Feb 15 2012
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February

There are people that still read this thing?

No, really. The fact that I’m still getting hits almost a year after my last post is mindboggling. Oh, well. I guess I better deliver.

Where to begin? Really, it’s kind of hard to know where to start especially since my last blog post was titled “My Butt Hurts”. (I hold nothing back, people.) I guess one of the easier things to do is to bullet point what’s been going on and take it from there. OR, even better, let’s look at last year’s goals, shall we?

1) Get in a healthier state, both physically and mentally. I will not let delicious recipes or stress get me down!

2) Exercise more. I signed up with a kickboxing gym. The first class KICKED MY BUTT. But it was fun enough and I realize that it’s a kick in the butt that I need to make it work.

3) Find staple recipes. I always try new recipes which is fun, but I need those staples that are delicious, healthy and I can always rely on.

4) Keep the apartment clean. I’m a messy person by nature so it’s hard for me to want to clean up and do laundry and all that jazz. I do like a clean place to live so I’ll try to keep it clean myself.

5) Get married. That’s an easy goal.

6) Don’t kill anyone due to wedding stress. That’s what kickboxing is for.

7) Read more. I used to be a voracious reader but my schedule lately doesn’t permit me to read as much as I would like. That’s gotta change.

Um. Interesting. Let’s start with number 1.

1) Healthier state, both physically and mentally: I tried my best. I really did. But, as it happens, wedding planning leads to nothing but wanting to stress eat. Also, I spent more time with friends and a lot of that involved eating out so…yeah.

2) Exercise more: Ha. Yeah. I signed up for that kickboxing gym but I never went. I mean it. I spent a sum that could have gone to wedding planning on a monthly basis for something I didn’t commit to. It’s lame, I realize this. Little did I know how easy it actually is. I went in in November to cancel my membership and the manager had challenged me to spend the last month of my membership coming in three days a week. AND I DID. AND I LOVED IT. I loved it so much that I also signed up with a personal trainer who is awesome and if he ever finds this, I’ll probably be screwed.

3) Find staple recipes: Did this. We have some wonderful recipes lined up in our cookbook and each and every one is delicious.

4) Keep a clean apartment: Ahem. Moving on.

5) Get married: Done. We also added to the family–a cutie patootie puppy named Radio. We love that kid to death. THAT’S RIGHT I SAID KID. It’s not hard to think of your pets as your kids.

6) Not kill anyone due to wedding stress: Success! Sure, there were some stressful parts, most especially the day before the Big Day, but the wedding was beautiful, lovely, fun, exciting and something I’ll thankfully never have to do again.

7) Read more: This is another one that fell by the wayside because of wedding planning, but I hope to pick it up this year.

So, yeah. All those resolutions pretty much touched on what’s been going on with me. 2011 was an amazing year, but so far, for me, 2012 hasn’t been too shabby. Bear with me as I update the blog, change a few things and make it, uh…a bit more current. :)

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Jan 05 2011
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January

My butt hurts.

Last night was a complimentary training session from my new supergym, X3 Sports. Guys, I nearly passed out. My trainer, Natalie, was awesome and super fun, but I was not prepared. Something about cold air and my lungs do not mix. I still tried to push myself as much as I could but…damn. It was tough. It was so bad to a point that we’re going to have to reschedule. Yeah. I know.

We started off outside and everything was fun and awesome. Until the burny can’t breathe pain. Oof. I kept working through it, but eventually, we had to stop and I had to catch my breath. We did end up going inside (where it was a sauna) and my body did not like the drastic change in temperature. So, Natalie and I will just have to try again next week. Sigh.

Before you get all wiggy on me, I honestly think this was a blood sugar deal. I’ve been through a kickboxing class and I’ve been through the exercises Natalie put me through before with mild to moderate upsetedness. As soon as I had a Powerade in my hands, I felt worlds better. Next time, I’ve got to eat something before the workout–Natalie suggested a slice of bread with peanut butter and honey. Sold. Also, the last time this sort of thing also happened to me was an OUTDOOR boot camp. Yeah. Outdoors may not be my friend.

