Sparkle me

I swirled my fingers at my boss this morning and told him that I am so sorry he is a boy and can't have sparkly nails. I implored him not to let the jealousy make him bitter. He just smirked and said "If that's what you need to believe...".

He's so brave to hide his disappointment.

Where I am from

I am from skating rinks and disco balls, from Pac-Man and spreading oak trees and wide, green lawns.

I am from a house with a big, homey kitchen, echoing with the babble of a big family, from creek houses with rooms crammed full of beds and people, from porches with screens and early morning’s quiet sunrise over the water.

I am from the banana trees and Indian Paint Brushes and Black Eyed Susans growing wild in the field.

I am from Sunday dinners and short tempers, from Sanna and George and Creppon’s and Boillin’s. I am from a tendency to hold grudges, depression baby frugality, and the willingness to give the shirt off your back to help a stranger.

I am from mind your manners and act like a lady, from clean your plate because there are starving children in Ethiapoia, from stand up straight, you’re ruining your posture, from try a little harder to be friendly and everyone will like you, and also from flashing porch lights.

I am from strict Catholic parents, from church every Sunday, first communion, first confession and confirmation. I am from ashes smeared on foreheads, dried palm fronds and candle blessings.

I am from Texas, from southern accents, from piney woods, muddy creeks and warm beaches and sand.

I am from Friendswood, from England, Ireland, Germany and Spain, from fried chicken, gumbo and corn on the cob.

I am from a mother who loves to play games and tell stories, from a father who survived losing his own father as a child, from grandparents I never met but still knew, from aunts and uncles and cousins innumerable, from cut-throat games of cards, from Friday night bingo, from salty popcorn and ice cold snow cones at Camp Manison, from cake walks and white elephant booths and books and books and books.

I am from photos that could not be contained in a single album, from pictures on walls and spilling from drawers, of a family too large and complex to contain.


*I got this from Avitable, and if you would like to create your own you can use a template of prompts found here.

Lizzy the Goatie Girl

For the past two weeks I have been part-time momma to a baby pygmy goat that belongs to my bosses. She was one of three, and the other two babies and mom died during birth. So she comes to work everyday with Brad and his partner Jay, and I get to be momma during the day while Jay is out on appointments. Every day Jay apologizes for leaving her with me, like it's some kind of hardship to have this little miss in my room. Bottle feeding her has been hilarious, and the only time it's a hardship is when she has gas. Oh my, it's hard to believe something so stinky can come from something so cute & tiny. The best part of the day is the last few minutes before five when Jay lets her out of jail and she runs free up and down the hallway. I decided that it's not fair for one person to hoard all the cuteness, so on Friday I videotaped her antics.

Here is Lizzy's (and my) first movie. You can tell it's MY first because nearly the whole thing is sideways. Also, I apologize for the heavy breathing. Lizzy, on the other hand, was born to be a movie star.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgHY3Wv2mZ8

love,

me & the goatie

I can't believe it's been a YEAR!

Or almost. Almost a year since I last blogged. Sometimes I think I will take this down all together, but I'm glad I didn't. I think I might be feeling like blogging again. I have to admit, I have been cheating with FaceBook. And I'm not giving it up, I just want that to be clear from the start. I think any relationship should be founded on honesty. If you want to be my friend on FaceBook, I would love it. Come find me: Kari Martin

I would like you to meet my new boss!

Thank you, internets, for everything you've given me. I met my husband through you, my best friend through you, and now, my boss through you!

Yes, that's right, it only took me a year and six months, but I am finally back among the workers of the world. I'm not counting the mall job because that wasn't technically work, that was a level of hell in Dante's Inferno, the lost chapter that his dog ate. You don't know how I wish I could tell you some of the things that have gone on there recently. I could write a best seller, but I'd probably get sued.

Anyway, back to the good news. For a few months I've been talking on and off with this friend of mine about taking a position at his company when one of their partners retired. I wanted to tell you about it then, but I just couldn't believe my luck was going to hold and I was actually going to get the job, so I kept it to myself. After all, the other partners had to agree to hire me too. Last week I went in for an interview, and I myself was smitten with them. Turns out they must have liked me too, because yesterday I got a call from the retiring partner offering me the job!

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to my new boss! I called him the bee charmer in the post where I talked about meeting him for the first time. Now I'm going to call him my knight in shining armor because he rescued me from mall work and gave me a wonderful new job! A round of applause please for mister Brad Crane. Oh, and he told me that he stopped reading my blog when we first began talking about the job because he wanted to give me the privacy to talk about whatever I wanted, so he won't see any comments you leave here. If you want to comment to him you'll have to either email him or send him a note on Facebook.

