My brothers did something really cool the other day.

I got my wedding dress back from the seamstress, and it was hanging from the bookcase in my room - a white robed white robe of an albatross.

Clearly it couldn't stay there for the next four months. I tried to think of free closet spaces, and was drawing a blank. I posed this question to my brothers, did they know of a spot where this behemoth could be kept safely?

The looks on their faces were awesome.

"Yeah!!! We totally have room in our closet! Off to the side! We don't hang anything over on that side! It should totally fit!!"

Once I got it next door, they flung their closet doors open to reveal the space. They shoved aside "stupid pants that Charlie is waiting to grow into" and pushed the paintball guns and sundry weaponry aside.

Zack expressed concern about the suitability of the space, "Ohhh, I'm not sure if it will fit. It's going to drag and touch the guns! It can't get dirty! Is it ok because it's in a bag?"

I decided to put my faith in the protective qualities of the garment bag, and lobbed the rest of the skirt over the pile of ammunition boxes to rest on the instruments used to hurl small objects quickly across long distances.

And Z and Charlie beamed like crazy to be able to help out and guard something of such importance.

......

It's perfect.

I love my brothers. They are the coolest.

Ya know. Just thinking that I *might* write a post has made me think of and notice so much more stuff. My thoughts are more coherent and better thought out (for thoughts). It's magical.


Moving right along.....

I have this very dear friend. Whenever we hang out, there is always a lot of talking. This can be a good thing, sometimes. Often, however, the talk is just a monologue. It's all about her. What she's done. What she said. Where she went. How this guy did such and such to her and how she is now totally ______________. Don't get me wrong, she's awesome and has been there for me in many ways. But she can be utterly exhausting to be around. Hearing so much about one person, from that person, is unbelievably boring.

So, I started looking at my own speech to make sure I don't do the same thing. Specifically, I try not to bring my wonderful fiance into every conversation I have, because I realize people get sick of hearing things like,

"Let's go to Giant Eagle."
"Ohh yeah, Giant Eagle. Nate and I went there yesterday!"

I've gotten a lot better at listening to people since I started trying to keep my mouth shut. That's been awesome. Then I started thinking about how often each day I use the word, "I." That is a Princess Diary reference, yes.

Ouch. This one is a little trickier, and you might not think so. But then think Facebook commenting. Wow.

Maybe you all are better at this than I am, but yikes! Say someone wrote something like,

"went sledding today and now I can't feel my toes!"

What would your response be? Mine, before I started noticing my bad habit, might have been something like, "My toes are cold too, and I didn't even go outside!"

Really, Meg? Does that, in any way, contribute to making the author of that status feel as if you cared about the fun time he/she had sledding? Does it convey any of the support and enjoyment that you actually feel, knowing that someone had an awesome time? Not really. A simple, "Sounds like a BLAST!!! Cold toes are worth it!" is much more effective. No, my response displays a ridiculous amount of self-centeredness. It's actually embarrassing. I started filtering my comments more closely, and I was amazed at how prevalent this was. Really, it was crazy. Thankfully, it's a relatively simple problem to fix.

Anyone else notice this in themselves?