hellomelissa.net » irritants

…where I realize I may need a kick in the pants

melissa — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:55:12 +0000

Lately, I’ve been full of ideas. Lots of ideas. Big ones, small ones, work-related, life-related, web-related – they run the gamut.

I haven’t really tried to act on any of them.

Sure, I’ve done a lot of “research” – manic Googling about the various things I’m thinking of but don’t know much about. I’m starting to realize that all this research, reading, whatever you want to call it, is just a form of procrastination and I just to need to figure out what I want to actually do and *do it*.

These last few sentences were hard to write, and I must have interrupted myself at least ten different times while writing them. Analyze that, will you?

I like ticking items off of lists. Maybe I need to write some new ones and start with those things. A little focus would probably go a long way.

…where I realize I may need a kick in the pants © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

That’s my bush!

melissa — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:00:26 +0000

For those of you reading this at work: this post isn’t as dirty as it sounds. But now that I’ve made you look…

I snapped this picture of the rosebush growing in my front yard on Wednesday morning (click picture to see a larger version). I’m shocked at how healthy this plant is this year. Normally, it grows a few leaves and stems, pops a bloom or two and that’s it. This year it’s beautiful and I’m glad that my previous efforts to dig it up were unsuccessful.

You see, I haven’t had a very good relationship with this bush. It was here when we moved into our house, and my less-than-green thumb and its scraggly appearance made me think I should just dig it up. I’ve tried several times over the last few gardening seasons. I cut it back, start digging and discover the root is as this as my wrist so I say forget it and curse at it for pricking me whenever I get too close.

I have done nothing special to make this bush bloom. I haven’t even watered the flower garden – I’ve just let nature take its course. The warm weather and humidity must have made it happy. Although, now that it’s been raining for the last couple days it’s looking a little droopy and rough for wear.

But still, I’m thrilled that I finally got to see the bush bloom. I’ll probably be back to trying to yank it out of my garden next year.

That’s my bush! © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Anonymity, Authenticity and Being Brave

melissa — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:00:24 +0000

Last week, I posted this to my Twitter account:

As you can see, I’ve been fantasizing about creating anonymous alter-egos to vent online about stuff I’m too chicken to associate my real name with on Google. The idea of doing that bothers me because I’ve always prided myself on being transparent and “authentic” by curating nearly my entire online presence under my real name.

But really, are my thoughts any more authentic because I’m willing associate my name with them? Should the people out there writing really painful, emotional stuff (or any kind of stuff, really) under pseudonyms get less respect and have their experiences considered as less real just because I can’t find the writer in the phone book? That’s not fair, and it’s an insult to anyone who writes about anything online. It’s an insult to anyone that writes, period.

Even though I write under my real name, I still question if I am being authentic enough. Sometimes I think I sanitize things a little too much. If you know me in real life, you know that I speak with a lot more “dude”, swears and slang than I do here. I believe in the “write like you talk” method, at least some of the time (and a personal website is probably one of the best places to write like you talk). Why am I not using that method more? It’s not like I’m writing incredibly highbrow stuff here.

I want to be brave. I need to be braver. I don’t want to write about every detail of my life. No one would want to read it, and I don’t have the time to write it. I just want to be braver about the stuff I do share with the world.

Do you write with the same voice you speak to your closest friends with? Do you want to?

Anonymity, Authenticity and Being Brave © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

This counts as spring cleaning, right?

melissa — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:53:42 +0000

I saw a soundbite last week about the average purse weighing in at 23 pounds. I didn’t read the article until just now, but the headline stuck in my head as a nagging reminder to clean out my purse.

Once I got home from my extra-long day (I had a dentist appointment after work), carrying a lot of extra stuff, I decided that it was finally time to clean it out.

Naturally I documented the event. (Click the images to take a closer look.)

I made Sean take this picture of me with my purse so you could get a sense of how big my purse is in relation to me. This is probably the biggest purse I’ve ever carried. I’ve been impressed at how well it’s held up in the last almost-year of daily use.

