/əbˈseSHən/

 ob·ses·sion/əbˈseSHən/

Noun:

The state of being obsessed with someone or something. An idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind.

I'll admit, I'm kindof a brand-whore. Mostly because I do believe that brand names manufacture at a higher, better quality. In many cases at least. Sure. Abercrombie is expensive. But damn their clothes are well made. You can buy all the generic saran wrap in the world and it won't cling like Reynolds. No amount of tomato tweaking can compare to Heinz. Colgate & AquaNothing...Crest trumps. And most certainly, buying generic detergent is not worth the replacement cost of the articles it ruins. I learned the hard way that Tide is worth the few extra dollars.

BUT SOAP??

I have never cared about soap brands. Until I found Brandon and his Cellar Door Soap Company.
Hands down, he makes the best soap EVER. It's expensive. But it smells more than yummy. It makes my shower experience ten times better. I'm hooked. And I'm certain I am his #1 fan. Best of all, I get to see him this weekend and indulge in my favorite guilty pleasure. More soap.

https://www.facebook.com/CellarDoorSoapCo

Guess what EVERYONE in my life is getting for Christmas?
Yep.

mjg

Things Kids Should Pay For...

I'm no parent, but I feel pretty strongly about something. So most anywhere that prides itself on parenting information will tell you things you should never pay your kids to do.

Grades
Chores
Showing up
Good Behavior
Good Deeds

  
I didn't get paid to use proper tense. I didn't earn a penny for using 'you're' not 'your' correctly. I didn't get $5 for sitting still and quiet. I did not get handed a dime when I returned a shopping cart back to the store for a little old lady. I didn't get money for doing chores - my ass got to live for free. I don't know about you, but ever since I moved out of my parents house, nowhere that I've lived has been free, and I STILL have to do chores. So now I'm actually paying to vacuum. Awesome.

Again, I'm not a parent (yet), so let me tell you from an adult-kid's perspective something kids SHOULD pay for. If my piggybank had to have a budget, I assure you I'd have done some things differently.

Cavities. My parents weren't sticklers for me brushing my teeth. And they should have been because they have sucky weak enamel  that I suckingly inherited. They didn't make me brush. So by age 13, I had a mouth full of metal tooth plugs. I bet I'd have though twice about candy before bed without brushing had my piggybank been responsible for paying the Dentist.

There's my Monday wisdom. Time to go brush.

mjg

Black is the new Black.

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many British Commonwealth countries.

The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term started before 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black."

Happy Black Fridaying if you venture out. I’m on the hunt for this beauty!

mjg

*Update. Secured, purchased, & hung. 2013.

Put the Thanks in Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
If even for an instant, spend time today being grateful for something.
I bet you'll find more than one;)

mjg

Design Binge.

I'm on design overload. Can't get enough. The purpose of this post is more "To-Do Listish" than anything else. After the tryptophan kicks in on Tgiving, I hope to cozy up on the couch and peruse.

One Kings Lane

The Foundary

Joss & Main

MaryMcdonald

Novogratz

Pinterest
Dot&Bo

Then:
*reorganize apps on iPad & iPhone
*tackle email. Like foreal. Weeding thru 1,800 messages is no longer obnoxious - it's paralyzing.
*have Twilight marathon then go see Breaking Dawn
*put together Spring Sprint presentation
*get minimal sleep and have maximal fun
*eat, drink, & be merry

Ciao!

mjg

Stay in your own yard.

The grass is NOT greener on the other side.
AND
If you think it is, start watering your OWN lawn.

Most people learn over time, but often learning comes too late to be fully useful. There are certainly many things that I know now that would have been extremely useful to me earlier in my life; things that could have saved me from many of the mistakes and hurts I suffered over the years—and most of those that I inflicted on others too.

