Breathe

Day: Thirty

Photo taken on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 in the living room portion of our apartment when I got home from work.

Some days you really need to just stop and smell the flowers...instead of running 7.5 miles like your training schedule demands that you do.

Gross Tradition

Day: Twenty Nine

Photo taken on Monday evening, August 30, 2010 in the bathroom, over the toilet and the kitchen garbage pail.

It's been one whole year of marriage for the Reabs and we have yet to take our honeymoon. Steve and I aren't ones for traditions that other people have decided are traditions like the garter belt toss at weddings. Our ideal wedding is a cocktail hour that lasts for three hours followed by a dessert hour that lasts for two, though trying to find a reception hall that allows this is very hard. So we had no choice but to opt for a dinner at ours which turns out to be delicious anyway and the only thing I eat that day (until Pher and Kim come over to discuss our music choice and I neglect to eat as I explain how awesome it truly is to play the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack during the meal). My father/daughter dance is unique in that Dad picks the first half of the song and I pick the second. Everyone is horrified when Lonestar's I'm Already There turns off and Gnarls Barkley's Crazy comes on instead. They really thought the DJ had messed up! And the cake is no traditional cake either. The minute dad and I lay eyes on it during the final meal selection we know it’s perfect for our beach theme. I then snap a picture and send it to Moma down in Virginia and she agrees:

This is it then...

This is it now:

That is why some traditions should be left in the past. Why ruin such a delectable piece of cake just to be like everyone else and eat it a year later on your anniversary when dammit, I could have eaten it a year ago when it was fresh!

Who won? NOT KATE!

Day: Twenty Eight

Photo taken on Sunday, August 29, 2010 in the ridiculously hot afternoon at Hartland mini golf in Deer Park.


Who doesn't love a good competitive game of mini golf?

Steve and I take his youngest brother, Nick, out to one of our favorite courses on Long Island for a nice afternoon of putting. It's definitely a very enjoyable game despite the heat and the long waits between holes. The three of us play very well and on back to back holes, I get a hole-in-one! Like how does that ever happen?! (Maybe it's because of the ladybug that lands in my eye and clings to my glasses during our game which symbolizes good luck?) Though luck is not totally on my side when we finish the game and even though I get under par twice in a row, I still LOSE. How does that happen?!

Let's Go Mets!

Day: Twenty Seven

Photo taken on Saturday, August 28, 2010 during the 8th inning of the Mets vs. Astros game at Citi Field (Shea). Dad gave Steve and I his season tickets for the night since he was down in Virginia. Thanks Daddio!

As a young impressionable child, I am compelled to be a Mets fan because of dad and Pher. It seems reasonable to be one since dad's my coach and Pher is a fellow member of the Orioles baseball team I'm on. Even the back of my Players Card says my favorite ball player is Darryl Strawberry. So for years and years I wear blue and orange proudly, especially out in Colorado when the Rockies play New York.


But it's hard to be a Mets fan in the Raab household because the women rule the TV (that would be Moma and Kim) and they are Yankees fans through and through. So every time the Pinstripes take the field, regardless if the Mets do as well, the YES channel is tuned in and we all sit around to watch. One summer, even as I'm claiming to still be a Mets fan, Kim quizzes me on the Yankees batting order and their numbers. As I rattle the names off without hesitation she then throws me a curve ball: "Who is the Mets head coach?"

I look at her sideways and answer the only way I know how, "The Subway guy! Duh!"

She sees through my sly answer and knows the real truth…

There's a possibility that I'm slowly becoming a Yankees fan.

Peter Pan

Day: Twenty Six

Photo taken on Friday, August 27, 2010 in the Great Neck Waldbaum's shopping center parking lot at 645pm.

Steve wanted to title this piece "Kate Must Wait" because I usually beat him to our meeting spot every time we work with the Twins on Friday nights. Sometimes he keeps me waiting awhile and on days it rains I seek shelter in the drug store until he drives up. On nice days like these I stand in the usual spot on the curb and sing out loud to random songs on my iPod which I'm sure all of the shoppers enjoy greatly. Today they are treated to The Parting Glass by The High Kings, not once, not twice, but three times. Lucky ducks.

One art, please!

Day: Twenty Five

Photo taken on Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 810pm in the bathroom.

