"Who Do You Wanna Be, Young Jedi?"

I've been feeling on the shitty side lately. Sure, the days are longer and it's getting warmer...two things which ultimately rock my world this time of year, but I just can't help it. Sometimes you have the "mean reds" and there's just no stopping them. So it's nice to have a little flash of reality during the day to snap me out of it and make me realize that the only thing you can ever do is laugh at yourself. It might seem strange but my work does this for me at least once a day. You've heard the phrase, "Out of the mouths of babes"? That's what my life is like. I work with children under the age of 5. Children whose lives are rather simple...not always fun, but definitely simple. The most insignificant scratch can send them reeling into a never-ending tantrum, and something as simple as bubbles can have them giggling for over thirty minutes. My favorite thing is watching a child's humor emerge..knowing that they have said or done something funny and wanting to do it over and over again to make everyone around them laugh...even if it is just for the attention. It's a great thing to see and be a part of. They just feel what they want to feel whenever they want to feel it ! It's apparent that these things can definitely make me reflect on my own stress and realize that you don't have to sweat the small stuff.

I Stole a Lemon

I'm a slave to my own culture and I think it's time I just admit it. I've spent half my life running away from that which forms who I am...Southern. Italian. And dare I say it. Catholic. These have been the bane of my existence for most of my life. I refuse to go to church, and the act of going home can often be compared to passing a kidney stone as far as I am concerned. I moved halfway across the country to escape all of these things which unquestionably make me who I am. Then...

I go off and do something so stupid..so inexplicably stupid. Something that makes it all the more difficult for me to deny that those things which I think I detest so much....I actually love them. I embrace them. I can't help it and it drives me crazy in the best and worst ways. I have no idea why I persist in feeling this way, but the pattern I have perpetuated has to stop. So, I am here to bare my soul to anyone who cares (most of all myself). I stole a lemon. I stole it and I actually believe in whatever it represents.