Off the Grid

I need to be off the grid for a while.

LIVE —  LAUGH  —- LOVE

An Eye Opening Article

This is article is a great addition to the blog a wrote a few weeks ago about the “Pippa butt” segment on Good Morning America a weeks ago.  I think it is a great visual expression of the body perfection many girls and women try to achieve.  Please share with your daughters and the women you love, including yourself.  Focus on health, not body image – this body perfection can only be manufactured.

The Plastic Surgery A Model Needs to Look Like Barbie

Dear Readers of My Blog

Dear Readers of My Blog,

I wanted to write to you and apologize for my sporadic writings and untimely posts.  I realize that you look weekly in your email box to find out what is happening in my life as you waste away hours on your computer.  You were hungry for a bit more than my 140 character Twitter updates.  You have an urge to see more into my personal life than is allowable on facebook. Yet I have left you down.  I do write almost daily about the moments in my life – the good, the bad and the random thoughts that cross my mind, but I fail in uploading them regularly for your reading.  So I sit hear on my couch with my apple cider wondering how I can make it up to you – the disappointment, the discouragement you feel and the feeling of unimportance I bestowed upon your heart.  Then I thought, a personal letter from me to you to thank you for subscribing to my blog.

I opened my dashboard and saw that I had 20 readers last week that I had let down.  I was crestfallen.  I’m afraid my apologies aren’t enough.  So into the subscriptions I dove……  Say what – only 4 subscribers and one of them is me?  Maybe this is why I have so few comments.  Well thank you subscribers for hanging in there, I appreciate you!  And to my other 16+ readers… What no commitment?  I feel so used.  My readings are not special enough for you to make a comment or commitment, they are  only here for your amusement.  Oh… I guess that’s right.  My writings are for your enjoyment and your enlightenment when the topic allows.  So go ahead with your reading habits.  Don’t worry about me… I will survive… i will continue to write with the range of thought provoking, honest and often sarcastic views and opinions of my world.  You can choose to get a free lifetime membership to my brain window by subscribing to my blog or just peek in the curtains when you are ready and available.  I will be here..in my brain…alone (well hopefully alone) and will continue to tell you about my  view from here.  Know that you are welcome to join me anytime.

Sincerely Sarcastic,

Stacy

A.K.A. Lady Yada Yada

Back on the Path

Saturday, October 1, 2011

I find it funny that with my free time, I am still organizing.  Ok it’s not that funny, I probably organized my crib when I was a baby.  After cleaning, painting and organizing the house, I moved onto old photos (on shutterfly) organizing and creating new photobooks and now I am editing my 2010 home movies.  I am doing daily yoga and workouts on the wii – focusing on stretching, balance, some aerobic and memory activities.

The balance that I have worked so hard on finding since beginning this blog in 2009, I may be nearing it.  I know life is always in a new state of balance, but I happy to be where I am in the journey.  I was thrown off the path and hurled into the pricker bushes where I was then struck and pinned down by a falling limb that had a hornets’ nest attached.  Yeah it’s been rough. I am muddy, sore and stung, but I am back on the path.

The 1 Month Mark

Friday, September 30^th, 2011

My one month leave concludes tomorrow, but to be honest I have been doing some work from home and helping out the new person in my position. I began to go stir crazy.  My house is cleaner than it has been in years.

Leaving something you love is hard.  I give it up, but then I want to take it back.  I care for the children and their families and it is hard to say goodbye, but in my case I am not saying goodbye to the people, just the position.  But that is hard too.  I have such a bond with the programs and ministries many of which I created and have been happy to begin to see the imprint on people’s lives and it is hard to say goodbye to that warm feeling.

With 30 days past me know, I feel remarkably better.  I look better, I have control of my physical pain and my brain is no longer swimming in jello.  Though at times I want to pick up the reins and continue on my journey as the Director of Children & Family Ministries, it is clearer to me now that it isn’t the best choice for me and my family.  The time has come for me to stop holding so tight onto this career, this job, this passion, this purpose, this identity that I created for myself and begin my walk down a new path. I feel more confident than I did even two weeks ago.  I am almost excited.  There are still worries, mostly monetary, but I can finally get all my thoughts from running back to that place.  My kids will eat and will be provided for and God willing I will still be able to get the medication I need.  I may never have my own house and may never travel to all the places in the world I want to see, but that’s ok.  I am at a place now where I can separate all that and live for today.  I will continue to dream and who knows where that will take me.

Thursday, September 29^th, 2011

Sorry for the abrupt end to yesterday’s blog.  But I did what I felt the entertainment news programs should not be afraid of doing. Just end it!

Another News Rant

Wednesday, September 28^th, 2011

Oh no, they didn’t.  I believe I am done with morning “news shows”.  A few years back I said goodbye to the Today Show and now I think it is too-ta-loo to Good Morning America.  I realize that these morning shows are part entertainment and part (small part) news & weather.  I accept that most people do not turn on the program and watch it from 7 a.m. until 9 a.m.  I enjoy the quirky perky co-hosts and the brief overview of news to start the morning.  But again I have been hit with the contradictory purgatory of what is news!