I don’t buy the romantic notion that my life has been somehow richer or more interesting because of all the times I screwed up; nor that the mistakes were “put” there to help me learn. I made them myself—through ignorance, through fear, through desire—and life and work would have been less stressful and more enjoyable (and certainly more successful) without them. So here are some of the things I wish I had learned long ago (Thanks Adrian Savage!)

• Most of it doesn’t matter. So much of what I got excited about, anxious about, or wasted my time and energy on, turned out not to matter. There are only a few things that truly count for a happy life. I wish I had known to concentrate on those and ignore the rest.
  
• The greatest source of misery and hatred in this world is clinging to past hurts. Look at all the terrorists and militant groups that hark back to some event long gone, or base their justification for killing on claims of some supposed historical right to a bit of land, or redress for a wrong done hundreds of years ago.
  
• Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever. One of the greatest advantages anyone can have is the willingness to make a fool of themselves publicly and often. There’s no better way to learn and develop. Heck, it’s fun too.
  
• Following the latest fashion, in work or in life, is spiritual and intellectual suicide. You can be a cheap imitation of the ideal of the moment; or you can be a unique individual. The choice is yours. Religion isn’t the opiate of the masses, fashion is.
  
• If people complain that you’re too fond of going your own way and aren’t fitting in, you must be on the right track. Who wants to live life as a herd animal? The guys in power don’t want you to fit in for your own sake; they want you to stop causing them problems and follow their orders. You can’t have the freedom to be yourself and meekly fit in at the same time.
  
• The quickest and simplest way to wreck any relationship is to listen to gossip. The worst way to spend your time is spreading more. People who spread gossip are the plague-carriers of our day. Cockroaches are clean, kindly creatures in comparison.
  
• Trying to please other people is largely a futile activity. Everyone will be mad at you sometime. Most of the people you deal with will dislike, disparage, belittle, or ignore what you say or do most of the time. Besides, you can never really know what others do want, so a good deal of whatever you do in that regard will go to waste. Be comforted. Those who love you will probably love you regardless, and they are the ones whose opinions are worth caring about. The rest aren’t worth five minutes of thought between them.
  
• Every winner is destined to be a loser in due course. It’s great to be up on the winner’s podium. Just don’t imagine you can stay there for ever. Worst of all is being determined to do so, by any means available.
  
• You can rarely, if ever, please, placate, change, or mollify an asshole. The best thing you can do is stay away from every one you encounter. Being an asshole is a contagious disease. The more time you spend around one, the more likely you are to catch it and become one too.
  
• Everything takes twice as long as you plan for and produces results about half as good as you hoped. There’s no reason to be downhearted about this. Just allow for it and move on.
  
• People are oddly consistent. Liars usually tell lies. Cheaters cheat whenever it suits them. A person who confides in you has usually confided in several others first—but not got the response they wanted. A loyal friend will stay loyal under enormous amounts of thoughtless abuse.
  
• However hard you try, you can’t avoid being yourself. Who else could you be? You can act and pretend, but the person acting and pretending is still you. And if you won’t accept yourself—and do the best you can with what you have—who then has any obligation to accept you?
  
• The loudest noise in the world is the sound of people whining. Don’t add to it.
  
  Adrian Savage is a writer, an Englishman, and a retired business executive, in that order, who now lives in Tucson, Arizona. You can read his other articles at Slow Leadership, the site for everyone who wants to build a civilized place to work and bring back the taste, zest and satisfaction to leadership and life. Recent articles there on similar topics include Chickens, eggs, and happiness and Why perfection isn’t a viable goal. His latest book, Slow Leadership: Civilizing The Organization, is now available at all good bookstores.
 

mjg

 

The Infamous 25 Things.

