Friendship | Bacon Is My Enemy

Broken Record

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Alternate Title: Shit or Get Off The Pot (The lovely folks at BlogHerAds like us to avoid expletives in the titles of posts, which is understandable.)

A couple of weeks ago I attended this event called Ignite Seattle. Ignite events are held all around the world, you can read more about it here or commentary about it here and here. I recently got added into the fold and now help to manage the logistics of the event (but that’s another story). In the audience was my friend Jen Zug or as I like to say in my best Oprah voice – “JJJJEEEEENNNNN ZZZZUUUUUGGGGG!!” I rarely get to see her because she is busy running a business and lives in this place called Renton (REEENNNNTTTTTOOOONNN!!) and I am busy and live on an island (VVVAAAASSHHHOOOONNNN!!).

We don’t get to see each other very often so when we do, we tend to want to catch up on each others lives. She tells me what she’s up to and where she’s going and I tell her what I’m up to and where I’m headed. After I got done kvetching this last time around, instead of the normal “good for you’s” she looked me straight in the eyes and said in her nicest “I-call-your-bullshit” voice, “THAT’S WHAT YOU SAID LAST TIME. ARE YOU ANY CLOSER?”

She just called me out. Right there and then. All up in my face.

Now THAT’s a good friend.

Ever since then, I’ve been thinking about that aha! moment. Jen, bless her heart, scared me shitless. If you knew Jen, she is not the type of person to go around scaring people shitless, but she did me! Go Jen! You just kicked my ass! I have been in a downward spiral of introspection ever since. This is a dangerous place for me.

In an exercise to understand this lump I now feel in my throat (total failure/charlatan lump), I started reading my old blog posts. Doing that is really not for the faint of heart. No really! Try it on your own blog – going back in time can be like Chinese water torture. But, I’ve come to the realization that I sound like a broken record. I am always so full of hope and promise but that doesn’t really mean anything unless you realize and actualize all that hope and promise.

How can you keep reading my posts, people? It’s like reading the thoughts of a hamster on a wheel. I love you for it, but I need to give y’all some more variety.

Okay, maybe I am being overly critical and dramatic but I don’t like having this feeling of a total constipation of ideas. And I really can’t bear the thought of coming up empty during my next “Jen Zug catch up session.” Either I do something to get on track or I avoid Jen altogether. Even with my gift of avoidance, the latter seems a bit extreme. Plus, I like saying, “JEEEEENNNNNN ZZZUUUGGGG!!” Oprah style too damn much.

Posted in Daily, Friendship | 15 Comments »

My Most Favorite People In The World

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Aside from Rene (who is like family to me) – this group (also like family to me) are my favorite people in the whole entire world.

I hereby present some of the smartest (wittiest, loveliest) people that I know.

Take a movie like Bruno (which I haven’t seen) – I might say something like, “You guys! OMeffingG that movie was so frickin’ awesome!”

They will watch the same movie and say, “That movie was hilarious!” and then go on to say, “Don’t you love how Sacha Baron Cohen deconstructs modern America’s perception of the gay identity? Brilliant!”

A few of them might go as far as to tie in how the movie relates to early 18th century satires about British colonial rule. I am so serious. These people are monsters when it comes to brain power. On my best day I might be able to muster is some lame comparison between Bruno to a Tom and Jerry cartoon short.

When I hang out with them, it’s definitely a no bullsh*t zone. They tend to ground me. Anytime I start getting a big head over all this internet and blogging stuff, I hang out with them and realize that I am not such a hot shot after all. They just look at me and say stuff like, “What is a blogoscope?” It’s really quite sad.

While I hide in my house on most days talking to the internet and write little blog posts about my personal life – some of them are doing things like helping under-served populations gain access to things like food and shelter. All of them are doing (or have done) things that have changed our little corner of the world for the better. Really.

Uh … change the face of the planet vs. blog about Bacon Jam and parenting meltdowns?

Yeah.

Eight years later, I think they still love me anyway.

Posted in Daily, Friendship | 4 Comments »

I’m Talking to the Computer!!

Monday, December 8th, 2008

Paige: “What are you doing?”

Me: (( Wild hand waving ))

Paige: “Did you say something to me?”

Me: (( More wild hand waving ))

Paige: “MOM, WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO YOURSELF??”

Me: “I AM TALKING TO THE COMPUTER BECAUSE I AM RECORDING A VIDEO. I HAVE TO START OVER NOW.”

Paige: “Oh. Well, why didn’t you just say so?”

****

Mentally preparing for this Momversation panel has been nerve wracking. I seriously need to let go of this fear of the camera. It’s like karma is sending me on a journey to find myself, without asking if I want to go. Things keep happening so quickly that I say, “yes!” before I have a chance to mull it around in my mind long enough to say, “no.” It’s been great for me.

Here is the logo I had to throw together as panelist for Momversation. I really had a hard time with choosing what was going to represent this blog because I have a habit of wanting things to be perfect and my musings are so random and imperfect. After a bunch of hem-hawing I broke down and threw something together on the fly. Piggy (or Dae-gee in Korean) was the nickname that my brother and sister gave me when I was a kid. It used to be painful word to hear, but now I embrace it like a battle wound that reminds of how far I’ve come.

And because sometimes I can’t stop myself from fiddling around in photoshop, I created a new winter masthead:

Sometimes, I feel like pigs are descending on my house, wanting me to eat that third piece of quiche with pancetta. Le sigh.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Even though I’ve totally been horrible about taking daily photos for Shrinking Giyen, I just took one today and I daresay, there is a bit of a difference between the two. I actually look less puffy. Don’t you think?

Here’s the first one I took back on November 16, 2008: