Flashback Friday - Sick Leave

Flashback Friday apologizes for missing its usual post.

The author has been stricken with pneumonia and/or whooping cough (apparently it still exists.)

Flashback Friday will return on its regularly scheduled time next week.

Thank you, and good night.

Flashback Friday - Oh Canada

I'm on a business trip in Denver. My company is here exhibiting at a conference, and while I have worked several conferences over the years, the last time I exhibited at a conference was the summer of 2003 in Toronto. And the last time I was in Canada before that was when I lived there. So let's talk about Canada.

This is a picture of me when I was three. I loved that dress. We were getting family pictures taken and my mom took Tay and I to the store for new dresses. I had a total prima donna moment when I walked into the girls' section and saw this beauty sparkling on the rack. I begged my mom to let me get it but she said no. This was the first time I remember (at least consciously) the power of a temper tantrum...

A few months later, my mom and dad got a babysitter so they could go to the company Christmas party. I think I hated the babysitter, because I ran upstairs and put this dress on and begged my parents to take me with them. They said no. This was the second time I remember (at least consciously) the power of a temper tantrum. (This was also the time I discovered just how boring corporate schmoozing can be. I spent the entire night asleep in a chair in the hotel lobby.)

The next summer, the dress was too short, but I continued to wear the jacket with everything else I owned. One day, we were sitting outside next to a fountain. I started walking around the edge with my arm stretched out for balance. My mom said no. This was the third time I remember (at least consciously) the power of a temper tantrum. (This was also the time I earned the honorary middle name of "Grace." I started going faster and the next thing I knew I was sputtering to the surface in the middle of the fountain and my beautiful jacket was drenched in highly-chlorinated water.)

That dress and jacket combination saw me through a lot of "Grace" moments:

• My first broken bone. (I fell off the fire pole at the playground and broke my ankle.)
• My first crush. (I ran my brand-new bike into a tree trying to show off for him.)
• My first TWO sets of stitches. (I still have a dent in my head and a bump on my knee as proof.)
• My first marriage. (It ended amicably.)

Fun facts:

• We had an underground storage room in our living room. (It was great for reenacting Daniel and the Lions' Den. And Tom Sawyer. And Nancy Drew. (We were very well read (to).))
• We had AstroTurf instead of grass in our backyard. (We were the Brady Bunch.)
• We went to joy school where I remember learning how to spell "hippopotamus" and eating green eggs and ham on Dr. Seuss' birthday. (This was also where I met my first husband.)

camera shy

I spent some time in Vegas over the holiday weekend:

[insert lots of cool stuff here]

I own six cameras; I just counted. So you'd think I'd be a little better at documenting my adventures than two pictures...

Flashback Friday - Politics

In honor of the upcoming Presidential Inauguration, a story:

On Wednesday, January 21, 1993, William Jefferson Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd President of the United Sates of America. Three months later my family moved to England. (That these two facts share a causal relationship may or may not be completely accurate...)

But before we expatriated on principle, I was attending 2nd grade at The Meridian School in Provo. You may remember seeing it on 9th East just south of Gold's Gym (until it was torn down last year). This picture is of my first day of Kindergarten, but two years later, I was still wearing the same hideous uniform. (So just imagine me a depressingly small bit taller.)

January 21st dawned cold and cloudy, and Mrs. McDonald's 2nd graders shuffled a bit unwillingly out into the elements for morning recess (the beastly uniforms were also beastly cold). I was walking next to Phillip (Karissa, I believe you knew him), when he casually mentioned that his parents had voted for Bill Clinton. I (being daddy's little girl) stopped dead in my tracks and gasped:

"Your parents are Democrats?!?!"

Phillip proudly answered in the affirmative and I spent the rest of recess trying to avoid him in kissy tag for real.



Fun facts:

• We were living in Spanish Fork Canyon during my Meridian years, so every day we'd drive up State Street through Springville and passed the cemetery in south Provo. Tay and I would hold our breath so we wouldn't die/become possessed/lose our luck/boyfriends. My mom was concerned for our mortality and drove fast. My dad didn't want us to ever get married so he crawled passed. I remember him even turning around on one occasion for another go.
• I learned how to burn ants with a magnifying glass from Jonathon, another classmate. I heard later that year he caught the field on fire. (oops.)
• I also became a published author at Meridian. A poem I wrote was printed in the school newsletter:

Love Is
Love is flowers, love is sweets,
Love is little apple treats.
Love is cards with hearts of gold,
I hope you like what I've told.
Love is a kind of thing I like,
And I hope that you might.

(Obviously I didn't dedicate it to Phillip...)

