Life advice for a Zero Year Old

I came across this today on The Huffington Post. There are some things in it that are worth reading.

Life advice for a Zero Year Old

The first paragraph:

Recently a close friend of mine had a baby daughter. When I held her for the first time, I was overwhelmed with how much love I felt for this tiny person that I was just meeting. All I wanted to do was teach her everything I know, right there, so that she could have the happiest life. While there are so many things I wanted to tell her, as I thought more about it, there were a few things that stood out as important life advice for a zero year old.

My favorites:

1. Be kind. No exceptions. It will feel difficult at times, because others can be so cruel, but I promise you that karma is real and it will eventually come back to you tenfold. It may take almost 30 years, but there will be a moment in time where the world gives you everything you deserve. If you've been kind, there will be incredible people around to you celebrate with.

7. Fall in love with as many things as you can. Even though I stole this line from a movie, it is so true. A band, a place, your friends, a significant other, a pet, a quote, a book, a brand... all of them. It will make you whole, and likely you will find others who appreciate the same things, creating an incomparable bond.

10. Find something that offers you peace when you need it most. There will be times that you feel overwhelmed, anxious, scared, lost, lonely or sad (I am so sorry for this, but I promise you that even though it feels miserable, these feelings will pass). Whether it's meditation, therapy, writing, or singing, find something that is there for you when you're feeling badly. Rely on that to get you through.

11. Treat others how you want to be treated. They call it the golden rule for a reason.

13. If he doesn't treat you like you're the most important person on the planet, he's not the one. You may want him to be, but honey, he's not.

14. Learn a good joke. And choose your karaoke song at an early age.You'll need both more often than you may think.

15. Give back. You are a lucky girl, but unfortunately not everyone has what you will. Donate your time, your love, your hair, some extra cash... anything you can spare.

Notes

I haven't had a lot to say this week, hence the lack of blogging lately.

I do have a few notes, though.

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My dog was barking bloody murder at something this morning. I looked outside and saw another dog outside the fence. My dog, a Pug, was so mad she didn't want to come inside. She wanted to get the dog outside the fence. Said dog was a Great Dane.

Great decision, Pug.

Thankfully she came inside and the Great Dane wandered off.

Now my Pug is snoring beside me. Getting mad at big dogs for no reason must be tiring.

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I found this photo online earlier this week. Who doesn't like a Pug chicken?

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I downloaded some Baby Mozart to see if two babies like music. I'm excited to try that out today.

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I was watching TV yesterday when I heard someone say that a product would "literally turn back time." Ha, ha. Really? Literally, it will turn back time? I turned the TV off and started reading a book.

People are stupid.

I agree.

Notes

I only have a couple of short notes today.

First off, I ran across this quote somewhere on the interwebs and I love it.

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone." -Audrey Hepburn

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Secondly, I lovingly stole this from Facebook. I wish someone would have told me this 10 years ago.

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I lied. I have three things today.

30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

I like this one: #8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us.  We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past.  But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.  Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

Former love.

There was a time when I loved journalism more than anything.

Give me breaking news, a website update, some photography and a few bitchy phone calls wherein people tell me I'm going to hell, and that's my idea of a good day.

My life has changed a lot since those journalism days. Now, I get off at 5 p.m., I hang out with friends, I don't attend school board meetings until 10 p.m. and write stories until midnight, and I don't have to write stories about fatal car crashes, freak accidents that kill people, murders, and so on.

I do, however, still love journalism, and sometimes I freelance.

I've gotten comfortable with my non-journalism life. Quite comfortable, actually. When my car decided to throw a temper tantrum in January, I had money to fix it. Journalism does not provide that money. It barely provides much of anything, really, except an adrenaline rush that is pretty much the best feeling in the world and awesome badass reporters who become your friends.

Okay, there are pros and cons, I suppose.

In the middle of my freelancing, I'm reminded why I love the profession and why I left it.

I'm on a deadline this week and my phone is dead silent. Like, I'm hearing crickets silence.

This only confirms the fact that I still love journalism, but it's not the thing I love most in the world anymore. I love going home at 5 p.m., I love not being called at odd times of the day to cover something, and I love hanging out with my family (of the baby variety).

