Throw a Little Luck into the World

I know it goes against everything Americans are told, but success is not a result of hard work. If it were that simple, every fast food worker in America would be a millionaire because, y'all, that ish is HARD. I worked at Arby's in high school for like 10 minutes because it was awful, terrible, and waaaaay harder than what I get paid far more $$$$ to do now.

Success is the result of hard work AND luck. That luck thing plays a part way more than anyone wants to admit. But, if I look back on my path from the trailer park to the board room, there are most definitely several doors that opened because of luck. The right place at the right time, a productive conversation with someone with pull, or even random kindness from a stranger can go a long way in connecting one dot to another and filling out the picture of success.

THAT is why Christmas Crazy matters. Center for Victims helps people who are doing the hard work, but need a little luck. Sometimes the world hands people a cactus, but they don't have to sit on it. These are people who are trying to throw that cactus into their past. Let's throw some kindness in front of them.

Here's the Amazon Wishlist.

Here's the PayPal donate link.

Our progress will start showing up in the sidebar later today. We're doing okay, but as you well know, I like doing more. Let's go!

I'm an Idiot

It's been a minute since I had a very clear reminder that the universe will always pay me back for my moments of stupidity, but HELLO, KARMA! She paid me a lovely visit today.

It all started with a moment of kindness. Mila, like every human with an imagination and heart, is enchanted with butterflies. That has led to a ridiculous number of butterfly-friendly plants in the garden, including lots of places for the monarchs. That has worked, for what it's worth, and our back yard is pretty magical in July and August.

But, when it comes to Mila, "pretty magical" is not enough magical. Thus, I ordered a little butterfly hatching kit thing for her in a brief moment of kindness. It was way back when the weather was still right for adding butterflies to the world, a fact which was definitely confirmed just by walking outside. At that point we had 9 monarch caterpillars destroying plants. So, plenty of time.

I ordered the kit and the little enclosure was perfect. The caterpillars, though? They were most definitely not perfect. Somehow water had gotten into the container so there was fuzzy mold and muck and basically it wasn't happening. These things happen when you ship live animals, so I wasn't terribly bothered by the whole thing, but I did decide to wait until spring to get replacement caterpillars. I explained to Mila that the caterpillars were dead, we moved on with our lives, and all was well.

Hahahahahahahahalolznope. It wasn't well. I guess maybe it was a bad idea to just stick the whole thing back in the box and set it in the pile of construction stuff that's going on around here? It must have been a bad idea because days turned into weeks turned into months and, let's be real, I'm never going to finish the dang stairs. I have so little left to do, but we're running head first into Christmas, so I won't have time to look at it until January. So perhaps a stalled construction zone wasn't the best place for moldy dead caterpillars.

Oh, except, ummmmm ... they weren't dead. I don't even know what happened, but yesterday we opened the box and there were actual live butterflies scurrying around inside the very tiny bowl they arrived in as cocoons, I guess? Like, I know what a cocoon looks like and there weren't any in there. The caterpillers were definitely legged creatures that weren't moving, so I don't know. Maybe there were some I didn't see. Regardless, crammed into that tiny bowl were two live butterflies.

Which we clearly couldn't release because BRRRRRRRRRR. I guess it's supposed to be cold in Pittsburgh in November, but that doesn't mean I'm ready for it. The butterflies definitely weren't prepared for it.

So the butterflies were moved to the enclosure and we did what we could to set them up for a brief but happy life indoors. They are painted ladies, so they only get to deliver fluttery joy to the world for about two weeks. Given that they were trapped in a dark bowl without food or water for who knows how long, that probably shortens things.

Mila decided to make the most of her brief window of butterfly parenting by parking her butt right next to them and not moving. At all. For an entire day. DO YOU KNOW HOW GREAT OF A GIFT THAT IS? It truly was the best day in a long time because there was no destruction of chaos or mayhem in my house. So good. So very good.

And then Mila had to go to bed which led to Mila waking up which led to Mila realizing one of the butterflies had bitten the dust overnight. We can't be particularly said about all of that because, again, I AM AN IDIOT and caused the whole debacle. That means I probably deserve what came next.

Did I mention that Mila woke up at 5:00 am today? Because Mila woke up at 5:00 am today. She needed five hours to prepare for a party she was invited to attend, you see. She tried to fill those five hours with butterfly watching, but then one was dead and ZOMG THAT CHILD IS LOUD.

