second year of life- official entrance into toddler-hood.

Otherwise, life has been fairly routine. I'm not complaining, though.
The holidays are quickly approaching which makes me supremely happy.
Silk has released their Pumpkin spiced soymilk and nog-flavored soymilk.
This time of the year has always been my favorite.

This weekend was a wash in regards to doing much outside of chores, but I got to spend time with my baby and husband, I'm really really happy.

ok. Off to get ready for tomorrow!!

I changed my mind.

Last night, I wrote a few thoughts down on love.
I saved it as a draft and deleted it this morning.

It was dull. I'll tell you all about it later.

I'm watching a Tivo'd episode of Archer. I love this show. And I love that they have the parents from Arrested Development on it...overall, it's pretty entertaining.

I want to type more, but I cannot currently use my left arm/hand. I got my ass kicked at the gym tonight and that arm is spent. I did however, treat myself to cuban food and flan as a reward. Yummy!

This weekend, we'll go to the beach again...


We'll do a crap load of laundry.
And of course, we'll go do something fun for Aly-- maybe a festival or Flamingo Gardens...have to see what's going on.

Night night!

One for the money, two for the show...

This weekend:
http://www.fliff.com/index.asp

And a movie I'd like to see:



Because a love story without a little heartbreak just isn't that interesting, is it?

Food 101

This girl's pedestrian tastes.

My Food Blog

The weight gain. The unhealthy way that I eat.
I am as heavy now as I was when I was first pregnant with Alyssa. It's crazy. My jeans barely fit me.
I've been meaning to rework my unhealthy lifestyle to incorporate better diet decisions, more exercise, and more time to take care of myself.

Tomorrow, I will embark on a journey to better myself. I am making the commitment here, to myself, in writing.

30 days of documenting what I eat. Afterward, I will be able to step back and take in with just enough horror, what I have consumed. Maybe having to disclose my eating habits to the world wide web will make me want to eat better.

So tomorrow, my pretties. Tomorrow marks day 1.

It will also mark day 1 of my journey to completing something in my dream book: Being able to run 6 miles painlessly, again.







http://megansfoodblog.com/

My dearest Albert...

I adore a good period piece. And so I am watching The Young Victoria.
The cinematography. Oh. The cinematography. The fabrics used in their clothing, the colors, the decadence of their lifestyle, and the innocent and inexperienced feelings of love between Albert and Victoria.

I have had my husband any members of my family tell me I am jaded. And so I guess in so many ways, I am. So it's nice to see love like that again. In real life, i roll my eyes at that, but in movies and novels, these feelings are usually presented in a way that doesn't make me want to vomit. It's usually pretty sweet. Young love really gives itself completely over. Just hands its heart over on a platter. And in the movies, that can work out pretty well. In real life...I don't know. I guess it worked out for Victoria and Albert.

Yesterday, my sweet baby, Michael, and I spent the day mostly indoors playing with her train set and healing from our latest illness. We get sick so frequently these days...we must not be washing our hands frequently enough.??

We walked her to the park and played until the mosquitos and the daylight permitted us to. And then we all hobbled home to try to recover from our attempt at being more active.

Today, Michael was doing worse so Alyssa, my mother, father, and I went to the beach.
She had a blast, and passed out as soon as we got home.

And now we are waiting for her to wake up so we can go to Publix.

So goodbye for now, blogger. Off to relax and upload pictures so that I can post them later on.