The B Word - Revisited. (and the last Thursday Thoughts!)

Today is the last Thursday Thoughts, so I had to link up!! Thursday Thoughts was the first link-up I ever got to co-host, so I have a special place in my heart for it. Big ups to Jamie and Jaime for hosting for this long. 

I mentioned during my Roundup on Friday that Blair had a really interesting post about bullying last week. It really resonated with me, and so the few days following that, I kept up with the comments. (I also had a really great conversation with Blair about it via email.) I'm not going to rehash everything Blair said in her post, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot in the last week - specifically, the things that people have said in response to the question Blair posed: Can adults be bullied?
(Note: this post isn't meant to put any specific person on blast. The comments on Blair's post are things I've been seeing and hearing for years... her post was just the catalyst that got me to put all my thoughts into a post of my own.)  
Being in the education world, bullying is something that I care about very, very much. I see it all the time, and it's incredibly hard to watch. 
What is equally as hard is seeing all of the misconceptions and misplaced blame that surround bullying, and that's what I'd like to talk about today.
As I discussed yesterday, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. And Blair ended her post with a question - obviously, people are going to respond. But seeing so many people simply say "adults can't be bullied because adults are free to change their environment" is frustrating and discouraging for several reasons.
For one, who has the freedom to simply quit their job and find a new one whenever they want? If you haven't been job searching lately, let me be the first to tell you: job searching SUCKS. The fact that YOU have to go through the entire job search process because someone ELSE is being a jerk is completely backwards, especially if it's a job that (outside of that person) you enjoy. AND all of this is operating under the assumption that you'll even be able to find a new job, which we all know is not a guarantee. 
I think it is INCREDIBLY unfair to say to the victim of harassment that they should be the one that has to change. If it's just someone you "hang out with," that's one thing. It's totally different when you can't control that person's presence in your life. You can't tell someone to "just deal with it" or worse, to "grow a pair." It's way deeper than that, and if you think harassment always has a simple solution like that, you have a whole lot to learn about being an adult.
All of these things have one common factor: they place the blame and responsibility on the victim, and not the aggressor. And that, my friends, is completely inexcusable. We don't know what the conditions are in each situation, so we can't make blanket statements like "just ignore it! it'll get better eventually. Because we don't know that. We need to start being proactive. We have to do better. 
Ultimately, I think it all boils down to this: when are we going to stop telling people to "have thick skin" and "get over it," and start teaching people to not be jerks? It's something we need to work on,  we need to make it a priority, and we HAVE to stop blaming the victims.
And that's all I have to say about that.

A Moment In Your Day + Thursday Thoughts

I know a lot of people read their blogs in the morning, but I don't. It takes way too long, and I'd never get anything else done in the morning. I do, however, read my emails, and then the news every morning, right after I wake up. I usually don't even turn the lights on. (I had to to take this picture.) It's almost like I want to know exactly what's going on in the world before I get out of bed to face it myself, you feel me? Of course you do.

A few other things: 

I've avoided any and all Office Finale related news articles for like... three months now. I don't want to know who may or may not be back. I miss the days where we could watch a TV show and be surprised at a special guest, instead of hearing all about it on all the pop culture blogs the three months leading up to said episode. With all that said, in case you haven't heard, on finale night there will be a one hour clip show from 8-9p, and then the episode will be an hour and fifteen minutes long. So adjust your DVRs accordingly.

Starting a textual relationship (yeah, I went there) with Stevie is one of the best decisions I've made in a while.

An iPad recently came into my possession. (Man, that makes it sound like I stole it or something. I didn't, I promise.) For those that have one, what are your favorite apps/free magazines?

If you haven't listened to the Gatsby soundtrack yet, I implore you to do so. It's not at all what you'd expect, and it is AMAZE.

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I've had two dreams in the last week where I was dating Josh Altman from Million Dollar Listing on Bravo. I've always thought he was a good enough looking guy I guess, but two dreams in one week? I don't even know, you guys. (I watch entirely too much TV)

This picture search led me into a search about whether or not he and Heather are still together. I really like them, but internet searches on their current romantic status proved inconclusive. Oh well.

I mean, that beard? I could be into it. I'm just sayin'.

Anyway.

I made this amazing chicken and rice casserole last night for dinner. Recipe post forthcoming!

Still haven't bought a Mother's day present. Whoops?

Anyone doing anything awesome this weekend? Tell me all about it. I'm not doing a. ny. thing. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

Brain Dump.. I mean, Thursday Thoughts

Let me tell you guys. I buy the ID Iced Coffee in bulk from Costco. Well, last week, I bought some like I always do, forgetting that I had some unopened at home (I blame it on such a crazy week last week). Soooooo basically I had 3 unopened cartons of iced coffee... all that expire tomorrow.

There are worse problems to have, for sure. But man you guys, I am soooooooooooooooooooo caffeinated.

Anyway.