I didn't need to be up for any particular reason today, so I stayed up super late last night doing stuffs. I went to bed after 2:00 am. That means the 5:00 screeching and yelling about the dead butterfly was REALLY badly timed.

But that's karma, coming right back at me and paying me back for being an idiot.

I Have a Blog? Maybe?

There's a thing that's really very hard to explain to people whose exposure to social media has basically been Facebook and/or Instagram. They don't know because those platforms don't do it, but blogging and Twitter? They shrink the world. Truly.

I realize that blogging is dead and it's just plain weird that I still (sort of) maintain this site. I mostly walked away a while ago, but I couldn't say goodbye to Christmas Crazy without one last hurrah. Alas. Here we are. Giving it one last hurrah.

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An aside. That last hurrah thing is moving more slowly than I would like. HEEEELLLPPPPP. Here's the Amazon Wishlist. Please make my delivery person work extra this week? I'll make it up to them. THANK YOU, YOU'RE THE BEST, HUUURRRRAY FOR GOOD PEOPLE!

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After this last hurrah? I'm not sure. Stories about Alexis have been few and far between for a long time now because she's old enough to have her own story that's different than every other kid's. She has a right to privacy and can absolutely tell me not to post about something. That's all been happening for years and years. It makes for scarce content, but a happier kid, so it's the right thing to do.

Mila is starting to bump up against that "unique story" thing as well. Years of reading other people's blogs taught me that there is very little that's special about kids up until they're about 7 or 8. Oh, your baby doesn't sleep? JOIN THE CLUB. Your tiny one had a diaper explosion that was hilarious? Yeah, we've all seen that. Twice this week. Your kindergartener did something cute? Millions of kindergarteners have done something cute as well. It's not a bad thing. In fact, it was the power of blogging. We were able to connect with other people who were living through the same moments and reacting in the same way. It made us feel connected and a little less crazy.

But then kids start moving through the world in ways that are truly their own and their story becomes theirs. At least that's what I think. Considering Alexis has read every word I've written and currently gets mad about "yo mama" jokes because, and this is a direct quote, "My mom is a cool mom," I think that stance has served me well. (Alexis is probably the only person who would call me cool. I'LL TAKE IT.)

ANYWAY, lots of things killed blogging and it was a slow, gradual death, but here we are. Blogs are dead.

And any minute now, Twitter is going to be dead as well. There was nothing gradual about any of it, which really speaks to how much of a colossal failure Elon Musk really is. It takes skills to get so many people to walk away from a job they loved. It also takes skills to destroy something so powerful from the inside. They aren't good skills, but he has them.

I mentioned that Twitter shrank the world, and that's one heck of an understatement. As much as I think we're supposed to hate that hellsite, it's connected me with this magnificent collective of people from all over the world. Christmas Crazy gifts have come from 9 countries and 31 states over the years, y'all. I haven't lived in 9 countries, so I can't take credit for that. The 31 states are not a representation of people I've known over the years - they're nearly entirely Twitter "strangers."

A couple of wild things that have happened because of Twitter:

- I spent a year attending high school in Spain as an exchange student. I lived with a newly married couple while I was there. They didn't have children until years after I returned to the United States. Their youngest daughter found me on Twitter and was like, "Hey! Are you the Michelle that lived with Andres and Pepita? Because they're my mom and dad."  I tweet with her fairly often, despite never having met her. I still have no clue how she found me, though. I should probably hurry up and ask.

- I know a person who can get a private plain sent anywhere. I found that out one very strange night. I won't go into details, but how cool is that?

- There is a person whose name you would recognize who I went to high school with (IYKYK). I know he still remembers his sister and me torturing him when we were kids because he DMd me from his super secret Twitter account to share a photo from those days. He was like "Hey! I found this! And I found you on Twitter!" And I was like, "Who the hell are you? OH WAIT." It was a fun day.

There are a million other stories like those, but the one that matters most brings us right back to where I started - Christmas Crazy worked because of Twitter. This site has been the baseball team playing a great game, but Twitter has been the radio announcer spreading the story across the miles. And, y'all, I can't even put into words how much it means to me that so many of you have not only cheered for the baseball team, but also used your own Twitter accounts to shout it from the rooftops.

So thanks, social media people. You're pretty swell. Let's stay in touch.