So this was a fun little ditty. I will admit something here. It took me 11 hours to perfect this list of 25 things when I first compiled it in 2009. That's so "true Melissa fashion." Every word or punctuation mark has strategic placement. I can't help my perfectionist nuances. I remember hating having to write papers, not because I couldn't write, but because they were extremely laborious for me - I would muddle over every word I wrote, making sure it was the best word to use for that particular thought or sentence. Well, same went for this list. I haven't read it since around the time I wrote it. I'm excited to see what, if anything, has changed. And I vow NOT to spend 11 hours tweaking it;)

25 Random Things, or the best Soul-Searching Session ever....

by Melissa Gratz on Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 8:59pm

25 Random Things about Me:

1. I have an addictive personality. I get addicted to things...easily. Current Addictions: My Blackberry. iPhone. Facebook and Facebook Chat. Diet Coke. Cam's House. Rin on the Rox, on YouTube. Pistachios.
I now prefer texting. FB chat is obnoxious, and quite frankly, I don't want people knowing when I'm online. Cam moved & so did we. Still love Rin on the Rox, but I don't know what happened to them. Now it's Timeflies, Ed Sheeran, & Natalia Kills. Still stuck on YouTube though, and love finding "nobodies" who really are "somebodies."

2. I have a permanent Facebook Status. It is: Melissa wants to know how one can always find time for the unimportant things, but can't find the time to do the things that need to get done...Exhibit A...Shouldn't I be doing something other than telling you 25 random things? But I'm slowly realizing, the unimportant things tend to mean more in the end.
Nicely put, Melissa. You still struggle from the exact problem today, and even created a Blog to track your unimportant.

3. I was born (on 1/24 at 1:24pm), raised, and remain in Michigan. I love Michigan. I love it even more now that the country thinks Michigan is an economic cemetary. I vote Mitch Albom for Governor and Lion's Head Coach. Everyday would be a Tuesday with Morrie, and the Lion's would see a winning season.
Still smitten with the mitten. And our Lion's are (were) actually winning.

4. My favorite food is Edamame. I haven't found a meal yet that it cannot accompany.
Ah, yes. The soybean. Don't make you nearly as often, butcha still have a place in my heart.

5. I believe the DVR is the greatest invention of all time. But the fact that I can fill 2 80-Hr DVRs, and then attempt to watch 160 hours of television brings me back to my permanant Facebook status.
I now could go without cable. Still love my DVR for those "must-sees," but have probably watched 25 hours of TV the whole past year. I'd rather read. Or paint. Or talk to my friends and laugh.

6. My favorite season is Autumn. Jada's name when we adopted her was Autumn. For me, there's just something about Autumn.
Autumn - "The year's last, loveliest smile."

7. I miss High School. I would go back in an instant. Or if I could just wear #31 one more time (if Sam was on the team with me.) and go to the Track&Field State Finals one more time....
High School. I'd still go back in a heartbeat. Though, life is pretty sweet for me at the moment, so I think I'll stick around here for a while.

8. I miss College. I would go back in an instant. Alpha Phi, Rho Chi, MGCA & the friends I made, have made me who I am today. And, the talks on the Alpha Phi side porch, whether you knew it at the time or not, definitely paved the way for the person I am today. Bowling Green also provided some of the greatest food memories of my life- Pollyeyes breadsticks and Mr. Spots are still staples.
College. I'd still go back there in a heartbeat too. Though, life is pretty sweet for me at the moment, so I think I'll stick around here for a while.

9. Scentsy has changed my life.
TRU-DAT!

10. I enjoy the taste of Beer. I don't drink to get drunk, I drink because nothing tops a cold beer. And it's amazing the conversations you get into and the things you learn about people over an ice cold beer.
Me & beer. Our relationship fizzled when I kicked Marlboro to the curb. Red wine is more my speed these days, as is crawling in bed by 9pm & rising at 5am to hit the gym. This body isn't as it was, nor are my habits.

11. I don't like sweets. I don't order dessert. I dislike Chocolate. I can live without Ice Cream. My family finally realizes I won't even eat my own birthday cake. I make an exception for Autie's Rice Krispy Treats, my sister's banana bread, & my mom's zucchini bread sans walnuts.
No change. Except, Velata. And, I love Carrot Cake. I forgot to mention.