Steve and I first meet Nigel Sade at Anime Boston 2009 when his amazing art catches our eye in Artist Alley. His style definitely reflects our personalities and we find ourselves greedily looking through all the prints laid out in his booth. Nigel is a very interesting and talented man, conversation coming easily as we chat away with the dude. One of the most unique things about him, besides his work, is the fact that he's a pirate. No seriously. He is. He can put Jack Sparrow to shame.

We are so impressed with his work that we cannot decide on what pieces we want to buy because if we could walk away with his entire collection right now, we would. Instead we tell him we'll be back first thing in the morning with a decision and we head to the Sheraton Hotel bar to talk about it over some beers. We are positively giddy about our new art that we find it hard to sleep that night and instead we stay up well into the wee hours of the morning discussing what our "future home" would look like with his art adorning the walls.

The next morning we purchase this one titled, Esprit de l'homme, as well as two others. On our way home from Boston, we pose this to each other: how cool would it be to have him do a commission for us? We don't care how much it will cost; we know in our hearts that the only man for the job would be him. Less than a year later we corner him at I-Con in Stony Brook and beg him to do a Fullmetal Alchemist series for us. He is so enthusiastic about the project that a week later he already has a sketch for us!

Nigel is truly awesome and a pleasure to talk with. I highly recommend you click around his website and I guarantee that you will find a piece that speaks to you.

R&R

Day: Twenty Four

Photo taken on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 in our living room at 855pm (thank you florescent green numbers on the cable box!).



Since my night happens to not be going according to plan and seriously making me edgy, I have to correct it with something good. After finding two treadmills occupied as the other two are broken in our Complex’s gym, I get extremely agitated that I cannot do my required running for the day. I slam out of the cramped fitness room and stomp back up to my apartment to write the leasing office for a second time about how much their gym disappoints me. Once through with the strongly worded letter, I grab myself an IPA, put my feet up on the pirate coffee table, and turn on our awesome TV, Asuma Awesomo. Nothing calms my nerves quite like a microbrew coupled with anime. As I polish off the IPA and move on to a Troeg, my nice buzz has me forgetting all about the gym and enjoying the rest of the night.

Send in the Clowns

Day: Twenty Three

Photo taken on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 740am in my office chair. That is my coworker, Valerie's desk behind me.

Make-up is definitely fun to wear and play around with when you're going somewhere special like a birthday party in NYC or to a wedding or to a night club. Make-up is not fun to put on at 430 in the morning just so you can look decent at work in your dusty office with no window. I like to go for the natural look and abstain from wearing make-up, not because I think I'm naturally beautiful but because I'm just really lazy and the ten minutes it takes to put on is ten minutes I allot somewhere else.

The days when I use those “ten minutes allotted for something else” to put on make-up are usually days I hate the most. Everyone and their mother notices I have make-up on and feels the need to point it out to me or ask what the special occasion is. The special occasion, ladies and gentlemen, is that Katie is a little less lazy today. That's the special occasion.


And it's the way they point it out to me that almost makes me want to punch them in their face. Everyone gets all up in my personal space to look at this make-up and their voice goes up an octave as if they are speaking to a newborn baby or a puppy. "Oh you look so pretty!" they squeal as I shudder. They exclaim about my make-up as if this is the first time I have ever discovered it exists and why they feel the need to make doe eyes at me is nauseating and almost a little bit offensive.

So pretty much when someone compliments me on wearing make-up to the office, all they are really doing is pointing out the fact I look terribly ugly without it. To be honest with you, I find make-up to be kind of ridiculous. Think about it. Dudes don't have to wear make-up but we're required to "enhance" and when we do we put colors on our face. It just seems so silly to me and very unnatural.

Funny thing is, the first time I receive make-up it's at my neighbor, Krysten's Hair and Make-up birthday party. My goody bag consists of purple and blue eye shadows that I immediately take upstairs to my room to try in private. You would think I was testing out "looking grown-up" when in fact I use the eye shadows to create the meanest most awesome looking black eye one could ever get. I remember pulling away from the mirror and squinting like a badass back at myself muttering, "You should see the other guy."

And to me, using make-up in that sense is the most natural thing in the world.

Cookie Monster

Day: Twenty Two

Photo taken on Monday, August 23, 2010 at 810pm in the kitchen.


