The Other Stuff
All the things I create and post that don't really belong anywhere else.
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Melanoma Awareness Month
Did you know that although it is the least common form of skin cancer, melanoma is the most deadly? For women ages 25-30 it is the leading cause of cancer death, second leading cause of cancer death for women 30-35. For both men and women, ages 15-29, it is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and approximately 500 children in the US are diagnosed with melanoma each year. This year (2020) it is estimated that over 196,000 Americans will be diagnosed with melanoma and 6,850 Americans will lose their fight with this deadly cancer.
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Fall Out Boy
Some band I had never heard of was announced and came on to play live. It sounded horrible to me. I remember thinking this is just pure noise, why would anyone listen to this? I remember watching the lead singer, a little man with long side burns and a baseball cap reaching up to sing into the microphone while he played guitar and I remember the other guitar player and the bassist bouncing around all over the stage. I hated the music, but I couldn't turn it off.
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Family & Community – What I Miss About Military Life
Although in a lot of ways I didn't embrace the military life, I was a military spouse for three years. My entire time living in Hawaii was thanks to and shaped by the military. The best time of my life thus far was all thanks to the military.
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Helping Others to Avoid Chasing my Dreams
I always spend a lot of time thinking about life and my goals and why things are the way they are. Why I act the way I act or do the things I do? Driving home tonight, I was listening to the Titus Podcast, as I do pretty much every Friday night, and tonight they were talking about reaching your goals and chasing your dream. Not a hard topic for me to get into, especially when its framed in a dark snarky way, as is everything Titus talks about
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Anxiety and Negative Self-Talk in the New Year
Going into 2020 I had all these plans, just like everyone else, for the new and improved me. I was going to workout more and eat better. Save money. Eat out less. Start reading again. Stay on top of my blog post and make better content. Embark on all those projects I keep saying I'm going to do, but never even start.
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Long Line of Old Friends
Friends don't last forever. Friends come and go. The people who matter to you in Elementary...in Middle School...in High School...in College...eventually won't matter to you. Friendships change, die, and fade away. This is what (most) everyone is told growing up and it's what most people believe. Not me.
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The Difference Between California and Hawaii
Disclaimer before you read this blog post, this is fresh anger and me venting immediately after an incident. These are purely my angry, unfiltered, and unsupported opinions. I know these are vague generalizing statements and that there are both good and bad people everywhere. Please don’t take anything in this personal, and if you are easily offended or upset please read a different post. Unless you have been living under a rock the last few weeks you are probably well aware of the Super Bloom taking place here in California. California is no longer in a drought and thanks to the crazy rain they received this winter, California’s hills, valleys,…
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Adventures in Popcorn Ceilings
I’m here to warn you, removing popcorn ceilings from a single bedroom is not a one day DIY project. From start to finish, including removing furniture, priming and painting the freshly scraped ceiling, and moving back in, it will take more than a single day’s work. How do I know this? Because as I write this, it is nearly 11 pm and I do not have a bedroom to sleep in and I will most likely be spending the night in the back of my Outback. My husband and I woke up this morning, planning to finish the project he, on a frustrated whim, started a few weeks ago while…
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Strength – A Decision Not a Trait
For what seems like forever, people have been telling me how strong I am. From family members to friends, strangers, counselors, co-workers, and even therapists. It seems like anyone who gets a look into the chaos that is my life, at one point or another, will tell me, “you are so strong!” “I wish I had your strength.” or something else along those lines. Despite how many times I have heard that I am here to confess, I am not strong. I have simply decided to be strong in the face of all the things life has thrown at me. Time and time again I have decided to swallow my fear,…
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The Hurricane Lane Experience
This past weekend, as you most likely already know, Hurricane Lane was headed directly for Hawaii and predicted to be a devastating and powerful storm. As you also probably know, while the storm did cause some devastating flooding and other problems for Maui and the Big Island, for the rest of the state Hurricane Lane lost all of her power and pretty much missed us completely. Despite the anti-climatic ending for those of us here on Oahu, it did make for a memorable experience, especially for a hurricane virgin such as myself. Hurricanes hitting Hawaii are incredibly rare. In the three years since I moved here I have never even…
