All of the things, all of the stuff

Things

I have a theory that any typical woman has on her person at any given time between 8-12 types of lip stick/gloss/liner.

The real truth that will come out is how many lipthings a woman has in total, including the collection she keeps at home - the collection that rarely comes out.  I would call it "the lipstick graveyard," but I know just as well as all women do that wouldn't be an accurate statement.  There's a time and a place for all lipsticks/glosses/liners which are not in a trash can.  

Go ahead and have a woman walk through her "lipstick graveyard."  You'll find the funniest stories on why a woman will not throw out old lipsticks. 

"This one is about 8 years old, but they don't sell it anymore and I love it."  

"This one totally dries out my lips and flakes, but if you combine it with a few different kinds of gloss, the color is really beautiful."   

"This one is way too dark; I didn't realize how dark it was when I bought it, but it cost $9, so I'm going to keep it, because one day I might wear it, like as part of a Halloween costume or something."   

"This one I never wear except for very special occasions, because it cost $45."   

"This one has a really gross texture to it, but it smells soooo good."

Trust me.  It's true.

They are all about to act like it's not true, but it's true.

You know it, I know it, and the American people know it.

Go ahead, next time you are out at a casual meal, ask the women with purses on them how many lipthings they have on them.  Go ahead.

Are you ready to see my collection?

You have no idea how long it's going to take me to scatter all of this around my house again back to where I found it all.

Yup. That's it.  I'd say the left 1/3 of the circle is on me at all times in my purse, and the rest is in the home-based graveyard.

Update: I just found 6 more in my make-up case.

ADDING YOURS!
Here are the self-confessed submissions I've received... send me your lipstuff collection, and I'll post it!

Rachel

 Thanks for your honesty, Rachel.

Melissa

Thanks for your honesty, Melissa, 

and for the truth about your eye shadow collection.

I also have a collection of sunglasses.  Someone else might have just said, "Veronica has entirely too many sunglasses," but again, there is a time and a place for all sunglasses.

I didn't even go out and search my car, but let's assume we'd add about 5 more.

I don't know how this happened. My educated guess would be that after years of being used to losing every pair of sunglasses, I just kept buying them, and somewhere along the line got better at not losing them.

The best pair of sunglasses I've ever owned are the ones in that front row in the middle.  They are... believe it or not... the sunglasses I bought at the Taylor Swift concert, and they are polerized.  I can see things invisible to the naked eye in them - they have been amazing for archery and for all of my water things I've done this year, LIKE TUBING!

Side note - I want to go tubing all of the time.  I went again recently, this time down the Antietam Creek with my mother and stepfather for her birthday, and it was a blast.

The only slight problem is that I am a delicate flower and get injured very easily, and I flipped my tube a lot this time, resulting in pretty bad bruises.  

I took this photo literally 2 weeks 

after tubing, and it was still this bad.

But I digress... 

The good news is that I am the easiest person in the world to buy presents for.  Just get me lipthings, sunglasses, tea, or and soap.  

I'm not getting up to take a picture of my soap collection, but those who know... know. 

When Melissa was living here, she came into my bedroom one night, and sat down on my bed, with a straight and totally serious face said, "Hey.  So, if you die suddenly...  :: pregnant pause :: what would you like me to do with your soap collection?"   I still laugh about it at least once a week.  She totally called me out, and caught me off-guard, but she definitely got me nailed down.

One other area where I am well-stocked is my collection of tools, and house-y things.  

What single young female has this many tools and things?

This is ONE of my tool drawers.

I have so many tools and house-y things that I have to store things all around the house.  Don't be surprised if you are spending the night and there's a sledgehammer, crowbar, and hammers under the guest bed.  Be careful opening the linen closet, because spare curtain rods and (mounds! of) electric cords will probably fall on you.  I NEED IT ALL.  

Stuff 

I've said before how people must think I have all of the  money, with how much traveling I do, and, now that you know, how many things I have.  The truth is that I just acquire things... it's amazing, really.  People gift me things, or people move and let me have their things, or people just hate their stuff and know that I will take your things 90% of the time.  

Before you even finish your sentence, "Hey, Veronica? I am redoing my kitchen, and I have some things I'm going to get rid of, do you..." I'll be ready with, "YES I DO what time should I be over to pick up everything?  What else are you changing?  Do you have like, a nightstand?  Lamps you don't want?" 