12. I get the same warm & fuzzy feeling when I walk into American Eagle that most of you get when you find the perfect "Little Black Dress."
This is getting boring...or else I just know myself damn well, and don't see reason to change;)

13. I tend to overanalyze almost every situation. Hence why I calculate consequences before formulating sentences.
Um. Yes. Next.

14. I'm anal, but about the weirdest things. I love the word "precision." If you desire further information, consult Autumn. I'm still in denial that I have an obsession with the thermostat.
Yes, about the weirdest things. But really, I'm pretty anal about EVERYTHING.

15. I have a phobia of knees. It is very real. I have thrown up more over knee related discussions than from alcohol.
True story. Anything knees, out of the question.

16. I'm almost NEVER late. And if I'm late, there's good reason. Or I have someone to blame.....
To be early is to be on time.

17. I have only ever called into work three times, and twice wasn't due to sickness. But I have been sent home twice for going to work sick.
Still true, 2 years later. Work ethic of an ironman.

18. I, like Jen, prefer nicknames. And most often, they have no direct relation to your actual name. Could stem from when I was little - I'm told I used to walk around the house calling myself "Kunka." And my parents still call me that. And I can't believe I revealed my nickname.
Semi-wanted to remove all of #18. Enough with revealing the nicknames already!

19. One of the best days of my life was when my sister moved from Colorado to Indianapolis.

20. I am not a patient person, and I have no intention of trying to become more patient.
Thanks someecards: "Why is patience a virtue? Why can't hurry the fuck up be a virtue?"

21. I did make a solid New Year's Resolution, that I can actually stick to this year. To stop expecting things from people. I expected too much from too many, and have been let down hard too often. If I lower my expectation of how I assume someone will act in a situation, I'm less likely to walk away disappointed.
Still a solid resolution. Still abide by it today.

22. You can learn a lot about the world from being put into a situation you wouldn't otherwise put yourself in.
You can also learn a lot if you shut your mouth and just listen for a while. Be open. Don't judge. And take it all in.

23. I have been blessed with the relationships I have had. I have had my heart broken more by friends than by significant others.
Still true. Though. 2010 tested me more than my whole 34 years. Lots broke. Lots needs mended.

24. I have a dream of getting married, barefoot, on a beach. I know what I will wear. I know who will be there. THAT will be the best day of my life.
Still true.

And 25. This will be fun to go back to from time to time. Add, subtract, multiply & divide. Rediscover. Renew. Refresh. Revel. Relaugh at myself;) And it did not take 11 hours to complete the revision.

I'm SO ME, and I like it.

mjg

About.me

Super cool. Heard of About.me?
Create your own personal splash page.

http://about.me/melissagratz

mjg

Project Launch!

This is as close to a celebratory kickoff party as we're gonna get - Blogging about the fact I should be running around the house screaming "It's here!" But. I'm not running around the house with my arms flailing in excitement. I didn't do EVERYTHING I had hoped to accomplish on the big Day 1. But I'm blogging. That's good. I'm being honest. That's good too. And of course I'm going to put my mind at rest with some empathetic self-talk. "Ease into change. Drastic change only causes a greater margin for error." There. I feel better.

Pardon some personal notes for a moment. I'm not a procrastinator, but I am most certainly, and always have been, deadline-driven (a more politically correct term for procrastination, don't be fooled.) This Project isn't just about eating right and being a productive Tasmanian Devil 18 out of 24 hours a day. It's about just living fuller. Enjoying more. Worrying less. Being thankful for what I have. Inspiring myself and maybe another along the way. And tracking progress.  This blog isn't developed yet. I don't know what it will be when it grows up, but what matters is that I promised myself I would do it, and I'm sick of letting myself down. I'm the queen of "there's always tomorrow." But. Tomorrow is here, and today's tomorrow is no guarantee. 

