For the Love of Idioms

I identify as a West Coaster and as of late I have been experiencing the East Coast. One of my favorite things about traveling and meeting people anywhere is the different sayings people have that they say because they heard it all the time growing up. Some call these idioms or colloquialisms. I often have to stop people to figure out what they mean because I really would not even begin to be able to guess. Here are a few of my new favorites:

"Like a duck on a junebug" ~  Now when I heard this one I guessed that the duck was going to smash the junebug but it turns out it is the equivalent to the idiom I know, like white on rice. Apparently ducks really like junebugs. Who knew?

"Never buy a pig in a poke" ~ First fact a needed to know is that a poke can be translated to bag. Once you know that it is little more clear that this one means do not accept something without examining it for yourself.

"Happier than a dead hog in the sunshine" ~ The person that said this was actually from Alabama so this one my be southern but even she could not explain why this would make the dead hog happy but it is supposed to express being really happy.

"Colder than a witches tit in a brass bra" ~ This one was not hard to understand and painted quite a vivid mental picture. How could I not laugh at that one!?

There also many that are centered around coons but for now this is all you get :) Hopefully I start catching on by myself but as fair warning to those that have conversations with me, know your idioms! I will be interrogating you on what they mean and where they came from.

How bad do I have to be

Lately I find myself in a self absorbed state. I never really like admitting this as it is not one of my better characteristics. There has been many a "why me", "life sucks", "school's hard", "why do I have to go to work", and believe me I could keep going on what I consider a deeper level. I go through these phases when I get frustrated and feel like I am stuck in some proverbial rut. This last one I think I actually learned something. My family and friends are AMAZING. I am not sure whether they mean to be in the case of last week but it felt like every time I talked to someone or saw certain words via the social networking world there were these little thoughts planted in my head. And once my brain put them all together I not only felt better but empowered. I am surrounded by people that say the exact right things and the exact right time and thankfully this week I was listening. Future Goal: Keep listening and hopefully I can pay it forward.

* Side note: This title makes perfect sense if you listen to the Plain White T's :)

Yet another use for my memory foam pillow

At first I thought my pillow was only for memorizing my face. In the month that I have had my memorizing face pillow I have determined it is good for back support on long drives and today I have discovered a new use. I came home, super frustrated with nursing school. I am currently loving my clinical rotations but the courses pertaining to test preparation and busy work make me want to pull my hair out, buy a tent, and live in the woods off of nature for the duration of my life. With all of these emotions I crawled into my bed, planted my face firmly in my pillow and screamed for a duration that I felt should have been sufficient to blow of steam. I asked my cousin/roommate if she had heard me and she replied "No, and you know you do not have to use a pillow." She demonstrated by screaming out loud as if this was something she did all the time. I followed suit and my final recommendation is although the pillow works well it is much better when the scream is uninhibited :)

Adventures with techonology, a love/hate relationship

I am the proud owner of the iPhone 3gs (the s is more important than I ever imagined). Two months ago I shattered the glass but impressively the phone, touch screen and all, still worked. I was honestly more impressed with my phone after I broke it. After talking with my local Apple store it was determined that it would cost me $200 to fix the phone, even with the insurance that turned out to be useless. For that I could buy a new phone and decided to be stubborn and keep my phone as is. Flash forward three months and the cracked pieces start to fall out. I went online and found out that I could, for $7.50, fix the problem myself. The part comes in the mail and I spend an hour taking my phone apart and putting it back together. At this point I am ready to pat myself on the back and am humming the tune of "Mommy wow, I'm a big kid now" :) All that is left to do is fit the front to the back, only problem is it does not fit. After trying to figure it out I broke down and called the number that came with the kit. Turns out I wrongly purchased the 3g replacement and that explained the almost success. Now I was starting to get nervous, no working phone for a holiday weekend, how would I survive.  The extremely nice guy ended up over-nighting me the right kit, for free! I survived the night without a phone and before noon on a Saturday I had a cosmetically pleasing phone for way less than $200! I also still do not have a case but hopefully my phone lasts until that project gets taken care of. Cross your fingers :)

Living life on the edge, one puddle at a time.

Today it rained and while for most people it may just be annoying, for me it consists of my love of jumping in puddles but with all of my grace I usually just end up falling in them. Being from the southwest rain is a bit of a novelty so I can't help but to wake up slightly giddy to the sounds of thunder and rain drops. My goals for the day thankfully could be accomplished with or without weather. The plan was to organize my school assignments and my newest volunteer project. It is amazing how it is easy and interesting to organize others but when it comes to getting myself organized it is such a chore. In conclusion, today I have accomplished 4 hours of volunteering, cleaned my car out, read, watered plants (that are not even mine), dusted, did dishes, read some more, talked to people on the phone, did laundry, watched some Chuck, and created/edited a blog. Needless to say I have yet to start on organizing my semester, not surprising as I minored in procrastination with my last degree. Now that my productive day is at an end I can proudly say Puddles: Zero and Me: Three.