Foto Friday – Spike

Quite a dapper gentleman I must say!

No, I am not the kind of person who normally dresses her pets. But who doesn’t find it amusing every once in a while to see how much you can annoy a creature by throwing something on them?

Spike, my foster dog, seemed to not only not mind it – but actually kind of enjoyed wearing the hat. I think he may be posing a little for me in this pic.

On another awesome note: Spike and Sarah have a “meet & greet” at a potential “forever home” this Sunday night! Yay!!

My “birthday” party

Okay – so the party wasn’t for me – it was for this lady.

Bossy & I on my 29th (cough!) birthday

But it was my birthday.  And it was a party.  And it was fabulous!

There was laughter, hummus, good beer, and even better company:

Mommy’s Martini, MomZombie, Unmitigated (the artist formerly known as Middle Aged Woman), Deb, Suzan (aka: swirly fabulous), Elizabeth, and GrandeMocha.  Silly me, only took out my camera at the end of the night to take a few blurry photos.   Scrapbook FAIL.  But check out Bossy’s post on the night, as well as some of the other great bloggers above for actual pics.

And then, on the way home, I got my first (actual) birthday present….. A lovely ticket from the State Police.  Ha!

Actually, it was kind of a gift.  I only got written up for not having my new registration on me.  (New tabs were on the license plate – but the actual copy of the registration form was on my kitchen table.  Fail)

I can only hope that next year (when, surprisingly enough I will be turning 29! again!) is just as good.

The Evil Empire is going down

Now, even though I reside in America’s left hand now, and am a big BIG fan of the Detroit Tigers….
In my heart I always will be first and foremost a Boston Red Sox girl. Born and raised in South Boston, I am a lifetime citizen of Red Sox Nation.
Tonight, though, I get the best of both worlds.
For my birthday, my friend Kimmy got tickets for her, Brad, her client, and myself to watch the Tigers take on the Yankees at Comerica Park. w00t w00t!
Somewhere in the stadium there will be a girl who is shouting extra loudly for the boys of Detroit to kick some serious butt.
Tonight, God willing, the Evil Empire is going down…

edited note:  That was disappointing.

an ode to technical difficulties

Dear internet, why

won’t you work for more than just

thirty seconds? ugh…..

Tomorrow we hope to return with your regularly scheduled blog.

(edited to add:  the above haiku took me 45 freakin’ minutes to post…)

I’ve got a feeling….

That tonight’s gonna be a good night.

The catchy tune by the Black Eyed Peas has been running through my head for a little while now.

Why?  Because tonight BOSSY is coming to Detroit!   She s did a road trip across the U.S. back in 2008 and a group of us local bloggers got together for a night of fun, wine, and a late-night White Castle trip.  Not to mention, the world’s yummiest salmon dish. (recipe is halfway down the post)

Now she’s doing it again, this time for her (No) Book Tour.  Because, well, she forgot to write a book.   But she did manage to organize a trip criss-crossing the country covering 12,000 miles in 6 weeks.  Yikes!  Check out Bossy’s website to see the latest stories of leggings, support hose, the best fast-food breakfast sandwiches, and living out of a car for one and a half months.  Also, her romance with John Cusak. (see below)

And a group of us are getting together at a local(ish) brew pup – Liberty Street Brewing Co. in Plymouth, MI.  I’m hoping to reunite with a few of the great women I met last time – and meet a few more.  Maybe even a guy will show up this time.

A few other reasons why today is going to be good:  It’s also my birthday. (woo-hoo!)  So before making the trek to Plymouth, my good friend Brad & I are going to catch an afternoon showing of Iron Man 2.  It’s also a sunny day – perfect for walking my foster dogs.  I also went to the chiropractor this morning and feel very relaxed and stretched out after my post-adjustment rolling treatment.  Also: the office staff at Dr Buller’s sang “Happy Birthday” to me when I walked in.  How sweet!

I hope you’ve got a feeling that today is going to be great for you as well.  And I hope that there is some sunshine in your life, wherever you are.

My best friend’s birthday

A (sort of) reposting.

Dear Kel,

You are my oldest and best friend.  The first of all my Kelly’s We went from checking out bugs, to drinking gross concoctions on dares, stealing textbooks (albeit discarded ones), to pre-teenhood.  Then came training bras, and boys, and o-my-gah – periods.  And high school. And boyfriends. and broken hearts.

And,then, your marriage.

After all this time I’m glad we chose not to be roommates in college.  It would have likely ruined our friendship.  I was in a very different place than you at the time, and I may have felt too constrained.  (Although a little more constraining might have done me some good!)  You saw me go from conscientious student, to college slacker.  Saw me through lost innocence, lost faith, lost sense of self, sense of worth.  You kept true to your own path, setting your sights on things beyond my vision.  Focusing on your goals,  and your calling.  Keeping your own circle of friends.  But you never let me out of your sight, or off your radar.

You never gave up.  You continued to encourage me, love me, plant seeds of faith and hope in my heart.  Even though I pushed them (and you) away.  Even though I asked you to kindly keep your Jesus to yourself, thankyouverymuch.  It took a few years (ha!) but your seeds found roots and are finally flourishing into a garden of my own.  And now he’s my Jesus too.  (and Kira’s, & Erin’s)  Who knows where your influence will end?  I know I’m not the only set of ripples you’ve sent out over the waters.