So let's live. Let's not waste time. It's finally time for me to start living the life I've imagined.

mjg

How Stuff Works...

I am FASCINATED by how the Tunnel from Detroit to Ontario, Canada was built. I know, shocker. Me and my useless (but to me, fascinating) information. Every time I use the Tunnel to Canada, I vow I will research it when I return back to the States. How long is it? How did they build it under the Detroit River? When?  I never remember to. So Friday, I went to dinner in Canada byway of the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel.

[Sidenote: I remember telling an out of state friend once that I was going to dinner in Canada. She laughed and said "Well look at you, Miss 'I need my passport in order to dine.' " Made me realize how funny my dinner declaration must have sounded. Another country for dinner. Sounds so Kim Kardash.]

[Sidenote 2: Friday was the longest it has ever taken me to get from the U.S. to Canada, even including times my car has been searched. I had a grocery-store-checkout-case of "picked the wrong line." The Customs Agent responsible for the traffic jam was the MOST talkative man EVER. We sat as "the next car" for 37 minutes.This was after it took a half hour to pay our toll & drive the tunnel. Thanks Agent #12439. Finally. My turn. "Reason?" "Tunnel BBQ." "Tunnel BBQ?!" "Yes. Tunnel BBQ." "Why? Ever been to Top Hat?" "Because it is my favorite and no, when I come here I go to Tunnel." "Tunnel was good about ten years ago." "You going to ask my citizenship or are we going to continue to compare rib joints?" "That mouth will make you even more late for your dinner." Sigh.]

While entering the Tunnel, I made my usual vow. However, this time around, I totally followed through (thanks Pro 9 Oh...maybe?) Did YOU know:

♦ This is the only underwater international vehicular border crossing in the world. Yes, I said world. How cool is that?
♦ The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel was formally dedicated on Saturday, November 1, 1930. President Herbert Hoover turned a "golden key" in Washington that rang bells in both Detroit and Windsor to mark the opening of the tunnel.
♦ The Tunnel is jointly owned by the Cities of Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan.
♦ Approximately 27,000 to 29,000 vehicles pass through the Tunnel on a DAILY basis.
♦ Ventilation - 1.5 million cubic feet of fresh air is pumped into the tunnel each MINUTE.
♦ As you travel almost a mile, 75 feet below the surface of the Detroit River, you're surrounded by 574 lights, 80,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 750 tons of reinforced steel.
♦ The steel shells were built on dry land, welded watertight, sealed and floated into the river. Once they were tugged and anchored into position over the trench, the final interior and exterior concrete was poured, and the tubes were sunk and joined together by divers using a collar of tremie cement. Once the tube was in place, the trench was backfilled with 20 feet of material to hold it in place.

 Cool, huh?

mjg

Preparation to Launch - Part Deux

Okay. So. This is too funny to not share. 

"Mead Five Subject" I speak of in Part 1.

Remember me mentioning in Part 1 about being anal?
Here's proof. This was the inside cover of my journal to remind myself of the rules.

Let's look at this for a moment.
At 10-years-old, I retired Dino for Liss, and scrapped unruly stick letters for cursive.
I am loving my precision - "At 5:00 today, I decided to quit dance." 
I claim to be upset, but then parenthetically divulge that I hated dance.
My proficient spelling OBVIOUSLY came later in life.
Today's report card would indeed look similar - though Penmanship would be an 'A', and I would flunk Religion.

mjg

Chain Reactions.

Witness a series of chain reactions:

Want to blog, play with my blog, tweak my blog, add to my blog. BUT am employing discipline, and over and over today told myself "Get X, Y, & Z done, and you can go write."
This is good!

Even though all I've wanted to do is write, I haven't had time to think today about what I want to write about next, so I threw on some earbuds, and hopped on the elliptical.
My legs did the dirty work, my heart did the hard work, and my brain hit recess.
This is good!