This journalism stuff sucks sometimes. I'll be happier when this story is done, I'm paid, and my life returns to normal.

I don't know why I do this to myself.

Side story time! Part of the guilt journalism induces on me is this: When I'm assigned a story, there's a vision in my head of how the story will turn out.

I learned this a long time ago as a journalist, but I've apparently forgotten about it since then. The story you plan out in advance is never the story you end up writing.

That's life, though. You can plan something out until you're blue in the face, but something will pop up and your plans will change.

It will happen. It always does.

I freak out every single time this happens. Oh my God this is the end of the world andthisstorywillneverevergetfinished!

And then I calm down and think, 'Oh...I can't exactly get fired for this, since it's not my full time job.'

And then I relax and realize...I like doing this. Despite the dead-silent cell phone, the stress, and the moments I want to pull my hair out, I realize that it's cool that people still think I'm good enough at this and ask for my help.

Also, it's not as bad as freelancing during a snowpocalyse, during which NO ONE IS IN THEIR OFFICE BECAUSE IT SNOWED A FEW INCHES.

Now, if I can only make the story I'm writing as long as this blog post. Ahem.

Quiet.

I bought Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I started reading it, and then my mind exploded because of all the awesomeness it contains.

Tangent: This book is a little different. Well, different in that instead of buying an actual book, I bought the e-book version. Although this is a mortal sin in my world, there are some benefits to this method of reading.

Let's say you're exhausted from life, and you sleep from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. and then 4:30 to 6 a.m. one day. Those 3.5 hours in-between are prime reading hours. It's cool that I don't have to have bright lights on in the middle of the night to read.

Tangent aside, Quiet is wonderful so far. I'm charging my book right now so I can read more of it later (ha, ha).

My favorite parts: 

Introversion--along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness--is not a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology.

Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man's world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are.

If you're an introvert, you also know that the bias against quiet can cause deep psychic pain.

Now that you're an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much," a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral. Of course, there's another word for such people: thinkers.

(She) knows she can hold her own when she needs to.

Introverts often work more slowly and deliberately. They like to focus on one task at a time and can have mighty powers of concentration. They're relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame.

Introverts, in contrast, may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while wish they were at home in their pajamas. They prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues, and family. They listen more than they talk, think before they speak, and often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation. They tend to dislike conflict. Many have a horror of small talk, but enjoy deep discussions.

Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating. Shyness is inherently painful; introversion is not.

Pugs and babies.

This is not a blog post about babies, although I know two of the cutest little girls in the world.

This is a blog post about how my dog reacts to the babies.

Penny loves them. She checks on them, she looks at them when they cry and she even barks when they make noise.

Penny is a pretty good babysitter. I’m a little jealous of her, because she’s spent this week babysitting (with my mom) when I’ve spent the week working.

I got a text message today that made me laugh. Penny apparently has been fired from her babysitting duties after just three days.

Her offense? Chewing on a pacifier.

Well, we can’t all be perfect.

Quotes

Good evening!

I've had a busy past couple of weeks. Blog-wise, I don't have a whole lot to say. I'm tired and I need a nice long nap and some peace and quiet.

I don't have words of my own tonight, so I'm going to borrow other people's words.

From the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast via How Stuff Works:

It will not be anything like you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don’t be frightened, you can always change your mind.

I tried to pursue things that make me the happiest. And if that means getting a little messy? Then you have to do what you have to do.

Success is making the best choices we can, and accepting it.

Find what makes you happy and find it before it’s too late.

Women in the office don’t exist just for men to look at.

There’s still this sneaking suspicion that it’s all fake and that you have just fooled everybody.

It’s unrealistic to assume that your life will never interfere with your work, just as your work will never interfere with your life. These things do blend.

There’s also the great Nora Ephron, who in her 1996 Wellesley commencement speech said: It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don’t be frightened, you can always change your mind. I know, I’ve had four careers and three husbands.

It takes the brain less than 2 seconds to process anger.

Give us equality in the workplace, and put your dishes away.

There is a point where you’re not just in a funk.

The point of remembering that anger is a normal human emotion is really important. It makes you rationalize things in the heat of the moment.

If you want 50/50, you have to ask for it.

