That slight elation

I have had a brief brush with fame.

Oh, I don't mean this one.

If you watch, you can see the back of my head. Apparently it is recognizable enough that I've had several people be like, "I saw you in that Chamber of Commerce video! At least, I think it was you..."

Yes, it was me. Yes, I knew they were filming. I gave them permission to film the back of my head while I ordered a salad from Cafe Diem. They had some cool-looking gear and I asked them about it.

Anyway, that's not what I was talking about.

I follow some libertarian bloggers, one of whom I really enjoy reading who calls himself (or herself?) Bionic Mosquito. I like his stuff because he is a thin-libertarian who very much enjoys debating, analyzing, reading about, and applying libertarian principles.

Libertarian principles, at their very least (thinnest), involve three rights and one principle. Most people just list the principle, but I believe the rights are implied if not usually directly included in said principle.

You have the right to your life, to your freedom, to your property. The principle is called the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP), which is that you (and everyone else) must not aggress against anyone else's aforementioned rights. And thus we obtain peaceful anarchy where every man rules his own frontier and respects his neighbor.

Except that we are human. And we are aggressive. And therefore a lot of libertarian theorists talk a lot about how our peaceful anarchy would be maintained. I tend to find this stuff fascinating, but I'm always secretly scared that I'll encounter something that makes me believe that I just can't be all on board for libertarianism. So far, I've stuck to the our-system-sucks-currently-so-freedom-would-be-better-even-with-problems position.

Anyway, Bionic was talking about his theories around governance, the social glue that would help maintain our society. It isn't part of libertarianism exactly, as libertarianism is ONLY a political philosophy. It isn't meant to be religion or charity or family. Freedom means you provide your own rules for your own way of living. And so, governance. Someone in his comment section of a post asked what he meant by governance, and Bionic responded with several examples, but I didn't feel really a definition, which could have been what the commenter was asking for. I understand Bionic's arguments decently well by then, so I attempted to distill it in the comment section in form of a definition.

And then I was reading through another post one day.

Look at the conclusion. Bionic quoted me. He's been thinking about, reading, and discussing things with people like Walter Block, big name libertarian theorists, and he quoted me.

I am ashamed of my grammatical errors. Aside from the "e" he added to "wherein," I noticed I didn't put a period after "etc."

But he said "something exactly like that" to my summary of his idea.

I admit it. I got little thrills. Showed David. Sent it to my dad.

I'm such a nerd.

My reclamation

I'm sure it's all very well and good to have relatives interested in your well-being. Relatives who continually speak the truth to you, on a daily basis, calling to mind scripture to send you through the day, reminding you of God's word.

However, I wish these relatives wouldn't get up so early.

David's father and sister both send out Bible verses via text. I'm not sure of the frequency because his phone buzzing doesn't always wake me up, but there have been times, one recently, where I was almost able to get back to sleep... and then another buzz.

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:

[Scrooge] then made bold to inquire what business brought [the Spirit] there.

``Your welfare!'' said the Ghost.

Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately:

``Your reclamation, then. Take heed!''

That's how the argument goes in my head anyway. "But I want to sleep. But it's Bible verses. CAN I REALLY BE MAD AT BIBLE VERSES?" At five-something in the morning, apparently I can.

"Can't you put your phone on silent?" I ask. No, he needs to hear in case of emergency. "How about just your Dad and Emily?" I respond, grumpy. No, they're included in said emergency communication.

"Why on earth do they get up so EARLY?"

I think David usually stops listening to me by then.

Anyway, if there was an emergency and someone was calling him, there'd be a good chance he wouldn't hear it and I'd be the one kicking him so he'd make it stop.

New Year's Resolutions, or lack thereof.

So nobody asked me what my New Year's Resolutions were, so I actually had to volunteer my joke to people. What, do I have no friends at all? Do you not care for my self-improvement?

I would have just answered that my life was going to change enough without me making any resolutions.

And, let's see how I did with last year's:

-Floss
I flossed more. An increase over zero is more. However, this wasn't a very large increase. They could still tell I didn't floss at the dentist. My step-brother-in-law(in-law) recommended flossing like a week in advance of the appointment, and then flossing a few days before the appointment. He says that acclimates the gums and they always compliment him on his flossing at the dentist. His wife shot him a dirty look.