I just heard a bunch of readers "amen"ing, because if you are reading this, I probably have things that were once yours.

I admit to being out of touch with what my friends would consider normal shopping, primarily because I am pretentious and snobby and won't go to Wal-mart.  I recently tried to go to Aldi for the first time, because my friends (with families) swear by it.  But once I was there, I got snobby, and the conversation would go: 

Friend: "Look, these strawberries are so cheap - this is like a whole dollar less than the grocery store!"
Me: "Yeah... are they organic?"
Friend: "Umno."
Me: "Well... are they even remotely local? Where is this food coming from?"
Friend: "Um... I don't know, the [expletive] strawberry farm??!"
Me: 

 There's definitely a disconnect.

But I know when to call BS... and I'm calling it.

I did go to WalMart the other day because it was on my way home and Target would have been an additional 10 minutes in the car.

Here is the reason America is so obese: 

Basically the same price for ONE fresh pepper, or a whole box of garbage food.

If I were a single parent, or a parent with many kids for whom I am responsible to feed, guess which one seems more practical.

Are you kidding me?!

There's got to be a solution.

Not-So-Great American Tragedy

You wouldn't know from first glance, but I'm actually a really healthy person.  Kake has said on several occasions that it is one of the Great American Tragedies that I eat the way I do and am active as much as I am and am still not a size 6.

Eating 

First of all, when you are above a size 16, anything you eat is judged by those around you.  

I stopped caring about this years ago.  The truth is that I genuinely crave foods which are clean and from the earth.  This is my lunch from one day at work, which inspired me to be on this topic today:

It's great to have some people in your life who share your love for healthy things, whether it is running or other kinds of exercise, or eating clean foods.  I am fortunate to have a few people who care about what they eat, including my colleague Sara, and we share food all of the time.  

Me, every time Sara is working at the Baltimore office.  Or anytime I spot someone with brought-from-home lunch.  

It makes life a little easier for me to having someone who shares my passion for hummus or cheese.  I'll buy a whole family sized thing of hummus at Costco and not give one care about what others think.  Then I get to share with Sara and anyone else around me.

I just stopped by Target on my way home from work today to purchase some caulk and other things, and I wish I had the security footage of when I made eye contact with some hummus across the room. 

Me and hummus

I am pretty sure I was in a full gallop, then looked like I ran into an invisible wall because I had to self-talk and say, "Veronica! Control yourself!!" I was not there for hummus, but it's on my to-do list now.

Those who actually hang around me or have lived with me know that my eating preferences/intentions are clean.  When Melissa lived here, a few weeks after she first moved in, one night we were sitting to dinner, and she looked up at me, and with the most pathetic face, said, "Can we please stop eating vegetables?" I could not stop laughing. 

Melissa came to visit last week.  She came into the house, went to the kitchen, put her hand on the fridge door, and accurately predicted all that was in there - "Green, green, seeds, plants, what is that... hummus?  Why do you need a giant thing of hummus??  Gross!"

Typical Taco Tuesday with Melissa

Of course, Melissa and others also know that I'm normal and won't say no to other foods as well, but the point is that I know that I eat pretty balanced, so I'm not worried about the sideways glances. 

To this day, I still will send Melissa random text messages that say, "Why is there never any junk food in this house!!"  I get so frustrated at myself.  Just another thing I miss about having Melissa living there.  She sends me a bag of Doritos or gummies here and there, just to make up for it, I think.

I will say that my main problem is eating (in general) consistently.  I might eat one meal a day.  I've never been great at remembering to eat, and when I am traveling with someone, that is always something I have to keep in mind... that other people eat all day long.  

This is something which Kate has become used to reminding me about when we travel, and I am all-to-used to getting a fair reaction from her when I throw her a side-eyeing Chloe for when her food choices seem questionable to me, or when I find myself saying,"OMG you have to eat AGAIN?? We just ate like 6 hours ago!!" 

Actual video of Kake eating carbs

Physical

Running a house by myself is in and of itself an incredible amount of work, and I was just telling my friend the other day (she's into lifting) that I bet I could giver her gym-rat self a run for her money, seeing as how I have to carry a 250+ lb lawn mower up and down my porch stairs once or twice per week.

