Why I still cry over Sandy Hook

When I heard about San Bernardino, I didn't cry. I was sad and my prayers went out to that community, but I did not cry. On the anniversary of  the Virginia Tech massacre, I reflect and remember, but I do not cry. It may sound harsh, but it is the truth. When I think about Sandy Hook, I cry just as hard and as much as I did that day.

It was a regular morning, my second year of grad school. Not having to be at work until 10am, my morning started off as it usually did. I was awake early, drinking coffee and watching the news. I heard the breaking news right when it first broke. As I watched the reports and heard what had happened, I cried. I kept watching, and I cried. I sat there for hours, and I cried. It's different when it hits so close to home.

Newtown? How could something like this happen in Newtown? Sandy Hook is a quaint, safe area just miles down the road from the house I grew up in. If Newtown, Connecticut is not safe then I don't know of anywhere in this world that is safe. That day I wrote, "So close to home. I don't understand our world. I think I've lost hope for our society and our future."

As I sit here, three years later I still feel the same way. Nothing has changed. I don't understand our world. I don't know that I have hope for our society.  From tragedies like the Sandy Hook shooting, we always see a stronger community emerge. So many came together to show support for Sandy Hook. My own hometown gave a school building to be the temporary Sandy Hook Elementary School. We welcomed them to our town with signs and with our hearts. I visited Sandy Hook that year and saw all of the notes, signs, stuffed animals, and flowers that were brought there or sent there from all over. I talked to a Bridgeport police officer who was there directing traffic because Newtown police needed extra help. It warms my heart to know that my hometown and so many other communities and people stepped up to assist Sandy Hook in any way they could.

I wonder if there will be a December 14 when I don't cry. A day when I remember and honor those who were lost, but I do not cry. I wonder if there's a day when I'll have hope in our world. I think about whether or not I want kids some day, and I'm not sure I want to bring a child into this world. I lost a part of myself on December 14, 2012. A part of myself that believed in our society. We lost 26 beautiful souls that day. And that is why I still cry. I've found some of that hope in the strength that came from Newtown in the wake of a tragedy.

A few days ago my mom received a note and a drawing from a Sandy Hook School student, Griffin. The note was thanking Monroe for giving a school to Sandy Hook so they could learn, and for taking care of them while they're at school. It brought tears to my eyes, but it made me proud. We did what we could for a town in need. We chose to prevail over the evil. As many have said, evil did not win that day.  I know that to honor those 26 beautiful souls lost that day, that I need to have hope and believe in the future.

Today, and every day, we choose love.

#BostonStrong

I might not be from Boston, but I'm from CT and know some people who do live in Boston. We all know I'm a New York sports fan all the way, but even that can be put aside in light of recent events. It's terrible to turn on the news (or log in to social media) and see all that was going on in Boston and the surrounding area. I'm glad we have brave people in this world who will risk their lives to protect us. I wanted to let ya'll know of some ways you can help those affected by this tragedy.

First off, there's The One Fund, the official fund for the Boston tragedy. Donations can be made on their website. Below are some items you can purchase from companies who will then donate to The One Fund as well.

Second, Alex Eaves, the creator and owner of the Boston-based company Stay Vocal, worked with William Somerby to create the shirt you see below. It costs $20 and 100% of that goes to The One Fund. You'll also be saving the planet too as the design is printed on brand new shirts that were destined to be destroyed. Due to the shirts that were available there is only men's size large, but you can get creative and repurpose it if it's too big/small (check out some ideas on Pinterest). I ordered mine already and hope you will do the same!

Third, Saucony will be selling lace plates to show support for Boston. 100% of the proceeds will go to The One Fund. These can't be purchased yet, but you can sign up for pre-sale notification (note: that will sign you up for their email newsletter).

Adidas has also jumped in and is selling t-shirts in men's and women's sizes for $26.20 with free shipping with 100% of profits going to The One Fund.

There are also plenty of runs and races being organized to support The One Fund, so look for one in your area.

Whichever way you choose, just support our fellow Americans. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the Boston tragedy. United We Stand.

Youtube, Signs from God, and little bit of crazy.

So my day hasn't been crazy enough already, but when I went to the TED website it had a nice little message saying that their website is offline for maintenance. They had a link to their youtube videos though so at least I could still do this. So today's TED talk will be embedded from youtube. But firtst, a little about my day. (Hopefully you want to hear about it...)