Death and Taxes

No offense to my good friend Ben Franklin, but things have changed a bit since back in the day when certainty was so limited. Nowadays I'm sure you could find loads of things to add to the list.

Like... oh, I don't know, I guess you could say there's a pretty big certainty of nothing but awesomeness in a conversation prefaced by the following statement: "So, I was Googling you the other day," for instance...

False. There's a 100% certainty.

Observe:

Random Relative of Questionable Relationship (RROQR): "So, I was Googling you the other day..."

Me: "Really? Why?"

RROQR: "Don't Ask."

Me: "Oh...okay..."

RROQR: "Anyway, I found this."

Me: "Huh."

RROQR: "Well, don't you have anything to say about that?"

Me: "Well... Number 1. Not too shabby."

RROQR: "What!? Anything else?"

Me: "Um... Oh, and obviously I shouldn't hold my breath."

RROQR: "What does that even mean?"

Me: "Well, it doesn't look like he's very committed does it?"

RROQR: "Committed?!?"

Me: "Yeah. Look, he's only done four things. He could step it up a bit. I mean, how hard is it to wear sweat pants for a week straight?"

RROQR: "So it doesn't even bother you?"

Me: "No. Why should it? It most likely isn't this Meagan Brady. And if it is, then good for him. Frankly I'm offended that dating me isn't on more 43 Things Lists. I should merit a cheer in the very least!"

RROQR: "...You are so weird."

Me: "Says the Random Relative of Questionable Relation who was Googling me?"

RROQR: "What did you call me?"

Me: "Nevermind."
...

As my good friend Ben Franklin* would say, "Rock on, RROQR. Rock on."

*Not the real Ben Franklin. I am 99% sure.

Flashback Friday - The Beginning

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Heck, let's make it a twofer to kick things off.

That's me. And that's my Uncle Jeff. I love this picture for three reasons: First, I dig how seventies it is. Especially since this was 1985. I mean, check out the afghan on the couch, and Jeff's shirt, and the lace curtain, and the yellow undertones. That's authentic vintage for you. Second, I love this because according to family folklore, only about three weeks before this was taken, when my mom was still prego, her car was hit by a drunk driver. My mom was in the passenger seat and Jeff was in the back. When he saw what was going to happen, he unbuckled his seat belt and reached around the front seat to hold my mom and her belly back from flying into the dashboard. (Awww.) Third, I love this because I'm pretty sure this is as close as I came to Jeff until I was a teenager because he scared me to death. He's a lawyer and pretty intense. (Obviously I didn't know about the car accident, otherwise I would have seen right through his gruff exterior to his mushy insides.)

And here's my official first photo.

Fun facts:

• I was born 9 months and 1 day after the parentals were hitched. My grandma thought this was scandalous. She called my mother on the morning of May 17, 1985 and told her that now it was okay to have me. At 11:55 p.m. my mother obliged.
• I was born completely bald and stayed that way for a good two years. Strangers would come up to my mom and ask what the boy in the pink frilly dresses and glued-on bows was named.
• My mom still wears those glasses. Just kidding. (Last year she got Lasik...)

Flashback Fridays

On New Year's Day, I was doing some troubleshooting on my Grandma Brady's computer when a slip of paper tacked to her bulletin board caught my eye. It was in her handwriting, and it said:

I can't remember. A big chunk of my history will be buried with me. My past will disappear.

I'm not sure if it was original thought, or if she read it somewhere, but it got me thinking about how horrific I am at keeping a journal. One of my resolutions is to be better from here on out, but that doesn't help with the past.

Enter Flashback Fridays.

On Fridays (hopefully every Friday), I will post a picture, description and some fun facts about my life. Sometimes they will be funny, sometimes not so much. Sometimes they may interest you, sometimes you won't care.

But I don't want my past to disappear...

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits. ~Author Unknown

So I thought about setting a resolution to blog every day. obviously that didn't work. so i didn't. instead i decided to work on realistic goals. like getting dressed everyday. as i'm sitting here in sweat pants, obviously that didn't work either. but if you can't wear sweat pants when you work from home, what's the point? so i've decided to compromise. here are my rules:

1. sweat pants worn during the night cannot be worn the next day. new sweats must be donned.
1a. sweats worn during the day may be worn during the night of that day, but on no other night until washed.

2. sweat pants and shirt must match. this theory may be tested by the amount of embarrassment caused by a trip to the mailbox.
2a. complementary colors do not equal matching. i don't care if red and green are across from each other on the color wheel. you look like an elf. (i.e. ridiculous)

...

i'd think of more. but how many rules do you honestly need to wear sweat pants successfully?

this year is gonna be great (: