Filed under: Lists
- The local Morning News just ran a story about Fried Turkey Testicles.
- I’ve chosen to work today. It
better beshould be a quiet day. - I’ve also chosen to work tomorrow, as I have for the past 3 Saturdays, to catch up on some work and travel in the field. I finally understand how truly and deeply being a salaried employee can suck.
- My favorite quote from Thanksgiving Dinner: “I’m a little unclear on the ways of the Wooly Worm.”
- I keep a running list in my mind of blog/band names that I think would be amusing. The key words in that sentence are “I think”. This week I added two band names:
Three Angry Beavers and Crossdressing Gomez. - I just got an email from a friend. He wrote that I should buy the Holiday Issue of a specific nationally-known magazine because there is something in there created by him. I have an idea what it is, and I can’t wait to buy the magazine! (Cryptic, I know…sorry!)
Filed under: General
I just left a comment for Bill saying that I was jealous of the fact that he and his wife just moved into a great apartment right in the city. I’m all about small towns, but man – the vibrancy and energy of city living…*sigh*.
Then I went through my old journals and looked at my posts from this date in years past and found this:
You know how there are foreign exchange students in high school? I think there should be an Adult City/Country exchange. A service that will match people in urban and rural areas who have similar jobs who want to experience the other side. Not permanently…just for a year. I suppose the workplaces would have to agree to subletting their positions for a year, but I’ll bet I could talk my boss into it. So what do you think? Any city dwellers out there want to experience life here for a year? Ever wondered what it would be like to live in a town with one traffic signal and 4 restaurants (all of them pizza shops)? Have you dreamed of living within walking distance to more cows than you can shake a stick at? Want to experience life in a town where the local paper is published once a week, and the headlining story of said paper once a year is the annual weather predicitions for the following year by a local farmer who makes his predictions by looking at potatoes and clouds?
I still like that idea.
Filed under: The VIM
I beat the VIM at XBox Golf last night. He was a pretty good sport about it – being beaten by a GIRL and all.
As we were putting the controllers away, he turned to me and said (out of the blue), “Watch me do my cock walk.” Then he put his hands behind his back like feathers, and strutted around with his head bobbing back and forth.
I have NO idea where it came from, but the sight was so funny and such a dead-on impression of a rooster that I started laughing and COULD NOT STOP. Then he started laughing, and we both had to sit down on the floor to control ourselves. Finally he went upstairs to get ready for bed, and I went to brush my teeth. I started thinking about his bobbing head again and started laughing. I laughed for a good 15 minutes – the kind of laugh that makes tears run down my scarily-contorted face.
I understand that I cannot truly convey how funny it was. Or that it was even funny at all. But trust me when I say that I very badly needed that laughing fit.
I feel purged.
Viva la Cock Walk.
Filed under: Happiness is...
One of my favorite things about the changing seasons is the change in what I eat. Yeah, I’m a little sad that there won’t be anymore burgers or shrimp on the grill until next summer, but I’ve got a lot of good winter food to look forward to until then.
Last week, my grandmother whipped up some homemade applesauce. Yesterday after lunch, we pulled out the ancient meat grinder, screwed it to the kitchen table, and made the best tasting cranberry relish in the world. Seriously – The. Best. Maybe it’s the best because I know this is the only week of the year I get to eat it. On Wednesday we will cut and peel more apples and make a pan or two of baked apples. Turkey, of course, on Thursday. Then Baked Ham on Christmas, Pork and Sauerkraut on New Years Day. Food I’d NEVER eat during the summer.
And it’s not so much the taste of the food as it is the smell. Is there a better smell than Thanksgiving Dinner? Why haven’t they come out with a “Thanksgiving Dinner” scent for Yankee Candles?
Filed under: Happiness is...
Happiness is a warm container of just-made-by-my-grandmother applesauce.
Setlist
Setlists are FUN lists. Lists of songs to play to make people smile and sing along? Fun. List. Here’s a little secret: Sometimes I’ll daydream that I’m a tiny little woman in faded jeans and a white turtleneck with a great big guitar. I’ll make up a setlist. I’ll add, delete, and rearrange songs until the daydream gig is perfect – the perfect mix of peppy, introspective, and nostalgic songs.