Right now marks the closing of the birthday weekend for Steve. He is now 28, has a bunch of new video games and comic books to tide him over for awhile, and a belly full of fine food. We're ending the night with freshly baked cookies and a Jet Li flick. Who could ask for more? (besides taking today off and missing the whole LIRR debacle...SCORE!)

Fiesta Burger

Day: Twenty One

Photo taken on Sunday, August 22, 2010 around 8pm at Bobby Flay's Burger Palace in the Smith Haven Mall. (Please don't let Frankenberger know I cheated on them tonight)


Steve's birthday weekend continues (third night and counting) with another dinner but with just yours truly because we so smartly take tomorrow off for the birthday weekend to carry on (his birthday is actually tomorrow). It's a little ridiculous how we celebrate each other's birthday for days on end and this all starts back in 2006 when my birthday lands on a Sunday. On the Friday before, my partner in crime in the classroom, Keri, throws me a surprise bash at another teacher's house. I'm completely floored that they are actually able to get one over on me and that all the staff comes despite the monsoon outside and the impending teaching tests we all have the following morning. The next day I celebrate with more friends, Sunday my family throws a shindig in the backyard, and then Monday my classroom busts out a birthday cake because on Friday it was part of the plan to look like everyone had forgotten about my special day.


So that's how birthday weekends were formed. It's going to really suck next year for Steve when it lands on a Tuesday and no weekend is involved at all.

Baseball

Day: Twenty

Photo taken on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at around 2pm in the Commack Friendly's.

I first meet Michelle in the seventh grade in Mrs. DiPiero's English class. Being that we sit in alphabetical order, the mysterious new student gets placed right in front of me and to my horror she is reading in her free time! Reading?! I tap her on her shoulder and ask her why she's reading when she could be playing cards like the rest of us. She responds, "I don't know. I like reading." This statement baffles me because who in their right mind likes to voluntarily read? So every day I make it a point to talk to her while she's trying to quietly read and thus the friendship starts.

Even though we go to different high schools, we stay close and make sure that every Tuesday and Thursday we place a call to each other to divulge juicy stage crew/theater gossip and read each other our newest screenplays or stories. When we hit adulthood our calls turn into frequent Friendly’s visits instead and we discuss everything in our lives, still including our stories that we continue to write in our free moments. Over ice cream we share laughs and sorrows as well as give each other advice to our problems we face in life.

Today might be the last time we get together at a New York Friendly's before Michelle packs up and moves herself down to Florida to start a new chapter in her life. I'll miss these trips for ice cream dearly but somehow I know Michelle and my relationship will survive the distance. No matter what we'll continue to be each other's creative sounding board and I will look forward to the next time we talk over Hunka Chunka ice cream, even if we're not in the same booth.

Ana Juana Learn

Day: Nineteen

Photo taken Friday, August 20, 2010 up in the Manga Loft around 1030pm.

I am so ecstatic when Annie drops by to see the apartment (and brings us delicious brownies!) that we head upstairs with some good beers to lounge on the rainbow beanbag chairs and talk into the night. I've known Annie since elementary school and the memories we created are some of the best to recall.

One of my favorites is when Annie comes with the Raabs up to Mount Snow for some skiing fun in our sophomore year of high school. On one of the last runs of the day we all head to Carinthia to race each other down a run complete with perfect rollers for maximum air. We all start at the summit at the same time and Charlie quickly takes the lead. I'm not much of a cruiser so it takes me awhile to catch up yet two people in our party have already wiped out so my chances of winning are increasing. Annie is on Charlie's heels and looks like she'll be keeping that position all the way to the end.

At the bottom of the slope past the ski lift is a huge mound of snow that has been plowed very high from the parking lot. Charlie, declaring himself the winner, skis to the top of it and stops, standing supreme over the rest of us waving his poles in victory. Annie, speeding down after him, goes to take the spot on his left as we all shout for her not to. Annie makes it to the top and stops and we all breathe a sigh of relief until she teeters and goes over the other side. Charlie tries to catch her but she's speeding down the other side into the parking lot out of his reach. I quickly pop myself out of my skis and scramble up the manmade mountain and peer over the edge, afraid of what I'll find.

I smile.

