Geek meets geek

Taking it back to where it all began today. Where we began.

It was our Senior year at Villanova University, outside of Philadelphia. My roommates and I were throwing a party. My roommate (and best friend) Maggie invited her study partner who lived down the hall from us. He brought his cute, dark-haired roommate whom I had never met.

We talked for a little while but then Mike had to leave in order to GO DO HOMEWORK. Yes, dude leaves a party where he's chatting with a "cute blonde girl" {his words} to go finish up some assignment. ::shakes head:: I told him to come back when he was done. And? HE DIDN'T. ::shakes head again::

About 2 months later we ran into each other again at our favorite bar - Brownie's in Ardmore, PA. I miss the $5 cover for a night filled with free pizza, wings, fries, and $0.50 beers/$1 drinks...those were the days, but I digress. He bought me a beer and we talked for a couple hours. We left for different parties, but his roommate put his phone number in my phone, slyly called him from my phone, and told him to save the number he was calling from, because it was important. Little did he know... ;)

One of the first times we hung out - plus weird drunk guy photobomb

A large group of us, including Mike, ended up back in my apartment that night. We watched TV until 4 AM and starting hanging out a lot more. Since we were both so busy, our daily date was usually watching Family Guy reruns from 11 PM until midnight...oh to be in college again. We started dating each other more seriously after New Years' and the rest is history.

Kinda looks like a giant snowball is about to hit my head, doesn't it?

Our first real date - at a formal

How did you meet your significant other?


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This week's Toddle Along Tuesday co-host is Holli from It's an Ordinary Blog and topic is how you met your significant other! Let's take it back to where it all began! There are no rules here, except that you link up a relevant post (old or new) rather than your whole blog.

I would really like to continue with my weekly Toddle Along Tuesday topics because these posts are so fun for me to write. However, worrying about posting at the exact same time every week and coordinating with co-hosts is getting stressful. So...I think I will be going solo for a little while, and posting whenever I get around to it, either on Monday night or Tuesday. I'll probably skip some weeks here and there, too, if I can't think of a good topic. So TAT will go on, but just not quite as formal as it has been. Sound okay?

Guilty as charged: I'm boring

Growing up I dabbled in a number of different activities: soccer, singing, field hockey, girl scouts, violin, and scrapbooking. But I never stuck with any of them for an extended period of time. I guess you could say I'd get restless, eager to find the next activity to catch my attention. The only thing I did consistently was my homework. Ha.

Not much has changed in my adult life. I'll try things here and there...like knitting, cross-stitch, and genealogy, but soon I'll put it down and simply forget to pick it back up. I feel like I'm boring. I always dread the "tell us about yourself" and "what do you do for fun?" prompts/questions because my answer is...well, not much.

The only thing I do for fun on a regular basis now? Write.

I love getting my thoughts down on paper (well, the computer screen) and if I find that I don't have time to blog on a given day, I end up feeling unfulfilled. To me, blogging is not only fun, it is also how I wind down and relax. You might watch TV or read a book...I draw varying degrees of poopy diapers in MS paint.

Until Aurelia was born I posted almost every single day. Right now I have a list of 20 posts I want to write and I'm struggling with the fact that I just don't have time. Maybe researching how to make a clone of myself should be my next short-lived hobby? ;)


Now the dreaded {for me} question, what do YOU do for fun?


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This week's Toddle Along Tuesday co-host is Amber from Goin' Bananas and the topic is hobbies! We mostly talk about our kids here, so let's talk about ourselves and what we like to do for fun, for once! There are no rules here, except that you link up a relevant post (old or new) rather than your whole blog.

Next week's topic is Mom Confessions. These don't have to be juicy or {terribly} embarrassing (but bonus points if they are!)...just whatever you feel like getting off your chest!

If you like advance notice for TAT, check out the bottom right of my blog - topics for the next couple months are listed. Would you like to submit a topic idea and/or volunteer to co-host one week? E-mail me!