Holy crap indeed! Look at all the shit I was lugging around! (Note, no actual shit was carried around despite having a dog we have to pick up after and a kid in diapers.)

Highlights in that pile of stuff include:

several wrapped cough drops/empty wrappers from my cold/pneumonia back in December/January
Numerous pieces of paperwork, including the receipt from my last trip to the dentist three months ago, a massage receipt from July 2009, and a bloodwork requisition I was supposed to get after my physical last September
A crapton of receipts, mostly for the drugstore, grocery store and restaurants near my work
The magazine I bought today (I normally use one of the cloth bags I keep in my purpose to hold larger things, but it was the only larger thing and not worth getting the bag out for
A Dominican Republic flag I promised to mail to my best friend for her classroom. (Remember that I went in January)
One mitten belonging to Flora
An umbrella
Something beaded that I can’t remember, but broke and spilled when I dumped out my purse

Obviously there is lots of other stuff there too. I didn’t even touch the zippered pockets (inside and out), because I’m usually pretty good at keeping those under control.

After some pilemaking (keep in purse/keep in house/recycle/trash), I narrowed my purse contents to the following:

Wallet, sunglasses, iPhone cable, cloth bags, headphones, Flora’s immunization card, notebooks, flag (I promise I’ll mail it soon Stacey!), business cards, USB key and some other minor things.

Hopefully this lightens the load a little bit.

This counts as spring cleaning, right? © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Finding the time to write

melissa — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:17:50 +0000

I have a question for all you bloggers out there with young kids.

How do you find the time to write?

As you can see from the severe lack of content on this site lately, I’ve been having difficulty finding the time to write. There is just so much else to do!

I know that is a totally lame excuse. We all have lots to do, whether it’s kid stuff, work stuff, house stuff or other life stuff.

But seriously, how do you fit in time to write? I’d love some advice.

Finding the time to write © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Hello world!

melissa — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:27:45 +0000

I’m working on migrating posts from my other blogs so that hellomelissa.net will be my predominant home on the web.

That means the site will likely be screwy for the next little while. Please bear with me. Once it’s sorted out, new content will be posted and things will go back to normal.

Things are starting to perk up

melissa — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 02:48:46 +0000

Today didn’t start well, but it did end well, so I think the worst of my funk has passed. Hooray for that.

I honestly think a lot of my irritability is stemming from the weather. It’s been cloudy and rainy for most of the week, and now that Daylight Savings Time is over, it’s dark by 5PM. That means I walk home from the subway in the dark when I come home from work. That always bums me out until people start putting up their Christmas lights. The Christmas lights do cheer things up.

This too shall pass – let’s hope it does soon!

melissa — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:53:26 +0000

I’ve been grumpy all week and I’m sick of it. Most of it is work-related, so I won’t go into detail here about what’s been bugging me. Partially because I don’t want to get fired if a person of interest reads it, but mostly because if I actually type out all of my irritations, I’m sure to look petty and ridiculous. Even though my issues are small (relatively speaking), they’ve really been getting under my skin and I’m having a hard time leaving them at work. That’s what is really making me grumpy.

This too shall pass – let’s hope it does soon! © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Cooking question

melissa — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:16:21 +0000

Why is it that whenever I find recipes I want to try, it’s always after I’ve just come home from grocery shopping and none of the required ingredients were on my list?

Ouch

melissa — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:32:43 +0000

I went and got my flu shot after work today. I was in and out of the clinic (okay, the section of the mall roped off as a clinic) within half an hour, including the 15-minute recovery time. The nurse who shot me up was nice and the shot itself wasn’t too bad, but now my arm is sore, and if previous years are any indicator, will be sore for a couple of days.

I never used to get flu shots – I always figured the chance was 50/50 whether I got the shot or not. You either get sick or you don’t. My doctor made me get one a few years ago, and when I hardly got a cold that year, let alone the flu, I became a convert.

Here’s hoping this year’s vaccine keeps my streak alive.