Add to that 1-2 days a week of just hiking all day through the woods whilst archerying, and the occasional additional hike or bike ride, and I'm actually pretty physical.  

One of my colleagues always says to me, "Do you ever just go home and watch Netflix and do nothing?"  This question comes after him asking me daily what I did after work the day before, and me responding with the inevitable, "Oh, I painted my ceilings and scrubbed the house."  Or, "I mowed the lawn and weed-whacked and then scrubbed the house."  Or, "I went to Lowes and bought half dozen bags of mulch... whist wearing business attire and heels..."

I am one of those people (TVW) who can't just do nothing on a weekend - not only would I be filled with guilt, but my body would actually go stir crazy. 

Friends (YOU)

I do want to give a shout-out to my friends who are healthy, and conscious that we are only given one body in which to vessel our souls.

I've watched a few of my friends make some very healthy life changes over the past few years, whether physically, emotionally, or circumstantially, and I want to just say that I get so proud of people for owning their lives.

I have a friend who has produced a whole little happy family in the past few years, and even with very little, she has made a very healthy lifestyle.  I have known her since we were in high school, and I have seen her go through some absolutely awful times, physically, emotionally, and environmentally.  I look at her now, and I am honestly, from the bottom of my heart of steel, filled with such joy and happiness and pride for her.  

I look at her and I see strength.  I see her taking care of her body by eating well and doing her exercise classes, and it's not about fitting into a bathing suit for a few months or anything - it's because she feels good and strong when she puts in the effort.  I see her making good choices for her and her kids.  In fact, I feel comfortable enough to just share what she said to me in an e-mail after I mentioned this to her:

"I do feel so much healthier and stronger these days. I love going to the gym when I can and being active with the kids. And it sounds super cheesy but I finally truly love and appreciate my body, and just want to be reasonably kind to it. Swore to myself that I wouldn’t expose my girls to the kind of self-loathing and weight obsession I witnessed from the women in my family growing up. "

So own your body. Do what you need to do to take care of yourself and feel healthy and strong.  Our bodies are amazing machines, and no one is going to take care of your body except you.  Listen to your body... listen to doctors, and peers, and people who know what they are talking about... but also listen to your own self living in there.    

Feel like a rock star.

South Carolina Trip and Other Shenanigans

I feel like we have not talked in FOREVER!!!

Since I have so many things to tell you, I’ll just have to tell you in small doses, since I don’t want to overwhelm you, and because I have a hot date in a couple of hours.

I have two happy things to report.

Number one, I have finished writing the MD Archery Guide!  Hoorayyy!!  I was staying at work till 9 PM 4 nights a week the past few weeks to write the darn thing.  (Okay, sometimes I left at 8.)  (And sometimes I went to happy hour and had a few beers, and then came back to work, so hopefully that made for an interesting guide.)

Number two, I changed desks at work, so now I am so far away from chewing and clicking.  It is wonderful.  Others are envious and sometimes just come and stand at my desk, because they are going through withdrawal.  And I get lots of e-mails.

12:34 PM  Colleague

hello

if you're interested in hearing food being chewed

please drop by 

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Miglin, Veronica 

Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2015 11:44 AM

To: Same Colleague

Subject: Hello.

Do you want to join Leo and me for lunch at Brio?  We are leaving in like 15.  Hello.

From: Same Colleague 

Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2015 11:45 AM

To: Miglin, Veronica 

Subject: RE: Hello.

No, I’m poor.

And I want to listen to food get macerated here.

Hello.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also the temp that used to be here misses me, too.  Sometimes he just IMs me random yelling.  They all have a weird way of showing it, but the boys miss me when I am no longer available.

9:45 AM Temp

Ugh [[ new temp ]]  got an internet posting of his arrival

I ONLY GET A WELCOME BREAKFAST

you guys really rolled out the red carpet huh

9:46 AM Miglin, Veronica

You are ridiculous

9:46 AM Temp

I see how it is

9:47 AM Miglin, Veronica

you are lucky you got a welcome breakfast

I don’t think he got a welcome breakfast

9:47 AM Temp

On my first day, I got asked if my family was in the Salem witch trials.

I hope you know I’m kidding.