Typical Middle Child over here

At only 23 months and {almost} 2 months (yikes - can you believe Aurelia will be 2 months old on the 23rd?) it's not likely that we'll see any effects of our children's birth order on their personalities any time soon. It will certainly be something that lingers in the back of my mind, though, as my sisters and  I seem to be the poster children for birth order theories and philosophies.

It might be important to explain that for more than half of my life I was one of 4. My eldest sister Shannyn (Carina's middle namesake) was my Dad's daughter and she was 13 years older than me. She lived with her Mother but spent time with us on the weekends quite often when we were young. When I was 5 she went off to college and we didn't see much of her for a long time, which is something I'll always regret. She passed away after a medical mistake back in 2001. That's a story for another day, though. These post-partum hormones are making me too emotional to relive that all again.

Anyway, because she was so much older and we only saw her periodically, she was more like a cool aunt (at least to me). We didn't have the normal sister relationship which so often includes yelling, fighting, tattling, the silent treatment, grudges, resentment, and so on at some point while you're living under one roof. If you didn't experience any of those joys of sisterhood? I'm truly jealous, or you're lying ;)

Jessica, Shannyn, Amanda, and me. Be jealous of my AWESOME hair.

My sister Amanda is just 15 months older than me, and Jessica is 2 1/2  years younger. I won't go into details (since I know they read my blog periodically), I'll simply say that they exemplify the typical "oldest child" and "youngest child" quite well. LOVE YOU, ladies.

And me? I'm definitely a middle child. Growing up I often felt left out and tried my best to blend in rather than make waves. To this day, when I'm with friends I often feel like I don't belong. The worst part: every now and then I wonder if some of you out there read this blog just to make fun of me or feel better about yourselves. If it's not already painfully obvious - I'm insecure.

{I'm going to preface this with an apology to my family members. I hope you can forgive my feelings here.} I think my insecurities largely stem from the fact that I don't feel like I received as much attention as my sisters when I was young. They commanded a lot of the negative kind from my parents and there just wasn't much time left for me. I tried my hardest to excel in school and never do anything wrong in the hopes that they would notice me.

Now that it's likely that we'll have a middle child (or children?) of our own someday, this is something that I'm going to be vigilant about. It would pain me for my child's insecurities to originate and intensify at home.


Are you a typical oldest, middle, youngest, or only child? Do you think there is truth to the philosophies?


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This week's Toddle Along Tuesday co-host is Molly from A Day in Mollywood and the topic is birth order! Has it affected your kids' personalities, or yours? Is there any truth to that philosophy in your experience? There are no rules here, except that you link up a relevant post (old or new) rather than your whole blog.

Next week's topic is hobbies! We mostly talk about our kids here, so let's talk about ourselves and what we like to do for fun, for once!

If you like advance notice for TAT, check out the bottom right of my blog - topics for the next couple months are listed. Would you like to submit a topic idea and/or volunteer to co-host one week? E-mail me!

Dear Diary - a glimpse into my 6-year-old mind

Just a few days shy of my 6th birthday, I received an American Girls diary for Christmas. I was so excited to have a private place in which to record my thoughts and wrote in it faithfully...

My diary - 23 years later

...for all of about a week. I lost interest. Maybe my 6-year-old self just didn't have much to say? Here's my first entry, written on January 1st, 1990.

I think "thinge" is supposed to be "thingy". I had awesome handwriting back then, didn't I?

Since I could never get in the habit of writing consistently, I just put it in my closet and forgot about it. Until I randomly found it again. Then I would find the correct day, write, and stow it away all over again. A number of years later I began writing in the actual year with each entry, since I realized the diary was beginning to span a handful of years.

A couple {awesomely bad} entries from Middle School

.My 16-year-old self was super cool, going to the *NSYNC concert

About to graduate from college!