Long-term success at work often depends on not trying to meet every demand placed on us. The best way to make room for both life and career is to make choices deliberately, to set limits and stick to them.

So what do we do with these fears in inherent feelings of failure?

One thing that we really have to do is allow ourselves to make and learn from our mistakes. If we’re already pessimistic, we have this inherent, defensive pessimism, why don’t we just take a deep breath, kind of relax, and say, hey, if I’m going to make mistakes, I’m going to make them, but I’m going to learn from them and move on from there.

It’s also okay that you react emotionally to criticism.

Our hard work is evident. People would not rely on us if they didn’t think they could rely on us.

I think it’s more important to find your happiness in life more than it is of having some magazine created idea of having it all.

From The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch:

When you’re screwing up and no one says anything, that means they gave up.

Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. Just give them enough time and they’ll impress you.

They’re both ways of saying, “I don’t know,” but there’s a good way and a bad way.

Some brick walls are made of flesh.

That’s why I became a professor. What better place to enable childhood dreams?

You obviously don’t know where the bar should be, and you’re only going to do them a disservice by putting it anywhere.

I don’t know how to not have fun. I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I left.

When it comes to men, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple.

Don’t bail. The best gold is at the bottom of the barrels of crap.

Words

I think people realize by now that I really like words.

There are things that I like more than words, like Pugs and babies and naps, but for the most part, words are my favorite thing in the world.

A blog I read had some pretty fantastic words in a post last month. The writer was talking about things that don't always go right. Then after giving a run-down on what wasn't going right in life, she said: "I am far more interested in beauty."

I have to agree with that. Right in the feels.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Depressing news day.

Today is depressing news Thursday.

Two things have been on my mind today:

1. Two people were killed and more than 20 others were injured at SXSW after a driver plowed into a crowd this morning: http://tinyurl.com/mo9bhmj

2. No one has any idea where the missing Malaysian plane is: http://tinyurl.com/qauzgss

I have a rant on how much broadcast journalism sucks regarding these stories. I'll save that for later. In the meantime, I've found that Reddit is a pretty good source for the latest news (plus quips and quotes from users).

For the record, I was in Kansas sleeping in my own bed when this happened (but thanks to everyone who checked to see if I was okay). A couple of things that people have said about SXSW on Reddit stuck out to me:

"All it takes is a few (one) bad decision to completely ruin your life, and the lives of others."

"I think a lot about how one bad choice can have consequences the chooser never imagined."

I'm trying to type a sentence about how I can't imagine going through something like that, but it's just coming out as gibberish. That poor crowd. I can't imagine.

Regarding the missing plane - how much information has been reported as accurate, then retracted an hour later?

Something was found. No, wait a minute, it wasn't. A body was found. Wait, it wasn't on the plane. Someone saw a plane burning in the sky. Nope, they didn't. Oops, we didn't mean to release those images that may or may not have been of something large floating in the sea.

Really?

I can't imagine what those poor families must think if they're keeping up with all the developments (or non-developments). I also find it frightening that an entire plane full of people can disappear and six days later, no one has any idea what happened or where it is.

To top off the depressing news that I've read today, the man who woke up in a body bag two weeks ago died today: http://tinyurl.com/kh2gvmg.

I'm going to go think of sunshine, rainbows and bunnies now.

Awkward and awesome

Today was the last day of SXSW Interactive in Austin. My first session of the day was called, 'Introvert Uprising: When the Silent Strike Back.'

I knew it would be awkward. I knew if you stuck a bunch of introverts in a room, we'd all not sit by each other, look at our phones and computers the whole time, and not say a single word to each other.

That's exactly what happened. It was as awkward and awesome as I imagined it would be.

Picture this: The room is pretty large. There are about 300 chairs. There were around 50 people who attended the session, and we all sat at the end of each row of chairs.

No one sat remotely close to each other.

I had a hard time not laughing and giggling throughout the session. I covered my mouth with my hand several times to try to not laugh (I was the only one doing this, so maybe I was the weirdest introvert in the room).

Some of the tweets were pretty funny:

• "What happens when you put 50 introverts in a room together?"

• "Panel on introversion at 9:30 a.m. = no one in the room talking to anybody else."

