Things Great About Being Single When You’re 30… 1. I don’t have to entertain my in-laws. 2. I don’t have to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse sixteen times a day 3. There are never any unexpected messes in my house 4. I can go wherever I want whenever I want and stay however long I want (and not just on vacations—for dinner, to shop, after school…) 5. I never have to get up in the middle of the night 6. I can lay diagonally on my bed 7. Spontaneous trips 8. There are no car seats crowding my backseat 9. I can lay on my couch in my PJ’s all day and not feel bad about it 10. I don’t have to pretend to like soccer because my kids play 11. My toilet seat is always down. 12. No learned helplessness (I can hang curtains, paint a room, fix a leaky pipe) 13. Shopping alone 14. I can “run in” somewhere in less than 5 minutes 15. It only takes me 30 minutes to get ready 16. I never have to have sex if I don’t want to 17. When I finish my laundry, the hampers are empty 18. I do laundry once a week, and it takes 3 loads. 19. I can paint my walls whatever color I choose 20. I can decorate however I want 21. I can cook (or not cook!) whatever I want for dinner 22. I can buy whatever I want when I want it (even an iPhone!) 23. No one bothers me when I am on the phone or trying to watch TV. 24. SLEEPING IN! 25. I’ll never have to drive a mini van. 26. No childcare issues 27. Total control of the remote 28. Total control of the thermostat 29. Peaceful dinners alone 30. I don’t have to worry when I eat onions, garlic, etc. 31. No toothpaste spit all over the sink 32. Bathroom privacy 33. My house is as clean (or dirty!) as I want it to be 34. I can change clothes wherever, whenever 35. I can go to bed as early or as late as I want 36. My money, my budget 37. I can do all of my laundry in an evening 38. The shower has only my sundries, and I can have three kinds of shampoo and conditioner in there and no one will complain about it! 39. I can leave my straightener and blow dryer out on the sink all the time (and my make up for that matter) 40. I only have to get myself ready for church 41. I only have to get myself into church 42. I can sleep wherever I want 43. I don’t have to stick my nose in someone’s butt to check for dirty diapers 44. If I do something ridiculous, there’s no one there to make fun of me 45. No whining in my house! 46. I only have to put up with kids when I want to 47. I can buy all of the obnoxious toys I want for my friends kids with no worry of repercussions! I bet Carter would LOVE a drum set! 48. I don’t have to clean boogers off the shower wall (I had no idea this was even an issue!) 49. The front of my refrigerator is neat and tidy 50. No one reads the Sunday paper before I do (because I like it to be neat and in order when I read it—it’s okay, I know I have OCD…) 51. I can stay at a party as long as I want 52. No abandonment issues 53. I don’t have to referee all day 54. I can have a drink without my kids telling me it’s bad 55. I can read a book without the TV on 56. I can walk through the house knowing that when I stop, a line full of kids won’t run into me. 57. Only white solid lights on my Christmas tree 58. I can use the computer without someone crawling on my lap and banging the keys. 59. During a Parent/Teacher conference for a child who is misbehaving, I am always on the other side of the table! 60. No one tells me I am mean because I can’t afford to treat them like a mini-celeb 61. There’s no one around who thinks farting is funny.
So I am officially 30 years old, and you know what? It feels great! I honestly have the best group of friends a girl could ask for! On the big day, we had big plans to go to a new piano bar in Lexington. The girls had Bunko until 9, so the guys went early to reserve a table. Somewhere during the course of the night, I got a stomach bug (I know, I know, on my birthday!!! How much does that suck?) and we had to cancel at the last minute. Everyone went home with the hopes we'd reschedule soon. What is so great about that? you may ask. Well, all I can say is that I guess a little bit of the old me had resurfaced and thought they'd just go out without me. Autumn asked, "Did you really think we'd have your birthday celebration while you were home sick?" It's a ridiculous thought, I know, but I think that maybe, just maybe, on my 30th birthday, God gave me the gift of letting me know just how great my friends are.
Okay, so I am officially the Kiss of Death for TV shows... As soon as I like one, it usually gets cancelled. Here is a list of shows I love that have been cut short in their prime...
Lipstick Jungle
My Own Worst Enemy
Big Shots
October Road
Journeyman
Crowned
Miami Ink
Miss Guided
Teachers
Studio 60
Friday Night Lights
The Singing Bee
The Class
Traveler
What About Brian?
Commander in Chief
In Justice
Good Morning Miami
Reunion
So sad, so sad...
(FYI, I am not so completely obsessed with these shows being cancelled that I keep this list in my head...I googled cancelled shows and picked the ones I loved...)
