When I graduated, I had a party. I had just spent 18 months completing a five semester graphic design program at my local community college to earn my AA. That day, I got up, and Kizzle and I went to The Five Seasons Center to go through the ceremony with 1500ish other graduates.

It was a HUGE deal for me.

I had attempted college about 10 years prior. It wasn’t pretty, people. I did one semester at Kellogg Community College and one semester at Glen Oaks Community College, both in Michigan. Then I moved to Iowa and brought my barely 2.0 GPA with me and transferred it to the community college here. I met Hunky a couple months in, in French class. That semester, I got an A. The next semester we started dating, and I took French II. I got a D. I was working full time, going to school full time, and then later, also planning a wedding. I decided to take a semester or two off because I was just exhausted, and no closer to deciding what I wanted to be when I “grew up”. Fast forward about 10 years and two kids later. I had been separated from my husband for almost a year and bought a house alone. Before I even made the first house payment, my paid-off car died so I had to buy a car and take on another payment. Before I even had a chance to make the first car payment, I got laid off. I knew that there was nowhere else in Cedar Rapids I could make the same amount of money as at the job I had just lost. I decided that 1- I was going to have to go back to school and B- I was going to have to finally decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. I knew it was going to be challenging. My GPA had hit a new low: 1.6. But since then, I had also been diagnosed with ADD and my hearing was degrading much more quickly than I had anticipated. But I had also done a lot of work with a psychiatrist and therapist for coping mechanisms for ADD, and had a bright shiny new hearing aid. It went even better than I thought it would. I had earned all As and had brought that 1.6 kicking, screaming, and crab-walking like Regan in The Exorcist all the way up to a 3.492. The only regret that I had was that I missed wearing honors cords by .008.

Now we’re back to that day, maybe even the best day of my life, my graduation day. I had finished something. I had accomplished something. I had found an occupation that I would have gladly done for fun. It was an amazing day of celebration. Kizzle and I had bought brand new Cons for the occasion; hers bright yellow, mine bright green. Our families would be able to pick us out of the 1500ish graduates in the procession with identical gray mortarboards and robes. My mom, step dad, sister and sister’s best friend had come from Michigan for the occasion.

We went through the graduation ceremony and that night, we all went to my favorite bar and all my friends were there; even one of my professors! It was probably the best night of my life. We ended up closing down the bar and then going to breakfast afterwards. I passed out in the back of my sister’s Durango on a tire iron. I was so passed out, I was laying on a tire iron and could not have moved off of it if it was 1000 degrees and had ten penny nails soldered on spiking out of it. It was hawsum.

When Hunky was just a little ways away from getting his AA, I asked what he wanted to do for his party. To my surprise, and well, intense irritation, his answer was a resounding “Eh.”

Which I met with a sputter-y “What?!”

He explained that he wanted to wait until he got his BA for the, I believe he called it, “rigmarole.” Because this wasn’t really a big deal, you see.

You what to the who now?!

After I gave him the tongue-lashing he was begging for, and he got done backpedaling and reiterating what a ginormous deal it was to earn an AA and how proud he was of me for attaining that achievement, we simply left it at that. The AA would go by quietly, and we would throw him a huge bash when he graduated with his BA. Okfine.

Now he’s announced that he didn’t turn in his application for graduation form by the deadline, but hey, it’s no big deal because we’ll just have a party when he gets his Masters!

Oy, vey. I could just smack him. But with my luck, he’d enjoy it.

It’s been one of those days that makes me hate NaBloPoMo. I have several different ideas for something to write about; however, each one would take more effort than I have the energy for. I could have done a Weekly Winners post, but do you think I remembered to take any pictures this week?! Hay-yell NoooOOOoooo, I did not.

I went to church (15 minutes late AS USUAL, I think people would have a heart attack and die from surprise if we showed up ON TIME) and then sat in the coffee shop and chatted with friends while the rugrats were in kid’s church. Then I went to a friend’s baby shower and actually ATE (ok, I admit it, I only SMELLED) the baby food (Oh, alright, I admit I licked the spoon on one of them) during the baby food game. Got home around almost 4:00pm with the full and good-hearted intention to write my blog post and then finish the laundry.