You let me know that you thought the world of me, and that I had value to add to this crazy world.  Even if it’s just my amazing Cranium skills!

You have always amazed me.  You are a bright and shining star in a gray world.  You are brilliant, talented, a hard worker.  A caring, insightful doctor.  A beautiful woman.  Funny friend.  Enthusiastic laugher.  Loving wife. Generous stepmother. I want to be just like you when I grow up.

Here’s to us on our 24th birthday together.  May we have 100 more.  I love you more than words could express.

love,

jules

Stiff-Necked

Just Juli, self-portrait. May, 2010 (courtesy of necksolutions.com)

As I sit here recovering (still!) from my whiplash, I am reminded of a phrase that I read in the Bible referring to the Israelites as “a stiff-necked people“.   When I looked up this passage, I was surprised to find that this description is found 7 times in the scriptures.

If God says something once, it has meaning.  Twice – you should take more notice of it.  But seven times?  He is really trying to get your attention!

That’s me.  And not just right now when I am working just to get my head to comfortably face forward.  (And, oh! To dream of being able to look to my left! Or up! Or down!!)

I am stubborn.  I can be hard hearted, and slow to change my ways.  I am guilty of sometimes falling into bad habits of apathy and laziness.  Even though my heart has been broken for so many marginalized people.  Why is it that I spend more time on facebook than keeping up with world events?  The ignorance of the masses is what keeps the cycle of evil in the world continually spinning.

Edmund Burke is oft misquoted as saying

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”

Burke’s actual statement from his ‘Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents’ reads:

“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitited sacrifice in a contemptible struggle”

Today I am pondering why it is that I can so often get stuck in a cycle of selfishness and be so myopic in my worldview.

More importantly: What steps can I take to become more of an active participant in this world?  What do I need to do to look beyond myself and meet the needs of others?  How do I “soften my neck”?

Red Wings Haiku

Detroit Red Wings win!

It’s about time. Seven goals

to San Jose’s one.

Photo credit to AP via Yahoo!sports

Johan Franzen set a franchise record with 6 points in a playoff game.  He had 4 goals and 2 assists tonight.

I can almost look up…

… After an emergency visit to the chiropractor today, plus a second adjustment this evening.  ugh.  This was my first visit to the chiropractor in almost 2 decades.

I have been so tightly locked up with my right shoulder to my right ear – and my head turned to look over my right shoulder.  It started out as a kink in my neck on Saturday, and has progressively gotten worse each morning since.   Today I spent half the day nearly in tears.

I was able to get into the doctor’s office this afternoon – maybe partly because my dad was their first patient, and has been loyal to the practice for going on 25 years.  I went there a few times as well in my early teens – but it’s been a looooong time since then!   Since it has been so long, I was expecting Dr Buller to be on the elderly range of the age spectrum.  Ooops!  It’s funny how the young mind sees anyone over 25 as “old”.  I was shocked to find that the doctor is a few years younger than my dad.

I had between 0 and 5 degrees of motion in many areas.  No duh.  And the x-rays showed a lot of serious misalignments – so much that I could even see them without the doctor pointing them out.   I went through my first adjustment and was sent home to ice the area a few times before I came back in at the end of the day.  The difference was almost immediate.   And was even better after the second one.

– I also had my church group pray for me tonight and saw a noticeable relaxation in my neck/shoulder muscles after that as well.  I want to give props not only to the excellent chiropractic care of Dr. Jeffrey Buller, but also to the healing power of Jesus.  Not everyone believes in that, but I do.

I still can’t tilt my head forward much to look down.  But maybe that’s a good thing.  I should be looking up more often anyways!

I need a Sonic intervention

At what point does a habit become an addiction?

I have this, um, friend.  We’ll call her Judi.  And she just discovered Sonic’s slushes for the first time.

Having heard of them for quite some time (The Pioneer Woman is a fan), Judi’s friend convinced her to swing by the new Sonic in town on the way home from the baseball game on Saturday night.   It’s less than 2 miles from his place, and not out of the way.  It was there that she got her first grape slush, and it was all that she had hoped for.

She dropped her friend off and headed home, savoring the grapey goodness slowly so as not to get brain freeze.  However, when she walked in the door of her house, one of the cats was overzealous in his greeting and her precious slush was dropped.  The bottom blew out of the cup, and all the delicious grapeness was sprayed all over the back hall.  The horror!

Judi, being an optimist, wasn’t going to let this ruin her day.  Half a slush is better than no slush at all, right?  The next day she was headed back down to her friends place again, to meet up with a group to watch the Red Wings play.   This was the perfect opportunity to swing by Sonic and get a brand new replacement grape slush.  Yum.  She was the envy of all at the party. (Well, Mark at least)

Today, Judi’s three-day neck cramp needed some TLC.  Why not head to Brad’s place to use the pool/hottub?  Oh, and while there, why not pick up another slush to refresh herself?  (Actually, that part was Brad’s idea, but she got on board with it right quick).  Today, just to mix it up, Judi got Cranberry.  It was good.  But it was no grape.

That Judi.  She’s a wild one!

Now, Judi finds herself wanting to explore the whole gamut of icy beverages at Sonic: Creamslushes, Other Slush flavors, Limeades….. So many possibilities!

Before Judi heads down that way again tonight, should she be wary of this innocent habit becoming a stronger addiction?  At what point is a Sonic intervention called for?

Please help me her!