NFL..you used to hang the moon!

Any of you who really KNOW me, know that I am huge Broncos fan.  But during football season on any given Sunday from 11am-9pm you can probably catch me watching a game whether the Broncos are playing are not.. Long story short, I LOVE FOOTBALL.  And particularly I like watching the NFL, mostly because it is on Sunday so I can have a leisurely day after church and snooze in and out during games all day..pretty much amazing.  Plus, it’s a great reason to get your friends or family together for a little while with a fairly set time of departure for them…can’t beat that.  I like watching football because I can get into something without having any personal skin in the game, so yea I may be a little upset if the Broncos lose a game, but hey, I am not on the payroll so who gives a rip in the long haul, right?! 

All of that said…as big a fan of football as I am…I am about sick and tired of this titty-baby, whiney lock out crap that is going on right now.  You know they are actually talking about having an 8 game season now? Are you kidding me?  If they do that, you know as well as I that the $140 seats that I bought last year will be twice that if not more.  They are money hungry jerk-faces… “we are just out for the fans”—MY A**!!  As I understand what is going on, the owners want more money and the players don’t want to give up their share or play more games to give them more money… if that’s the case, boohoo, the billionaires aren’t getting a raise.  And shame on all of them, they could all afford to give up a little while the rest of the country is hurting the way we are.   

Every month I sit down and realign my budget to make sure I am not living outside of my means, putting enough in savings, doing everything I can to live on a single income budget, while these guys all over the country are throwing a tantrum over their multi-million dollar budget not being enough to pay for the new toilets in the stadium.   GIVE ME A BREAK!  Sell your plane and buy new crappers!  It’s a little thing called living within your means.   If we as the American people can’t afford something we want, we sell something or drop our cable package, we don’t throw a tantrum that will affect the monetary flow into 32 American cities.  Those cities count on the tourism that the NFL teams bring in from September to January.  But like I said, it isn’t about the fans, it’s about their big ol’ fat check books.

So, until they stop their titty-baby tantrum, I think we should boycott NFL products and tickets.  Why put any more money into the pockets of the filthy rich cry babies.  Nothing worse than an “entitled” whiner…I won’t support it anymore.  “Hey NFL, you aren’t the only sport out there!”

Have a GOODloe Day!.. Unless you are the NFL..Y'all can take a flying leap!

Certainties...

Ok, So there is really only one thing in life that I know for sure, without a doubt--The Bible is truth...so with that I can believe in God, have faith that I will go to Heaven when I die and other things detailed in the Bible.... But there is alot that is not specifically outlined in the Bible, or atleast that I have read so far, so there are things that are still unknowns to me...

There is the always lurking "chicken or the egg" question, which really, honestly who cares?..but I am pretty sure God put the chicken on the earth first just like he put Adam and Eve...its not like he put a baby Adam out there to fend for himself.  Then you got other questions like why is the sky blue, or why do they put braille on drive through ATM's?  Questions that you may ask yourself but they don't really affect your everyday life.

But then there are those really important ones....

Like how do I keep my children safe?  Am I making the right career decsions?  Do I buy or rent?  Am I on the right path in life?  When will I (insert life altering occurrence here)?, etc...

With so many uncertainties in life, lots of times it can be easy to make careless decisions or maybe worse in some cases, obsess over the decisions you need to make and make mountains out of mice.  There is a difference in leading a carefree life and a careless life, and it is completely possible to over process your life and stress yourself out.

I am always over processing but that's just who I am.  The unknown scares me and so I feel like sometimes if I can just try to pencil it out I can make it better...well it doesn't always work out that way, and more times than not, that can really mess things up more than it helps.  So, I am trying to work on that.  I am trying to just let my life happen.  Life is certain to happen in its very own time whether I map it out or not and it won't probably happen the way I expect it to anyway so why let it bother me.  Basically life is all about uncertainties and how you can react and change with them...So here is me putting a glass in the air to a more care free, yet careful life (if that makes since)...I am going to just try to enjoy it as it comes at me and stop over analyzing and processing and worrying over things I can't control...Cheers!

Have a GOODloe Day!

Don't Mess With Us

Can you believe it...This time last year planets were almost in alignment, for the moment when I would start writing my blog...What a moment in history right?!  haha..yea I am sure that's exactly what you are thinking. 

Below is my letter to the Artesia Daily Press.  I had a slightly dfferent version up before but this was the final version I sent to print.  I am actually a little surprised they printed it! Was in Wednesday's paper.

So as most people probably know by now, we are dealing with a little bit of a lizard issue lately. Fish and Game wants to list an area lizard as an endangered species. I am an animal lover, but, and the but is big in this case, when the listing of an animal is going to cause an area financial hardship, you have to draw the line.