I had a huge smile on my face that whole hour. Jesus, the world would be a boring place if it was full of people like me.

Part of me was hoping there would be extroverted co-workers and managers in that session, wanting to learn about how to work with and care for introverts. Of course, that wasn't the case. The panel of introverts were really just preaching to an introverted choir...which is okay, I suppose.

I think we all just wanted an hour of quiet, away from the noise of the more than 30,000 people who attend this event. Busy! Noise! Business! People!

I just wanted some quiet time. I got that today, and I'm thankful for that.

I had a session yesterday in the same hotel, and I was brave enough to get a cab ride back to the convention center with a perfectly decent Austin man. We had a nice conversation with the driver, we joked about Kansas weather and talked about where we worked.

The introvert session was in that same hotel. The introverts did not get into a cab with each other afterward. We all walked in a single file line, quietly and without talking to each other, for the handful of blocks back to civilization.

I'm still laughing about this. I've never experienced something so awkward and awesome at the same time.

There are a few points that I liked in the talk. Among them:

It's not something that can be cured.

Yep.

We're not broken extroverts.

I've been meaning to write a blog about introversion for a while now. I'm sure within the bowels of my computer there's a post started somewhere. I'm too lazy to look for it right now.

In the meantime, there's this TED talk from Susan Cain that's all sorts of wonderful. It was mentioned in today's session. She also has a book, which I told myself I'd read soon. As the speakers said today at SXSW, Susan Cain somehow became the authority on all things related to introverts. I listen to her TED talk once a month or so.

My favorite part of it:

But introverts, you being you, you probably have the impulse to guard very carefully what’s inside your own suitcase. And that’s okay. But occasionally, just occasionally, I hope you will open up your suitcases for other people to see, because the world needs you and it needs the things you carry. 

I'm sure I have more to say on the subject, but I have a meeting to go to.

Until later!

Wherein I talk about that thing I don't like talking about.

It started innocently enough on the way to SXSW on the first full day. We took the train, and at one of the train stops in town there was an advertisement for an app where you can search for local businesses.

The local business that was being advertised was a dentist's office. There was a photo of a girl looking at the camera with a rubber dam in her mouth. She was cute, probably a teenager, and looked like she was in a good mood and having a good time.

Please note, you don't look that glamorous with that in your mouth. You end up slobbering all over yourself for multiple hours (Source: Me).

I punched my boss in the arm (not really, but I did mentally) and said, 'Dude, really?' when I saw that sign. Okay, I probably didn't say exactly that, but that's what I was thinking.

This problem follows me wherever I go.

Then came a talk from Neil deGrasse Tyson. One of the many things he talked about was teeth, which prompted this text message conversation.

I thought that was the end of it. But no, my speaker yesterday morning also talked about teeth and mouthwash for 10 minutes.

I did not take a picture of the teeth slide, but I did take a picture of the mouthwash slide.

Sigh.

I notice this more than other people do because so far this year, I've logged 7.5 hours sitting in a dental chair*.

And it's only March.

So, multiple speakers and presenters at SXSW, thanks for making me listen to your speeches about teeth.

I could probably lead a panel at next year's SXSW on the subject. The main thing I would talk about is how delicious Starbucks tastes in the morning after using medicated mouthwash that tastes like vomit.

Sigh.

I'm leaving you with a sweet message that Candy Crush had for me one night.

Whine, whine.

*Yes, I'm keeping track. I'm thinking of rewarding myself when I hit the 10 or 20 hour mark. Maybe a new purse? Some updates to my car? We'll see...

What happens

This is what happens when you go shopping* out of town when you have twin nieces.

*And by shopping, I mean buying water and pop at Target for $1.50 instead of the more than $3 you pay downtown.

Who says I don't know how to save money?

Edit: And then I forgot said water/pop in my hotel room fridge this morning, so I'll end up paying more than $3 for it today anyway.

Gah. At least the intention was there. Execution, not so much.

Geek Central.

I love writing. I love things that make me laugh. When those two things combine, my little mind explodes of The Awesome and I just can't handle it anymore.

That happened to me today.

I got to hear Seth Meyers speak today at SXSW. For a little more than an hour, I basked in the happiness of the conversation that included comedy, writing, failure, the collaborative process, and random other things.

