Girl meets blog...

New project…

So I started a new project. I’m going to post one picture a day for the next year on this nifty blog. Can I really do it? Who knows, but I’m going to try. So go check it out. Follow it. Create your own. It’ll be fun…

Upon the realization that my dog is scared of her own excrement…

My dog, Ella, is scared of everything. Cars, people, noise, cameras, and, yes, even her own excrement. She always darts away from the scene of the crime immediately upon finishing her business but I thought this was normal. I always assumed this had to do with the scolding from me when she decides to use my carpet instead of the grass. After today, however, I think it’s because she is actually scared of her own poo. You see, today Ella had a very traumatic experience. She had a dangler. When she realized the poo wasn’t leaving she immediately flew into a fearful frenzy of spinning and butt on grass scooting that I found extremely funny. She, on the other hand, saw no humor in the situation and even after she had removed the offending item was very distrustful of her rear end. While I thought the whole experience was hilarious, it got me thinking. They say that dogs will take on the traits of their owners and I can see that in Ella.

There’s this guy, Gordo, that comes into the restaurant where I work almost every day. Nice enough guy; sometimes he tries to hug me just a little too long, but it comes with the territory of working in a sports bar. Anyway, I sit with Gordo a lot when business is slow and we talk. Gordo always talks about how I’m scared of everything and so very sensitive and so on. I always pass it off as nothing more than him trying to convince me that I’m helpless and in need of a man, preferably him of course, to rescue me. I never really try to dissuade his beliefs, but I don’t take them to heart. But after I started to think about it I realized Gordo was actually onto something. Much like Ella, I’m scared of just about everything. The difference is that I’ve learned to cope with my fears and don’t allow them to stop me from doing what I need or want to do (for the most part anyway). I go to great lengths to convince everyone, myself included, that I’m not scared of any number of things. Left to my own devices I would probably rarely even leave my house. In fact, that’s exactly how I spent much of my teen years. Since then I’ve made great efforts to come out of my shell and have done a pretty good job thus far.

I think that’s part of why I need to move so badly. I need to get out of my comfort zone and force myself to be in situations that I would typically avoid. It’s time for that next step.

When mediocrity is rewarded

I hate stupid people. I know that’s a kind of harsh statement, but I really do. I don’t mean ignorant people who haven’t been exposed to certain information; I mean stupid people that no matter how many times you tell them something or show them how to do something it just doesn’t seem to stick in their puny little brains. You’d be surprised how many of them there are. They’re everywhere; at work, at the store, driving down the highway, absolutely everywhere. And the thing is they’re often ‘successful’ within our societal terms. They’re managers and business owners. They’re professors and politicians. They’re the ones that make the rules we all have to follow, which is why we live in a society where mediocrity is rewarded. We live in a world where people strive to be normal. Well let me tell you a little secret, normal is not a good thing. Normal is adequate. Normal is ordinary. What we should strive for is extraordinary. It’s the extraordinary people who make a real difference in the world. They’re the ones who make discoveries and create masterpieces. And yet all of them had to fight societal norms to bring their extraordinary ideas to fruition. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any illusions of being the next great—well anything, but I know I’m not ordinary. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that people who hold the positions of power should be more extraordinary than me. They should be smarter than me, more thoughtful than me, better educated than me. I want them to be better qualified for the job than I am. Is that really too much to ask?