On another note, I have been drinking water like a fiend. I’ve had a number of water bottles over the years–I lost one, got tired of one being compared to a baby bottle and the other had an annoying flip top that inhibited my water drinking. A new purchase over the holidays has rejuvenated my water drinking obsessiveness (it’s identical to the one I lost save for design) and I love it.

See? Prettyful.

You may have also noticed old posts on this blog. I resurrected them from the trash. Especially when I saw that a popular search leading to my blog was Bob Nutting. But regardless…I thought it’d be interesting for new readers to see where I’m coming from and what I did last year that brought me to this point.

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Jan 04 2011
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January

Inspiration, thy name is Giggy.

After I posted my last blog post, a charming dinosaur on Twitter gave me props for the blog and my Twitter background. I told him that he was on my top 5 favorite dinosaurs list to which he demanded to know who the other four were. I had to think about it a bit, but here’s my response to Giggy A. Dinosaur.

1) Mister Rogers

There was a time in the world when cities did special painted animals or objects that represented said city. Richmond, VA had fish. Atlanta had cows. Pittsburgh (my hometown) had dinosaurs. Various dinosaurs were painted–one was painted like a Heinz Ketchup bottle. Another took on George Washington in the French and Indian War. One was dressed up like a surgeon. Another…appears later on this list. But the one that’s my absolute, no holds barred favorite is the Mister Rogers dino.

Mister Rogers was a ridiculously awesome man who had a children’s TV show that millions of kids (and gorillas) grew up watching. He saved public television, advocated for the VCR, and, for clarification, was NOT a Marine sniper. One of my favorite stories about the man I learned from a mental_floss article:

According to a TV Guide profile, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

This dinosaur, holding Henrietta Pussycat and King Friday the 13th, is the best dinosaur. EVER.

2) Yoshi

I mean, look at him. Mario’s buddy is just too cute. And he eats eggs! And can jump far with all his might! And if you let him stand there a while, he marches in place and hums a little tune! Too. Cute.

 

 

 

3) Giggy A. Dino

The dino that started this list. A bad influence, Giggy is a voracious Twitterer who works at the Fernbank Museum here in Atlanta. For a dinosaur, he knows how to work a Twitter account. My question is, when does the Facebook fan page show up?

 

 

 

 


4) Creation Rex

Creation Rex is another Pittsburgh dinosaur who dresses up on a regular basis. He used to have a blog that he wrote regularly but, like me, hasn’t seemed to be able to keep it up. In previous posts, he’s appreciated the Irish, gotten in snowball fights, blown over refrigerators AND taken Justin Bieber out. And I don’t mean on a date.

5) Dinosaur Comics (T-Rex)

This T-Rex is like most T-rexes I know–they think they know a lot. He’s got a couple of friends and, every day, a new comic about their misadventures comes out. The guy behind the comic has been doing this for years and it’s easy to get lost in the archives.

As silly as this was to do, I enjoyed it. I’ll be back to regularly scheduled posting tomorrow.

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Jan 03 2011
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January

Hello, old friend.

I know, I know. There’s something about a new year that gets me a blogging mood.

The last time I blogged here was September. You wouldn’t know that because I deleted everything. If I had been consistent last year, I would’ve kept everything. But I wasn’t so I didn’t. Clean slate time.

The original premise of 30 Day Baby Steps was a goal every month. But the problem was a) running out of things to do, b) some sort of financial, physical or emotional impediment or c) plain forgetfulness. I can’t say that this will totally be different, but I can sure as hell try.

I think I’ll keep trying to do a few monthly goals–some of the ones on the ideas page are solid, attainable goals. Some may not take me 30 days, but I won’t kick myself if I can’t do it in 30 days. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit. 30 days seems more solid. You’ve formed the habit and had a few days to sit with it as a normal part of your life. I’m hoping to keep away from the bad habits though. :)

The true purpose of this blog will be as a sounding board–a place to write when the mood strikes or even when it doesn’t. This is going to be a big year for me. I joined a gym, have a fantastic job and will be getting married in September. 2010 had some serious changes in the last half of the year and 2011 is forecast to be the same only this time—it’s going to be year round. Let’s set up some long term goals, shall we?

