Time

There are so many ways to mark time. For example, the scent of Country Apple body lotion from Bath and Body Works will always remind me of my freshman year in high school. It was a sweet time, just like the scent, and so it seems fitting. A particular fragrance can definitely put a stamp on time, but so can music. Let's see- Yes, there were the "Counting Crows/Dave Matthew's Band" years. Again sweet but also sullen. Then there were the "Pink Floyd" years. Not so sweet but fun as hell. The list goes on and on, and each song can send me back to a particular point in time, good or bad, but remembered nonetheless. We can also mark time with the 3 F's- friends, food, and fashion. Lately it seems everything reminds me of something from my past. A smell, a song, a taste, a person, a dance, or a dress- they all have an equal possibility of taking me back, and frankly, sometimes I don't want to go there, but other times those memories feel so close, so familiar that I take another sniff, I turn up the volume, I take another bite, or I steal one more glance. One thing is certain, time keeps right on moving, and if we don't stop and use our senses to bookmark events, all we will have are pictures and for me that is just not enough.

Queen of Mediocrity

After thirty years, I've found my niche- mediocrity. The drive for greatness is still in me, it is just that I am so much more successful at being mediocre. In fact, I excel at it. If there was an Olympics held for mediocrity, I would have more medals than Michael Phelps. The question is how did I get so good? It is not like I attended a magnet school that specialized in the development of mediocre children. Therefore, it must be a natural God given talent, and who's to go against God's wishes? Not me. The truth of the matter is, I'm lying. I want to excel. I want to be great or even the greatest at something, anything. I have just never put my full energy into anything, so that is the real question. Why? Why haven't I pushed myself to go for it- go for anything? I dream, I plan, I attempt, I quit. This has been a life long pattern. If it takes work and if there is the slightest chance I could suffer some embarrassment or even worse, FAIL, I stop, or sometimes I don't even start. So, even though I have found success in being absolutely mediocre at everything I do, I am hopeful. I am hopeful because I know there is still time to change.

Been Busy Mopping

So the new game is how many dogs can the Bergen family go through before they realize that they are not dog people? I'll give you a hint. So far the number is 6. 3 runaways and 3 giveaways. Of course, after each dog we vowed to never get another dog. Ever. But just like child birth, the pain of it all becomes a distant memory until finally we decide "it wasn't that bad, let's do it again." If you refer to the previous post, you will see that we adopted Buddy last June. He was part of the Bergen family for a good 7 months. Those 7 months nearly tore our family apart. Buddy was a sweet dog and very cute, but he had a nasty habit of eating his poo. Some folks may think that this is a trait of a perfect dog. "Hey, he cleans up his own messes." Not the case. Buddy didn't just eat his poo. He nuzzled his little flat face in it and smeared it across the floor, which only shows how much he enjoyed the deliciousness of his own feces. After a few tromps through his mess, poo paw prints would cover our black and white checkered kitchen floor. By the time Matt and I arrived home from work, the poo would be nice and dry which made for easy cleaning. Not! Every afternoon, when I wanted to come home, make a drink, grab a snack, and watch Oprah, I was forced instead to scrape and wipe poo crumbs from my kitchen floor. Then mop. Then bathe Buddy. Luckily for Buddy, Matt and I would take turns losing our cool. This is the only way Buddy survived his 7 months in our house. When Matt's face turned crimson and his veins protruded, I would whisk Buddy out of the house so Matt could stomp and curse- and vice versa. Needless to say, when Buddy was lovingly passed off to a new family, so was the tension that plagued our house for 7 excruciating months. So if your wondering why I haven't blogged in a while, well, let's just say I've been busy mopping.