What I Did on My Memorial Day Weekend, by Holliberry Guttersnipe

I was walking innocently down some stairs, when allegedly I tripped and fell down about five wooden stairs onto a cement floor. Really I was pushed. Or tripped. Or thrown. Yeah, yeah, that's it, thrown.

It feels worse than it looks. It looks better in the pictures than it was. It was very, very swollen. Most of the swelling has gone down. Also I very slightly twisted one of my ankles, and I sprained my thumb. I can't believe someone would throw me down the stairs like that.

Laugh a Little

So today, W's oldest, Cookie (hereby so named because she wants to be a chef, and also is a cute little cookie), did the cutest thing. She was playing with bright orange "space goo" (remember gak?) from the space needle gift shop. She had it spread out into a very thin sheet, about as thin as bubble gum when you blow a bubble. She was holding it up and Baby Girl swung out her hand and "popped" it right onto the top of Cookie's head. It was spread out in a thin coat all over her hair, and she had to work at it to get it out. I haven't seen W laugh so hard in a long time. Cookie was not amused. She does not like to be laughed at. She would not have liked being in my family. She wouldn't even let me take a picture!

What ensued was a discussion about being able to laugh at yourself. W and I discussed the merits of being able to laugh at yourself when you are in what might seem at the time to be an embarrassing situation. Cookie was not convinced, but it got me thinking.

I have laughed at myself in the following situations:
1. When I fell down the steps in the business building in college in front dozens of people.
2. When I gave myself a black eye.
3. When I slipped on the rain-soaked steps at the football stadium in high school in my drill skirt and most likely gave everyone a really good view of what we wore under our drill skirts.

I'm seeing a theme developing here....

Is the ability to laugh at yourself a very important skill? If you laugh too often and too quickly, does that indicate that you don't take yourself seriously enough, or does it indicate that you know enough not to be so serious all the time? I personally think laughing at yourself is good. People should do it more often. Try it right now. I want to hear your best belly laugh. It could make you feel better. It could also make the other people in the room think you're crazy. So it's a two for one.

Pretty Rainbow!

Fill in the blanks

I gave ______ a black eye by opening a ____ and hitting ________ in the _____ with it.

No, none of that is shadow, and there is no makeup on it.

It's the End of the World as We Know It

And I feel fine.

So I have this song as a ring on my phone for one of my best friends. The reason I have this ring is to remind myself to chill. It's fitting because when I get all dramatic, emotional, and/or irrational, said friend reminds me that I need to relax. Sometimes I really don't need to relax; sometimes I really DO have reason to be all worked up, dangit! But that's a topic for another blog.

This song came to have this meaning to me in college. I was having a rather rough Senior year, and was stressing about things which in hindsight were the stupidest things to stress about. One night I took a little drive up the canyon and stopped at a little park that had a river. Water calms me. (Remember that if I ever start getting all emotional and girly around you... just drive me to water-- but under no circumstances tell me to calm down). So I took a while to become one with nature and find my happy, and then I got back in the car. I had come to the conclusion that I was blowing things out of proportion, and was thinking that all my little drama was not the end of the world. And then I turned the car on, and the song was playing. It felt like a message that, yes, I am an overdramatic dork. It's been my "get a grip!" song ever since. And I feel fine.

On the flipside, instead of an angry song I have a whole angry cd... Fiona Apple. If you hear it playing just back away slowly and no one will get hurt.

On another note, check this out...

Yup, that's my knee. Hot, isn't it? I wacked it into a desk drawer at work last month. Twice. That night I went to show it to my roommate, thinking it would be about the size of a half-dollar at the most, and it had covered my WHOLE knee in this marbley bruise. It was even swollen. Now that's talent. It went away pretty quick so I didn't get to show it to many people. Thank goodness for cameras so I can share it with you all now. I know you are probably thankful for cameras now, too. Sorry it's not the best quality... but I'm sure you can imagine how beautiful it was in real life. So, one of you told me that I do not have the corner on Clumsy. To which I say, take it back!