Selfishness

Selfishness is a word with a double meaning.  The act of being selfish can be a good thing.  I am all for putting the phone on silent (along with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn...) and curling up with a good book.  It is important to unplug and spend some time with yourself, it is healthy to have a great relationship with you.  If you don't spend time loving you, it is hard to let others love you.

The other side of selfishness, the pety "me first" attitude is so frustrating to me!  I am a giver, I admit that, probably a little too giving so maybe I am super sensitive about people being rude to each other, but seriously...what is so darn important that you cannot take the time to say good morning, what makes a person feel they are better than another?

It is this kind of mentality that causes road rage.  I see it all the time, that one person who has to jump lanes in front of others so closely that they almost clip their bumper.  Those same folks are ones who speed up when the person next to them is signaling they need to change lanes and the ones who make turns from inappropriate lanes.  It makes my head spin.

Just yesterday I had two interesting things happen in the car on my way home, once at lunch and once after work.  At lunch I was behind a girl in a Jetta and one of the hubcaps on the passenger side of her car came off and turned left.  She kept on straight.  I was thinking, I wish we weren't going 40 miles and hour and that I could tell her that her hubcap had turned on Greenbriar, so she could go pick it up.  I imagined how irritated I would be if I discovered one of mine was missing.  And it wouldn't be my first thought that it had decided to head south while I was heading west.  Of course not, I would think someone stole it from me...and that would make me mad!  Ugh.  I hope it didn't ruin her afternoon when she discovered it was gone.

After work I was heading home and the traffic was stopped in the left lane at Shepherd.  Of course I was in the left lane.  I patiently waited my turn while the traffic in the right lane zoomed by.  The light changed and I waited.  When the light cycled through and the left turn lane went, the person in the front of my left lane (not in a turn lane mind you) turned left.  While the left turn folks next to him and the ones across from him honked.  The intersection was not that big.  I was floored.  I had to laugh...I wasn't going to let this person's selfishness ruin my afternoon.  But seriously...what is so important that he decided to stop traffic there to wait to turn left from the wrong lane?  What made him feel he was entitled to decide that all the traffic behind him needed to stop and wait too?  Would it have been that much harder to go straight and u-turn back to turn right?  I don't know.  Maybe someone had cut him off and prevented him from getting into the appropriate lane...but still.  There are just some times when you shouldn't be selfish.  I believe this is one of those times.

I realize I have been referring to the driver that turned left from the wrong lane as he, that driver could have just as easily been a she...I don't know.  I didn't see the person.  The person that lost her hubcap was definitely a girl.  I saw her.  Please don't think I am making gender judgments because I am not.

Now I would never say that I think others should be more like me, but I wonder...did anyone else see the girl's hubcap turn the corner?  What was their reaction?  I honestly felt badly that that girl might be sad later because she had lost her hubcap.  I wonder how others felt when the person turned left from the wrong lane after forcing them to wait through a light cycle.  Did they get mad?  Or did they laugh?

At any rate I think selfishness on the road and other aspects of life, in line at the grocery store for example, are things I could definitely do without.  I feel that unless there is imminent danger, you don't need to be in such a self centered rush.  Relax, notice the flowers, take a deep cleansing breath...you might enjoy yourself more.

Are there types of selfishness that annoy you too?

Recent Jewelry

My wire working is getting better...I was super excited about these earrings! 

One day I will be good enough to make the spirals spiral in the same direction...but I do kind of like the whimsy they have because they don't.  I heart them.

I donated some pieces for a silent auction to benefit a friend of a friend's mom's cancer treatment.  She has b-cell lymphoma and the awareness color for lymphona is green, so I was asked to incorporate that color in my pieces.  I didn't know it was specifically lime green...oops.  I wish I had been able to attend the benefit, but that was upgrade weekend.  

I did a wire wrap bracelet and earrings with gold tone wire.

Then I did a criss cross bangle with some super cool earrings that I wanted to keep for myself...but I resisted the urge.

The absolute best part of donating the jewelry and seeing pictures of the benefits is knowing that her treatment is going well...she is doing great!

I need to get busy, April is almost over and I have two April birthdays I need to create gifts for.  I'm late...my bad!

Things I'm Loving - Spring 2011

I think it's very cool how a small accessory can change the way you feel or change the feeling in a room.  I fell in LOVE with these soap dispensers at Pier 1 and had to have them for our bathroom.  Aren't they so cute, fun and happy?

Close up!  I think if you look hard enough you can see blurry me and the camera.

Another thing I am loving this spring are shells!  I always have the jar of shells in our bathroom, but this spring they have invaded the living room and the front bathroom too.  I can't wait to go to the beach!  In the living room they are surrounding a candle on our coffee table.

My office is not immune either.  I have lots of fun spring time pencils and I bought some new pens...I outgrew my usual pen holder I keep on my desk.  Good thing I had this fun pink vase with polka dot ribbon stashed in a drawer!  FUN!  I realize I am silly.  I'm okay with it.  :)

Let's not forget fun spring time accessories!!  I saw this ring and had to have it.  I love butterflies and I love how big and awesome this ring is!



What spring would be complete without a big orange bangle?  It also came in turquoise and yellow if orange is not your thing.

Spring has to be, by far, my favorite season.  It makes me happy.  What's your favorite season?

BirthDAY - DAY Off!