Today’s story, Pippa’s posterior. Seriously?  Pippa is the sister of Duchess of Cambridge who is married to Prince William of Cambridge. The story follows a woman’s journey to have extreme plastic surgery on her backside.  I didn’t know what to think about the puns and retrospective following the timeline of the butt.  Watch for yourself.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/pippa-middletons-butt-plastic-surgery-fad-14622881

This is not a blog against plastic surgery.  To each their own.  My distaste over this story is 3-fold.

1. Would you like anyone talking about your backside? We won’t even touch on the distaste that this all stemmed from a Royal Wedding. Films and stills of your rear end plastered on magazines and tv, really?  Who would like that.  Can we say invasion of privacy?
2. The woman they follow through her plastic surgery journey seems like a nice woman who was articulate in expressing her reasoning and thoughts, but the story leading up to her introduction was way past cheesy rounding the corner to insulting – Complete with dinging bells and red arrows showing the fat removal and implantation.  I won’t even touch on my disgust of the plastic surgeon performing a procedure on a patient while watching the camera and answering questions.  I really would want my doctor watching what he was doing rather than giving an interview during my procedure.
3. Lets address the reporting.  In the background, you can hear one of the reporters laughing at the beginning of the story when the procedure is referred to as the “Pippa butt lift”. If you are going to cover a story, have some integrity. It is obvious that they find this story humorous. One month these “news” shows will do stories on the importance of self –image  and the negative body image that is projected onto teenagers and women by the media through celebrities and then the next month it is about “extreme plastic surgeries”. But we do reports on all stories from various angles to round out the information. What is the point again? We want people to be happy being created the way they are, but we will also do reports on extreme plastic surgery so that everyone can see that side of the coin as well.  But don’t worry we will giggle and make comedic cartoonish graphics so no one will take us seriously no matter what news or stories we will report.

Oh, I can’t, it’s just…. I think I need to be done writing now- my head hurts.

Recognizing Choices

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/09/23/mn-cross-country-runner-rescue.wcco

This news story came across my ipod and I was drawn in.  My husband and I often joke with our son, who runs for his High School’s Cross Country Team, with our various views on racing.  In jest, and he knows it, my husband and I banter before the meet “Crush them” my husband almost growling and I “Just go out there and have fun” with a lilt in my voice.  My son laughs and shakes his head and walks away.  In truth, we always talk to him about setting a goals for himself and then work hard to meet those goals.  We are excited when he runs well, and encouraging when he doesn’t.  But we are always proud of him and tell him so often on and of the course.

I watched this video article and initially to have some banter with my husband about winning isn’t everything.  It is always good in our playful banter to have actual stories and facts to back myself up.  I know, I’m strange. After watching the video I was very pleased to see a teen get credit for this sacrificing act of kindness, but as time passed I couldn’t get Josh Ripley’s voice out of my head.  “It’s kinda crazy how you do something kind and you get recognized this much for it I have been.”  My first thought was that too often we recognizing teens for the mistakes and the bad choices they make.  In today’s entertainment world, it is even morphed into television “reality” shows.  So why not reward teens that are self-sacrificing and make that decision to help or encourage someone.  Let’s see these teens on the television. But as I thought about it more, Josh is right. It is crazy to put all this attention on someone who made a great decision to help someone when we should all be living our daily lives like this.  If everyone had one act of kindness a day, this story wouldn’t seem so news worthy would it?  It wouldn’t be out of the norm of our day to day lives.

I end this blog with no answer just more thoughts.  I would be interested in hearing yours?

The Struggle of the Great Unknown

Thursday, September 22^nd, 2011

I am a planner.  The fact that I don’t know where I am heading or where I will land is difficult for me.  I would love to be excited about the open opportunities before me, and sometimes I am, for a moment or too.  More often I just see a blank slate before me that I can write on, but I don’t know what words to use.

In my time off, I have cleaned our house, caught up on my reading stack and made friends with the little people who live in the box in my family room.  My husband comes home and asks “What’s new?” I tell them a story about my new friends in the box, Will & Grace.  The time off has served me well.  I am feeling much better and going a bit stir crazy. My emotions are a layered parfait of goo right now. I’m fine. I cry. I’m relieved. I’m lonely. I’m angry. I’m happy.  (Yes, pray very hard for my husband) Sarcasm and laughter from sarcasm get me through the rough patches.

We are now making a list of my employment  options, again taking advice from the people who live in the box in my family room.  Seems like everyone needs a job in and out of the box.

I create a new record company, right here in Chesterland – the mecca of Rock-n-Roll. – Parenthood

I could be a dog walker. – King of Queens

I could have a coffee house where people can come tell stories. – The Moth Podcast  We had many clever names, but they all disappeared in my sleep.

I could start a Meth Lab. – Body of Proof and the local news

And today’s bit of wisdom came from General Hospital.  I will run a Chinese restaurant and Bruce will marry the patrons.

I am certain there will be more ideas to follow, we are only a few days into the new fall line up.

Let me know if you see any employment opportunities in the box for me. (Remember Sarcasm is key!)

Got Questions?

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

I feel that my blog has all been M.S. related since “coming out”.  I have no problem writing about my experiences, but M.S. doesn’t engage my every thought through the day. If you have questions, please comment and ask. I will respond and share my experiences, my story, my treatment, my struggles and my joys of M.S. if you wish. Don’t worry, if it too private, I will let tell you that it is too private. I don’t mind educating people with my truth, but I also don’t want to bore them to sleep either.