Month: November 2007

Finding old friends

I took on what I thought would be time-consuming, rather dull project.   I volunteered to help my alumni rep find my high school classmates – Go Trojans – Zama High School, 1983
But I am so excited! It has been time consuming, but I am tracking them down one at a time.  The other night, for the first time in 25 years, I talked to a boy (I guess, he is man now) that I had a crush on in high school.  It was so wonderful to catch up and to find out that he is happily married and living a really great life. 
The other people I have been able to catch up with have been just as thrilled to hear from me as I am to find them. 
This is so exciting!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

4 CommentsLeave a comment

QotD: Today’s Musical Horoscope

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.) 

Foreigner – Dirty White Boy
Dixie Chicks – I Can Love You Better
Toby Keith – Courtesy of the Red White & Blue
Zero 7 – In the Waiting Line
Green Day – Good Riddance
Reba McEntire – Walk On
Terri Clark – Poor Poor Pitiful Me
Kenny Loggins – Footloose
Brooks & Dunn – Red Dirt Road
U2 – Where the Streets Have No Name

Ok now what is that supposed to mean?  Interesting though.
So what is your musical horoscope?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

0 CommentsLeave a comment

QotD: Holiday Shopping

Did you shop for great deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday?  Or did you observe Buy Nothing Day?

Nothing on Black Friday or Cyber Monday – what do you call shopping on Thanksgiving weekend Sunday?  I had the priviledge of spending the afternoon with a good friend, just wandering the mall.  We tried to make a small dent in our lists and were successful.  So, we celebrated with a nice lunch and girl talk.  Even though this holiday is going to be a bit lean due to outstanding medical bills for my son, it was fun to try and find just the right gift at just the right price.  There is still alot of loved ones on the significantly pared down list so I'm just going to have to make it into a game to see just how special and meaningful we can make these holidays.  

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

1 CommentLeave a comment

Promises to myself, Part 1

This post is titled, part 1 because it is going to be the first of many about promises that I am making or have made to myself (see my 43 things link) – this one is a simple promise, or hopefully will be a simple promise, I am going to post something on my blog everyday. I don't promise prize-winning prose, but this activity does help clear my head and seems to give some order to my life, so doing it daily might help to make sense of some of the senselessness that is swirling around me.

I have spent a lot of time in the last several months thinking about my life, where it has been, where it is going and primarily what do I want out of it.  I still don't know. Sometimes I am so certain what I want, sometimes it just all seems to be dreams floating on air.  I decided that it is time to take back control of my life.  Somewhere in the last couple of years, I seem to let my life slip out of my hands.  Oh, if I am being honest, I have opened them wide open, laid my palms flat and let go. There are a lot of reasons and a lot of excuses.  Sometimes a single thing is both a reason and an excuse.  Now the next step in re-taking control is to sort out which is a reason and which is an excuse. 

The Secret
The Secret

A friend of mine has recommended that I read this book. She says it has given her a new perspective on how to approach getting the meaning out of life that she is looking for.  So, I have a copy, I'll give a try.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  If it makes sense and touches me or gives me that "A-ha" moment, don't be surprised to find it under your Christmas tree.

I'm rather excited by this "adventure" I am making myself start out on.  Yesterday (and a good portion of the days before that), I spent on the verge of tears, feeling alone, unloveable, abandoned and completely lost and confused.  I am not sure that changed overnight, but something did.  I've always been a believer in the power of prayer and maybe it was just that quick little one that flitted through my mind as I drifted to sleep.  I like to think that was what it was that allowed me to wake up with this new sense.  Whatever it was, I'm happy that it is here.  I know that every day will not feel like this, especially with the holidays coming.  The first that I will spend alone in 13 years (10 with Terry and 3 with Bart).  I was really feeling that loneliness until I realized that I am not alone unless I want to be.   So, I will have good days and bad and my goal each day will be to learn something from each of those days.  I have to start being the glass half-full girl more often than I have been lately.  Wish me luck! 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Holiday Lists – what do they say about us?

Every year about this time we sit down and write our holiday lists – whatever holiday we may celebrate. Children spend hours pouring over toy ads getting ready to send off their letters to Santa.  Adults, while acting reluctantly, compose a list of things they hope to get rather than the ugly sweater that their favorite great aunt seems to find so amusing and another list of the things they truly dream of having.

Unspoken (unwritten?) in all of this are the things we all wish the holidays and the coming year will bring – health and happiness to our loved ones, a more stable, peaceful world, the ability to make the world around us a happier and brighter place. It is amusing and curious that we often do not actually write these things on our lists, but I have yet to find someone who would not place those things at the top their "wish" list.

Which leads us to a very interesting question about our holiday lists?  What do the items on them say about us?  Have you ever stopped to think about that?  I only did recently when I started putting together a list.  Now, I have to clarify that this list did not start out as a holiday list.  It just started out as a "wish" list.  Things that I would like to have at some point.  Watching this list evolve, I have realized just how eclectic my tastes have become and I guess how varied my interests have become. There are things on this list that I would not have considered wanting a couple of years of ago.  For example, a lot of the techy, geeky things – Bart exposed me to a greater view of that world and as a result, I have fallen in love with gadgets.  My tastes in music have changed – thanks to my sons, their friends and my friends.  The maturity that is coming with age has awaken desires to develop talents that I always knew were there, but never took the time to nurture.  I have also come to face the side of me that loves the finer things in life.   What I find reassuring about these discoveries about myself is that I have not lost anything in this progression, I just have grown.   And that ranks right up there with those other unspoken wishes that we all have at the top our lists.

So now that I have stoked your curiosity, here are some of the things on my Christmas list –

A new HDTV with built in DVD player (just because I want one)

A Canon ESO Digital Rebel XTI with a flash set-up & accessories (to let me start taking the pictures that my eyes see)

A Nintendo Wii (yes, this is for me – not the boys!)

A Macbook  (I became an Apple convert when my love affair with my iphone started)

A silver engraved business card holder (to hold my cards for my new business)
 
itunes gift cards (for all of the music that my sons are exposing me to – Brooks & Dunn to Breaking Benjamin)

Hairspray the DVD or any of the other John Waters films (to make me laugh)

A set of Rachel Ray's cookware & knives (to encourage me to get back in the kitchen where I love to be and where I feel close to my mom)

An Amazon Kindle   (just because they are so cool!)

And lots of gift cards to the book store  (because sometimes you just want a book that you can keep and re-read)

Any of Rachel Ray 30 minute meal cookbooks  (so I don't have an excuse not to cook)

A blue cashmere sweater (because they are just so soft and I look good in blue)

Knee high black leather boots (they're sexy – enough said)

A chenille bathrobe  (to be all warm & cozy)

Ok – enough – time to stop. I could keep going on, but I think you get the idea.  As I read this list again, I realize that I am not entirely sure what it says about me at this point in my life, but whatever it is, I rather like it – there is enough variety to ensure that I'm not a dull person.

So what does your list have on it and what does it say about you?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

0 CommentsLeave a comment

QotD: Guest vs. Host

For a full sit-down dinner with several guests, would you rather be the one cooking or do you prefer to just show up and eat?

I prefer to be the one cooking.  I love to cook, but there is something about fixing a big dinner for friends and family that is such an expression of love.  Good friends, loving family, good wine, good food makes for a perfect day.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

0 CommentsLeave a comment