I wish I would have kept track of how many times in school the word "evolution" was used, or even the name "Darwin" was used. I was a Biology major for a year in school, so I took a couple college courses in the sciences, as well as the many required in high school. In all those classes the fight was always that evolution occurs, animals will adapt, and Darwin's "strong will survive"... So what is up with this lizard? It's the only one in the area that can't seem to move with the times and get his stuff together. He is going to fade away because he can't do the one thing that scientists have been saying for years that all animals should do.

So what's that mean to me? Here’s to trying. If he can't hack it in the wild then they need to move him to a shelter. It's not right to beat up on the economies of 9 counties across NM and TX because of a lizard. That's several thousand households that will be affected unnecessarily.

And I can already hear all the liberal "earth killer" comments but the thing is, unless you live here and will feel the brunt of this, back off, because frankly, our oil and gas pays to keep this state afloat and I will go toe to toe with whoever thinks the lizard can do it better. You may call me a "right-wing republitard nut job," and that’s your prerogative, but I know that it’s because of our oil and gas industry that our area didn't get hit as hard by the recession and bounced back quicker.

We aren’t going down without a fight; we never do. We are God fearing, oil pumping, cattle raising, gun owning, Conservatives...love us or hate us we don't care, JUST DON'T MESS WITH US!
Have A GOODloe Day!

That's Ms. Goodloe to you...

You know what I have realized lately more and more is that there are very few people who are comfortable just being them.  They have to be identified as something or characterized by something.  But I guess a lot of that is societal.  You know, growing up I was R & B’s daughter, then I got into school and I was M’s little sister and D’s big sister…I was so and so’s bff or girl friend or baby sitter… but when do you become you?  In college it was the same, I was a freshman, I was the girl who fell down the stairs (not funny!), I was the class President, cheerleader, a member of T.I.P, the Staceys’ roommate, so and so's ex-girlfriend, a college graduate, so many labels!…

Now, I still have some of my original labels but the ones people worry about a lot these days are the letter labels before a name, the Miss, Ms. or Mrs. labels.  I guess we all go through a time when we worry about these letters, but over the course of the last few years I have realized a lot about myself and my labels.  For so many years I was kind of resentful that I was always “so and so’s something” and never me…but the thing is, that it took all of those things to make me who I am.  All of those little niches carved me into who I am.  Being R and B’s daughter was how I learned how to be a worker and to love.  Being M and D’s sister gave me plenty of protection from bad dates in high school and beautiful nieces and nephews now.  And being the Staceys' roommate gave me some of the craziest nights I could have ever imagined but two of the best friendships I could have ever thought possible.  All of my labels were relationships or accomplishments or things about my character that I wouldn’t change because they have made me who I am today. 

While I may have wanted to trade in my Ms. for the Mrs. before, it was never right because I was never right.  I have learned more about me with each day that passes.  I grow each day.  I stumble and scrape my knees and have all out busted my face a few times, but with each fall, I know that I am closer to being who I am supposed to be for the man I am supposed to be with.  God has someone amazing for me and I know that I will be ready for him when its time.

So I guess to answer the question as to when you become you…I think you become you when you realize that every aspect of your life including your faults and labels have made you who you are…so, I guess that means I am me. :)

Have a GOODloe Day.

Stripes, Spots and A Shattered Windshield

It’s always been said that there are pretty much two kinds of people in this world….bugs and windshields.  For years of my life I was a bug.  I let people walk all over me.  I let people do and say whatever they wanted to me and just took it without firing much back for fear of what they might think or say.

So then some years back I decided I was going to be a windshield.  I was going to start holding my own against their words and criticism.  Start firing back if I needed to… And where did it get me…honestly?...

Now I am just a bug with b*$!@y windshield tendencies. 

You can’t change your stripes.  It wasn’t my place to try to become someone else just because other people weren’t being good people.  Granted I need to not let people use me and take advantage of me, but there is a difference in putting a stop to that and making yourself become a b-word to try to make people stop treating you a certain way.   

You can go through life continually trying to be something you will never be, or you can accept what you are and try to just be as good of a person as you can be at that.  I may never be a person who can firmly tell someone they are hurting me, but you better believe that I am the person who will tell someone if they are hurting someone I love…That’s one of my stripes, right along in there with wearing my feelings on my sleeves. 

If you can't accept that you will never be this other person, one day you are going to wake up and realize your life is far off track from where you wanted it to be.  In some areas you may be thriving, but in others you know that you have more in store for you, and that God has more in store for you…but chances are, as long as you are fighting for this other life, you will never get what you are destined for…maybe it’s time to shatter the windshield if that will help you do what you need to to get what you deserve.