-Beef up
Nope. I didn't. I didn't go downhill, but there was no noticeable gain in muscle mass.

-Find my fulfillment in God
Not enough.

-Become a stagehand
Actually got this one. I think I got like a .10 raise. It's just a title based on time employed. I haven't been there for a while cause my other job pays more and is more fun. And more consistent.

-Get curtains for my bedroom
Check. Mom was going to help me make them. Then she made them. Double-score.

-Learn Krav Maga
No, and I totally blame Aaron! I'm like, "I want to learn Krav Maga, I found a place that teaches it, I have those nights free this month, let's do it!" He's like, "Oh, we need to wait for this, and wait for this," and in the end, we didn't go. I shouldn't have waited for him, because I'm pretty sure Krav Maga is one of those things that they don't let you do while pregnant.

-Read 100 books
Just barely. There were definitely a few children's books involved and several late-year trips to the library. But hey, now that's market research, right?

This year, the plan is for all members of my family to survive.

She shall be a Jedi, like her mother before her...

See the tiny lightsaber in her hand? David did that. Jedi I may be, photoshop wizard I am not.

In case you want proof that *I* am the Jedi of the family:

Yeah fine, so that's an old photo. I'll get to it. I feel like I need to get a Jedi robe just to have on hand. Maybe a lightsaber too.

I put the baby picture, with the title as a caption, on Facebook. As of around twelve hours later (mostly nighttime hours at that), it has gotten 74 likes and 24 comments. And what's nagging me is that I don't know if people just saw the ultrasound picture and said "congrats!" or if they actually saw the lightsaber and connected it to the caption... I'm in torment. I'M NOT JUST POSTING RANDOM ULTRASOUND PICTURES HERE! It's PURPOSEFUL. It's a joke.

Ah well.

This is partially why I have not posted anything on my blog for... well, however long it's been. Close to five months. It was not "Facebook Official" and so I wasn't going to put anything on my blog. And since I pretty much cannot think of anything else and have not been thinking of anything else for the past five months, there hasn't been much to write. I have probably lost my three readers.

Cue plan for turning blog into a somehow financially viable "mommy blog" somewhere in the future.

I thought about having a different blog for child-related things, but I feel that child-related and my-life will tend to overlap immensely and at least one of those will get abandoned.

So, to wrap things up:

Yes, she's a girl. As far as the ultrasound tech can tell, and she was completely confident and has been doing this sort of thing for eight years. Yes, I'm perfectly happy having a girl.

We're thinking Genevieve Rose for a name. It's not set in stone. Feel free to recommend something else. In the meantime, know who I'm talking about when I mention "Ginny."

I'm feeling fine. For the times I'm not feeling fine, you probably actually don't want to know.

I'm due June 10th. June's a good month for birthdays. I should know.

I am excited, expectant, and scared all at the same time.

No, I'm not giving her dreadlocks.

As far as the ultrasound went, everything checked out great. Ginny is right on track and looks completely healthy. And really, that's the best news.

My sincere apologies

I'm sorry. I'm bad at updating.

I was thinking about doing a post on 5Ks, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Or maybe my job where I actually do things.

But I'm not feeling particularly eloquent at this juncture, so I will make a brief comment on Star Wars.

On the new Star Wars movie coming out in December.

I purchased a Star Wars t-shirt for the occasion.

First off, I discovered the girl in the beige outfit that I thought was Jedi-like was not, in fact, a Jedi. Bummer. I was kind of hoping for a female Jedi lead. No, the Jedi-force-dude is actually the stormtrooper guy.

But fine, whatever.

BUT, I also saw that Leia's last name is billed as Leia Organa. And you know, Han Solo is still running around in the Millennium Falcon with his bro Chewbacca. Is he still living the bachelor life? Are they not married? ARE HIM AND LEIA NOT TOGETHER?

I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt on these movies, JJ Abrams, but so help me if you ruin the Han Solo + Princess Leia happily ever after.

When pigs fly

I have just had an epiphany.

