Category: Jen

The fam and I went out for ice cream to celebrate Brian getting his cast off and I ordered a small cup of peppermint ice cream. It’s true!

So, my mom wants to know my best and worst childhood memories. I have a lot of the first and not so much of the second, thankfully. I think the qualifier of “best” and “worst” is TOO MUCH PRESSURE, so I am just going to relate a good and bad story, ok?\
Good: Visiting Grandma Lang and the Michigan gang for Christmas when I was 8-ish. First time I remember snow. We all crammed into Grandma’s little apartment at the retirement home for dinner one night. Grandma complained that I kicked in my sleep. (Sorry!) Uncle Roger gave me a perfume-making set. He and Aunt Nancy kept calling each other Aunt Roger and Uncle Nancy and laughing like it was the funniest thing ever. Cousin Dana, who was 10-ish, and I visited a neighbor lady of Grandma’s. She was a little weird, as unknown old people are to young kids, but Dana knew the lady pretty well and she was really nice.\
Bad: Minor car accident with Grandpa Junkermann and Mom in a snow storm on the way home from a cousin’s funeral in another state when I was 14. We spun out and the car got stuck in the snow in the median and we ended up spending the night in the cab of a couple of nice female truckers (call signs Onion and Carrot). There were literally hundreds of people stranded in the middle of nowhere and the truckers in the area made sure we were all relatively cared for. Because I was lame, I only took my jean jacket with me, instead of my warm winter coat which I left in the car. The cab was smelly and cold where I “slept” (I got the spot near the pee jar and the dirty clothes, and ended up on the cold metal floor, yay) and just really uncomfortable. Yeck. I know it was a bad night for everyone. No one was hurt though, so I can’t complain too much. Beyond that night, every single time my parents were late coming home. I was a huge worry-wart about car accidents (a fear not related at all to the previous story). I am still a worry-wart about my parents being in an accident and freak every time they call me, which they rarely do. Maybe if they called more, I would get over it, eh?

Before you can successfully have a revolution, you need to cleanse the mind-pallet. This involves copious amounts of watching cheesy college frat shows (aka Greek) and surfing the ‘net in between crying jags prompted by watching your kidlet via webcamera. It is very important that you do the pallet cleansing thing. Otherwise, the whole endeavor might fail. True story.\
Anyway, I came upon this gem yesterday and it is the funniest thing ever. You must watch and enjoy.

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In other BREAKING news, the writers strike has left my tivo devoid of anything other than Spongebob and Ninja Warrior. How can I possibly do the laundry under these hellish conditions?

About a month ago when Brian started all-day school, I started a Jen-volution. I was so ready to be in my third phase of motherhood: having kids. Kids. Not babies, toddlers, or teenagers. Just kids. I had two glorious weeks of this, where I saw the future and it was AWESOME. And then Brian broke his arm (he was a super duper trooper about it all) which put my revolution on hold. Today he is going back to school and so the revolution commences once again! Wheeeeeeeeeee.

Good things don’t happen to me*, good things happen to people around me. Which MUST MEAN that I am a super awesome good luck charm. Want proof? Announcing the good things that are happening to other people-

• Kevin’s pet project, ficlets, was nominated for two awards at SXSWi.
• Heather, my SIL, was featured in a documentary, We Are Wizards, that will be shown at SXSW Film.
• Brooke White, a friend of a friend, is on American Idol and she made it to the TOP 12. Way to go Brooke! YAY! It’s exciting to see her doing so well. For those of you into this sort of thing, check her out. If you like what you see, be sure to call in your support. Thanks! Here are her last three Idol performances: Beautiful, You’re So Vain, and Love Is a Battlefield.
• Sharon, my baby cousin (not to be confused with Lauren, my itty bitty baby cousin), had her baby! Welcome Andrew:\
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  He is so cute and smoochable (but only on the top of the head!). And look at Aunt Margie. Doesn’t she look too young to be a grandma? Where is her white hair and denim jumper?\
  Congrats to everyone on the list. And no need to thank me. :)\
  * This isn’t a woe-is-me statement, just a fact. I don’t have a job, I don’t create things, I don’t work on projects or get promotions or any of that. I did make a damn fine turkey chili the other night, though. 🙂

I have a recycle bin I want to get rid of. How do I do this?