You Can Take the Girl Out of WI...

you know you are a 'wisconsin-ite' if...

• you edge your yard.
  
• you know what a bubbler is. in fact, you thought everyone drank from bubblers!
  
• you have been to bratfest.
  
• you only know three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup.
• you design your Halloween costumes to fit over a snowsuit.
• you know that Eau Claire is not something you eat.
• you have no problem pronouncing/spelling Milwaukee, Waukesha, Oconomowoc.
• you consider Madison exotic.
• you don't have a coughing fit from one sip of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
• you were unaware there is a legal drinking age.
• you go out for fish fry every Friday.
• you know how to polka.
• you think the start of deer season is a national holiday.
• you've seen mosquitoes with landing lights.
• formal wear is blue jeans & a baseball cap.
• you find 0 degrees a little chilly.
• the "Big Three" means Miller, Old Milwaukee & PBR
• you think that Lutheran and Catholics ARE the major religions.....
• you have eaten a cow pie at the State Fair.
• cheese is an important staple in your diet.
• the "classic" brewers logo will always remain "the logo" (mb baseball mit)
  
• you own at least one cheese head.
• church is canceled due to a packer game.
  
• you have ever been to State Street in Madison during a protest of something.
• you have drank "white soda" (ie 7Up, Sprite, etc).
• you have experienced snow storms in April.
• The Packers will always be better than the Vikings, no matter what the standings are.
• you have ever partied at Summerfest, Festa Italiana,German Fest, Irish Fest, Greek Fest...
• driving is better in the winter because the potholes fill in with snow.
• your idea of foreign culture is listening to Da Yoopers .
• you decided to have a picnic this summer because it fell on a weekend...
• Country Kitchen was the place to meet after the party. (or Perkins )
• you know someone who can use "i suppose" as a sentence.
• you can make sense out of the phrase "a-horse-a-piece."
  
• you refer to the Packers as "we."

...but you can't take the WI out of the girl. (can you believe it is my fourth year back?!)

Glory Days

Man... when I think back on those days.

I was fast.
I was strong.
I was invincible.

So I took the challenge - one day of reliving the glory days...

It took three minutes on the treadmill to realize I can't run the 7 minute mile pace without training anymore.

It took one run in with a goalie to realize I am not as big as he is.

It took a half a flight of stairs to recognize air is a precious thing.

My conclusion... I should pack away the glory days with the pictures and worry about what is in front of me:

the injuries of reliving the glory days

Government Funded Earmuffs

Bursting through the garage door after a dramatic day of middle school, I was purely disgusted that one person could be treated so unjustly by another. When I repeated the terrible circumstance to my father, in hopes he would throw his arms up in the air in like disgust and say,

"What is this world coming to?! That one person could be treated so unjustly by another..."

You can imagine my great disappointment when all I received was,

"well, that's not the whole story..."

Like most situations, it served as a life lesson.
As I have become more involved in taking political responsibility for my beliefs, I have noticed the government sitting at my dinner table, sleeping in my bed, and lounging next to me on the couch while I watch my favorite Sunday night television show. How the products I purchase, the food I eat, and the shows I watch surreptitiously support programs I may not believe in.

The media recently reported a story I was involved in on our local nightly news. I tuned in, having spent the day at the event and was not surprised when the information was both manipulated and misrepresented. And how many people are wise enough to stop and say to themselves - that's not the whole story...

I can not help but wonder what information we are missing, what the world is really like when we take off the earmuffs the government so politely provides. Will we ever hear the whole story?

New Year.. Same Odds

52% start confident they will succeed at their resolution.

12% achieve their goals.

One would have to be pretty motivated to nuke the New Year's odds. I say - no matter how bad they may be it is always better to have odds... than to be odd.

Let's hear them - best New Year's Resolutions?

Senator Fehrenbox

No need to be a presidential candidate to do a fact check on those around you - just listen...

What percent of people's statements are false?

In speaking with a new found friend regarding a very important topic, I was concerned when the information brought to the table on their behalf was, in fact, not true. How long had this opinion been developing, mind scheming, frustrations building - over something inaccurate? So naturally, I quickly corrected the fallacy and start in on the lecture against letting other people determine your opinions. And in my moment of haste I was mercilessly humbled. How many tales have I told? How many truths did I stretch? How many 'close enoughs' did I share with others and cause them to walk away fancied by a fib?

Frank McCourt says it plainly - "you have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind about history and everything else but you can’t make up an empty mind. Stock your mind. You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace."

Vote for Senator Fehrenbox - for a fallaciously free world.

Plodding Pandora

M-i-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i.
This great state we learned to spell so many years ago presents us today with a perplexing paradox:

#1 Lowest per capita income
#1 Highest charitable donations per capita

Why is it that the poorest people give the most?

In an attempt to sort out this contradiction, one suggested it is because they themselves experience the need for charity and therefore understand its necessity, resulting in their monetary support.
This spun a web of thoughts...

As middle class citizens if we do not eat three healthy meals a day, it is our own fault. We drive our cars to work, consume ourselves with topics of choice, watch our entertaining television shows, and sleep in our warm beds. In our daily lives we may not experience hunger, abuse, third trimester abortions, child trafficking, mental illness, loneliness... we may even ignore it.
To the homeless on the street we say,

"they should get a job, i worked hard for my money".

To the lives lost at abortion clinics we say,

"i would never do something like that".

To those who have no one to share Christmas with we say,

"I have two families to see and a turkey to cook, I can't possibly spare 30 minutes".

Perhaps our greatest fault is we are afraid to open Pandora's box. We are afraid to see what evils are in this world. Because if we don't see them, they may not exist. If they do exist, we may be responsible to do something about it - how can we truly live knowing that others suffer injustices.

If we were exposed to those same injustices, would we respond similarly as our fellow Mississippians?


...maybe Pandora was on to something

A Love/Hate Relationship

Winter.
For those who have justly experienced Madison, you will recognize the snow-smothered terrace tables overlooking lake Mendota.

For some this picture brings anxiety and fear. For others, relief; they do not have to de-ice the car, bundle the face, or chapstick the lips.

And yet for others in mind, it brings excitement and joy and a world of activities the summer just cannot offer. Such as kite flying on a frozen lake, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, chili cook-offs, ice fishing, tea in front of a fire...

I have found no middle ground. People either love the winter, or hate it.
Are you in a love or hate relationship?

Those who experience both extremes within the season are perhaps distracted at first. The beautiful first fallen snow, the 4WD adventures, the stimulation of a new season, the anticipation of holidays the snow brings with it. Does this love endure? Or do the countless car-thaws, ice falls, wind-chills below zero, and frozen gasoline tanks turn us quickly into the greenest grinch?