Sleeves!

I don't understand why it's so difficult to find dresses with sleeves! There are a few places I've found, but all in all, I'd say I've seen maaaybe 50 dresses that have sleeves. Maybe. A lot of times, too, dresses with sleeves are too short, so if one area of my body is properly covered up, another is not.

It's absolutely ridiculous. Why does everyone want all their dresses to be sleeveless. That look is so boring to me. With sleeves, the possibilities are endless! You can have half sleeves, three-quarter sleeves, gathered and oh-so-slightly puffed sleeves, long sleeves big sleeves, fitted sleeves. The list goes on and on! With sleeveless dresses, you basically only have four styles to work with: big straps, spaghetti straps, halters, and strapless. BORING!

Designers, you're out!


Thing I'm thankful for: umm, dresses with sleeves.

March MADNESS!

When I was in fifth grade, I remember watching my two older brothers make a chart on a dry erase board and rearrange names and numbers as they watched basketball games. I had no idea what it was or why they were doing what seemed to be schoolwork when they were at home.

Nearly twenty years later, I of course know what they were doing: creating a March Madness bracket. Two things fill me with wonder as I think about their dry erase board full of team names:

1. I am amazed at how much technology influences everything in life. You can now create brackets online and share them with your friends! Web developers and computer programmers design online brackets to do the work for you, too -- you no longer have to manually track your predictions. And you can research just about anything you want on a team. It's just amazing.
2. How is it that I have gone so long and a) not been curious about brackets before, and b) failed to fill one out? I created my first-ever bracket today before Round 1 began, and what a thrill! Who knew basketball could be so much fun when you have a team you're rooting for? Call me crazy for not having thought of that concept before, but I assure you, readers, I now understand the error of my ways.

All that's left to say, really, is that filling out a bracket is so much better than not filling out a bracket, and I think I'll do this again next year . . .


Thing I'm thankful for: clothes on sale!

Never Have I Ever . . .

. . . Pierced my ears.

But I think I'm going to.

I was lazily shopping at Target on Saturday night and found myself in the jewelry section, browsing the bracelets and necklaces. I looked up at the earrings a couple of times and wished I could wear them. That's when I thought, "Hey, why don't I have my ears pierced? I think I might get my ears pierced!"

I don't know why I never got them pierced when I was young. My mom allowed my sisters and me to get our ears pierced when we each turned 14. I just didn't care, though. Even when my best friend sister got her ears pierced, I couldn't care less. I wasn't afraid of needles. I wasn't trying to be different and cool. I just didn't care enough about earrings to get them.

Now that I'm 28, I sometimes think about how a nice pair of earrings looks good with an outfit. Or how I wear my hair in a ponytail so much that a good pair of studs would make me look a little more feminine and dressed up.

But. I sort of like that my ears aren't pierced. And I have a big head and a round face, so earrings might not look the best on me. Who knows, really? But I'd like your opinions just the same. Readers, what say ye? Should I get my ears pierced?


Thing I'm thankful for: nice co-workers.

Power and lies

This study is amazing! Read about it!
People in power make better liars, study shows

Thing I'm thankful for: sunshine on a cool day.

Going for the Gold

I love watching the Olympics, and I love rooting for my country. I always want Americans to win the most gold medals.

And yet I can't help but think that wanting an Olympic gold is a foolish goal. Preparing for it is excellent, of course. Making it to the Olympics and trying your best to win is spectacular. But there are those athletes that just don't seem to be pleased with themselves unless they win a gold medal. Neither silver nor bronze is good enough.

Now, I don't know what it's like to be a professional athlete, and I don't know what it's like to spend most of my waking hours training each muscle in my body to do what I tell it to. The physical, emotional, and mental demands on an athlete's life must be grueling. Perhaps the only consolation for a life devoted to sport is to win an Olympic gold.

Would I be a bad parent, though, if I told my future children that no matter how hard they train, there might be someone better? That there might be someone with a faster time, a younger body, or higher endurance? Do I tell them that silver is good enough? That it's essentially as good as gold (because it truly is, in my book)?

I think it's extremely harmful to think that you can be the absolute best at something. What happens to your worldview, if you find out that you're not, in fact, the best? We might all be the best at what we do, but maybe we're all the best at alternating moments. If that's the case, then an athlete—or anyone else—shouldn't be so hard on themselves, if they aren't number one at a given moment in time.

But how do you teach that to a child without crushing his or her hopes and dreams? How do you teach that without causing them to think that something's not worth trying?


Thing I'm thankful for: a bed to sleep in and a place to keep my things.