Friday, December 30, 2011

It Was. It Is. It Will Be.

this week a friend of mine from high school passed away.  she was 28.  it was unexpected.  it was the day after christmas.  it was not the desired answer to thousands of prayers that hundreds of people prayed.  it was, is, and will continue to be devastating for everyone that knew her.  

today a father will bury his daughter.  today a mother will bury her baby girl.  today there will not be one empty seat or one dry eye in a church in minneapolis.  today i am sending all of my love to minnesota.  today i am hugging every friend i see.

maggie, you were the sweetest of the sweets.  you left a beautiful and unparalleled mark on this world.  i am praying for you and your family as you spend your first days in heaven and they walk through their first days without you by their side.  may you have a million arms to welcome you home and may we find peace knowing that you are indeed... home.


Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas

 christmas with my family has always been exactly, completely, entirely...  
this:



and even though my parents traded snow for surf and moved...
here:



and instead of having aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, priests (yes, priests) and friends over for dinner we started passing out gift baskets at my dad's hospital in... 
these:



and candlelit midnight mass on christmas eve has become us one by one trickling into the living room to watch my crosspoint family on...
this:



and us "kids" no longer wait at the top of the steps for our parents to get the coffee and camera ready before we get to see what santa brought us like...
this:




not all that much has changed like...
this:




merry this and happy that to everyone and everything.
'tis the season.


ps - i got the most bestest biggest outstandingest terrific amazingest supercalifragilisticexpialidocious gift ever this year.  more on that as soon as i can share details...






Thursday, December 22, 2011

Tom Petty Was Right

the waiting really is the hardest part.

my friends sean and mary susan just returned from a trip to ghana where they got to meet the sweet baby girl they will be bringing home in 2012.  

now, they wait.  but waiting is an understatement.  while they anticipate, expect, hang on to their hats, hold on, hole up, keep their shirts on, lie low, look forward to, sit tight... wait for the day they can bring her home, we pray.  may she feel loved.  may she feel safe.  may she feel wanted.




http://maemcconnell.blogspot.com/p/abiella.html

Christmas Courage

i come from a family where funny is king.  sarcasm is our first language.  the sole purpose of gift giving among us is for the giver to purchase something that the recipient will be mortified to return.  this clan will go to great lengths for a laugh.  

but this?  this took some special kind of christmas courage.  my 21 year old brother flew from wisconsin to texas, that's one thousand one hundred and eighty miles... in this:




i have never been more proud of him.








Wednesday, November 30, 2011

I Can't Make This S*#t Up - The First Installment

"man losing his mcdonalds in ur gyno room"
sometime in 2010


this story, as you will find most of these do, starts off completely normal.  well, as normal as anything involving me can be.  

girl goes to annual doctor appointment, checks in, waits in waiting room probably playing a few games of words with friends while wondering how it is possible for an office to be running 30 minutes late at 9 o'clock in the morning, finally gets her name called and blood pressure taken, is forced to stand on the scale, looks at the number and starts doing the math to answer the question "if i keep gaining 3 pounds a year how much will i weigh in the year 2036?", gets herded into a room left alone to put a gown on (opening in the back - do people still need to be reminded that this is how to wear them???), then sits on the  edge of the table and waits some more.

see? totally innocent.

and then...

without the usual warning knock the door handle turns and in walks a man.  it is of importance to note that this man is neither my doctor or anyone's doctor.  he is clearly some pregnant woman's husband who has been sent to mcdonalds to pick up food because they have been waiting as long as i have, and hungry pregnant women get what they want.  he walks into the room looking down at the balancing act of drinks, food, and coats going on in his arms and immediately starts talking about something... i couldn't even begin to guess what because the soundtrack going on in my head was "WHAT THE FUUUU?!?!?!?" (ok, there are some missing consonants on the end of that word.  fill them in yourself.)  after a solid half an hour (megan time, real time was probably more like 7 seconds) of him setting down fountain drinks on the desk, refolding the coats draped over his arm, and opening the giant bag of food he carried in... he looked up.

slow motion replay:

man looks up, instantly realizing that i am not his wife/baby mama.

his face turns from normal accountant-esque business to complete mortification.  a look i am convinced i will never see recreated in the wild.

his arms go up and french fries go flying.  and i mean FLYING.  and not just a few french fries.  i'm talking two super size containers full of those hot, greasy bad boys.  FLYING.

man falls to floor with stop, drop and roll type urgency.

the next 10 minutes (megan time, real time: 5 seconds) were spent with him on his knees, body parallel to the floor scraping french fries around with an extended right arm and shoveling them into the hallway behind him.  his left arm was frantically reaching for and continuing to miss the door handle in an attempt to escape and close himself into the safety of the hallway as quickly as possible.  

the best part about this whole event was the communication, or lack there of, that was going on between us.  mr. stranger danger was babbling and stumbling over phrases like "oh shit", "so sorry", "wife you're not mine", "no no no", "fries everywhere", and, my favorite, "oh dear".  this poor man was in such a state of humiliated distress and i was, for the first and last time in my life, totally speechless.  i just sat there with my jaw on the floor.  i didn't gasp.  i didn't yell.  i didn't say "honest mistake, no worries" and ease some of his embarrassment.  i didn't point and laugh, though in hind sight this is really the best response to this type of situation.  i just sat there until he finally backed himself up on his hands and knees into the hallway and got the door shut, not without a handful of french fries getting flattened into the carpet in the process.

then i started laughing.  and i mean cackling.  like tears streaming down my face laughing.  couldn't catch my breath laughing.

icing on the cake?  i heard him go into the room next door and a woman's voice said, "where are the fries?"

I CAN'T MAKE THIS S*#T UP.








Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I Can't Make This S*#t Up - Sneak Peek.

meet mary susan.  she is one of my favorite people on earth.  well, at least she was yesterday.  after her influence on my life today people's perception of me is about to drastically change. today she posted this to her blog and followed it up with the following texts:



the list goes on and on.

 "what does 'faked' pictures at walgreens mean?", you ask?  faked is my bennifer (ben+jennifer, as in affleck and lopez - you're welcome for that blast from the past) for "fake naked".  FAKE+NAKED = FAKED.  "ohhhh, i get it...", you think... "wait a minute.... this crazy b!$*h took fake naked pictures and brought them to walgreens to print?!?!?!?!"  

yes.  yes i did.

in my defense, i took the pictures with 4 other friends in the home of 2 different friends who were on vacation in europe for 10 days.  the situation was begging for a practical joke.  you can't leave us alone for 10 days with a spare key to your house and expect us to behave.  or to not take fake naked pictures in your house, bring them to a walgreens located 30 minutes away from where we live in order to protect our identity when printing them, proudly display them in a red pleather photo album, and place them on your coffee table for you to find as a gift upon your return.  you just can't.

i digress.

i told mary susan that in place of any future birthday/baby/christmas/anniversary/canadian boxing day gifts i would start blogging a series entitled "i can't make this s*#t up".  although i'm sure once this series is compiled into a book it will be called, "no one will ever love me because..."

i don't know how i attract this crap but i do.  and, starting tomorrow when i have gathered the courage to share these ridiculous stories, it will be to your benefit.


i think i'll start with, "man losing his mcdonalds in ur gyno room".  it's a gem.

xo, m