I didn't know what to expect, but I was hoping to hear about his transition from SNL to Late Night. I wasn't disappointed. He did talk about that. But what I wasn't expecting was hearing him speak for an hour on how much he loved writing and how many times he has failed in life.

Background, for those who don't know: Seth was on Saturday Night Live for 12 years before taking over Jimmy Fallon's Late Night (Jimmy Fallon now hosts The Tonight Show. For the record, I'll always like Jimmy Fallon, too, because of his thank-you notes).

I remember watching the last episode of SNL that Seth Meyers was on earlier this year. I remember thinking, "God, it's the end of an era."

I had to wait in line/in the room for a couple of hours to hear him speak. I'm not sorry I did.

Lovingly stolen from the Interwebs.

I didn't write down all of the wonderful quotes he said, I didn't Tweet much, and I didn't even Facebook that much. I sat on the edge of my seat, laughed harder than I've laughed in a long time, and smiled more than I've smiled this year.

Weekend Update has always been my favorite part of SNL. I've always liked Seth Meyers and I always will after hearing him speak.

Some quotes he said:

"When you're young, that's the perfect time to fail."

"This is not a thing I will ever figure out. Perfection is crazy. Improvement is what you want."

"People are like, 'What do you want to do when it's over?' And I'm like, 'Does it ever have to be over?'"

"It's never easy coming up with ideas."

"Giving yourself a deadline is really important."

"My survival will always be as a writer."

Not stolen. I took this photo!

Other things he said:

- An NPR employee asked him what news sources he reads to get material for his show. I was expecting The New York Times and morning talk shows to be his answer. His real answer? Twitter.

- He was hired on SNL as an actor originally, but transitioned into writing. He said he didn't like doing skits, but loved writing skits.

- The last skit he wrote for SNL bombed. He talked about failure quite a bit, which is something I wasn't expecting. I guess everyone fails.

- I can't even explain how funny he is. You can tell he doesn't even have to try. It's just something that's in his personality. He said that even after spending 12 years on the show, there was never one recipe for success. Some things work and some things don't. When they don't, you move on to the next thing that might work and forget about the thing that didn't work.

While waiting in line to hear him speak, we got to see a video of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson speak to an audience a floor below us.

Um, that was also mind-blowingly amazing.

Background: He's the astrophysicist who demoted Pluto as a planet.

Also stolen from the Interwebs.

What I didn't know: He's so freaking normal it hurts. He doesn't talk down to people who don't understand science and he's willing to explain things in really simple terms.

My Twitter feed exploded with his quotes.

"A scientist is a kid who never grew up."

"If you think the price of college is expensive, try the cost of ignorance."

"This is SXSW Interactive. This is geek central right here."

"You don't want to do an experiment that's longer than your life expectancy..."

"Some lessons need to be learned first-hand."

"There is so much to be impressed with in the universe. Don't be distracted by things that are not impressive."

"One reason we should go into space because you know the dinosaurs would have if they could have."

"Carbon is Jon Stewart's favorite element. It's the slut of the periodic table."

"I wonder if we're smart enough to figure out the universe. We define ourselves as intelligent. But we came up with that test."

"It's the darkest before dawn. No, it's not. It's darkest when the sun is farthest from the horizon."

"Good teachers are first in line for the cloning machine."

"I always tell teachers, be the kind of teacher that teacher was to you."

"Keep letting your kids break stuff. It is a source of curiosity."

"To remain curious is to remain young."

Life is pretty fantastic.

Greetings!

I'm in Austin, Texas right now attending South by Southwest. True story: I've always, always, always wanted to visit Austin and attend SXSW. And now I finally get to do it!

Today was the first day of the interactive portion of the conference...if you can call SXSW a conference. It was a fairly light day. Tomorrow will be busy.

Here's what I've been up to in photos. I played a level of Angry Birds on a coffee table (literally, the screen was the table top), I've eaten some pretty delicious food, and I didn't have to wear a coat today.

I can't complain. Life is pretty fantastic.

Enchants the soul

Lupita Nyong'o won an Oscar for best supporting actress for "12 Years a Slave."

