The Good Stuff

Yeah, man.  Like the Kenny Chesney song. Except I didn't learn this lesson from a kind, old man in a bar after having a fight with my lady.

SO many good things happening at the Crook casa lately:

I was able to say adios to a friend that was leaving on a mission. Actually, she's more of someone that I've known for a while and had a girl crush on but we haven't seen each other for a very long time and I just creep her blog and wish I was half as witty as she is and brave enough to chop my hair off real short. Holy run-on sentence.

A dear friend celebrated her 21st birthday, and I made her this exquisite cake. I feel I have found my niche.



Happy Birthday, Sam!

EASTERSSS!!!! Man, we had ham. Done and done. And an Easter egg hunt. And then laid on blankets outside in the lovely, lovely, much missed sunshine. Don't worry, no one younger than 13 participated in the Easter egg hunt. We even had money eggs hidden, which I failed to find, again!!

Then my birthday happened.  I was slightly depressed about it.  I know that my next milestone birthday will be when I turn 30...which is a short 3 years, 11 months and 2 weeks away.  BUT! The birthday fairies at work hooked. it. up. 1- They covered my desk in yellow streamers and balloons 2- RYAN GOSLING MEMES EVERYWHERE. It was so beautiful.  And they are still hanging up. Forever.

They will stay up FOR-EVVV-ERRR (like how what's-his-face said it on The Sandlot

3- A jar of Nutella with a bow on it. Lovely. 4- a giant bucket full of popcorn, chocolate, cute mason jar cups and a gift card to the movie theatre. 5- MINI cheesecakes! I'm not a huge cake fan, and these little beauties were extra tasty. 6- PrEsEnTs!!! Besides, Mr. Gosling being plastered all over my cubicle, I finally got a Kitchenaid mixer! I call her Black Beauty. Then Boyfriend and I got a couple's massage. This old dude was passed out on the couch while we waited for our... masseuses? Masseusi? I took it as a good sign of the relaxation that was in store.


Just make yourself at home, bro.

Izzie was my masseuse and she was about 5 feet tall, maybe 100 pounds and super cute.  But she got it done, son! (I also learned that massages are a 60 minute battle with one's self to not fart. Its not fair, really.  You can't be rubbing my muscles and then tell me to relax...all while trying to avoid embarrassing myself.  Now you start rubbing on my butt cheeks?? Forget it. If I relax then, we are both in for it.  Conundrum fo' shiz.) 7- After the relaxation: Tucanos. Grilled pineapple is derricious.  8- While I was at work, I got a text from a friend, informing me that his surgery went well.  That guy has been through some shiz and I'm glad he's putting all the sickies behind him.  9- a late birthday lunch with a good friend.  Her and I have had freakishly similar life events and challenges, and I was really happy to spend some time with her.  Mostly to discuss our lives and reassure one another we aren't crazy or close to perfect. And that's ok! (We also feel the need to write a book on what marriage and children are really like. People aren't as honest as they should be when dispensing advice about what to expect with this stage of life, and we want to fill that gap. The most perplexing emotion, for example, is loving someone and wanting to put a Sleeper Hold on them at the same time. But this is another topic entirely.)

This is his preferred sleeping position??? Not kidding.

Pongo happened! Sounds like I am referring to a hurricane, which he sort of is, but we love him! Our new little fur baby.  He is SUCH a forshadowing of what life will be like with children.  We spend waaaay too much money on him and his stupid toys. We buy the best food we can think of to feed him. We watch videos and read articles on training methods, and then disregard half of it because life is less insane that way.  We also fight over how incorrectly one of us is handling any given situation (i.e. having an accident inside the house, biting, getting too noisey and rough with my brother/ sis-in-law's dog...) So yes! I'd say we are primed for babies. Maybe???

I finally found out what's wrong with my stupid body! Thanks, doctors and lots of lab tests!! I knew I wasn't  completely crazy (in most instances) and its nice to know that for certain. I have developed a love/hate relationship with this new medicine I'm on; its great because it will correct a few things that are out of control, but it also has been making me extremely nauseated, tired and has been giving me diarrhea since Easters. Yes, my life is glamorous. But I did manage to shower three times last week!

Sister came to visit! It was nice to see her for a bit before she flew home for the summer.  We always have a good laugh or 7 when she visits. She is seriously, one of the most naturally funny people I've ever met.  She has this particular talent, of combining a face with a noise/voice- her trademark, really- that always makes everyone laugh.  Well. she did it.  We were in the kitchen making slut brownies and my brtoher asked her to do it because his wife had never seen her do this before.  After much coaxing, she did it. AND. BROUGHT. DOWN. THE. HOUSE. We all immediately started laughing, bracing ourselves against counters and clutching one another for stability to keep from falling over. We just laughed and laughed and laughed and it was great.  Or tried to open our mouths to make a laughing sound, but no air would come in our bodies, so we just looked insane.  Moments like that don't come often with my siblings, and I'm especially grateful when they do.  We aren't around each other a lot, but when we are it's generally a good time.  I was reminded that this was the good stuff Kenny was referring to. 

On a more serious note, The Boston Marathon tragedy reminded me of a ton of other good stuff. Yes, it was sad and awful, but Mr. Rogers had it right, to "always look for the helpers."  I was angry that some people are so evil and wreckless, but then I'd hear a story that softened my heart and reminded me that good will always win.  Patton Oswalt (a favorite comedian of mine) said it extremely well:

"I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, "Well, I've had it with humanity."

But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

Cool, right?

Let's not forget the Cowboy Hat Hero (SUCH a stud), Team Hoyt (I seriously cannot read about these guys without getting a lump in my throat), and, dare I say it? The New York Yankees. Champs like Stephen Colbert and John Stewart also spoke messages, that I feel, we all collectively nodded to. I can't wait to see how many people show up next year for The Boston Marathon. 

Yeah, man. That's the good stuff.