Things That Bug Me - Part 1

I'll try not to do these too often... it's better to be grateful than gripy, after all, and I don't necessarily want rants to be the center of my blog...or life. But here are some things that really crank my gears...

1) People at work harping on how young I am. I don't want them to see me as "a kid" if I can possibly help it, and I'd rather they not think about the fact that their son is older than me... besides, do I tell them how old they are? "Oh my goodness, you're older than my parents!!"

On a similar vein...
2) Being discounted in the world of physical fitness because, "oh, you're young." Yeah, y'know what? I'm not good at swimming because I'm young. I'm not relatively slim because I'm young. I'm not able to hold that plank position in yoga longer than you can because I'm young. No. I'm good at swimming because I've been practicing it for 16 years. I'm in good physical shape and I'm strong because I spent the last year working my ass off. A little credit here? I mean, nobody tells these people they can't be good at something because they're old? Why assume a younger person is only good at it because of their age. Now, I do acknowledge that these sorts of things can be more challenging for people who are older...and for sure there are a lot of people older than me who are WAY better at stuff than I am. [Go ahead. Challenge my mom to a foot race. Dare ya.] But nothing hornks me off faster than, "Oh, it's easy for you because you're young." Go suck on an egg.

Okay, and now for balance... 3 things that make me happy:

1) I like getting emails that say something like: Thanks! That was really helpful! You're great! ...and I've had some really good examples of those just this week.
2) We replaced a door at my house last weekend. I was really proud of myself...not so much that I did it... b/c I was having my hand held the whole time... but that I did what I could, helped out, and learned how to do it. It was pretty sweet.
3) I'm very grateful I'm from a northern climate and am in decent shape. Last night I went to Obama's rally in Kansas City. To avoid traffic, I parked a fair distance away, and walked the several blocks in subzero temperatures to the event. It was a good choice, and I'm glad I was able to do it.

Why the Great Plains Suck

Conflicting weather fronts.

Let me start by telling a little story about Florida. We watched the weather forecast when we were there in mid-January. The weatherman reported that Sunday would be a "chilly" 69 degrees, then we'd be up and down the rest of the week, up to a high of 82 later in the week. With this kind of temperature variation, he said, "there's a little something for everybody."

My left big toe. A whole 10 degree swing? Oooohhhh.....

On Sunday, we had an unseasonably warm day that got as high as 65 degrees. Yesterday it was 60 degrees,- a delightfully mild day - and still as high as 55 when I got home at 8pm. Then the winds changed. Today, I woke up to 60 degrees, left the house at 55 and drizzling. It is now 16 degrees with a wind chill below 0. Snow is blowing like crazy, and has probably accumulated up to an inch. We'll hover in the 30s the rest of the week.

That, I believe, is a little something for NOBODY. Screw the Great Plains.

KU wins the Orange Bowl.
Obama wins Iowa.

It must be my birthday!!


Everybody* go caucus** on February 5.

* Democrats. Republicans are the 9th.
** for Barack Obama.