Lupita spoke at the Black Women in Hollywood luncheon and gave a speech about beauty. That speech is one of the most wonderful things I've heard recently.

Here's the link.

My favorite part:

"To the beholders that I thought mattered, I was still unbeautiful. And my mother again would say to me, 'You can't eat beauty. It doesn't feed you.'

"And these words played and bothered me. I didn't really understand them, until finally I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume. It was something that I just had to be.

"And what my mother meant when she said, 'You can't eat beauty' is that you can't rely on how you look to sustain you. What actually sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful, is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart, and enchants the soul."

Just to make sure you understand how beautiful those words are, I want you to read them again.

"What actually sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful, is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart, and enchants the soul."

Keep moving.

My policy for driving in the snow is a lot like my policy for falling down. No matter what happens, you have to keep moving. 

When driving in the snow and slush, the only thing I want is to not get stuck. Most of the time I want to keep going forward, but there are times when going sideways is acceptable.

The point is you can’t stay where you are – you have to keep moving and get to your destination.

A Google image of snow. 

I’ve had plenty of time to think about this. According to my Dad, we just received our 20^th snow of the season (that data is not scientific, though). Driving in it and being in it is not my cup of tea.

I lived in cities away from my family for a lot of my adult life. When I lived away I couldn’t rely on family members to help me dig my car out if I got stuck. I knew that I had to put a shovel in my trunk, drive carefully, and hope for the best.

Getting stuck is not an option.

I tested my ‘keep moving’ theory when I decided to walk through snow-covered grass yesterday. I stepped in a hole and tripped. I'm happy to report that I didn't hurt myself and my ego wasn't even damaged that much.

I didn’t miss a beat. Sure, half of my body was covered in snow and it was obvious I fell, but hey. Sometimes you just have to keep moving to get where you want to go.

How gracefully you got there doesn’t really matter in the end.

Stubborn

Good evening!

Penny wanted me to tell you there's white stuff outside again, which means she's very not happy right now.

I asked her a few minutes ago if she wanted to go outside. She was sitting on the couch, with her head facing away from me. She didn't move an inch.

Pugs.

I picked her up, put her on the floor, then guided her to the door with my foot (gently, might I add). I opened the door and she looked down at the snow with a disgusted look on her face.

I agree, Penny. It's about time for the white stuff to go away.

Penny's sitting beside me on a chair right now chewing a bone. When she realizes I'm not paying attention to her, she intentionally drops the bone on the floor and then looks at me.

I told her after the third time I wouldn't pick the bone up. She's not getting it either.

We're having a stubborn contest. I think I'm winning.

A battle of wills: Who will pick up the bone?

Weird, I know.

I admire people who can openly talk about their health problems. Whether it’s cancer, a problem their child is having, or depression, I understand that health problems take a lot out of you and it takes a pretty strong person to discuss them.

As a journalist, I’ve interviewed people with breast cancer and other types of cancers. I wrote stories about a woman who was diagnosed with a disease that was named after her. She didn't live. I’ve interviewed parents whose children had developmental delays and other problems.

I expect all of these people to open up to a total stranger about their problems. And I admire them for doing so.

But I can’t do that. Weird, I know.

When my health issues pop up and I don’t feel like it will ever end, my mind always goes back to a blog post I found a while ago.

If you don’t know who The Bloggess is, you should. Secondly, if you haven’t bought her book, you should.

She wrote a blog post called Where I am right now that I think a lot of people can relate to.

My favorite parts: 

"…so I suspect it’s a silent twin that’s just swimming around in my body and fucking shit up."
 "And more upsetting is the fact that I still feel exactly as exhausted as I did before we started the treatment, so God knows if this will even work or if it’ll just be another bull-point in my list-of-shit-that-wrong-with-me."
 "I should be happy that things weren’t worse, and relieved that I have the resources to diagnose and maybe fix the problems, but today I’m just sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I can’t find a way to end this paragraph." 

Also, someone on Facebook talked about Beyonce, the giant metal chicken that The Bloggess wrote about one time. That blog post and one caption in particular are my favoritest things on the Internet, so here’s the link. I'll let you guess which caption I love in particular (it's not hard to figure out).

And that’s why you should learn to pick your battles.

Not Beyonce, but another giant metal chicken.