I'm excited for the weekend, even though it's gonna be super busy. We have a 30th birthday party, lunch with my BFF in from Baltimore, and we're going to try to squeeze in some time to look at a few apartments.

Do you guys watch Happy Endings? I've been way behind because last weekend we were busy, the week before they didn't air because of the Boston manhunt, and the week before I just forgot (thank god for DVR amirite?), so I caught up on two episodes last night. God, you guys. If you don't watch, I implore you to do so. So, so funny. I haven't laughed that hard at a TV show in a long time.

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I used my whisk last night when I made carbonara, and I laughed to myself because I remembered Meg's post about Mastering the Whisk last week. I looooove my whisk, and the pasta that I made. And the wine. Always the wine.

Happy Thursday to you guys! Hope you've all been having a great week so far!

(Linking up for Thursday Thoughts, of course!)

Thursday Thoughts, and my first time co-hosting a Link-Up!

I'm co-hosting my very first link-up with Jaime, Jamie and Dani today and I'm super excited! I've never done this before, so you know, be gentle and stuff. =)

This week has been very.. umm... interesting. As you saw, Garrett's birthday was on Monday. I was planning on staying until Tuesday (I don't take off work for my own birthdays, but I'll do it in a heartbeat for other people's birthdays. I'm cool like that.) so we would have some time to relax and hang out and, you know, be a normal couple for a while. How novel, right? Our weekends usually fill up so quickly, especially now that we're planning a wedding, that it's really hard to find time to relax together.

I digress. Anyway, we got a call on Tuesday morning that Garrett's dad was scheduled to have heart surgery on Thursday to repair some blockages they found. We knew it was a possibility, as he's had a few appointments with doctors and cardiologists over the last few weeks, but it seemed to all happen really quickly. We went from "it's something the doctors want to keep an eye on" to "I'm having surgery in 48 hours" really fast. When stuff like that happens, obviously you want to be close by, not four hours away, right? Right. Garrett said I don't NEED to stay, but of course I'm going to. The doctors are super optimistic, so we're not too worried. Obviously we are, but it's pretty routine, so you know.

Anyway, me spending the week here was a nice surprise. We get to do normal things like go grocery shopping and talk about our days while we cook dinner. I mean, last night we sat and stared at each other for 20 minutes trying to decide what we were going to do for dinner. For those of you that live in the same are as your partner, it sounds ridiculous to notice things like that, but for us, mid-week dinner is absolutely a luxury.

So even though the reasons behind my staying all week are kind of crappy (keep Garrett and his dad and the rest of his family in your thoughts today!) it's been really nice to be able to just have a normal relationship for once.

And in case you're wondering, we ended up just picking up a pizza for dinner. Papa John's garlic sauce is my weakness. Not even sorry about it. =)

What's on your mind this week? Link up below!

<div align="center"><a href="http://tobystailsblog.blogspot.com" title="Toby's Tails"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMC4WCvHNhh_ZqxIYbx7jjld0wVc8wRTiJ4e9bAXXoye_9xoI46LWJqcquojGpZ-42ltqwrcqRVErianLoGehvAk-qWhOCHtfxEKwc76WswZIp1v0aGcl1-vnktDIaAl1wFFQDehtrZW4q/w497-h373/2013-02-26" alt="Toby's Tails" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Thursday Thoughts

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Linking up with these lovely ladies today because MAN do I have some thoughts!

Yesterday, I was talking to several of my friends about a pretty well-known blogger over on Tumblr. I think this girl is absolutely fantastic - she always looks great and she puts out great content (she has two daughters that I just LOVE reading about). The thing I like best about her though is that she is ALWAYS positive. I know her life isn't perfect, but she only chooses to highlight the good things in her life, whether they're huge (her daughter starting preschool) or small (being happy about using a bright pink pen instead of a boring black one). 

At one point during the conversation, one of my friends (who I really love) said "I just wish she'd post about something bad that happened to her EVER. Just once. Then she'd seem real to me." And it really got me thinking. So much so that 36 hours later, I'm still thinking about it.

I started thinking about the ins and outs of blogging. It's easy to get caught up in reading about other people's lives. I love it. I love being able to share my life with all the awesome people in the blogosphere. I know no one's lives are completely void of problems, 

One of my main goals for this blog was to not complain on it - ever. For several reasons - one, what does it accomplish? Nothing, right? And two, does it make me feel better? Not usually. And that's not to say I think my life is perfect - it's far from it. And I do my share of complaining to my close friends, my parents, and Garrett.

So back to what my friend said - do we, as women, owe some negativity to each other to make ourselves seem real? I don't think we do. I think the world is full of crappy, awful things, and I'd much rather focus on all the great things. We're all smart enough to know that no one's life is perfect, right?

I'm sure I'll complain about something on here eventually. I think that's part of being part of a community: you see the good, and eventually you see the bad, too. And after all, I'm only human, right?

But until then, I'm going to work really hard to post happy, positive things on here, and I look forward  to reading about all the happy, positive things that happen in your lives too. That's what it's all about anyway, isn't it?