I just think it's the coolest thing ever that I met my friend and future boss through my blog. The world and God work in mysterious ways. And I do have to give a little credit there, because for the last year or so of this year and six month ordeal I've been saying that I was sick of hearing people say "God has a plan for you". It's hard not to get discouraged when a plan takes so long to come to fruition, but I have to say, maybe there was one in place after all. One night when I was feeling very blue at the mall I was telling my coworker Jen how depressed I was that it had taken me so long to find a job. When the cranky receptionist from my last job got laid off a few months after I did, she had another job, and a better job at that, within a week! And here I was a year and a half later and still at the mall. I mentioned how sick I was of people telling me that God had a plan for me. Suddenly Jen started crying and she said "I think God DID have a plan for you! If you hadn't been here I probably would have walked out long ago, and then I would have been homeless and living in my car since Eric (her husband) lost his job! And I never would have gone to that job interview if you hadn't pushed me to it and told me I could do it, and I wouldn't have got the job without you coaching me and fixing my resume and loaning me the money to buy a suit!" And then of course I started crying, and I am proud to report that Jen DID get the job she applied for, and it's with a better store and she's actually the assistant manager there now. So ok, ok, maybe there was a plan. Because I think this job with Brad is tailor made for me and I'm going to love it, and if something had come along sooner I wouldn't have worked with Jen and I would have been stuck with a job that paid the bills but that was just ok.

Thank You for prayers answered, and for my friend and new boss, Brad.

love,

me

Justice has prevailed

Thanks to a certain officer in my city's police department, the person who stole my checks and cashed them has been caught! Can you believe they were stupid enough to use their own drivers license and current address? My husband is feeling sorry for them now, but I am not.

love,

me

Choosing my religion

THAT is one thing I missed about blogging, being able to drop song lyrics and titles into "conversation" on a regular basis.

Last year at Easter Mo and I each decided that we needed to find a church. So we agreed to take turns picking a church and trying it out together each Sunday until we hopefully found the one that felt like home.

I was raised Catholic and have left the church for personal reasons. I've always been curious about different religions, so I thought this was the perfect way to learn a little bit more about how other people worship and also find a new church in the bargain.

Let me tell you, it was an eye opening experience. The first church we went to turned both of us off because the pastor spent a good part of the sermon making fun of various people she had come across during the week who didn't understand what Easter is all about. That left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe instead of making fun of them, or belittling them for not understanding, you could try inviting them to attend the service and help them figure it out. Just a thought. Also, there was a woman who was knitting during the service, and her ball of yarn was easily the size of a basket ball. At one point it got away from her and rolled a good way down the aisle toward the altar before she managed to reel it back in. No one said a word. I thought that was strange. Maybe she was knitting for Jesus, but I don't think it's necessary to carry that on in church myself.

The next church we went to was a Unitarian church. We realized after being heartily welcomed and assured that they accept people of all sexual persuasions that they assumed we were a lesbian couple. After being raised a Catholic, the lack of ceremony in most services feels a little strange to me, but this one took the cake. People actually took coffee into the service. Seeing McDonald's and Starbucks mugs on the floor at people's feet in church was.... strange. Also, this particular church has a large glass window behind the altar, and the garden behind this window is beautifully landscaped and contains several mature trees. One tree directly behind the pulpit had a bird feeder, and three squirrels spent the entire hour playing grab ass and hanging upside down from the tree limb by their hind feet to steal the bird seed. I could have ignored these things if I'd liked the feel of the church, but everything felt just a little too loosey goosey for me. I don't want pomp and circumstance, but I'd like just a little more formality than that.

One church we attended left me feeling very angry because in a PowerPoint presentation that was shown during the service I was informed that I am "the devil's reject" because of a certain belief that I hold. I almost got up and walked out, but stayed out of respect for Mo.

And there was the church where we walked in very close to the time for the service to start, so the pastor waited whilst name tags were made for us and then personally escorted us into the church to sit among the other 5 attendees. I have been to some small services before, but 5 was a little uncomfortable. Especially since they put us on the spot as part of the service and asked us to introduce ourselves. And this is the point in my life where I realized that it's ok, I can stand up and talk in public. So we were honest. We just told them that some people go on pub crawls... we are on a church crawl, choosing our religion.

love,

me