Leather and Lace

I changed my blog title to Leather and Lace.

And yes, I named it after the song.

Stevie Nicks and Don Henley would approve.

I was walking to the pool yesterday evening, and I just thought of it. It's the perfect title, and it describes me so perfectly! I'm a little bit of leather and lace. I'm leather because there's a certain toughness to me that most people cannot see. Plus, my love of rock and metal are pretty leather as well. I'm lace because I'm delicate and girly, and an old soul.

It's probably really lame and corny, but I like it, and it suits me. So, there's that!

XOXO,

Megan

Frivolous Spending

     Before I continue, let me make a disclaimer: I love spending money.

     Well, I have a love/hate relationship with spending money, but it sure is fun (when you have it). However, we Americans have a problem with spending money on the most stupid, frivolous things that are just money wasters. These things are so irrelevant, it makes me sick, and they are popularized by the Internet and the devil known as Pinterest. Here are a few of these money wasters that irk me...

1. Smash cakes

     I had never heard of a smash cake before until a few months ago. Basically, it's a small, separate cake that is for a baby's first birthday where he or she can "smash" it. 

     Stupid!

     Why would you spend extra money on a cake that is only going to be smeared around and played with? I get it, a baby's first birthday is special, and it's so cute to see them mess around with cake and smear it everywhere. But do they need a whole cake? What's wrong with just a piece of cake? Back in my day (the glorious '90s), we didn't have smash cakes. For my first birthday, my parents had my birthday party at McDonald's and there was one large sheet cake for everyone, including me, and that was enough. I didn't "need" a smash cake, and certainly no toddler "needs" one. It's just a frivolous expenditure popularized by our time that is just a big ol' waste of money.

2. Gender reveal parties

     When it comes to kids, people will spend an exorbitant amount of money, which is understandable. You need to capture memories and savor moments, which can require spending quite a bit of cash. But why in the world would you need a party to reveal the gender of your baby? That's what Facebook posts and group messages are for, idiots! Babies are precious, and yes, it's a time of joyous celebration, but with the baby showers, maternity/newborn photographs, birth announcements, etc..., people spend more money on a stupid party so they can tell people whether to buy blue or pink. Really, really dumb.

3. Save the Date announcements

     This one is probably the worst. Again, I had never heard of this until I saw it on Pinterest. It's a pre-wedding invitation telling people to "save the date" of their wedding. Isn't that what wedding invitations are for? Save the Date announcements are stupid because people spend more money doing exactly what wedding invitations do, so basically, these newfangled announcements are repetitive.

     I can somewhat understand it if a wedding is more than six months away, but if you're getting married within a few months and you send both a Save the Date announcement and a formal invitation, you're basically repeating yourself and wasting money. 

     Spend your money however you want to, but think about these things the next time you browse Pinterest.

I'm BAAAAACK!

After a four-month hiatus (I was super-stressed and super-busy with school and work), I am back in action! I have missed my blog, although I doubt anyone missed me. I am hoping to keep up with this blog more than I have in the past. Here's to hoping that it works out!

Songs That Should Disappear

***UNPOPULAR OPINION ALERT***

There may be some hurt feelings after this post, because I'm going to be brutally honest when I say that if I never listened to any of these songs again, I would be just fine. And some of these are genuine classics that EVERYONE loves. Except for me. I may love the artist, but some of their songs may be egregiously horrific.  Let me reiterate...these are not "bad" songs that are guilty pleasures like "Rico Suave." These songs are just plain awful. Drum roll, please...here's a compilation of songs that I cannot stand (in no particular order):

• "In the Air" by Phil Collins- I hate this song. It's only tolerable when Mike Tyson is singing it in The Hangover. The drum fill is not particularly impressive, either. I would much rather listen to "Sussudio." So sussu-sue me (pun very much intended)!
• "Born on the Bayou" by Creedence Clearwater Revival- This song was okay, until I was listening to it on the radio one night and it never seemed to end. It's not as terrible as some of the other songs on the list, but I would still prefer not to listen to it at all. 
• "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd- The best part of this song is when it ends. I don't mind listening to an overly long song (I am, after all, a Zeppelin fan). But this one will NEVER STOP. IT KEEPS GOING. AND GOING. I love guitar solos, but this one is mediocre, at best. It's not interesting enough to keep listening to. It doesn't have the unique layers and intensity of Jimmy Page's outrageous solos. Plus, it's overrated. But I do like to shout out, "Play Free Bird!" when I'm at concerts for the heck of it...
• "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby- It should be, "He Deafened Me With This Awful Sound." This is a seminal piece from the '80s, but that doesn't make it suck any less.
• "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" by Queen- I'm not a Queen fan by any means (except for when I karaoke with my friends to "Bohemian Rhapsody"). I must change the station every time I hear these songs. Unfortunately, they're always played together, so the agony is doubled.
• Anything by U2- Without a doubt, my least-favorite band. You couldn't pay me to go to a U2 concert. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is the only good song, in my opinion. Eww. I would rather listen to radio static than to suffer through "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

March Goals

Before I go over my March goals, let's go over how I did on my February ones:

1. Read at least one book- Ha, nope. Not even close.
2. Exercise for at least five days in a row- See above.
3. Cook something new- I did this, actually! I made chicken coated with olive oil, spices, and mozzarella. Pretty good, and cheap!
4. Get my parents' birthday gifts to them on time- Another miserly attempt. Sorry, Mama and Dad :( But they did receive some awesome gifts this year. 
5. Write two short stories- The problem with this is that when I write, I have to be inspired by something, and I didn't get inspired until this past week with an old family story. So, I hope to cultivate that within the following month.