I am looking forward to going to work tomorrow.

David: Ok...?

Clearly, this doesn't seem to be as big for other people as it is for me. Let me put it in context. I can't remember when I've ever looked forward to going to work.

1st job: Administrative assistants assistant. And I was a foolish young teenager in Turkey. I made a chain out of paperclips and cleaned the coffee machine. The building had air conditioning and people mistook me for a Turk. I had no idea what I was doing. It was... interesting. And, from what I recall, short lived.

2nd job: Stagehand, Iowa State Center. The hours were bad.

3rd job: Scheman Staff, Iowa State Center. The hours were better. All manual labor, but there was this boy I liked... (David. Ended up married. In case you didn't catch that.)

1st internship: Camera Monkey, Iowa Cubs. Pretty awesome, actually, for an internship. But long and hot. Good skills, though. And paid! And free stuff and baseball.

2nd internship: Reporter, with a person that shall not be named. Let's just say I survived. Possibly scarred.

4th job: Cashier, Panera Bread. Yeah, the food was good. The micromanaging was not.

5th job: Valvoline Instant Oil Change. Working on cars was fun. But let's just say I wouldn't take my car there...

6th job: Place that shall not be named. Took me a good 3-6 months to recover from being fired.

7th job: Stagehand, CY Stevens. Infrequent, but interesting. I enjoy being there, once I'm there.

8th job: My current job!

So, I don't remember if I mentioned this, but I run video camera at church. My uncle got me into it, saying, "it's really flexible." I like flexible and I had experience (see first internship), so I volunteered. (note: Uncle flaked out)

Sometime later, the director offered me a ppt summer job with Channel 12, the local station for the City of Ames. Also, flexible. I like flexible.

Basically, Derek has an intern or two lurking about at any given time, but sometimes he wants another camera monkey, and so I was that monkey. It netted me a few extra hours during the summer and some fun evenings at the Ames Municipal Band concert, as well as an education on all the other buttons on a camera that I never had to deal with in Cornerstone Church or at the I-Cubs (like ND filters and Gain and White Balance).

Derek's intern left back for college. Oddly enough, it took my mother saying, "Well, why don't you be his intern?" for me to even consider it.

He made me say nice things about my boss (him), but in the end offered me the job. Which includes using cameras, getting footage, attending meetings, going to shoots, editing video (new skill), and laughing at his jokes. Or him. Maybe I'm doing it wrong...

So this is the first week that I've really been scheduled for more hours and he's teaching me editing. And that's all very fascinating (although I still need to be led like a child through editing), and I am enjoying it.

And looking forward to work tomorrow. Which I didn't think possible.

So I guess the zombie apocalypse is next, or the sky falling, or Russia nuking us, or something.

Tragedy

I was biking home from the grocery store with a box of wine, a jar of raspberry preserves with seeds (because what is the point of raspberries without seeds?), and two Snickers bars in a bag hanging on my handlebars.

The end of my brake line was scoring the bag when it swung that way, but I wasn't planning on keeping the bag, so I didn't care. And then I went over the bump at the end of my driveway. The (rather heavy) jar of raspberry preserves jolted through the broken part of the bag and shattered on my driveway.

I scooped up the bulk of it in one hand and fumbled with the keys to the garage door with the other. I couldn't get in the door to the house; it had stuck, as it does occasionally. David was home, I knew, so I pounded on it. Nothing. I then went to the front door of the house and let myself in there (more key fumbling) and then splattered the kitchen floor with preserves as I pulled out a tupperware. I tried picking out the glass shards and then scraping off the whole front of the preserves still clutched in my hand.

On rather sound advice, I abandoned the preserves (after making one sandwich, which did not end up having glass in it).

So don't drink wine! It's bad for you! Or your preserves. Or don't bike? Or don't go to Fareway? I don't know what the moral is, but any story that ends with me losing my raspberry preserves has got to have a moral somewhere.

---

Derek: Oh, oh, I know the moral. Pick me!
Me: What is the moral?
Derek: Don't carry your preserves in a bag with your box wine while biking while your break line is scoring the bag.

Thanks, Derek. We'll all take that to heart.