Bugs Beware

Bugs/Insects/Spiders/Stinging Flying things/etc... you are on notice. I have poison and I am not afraid to use it!

I am not a fan of bugs, especially not when they are in my personal space - which includes anywhere around my house or in my yard really. Since our house is fairly new and was built on what used to be an overgrown field of nothingness, we have had an ongoing issue with bugs. I am afraid this year they will be even more of an issue thanks to the very mild winter we enjoyed.

I made a trip to Lowe's today and stocked up on my favorite brands of poison. There is the super smelly fire ant killer, the shooting cans of wasp/hornet spray and the concentrated general insect killer that is strong enough to take out small frogs. I will add these to the inside bug killer and spider killer we had leftover from last year. The concentrated insect killer is my favorite. I spray this around the entire perimeter of the house and garage. I can normally see a ring of death in the garage within a few hours!

The Poison Purchase

You may be thinking that all this killer juice is a little overkill (haha), but I assure you that it is not. Wasp/hornets attempt to build homes in our eaves and porch area each year. I have actually already taken out one nest this year. The spray works great and will even make the little guys fall out of the sky if you get some directly on them. Fire ants also seem to be a continued issue for our front yard. I'm not sure if the killer actually kills them, or just gets them to move on to another yard, but as long as they aren't in my yard, I am happy.

The biggest battle so far has definitely been our garage - I am pretty sure they could have filmed A Bugs Life 2 in there last summer! I noticed that there was a gap between the brick foundation and the walls of the garage and suspected that was providing on open gateway from underneath the house. Daddy caulked everything up last fall, so I am hoping to have fewer issues this year. I will still lay-down a good thick coat of concentrated insect killer with a layer of spider killer just to be sure.

New to the party this year is the Kudzu Bug. Although we do have kudzu in the area, I have only seen these ladybug looking pests stuck to my windows and siding. I'm hoping the poisons I have will take care of these guys too as there seems to be a large number of them around!

Basic Grammar Rules Still Apply

I have found myself getting annoyed by the bad grammar and lack of basic writing skills I have seen on Facebook lately. I don't expect Facebook/Twitter posts to be English-paper worthy. I don't mind if words are not capitalized or if a comma is missing here and there. I understand that social media is more about that idea being shared and less about doing so grammatically correct, but some mistakes are just a little too severe to ignore!

A LOT is two words. Nothing annoys me more than seeing "a lot" smashed together and spelled as one word - ALOT is not a word! Every time I see ALOT I have flashbacks back to 7th grade English class. My teacher, Mrs. King, had a big poster on her wall with ALOT in a red circle with a line drawn through it similar to a no smoking sign.

There is a very funny blog about the incorrect usage of ALOT. The blogger has created the Alot, an imaginary creature she pictures anytime someone uses "Alot" in a statement. Click on the picture to see the whole post.

Similar to this, it bothers me when people can't use there/their/they're appropriately. I realize that they sound the same, but they mean very different things. I don't really understand why it is so hard for people to know which word is the correct one to use. It is just one of those things you learned in school, right? I don't have a funny cartoon for this one, sorry!

I don't always expect complete sentences with a period at the end, but some sort of punctuation is needed to separate two complete thoughts. I have actually thought about de-friending one person in particular for his/her continuously bad posts with no punctuation. That may sound harsh, but I have the strong urge to correct the posts and I think de-friending him/her would be much less offensive. I have seen this person write two and three separate thoughts in one post with absolutely no punctuation - no period, no comma, not even a dash. Not only does this make the post difficult to read, it makes him/her look lazy or uneducated.

I am not a strong speller myself, but I take the time to figure out how to spell something before posting it for the world to see. I think this is why I am most annoyed by posts lacking basic grammar principles. If I care enough to get it correct, I want you to as well!

Embracing Change

I am a creature of habit and I do not like change. I like knowing what to expect and feeling that I am in control.

At various stages throughout my life I have had issues dealing with big changes. In first and second grade I would cry anytime we had a substitute teacher at school. My classmates caught on to this and would try to surprise me with "we have a substitute today, Melissa!" when I got to school just to see if I would start crying. The transition from elementary school to junior high was not any easier. For the first couple of weeks I would start my day by throwing up in the flowerbed before hopping in the car. Of course going away to college was a huge change for me. I barely left my dorm room and did not eat much during the week. I came home every weekend as soon as my last Friday class let out for at least the first 2 months.

