Hold it in

One of my few memories from first grade: my first "boyfriend" Victor. Hispanic, deaf, and a major Rico Suave. I became obsessed with sign language. It was essential to our relationship! I signed up for all the sign language courses at the day camp Kid's College that summer. The rest of my friends enjoyed the ever popular "Wild-n-Wacky Kids" class where they had water balloon fights, crazy games, and one day in the carpool line they were even covered in slime. I, however, had my notebook with the 100+ signs I was determined to learned by the end of that month and had no time for childish things like slime. It would just mess up my organized and clean notebook. We were quite serious. Victor found an earring under the swings on the playground and gave it to me. I was smart enough to know that I probably shouldn't wear it, but I did understand that a boy gave me jewelry and that meant something fierce. The fire between Victor and I some-how eventually sizzled out. I think I found him teaching signs to Leann at recess and couldn't forgive his indiscretions. I guess I should have signed up for Wild-n-Wacky Kids.

What I learned in Computer class

For my last job, I was trying to make a spreadsheet to help me keep up with daily data for an end of the year report and quickly realized I do not recall how to navigate efficiently around Excel.

Then I remembered why. All I learned in Computer class was how to hunt buffalo and pack lightly. I lost a lot of good friends and family to the trail and we had some memorable trips. Between this and Midnight Rescue during elementary keyboarding class, it is simply an accomplishment that I have even figured out how to blog!

Disclaimer: This video is long but somehow addicting. I encourage you to only watch enough to jog the memory and then shut-her-down.

Say Hello To Your Friends

I did. Quite Frequently in fact. I loved that group of gals when I was young. I read the series in a matter of weeks forgoing most childhood play time to simple sit on the couch and read about Kristy, Dawn, Claudia, Stacey and Mary Anne and their wonderful babysitter adventures. I read the books, watched the show, bought the movie, and even owned the board game!

(for Avid fans I realize I left out Mallory and Jesse, but if you recall they came later as junior members)

I took the quiz to find out which character I am, and of course, it was Kristy. This always irritated me growing up. I did not want to be bossy Kristy. The reality was that I was indeed a super bossy child. I loved school, reading, studying, and playing by the rules. It was very important to me for everyone else to also play by the rules. I am truly grateful for every elementary friend I had. My favorite "game" was teacher, where I could plan all activities and tell you exactly how I wanted them done and fail anyone who did not follow the instructions. POWER TRIP!

Realizing my bossiness was overpowering my life, my friends, and any chance I had of a relationship; I began to work extra hard to suppress the boss within. End result~ I am now the indecisive door mat that cannot even pick where to eat when it is just me. No lie, I call Jon to help me pick what to eat for lunch sometimes. It is probably just as irritating to my friends as being bossy was. Dang it woman, just tell me where you want to go or want to do or want to eat!

While I am still a stickler for rule-following to some degree, (I cannot stand it when I sit next to people talking during a lecture) it has become painfully obvious that it is difficult for me to make plans that will involve other people. Telling people what to do makes me nervous, even telling students to behave last year was a daunting task.

What if it is not what they want to do? What if they think I am being bossy? What if they hate chinese food and I choose Thai Cottage? What if I'm wrong? AHHHH

So today when I took this quiz, I really thought about Kristy. There would be no BSC without Kristy. Someone had to make the plan. I mean the first book is titled Kristy's Great Idea for a reason my friends. While it is easy to view this person as bossy and controlling, maybe I should be looking at it as a positive character trait. Haven't you been going out to eat with friends and it feels like everyone in the car is saying "I don't care, where ever you guys want to go." Someone has to eventually decide.

This summer as I embrace the Betty within I will also try to embrace the Kristy. Not full throttle though, I refuse to go back to standing on the slide at recess yelling at the other students the proper playground rules. (yeah I really did that)