There are very few fun lists in my life. Lists do not come naturally to me. I’m too tangential to successfully use a list. For many many years, my No List policy has worked well for me. I have a pretty spiffy brain. I have been able to simply let things float around in my head, and pull them out when needed:
Boss: I need you to do this, that, then the other thing. When you do the other thing, make sure you talk to Mr. A, Mr. B, and Ms. C. Talk to Ms. C before you talk to Mr. A. Ms. C doesn’t know that you are working on the first thing.
Me: Ok
Boss: Aren’t you going to write that down?
Me: Nope. Why would I? You just told me, I was paying attention. I’ll remember.
AND I DID!!!
But lately I can’t remember shit. I have about 3 more major areas of my life than I normally have. There is SO MUCH stuff floating around my brain that not only can I not pull out the information I need when I need it, at times I can’t even pull out the simplest thoughts.
So I have been relegated to the Land of Lists.
BAH!
I have lists of project tasks, lists of people I need to call, lists of people who haven’t returned my calls, lists of study items for my upcoming certification test, lists of website updates, lists of things I supposed to be doing for the Arts board I’m on, lists of meetings and roadtrips that have to be added to my calendar. All of these lists are in addition to my Daytimer calendar where I have my actual daily to do list.
Seeing the tasks all written out in list form makes me crazy. It overwhelms me. At least when everything is in my head I can’t measure the things that have to be done RIGHT NOW in inches and feet.
I’ll eventually adjust to my new listfull life. In a sick way, I’m actually looking forward to a more structured life. I should write one more task on the bottom of every daily to do list:
Accept.
Filed under: General
Here’s my free advice for the day:
During a job interview, don’t speak about yourself in the third person.
Filed under: Lists
- This weekend I finished the first part of a web design project for my first client. I just got an email from her that said “You Rock”. Let me get this straight – I’m doing something I enjoy, someone is willing to pay me money for it, AND they’ll tell me I rock, too? Life is good.
- Saturday night the VIM and I took advantage of the warm weather (60 degrees at 8pm in November!!!) by mingling on the deck after dinner. Wine in hand, stars above, we talked and laughed and caught up on all the little stuff that gets lost in the shuffle. Suddenly, a deer walked out of the woods and right past the deck. I mean, she was so close that had the deck been 4 feet lower I could have held my hand out and brushed it over her back as she sauntered by. The VIM and I stood, breathless and still, as she took her time travelling through, nose to the ground. I’ve never been that close to a deer. I’d like to think that the deer has never been that close to a human, either, and that it was a good experience for all of us.
- I realized this weekend that I have never, ever, in my entire life made gravy.
- I broke a blood vessel in my eye. That’s what I get for sitting in a meeting last week thinking, “If we don’t MOVE ON soon, I’m going to stick this pencil in my eye.” Little Karmas.
- Today’s Song Stuck in My Head: (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding.
Filed under: General
A few months ago I went on a work trip with a co-worker who I don’t really know that well. We know each other enough to say hi and exchange a few pleasantries, and we’ve hung out at several work parties and other functions, but that’s about it.
The trip involved several hours in the car, and we ran out of small talk fairly quickly. On the way home we spent a lot time not talking at all. I’m still not sure if it was awkward or not. At some point, we started talking about more personal things. Our college days, our families…more women-bonding-type talk.
My co-worker talked alot about how being married and having kids has changed her life. She talked about how, as her kids (6yr old and 3yr old) get older, her worries and dreams for them evolve.
“When he was an infant, I worried that 3yr old Son wasn’t getting enough to eat. When he started to walk, I worried that he would hurt himself when he fell down. Now he knows how to climb trees, and I worry that he’ll do it when our backs are turned and fall out of the tree. The worries and the dreams keep changing and getting bigger as the kids get older. What will they be like when the kids are teenagers?”
I, the childless one, didn’t know how to answer that, so we sat in silence for a few more miles. During that time, I thought about what my co-worker had revealed to me: That she was a human being, with human worries and fears. Until I heard he say it, I saw her as some kind of Barbie Princess – a beautiful woman with a beautiful husband and perfect children, a great job, great hair, great teeth, great house. How could there be ANY kind of worry in her existence??? She was PERFECTION, for chrissakes!
I had totally forgotten about that work trip and conversation until earlier this week, when the news started spreading at work. Her 3 yr old son has been diagnosed with a disease that I’m not going to type here, for fear that someone searching for information will discover my blog. This degenerative disease has no cure, and will almost certainly shorten his life.
My heart aches for the little boy and his family, and it absolutely breaks for his mother. Her worries and dreams for her youngest child have changed overnight.
There are so many things that I take for granted.
