I didn't go to dances in high school, never got asked. Yep, I was a flirt fail.
Because I didn't go to dances I never got sage advice, "Remember who you are!" Or whatever it is you say to a 16 year old headed out to wiggle and giggle with another teenager.
I thought, "Have fun and Keep it in your pants!" Had just the right touch of encouragement and caution...
From the look my son and hubby gave me, I guess not.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Walking Your GAss Off!
I work the graveyard shift, 7 nights on then off 7 nights, at a hospital. We are always being notified about challenges and contests to improve our fitness and health; but, being off seven nights in a row often means I miss hearing about them until after the start date.
Recently I learned that if I had started logging my walking on September 19th and walked the most miles between then and October 14th I could have won a challenge.
1rst prize, a 50.00 dollar Chevron gas card...he..hee...ha..HA..snort!
Recently I learned that if I had started logging my walking on September 19th and walked the most miles between then and October 14th I could have won a challenge.
1rst prize, a 50.00 dollar Chevron gas card...he..hee...ha..HA..snort!
Friday, August 19, 2011
The other day I was talking with someone about my fascination with tattoos. I got the standard, "You don't want to get a tattoo because when you're old they'll look weird" response.
Seriously? If I'm 90 years old and the only thing I'm hearing about my naked body is, "Damn, her 'tat' looks weird." I'm OK with that...actually, I'm not un-OK with that now.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
When did this become a book blog?
I guess that's what happens when you try to break away from the "Mommy Blog" mode without a clear cut purpose....terrible things can happen. Like, suddenly you're writing a "Book Blog".
From one cliche to another is my unspoken motto.
My sister Jenny asked me to read the book Never Let Me Go by, Kazuo Ishiguro. She didn't understand the book at all so naturally she thought of me. I'm good with the un-understandable.
Uhhhh....Well, ummm...so yeah!
I guess I'll start with, did I like it?
Yes.
It was hard to get through though. I would go back and re-read things thinking I'd missed something important only to end up, after the re-read, sure I'd missed something important...and, still missing it.
I think the reason it was hard to get through is that it was written from a first person point of view and was about the main character remembering her childhood and young adulthood. Having lived in my head and spent, heh, hem...several decades trying to figure out what my memories of experiences, choices, and relationships are teaching me about myself, I know how one memory ties into another, but to understand that one I have to tell you this one... and yeah. I was impressed that the author could weave it all into a beautiful story that had me remembering my past and drawing comparisons and gaining realizations about my life I'd never thought of.
Our past experiences and environment matter, they define what we know of ourselves. I think the title, Never Let Me Go, is to be taken literally, we need to find the, "Me", that defines us to ourselves, the, "Me" that is our soul, the essence of our being, the timeless, limitless voice that guides us through each phase of life motivating us to accept our fate or change it. And once we find that "Me", we never let it go.
I picked up a strong theme woven throughout the novel, accepting our fate is choosing it and in choosing our fate we change our fate. On some level all of the characters knew their destiny, yet each one resisted the inevitability of their future in different ways.
Ruth pretended to be wise and in control of everything even, at times, acting as if her childhood memories were so trivial she had simply forgotten them. She was always trying to gain the upper hand in every situation to cover up the tender dreamer that was closer to her nature.
Laura mimicked and mocked always going for the laugh and ended up humorless.
Tommy questioned everything, with tantrums past an acceptable age, complacency about his inadequacies, then developing his talent but still seeking the praise and external acceptance for it denied in his childhood.
Kathy's character resisted by caring about others, losing herself in their struggles became a fight against her own fate.
In the end as each character is faced with their own mortality they either choose to embrace the hopes and dreams of their childhood, recognizing and accepting their realization or loss and finding in their existence a deeper meaning that changes their day to day moments; or to slip into a meaningless trance wondered why they ever existed at all.
I liked the authors description that the themes he was exploring were made more interesting by the relatively short time span of their lives. We all play out the idea of "Transcending our fate" we accept that we will have seventy plus years to sort through it all, we're shocked and horrified when we here of someone who died young, before they really had a chance to live. Yet oddly we put off that internal exploration of our past, our choices, experiences and relationships, planning to sort through it tomorrow or next year.
