Clean Up on Aisle Twelve

I'm thinking about updating my blogger profile to read, "My name is Katie, and I single-handedly keep security camera men from falling asleep on the job."

It was the summer after I graduated high school.  Mom and I had gone to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up some stuff for my dorm room.  Among those items, plastic crates.  You know, the ones that serve almost no purpose in real life and shouldn't be found anywhere but in a dorm room.  I had three homemade wooden boxes (that leave purple and turquoise paint everywhere they sit) and opted to buy two plastic ones, too.  They were in a cute display in the breezeway between the two front doors of the store.  I grabbed two, and we kept shopping.

While we were checking out, Mom and I noticed the plastic crates we'd grabbed were less than perfect.  I took them out the door (no, the alarm didn't go off) and went to exchange them.  I set my two crates on the display and began searching for unbroken ones.  Since this was in the entryway, the automatic door opened and closed every time I moved.  Kind of annoying, but not really a big deal except for the fact that one of the crates had been displaced.  When the door opened, it caught the corner of the crate.  When it closed, it pushed the crate further out of place.  Of course, that one misbehaving crate hit the other crates in the display.  Since I kept moving, the door kept opening and closing, and the crates kept flying all over the entryway.  The entire display tumbled onto the floor creating a fire hazard and almost hitting me in the face. 

I wasn't really sure what to do.  I couldn't stop the display from toppling over just like I couldn't stop the door from opening.  I stood there with my arms in the air, triggering the motion sensor yet again.

I looked through the window to my mom and the cashier, both of whom had stopped what they were doing to search out the cause of this racket.  "And we're letting her go to school 900 miles away," I heard Mom say.

I lost a war with a plastic crate display.  A few war wounds, but I lived to tell the tale.  It has been three years and I have still not shown my face in that Bed, Bath, and Beyond again.
<>< Katie

Ash Wednesday

For Mardi Gras one of my friend Miriam bought us all a King Cake to enjoy. Excited to experience my first King Cake, I took a big bite and what did I find? A piece of plastic. Miriam and the other girls all errupted laughing.

Apparently, every King Cake contains a plastic baby and whosever piece of cake contains the baby is responsible for buying the King Cake the following year. They all noticed the baby in my piece but no one bothered to tell me it was there OR what it meant. Instead, I'm gnawing on plastic. Thanks, girls.

Oh, and thanks for giving the girl from out-of-state the fetus because she'll definitely be able to buy the King Cake next year! Not gonna happen.

For me, this week has always been about something different than avoiding plastic in a King Cake. Fat Tuesday's often passed over as we focus on Ash Wednesday.

True, I'm not Catholic, but it's our family's tradition to give something up for Lent. As I searched for something to sacrifice this year, I looked at were my time is going. Whether you can see it or not a lot of time is going to this blog. Don't worry, no 40-day blog haitus. However, I am going to give up updating more than once a day. ;-)

When I started this blog, I intended to update every other day or every few days. Well, "every few days" turned into "once a month" and I don't want that to happen again. However, daily blogging is incessant, and I never intended to keep it up as long as I have. We're going back to a roughly every other day schedule.

With that said, I can't write about everything. Sad day! Therefore, I want to know: what do you most enjoy reading? When you type in my url what do you most hope I've written about today? God moments? Suite stories? Writing tips? Family quotes? Book reviews? Some language mishap? Birthday blogs? Poetry? Other?

You already know my mantra, if you take the time to read this take the time to let me know you've read it.

Thanks!
<>< Katie

"Because [God's] steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise [Him]. So I will bless [Him] as long as I live; in [His] name I will lift up my hands." Psalm 63:3-4