Now, here are my March goals!

1. Lose five lbs.- I am not a nutritionist, so I don't even know if this is a healthy amount to lose in a month, but summer is coming, so let's just say it is for my sake. 
2. Work on the short story- It's a very interesting story, if I do say so myself. I hope to have enough time to work on it.
3. Write two letters via snail mail- I truly believe that writing letters is a lost art form. I used to send letters all the time, but email has rendered it useless these days. I have a couple of pen pals I will be writing. I've always wanted to have one, so this will be a cool project!
4. Keep up with current events- I'm horrible at knowing what's happening in the world. I do know that there are riots in Ukraine and rumors of Putin invading the country, but I could tell you little else. As an American citizen, I should know more about what is happening to this nation, and I will resolve this by reading news articles every day.
5. Have fun on Spring Break!- For the first time since elementary school, I'm finally GOING somewhere for Spring Break. I'll be visiting my dad in Georgia, and it will be so much fun hanging out with him. I also have other family down there, too, that I can't wait to see. The end of the month won't get here fast enough!

What are your goals for March?

Live and Let God

I have a horrible time giving God ultimate power in my life. I know from experience that He is always good and exceeds my expectations, but I'm still afraid to relinquish control. Humans can serve two masters- sin or God. Of course, God is merciful, so there is no slavery with Him, but freedom. Even though this is reassuring, it's still very, very hard to give up control. We think we know best. We think God will mess up, or not give us what we really want. It's a bitter pill to swallow, and a trial that most Christians go through.

It's funny, we live in an extremely lazy society, where we don't want to do anything for ourselves, and would rather blame others for our misfortune, but we don't want to let God do His part, which is to place all of our burdens upon Him. Jesus is the one who said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). You would think that with our lazy society, we would be jumping for joy at that verse and gratefully giving God all of our problems, so we don't have to deal with it. Yet, we don't. We would much rather put it all on ourselves, when God wants us to depend on Him, not on ourselves.

When I was ten, I started a box to put all of my worries in. This was helpful for me, because I was overly-anxious about everything, and I think it helped alleviate some of my worries. Recently, I was reading Redeeming Love (the best book ever, by the way), and it mentions a prayer box, where you submit your prayers to God, and after you do, it becomes His problem, not yours. It reminded me of my worry box, and the comfort that it brought to me, so I've decided to do a prayer box as well. Whether or not I will completely "let go" is a question in of itself, but it's worth a shot!

Here are some things I will include:

• Friendships- I think you all are tired of reading about my horrendous social history, and I'm tired of thinking about it. You can never have too many friends, and I'm looking for true sisters in Christ who can help me grow to be a better person.
• Marriage- It's weird...my parents have always told me, "Don't get married until after you graduate from college!" from the time I was a little girl. Now that I'm going to graduate in less than a year, I guess I'm now allowed to (almost) get married! My mom has even made comments, stating, "Whenever you get married..." more often now. Call me traditional, but I have always wanted to be a wife and have children with the house and white picket fence and the whole nine yards. If it's a goal of mine, as it is, shouldn't I be pursuing it, especially since I'm of age now? It's something I look forward to in the future, and I want to start praying about it now.
• Adventure- I've had a plain vanilla cycle of existence for the past few years. Work. School. Work. School. Netflix. Work. School. Homework. Get distracted, watch Netflix. There's so much more to life that God has to offer, and I'm not doing myself any favors by caging myself. I believe God will present opportunities for me. 

I'm sure I'll have a whole list going once I start this. I encourage everyone to do this. Pin your hopes, dreams, worries, fears, desires, etc., all upon God. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

God bless!

XOXO,

Megan

Nostaliga, Pt. 2

I had so much fun doing Nostalgia, Pt. 1 and reliving some of the coolest parts of my childhood. I'm glad I decided to make this a regular series in my blog! Here are three more throwbacks...



1. Wimzie's House

PBS had awesome programming back in the 1990s. One of my favorite shows was Wimzie's House. Unfortunately, NO ONE REMEMBERS THIS SHOW! It was the cutest show of this half-dragon/half-bird and her friends. I can still hear the theme song in my head...ahhh, it just screams 1998. Good year, good year.



2. Singled Out 

Not only did I grow up on a steady diet of PBS and Disney, I also watched a lot of MTV with my parents. They were young in the 1990s, and even though they had kiddos, they were still very much hip and relevant to the their generation (thank goodness for that!). Because of that, I also took part in the pop culture of the 1990s. 'Tis a gift that I thank my parents for.

Singled Out  was me and my mom's SHOW! However, I had no idea what was going on. I only knew that Jenny McCarthy was blonde and pretty, like a Barbie doll, and I wanted to be like her. It was pretty entertaining, even though the basic premise of the show was way over my three-year-old head.



3. Dial-Up Internet



OH, THE HORROR! Of course, we didn't know anything different. We would just type in a web address, make a sandwich or two, then come back in thirty minutes to see if it was loaded or not. Downloading images was the WORST. That seemed to take twice as long. What was even worse was hearing this phrase: "Get off the Internet, I got to make a call!" Or, "I tried calling you, but you were on the Internet."

Then came the magic of high-speed Internet. It was like forbidden magic. If it was 17th century New England, we would have called it witchcraft and had it burned at the stake. But after a lifetime (eleven years, to be exact) of dial-up, it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I can clearly remember the day we got high-speed. My sister and I kept on clicking different websites, and to our amazement, IT SHOWED UP IMMEDIATELY! And the best part was that we could stay online AND OUR PARENTS COULD TALK ON THE PHONE! WOOO!