At some point we have to get into our past, really look at the dreams and hopes the questions and choices that teach us our soul. It's possible to become so lost in the past that we miss out on the present, but ignoring our memories or pretending our past doesn't matter or even inventing a past leaves us unprepared to accept and relish the moment and embrace the future.
My favorite character was Tommy, everyone treated him like he was slow and unaware but in his way he was the most intuitive with his questions, and theories and tantrums. I loved that his deliberate choice after visiting with Madame and Miss Emily was to revisit the tantrums of his childhood and that tantrum somehow gave Kathy the courage to embrace her past and find her purpose.
I didn't think too much about the, "squeamish inducing sex" as Jenny put it in her review. But after having talked to her this afternoon and since I lost half the post and had to rewrite it I will mention it. I really liked how sex was presented to the students as biological experience with emotional ramifications and no heinous moral complications. It was interesting to think of sex as an experience that you could and should choose at a time you felt was appropriate and with someone you felt comfortable with. I enjoyed the simple acceptance of the urge to connect sexually with someone and the realization that sex changes the nature of those relationships. I was amused by the little references to people who thought sex was bad and how those individuals and the adults reacted to sexuality. It was fascinating to watch the most controlling character use denial of her own sexuality in an attempt to control her environment and relationships.
Even with the known quantity of their life expectancy most characters were reluctant or unable to find their "Me" and as a result struggled with the pain of lost opportunities. A pain, that was greater and more difficult to endure then the terrible physical pain they were experiencing. It really made me think.
I enjoyed the author and would like to read more of his stuff.
So, there you have it Jenny.
Really deep? Doubtful.
Over thought? Probably.
Un-understandable? Certainly.
I guess that's what happens when you try to break away from the "Mommy Blog" mode without a clear cut purpose....terrible things can happen. Like, suddenly you're writing a "Book Blog".
From one cliche to another is my unspoken motto.
My sister Jenny asked me to read the book Never Let Me Go by, Kazuo Ishiguro. She didn't understand the book at all so naturally she thought of me. I'm good with the un-understandable.
Uhhhh....Well, ummm...so yeah!
I guess I'll start with, did I like it?
Yes.
It was hard to get through though. I would go back and re-read things thinking I'd missed something important only to end up, after the re-read, sure I'd missed something important...and, still missing it.
I think the reason it was hard to get through is that it was written from a first person point of view and was about the main character remembering her childhood and young adulthood. Having lived in my head and spent, heh, hem...several decades trying to figure out what my memories of experiences, choices, and relationships are teaching me about myself, I know how one memory ties into another, but to understand that one I have to tell you this one... and yeah. I was impressed that the author could weave it all into a beautiful story that had me remembering my past and drawing comparisons and gaining realizations about my life I'd never thought of.
Our past experiences and environment matter, they define what we know of ourselves. I think the title, Never Let Me Go, is to be taken literally, we need to find the, "Me", that defines us to ourselves, the, "Me" that is our soul, the essence of our being, the timeless, limitless voice that guides us through each phase of life motivating us to accept our fate or change it. And once we find that "Me", we never let it go.
I picked up a strong theme woven throughout the novel, accepting our fate is choosing it and in choosing our fate we change our fate. On some level all of the characters knew their destiny, yet each one resisted the inevitability of their future in different ways.
Ruth pretended to be wise and in control of everything even, at times, acting as if her childhood memories were so trivial she had simply forgotten them. She was always trying to gain the upper hand in every situation to cover up the tender dreamer that was closer to her nature.
Laura mimicked and mocked always going for the laugh and ended up humorless.
Tommy questioned everything, with tantrums past an acceptable age, complacency about his inadequacies, then developing his talent but still seeking the praise and external acceptance for it denied in his childhood.
Kathy's character resisted by caring about others, losing herself in their struggles became a fight against her own fate.
In the end as each character is faced with their own mortality they either choose to embrace the hopes and dreams of their childhood, recognizing and accepting their realization or loss and finding in their existence a deeper meaning that changes their day to day moments; or to slip into a meaningless trance wondered why they ever existed at all.
