The Post About Eight Ways I Am A Spoiled Brat

I pondered a truth about myself earlier this week:

I never feel more elitist than when I wave my hands under a regular faucet expecting it to turn on.
— Jamie Golden (@JamiesRabbits) July 8, 2013

A few responses included:

Bethanne: Maybe worse is having attempted to pinch-enlarge an actual photo.
Connie: Walk away from a commode without flushing because you assume it will do it for you.

This got me thinking of 8 other things I do because I'm ridiculous.

1. I touch my computer screen at work as if something will happen. Nothing ever does.
2. It takes me 3 hours to watch a 2 hour movie alone at home because I pause it to Google what song was playing during that pivotal scene. Then I have to find that artist and song on Spotify. Then I have to build a playlist around the emotion I was feeling when I saw that scene which means searching for related songs and artists. Then I press play on the movie again.
3. When people write me checks, I never cash them. It's as if I physically cannot drive to a bank. 
4. I press the FWD button on my parents' remote control to fast forward through commercials. They do not own a DVR.
5. I may not answer the phone when you call but I will almost always reply to the text you send immediately following that call attempt.
6. When someone asks me what time it is I always dig out my phone. I don't look at the clock in the room or at my decorative watch. 
7. I nurse a legitimate grudge against my parents because their 2002 phones cannot receive text messages.
8. I have to schmooze my way into almost every event that requires printed tickets because I didn't print them. Even though the email said to print them. I didn't.

 Are you spoiled too? How? 

The Post About The Rabbit Recommends v.121

Each week or so I post things of which I'm fond. You can choose what happens after my recommendation. Ignore, embrace, debate. Earlier volumes of The Rabbit Recommends can be found here.

Leigh Kramer wrote a fantastic post last week titled "Nashville Doesn't Love Me." She shared about the struggle of moving to Tennessee and seeking depth but it alluding her. I think this post was brutally honest and vulnerable - in such a good way. I sense she received a bit of backlash and followed up with 2 additional posts to provide some context. However, I prefer the first swing she took at this tough topic of searching for community.


I can be red or blue or a gorgeous shade of purple on any given political issue. However, I'm definitively pro-life. The way in which Wendy Davis was deemed a hero last week was disappointing. This article by Kirsten Powers in The Daily Beast articulated what I could not.

Chad Gibbs wrote one of my favorite books Love Thy Rival (free on Kindle as I type this). Now, he is writing a column for the Opelika-Auburn News about being a new stay-at-home Dad. I couldn't pick just one article, so read them all.

There is so much goodness in The Atlantic's How To Be Better at Email: A Comprehensive Scientific Guide. Including:

• Check email no more frequently than once every 45 minutes.
• Turn off incoming email notifications and set up email clients to display the sender, subject line and the first three lines of the email to make messages easier to scan and triage.

Buzz Feed's 18 Babies Experiencing Things For The First Time is .gifs with babies. Your ovaries will thank you. You too, gentlemen.

My friend and blogger Rachel Callahan posted this picture on her family trip to Legoland.

The caption was “So my life has come to this.” Darth Vader

I’m keeping my kids. Daughter is screaming. SON: Do you know why she is screaming? ME: No, why? SON: (coldly) Because of you.
— Knox McCoy (@KnoxMcCoy) June 27, 2013

Knox's son is my new favorite.

Super Mario Bros. In Food. By Hunter Harrison.
 
Plus, rabbits I chased this week:
Podcast: The Bachelorette Recap in which I said: "The odds were against him but that doesn't mean all of America didn't stand by, flags at half mast, when Juan Pablo went home."

Podcast: Golden Moon Buffet in which we tackled Miranda July pulling an NSA hack on celebrity emails; Jay-Z as a bad parent; and the best, worst, and yet unmade patriotic movies.

Blog Post: I wrote about being called "annoying" by an Internet stranger. It was a good thing. I promise.

Tweet: I'm nothing if not spiritual.