I remember finding the diary while I was packing up to move

Just a few months later ;)

Awww <3

My most recent entry

I found the diary while experiencing a bout of crazy intense nesting in which I tore through some of the remaining boxes from the move that we had yet to unpack. I instantly stopped, sat down, and read through every page.

It's funny; I can almost remember the excitement, happiness, and even uncertainty with which I wrote a number of the entries. Like the one about suspecting that Mike was going to propose? After reading those few short sentences today, almost 5 years later, I can recall the way I felt while writing them so clearly...

Moments like this are what inspire me to blog. My hope is that my 50-year-old self will be able to read this blog someday not only to laugh at the ridiculousness and cry at the photos and memories of tiny babies then grown, but mostly to remember the emotions I experienced, once upon a time.

***

Did you have a diary or a journal when you were young? And/or do you write down your thoughts anywhere at this time in your life?

Well hello there! This is me (sort-of)

Since I'm going to be meeting so many new people at BlogHer next week, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and share more of my face (and other parts - but don't worry, not naughty ones) with you! If you're not going to BlogHer, please enjoy these semi completely ridiculous photos of myself and my bump, anyway.

Pardon the weird, yellow lighting. Here's how I might appear at BlogHer:

Nice to meet you, I'm Melissa!

What's that? I smell chocolate...

I think I just peed myself

OMG French fries!

Yeah, it was me

I am SO excited to meet you! Promise I'm not a creepy stalker...

And here's my sweet sweet alien child - she's not coming to BlogHer, but she wanted to get in on the action

ENOUGH Mommy!

She got so frightened by the strange images of herself and me, she started to cry. So we put away the iPad for now.

Oh yes, and as promised. The bebeh bump. It's probably more recognizable than my face, huh? I'll be 33 weeks at BlogHer. Please cross your fingers that my water doesn't break all over your fancy shoes.

While I'm at it? I might as well tell you a little bit more about myself, too...in case it wasn't clear from the pictures ;)

I'm an oversharer extraordinaire. If we're hanging out I'll probably just tell you that I have to pee every 5 minutes rather than attempt to come up with random varying excuses or just sneak away. This baby is using my bladder as a punching bag; it's just unavoidable. Along those lines? If I sneeze, cough, or laugh really hard, expect that I'll be needing to head to the bathroom immediately afterwards.

If you couldn't tell already ::glances up at blog header and title:: I'm a bit of a geek. I'll probably be more interested in where you got the custom designed QR code on your business card than where you purchased your sparkly four-inch heels.

I'm probably eating Nutella, something fried, or Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza as you read this. If you want to be my friend or find a way to break the ice at BlogHer? Mention - or better yet, bring me - chocolate in any form, cheese, or cupcakes. I'll be yours, instantly. Look for me at the CheeseburgHer party: McDonald's french fries + beds on which to lounge? A pregnant woman's wet dream. 

Will you be at BlogHer, too? Or do you just share my love of all things fried or have poor kegel tone and strength as well? Say hello!

What I want to be when I grow up - Toddle Along Tuesday

Truth: I have absolutely no clue what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I have a BS in Biology from Villanova and had planned on attending medical school after I graduated. At the time, it just seemed like the logical "next step", as I have always loved science and the medical field. But when I went for interviews and spoke with the current students, I changed my mind. I realized that I wasn't 100% sure that I wanted to become a doctor, and with the rather large time (and money!) commitment, it just didn't make sense to jump in, in the hopes that I would eventually come around.

With my Daddy on Graduation Day

Instead, I took my previous experience as a Pharmacy Technician - which I did part-time for 6 years during high school and college and full-time for 1 year afterwards - and applied it to assuring the quality of software used by Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians. I really enjoyed both what I did and the pretty cool company for which I worked. I say cool because it has a treehouse that we used for meetings, and my building had a moat and drawbridge. And that was just the beginning of the themed buildings and decorations!

Because being at home has been a little tough for me lately, I am toying with the idea of returning to work after Aurelia arrives as a consultant. I would help my previous company's customers install, execute, and optimize the software that I worked on for so long.