Annie is laughing her infamous "hee hee hee" with a huge grin. I'm so relieved she's okay but we all have to climb down after her and pull her out from under a vehicle anyway.

W/D

Day: Eighteen

Photo taken on Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 726pm in the laundry room.

On my way home from the city I text Michelle to see if she is available for dinner later. Unfortunately she responds with a "no" because she's at the laundromat and hating every second of it. I remember how much Steve and I despised laundry night when we lived in Bay Shore and then in Farmingdale: the expense, it always raining or snowing that night, the out of control children running circles around the place, the dryers that were broken but you didn't know that until the forty minute cycle was over, and the list goes on. It horrifies me so much to remember those long nights that the second I come into our new apartment, I head straight through the kitchen, open the laundry room door, and show some love to my washer and dryer.

Lucky #17

Day: Seventeen

Photo taken in the our bedroom on Wednesday night, August 18, 2010.

Every time I go down to Virginia to visit mom, Kim, and Preston, we always take a trip to the used book store, The Cracked Book (which dad likes to call the Crap Book and Kim's BFF, Mel, refers to it as The Cracked Spine). Each time Moma treats me to one book which sometimes turns into three and then on two separate occasions turns into an entire 12 volume yaoi series. On my last visit I pick up Memoirs of Geisha and it takes me a week on transit to read the novel because I absolutely love it and do not want it to end. Tonight I watch the movie version and even though I feel the story is stuck on fast forward, I can't help but be swept away in the beauty of the women and the Japanese culture I am so very fond of. I wish that one day I can portray the elegance of some of these characters I observe in this film.

Road Ragin'

Day: Sixteen

Photo taken inside of Sai on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 858pm as I was driving down Park Avenue into Huntington Village.

Steve's cousin, Paul, claims I am a crazy driver. Unfortunately for Paul, the first time he's a passenger in my car, I'm driving in the city. Now city-driving and Long Island-driving are two entirely different things. City-driving consists of jerky movements, no signals, and cussing. Long Island-driving is all about leaning back and steering with three fingers of my left hand. I prefer highway-driving the best actually, but I digress.

I don't usually rage on the road anymore instead I just grip the wheel and move my hands back and forth until I hear the sound of aggravated friction. I'll only honk if another driver is being stoopid and possibly causing a dangerous situation for others. But what I will do is flip a driver off who is going sooooo incredibly slooooow that I can't fathom why they are even driving at all. They might as well get out and walk it because it'll be faster. At this point, the car in the pic has been with me since Jericho Turnpike and I fear I will not make my 9 o'clock playoff game so I flip the bird in anger. I know he can't see me but it's satisfying nonetheless.

Caps for Sale

Day: Fifteen

Photo taken right before nightly showertime on Monday, August 16, 2010 in the Team Reab bathroom.

You may think I'm gross (and I really don't care if you do) but I don't wash my hair every day. I really don't find the need to especially if all I've done all day is work at The Surge and the most energy I dispel is walking up a flight of stairs.

So I wear shower caps. I'm probably the only one who wears shower caps anymore. Me and probably my grandma. I remember a time when I get to a hotel and freak because I learn that they do not have complementary shower caps and I have left mine at home. I immediately run down to my parents’ room and explain my earth shattering dilemma to my moma in hopes she brought one. She didn't. Like I said, just me and my grandma. But mom comes to my rescue a second later! She takes a plastic Waldbaum's bag and places it on my head. Instant shower cap.

Moms are truly the best.

Ca-YES!

Day: Fourteen

Photo taken on Sunday, August 15, 2010 a little after noon at Yankee Stadium... ON THE FIELD!!!

Yeah, that's right. I'm running on the warning track at the ballpark. Kim's friend, Dennis, offers a spot on his Team for the Damon Runyon 5k Run for Cancer Research and I do not hesitate to grab it. Run around the stadium for 30 minutes without getting in trouble and it's for a good cause? Sign me up! The coolest part (of course) is getting the chance to step on the same field that my favorite ballplayer, Jorge Posada, catches on and not only that, they put you up on the jumbotron as you run past right field! Of course every time I try to catch myself on the big screen someone always gets in front of me. I figured this would be the coolest self portrait EVER, taking a picture of a GIANT picture of yourself taking a picture but these ladies had to go and ruin it and all you see is my hand waving above their heads. Awesome.