1) Get in a healthier state, both physically and mentally. I will not let delicious recipes or stress get me down!

2) Exercise more. I signed up with a kickboxing gym. The first class KICKED MY BUTT. But it was fun enough and I realize that it’s a kick in the butt that I need to make it work.

3) Find staple recipes. I always try new recipes which is fun, but I need those staples that are delicious, healthy and I can always rely on.

4) Keep the apartment clean. I’m a messy person by nature so it’s hard for me to want to clean up and do laundry and all that jazz. I do like a clean place to live so I’ll try to keep it clean myself.

5) Get married. That’s an easy goal.

6) Don’t kill anyone due to wedding stress. That’s what kickboxing is for.

7) Read more. I used to be a voracious reader but my schedule lately doesn’t permit me to read as much as I would like. That’s gotta change.

I’m sure I can think of a few more, but for now these should work. I’ve got to have some fun in my life and I want to have fun getting healthy. Isn’t that the plan for everyone?

Any questions? Thoughts? Concerns? Ideas?

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Aug 01 2010
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August

I’ve got a lot of s’plaining to do.

Um. Hi.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. A long while. Since April.

I promised a blog post about my postcard project (that got to about 70% done due to lack of cute postcards at the places I was looking) and didn’t get to the big super massive post about the night I played catch up with 10 postcards.

…

I throw myself at the mercy of the court. I did not mean for things to get out of hand.

It’s just…life kinda got in the way.

May’s a blur and don’t even ask me what happened that month. I was in a daze or something. I honestly, sitting here typing this, DO NOT remember much of May. That’s actually not good.

June kicked off with a proposal. From Billy. So I’m engaged.

He must have liked it 'cause he put a ring on it. I know. Dumb. :)

The proposal set off an avalanche of change. Not only were we getting ready to move, but I had two companies call me for interviews.

I KNOW. RIGHT?

This was slightly stressful considering I had to fly to Maryland for one of those job interviews. Now, you’ve probably gathered by now I’m not in Maryland. But I do have a new job.

:) (<–Can I make this any bigger? I mean, srsly.)

I’m the new Online Community Builder at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. What does this mean? It means a) I have an awesome new job with amazing people that I’m so happy to be working with, b) I’ve finally gotten a job in the nonprofit sector which is what I’ve been wanting for a while and c) I get to be on Twitter and Facebook all day championing for a cause I believe in.

ZOMG. BEST. JOB. EVER.

It was hard leaving Play/VTA after 3 years but it had to happen eventually. Most everyone was happy for me and although I really miss them, I know I’ll try and visit them. Granted, I said I would on Friday, but a meeting ran over and I didn’t so I’m a loser. But I’m going to keep trying!

Needless to say, I have high job satisfaction, high relationship satisfaction and high life satisfaction. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, don’t worry. :)

All this satisfaction has made me think about my goals which I’ve so horribly neglected. It is August 1st, so maybe I should start again.

But with what?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

May 20 2010
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General

Sorry, sorry, sorry

I’m so so so sososososososo sorry for not posting something sooner. The rest of April and this month have been crazy insane with all sorts of changes. For instance, the boy and I flirted with buying a house recently. This prompted meetings and all sorts of time draining activities. We inevitably decided against, but we still have to move. So there was a lot of apartment hunting. We looked at 10 properties over the course of a couple of weeks. We chose our place (a two bedroom for less than what we’re paying now) and put all our deposits down. The tedious part now that eats up the time that I don’t have? Cleaning and packing.

Ugh.

I promise to have a new blog post tomorrow about the rest of April. As for May? Well, you can imagine that I didn’t have one for this month. I had one planned, but time got away from me. I’ll still be posting every so often this month.

