I like that.

Yesterday was the third session of the leadership class that I'm participating in.

The topic of the morning session was education.

Before I say more, I have to say that I went to the private school in town for grade school and middle school. I'm partial to it, because hey, that's my school.

The principal had some really good things to say to us.

He was talking about hiring people, which is a topic that I particularly enjoy. I've never hired people, and I've only recently (within the past two years) started interviewing people for jobs/internships.

The principal told us to wait until you find the right person to hire. Don't just hire a body to do the work, he said. Take your time, make sure the person's personality fits, and then hire a rock star.

I smiled. It makes sense.

He also said something else that I thought was important enough to write down. He said something along the lines of: "There's never a perfect time to do something."

But a house, get married, have kids. There's never a good time to do those things in life, he said. The perfect time and the perfect place are perceptions that aren't reality (my words, not his).

I like that. As someone who's house searching (STILL), that is some helpful advice.

That song in my head.

I've been hearing a song on the radio that at first, I didn't like.

But it's catchy. The guy talks in the beginning of the song. After I heard it a few times, I started to like it.

The problem? What the hell is the name of the song, and who the hell sings it?

I obsessively Googled it. I came up with no answers, except Wagon Wheel and Dolly Parton (neither is correct).

I even started asking people. What's that song where the guy talks?

People asked me: Talks about what?

Sigh. This is hard work. I went to bed one night late, after a long night of listening to random songs on my phone that wasn't the song stuck in my head.

After some more Googling and with some help from Spotify, I finally found the song I've had stuck in my head for the past few days.

It's Sam Hunt - Take Your Time.

In the process of Googling country songs, I came across a few that I really like. I finally listened to the song where the dude wants to have a beer with Jesus (I'd never heard that one before) and there's some Eric Church songs I really like.

Every time I hear it on the radio, the DJs always say he almost didn't record it because of the talking.

Google, you disappoint me sometimes.

Cards Against Humanity

My Christmas present to myself was Cards Against Humanity.

I played it for the first time last weekend. I'm pretty sure it's the best thing I've ever bought.

There were many cards that were raunchy enough that I couldn't even say out loud, let alone take photos of them and post them on this here blog thing.

Some of them, though, were mild and funny. Those photos are below.

Liking big butts and not being able to lie about it won. Ha, ha.

That was my dream.

I'm a big believer that dreams have meaning.

I have stress dreams all the time. I dream about losing my car keys, or losing my car in a parking lot, or trying to find someone in a crowd and not being able to.

And then I have really weird dreams that make absolutely no sense and make me smile.

I had a dream this week that someone I work with (not naming names...) was singing really, really loud in the office. It irritated me, so I called my Mom and she came and picked me up.

I have no idea why I couldn't drive myself in my dream, but whatever.

So my Mom picked me up and we went to Starbucks in town (note: there is no Starbucks in town). There was a dog that worked there, and the dog got paid in french fries.

This upset my Mom greatly, because it's not healthy for the dog to be paid in french fries. She yelled at the manager for it.

And that was my dream.

I'm pretty sure it means I need to play with my dog and drink coffee.

Penny wouldn't mind getting paid in french fries.

Blurbs for Monday

This weekend I posted Facebook updates on my nieces, an NPR story about Syria and a link to my previous blog post.

My mind wanders.

(Some people say I have a short attention span salad.)

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My friends and I played Cards Against Humanity the other night. The best card, that I can say out loud without blushing?

Tonight on Nickelodeon: Clarissa explains liking big butts and not being able to lie about it.

Giggle.

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I've had a quote stuck in my head from Lost over the past week or so.

"Shouldn't we be encouraging the ones with ambition?

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We got a couple inches of snow last night.

Penny the Pug isn't happy.

Of course, on Facebook this morning people are griping about the road conditions. Can't we afford to salt our roads? Our taxes are too damn high! This town sucks! This state sucks! We should move!

People, it's two inches of snow. Learn how to drive.

There was a car in the ditch on my way to work this morning. It sucks for that car, and in case it's somebody I know, that's a bummer, dude. I hope the car isn't damaged (it was a Ford Focus, though, so maybe it needs to be damaged).

Like I said above, it's two inches of snow, not two feet of white stuff.

Gah.

Wherein I solve all of life's problems with one blog post.

I don't like comparisons.

I used to do it to myself all the time. That person is my age and has a house. That person my age just got a better job. That person my age just...a bunch of things.

I realized about a year ago that all the comparisons I was making were completely pointless and were getting me nowhere in life.

I stopped comparing my life to other people's, and I've been pretty happy since.

Something that's been bugging me, though, is that I've been hearing a lot of comparisons in the community I live in.

