{"id":2055,"date":"2013-08-14T17:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T21:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/?p=2055"},"modified":"2016-10-10T11:54:39","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T15:54:39","slug":"is-there-anybody-out-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/2013\/08\/is-there-anybody-out-there.html","title":{"rendered":"Is There Anybody Out There?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>Yes, that title was only an excuse to put a Pink Floyd song in this post. You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\nWay back in June, the Ogre and I planned a quick little 3 week jaunt to Texas to visit the fam, give him access to the libraries at UD and SMU, and give me a bit of relief from the horribly depressing Florida rainy season. I had zero intentions of taking a blogging break (because I had just tried that and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/2013\/06\/because-i-have-to.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"> failed spectacularly,<\/a> remember?).<\/p>\nWell, 3 weeks turned into 4, then 5, then 7. We had the absolute best summer ever. Our days were bursting with swimming, cousins, Chick-fil-a, nieces and nephews, parks, Mimi and Papa time, Yaya and Papou time, puppies, old UD friends, aunts and uncles, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/2012\/07\/double-the-habits.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Sister Awesome<\/a>, and joy. We had so much fun during the days that I didn\u2019t want to miss a second of it by rushing back to my computer. And then after the kids finally went down (after endless rounds of bedtime whack-a-mole), I had my sister and my mom to hang out with. I didn\u2019t want to give up any of that time, even if we were just sitting and watching the Rangers, to try and put up a hasty blog post. Somehow this summer, nothing in Bloglandia seemed more important than hanging out with our families.<\/p>\nWe got into Ft. Lauderdale at about 11 pm on Saturday night. After the not-so-minor miracle of our faithful Navigator starting right away after 2 months in long-term parking we headed back towards Ave Maria. As we drove down Alligator Alley with the kids snoring away in the backseat, I realized how very much I have missed blogging. I started thinking about all the people at home with whom I was looking forward to catching up, and although my two great neighbors and a few other neighborhood moms came to mind, so did all my internet friends. This is the longest break from blogging I have taken since I started this blog, and while I enjoyed every second of it, I missed you guys!<\/p>\nMost unfortunately, though, I also took a break from all my serious bloggy responsibilities, like reading through the stack of books I agreed to review, editing some stuff for friends, and responding to emails. Because the world of adult responsibility is totally lame with its \u201cwork before play\u201d crap, that shizzle comes first. But then! But then, my friends, oh do I have so much to tell you. Here\u2019s a quick little bullet-point sneak peak at things you can expect to morph into wordy, hyperbolic posts. Really important stuff I realized, like<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When the heat is so intense that you actually have to choose between puking or dying, no desire to conform to a socially accepted standard of dressing (whether that standard be in the name of modesty or fashion) will ever EVER keep me from shorts again. And I mean short shorts. Not booty shorts, but you know. Finger-tip length. I feel that the inclusion of said shorts into my wardrobe has already improved my standard of living 5000%.<\/li>\n<li>Zumba is really hard when you have the actual DVD\u2019s from the guy who created zumba, and I shouldn\u2019t have been derisive when my sister said she was doing zumba, cause I totally ate crow the next day when I tried to do it and had to choose both puking and dying at the end.<\/li>\n<li>I should know by now not to be derisive of anyone ever, because it always ends in crow.<\/li>\n<li>The state of my teeth is stressing me out beyond reason, and even though I keep trying to tell myself not to be so vain, I can\u2019t help it, because I love my teeth and I\u2019m becoming desperately afraid that I will soon have to adopt a closed-mouth smile to hide their rapid descent into deformity.<\/li>\n<li>When you\u2019ve kind of lost everything else you were ever vain about, you tend to cling to that one last thing with terrifying ferocity. And by you, I mean me. Seriously, God, why? My teeth! They were all I had left! Not my teeth!<\/li>\n<li>I wasn\u2019t exaggerating about the hyperbole you\u2019re going to witness over the next few weeks. When it comes to my teeth, though, it\u2019s not hyperbole. I mean it.<\/li>\n<li>I miss Texas, a lot, and not just our families. Everything about it. Texas is in my blood after all, and it\u2019s calling me home.<\/li>\n<li>That being said, the Florida sun is way more effective when you want to get tanned in a short period of time.<\/li>\n<li>I have to get back to Texas soon so I can hang out with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jen <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/shovedtothem.blogspot.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Rebecca <\/a>more. They are so awesome. If I were Anne of Green Gables, I would say they are \u201cof the race that knows Joseph.\u201d But since I\u2019m pretty sure Anne and I would have vastly different understandings of what that means (and since I doubt Anne would even include me in her idea of the race of Joseph), I\u2019ll have to come up with my own term. Maybe y\u2019all can help me. Something like \u201ccheerful anti-Pollyannas who like to drink\u201d? I don\u2019t know. The race that knows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/simchafisher\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Simcha Fisher<\/a>, maybe?<\/li>\n<li>When one\u2019s goal is to return to the light blond hair of one\u2019s youth, but one refuses to shell out two weeks\u2019 worth of grocery money to a salon, one might have jaw-dropping success with spray-in hair lightening spray.<\/li>\n<li>Or one\u2019s hair might turn kind of orange.<\/li>\n<li>Six years after officially leaving college, I finally had to face up to the fact that I can no longer pull off my tried-and-true standard of dressing. I like to call it \u201ccargo pants chic.\u201d My sister likes to call it \u201csloppy and shapeless, even for a college student, which you are not anymore, by the way.\u201d She revamped my wardrobe while we were in Texas and convinced me not to curl up into a fetal position when presented with outfits like stripes mixed with paisley.<\/li>\n<li>I sometimes look like a grown-up who knows how to work a closet now.<\/li>\n<li>I even got tall wedge sandals.<\/li>\n<li>Charlotte is teaching me how to walk in them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nJust for funsies, here\u2019s the picture Jen and I took in Austin. Just pretend not to notice that I can\u2019t keep my eyes open like a normal human when I smile.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2058\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2058\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/225\/2013\/08\/jen-fulwiler-calah-alexander1.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2058\" title=\"jen-fulwiler-calah-alexander\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/225\/2013\/08\/jen-fulwiler-calah-alexander1-300x291.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"291\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2058\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">and please don\u2019t look too closely at my teeth of shame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo what\u2019d I miss? Any Blogworld blow-ups? Or unlikely truces? Or unusually happy and pleasant posts? Or things that will make my head explode? And how was y\u2019all\u2019s summer?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yes, that title was only an excuse to put a Pink Floyd song in this post. You\u2019re welcome. Way back in June, the Ogre and I planned a quick little 3 week jaunt to Texas to visit the fam, give him access to the libraries at UD and SMU, and give me a bit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Is There Anybody Out There?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, that title was only an excuse to put a Pink Floyd song in this post. You're welcome. 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