I realize that if I want to write I need to write. It doesn’t really matter about what; I just need to write. So the blog is going to be having a lot more general posts about random things going on. So…yay? Yeah, yay. :)

Apr 24 2010
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April, General

This might be a rant. Okay, it is.

I know I promised a blog post about my falling behind in the postcard project and my playing catch up and I will get to that. As soon as I finish this rant.

Tonight, Billy and I decided to go see ‘Kick-Ass’. I’m sure everyone’s heard of it and I’m sure people also know that it’s no kids movie. It’s rated R for very good reasons (as stated on IMDB: strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use – some involving children). We felt all right about checking it out so soon after it came out and at night during the weekend–we figured the R rating would mean no young kids.

Uh, we were wrong.

First, a gaggle of prepubescent girls and boys came traipsing up the steps to the back of the theater. I shrugged it off–there might be a few giggles when the heavy-hitting swear words would be used (and there were), but I figured it wouldn’t be so bad. Then came the father and son team with the son looking around maybe 10/11. Um…okay.

The worst offender happened in our very row. We had gotten there early and gotten some good seats in the middle of a row not too far in the front or the back. NEVER IN MY WILDEST DREAMS did I think a family would camp out ON EITHER SIDE OF US. But the real mindboggler? The 6/7 year old sitting next to me.

Process that. A 6/7 year old with the attention span of a fly–who, when she leaned over the seats in front of her, tipped the bag of popcorn in her hand at the same time in sync with her upper body–sitting next to me in an R rated film.

I’m still trying to process this.

Within the first five minutes of the movie starting, it was obscenely evident the reasons why the movie is rated R. You can imagine my discomfort knowing that this little girl with her hair in pigtails is watching the same movie I am–the same movie that alludes to the main character masturbating to the idea of his teacher and talking about when he starts getting some, the stock of Kleenex will go down.

WHAT. THE. EFF.

Never mind the rudeness that occurred throughout the movie like when her sister who was sitting on the other side of Billy just held out the bag of popcorn in front of him calling out to the 6/7 year old like he wasn’t there. Never mind the fact that the little girl kept trying to get by us multiple times during the movie. Although both of these instances pissed me the eff off, I was more pissed that the way I could appreciate the movie (which wasn’t bad) was tampered by this kid sitting next to me, with her mother.

I realize that it’s a parent’s prerogative whatever his or her child sees, but COME ON. When I was 12, my sister freaked out that we had just seen ‘Clerks’ together. That’s more decent parenting than what I imagine of this mother at this point. Maybe I’ve just become an old fuddy duddy at the age of 25, but I know that if I had a kid, I would check the rating first before taking them to a movie. I know that ‘Kick-Ass’ was sort of posited as a movie for kids in the ads and trailers but even if you hadn’t heard of the controversy, you had to know that an R rating is BAD for a 6/7 year old. Especially an R rated movie that carries the reasons that ‘Kick-Ass’ does.

My brain is still trying to process this. Gah.

Apr 23 2010
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April

April Days 3-6 – Easter, family and the whole shebang.

**This has been sitting in my drafts folder for weeks now. My apologies for getting it out so late. Another update comes tonight!

One of the biggest issues I’ve been dealing with when it comes to this goal is who gets a postcard when. I think it’s going to hit a point where I write down everyone’s name and throw them into a hat. The other thing is that I don’t have everyone’s address yet and so I’m working on collecting those.

Day 3′s postcard went out to my best friend of a bajillion years, Sarah. Incidentally, she posted a comment on my Facebook wall that eerily reflects what I wrote on the postcard. And I’m pretty sure she hasn’t received it yet. That’s what happens when you have a friend who knows you that well I guess. Or she’s psychic in which case she and I need to have a serious talk. I want to know my future and if she’s been holding out, I’ll be mad.

Day 4 went out to my aunt, Micaela. It was Easter Sunday, but it would also have been my grandmother’s 104th birthday. I figured she was the best bet to get this date’s card. The interesting, crazy, karmic thing that had happened though far exceeded what I imagined could happen that day.

