IALAC

Do you remember this acronym?  Or did you ever do this activity in school?  Sometimes it was my absolute favorite, and sometimes I dreaded that time of year.  Anyway, the gist of it was this:  You made your very own IALAC sign.  You got a sheet of paper, wrote the letters IALAC on it, (meaning I Am Lovable And Capable), and if you were me, drew some beautiful flowers or swirlies around the letters.  Then you taped a string to the sign, and wore it around your neck all day. 

(This person has obviously endured emotional trauma). 
The activity was to wear the sign in class all day...and if anyone was to hurt your feelings you'd tear a piece off of it, the size corresponding with the amount of "hurt" that they'd inflicted. And if someone made you feel good about yourself, you would then glue or tape a little piece of the sign back on.  They don't do this anymore, as obviously it was a LAME idea.  You had the kids that would say mean things to you just to watch you tear your sign up, and then you had people say things that weren't sincere or true in the attempt to help you fix it back up again.  

I remember that one year a girl told me that I was "fat and dumb and I couldn't even play tetherball". I hated her.  3/4 of my beautiful sign was ripped off by first recess.  Yeah, I'm talking about YOU, Amy "Fern" Hulet.  But I have forgiven you now, because I was told a long time ago that you went to college and got really fat.  And everyone there thought you were an enormous b!t@h. And regardless of whether or not that was true, it made it so that I'm not still harboring hard feelings. (In fact, had I been wearing an IALAC sign at the time, I totally would have taped a huge chunk back on). And btw?  I totally kicked your @ss in tetherball, Amy.  And you know it.

Anyhoo, I'll get to my point.  Though the idea was dumb at best, it did leave a lasting impression on me.  In fact, there are times when I get my feelings hurt, or I find out that I hurt someone else's feelings, that I wish there was a sign that told me or who I'm with, what's what.   So I'm trying to be better aware of what I say, and how it affects others.  So that's that.  This post originally started out with me totally ripping into a certain someone...and I thought that maybe I should be nicer.  Well, here I am...being nice.   Boooriiiing.  But I'm growing as a person, right?
New topic. This last week was kind of a nightmare.  Jeff had jury duty Monday through Friday.  Monday through Thursday he was gone for about 6 to 8 hours each day, and then Friday he was gone for 15 hours.  Being used to him being gone a total of 18 hours a week, I was put-out by his absences each day.  Add into the fact that Cole was sick, and then Syd got pink eye in both eyes, and we were trying to get our house ready for our realtor to check out...It was beyond annoying.  I ate a lot of chocolate.  And did a lot of caulking.  And somehow made an already messy house even messier after hours of "organizing".   
All I'm saying is that getting a house ready to sell sucks.  Getting a house ready to sell while having an MIA husband and sick kids, is even worse.  But on the other hand, if we can't sell it, we now have our small home just the way we want it.  So, win-win.  Right? 

Let me say that I do love our house.  And Kass and Amy, if Syd had never come along, we wouldn't be moving for like, 50 more years.  I know our neighbors suck, but I really like it here.  I have met some great people here, and made friends.  So if it turns out that we're here for a while I'm okay with it.  We're a bit scrunched, but in the broad spectrum of things, we can pay for it, and we are happy.  I don't think you can ask for much more than that, you know?  But I still can imagine myself suddenly becoming a millionaire and having like, three rooms all to myself just for my crap.  Even a happy girl can reach for the stars.  

And one last thing:  It was doppleganger week or something on Facebook.  And I couldn't think of anyone that I look like....except maybe Kelli Osborn? I mean, if she still had dark hair and some moles and still ate meat?  I don't know.  I was told recently that I look like Jodi Piccoult. 

And, uh...I didn't see that resemblance at all.  But it got me thinking, we all see ourselves differently than others do, I think. My brother Jason told me that I remind him of Kat Denning, and that wasn't bad at all.  MUCH better than Jodi Piccoult.  What do you think?  Any ideas?  Don't worry, I refuse to wear an IALAC sign ever again, so there will be no physical evidence of crushing my self-esteem. ;)