I woke up an hour before my alarm was set to go off, so I just got up anyway. I had work at 8, and it was a long day because we are getting close to being done training so we're really getting into our positions. It's challenging, we'll get the hang of it soon enough though. After work I went home, relaxed a bit and then went to church. I wore this new pair of heels to church, and they're real nice and totally acceptable for church. This old lady totally looked at my shoes, judged me, and definitely gave me some dirty looks. Perfect. Power went out during mass (a sign from God?), but then came back on. I got out of church and then was going to go to BWW to watch the LSU/Bama game, but by the time I was able to get there it was just way to crowded. So then I tried Red Robin, but again way to crowded. So I decided to just go home, until I decided I really wanted a drink. But where to go? So I ended up at the liquor store which happens to be right next to the Panera I work at. Pretty sure my manager saw me leaving the liquor store, and I definitely have work in the morning so that was interesting. Then I went into Publix to get some soda and also milk (I will be needing coffee in the morning), and my total came to $6.66 (another sign from God?) Finally, I'm back in my apartment, watching the LSU/Bama game (Geaux LSU! in case you're wondering), and relaxing a little.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 22

So, since today's talk has to be a TED talk from youtube, I found a TED talk about youtube. It's by Margaret Stewart, and it's about youtube's copyright stuff. It's interesting to see how they find copyright infringement and what gets done about it. Enjoy!




Oh, and last Snowtober update: my parents got power back for good (hopefully). It only took a week. It's Halloween in CT today. haha. Schools have lost a full week because of this storm, so on top of the week they lost for Hurricane Irene, they are prob going to lose spring break. I mean, it's not even winter yet. Oh well. Remember, remember the fifth of November.

Stick Figure Stories

I know you're getting tired of me saying this, but I'm tired. Seriously this week is taking a toll on me. And tomorrow it gets crazier. Tuesday it will reach a new level of cray. And Wednesday? Wednesday my life will reach insane. So I won't even bother going on.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 21

This one's just fun to watch. It's a talk by Marco Tempest. Really it's just him bringing a stick figure to life. It's really cool though. Like I said, fun to watch.

And sadly, for some reason I can't embed it so you'll have to go watch it on Ted: here.

Go watch it. It's worth it.

Oh and Snowtober update: It's nearing the end of darkness. My parents got power back, but then it went out again and is still out. But there's hope. CT should be fully restored in terms of power by the end of the weekend.

Neverending crazy.

Ohmygoodnessthishasbeenacrazyweek. Got that? Yeah, so if you didn't notice, I've been having a bit of a crazy week. Sadly, my life won't stop being crazy anytime soon. The beginning of this week was a bit crazy because I had this massive paper due Wednesday at five and I was really struggling to get it to the point that I'd be satisfied with. I think it ended up being a really good paper, but it definitely took a lot of time. Plus it was a pretty intense topic and needed to be extremely detailed so it took a toll on my brain. On top of that, I started my new job yesterday. I'm working at Panera Bread. It's a new Panera Bread that is opening next week so it's been crazy training and stuff. Next week will definitely continue to be crazy because it will be the opening. It will be busier than a Panera normally would, it will be mostly new people working who aren't 100% sure of what they're doing, and there's going to be far more employees working at once than it would normally have. So that craziness will continue next week. Not to mention that I still have classes and assignments too. Fun fun. I'm also likely to be opening some days which means I'll start work at 5am.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks.
Day 20.

So, in honor of my overloaded brain this week, I found this TED talk by Iain McGilchrist about the brain. He explains the division of the brain. It's pretty interesting, and it's an animated drawing tyoe video which is cool. It's a Best of the Web talk, so it's embedded from youtube. Enjoy.




Oh, and for a Snowtober update, my parents are still without power, as is about 42% of my hometown. Should have full restoration by the end of the weekend. Insane. Unacceptable, CT, unacceptable.

Happy Halloween!

Hey ya'll. So my internet was down yesterday which left me unable to post. Thus, it is not a failed challenge. I did watch some TED talks on my phone to find one, but couldn't blog it. So here's the post that would've been yesterday. Later today I'll post again.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 17

Happy Halloween!! Unless you're in CT, in which case Halloween has been rescheduled to Saturday. Yep, that's right. It makes sense though. My Halloweekend was more exciting than I had expected it to be. We had a small Halloween party in class which was nice, and then afterwards I met up with some friends at Mellow Mushroom for some delicious pizza. So that added to the fun Sunday events made for a better weekend than I had been suspecting.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to look for in TED talks for today, so I decided to just go for something at random. I found this talk by Nathalie Miebach called 'Art made of storms'. It's pretty interesting. She talks about how she makes sculptures and music from weather data. I think it is pretty unique so I hope ya'll like it too.

