Dear Other Girls,

Hello, my name is Amanda, and I am what I refer to as a 'starer.' You may have noticed me staring at you on ocassion in the hallways at work. Or the mall. Or at the library. I apologize, and please don't be weirded out. The fact is: I am more than likely staring at your outfit. Yep, I'm a clothes junkie. You have given me inspiration to tie a scarf to my purse or wear teal flats. You've given me the motivation I needed to try bangs. Or white eyeliner. If I'm squinting and seemingly concentrating on you, you may have on some fab (but slightly too small to see from this distance!) earrings that I can't take my eyes off of. On more than one ocassion I've almost run into a display trying to get a better look at a cardigan.
So again, I apologize, but know that in my heart and I am grateful for your sense of style and will be copying you tomorrow.
Love, Amanda

Let hilarity ensue

When our boss asked Kristi and I to do a presentation at the conference our office hosted this past week, surely they knew of the hilarity that would ensue...? For example, notice this slide, which is supposed to be titled "Garrity v. New Jersey." See any typos?

PS: This was not intentional, which made it all the more hilarious.

Day 2 of Spring Cleaning

Ok, is the title of this post inaccurate when, technically, yesterday I didn't do any spring cleaning? Do my intentions count-since I fully intended to use these two days off work to spring clean?

Today's spring cleaning has been spent drinking coffee and reading Cynthia Kaplan's Why I'm Like This. What a great book. I wish I could write a book like this. I wouldn't even care if it got published, it would just be great to memorialize my life in such a funny, quirky, brutally honest sort of way, and know that I accomplished that. It's very similar to Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life-also a great book, but I like the longer, essay format a little better than the shorter encyclopedia type entries. I never used to like non-fiction, but I've noticed that as I get older I like them more and more. I think it's because everyone has some (maybe not yet manifested) desire to put their story down in print. I don't know.

Any thoughts on these enlightening topics are welcome. Also, does anyone know how to create some sort of book list type thing on blogger? I think it would be great to post books and have people post book recommendations for me too. Although, I went a little crazy yesterday and put about 50 books on hold at the library. Hey, at least my vice is free.

Um.... My niece playing bocce may just be the cutest thing I have ever seen.

She adores Scott... I think she was really excited for this chance to bond with him. And she was good at bocce! A natural... I think she may be part Italian.

Oh, nature

Aw, look at the mama duck that has nested outside the State Library (where our office is)!

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100427/NEWS08/4250378/Kid-who-doesn-t-exist-looks-to-future

This is a really cool article from the Indy Star today; I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

A word on blogging....

When I first had the idea to begin a blog, it was actually a big relief to me-I was always nervous about facebook, about all of the information that is just out there; even though my profile is private, it makes one weary of what information is getting out (not that I'm under the false impression that I'm particularly interesting or scandalous in any way, but still). With a blog, I can control who views it without the guilt of not accepting my high school classmate as a "friend."

Now that I have this (modest, and frankly, boring) blog started, I'm having writer's block. My goal was to make a forum to share with my family and close friends, and now that it's started, I'm thinking: What on earth is exciting enough for me to put on here? Is even beginning this blog some sort of narcissistic tendency making itself known? There are also my more basic questions-How do I get this font on this picture instead of above it? How do I get rid of these unseemly polka dots? (Any HTML knowledge you can pass along is greatly appreciated, FYI...)

My hope is that all beginning bloggers have these doubts. While I'm not a huge technology lover, I do love how modern technology has made it so easy to keep up with, and feel close to, people we care about who are far away or whom we don't get to see often. So that is my only goal with this blog, and I'll try to remember that when I feel particularly lame and deficient. Please be sure to leave me plenty of comments and whatnot telling me what is going on with your life, since that's the whole point!

I apologize for my ramblings, but I think that's going to happen a lot on here....

A