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Average Bitty Life

@averagebittylife

Nothing special, and that's ok.
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List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. Spread the positivity! ♡

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Ok. Five things that make me happy.....

1. My pets!

I have four guinea pigs and they bring me so much joy. :)

2.

Minatures and other cute things.

3.

My brothers! They both called yesterday while I was in the ER, then made fun of me cause it was for a fairly silly reason.

4.

Dogs of uncertain origin. We still don't know what my Grandma's dog is, aside from some chihuahua and... Something.

5.

My spouse! Hubby is my knight in shining armor, my right hand, and the best parber and cheerleader I have ever had enter my life.

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Coloring 1

Colored pencils are my favorite, and once I get the hang of them a bit more I'm going to try for water colored pencils because I love water colors.

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Grief - Final

It’s not like you ever really stop grieving a loss, you just kinda learn to live with it I guess. It’s just this is the last time I’m posting about it.

As far as my Team Lead goes, I’ve settled. She was a dear friend, her death was unfair and wrong, and her desk at work is going to be the last to be filled if we ever fill it at all. I’m not 100% sure that is the best course of action. There are days where I feel like filling her desk is the last step to closure and that leaving it empty is dragging it on for some of my other co-workers who were even closer to her than I was and it’s damaging. Other days whenever someone looks at her desk like they want to take it (It’s a prime desk, right next to the window with a beautiful view and a bit of extra room from being at the end of a row) I feel angry.

With my Grandpa,

The last time I saw him and he was lucid and could have a conversation he asked me about work. I told him how well I was doing and how happy my boss was with the quality of what I was doing. He smiled and was obviously happy and proud.

But when it was time to go, I said goodbye and I love you and he didn’t say it back. He was probably tired or didn’t hear, so I said it again, louder and he still didn’t say it. I didn’t know for absolute certain that was my last chance to hear it, but I had a bad feeling it was and I cried the whole way home from the hospital.

It bothered me, the entire time he was in hospice and after he died.

Meanwhile, Winter/Spring cleaning and trying to get the house back in order. I had come across the photo I had printed for a framed mat that I used as a guest book for my wedding. I popped the photo in the frame, put it in my morning getting ready area and went about trying to get my room in some semblance of order.

A few days later I was getting ready and just happened to glance up at my frame and I actually looked at it for the first time since I put it there and my eyes landed right on his signature.

And right underneath it he had written,

‘Grandpa Loves You’

and I felt much more at peace than I had for a long time.

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reblogged
In the 90s I was in junior high. My friends and I would put a framed 8x10 photo of Mulder at the head of our cafeteria table. One girl would carry it in her backpack all day.

I can’t even laugh this is too adorable

If I'm going to admit this was a thing that happened in my life, I'm gonna reblog it to my blog too for maximum transparency.

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aerialsquid

How to Bury a Gentile

I wrote a short vaguely historical vaguely spooky ghost story about Jews and burial rites and I have to justify it existing so here it is.

“Are you the leader of the Jews?”

There was no good that ever came from that question. Rabbi Jacob stood in the doorway, one hand on the knob and the other on the frame, ready to yank it closed at a moment’s notice.

“Well, not all of the Jews.”

The man at the door made a frustrated little grunt. He was clad almost completely in dark grey clothing that seemed to fade into the shadows of the darkened street behind him. The collar of his coat was pulled up so high that it was impossible to make out more than a pair of sharp grey eyes beneath the brim of his hat, and the cloak he wore over the top of it concealed most of his body. There could be any number of guns, knives, or angry mobs hidden under there.

“But the ones in this town, yes? You are their priest, you lead prayers and weddings and so on?” the man said impatiently.

“Rabbi. Yes. I’m the rabbi, that’s correct.” Jacob said, stiffening his posture and assuming the most neutral expression he could manage. Being completely ignorant didn’t exclude someone from being completely dangerous–if anything, that heightened the risk. “What can I do for you?”

“Rabbi,” the man repeated, as if to seal it into his memory properly. One gloved hand squeezed the pommel of his walking stick. “And you preside over the funerals of your people, and perform the rites to send them to the next world?”

“Yyyyyes?” Jacob shifted his weight to his back foot, poised to slam the door in his face. This sounded unpleasantly like an opening for a death threat.

“To any of them, regardless of the sins they carried in life?” An eagerness entered the man’s voice.

“Of course. Though sin as a Jewish concept differs from the Christian…mm. Yes, of course.” The scholars of old might have debated the nature of the evil in men’s souls until the crack of dawn but Jacob had no intention of doing so at half-past midnight with a complete stranger.

The shadowed man took a half step forward and Jacob leaned back to maintain the distance between him. “What about a gentile?” the man pressed. “Would you tend to his corpse too?”

“Huh?”