My bagel was delicious.

9:49 AM Miglin, Veronica

btw, WERE your ancestors in the Salem witch trials?

9:49 AM Temp

We’re done here

9:49 AM Miglin, Veronica

still never got a solid answer on that

I went to South Carolina.

I saw on my handy-dandy custom-made-by-Kake calendar that Melissa’s birthday was coming up, and so I asked her what she was doing for her birthday.  She said she was watching TV and working.  Realizing that this was a milestone birthday, I found this to be completely unacceptable, so I rounded up some Maryland folks, and we went down to South Carolina to surprise her.  It went off really well, and it was really awesome of the other Maryland folks to take the time/money to fly down to see her, and to The Boyfriend for helping coordinate. 

Kate and I drove down from Maryland.  It took about 10 hours and it was a beautiful drive, complete with a stop at The Apple House and a beautiful sunset.

Not to mention, a definite vocal workout due to having Pandora set to Disney songs for 6 hours straight. 

It turned out that all of us, the drivers and the flyers, arrived at the same time.  Kake and I picked up the friends from the airport and went right to Melissa’s and it was awesome.  We went out to dinner, and had a great visit.

  

Kake and I did some exploring while we were there, and ran into a little town that has my alias’s namesake.  

We found a park called Paris Mountain, and did some light hiking.  And selfie-ing.

 As we were driving down Paris Mountain, repeatedly singing “Colors of the Wind,” (naturally,) there was a very Kate & Veronica moment.  We were mid-word in the song, (I believe it was right after, “how high does the sycamore grow, if you cut it down, then you’ll never know, and you’ll nev…..”) and we both turned into Twilight vampires when at the same exact moment, we both caught a waft of a campfire fire. 

Then we laughed and we laughed and we laughed.

When Melissa got off of work, we went out for dinner and I will bless your eyes with the sights of our food, you're welcome

Definetly a better way to spend your birthday than on the sofa watching TV.

And then we finished the evening by playing a bunch of rounds of Cards Against Humanity, which btw is hilarious.  I believe Kate went home and ordered her own set immediately.

I will say that the popcorn game is real in South Carolina.  They have a couple of popcorn stores who sell every flavor of popcorn you can think of: watermelon, sour cream & chive, jalapeno, cotton candy, birthday cake, and on and on.  I walked away with some pizza popcorn, and it made the boys at work very happy.

It was a very nice little weekend road trip, fueled by the largest cups of coffee Sheetz sold.  I think we each had a cup of coffee in our hands all of the waking hours.  Well, coffee or beer.  You know how it goes.

Here’s my conclusion:

I do not want to move to Greenville, South Carolina.  There are lots of reasons, but it’s enough that there is no alcohol served on Sundays.  

It's okay for a short visit, but we were ready to get back to Maryland.

The ride home was just as beautiful, paired with hours of praise and worship and Britney Spears and Disney.   Alas, home is where the Smidgen is. This land feels like home to me.

So does Washington State.  And a few other places.  But not SC.    

I have not received your text messages, and I am sorry.

I don't know how long this has been going on, but my suspcian is that it has been at least a month and a half.  My phone has been receiving about half of the messages that people have sent to me.  I am so mad about it that I just want to scream and punch things.  I also am missing calls, and people are being sent directly to voicemail.

I tried to do a hard reset while I was in South Carolina, because I was missing important texts from the people I was with in SC.  

So, I lost all of my contacts, for naught, as it were, because it did not help at all.  I just got a ton of text message notifications at the same time that said this:

I am allegedly getting the replacement phone in the mail today, and my hope and prayer is that all of the messages that I have not received are still alive in cyberspace, and they will all be delivered to my new phone.  I know it won't happen, but I can dream.  After all, I am now on bad terms with a lot of people, and it's possible that it is all over not having received some important communications.  

Therefore, if you have sent me a text in the past two months, and I did not respond, it's because I never got your message.  Please try again.  

On the ride back, Kake and I discovered that this song should be my Tinder tagline.

Btw, as Melissa's birthday present, I reactivated my Tinder, and let her play on it for a while.  NEVER AGAIN.  :-x

But there will be more Tinder episodes on this blog in the future, based off of your feedback of wanting more.  :-)

Until next time... take care of yourself.  <3