A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped me with this... I don't have it so bad after all! 30 Things Great About Being Single… 1. I don’t have to entertain my in-laws. 2. I don’t have to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse sixteen times a day 3. There are never any unexpected messes in my house 4. I can go wherever I want whenever I want and stay however long I want 5. I never have to get up in the middle of the night 6. I can lay diagonally on my bed 7. Spontaneous trips 8. There are no car seats crowding my backseat 9. I can lay on my couch in my PJ’s all day and not feel bad about it 10. I don’t have to pretend to like soccer because my kids play 11. My toilet seat is always down. 12. No learned helplessness (I can hang curtains, paint a room, fix a leaky pipe) 13. Shopping alone 14. I can “run in” somewhere in less than 5 minutes 15. It only takes me 30 minutes to get ready 16. Sex is on my schedule 17. When I finish my laundry, the hampers are empty 18. I can decorate however I want 19. I can cook (or not cook!) whatever I want for dinner 20. I can buy whatever I want when I want it. 21. No one bothers me when I am on the phone or trying to watch TV. 22. SLEEPING IN! 23. I’ll never have to drive a mini van. 24. No childcare issues 25. Total control of the remote 26. Total control of the thermostat 27. Peaceful dinners alone 28. I don’t have to worry when I eat onions, garlic, etc. 29. No toothpaste spit all over the sink 30. Bathroom privacy
It's been FOREVER since I posted, but reading the blog of a mom from school made me want to start blogging again.... Plus, I have some exciting news:
So I am taking charge of my Singleness! I recently read a book I bought at a Christian bookstore called Table for One about enjoying being single and not putting your life on hold, so last week I went to dinner by myself! This may not be a huge deal to you, but it is to me. I even sat without my back to everyone (which was my initial instinct) and NO ONE looked like they felt sorry for me! I feel like I am living, not waiting for life to begin.
I also decided that with my 30th birthday around the corner, I would try to come up with a list of 30 reasons it's great to be single. I have 28 currently, and the funny thing is, I came up with four and the other 24 were given to me by my married friends! There are things to be thankful for that I never even thought to be thankful for! I'll post the list when it's completed!
I had to start a whole new blog (on an aside, it's hard to find a name no one else is already using, and it really pisses me off when I finally think of the perfect title and it's taken, but there hasn't been a post since 2002, but I digress...)
So I had a blog for a few months, just so I'd have a place to put my thoughts down. It turned into a really sad thing, and when I'd read over my posts, I couldn't help but feel sorry for myself. I hated myself, and for no good reason. I mean, I could stand to lose a few pounds, my hair has some grey, you know the drill. Anyway, somehow this made me less of a person, not deserving of love or happiness or anything good, yadda, yadda, yadda...
A few weeks ago, it all came to a head. I was sitting at the top of my stairs on a Saturday morning looking at my phone in pieces (not broken, just the battery out) because I had thrown it down the stairs because no one had called me in about 24 hours. How insane is that? Then I just broke down, thinking about throwing myself down those same stairs, and what would it matter, and who would care. I made a mental list of who would miss me if I was gone, and let me tell you, it wasn't a pretty list. We're talking parents and siblings (and not even all of them) and a friend or two (okay, really just one). I was a mess, I could hardly function. I went to church that night and the sermon was really good, our current series is about being broken and surrendering your life to Christ. The sermon that weekend was "Examine Myself with Fearless Honesty" and was about looking at yourself through the eyes of God, and seeing what he sees, and not letting all these things get to you (the things I was letting get to me). Then Sunday, I watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition and it changed my life. Laugh if you want to, but I'm serious. Let me start by saying that I love that show, but haven't watched in faithfully this year, but they were going to be in the good ole Bluegrass state, so I had to watch. They were redoing a house for Patrick Hughes, a UofL student who is blind and is in a wheelchair and has the greatest outlook on life I have ever seen. He said "God made me blind and unable to walk, Big Deal..." and I literally felt like someone had smacked me in the face with a brick. Here is a guy who can't walk, can't see the new house his family is getting, and he's fine with it, and here's me, 29, a homeowner, great job, good friends, great family, put myself through grad school, and I was seriously thinking crazy things about how no one would miss me if I was gone and what did I have to live for just because MY PHONE DIDN'T HAVE ANY MISSED CALLS. What a brat, what a spoiled selfish brat I was being. So I changed, I decided to think positively and look on the bright side and stop feeling sorry for myself and count the blessings I have. And I have. It's been three weeks and I am doing well I think. Let's hope and pray it continues. My leaf has turned over...
Proud supporter of Jesus, public education, STLP and the Kentucky Wildcats. Constantly campaigning for Aunt of the Year. I will beat you in Friends Trivia and it will not even be close.