On my last post about day 2, my friend Katie left a link for an iReport that she thought I could totally participate in. I’d make a video talking about my idea. Instead, I thought about a letter from my sister that I’ve kept all these years. She sent it when I was 9 and I thought that would be the best idea for the iReport. But the thing was, I found it with a bunch of different cards and letters. And I found a lot of cards I kept from my grandmother. It was quite a moment when I found them.

Anyway, day 5 went out to my parents with this epically appropriate card:

And day 6 went to my friend Becky since I KNEW she’d appreciate this card.

Isn’t it cute?! Sigh.

Coming up tonight: the lack of good postcards anywhere.

Apr 05 2010
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April, General

Musings of a delusional Pirates fan.

Ah, baseball. It’s America’s pastime sport, the harbinger of spring and summer and the sport that usually conjures up happy memories of being in the ballpark, eating hot dogs and cheering at the crack of a bat as your team wins the game. Today’s my team’s opening day. Odds are, they’ll lose. And they’ll have a losing season. Because my team…is the Pittsburgh Pirates.

For baseball fans, I’ll give you a moment to laugh at me. For others who don’t know, this is a serious disease I have.

If you know me, you know that I live and breathe Pittsburgh. I bleed black and gold. Anything that could possibly have anything to do with Pittsburgh, I’m immediately in love with it and buying it roses and chocolates and asking it to marry me. Pittsburgh prides itself on its sports teams. There are the six-time Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers (who I’m not talking to right now because of the idiocy and stupidity of Roethlisberger and Holmes. For them, I feel shame.) who the city bends over backwards for and has a wonderful family, the Rooneys, who owns them and have become gods of the NFL on their own accord.

Pittsburgh is also the home of the Penguins hockey team, a force to be reckoned with especially come playoff time with hockey-legends-in-the-making Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The two men who own the Penguins have saved this team from bankruptcy and moving. One of them, Mario Lemieux, is another god in Pittsburgh–the man who led the team to two Stanley Cups in his playing days, to buying the team, to making all the right moves, to owning a Stanley Cup winning team of just this past year.

Obviously, as you can see, I can go on and on and on about these two teams. But there is a third team. And the real focus of this story.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are the baseball team. Really, at this point, that’s about all most sportscasters and reporters can (barely) say with a smile on their face. But for me, the Pirates are the first Pittsburgh team I truly loved. I was started at the age of 3-4 hitting the wiffle ball at the local park with my dad. I LOVED the Pirates. I even had a kids’ book about Roberto Clemente, an incredible right fielder who played for the Pirates before he passed away in a plane crash (delivering supplies to an earthquake ravaged Nicaragua, his home country. I know, right? Canonize the man.). I listen to the radio announcement of Mazeroski hitting that home run over Forbes Field’s wall with the biggest grin on my face. I smile every time I hear that the Honus Wagner baseball card went for some extraordinary sum being the most expensive baseball card ever simply because he’s wearing a Pirates uniform in that card. I went to a season opener at Three Rivers Stadium when I was so, so young and I believe that PNC Park is the most breathtaking stadium I’ve ever been in of any sport.

The thing is…the Pirates have had losing seasons for a while. 17 years to be exact. To put this in perspective, they haven’t had a winning season since I was 7.

That’s a long, effing time to be the fan of a losing team.

Time and time again, the Pirates consistently play under .500 ball and end up either at the bottom of their division or damn close to it. The management and ownership are idiots who couldn’t run a baseball team out of a paper bag. They trade away all the good talent that we’ve had for prospects that will “blossom” in 2-3 years but never actually seems to happen. They dismantle the team year after year. I could list all the great talent they’ve traded away, but I don’t think the Internet has enough room for all that. They consistently have the lowest paid roster of anyone in MLB, with its payroll at $35.6 million, which, to quote this awesome article from the Post-Gazette, “management attributes to youth but which many fans attribute to prioritizing profits over winning. And that young roster will get even younger by mid-summer, when the next wave of prospects is due.”