My birthday is the April 11th and this year it was a Monday...ugh, Monday Moanday.  It also happened to be the Monday after the weekend my husband had planned for me in the Texas Hill Country...I couldn't go to work on a Monday after a nice weekend like that...especially not one that was my birthday!  So, I took the day off.  My husband had to work, poor Daniel.  :)

I intended to sleep in, but of course didn't.  I was awake at regular time, but instead of rushing out of bed and doing chores and getting ready for work, I simply got some coffee, got my book and my pup, Sammy, and got back under the covers.  I stayed there until I finished my book.  Nice!

It was fun hanging with Sammy for the morning.  She was a birthday present herself two years ago.  Daniel brought her home to me as a surprise.  Here we are that afternoon in 2009.

She is the present that keeps on giving.  I think she was enjoying the relaxing too...she sure looked like she did.

It was great to have a day off where I could get some things done that I wanted to get done.  I had no big plans and nothing scheduled for a specific time and it was AWESOME!!!  After coffee Sammy and I did a nice long workout walk.  Then I took some items I had for donation and dropped them off at Goodwill...Daniel later told me it looked like I had been robbed since my trunk was so empty (very funny).  I took a package that needed to be returned to Zappos.com to the UPS store (it had also been riding around in my trunk) and stopped at Spec's and got a wine that I love so Daniel and I could toast my relaxing birthday when he got home. 

I picked up some sandwiches and Sammy and I went to my mom's house to enjoy a relaxing lunch.  We had Antone's poboys...delicious...not Antone's poboys you find in your grocery store...the original Antone's, from the location in the Rice Village.  There is a difference.  I don't know the official history, but apparently when Mr. Antone died there was a dispute about the family business and one member of the family does the grocery store poboys, which are not the original recipe with the orange chow chow, and another Antone does the sandwiches in the import store/restaurant.  If you do not believe there is a difference you should get one of each and check it out...there so is a difference and the grocery store one, in my opinion, is not worth the calories.

My mom gave me this fun watch...she lovingly refers to it as a glitzy watch.  She has a big red one.  This one's purple even though it looks black.

After lunch with my mom I went to the car wash and had my car detailed.  I had promised myself I would do that once my car was paid off and I finally got it done, happy birthday to me! I won't mention that I paid it off in October...6 months it took me to get this done.  Sheesh!

After the car wash I went home and installed my doggie hammock in the backseat.  Sammy rides back there all the time and it will be nice to be able to fold that up and put it in the trunk should I want to give anyone a ride and not have them exit my car with a hairy behind!

Daniel got home around 6:15 with roses and we had some wine.  I love that guy.

It was a perfect birthDAY - DAY off!!!  How do you like to spend your birthday?

Relaxing Weekend

What better way to follow an 11 day work week and an upgrade weekend?  A super relaxing weekend.  My husband planned the best timed birthday/congrats your upgrade is over weekend!!  He asked me 3 questions...would you like a massage appointment?  (Let me think, hmmmm...yes!!!!)  Do you want to have lunch at the winery I found near where we are staying?  (Ummm...gee...okay.)  Would you like me to cook dinner on Friday or Saturday...I'm taking you out the other night.  (Let's go with Friday.)  Tough questions...and the extent of my planning assistance.  Love it!

So we left Friday morning after dropping Sammy off with my mom.  We went straight to Flat Creek Estates Winery in the Texas Hill Country for lunch...what a smart husband I have.  It was beautiful!

The winery was so cute!  Here are a couple of pictures from their website.  The left picture is the room we had lunch in (over by the windows) and the wine on the right is the red we liked the best...Super Texan 2009.



Our favorite white was the Bucking Horse White...also super delicious...and Daniel who is mostly a red wine drinker also liked it...so that was nice.  Oh, and lunch was delicious also!!  It was a three course lunch with wine pairings.  :)

The we moved on to Lago Vista and the condo where we were staying for the weekend.  Can you say nice view?

We sat out at the cute table on our balcony taking in this view and enjoying a very quiet happy hour with pleasant temperatures and a breeze and boats zooming (or meandering) by.

Daniel got busy in the kitchen and we followed happy hour with dinner on the balcony.  So relaxing and peaceful!  I brought some candles from home, so we had candle light as we enjoyed the sunset and evening.



The next morning we willingly slept in and then took a stroll around the condo resort.  I love the rock formations around the lake.

After our walk we went for our couple's massage appointment.  It was delightful and followed by mimosas! We moved on to a late lunch on the water where we had some very pretty lunch companions.

We ended the evening on the balcony of the bar/restaurant at the condos, again watching the sunset.

All in all a fabulous and regenerative weekend!!  Thanks Daniel!!

Upgrade Weekend

We did an upgrade the first weekend in April at work.  I won't bore you will all the details, but I do blame it for my lack of blogging lately...it is a lot of work leading up to an upgrade weekend and a lot of work afterward.  We did 3 total upgrades over the weekend which means it was long hours and craziness!  I came to work on Friday, April 1 (no foolin') at 4 pm and worked until 3 in the morning on Saturday the 2nd.  I came back to work at 3 pm on the same day and worked until midnight-ish.  Then I was back at 8 am on Sunday morning, worked until the afternoon and came in at 7:30ish on Monday morning prepared to do some installs and put out fires.  It was a whirlwind!  And by the time my 11 day work week and the upgrade were over I was SO ready for one of these.  Okay, I'll be honest...a few of them!