But I am a "big girl" now and am trying to learn to embrace change these days. I am starting small. I colored my hair for the first time ever, although no one seems to have noticed it is a shade darker with red tints. I bought a Coach purse just the other week after being a loyal Dooney & Bourke toter for like 8 years. I am also looking to change-up my placement in the Junior League next year. Since joining the League in 2008 I have always had a marketing/communications placement and am currently the Communications VP on the Board. But I am looking to branch out and would like to get involved with something on the membership side next year.

Obviously the biggest change coming my way in the near future (hopefully near, at least) will be a new job. I thought I would be devastated when I lost my job, but I am actually doing okay. I am looking forward to starting new somewhere and think that this will be a good change for me. I am trying to be open to all possibilities. Who knows, maybe I'll find something that I would have never considered before.

Maybe change isn't that bad after all. Perhaps I should start looking for more areas to make changes in!

Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood

The yearbook theme my senior year of high school was "The Road Less Traveled" inspired by Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken." I am sure the only reason I remember this is because I was on the yearbook staff that year, but I digress. In the poem, Frost is faced with two "roads" that lead in different directions and the dilemma of choosing which road to follow not knowing where either road will lead.

I am standing in my own Yellow Wood these days. Now that I am unemployed, I have a tough decision to make - do I look for a job in the marketing/advertising/promotions field or do I try to make the move to teaching, which is, after all, what I went back to school to do?

Marketing is what I know, it is basically the only thing I have done my entire adult career. And to be honest, I am pretty good at marketing. The flexibility of an "office" job is nice - the ability to run out for appointments, take a little longer lunch break or slip out early is not something most teachers are familiar with. But teaching is what I was originally interested in once I realized I was not going to be a professional ballerina. I thought I wanted to be a teacher in high school, but I kind of got talked out it. Knowing that you are facilitating the learning of young minds and that you can have such a profound effect on students is a pretty awesome feeling. Having summers off and being on the same schedule as Kevin wouldn't be that shabby either. 

I've never actually had a classroom of my own though. What if I suck at teaching, worse yet, what if I hate being a teacher? Kevin's simple answer to these questions was "so you teach for a year and then go back to marketing." I guess it is a plus that I am not a "one trick pony" but I like stability in my life and don't want to jump around from job to job and industry to industry.

I have received several job leads for both marketing and teaching from lots of awesome friends over the past two weeks. There are pros and cons to both "roads" in front of me and I am not sure if one road is better than the other - they are just different. Of course I don't actually have any job offerings at this point, so I may be putting the cart before the horse.

The perfect Melissa job would be one that combines teaching and marketing! I would absolutely love to be the Yearbook/Newspaper/Photography/Publications teacher for a school and work with students on creating their own products. My high school Yearbook teacher comes to mind when I think about this type of job - wonder if she'll be retiring anytime soon?

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The Bee Must Go On...

Me with the 2012 Regional Spelling Bee Champion

...and on it went! The 8th Annual Regional Spelling Bee took place Saturday morning and a new tri-county Champion speller was named.

Although my employment with the paper came to an end in February, arrangements were made for me to continue my reign as Queen Bee (more formally known as Spelling Bee Coordinator) and see the Bee through til the end. I am a firm believer that commitments made should be kept and when I start something, I darn well plan to finish it.

The Spelling Bee is like a child to me, I put forth a large amount of time and effort into each Bee and take a lot of pride in putting together a successful event each year. I was happy I had the opportunity to finish out this year's Bee. There were 72 spellers, 4 pronouncers and 12 judges all counting on me to have everything in place for a perfect Bee.

I had to go into the office a good bit last week to finish getting everything together for the Bee. It was definitely a strange feeling and I had to keep telling myself that I don't actually work there anymore. I felt like Milton from Office Space - you know, was never actually told he was laid off and just kept coming to work. His desk eventually got moved to the basement. I think he kept getting paid though.