Lunch small group discussed avoiding distraction in our walk with God. Then we focused on how to cheat at Candy Crush.
— Jamie Golden (@JamiesRabbits) July 2, 2013

Rabbit Sidebar: THIS is how to cheat at Candy Crush.


Cake Pops: A tribute to Doctor Who and America.

Now you recommend something to me. Do it.

The Post About Having The Most Annoying Voice Ever

 

As you may or may not know, I record a couple of podcasts.

• The Golden Moon Buffet: Pop Culture All You Can Eat
  
• TV Asylum: The Bachelorette Recap

The latter is RIVETING JOURNALISM about the worst show with the worst characters. I adore it.

This week, I stumbled across the following internet stranger opinion:

So there's that. And that made me crumble.

First, I'm nothing if not self-aware. I fully recognize not everyone fancies THIS. Me. My ramblings. My writing. My voice. And that REALLY is okay.

But I don't want to know.

Well...I do. I do want "iron sharpening iron." I want friends with hands at my back guiding me away from flaws and moving me toward surely goodness and mercy. I want those I trust correcting me and holding me accountable to good words, good actions, and good hair.

But this stung.

And it's not that this internet stranger is wrong. I talk fast with a Southern accent that won't quit. I get wound up discussing roses and men in headbands and dates set in alleys and my tone may become unbearable.

But it still stung.

Until I shared it with my circle - people with the hands and the trust and the irons.

• Do not let her get into your head. Whatever you do.
• Don't ever focus on just one person's response.
• Jamie: Your voice is like a baby's bottom.

I share this experience for only one reason: Make sure there are folks with the hands and the trust and the irons in your life.

We all need cheerleaders. We all need high fivers. We all need friends who will privately call an internet meanie a "j-hole." 

Just because.

How do you handle those who aren't your biggest fans?

The Post About 5 Years Old And One To Grow On

It's Jamie's Rabbits' 5th Anniversary.

My first blog post:

"I am attempting to blog. I have usually avoided the commitment due to my pride of trying to be witty and eloquent. I have sacrificed those goals in order to capture some moments. Bear with me."
  
That's not an excerpt. That was it. The posts that would follow would mirror the struggle to be interesting and share more than three sentences.

But it was a first step that led to some pretty fantastic things.

There were posts...more than 775 so far. A sampler plate.

• The Post About My College Boyfriend Possibly Being My Cousin
• The Post About Posts You Should Read To Understand Me Better
• The Post About God Telling Me To Shut It 
• The Post About How A Southern Accent May Be Overrated
• The Post About Writing to My 16-Year-Old Self
• The Post About 10 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do
• The Post About Being Thankful in December
• The Post About the Importance of Fonts
• The Post About Guidelines for my Death
• The Post About The Beach Family Photo & Why It's Wrong
• The Post About How Road Trips With Jesus Take Longer
• The Post About Blogging Again Due to a Boy in Toms

I'm late. Have we already reviewed why pageant contestants who are 22 look like 39-yr-old pharmaceutical salespeople? #missamerica
— Jamie Golden (@JamiesRabbits) January 13, 2013

Blogging forced me to embrace Twitter as @JamiesRabbits. These 140 character snapshots have transformed my love of the Internet. Although I'm pretty sure after 14,000+ tweets I'm required to return my college degree.

Blogging made me realize how much I fancied the visual. It prompted me to buy my first camera, download 37 phone photography apps, and fully frontal hug Instagram. 


Blogging led me to writing partnerships, podcast ventures, and even a brief cake pop business.

 "Brief" because business IS HARD Y'ALL.

Most importantly, blogging birthed 2D online friendships that evolved into 3D lunches, dinners, conference meetups, and even vacations. If nothing else good had ever come from this lil' site, then these "in real life" moments made it worth every draft and furrowed brow and declaration of Ariel being a skank.

That's why today is a fresh start. A return to blogging. There may be glimpses of 3-sentence posts again, but I'm writing.