Recently, to add insult to injury, the golden, godly owners of the Penguins made an offer to buy the team. The owner, Bob Nutting (and I’ll refrain from using my other name for him just so you know), told them thanks, but no thanks. He seems to be under this idea that he and the GM Neal Huntington have got all this under control and the Pirates will be winning again soon before you know it.

Oy. I think THIS someecard says it best:

I can’t say that the Pirates and the Pirates alone have had my undivided devotion. You have to remember, around the time that the Pirates started losing, a young, charismatic shortstop by the name of Derek Jeter started playing for the Yankees (1995). So, I’ve been foolishly the fan of the Yankees for the briefest period of time. I even briefly hopped on the Red Sox bandwagon when they won their World Series in 2004. These are moments of weakness. You’d have them too if your team couldn’t play .500 ball. The Pirates have made me apathetic to baseball over the years.

But.

Now, you can imagine that when I say delusional in my blog title, it means that I’m delusional in being a fan of this team for so long. Actually, what it means is…I firmly believe that THIS IS THE YEAR.

At this point in time, anyone who knows baseball and is still laughing over the fact that I’m a fan of this team has just died from laughing too much.

My optimism is at an all time high. Never before have I truly 100% believed that they could have a winning season until this year. I realized today that this year is the 50th anniversary of the legendary home run that sealed the deal in the 1960 World Series. Maybe some good mojo will finally come to the Pirates because of this. It’s going to be the year. It has to be. I bet on it. No, seriously. I did.

Let me explain. The benefit of having a losing team means that you can have a healthy wager going down on whether or not you’ll have a winning season. The two lovely ladies of That’s Church and Burgh Baby have thrown a contest their readers’ way on the outcome of this season. Ginny, of That’s Church, is driving the bus that I’ll be on this year. As you can imagine, Michelle from Burgh Baby is thinking that she’s drinking the Kool-Aid way too early. They both set up a friendly competition where people can place $5 on whichever side and no matter what, the money goes to kids (‘Burghers are so awesome.). Appropriately titled Make Room for Crazy, this has made it incredibly easy for me to show my Pirate love especially since if they win, I could win prizes (What?).

I won’t be surprised if you think I’m completely crazy. Me last year would have agreed with you. But there’s something in the air this year. Or maybe the Kool-Aid. Either way, I’m running with it and showing my love more than I ever have.

So today, I’ll be wearing my Pirates shirt and hoping for the start of a crazy, magical year.

Apr 04 2010
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April

April Day 2 – Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters.

For the first two postcards of this project, I racked my brains to think of who would be the first two recipients of days one and two. It could be considered an honor and a touchy subject all at once. I felt it needed to be family and my two inaugural postcards went to my sisters.

My sisters are both older than me and have families and kids and all of that, but when I think of my sisters, I think of cards and letters I’ve saved from them. In fact, I have a letter from my sister Linda that’s from 1994. She was away at college and I was 9. I remember the thrill of getting a letter in the mail when I was younger and wondering what was written or said. Not to mention the fact that both of their penmanship is light years better than my own so it was always fun to look at their handwriting and know they had taken some time out to send me something.

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve sent anything snail mail. Thank you cards don’t count. But when I was writing the postcards to them, I had to stop a few times and figure out exactly what it was I wanted to say. Seriously. With a postcard, you’re limited to a small, tight space. The postcard is like the written word’s conversation small talk. Laura’s was the first I wrote and it was ridiculous. I felt a little better with Linda’s but it still didn’t flow right. I think that as I write these cards, it’ll come easier and they’ll be what I hope they will be: something fun and exciting to get in the mail and something to show that I care. You know, just a smidgen.

I have to play catch up on blog posts for 3, 4 and 5, but my next blog post is pretty separate from this whole blog, but I feel the need to write it. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you eagerly anticipating what in the world it could possibly be. As soon as I hit publish on this one, I’m lighting this keyboard up with the next one.

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