Hubs

Day: Thirteen

Photo taken on Saturday, August 14, 2010 during the cocktail hour of Matt and Jessica's wedding which took place at the Woodbury Country Club.

(Usually Steve is the one to take all of our self portraits so now that I have the responsibility it’s just plain weird. I feel like he has a better reach with his arms than I do.)

A few moments after I finished the daily task, Anna came up to ask me if she could be in the picture for today. I regretfully informed her that I had already done it and she was generally upset. I promised her I could re-do it maybe on the dance floor during the reception but then Steve got upset! He said it wasn't fair because Anna was in the one on Thursday and it was his turn now! As shocked as I was by their outrage I couldn't help being pleased. I do hope more family and friends want to get involved in my self portrait project because their encouragement and support is what makes this all possible. Feel free to be a part of this silliness the next time we get together!

^_\

Book-On-Face Pose

Day: Twelve

Photo taken Friday, August 13, 2010 after the family dinner at Angelina's in East Norwich, NY. After eating myself into a food coma, I crawled upstairs to the Manga Loft where I spread out on our beanbag chairs to read and digest.

Sibs

Day: Eleven

Photo taken on Thursday, August 12, 2010 during our cousin, Matt's, rehearsal dinner at Monahan's Restaurant and Bar in Bayside, NY.

The lovely lady on the left is my sister, Kim, holding her son, Preston; the brooding gentleman in the back is my older brother, Charlie; the pretty woman underneath his arm is my sister-in-law, Anna, who belongs to the charismatic dude on the right, my younger brother, Pher.

I absolutely LOVE this one. It is very rare that the four of us are in a picture together because Kim resides in Virginia and Pher is across the country in Arizona. It brings my mother great joy when we are all in the same room after months spent apart and when we do get together it's quite the spectacle. We're not a very quiet bunch (to say the least) and we always know how to make each other laugh especially when bringing up embarrassing past events.

Pres SMASH!

Day: Ten

Photo taken early evening on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 in my dad's NYC apartment on the old living room chair that is now used as his desk chair.

This is my adorable nephew, Preston. He is seriously awesome because he has the sense of humor of an adult and he talks to me about superheroes and he's only 4 1/2. Over a year ago I taught him how to headbutt (out of love) and with that noggin of his he really knows how to crack you one back. Here we are in the midst of a headbutt battle (he's winning because he keeps telling me it doesn't hurt and my forehead is throbbing a little).

A Lover's Caress

Day: Nine

Photo taken at 712pm on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 in the Smithtown train station parking lot.

Where as most people treat their pets like they're children, I treat my electronics and technology as if they are real human beings. I think people do not realize what certain appliances actually do for us and forget to be grateful. Sure your dog is fun and all but can he get you to Great Neck in 25 minutes? Your cat totally loves you and greets you at the door but can she keep you "grounded" in an electrical storm? I didn't think so.

So this is why I name and respect major electronics that without them in my life I would be completely lost. I make sure every time I get into my Pathfinder, Sai, I greet him properly. Although I leave fingerprints all over the back door and affectionately tap the taillight compulsively, he still makes sure to bring me to any destination that I desire.

Now that's unconditional love.

             

And it burns, burns, burns

Day: Eight

Photo taken after my nightly shower on Monday, August 9, 2010.

Remember the raspberry I posted on Saturday? Well we had a make-up softball game tonight and I reopened it either sliding into first, second, or third and didn't notice the sticky blood until I returned to the bench after being batted in. Steve and I wrapped it up real good too so I have no idea how it happened to rip open again.

This is the face I make when hydrogen peroxide is applied to an open cut. I think it's time I invest in a sliding pad...

Katie The Exterminator

Day: Seven

Photo taken in the afternoon on Sunday, August 8, 2010 outside of our neighbor's apartment on the way to the parking lot.

After watching a DVRed Billy the Exterminator marathon this morning I find it quite fitting to exit our apartment to find a garden snake poised in the dirt by the path to my truck. I giddily run back to tell Steve what I spot but when he rushes over the snake slithers up into a bush. I then feel the need to run back inside and throw on a different outfit to do my imitation of Billy Bretherton. (I'm actually in the middle of yelling, "Aaaah! Snake!" like he does in the credits.) Steve and I are quite fond of Billy and his brother, Ricky, though if we had the opportunity to work with them we would probably turn it down. I definitely do not have the stomach for some of those roach infested houses! Yech!