I liked the authors description that the themes he was exploring were made more interesting by the relatively short time span of their lives. We all play out the idea of "Transcending our fate" we accept that we will have seventy plus years to sort through it all, we're shocked and horrified when we here of someone who died young, before they really had a chance to live. Yet oddly we put off that internal exploration of our past, our choices, experiences and relationships, planning to sort through it tomorrow or next year.
At some point we have to get into our past, really look at the dreams and hopes the questions and choices that teach us our soul. It's possible to become so lost in the past that we miss out on the present, but ignoring our memories or pretending our past doesn't matter or even inventing a past leaves us unprepared to accept and relish the moment and embrace the future.
My favorite character was Tommy, everyone treated him like he was slow and unaware but in his way he was the most intuitive with his questions, and theories and tantrums. I loved that his deliberate choice after visiting with Madame and Miss Emily was to revisit the tantrums of his childhood and that tantrum somehow gave Kathy the courage to embrace her past and find her purpose.
I didn't think too much about the, "squeamish inducing sex" as Jenny put it in her review. But after having talked to her this afternoon and since I lost half the post and had to rewrite it I will mention it. I really liked how sex was presented to the students as biological experience with emotional ramifications and no heinous moral complications. It was interesting to think of sex as an experience that you could and should choose at a time you felt was appropriate and with someone you felt comfortable with. I enjoyed the simple acceptance of the urge to connect sexually with someone and the realization that sex changes the nature of those relationships. I was amused by the little references to people who thought sex was bad and how those individuals and the adults reacted to sexuality. It was fascinating to watch the most controlling character use denial of her own sexuality in an attempt to control her environment and relationships.
Even with the known quantity of their life expectancy most characters were reluctant or unable to find their "Me" and as a result struggled with the pain of lost opportunities. A pain, that was greater and more difficult to endure then the terrible physical pain they were experiencing. It really made me think.
I enjoyed the author and would like to read more of his stuff.
So, there you have it Jenny.
Really deep? Doubtful.
Over thought? Probably.
Un-understandable? Certainly.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Book Club
I decided to join a Book Club.
Can you really claim to be interested in writing if you have never been in a book club?
I don't think so...
I thought it was a neighborhood book club but the hostess was the only neighbor there, except my sister Jenny who used to be in the neighborhood, but moved. So technically...
I mention that because I thought I'd know these people. Despite the fact that I'll talk to any random stranger for hours...about anything... I'm kinda shy... No really, if I haven't met you and I know I'll be seeing you again I'd like to make a good impression.
Our book for the month was
I kept forgetting to go pick up a copy to read so finally Tuesday night at work I looked to see if I could find it online. I found a site with the whole book free to read online and finished reading at 6:45 PM, showered and went to book club at 7:30 PM
I don't know if I was basking in that, "I just finished reading it" glow, or what; but, I felt like the chatty church lady we all try to avoid each Sunday.
I really loved the book, every word felt like it was chosen for its effect on the story. The dialogue between characters captured the random predictability that turns family speak into it's own mysteriously comfortable dialect. I was drawn into each scene by the brilliant use of simile or is it metaphor? I get those two mixed up.
Parts of the book that went on and on about English history and stamp collecting felt like slogging through a muddy English field towards a ramshackle estate that keeps getting farther away each time you look up; but, I think that was part of the charm of the story, the contrast between something as exciting as a stranger murdered in the garden and the deadly dull idea of stamp collecting... wait, maybe that's the metaphor part?
Anyway, I was going off enthusiastically about what I thought it all meant and dropping chunks of strawberry pie down my cleavage and everyone else was, "Meh, we didn't like it that much..."
Hmmm...Welcome to book club?
So have you ever been part of a book club?
What was your experience?
Monday, April 11, 2011
My earliest memory is of my Dad holding me, the smell of horses and frost; I can still feel the warmth and strength of my fathers hard arms around me, the cupping of his hand under mine as steamy, pungent horse breath blew across my three year old fingertips.
Our hands flattened, the velvet, prickles of horse lips nibbled and tasted, delighting me. The frosty air heightened my sense of, Daddy's warmth. Oh, the utter joy of discovering that a horse, something so large and dangerous to a small child, was safe and wondrous wrapped in my fathers love.