I don't foresee this being my long-term career, though. When Mike is done with this Post-Doctoral Fellowship and gets a job as a Professor at a University (his current goal), my hope is to use his tuition benefits to go back to school. What for? Like I said in the opening of this post: at this point I have no idea. I'm going to take my time in figuring it out because I want to be sure that whatever it is, I am 100% invested in it. If money was no object? I'd probably work/volunteer at a Rape Crisis Center or teach medical students/doctors the truth about women's physiology (seriously - the number of doctors out there who insist that ALL women ovulate on day 14 of their cycle and get their period 14 days later is absolutely ridiculous).

Tell me about your job and/or career aspirations! Is there anyone out there who, like me, has no idea? Link up or comment!


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My co-host for Toddle Along Tuesday this week is Heather from My Organized Chaos and the topic is occupations! What do you do, or what did you do in your former life? Or what is your dream job? There are no rules here, except that you link up a relevant post (old or new) rather than your whole blog.


Next week's topic is babies and pets! Share some cute photos of your little ones and furbabies! I am fully prepared to die from cuteness.

If you like advance notice for TAT, check out the bottom right of my blog - topics for the next couple months are listed. Would you like to submit a topic idea and/or volunteer to co-host one week? E-mail me!

Teach your kids not to be dbags

I'm starting a new series of posts. Whenever something pops into my head that I think everyone should teach their kids, I'll be sharing it with you. Wait, wait! Don't run away yet.

This won't be a collection of do it my way or else I'm going to judge you, you bad bad Mommy you or I really think you should parent like this because it's so much better - look, here I'll even cite sources posts. I think hope you know by now that I'm just not that kind of person.

Rather, it will be an assortment of things that - if everyone out there had been taught - would have saved me a lot of pain, sadness, and frustration at some point in my life. And others, too, of course.

So let's begin - with my adolescent awkwardness.

Me (right) and my sisters, ca. 1996

Bad acne. Horrible braces. Scary hair. No confidence whatsoever. And to top it off? A fuzzy chickie backpack (WTF?) As you can see here I was quite the epitome of cool.

Closer up, around 1998: doesn't my Mom look good? Me, on the other hand...

I was just all sorts of awkward, and almost everyone around me let me know it. I was barked at by kids on the bus and excluded by my group of so-called friends because I {and I quote} "wasn't hot enough to get any guys". Is it sad that I still remember that 15 years later? Even my sisters made fun of me on a regular basis (we're tight now; it's all good). On my 14th birthday, a "friend" called to invite me to see Titanic in the movie theater and said she'd call me later. When I hadn't heard from her by late afternoon, I called back and her Mom told me she was out at the movies. ::gutpunch:: <~~~Yep, looking back I totally laugh at this and how dramatic I was, but in my 14-year-old mind, it was akin to the end of the world.

At times I felt like my only allies were my Mom and my teachers. Which is probably why, in retrospect, I always made homework my priority and straight A's my mission. I threw myself into my studies and tried my best to let all the taunting roll off my back. Not always so easy, though...I ended up going to see a therapist for some time. Shortly thereafter we ended up moving to a new town which gave me the opportunity to completely start over. I never looked back and things just got better and better.

So...on to my point. Teach your kids not to be little jerks. I know we can't control everything our kids do, especially when they are not under our supervision all the time, but showing them how it feels so much better to be nice to someone than to be an ass really isn't that hard or time consuming. And if you ever find out that your kids have been bullying or teasing another child? Take action. Please don't shrug it off and mutter, "kids will be kids".

I was fortunate in that I found solace in my Mom and in my textbooks. And on the bullying severity spectrum? Mine was quite mild. Many other kids have not been so lucky. I just read that a 7-year-old (7 EFFING YEARS OLD) committed suicide on Wednesday because of bullying. I can't even...

Seriously, teach your kids not to be dbags.


What was your experience like growing up? Were you ever bullied? Have your kids been bullied?