Scraps

Day: Six

Photo taken around 11pm really quickly because I lost track of time today. I really have nothing creative to show you so instead here is my newest injury:

The first time I leave for a Hawks game in my green lacrosse shorts, Steve takes one look at me and warns, "You really should wear pants if you're going to slide."

I wave him off. "Pssh. I'm not going to slide."

Three hours later I return with a dirt and blood smattered left leg.

"I slid." I manage a sheepish grin and he just shakes his head in disappointment.

At least I was safe.

So now before heading off to a game I wrap my calf in an ace bandage (because right now I'm nursing an on-going running injury there anyway) so it adds sliding protection and then I place knee-high softball socks over it. Needless to say, I still receive raspberries sliding into that damn second base! People tell me I should wear pants but on certain occasions the dirt would rip my skin up through my Tri-Village issued uniform pants anyway. I was like half my size back then so I think my weight is the leading factor to me constantly hurting myself because really, no one weighing in at 175 should ever run as fast as they can and slide in dirt. The physics of it just points to disaster.

Kagemane no Jutsu

Day: Five

Photo taken August 6, 2010 at 456pm at my desk at the Surge.

(My hand is in the pic so it totally counts...)

I'm usually the last man standing every Friday night because Steve and I teach the twins after work and we're not expected until 7. I try to work right up until the end of my shift but sometimes it gets lonely and very quiet in the administration section of the Fifth Avenue Surgery Center so I get bored. Good thing I have a variety of toys strewn about my office to keep me busy, I mean no, I keep making charts, charts, charts! At least no one is back here right now to hear me scream out, "Chidori!" as I engage Hatake Kakashi and Nara Shikamaru in an all-out battle. Shika may have the Copy-Nin stuck in his Shadow Possession Jutsu but ultimately he's going to find holding it so troublesome that when he releases it, Kakashi is so going to win...unless I let go of him because he'll just fall over and that's really lame sensei...

Buns...and I'm not talking about hot dog buns!

Day: Four

Photo taken on Thursday, August 5, 2010 by my closet around 725pm.

This is what tall people see. Tall people like Yao Ming.

Bench Warmer

Day: Three                                       

Photo taken on August 4, 2010 around 845pm on the bench at the softball field in Hecksher Park (the one in Huntington, behind the stage where my sister, Kim, had us campers perform the Free Willy Dance about sixteen years ago).


Lisa sends out an email on Facebook in early spring or late winter, one of the two, asking if anyone is interested in playing on her 2010 softball team. I jump at the chance to play with her again and eagerly lie about being a Town of Huntington resident in order to be on the roster, so I can reminisce along with two other girls, Jackie and Jen, that I played Tri Village with back in the day. Back when I made Williamsport teams easily. Back when I used a mouth guard because I charged the ball like it was nothing. Back when hitting in-the-park-homeruns was a piece of cake. Back when I could stand on my head in the outfield facing the fence while singing Luck Be A Lady and still flip myself up right in time to punch my glove and catch whatever ball made it out to me in centerfield.

Back then I was good. Now I just plain suck.

Maybe it's the fact that playing one semester for St. A's killed the spirit of softball for me because the majority of the team was catty and didn't give me a chance. Maybe it's due to deciding to play hockey for three years in college now every other sport I engage in can't keep up with the speed of that game. Maybe I'm used to being fast, out of breath, masochistic, and non-competitive that I just don't have what it takes to play like I used to when I lace up my cleats.


The women on the Hawks are all so nice, welcoming, and amazing players. I enjoy their camaraderie and the thing I like the most about playing with them is that I can hear them all the time, whether it's cheering each other on or shouting out directions like, "get down!" or "hit your cut-off!" I always know exactly what I should be doing. That's the meaning of teamwork and I hate letting them down. They take everything in stride though and never make anyone feel bad about getting out or making an error but they all play so fluidly I don't like making mistakes. They deserve a better teammate.