It is a rare thing to realize that each of our experiences is shared with us by a loving father. " All these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good."
Freely delight in each experience, it's why you are here.
Our hands flattened, the velvet, prickles of horse lips nibbled and tasted, delighting me. The frosty air heightened my sense of, Daddy's warmth. Oh, the utter joy of discovering that a horse, something so large and dangerous to a small child, was safe and wondrous wrapped in my fathers love.
It is a rare thing to realize that each of our experiences is shared with us by a loving father. " All these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good."
Freely delight in each experience, it's why you are here.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Wonderland
I cleaned out a closet and found a lost and forgotten bag of Trick-or-Treat candy...Almond Joy, Yummmmm! I decided then and there that as a reward for cleaning out the closet and in preparation to, once again, go off sugar for a while, I would eat the entire bag.
And, that's how, 3/4 of the way though eating a giant sized bag of coconutty goodness I got the last sugar high for...hopefully life, but probably until Saturday, and stumbled on the solution to a literary question that has haunted English majors for a, ummm, really long time.
What the crap is the meaning of Alice in Wonderland?
Existential extremes!
I know, brilliant! Huhh??? Hear me out.
As long as Alice was looking for directions and answers outside of herself, from others or from her environment she was always confused. She chased futilely after a rabbit with a pocket-watch (time), and vacillated between feeling huge, dangerous and ridiculous in her environment, to tiny, out of control, and obscure in her environment.
When Alice asks the Cheshire cat which way she should go he directs her inside herself.
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
`--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.
`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.'
Maybe I've,"walked long enough" or maybe I'm ready to look at some of the extremes in my life...or possibly the sugar is making that disembodied cat-toothed grin talk in ways it never before has; but I'm thinking I'm on to something here. Know who you are and where you want to go, and BAM, life isn't a series of frustrating extremes, like eating an over-sized bag of candy in a day. Less rabbit chasing no more navigational directions from grinning, disappearing cats; just me enjoying all the wonder.
Too bad I'm not an English major Or that I'm out of sugar. Cuz, I think I'm on to something here.
OK so, it's possible English majors or at least their professors had this question handled a couple generations ago. I'm a Recreations major, maybe in my quest for excellent rock climbing and canoeing knowledge I missed out on the Alice in Wonderland Real Life Applications 101 course. If you're yawning and/or rolling your eyes, then, "Off with your head".
And now....I'm off to slay the Jabberwock!
And, that's how, 3/4 of the way though eating a giant sized bag of coconutty goodness I got the last sugar high for...hopefully life, but probably until Saturday, and stumbled on the solution to a literary question that has haunted English majors for a, ummm, really long time.
What the crap is the meaning of Alice in Wonderland?
Existential extremes!
I know, brilliant! Huhh??? Hear me out.
As long as Alice was looking for directions and answers outside of herself, from others or from her environment she was always confused. She chased futilely after a rabbit with a pocket-watch (time), and vacillated between feeling huge, dangerous and ridiculous in her environment, to tiny, out of control, and obscure in her environment.
When Alice asks the Cheshire cat which way she should go he directs her inside herself.
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
`--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.
`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.'
Maybe I've,"walked long enough" or maybe I'm ready to look at some of the extremes in my life...or possibly the sugar is making that disembodied cat-toothed grin talk in ways it never before has; but I'm thinking I'm on to something here. Know who you are and where you want to go, and BAM, life isn't a series of frustrating extremes, like eating an over-sized bag of candy in a day. Less rabbit chasing no more navigational directions from grinning, disappearing cats; just me enjoying all the wonder.
Too bad I'm not an English major Or that I'm out of sugar. Cuz, I think I'm on to something here.
OK so, it's possible English majors or at least their professors had this question handled a couple generations ago. I'm a Recreations major, maybe in my quest for excellent rock climbing and canoeing knowledge I missed out on the Alice in Wonderland Real Life Applications 101 course. If you're yawning and/or rolling your eyes, then, "Off with your head".
And now....I'm off to slay the Jabberwock!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)