The next town over (Neighboring Town) is attracting retail like crazy. There's always been a Target there, and there's a Sam's, Menards, Home Depot, Petco, TJ Maxx, Dick's Sporting Goods, and probably some other stores that I'm forgetting.

My mom and I went shopping in said Neighboring Town last weekend. I spent $20 on a pretty cute purse and $4 on a drink at Starbucks.

We ate dinner at a new restaurant that was so packed we had to wait a few minutes for a table. (In western Kansas, that's pretty cool.)

We had a great time.

Something that bothers me about my hometown is that we always compare ourselves to Neighboring Town.

I'm going to admit that I'm pretty weird and I'm completely biased here. My first job out of college was in Neighboring Town. I lived there for 2.5 years.

Neighboring Town is probably my favorite place I've lived. It had its problems, just like every town does, but I had a really good time when I lived there.

The bars were good. The friends were great. There's a music festival in the summer that attracts my favorite bluegrass artist (John McCutcheon!). There's a zoo so beautiful you won't believe it's in Kansas. The giant pool is pretty cool. The walking paths are fun. The neighborhood near downtown has wide streets and giant trees that look beautiful in the fall and in the winter when they're covered in snow.

I had my first grown up apartment there.

I drank a lot of beer there.

I voted for the new high school there.

I cared about the community I lived in. I wanted to see it change for the better.

Now, back to that comparison thing. The one thing I don't think I ever heard while I lived in Neighboring Town was how they wanted to be like my hometown.

No one I talked with in Neighboring Town spent time obsessing about what the other town was doing.

It makes me sad that my hometown does this ALL OF THE TIME. How can you keep going forward if we're so obsessed about looking backward?

We had a new high school 10 years before Neighboring Town did. We had a Hobby Lobby 15 years before they did. We have a Bath and Body Works and they don't. We have entertainment options - a casino, a theater, a better racetrack - but the community doesn't recognize these things when the gripe session begins.

My dad told me something a long time ago that's always stuck with me. It's all relative, he would say. People who live in small towns aren't happy they aren't my hometown.

My hometown gets upset when we don't attract businesses that are in Wichita.

People in Wichita don't like shopping there and go to Kansas City.

People in Oklahoma City get tired of it and go to Dallas to get away.

It's all relative. Regardless of where you live, people are always going to hate it and think the grass is greener on the other side.

I think the comparison thing bothers me for a few different reasons. Neighboring Town has a special place in my heart, just as my hometown does, and I'm pretty passionate about both.

I occasionally freelance in Neighboring Town. I look forward to visiting there and I swell with pride when I see new businesses pop up and existing businesses expand.

I also left after high school for a few years. I lived in towns bigger than my hometown and towns smaller than my hometown.

I don't care about rivals. I don't care about competition. For the people who moved away during college and came back, I think this is a pretty small issue, a tiny blimp in a world full of bigger problems.

People from my hometown who've lived elsewhere don't care which town is better. We've seen better, lived in better places, but still choose to be here because of family, work, or because of some other reason that brought us back here.

Is all of the competition, jealously, comparisons, and the hate between the two towns really necessary? By doing all of those things, are we just inventing our own problems?

Can we please find something better to do?

Can't we all just get along, work together, and be grateful we each have what the other one doesn't?

The answer to that, of course, is no. But I like to think that some day, some way, the answer will be yes.

(Wishful thinking, I know.)

Old.

I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning.

I love NPR.

I went to bed at 7 p.m. last night (meaning I got a blissful 10 hours of sleep last night).

I'm getting old.

Don't judge a book by its movie.

The book is always better than the movie.

I finally got the chance to watch Gone Girl. I didn't get the chance to see it theaters, so I was pretty excited to see it.

I was kind of disappointed. The book follows the movie pretty closely, but there are a few subtle things different.

I won't spoil anything for those of you who haven't read the book or watched the movie.

I left with a 'meh' feeling.

Speaking of that feeling, I finished reading Dark Places, which is another book by Gillian Flynn.

It started off slow. I usually read a book cover to cover within a day, but this one took me a few days (on the beach, might I add).

I had about 50 pages left to read, but I put it off for a couple weeks. Again, that 'meh' feeling was there.

The other night I picked it up and read the rest of it.

I had the same reaction to the end of Gone Girl.

Um, what just happened? No way! Shut up! Get out of here!

I like it.

I also have Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn's other book, but I'm going to wait a while to read it.

On pickles and bananas

"I'm sorry about your pickle, but I'm glad you got your bananas."

Sidenote: My bff and I took turns being out of the country. That means I didn't see her (or her husband) for two weeks.

Sure, being out of the country for both of us involved beaches and drinks, but that was a pretty long two weeks.

Plus, who else am I going to talk about pickles and bananas with?