Normally, by this time of night, I'd either: grab a snack and a Diet Coke and sit in front of this computer screen trying to find the end of the Internet. Or. Go to bed because justifying needing sleep is the only excuse for not being productive I allow. I've done neither. I grabbed a water, and I'm writing. But this is AFTER getting X,Y, & Z done. So tonight, I have actually accomplished MORE in less time. 

Okay so here's then what I know: This whole Blog thing might actually work. I'm stoked. I have to get things done before I allow myself to write. In order to write, I need to exercise so I can think. In exchange for uninterrupted time in the ThinkTank, my ass is shrinking, my muscles are burning, and I'm paying no mind to it because I'm too busy jamming & thinking!

mjg

Preparation to Launch: Today, I practice.

My first journal was a spiral-bound notebook. A Mead 5-subject before they had plastic covers. I signed every entry with the name "Dino," because it sounded way cooler than my real name. I tracked extremely newsworthy things. Spelling test scores. How far I rode my bike. My brother falling in the creek. All scribbled so poorly, I even today am embarrassed by 8-year-old me. Then I remind myself, my handwriting was WAY better than the self-given nickname.

Then Megan's sleepover birthday party. She gave Dinky Diaries in lieu of goodie bags. A far more superior "thanks for coming" than gummy bracelets, smarties & scrunchies. In my true anal fashion, I didn't sleep that night because I had birthdays to log in my brand new calendar and phone numbers to get to load up my address book. It even had stickers, and we know, stickers are the way to a child's heart. My last entry in the Dinky Diary was 1989, when I wrote "Saw Grandpa in the casket." I think I retired Dinky for a basketball.

The teenage years I didn't journal. I was too busy and cool for my own words and thoughts. And. My teenage experiences are much safer in my head than ANYWHERE where they could be found.

Freshman/Sophomore year of college. Orange hardcover book that so secretly disguised itself with the word JOURNAL printed in CAPS on the front. No one should keep this kind of journal in college amongst communal living. That just begs for trouble. But I did, or at least I tried, and this was my "pour your thoughts & feelings" phase. After turning 21, I was too busy barhopping and too tired to outline the days events in writing.

The supposed-adult calendar journal. After college, I didn't have thoughts to put on paper for Future Me. I had events to track. I bought a Month-At-A-Glance planner, and used the little boxes for each day to track the daily events. Not thoughts, feelings, or otherwise. It was matter-of-fact. 8-year-old-esque, if you will. Like really? I tracked life for about two years, my longest run in the 'journaling' department. Then like all its ancestors, began collecting dust and was moved to the past journal attempts box.

The journal started out of life struggle. This was my most recent journal attempt. I bought an expensive leatherbound conspicuously embossed JOURNAL. A journal for the serious journalers. One that you can almost hear shouting from its hiding place "I'm filled with juicy. Come read me." I wrote in it for ten straight days. Then once a week. Then two months later. Then scribed my last entry discussing how I am unable to keep a written journal - I am wordy - I have too much to say, and often my hand cramps before my thought has even developed.

This Blog. It took 28 months to find myself back yet again at the journaling crossroads. I figure this. I don't need to keep my daily rants&rambles in a book. I prefer typing. I love inserting pictures where words don't do justice. I prefer being able to access this blog from anywhere. AND, since I always have more to add (this entry has been posted already twice, then taken down to tweak) this blog affords me all the space I need, without having to make notes ****See page 13 for the 1st paragraph of this entry, and page 21 for part 2. No. I can click edit, and put my thoughts where I want them, and you'll never know.

From this:

To This:

I had no where to log movement.
I often forget about new song finds.
I'm not currently journaling nor sharing anything on my mind, but want to.
I wanted to start a GoodDeeds&Gratitude Journal, but had decided there were still other things I wanted to say.
My art was hidden in a folder on my hard drive.
My favorite websites jotted on post-its.

This blog, is my one stop shop.
This ain't the 80's no more. 

mjg