Have A GOODloe Day!

Faulty McFaulterson

Gullible.  Easily tempted.  Need to be needed.  A sucker for pretty eyes and a nice smile.  A touch of road rage.  Passive-aggressive.  Overly obsessive about noses.  Trust issues.  Distractable.  Perfectionist.  ….Some of my faults (lol, the list seemed to keep growing as I my blog went on, should have written a shorter blog!)     

Trusting others is probably the one that plagues me the most though I bet.  (Although I wish I could remember how many times people got me with the “gullible isn’t in the dictionary” thing before I remembered it.)   My trust issues are pretty out of control, and mainly because I try to control them.  I have been hurt so many times that I am constantly teetering on too much trust and no trust and I can’t find any middle ground so I end up hurt again. 

If you constantly have a wall up and trust nobody and let nobody in, you will end up alone and the by product will be you sitting alone at night watching HBO with a bucket of popcorn in your fat pants.  The tissues can only console you for so long…eventually you have to have something more but until you can learn to break down your wall or at least start pulling bricks out, you won’t make any progress with someone else.

But usually what happens is that after I have gone so long in the lock out phase I end up trusting too much.  I realize that I have been pushing everybody away and ruining relationships so I just start letting everybody in, trusting too much.  I have not only torn down the wall guarding my heart but hauled off the bricks and handed out free passports too.  I always end up broken down and consulting the Kleenex box again.

So the happy medium…hmmm…where is it?  Well people, I think I am finally there…I dunno how I found it but I really think I did this time.  I have learned to be cautiously optimistic.  I still get my feelings hurt, but I am stronger.   Granted eyes and smiles are still my kryptonite, but I will keep working to make myself stronger and maybe one day they won’t phase me so much. (yea, right!)

But I do kind of think part of my newly found strength in myself is because I have learned to be honest with myself.  I don’t lie to myself anymore.  The fact that I can admit that I have faults is more than I used to do.  But also I used to sugar coat things for myself to make things not hurt so bad…but now I am just like “Maybe he’s just not that in to you.”  Or “Wow, you have been screwing up a lot in this area of your life,” but at the same time at the end of the day I can still say “Pick yourself up, you are good person.  Tomorrow is a new day.” 

But I do like that I don’t have to include “weak” as one of my faults,  because I know I am a strong person… even if I have to remind myself of it every day. 

Have a GOODloe Day!

Valentine's Day... Gotta love it..

Valentine’s Day… A day in which there is a definite line drawn between the Have’s and the Have Not’s in the relationship world. And as someone who can say that I have played for the Have Not’s on Valentine’s Day far more often, I can say that it actually does get less annoying and miserable with each year.

I dunno if it is better because I have gotten immune to all of the over sized teddy bears staring at me in Wal-Mart over the years as I buy myself boxes of chocolates or more likely that something in me has finally said “Who gives a Crap.” I am kinda leaning toward the latter though. Even when I have had serious, long-term boyfriends on V-day it wasn’t always the best of times… Think about it…how much time do you spend stressing about what you should do for them? Or how much time do you spend apologizing because you forgot or it wasn’t enough? I think I can honestly remember only one V-Day that was super awesomely perfect. 1. And remember, I am 26 (that's 10% of Happy V-Day's in my 10 years in the dating world, slightly pathedic.)

Maybe it’s just that we put too much pressure on V-Day. It’s supposed to be about spending time with the one you love right? Showing them how you feel? Well shouldn’t you be doing that the other 364 days of the year? Why put so much pressure on one day? Maybe just commit to making it a romantic night together…not this huge production. If you put that much pressure on one day then yea, that box of chocolates you bought as you were going through the checkout line is gonna tick her off…and then you will be buying her make up diamonds.

I will admit that I used to be like Jessica Biel’s character on “Valentine’s Day.” If I would have had enough friends here last year to have had an “I hate V-day Party” I would have…but I don’t feel that way anymore. I am happy for people who have someone to share it with. But it’s just another day to me these days. Maybe that will change if I end up with someone who likes celebrating them, but if not, then he and I can have simple nights alone together and that will be fine.

I’m not saying that you should kick out the holiday, in fact, I don’t recommend it at all if you are in a relationship to take the “Who gives a Crap” mentality… I do think V-day is a good holiday. It is a time specifically marked for spending time together with someone you love, but just try to think of V-day things you can do every day for that special someone and it will bring you closer and build your relationship daily and will probably prime you for a less stressful and pressured February 14th (threw the date in there in case you guys reading this still haven't figured it out that its Monday).

But you could just be thinking… "Yea, check out the single girl giving relationship advice!" lol.

Have a GOODloe Day!..and Happy Valentine's Day Loves..