I sat down here at the computer several hours ago. Let’s see how many things I came up with to do to procrastinate writing my blog post.

1. Read a couple comments that I got from Maggie linking to me. *waves frantically at Maggie*  Everybody say, “HiiiIIIiiii, Maaaaaaggggggie!”  We love Maggie, people.
2. Rejoiced in the lovely fact that I picked up another 8 subscribers since yesterday. Everybody say, “HiiiIIIiii, New Subscribers!” We love New Subscribers, people.
3. Cleared my Google Reader.
4. Read a few blogs that I have bookmarked but not yet in Google Reader.
5. Wasted some time in Google Analytics, SiteMeter, and StatCounter.
6. Wasted some more time in Blissfully Domestic. p.s. I have some really exciting news about this website I can’t announce yet, but soon. I don’t want to jinx it.
7. Remodeled my sidebar with Tabbed Widgets. That alone took a couple hours.
8. Cleaned out my inbox on my hotmail, my yahoo, and my cantrememberdiddly.
9. Unenthusiastically watched the goings-on in Twitter. Clicked through to several Tweeple’s blog posts that weren’t in my Google Reader.
10. Went through old blog posts adding categories to the ones I had filed under “x”, where “x” equals “default category chosen because I couldn’t be bothered to add appropriate categories in the first place which would seem like a bad thing until I need something to procrastinate writing a blog post during NaBloPoMo.”
11. Watched Giants vs. Patriots with vague disinterest.
12. Sorted and put away papers on my computer desk.
13. Put autumn candy in my glass candle holders. Candy corn, pumpkins, and caramels with sticks. Hawsum. Lit a whole bunch of candles in the living room. Thought, Hmmmm, caramel.
14. Went to the grocery store and got popcorn, ice cream, and a caramel apple with peanuts.
15. Ate the caramel apple with peanuts.
16. Went through my pictures in Bridge half-heartedly searching for inspiration.
17. Looked through the folder full of pictures I’ve had since March to write my how to do a nine-patch machine quilt. Saw a picture of my gramma’s sewing scissors and remembered that was when I lost them.
18. Turned my couch upside down and unstapled the bottom material to see if Gramma’s sewing scissors fell through the cracks and inside the couch. Nope.
19. Sat for a good five minutes thinking about how I will always spell scissors correctly, because I still remember my Speak & Spell spelling it out in that monotone computer voice.
20. Played in Photoshop. Added Hunky’s goatee to my face. No, you can’t see it.
21. Well, ok, maybe you can, but later. Damn, that would have been a good post right there. Dory. FAIL.
22. Put a load of wash in the dryer and another in the washer.
23. Got really desperate and mixed two different bags of potting soil and re-potted two of my ivys.
24. Decided I need to buckle down and get it done. Went to flickr looking for inspiration.
25. Then…

Hunky: Are you writing anything yet?

Dory: No, I’m in flickr looking for inspiration.

Hunky: Would you like me to take my pants down?

Dory: Would you like me to blog about it?

Hunky: *sigh* I’m going to bed.

I am a WORLD CLASS procrastinator. You DO NOT want to take me on. I will open a big stinking BARREL of PROCRASTINATE on your ass.

I’m going to start doing yet another photo meme called Weekly Winners sponsored by Sarcastic Mom. I’ll be posting my favorite photos that I took that previous week. I’ll still do Wordless Wednesday, but probably feature artsy-fartsy pics on there, and then Weekly Winners to wrap up my week. You probably won’t notice any difference with the amount I’m actually writing and I’ll post about the same amount of pictures; I’ll just be a little more organized about it. I’m so glad you guys put up with me. :)

Here we go with the inaugural edition (I may have been watching a little too much West Wing lately) of

Hunky sure cleans up nice!