“There is a man needing to be buried tonight who requires absolution. He is not a Jew, but a Jew’s prayers may be close enough for what is needed.”

“Um. It’s not usually a request I get.” Jacob tried to keep his voice calm and soothing. There was some kind of entrapment lingering in the conversation, he just knew it. That or a giant box of crazy that had managed to dress itself stylishly. Gentiles asking Jews intrusive but urgent questions never turned out well for their target–a day-long case of irritation was the best outcome the target could hope for.

The man’s hands pressed together as he completed the full step forward, making Jacob back up into the doorframe. Desperation was in his tone and Jacob was forced back over the threshold just to stay out of his grip “All I need is someone to accompany me to the cemetery to consecrate the body and pray for its soul. Barely an hour of your time. I cannot pay you with anything but my gratitude, but you will have it eternally.”

“And you came to me?”

The man sighed. Even the top hat seemed to slouch slightly as his body slumped. “I have asked every holy man in the city, Catholic and Protestant alike, and they have refused to come to the cemetery,“ he bemoaned. "The last one told me to visit you. Likely a ploy to make me leave faster, but you are all I have left.”

“What did this man do, that so many people refused him? Who was he?”

The man at the door hesitated. The sharp eyes vanished as his eyelids slid down, and then appeared a few moments later.

“Must you ask?” he said quietly. “Is it not enough that it is a corpse which can do no man harm any longer, and you will lose nothing but a half-night of sleep?”

The inside of Jacob’s head was ringing with warning bells like the frantic clanging of gongs announcing a fire. He swallowed and tried to ignore them.

“You say he wasn’t Jewish?”

“He was not…much of anything. He felt God had no interest in him, and returned a lack of interest in kind. Perhaps if he had been more attentive he wouldn’t lie in a pauper’s grave…or perhaps he would have not changed a whit.” The man’s voice was bitter and the sharp eyes briefly looked away from Jacob, to Jacob’s deep relief.

“Who was this man, to you?” he asked.

“Close. I would prefer to say no more. Please, rabbi. It must be done, and it must be tonight.”

Seminary did not prepare me for this, Jacob thought, and then thought again. There is absolutely something in the Talmud about this and I’ve just forgotten it, because I’m an idiot and I’m half asleep and there is a goy on my doorstep asking me to go out to the cemetery with him at midnight to bury a man whose name he won’t tell me.

“Look, I’ll need someone to help dig the grave.”

“Of course.”

“And a coffin. A plain pine box. And I’ll need to get my supplies from the–”

“But you’ll do it?” said the man excitedly, standing up even taller. “And do it tonight, before the cock crows?”

Jacob held up his hands to keep the man from getting even further into his personal space. “Fine. Yes. Give me half an hour and a lazy rooster.”

The cloak almost seem to inflate as the man gasped for joy. He grabbed Jacob’s hands and shook both with enthusiasm, sending Jacob stumbling. “Thank God for you, my good rabbit! Whatever God there is, thank God for you!”

The man ran off into the shadowed streets and was out of sight almost immediately.

Jacob’s hands slowly fell back to his side as he mumbled, “Rabbi,” to the darkness.

My wife is going to kill me if whatever’s at the cemetery doesn’t.

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reblogged

Spring Cleaning 1

It’s kitchen day!

I am not going to finish until it is done.

So like midnight, probably.

I’m skimming the ‘How to Wash Dishes’ section in Home Comforts and then move to clearing my counters.

Once the counters are clear, I can pull things out of the cupboards and reorganize. Then the fridge.

Floor should be last.

I kinda want to make this clear. My hubby and I had a rough winter. We were both dealing with grief and depression so its not like this is regular dirty. I can’t even see any counter at this point.

We were goibg at a good clip until I had to take my guinea pig into the emergency vet again.

She has a UTI.

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Spring Cleaning 1

It's kitchen day!

I am not going to finish until it is done.

So like midnight, probably.

I'm skimming the 'How to Wash Dishes' section in Home Comforts and then move to clearing my counters.

Once the counters are clear, I can pull things out of the cupboards and reorganize. Then the fridge.

Floor should be last.

I kinda want to make this clear. My hubby and I had a rough winter. We were both dealing with grief and depression so its not like this is regular dirty. I can't even see any counter at this point.

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Book Haul

I went to a local used bookstore and found some gems.

My brother and I loved this book as kids. We read it until it fell apart.

A beautifully illustrated Andersen's Fairy Tales.

And what I actually went in for, Home Comforts. Aka 'How to Adult'

Seriously. It has everything.

It's everything you will ever need ever. Hardcover. For 8 dollars.

I win at shopping.

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When I was in sixth grade we had to write an instructional essay on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Our teacher then made each of us a sandwich based solely on our instructions

Somehow mine ended up with the peanut butter and jelly on the outside of the the sandwich. I'm still not sure where I went wrong.

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