Whenever I pay cash (which basically only happens when I buy a McDonald's Coke in the summer) I always take a look at the coins and wonder what their story is. I took this picture before buying my Coke last week that fueled the repainting of my bathroom. There's one here that's a 1977 penny.  That's older than me.  Where has that penny been?  What has Abe seen? Every now and then I will get a wheat penny (COOL!) or a Canadian penny (What?) but the ones that always fascinate me the most are the ones that either look really old and worn but are only a few years old (what happened to those pennies to make them age so quickly?) or the ones that look fairly new but are several years old (where have these pennies been hiding so they haven't lost their shine?)
I guess those little copper pictures of Abe are kind of like us... You see people that look well older than they are, then there are those lucky ones (like me of course ) who look way younger than they really are (hey, I've gotten carded the last two times I have been at Liquor Barn... and just shut up if you are going to tell me they card everyone there!) I often see a person and wonder what their story is... guess I just have the same curiosity about my change.

Half empty or half full? Why can't I just say the water takes up half the glass? Or technically it's totally full, the top half is just filled with air.  Or maybe the glass is just twice as big as it needs to be.

Sometimes I am accused of being a pessimist.  I will fully admit that there have been many, many times in my life when I was pessimistic about everything. But those times were a long time ago, and I am a much happier, more confident person than I was then. There were also times a long, long time ago that I was an eternal optimist, being confident and sure that everything in life would work out the way I had always dreamed. But now, now I feel I am a realist.  When I have a crappy day, I will tell you I had a crappy day.  I don't spend time trying to find the one thing that made my day amazing... maybe that day didn't have one thing.  On the flip side, when I have an awesome day, I don't focus on the one bad thing that happened, I focus on the awesome stuff.

Being pessimistic does no one any good. Being optimistic can mean getting your hopes up for something that might not happen.  So I am realistic.  My job, finding a new house, finding someone to share my life with... will all of these things work out for me?  I sure hope so.  Do I want to go through life with rose colored glasses not preparing for what happens if they don't? No. Do I want to lock myself up in my townhouse, never even trying because I know nothing is going to work out anyway? No.  I will continue to live my life, hopeful that the best is yet to come, but enjoying every moment now.  I have long said I want to live a full enough life that if someone comes along and sweeps me off my feet, I have lived enough that I am ready to "settle down." And if I stay single forever, I love my life enough that it's not the end of the world.

So if all that equals me being a pessimist then maybe I am.  Or maybe you need to look up the definition of pessimist.

Now, someone hand me the damn glass.  I'm going to drink the rest of the water so I don't have to talk about it anymore.

Those of you that know me well know that I grew up in Grayson, Kentucky, and that my parents still live in the house they built when my mom was pregnant with me. The only moving I did when I was younger was from room to room (to room to room!) in this house. All of my Christmases, nearly every Thanksgiving and Easter, and even most of my ordinary days have happened within those walls.There are memories in every room, fading high pinball scores on the cement walls in the basement, hidden messages written on closet walls, and somewhere a diamond and sapphire ring Mom let me borrow once (I SWEAR I just shook my hand and it flew off.  Where is that damn thing?!?!)
So maybe two decades of life and memories are why, after not living there for eleven years, when I dream about "home" this is the house that appears.  It's really bizarre.  It's not like I don't dream about other places either.  This winter I got snowed in at the Frat House one night, and that night I dreamed about: the Frat House.  A couple of weeks ago, before Megan high tailed it out of Kentucky forever, I went to visit and stayed in her condo (or as she so lovingly calls it: shoebox), and that night I dreamed about her condo. But after renting a townhouse for six years, and buying one five years ago, I have never had a dream about "home" that took place anywhere other than 228 Shady Lane. Often (as dreams sometimes do) this house is magically transported to a closer zip code (as I can get there quickly from work, the mall, Commonwealth Stadium, etc) but it still sits atop the wooded hill that holds it in Grayson.  Last night I dreamed I had friends over to my house: friends that I have known for less than a year, and whom my parents have never laid eyes on, but it was the house in Grayson they were coming to, and I even told them when they left late at night that they needed to be careful, because my mom was a light sleeper and could easily hear the front door open from her bedroom.
Maybe my house now doesn't really feel like a home... Maybe I'll have to be gone from there for another ten years before I stop dreaming about it... Or maybe it's just another thing about me that makes me weird...   Whatever the reason, I guess you can file this under "Interesting Facts about Erin"

I always like to Google a picture of the letter I am writing about, but for U, I really should've just called my mom and had her take a picture and send it to me. My parents house is full of U's. Everytime I see a U somewhere I buy it for them. The reason behind is super cheesy ("I love U" "We couldn't be an US without U") but that's just how they are! Anyway, here goes my U entry...

University of Kentucky-I know you are all shocked that UK makes me happy, right? I had some great times at the actual university, and their football and basketball teams are pretty fun to watch too.

Uniforms-As in guys in uniforms. Baseball, football, police, fireman, military. The type of uniform doesn't really matter, it just makes me happy to look at guys in uniforms. C'mon, I'm a single girl, can't fault me for liking to look!