Elli’s little JRT burrowing instinct went nuts
when she found this huge pile of leaves!
Hunky and I got a good laugh out of her diving in
and then under the pile looking for goodness-knows-what.

Here’s more Weekly Winners!

Just a quick post, I know you’re about to fall over to see me blogging on a Sunday. But.

Yesterday we went out to Hunky’s Mom’s house to celebrate a couple family birthdays. When we walked in, the first thing we saw was this…

This means YOU, bub.

Do NOT test her on this. She WILL beat you with Hot Wheels track.

I love that she had to do that. It makes me proud of our family.

Later, we were discussing music and I went to
Google some lyrics real quick to figure out the name of a song.
Have I mentioned that my dog has some serious attachment issues?

VERY SERIOUS attachment issues.
Perhaps, Certainly, some separation anxiety as well.

Then the boys and their cousin tried to take on the old man.
Elli and Cindy get all kinds of worried when they ‘wrassle’.
You can imagine the noise and the house shaking.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to go apply some Ben-Gay to my husband’s back. *pointed look*

Rip it, roll it, and punch it, dude. (Oh my gosh, what IS that SMELL?!)

I’m getting so tired of the political emails flying around with Lies and Opinions dressed for the Halloween party as Facts. I’m going to make an inbox rule: all emails with either “McCain” or “Obama” in them will go directly to a folder named “Shuddup and Bite Me.”

Seriously, how can anyone at this stage in the game send an email that accuses Obama of being a no-birth-certificate-havin’ Muslim baby-killer? *cringes at the search engine traffic that will surely ensue*

HunkyDory tries to keep things light, yet indulges in serious conversation, too.

Dory: 10:49  http://bluechristian.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-i-am-voting-for-barack-obama.html
Hunky: 5:19  Where you is Woman?!
Dory: 5:19  (Autoreply) Out and about running errands… might be driving; might not… IM me to see
Hunky: 6:32  i need this:  http://www.penisreductionpills.com/
Dory: 6:33  *orders right away* finally, an answer to our prayers for more comfortable instances of marital union
Hunky: 6:43 I am pro-life, and will always be pro-life. But I refuse to be held captive by mis-definitions which hold “pro-life” to be merely the protection of the unborn. Community — loving one’s neighbor — is in the Christian sense something that has no boundaries. I am responsible for my neighbor, whomever that neighbor may be. And while I will not say “a Christian cannot vote for Candidate X”, I will say that to fail to think through some of these issues very, very carefully before repeating as biblical the boilerplate of Carl Rove / John McBush is singularly non-discerning. And I think that I, too, have the Spirit of God.~ Jon
Hunky: 6:43  Jon Trotter
Hunky: 6:43  I like that definition
Dory: 6:43  very eloquent
Hunky: 6:44  Meanwhile, the Supreme Court since 1980 (when the Repubs took over and — except for the Clinton era — kept the White House, has not made any significant change to Roe v. Wade.
Further, if Roe were “flipped,” what we’d have then is a state by state ruling on abortion. Likely outcome, not radically different than what we have now, except for a few states whom would outlaw it.
Further yet, the term “Pro-life” is one which only has staying power if as a culture we make as extravagant an effort on behalf of born children and their single mothers as we’re making for the unborn children. Republicans are astonishingly obtuse on this point, as are many Evangelicals. “Don’t use my tax money to help that mother financially!” Oh, but do make sure she has the baby, despite having no support structure around her to even care for herself, much less raise the child? Hypocrisy.
Hunky: 6:44  That came before
Hunky: 6:47  That’s not what Republicans believe and as the Republicans go, so goes the Christian Right
Dory: 6:48  “Christian” and “Democrat” are not mutually exclusive, as much as the church would like them to be.
Hunky: 6:55  Actually it might be as much as the Republicans might like them to be mutually exclusive.

My name is Dory, and I approve this IM.

I welcome your comments; heck, sometimes I beg for your comments. But if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Don’t be a jackass, please.

Don’t be that guy.

Nobody likes that guy.