From what I can tell, Brody Harper started Positive Post Tuesday as a way to get people to encourage others. You know, to use the power of the blog for good and not evil.

Or something like that.

So today I want to tell you about someone I met at Blissdom. As I was waiting in the lobby for a cab to take me to meet Tam (yes, the meetup that did not happen, wahhh!), I found myself unintentionally eavesdropping on a couple other Blissdom attendees. One of them was Melanie Nelson, and when I finally and awkwardly introduced myself, she was completely sweet.

From my eavesdropping, I could tell she was a real tech guru. As a matter of fact, she’s the brains behind Blogging Basics 101, a very helpful site for beginning bloggers.

My introduction to her was second only to meeting Shannon in awkwardness. (Remember that one? The time I rushed the stage like a rabid fan and then cried all over her about 10 seconds after saying, “Nice to meet you”? Remember? Yeah.)

And yet…when I e-mailed Melanie after getting home and realizing that buying my own domain was a little trickier than I thought (and/or that I was a little dumber about tech stuff than I thought – take your pick), she was so extremely nice and helpful and sweet.

She fixed my blog. Just like that. She doesn’t really know me, but she helped me. And for that, I thank her. She is totally positive in my book!

Who’s helped you out recently?

My Charming Kids says, “Let’s take our not-so-proud moments and spin them around in a delightful therapy session, shall we? This kind of therapy is free, funny, and oh so refreshing. Being brutally honest, and living to tell about it.”

So here goes…here’s my Not Me Monday:

• I did not laugh so hard that I cried telling Smitty about my Blissdom debut.
• I did not roll my eyes at the fourteenth co-worker who wanted to either commiserate about still being sick or chastise me for coming to work with my lingering cough.
• I did not eat half a pan of brownies in two days. (What? Lent starts this week, and I’m giving up chocolate!)
• I did not eat a very expensive steak dinner on our date night and then tell Mark that I think I like going to (the much cheaper) Lonestar Steakhouse better.
• I did not take advantage of my daughter spending the night at her uncle’s house by sleeping in so late we missed church.
• And I did not let Mark think the going away party for my manager at Archiver’s was at the store, when it was actually at our favorite restaurant.

Un-huh. Not me!

What about you? Anything you’d like to NOT confess to?

In honor of next week being Carnival Week, I’m going to participate in a blog carnival every day. Wanna join me?

• Monday: Not Me Monday at My Charming Kids
• Tuesday: Positive Post Tuesday at Brody Harper
• Wednesday: Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family (formerly at Rocks in My Dryer)
• Thursday: Things I Love Thursday at The Diaper Diaries
• Friday: Flashback Friday at My Tiny Kingdom or Friday Funnies at The Run-a-Muck (I haven’t decided yet!)

All right – who’s in? Anyone? Anyone? (Buehler?)

Lisa lived down the hall from me in my freshman dorm. Since I didn’t get along with my roommate at first, I was a bit desperate eager to make other friends. Lisa and her roommate quickly became the girls I hung out with.

We shared many special moments together, watching the guys across the hall play video games, sharing slightly dirty jokes and quizzes we’d received via the Electronic Mail (It was quite the newfangled technology back then!), and watching less-than-uplifting movies late into the night.

Later there would be laughter and tears, dances and parties, dreams and hopes, weddings and funerals – but let’s be honest. Those first few weeks were all about shallow, silly, just-got-away-from-our-parents fun.

Lisa and I weren’t super close, but we were part of a close group. And aside from a few disagreements (I’m sorry, but nobody should be allowed to listen to Insane Clown Posse at full volume. Nobody.), we got along well. So when it came time to choose roommates for our sophomore year, it made sense that she and I would room together, sharing a bathroom with two of our other girlfriends.

As you probably know, living together is different than being friends with someone. You’ve got the sleeping arrangements (you want to go to bed how early?), the study habits (you want to study how often?), and the dating protocols (you want me to make myself scarce because why?). You get to know a person, and notice things you might not have noticed before.

Like this:

“Ummmm, Mary, when did you dye your hair?”
“Huh, what?”
“Your hair! You’ve got a blonde streak! Has that always been there?”
“Oh yeah, that. Yup, since the day I was born. You hadn’t noticed?”

It’s true. I have a blonde streak in my otherwise plain brown hair. I have a lot of hair, so sometimes – apparently my entire freshman year – the streak gets buried. It’s a birthmark, a sign that God was feeling a little creative that day. My mom has one and, strangely enough, so does my dad’s mom. So pretty much I was doomed destined to have one.

And Lisa had never noticed it.

It’s not her fault, and I’m not saying she didn’t pay attention. Lots of people realize after knowing me (and, you’d assume, seeing the back of my head) for a while that I’ve got a funny stripe of blonde.

Some would say this explains some of my more bizarre behavior. I don’t know about that. But it does make me unique.

What makes you unique? And does your unique quality always show? Or does it take a while for people to notice? And how much do you love Ray Stevens?

Something that amazes me is how we forget so much of our lives. Think about everything you learned in school. I bet it didn’t take you long, did it? Because, really, how much of that stuff do we really remember? (I’m looking at you, trigonometry!)

I’ve noticed that the few specific things I do remember learning almost always have some sort of trick to them, a mnemonic device, if you will. And, actually, even if you won’t.

Here are a few that I thought of off the top of my head. (I also found a bunch of examples, for those of you with plenty of time to waste today.)

• The names of the planets using this phrase: “My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas.” (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto) This was back in the day when Pluto was still a planet, of course.
• The colors of the rainbow using the name Roy G. Biv. (Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
• The Great Lakes using the acronym HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior)
• The classification system from biology class (I don’t know the technical terms. Maybe Smitty could help us?) using this phrase: “King Philip Came Over From Geneva, Switzerland.” (Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species)

What memory tricks do you remember using in school? Do you use any memory tricks now?