Crazy Unproductive.

I had planned on being super productive today. I was going to write two papers that I have that are due tomorrow. Well I wrote one. I do however have plenty of time tomorrow to write the other one (which is only a first draft anyway so it doesn't need to be perfect). So how did I end up being so unproductive today? Well my day started off pretty early. I was awake around 6 (might have something to do with me being in bed at 9pm). I went to Church for the 8:30 mass. After that I ran a couple of errands. Then I met some friends for brunch at The Fish House. I had a delicious vegetable frittata (I love that word) and a bottomless mimosa (which at some point I had to let it reach the bottom). After that I ran back to my apartment to change into my Batman costume. Yes, my Batman costume. Then I went and met some friends at the Gulf Breeze Zoo for a fun day of "Boo at the Zoo". Had a great time there. People loved my Batman costume. One kid asked his mom if I was the real Batman (success!!). There was a little girl dressed as Batgirl who asked me if I was Batgirl. I told her I was Batman and she said I couldn't be Batman because I'm a girl. Well I'm wearing the Batman costume so deal with it! I did not say that, I just laughed and said 'Okay, I'm Batgirl.'

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 16

So that was the majority of my day. I came home and wrote my one paper in just a couple of hours. Made myself a quick dinner. And then made this delicious chocolate chip cheesecake dip for our Halloween party in class tomorrow. It's delish. I must resist eating it all before the party. So as my day was not nearly as productive as I intended it to be (which I'm fine with because I had a GREAT day) I decided to find a TED talk that was totally irrelevant to my life and maybe just a little crazy. I think it turned out to be a whole lot crazy and I really can't even begin to discuss it in depth. It's a talk by Joshua Walters on being crazy. It's crazy, it's funny, and you can definitely get something out of it, but I'll just let you do that on your own. So enjoy. (It's another short one too.)



Oh and as for Snowtober back home, it's not going so well. Connecticut is now faced with it's worst power outage in history (beating out the record set by Hurricane Irene not so long ago). I know that 99% of my town was without power, and it's now down to 97%. The power companies have said that it will be up to a week before full power is restored. My parents have borrowed a generator from my brother so they can at least have the necessities. It's pretty rough up there though. So for any of you up in the Northeast, I hope things get better for you soon. Stay safe.

Halloween, Snow, & the World Series.

With Halloween less than a couple days away it is looking like it's going to be a White Halloween back home. That's right. It's been a snowy day back in CT. Now, I'm enjoying the weather here in Pensacola (the high today was 69 degrees F). It's not all the crazy for there to be snow in CT in October. When I was a kid we had to buy or make my costume so that it could fit over the layers of clothes you had to wear to keep warm. So snow in October in CT is not crazy, but it doesn't happen every year, and it's usually not as big of a storm as this was. Apparently a good portion of the state is out of power (including my parent's house and most of our hometown). So as much as I am loving the gorgeous weather down here, it would be nice to be home for some snow.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 15 (Halfway there!)

So in honor of the snow back home, I tried to find a TED talk about snow. I found very few options. So what I did find was this talk by Ray Zahab about his journey to the South Pole, on foot. It was a record breaking trek that took 33 days. He's very enthusiastic to share his story and it's very amazing that he and a few others did that journey together. I don't think I could ever do it.



So that's the snowy tale of the day. Who watched Game 7 of the World Series last night? I sure did. I headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings, and grabbed a seat at the bar to enjoy the game. It was a pretty good game, although not as good as Game 6 was. I was super excited that the Cardinals won. I was disappointed in the way baseball is not a big deal down here in the south. The place wasn't even packed and most of the people there weren't even watching the game. I know football is the big thing down here (don't get me wrong, I love football too) but there could be a little more love for football. While I was there I noticed there were 3 guys wearing Texas Rangers shirts, 2 with Cardinals shirts, 1 with a Nationals shirt, 1 with a Braves shirt, and 1 with an Orioles shirt. Even if you're going to watch the game, why bother wearing a shirt of a team who's not playing? Only in the south. It just would've been a better energy if there had been more people there to watch the game. Oh well, I still had a great time.

So in honor of the St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series, their 11th WS win (#11 in '11) here's a picture of Busch Stadium from my most recent trip to St. Louis (and by most recent that means February).