Tonight, as usual, I get there late due to my commute and I patiently wait my turn to be placed in the batting order and then out in rightfield for the second game. I screw up my first three at bats then miscalculate a pop-up, and throw a wild ball. I do some things right, like back up Gina at first and scoop up a passed grounder though I feel like I understand why I'll always be a DH and a righty because my skills are so beyond rusty I'm not sure even a tetanus shot could save me. Especially now that I let the tying run score.

There's only one thing I can do...I have to make my last at bat worth it. And somehow, some way, I channel that gangly 13 year old with braces and wobbly Patella Femoral Syndrome knees with a bunch of sunflower seeds in her back pocket and a Raab Bag full of snacks stuffed in her dusty Easton bat bag (minus a bat) to step up to the plate in place of my 28 year old-ass. On one pitch she cracks it to a spot it's never gone before, that lovely little pocket above the short stop's head and she advances the winning run home. As I hit first base the team erupts and a rally starts and a smile I've misplaced since leaving the sport of softball behind breaks out across my face. I thank all the ladies with a thumbs-up and a megawatt smile that lets everyone know:

I'm on my way back.

With A Little Help From My Friends

Day: Two

Photo taken on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 around 730 pm in the Reab kitchen.

I like spoons because no matter how you turn it you'll still be upside down. It can either keep you busy for hours trying to get yourself upright or it can symbolically let you all know how I'm feeling today.



Shout out to Steve-O the TiVo for helping keep my hand steady and the angle just right. I know I'm cheating a little bit but it's going to take me a long time until I get the hang of this self-picture-taking-thing. I swear Michelle has it down to a science on Facebook!

Goals I Won't Ignore This Time

As I am perusing the old archives in a new fanfiction community I'm currently lurking in, I come across an individual with guts. Someone in her life dared the author of the BLOG Kids These Days Don't Know How To Move Slow to take a daily self portrait for a year. She does not go into specifics of the terms of this dare but she made the choice to post it for friends (and creepy stalkers like yours truly) to witness this unabashed picture taking. I'm impressed with her ability to make each photo different and not just in the angles but in the emotions expressed within each frame. In some shots she even looks like a completely new person! Even though she claims not to be a photographer, I am taken by her creativity and her self-assuredness to put such an intimate part of her on display.

And because of this brave soul, I have been inspired to follow in her footsteps. I am going to take this challenge that her work presents.

Me. The person who never comes out "quite right" in every picture she takes. Me. The one who for the past two times takes her license picture when wearing white so it washes out her complexion. Me. Someone who loathes the sight of herself in the bathroom mirror each morning (and I don't mean just the sight of what I glimpse as I turn to flush the toilet and a half naked me is squinting at my reflection as I reach for the handle...which I promise will NEVER be a self portrait I decide to take). What I do usually take is funny pictures but there's only so much comedy I can hide behind.

No, this time I'm for reals. This time I'm making a goal and actually sticking to it. One picture a day can't possible be that hard for someone as lazy as me right? Maybe this will strap me down and teach me discipline when it comes to deadlines. Maybe this project will kick my ass into finishing all the things I've wanted to accomplish in life whether it is writing a four part Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction to something so trivial as actually putting my college degree to use. This is it folks because if I can't follow through on this then there is no hope for me ever completing anything.

Though I have to laugh, out of all the challenges I have come across, this may very well be the hardest. It is not easy to pay attention to something you don't really like half the time, let alone take an enticing picture of daily.

Day: One

Photo taken on August 2, 2010 in the afternoon inside The Surge at my desk.

I'm a pen chewer. I'm not sure how long I've been engaging in this ugly behavior but I'm pretty sure it started around the time I learned how to write. In middle school I fancied what I like to call "Magic Pens" that write like markers and if you hold it a certain way the ink strokes could be thin or fat making for a really cool effect. What isn't cool is the fact I suck on them so hard the ink comes out the top and into my mouth, staining the center of my bottom lip. That's when I switch to the Bic pens with see through cartridges which are also great until the day I nervously chew through it in math class and cut the inside of my mouth and have to spit out bits of plastic and blood onto the white linoleum floor of St A's. Now if you go to my house you'll find an assortment of pens in a tiki cup on my large desk and you'll quickly be able to discern which ones belong to me and which ones belong to my husband, Steve. My pen chewing has gotten so out of hand lately that I have to take pens from home in order to discourage my coworker's from lifting my writing utensils from my desk. So far it’s worked wonderfully.