Things I'm learning...

... about myself as I grow older, and hopefully a little bit wiser each day.

• The fact that I didn't ask for the advice doesn't mean I shouldn't take it.
  
• The term "mind your own business" takes on a whole new depth of meaning in adulthood. I have found few things more exhausting than trying to compare myself to other people.
  
• In many inescapable ways, I am who my parents are. But in other ways, I am definitely not. And you know, both are ok.
  
• I think that humans are very instinctive creatures and that we know a lot about what's best for ourselves instinctively. But I also think that we can be remarkable close-minded to the concept that our instincts might be wrong. And that if we spend a lot of time getting defensive over what has been a largely instinctive decision, it might be worthwhile giving the decision a second look.
  
• It's not enough to make a decision based on careful weighing of pros and cons. I have to have given some thought to how to deal with the cons, which don't go away just because I made the decision.
• The people who love me will continue to love me even if I change my mind about something that I was formerly adamant about.
  
• There is really nothing wrong with not knowing what to do and asking somebody else who does.
  

I thought if I wrote these all down in my blog, it would help me remember them. :)

Meh...

I realized today that I haven't actually blogged yet in 2009. I've started a few posts about what I'm looking forward to in the new year, resolutions, etc., but none of them rang particularly true, and they all ended up in the deleted posts pile. I guess I'm going through a little bit of an ambivalent stage about blogging.

That's not to say that life is boring, exactly. Work is busy, WH and I are busy doing lots of fun and exciting things, both with choirs and at home, and I've certainly done lots of thinking about what's to come this year. I just can't seem to put good bloggy words around it these days...

So I might veer away from posts about life in Prairie City for a while, and focus more on other things. Tuesday posts will continue to be about food and trading recipes, I might use Wednesdays to post about sports, Thursdays to post about choral things, and Friday for the Friday Five. Weekends are up in the air, not that I post often on the weekends anyway.

And of course, I'll still be reading and hope you will too.

On the Cusp of 2009

I'm sitting quietly in the basement this evening, doing some work for Chamber Choir and putting some more music onto my iPod. I now have an iPod dock to take to work, so I want to make sure that I have lots of good stuff to listen to when I go back on the 5th! There will probably be nappage in the near future, as I think I'll be joining WH and his friends after their rehearsal tonight for a little bit of social time, and I need to be all peppy and ready to go.

I remember seeing the following on many blogs last year, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The basic premise is to go back and look at the first sentence posted on the blog in each month of the previous year. I think it tells a neat story!

January: Happy New Year Everybody!
February: Earlier this week, Episcopollyana was kind enough to nominate me for the Excellent Blog Award.
March: WH and I are just back from our big grocery store run of the month.
April: Hey folks ~ Once again, many thanks to all who have posted kind and thoughtful comments about Granddad.
May: I was very lucky to get a chance to witness a very special thing the other day.
June: "It's like goldy and silvery, only made of iron."
July: Reality being laundry, mostly, and work again on Monday...
August: From the Revgals today, a Friday Five about Locks and Blocks!
September: I think that Edmund Burke said that it was the most powerful law in nature?
October: I had a nice birthday. Thank you for all your kind messages!
November: I'm in City with Lots of Roses, and things are going well so far!
December: If I were to identify two services during the year that I love the most and would most regret missing, I would say Palm Sunday and the Advent Lessons and Carols Service.

So there's the year, in a few bloggy statements. It's always interesting to see where my mind was just a few short months ago. I'll probably post more about the past year and the coming year in the days to come, but that will do for now!

Happy New Year All!

Some thoughts about Moving...

WH and I are thinking about selling the Little Wee House next spring.

It's funny, how quickly one's mind slips into "house selling" mode... how to show the house, what repairs and improvements should be done to maximize the appeal of the house and the return on investment. And of course, how quickly the mind turns to thoughts of the new house, what the must-haves are, and what we're willing to compromise on. When we bought TLWH, it was a very quick process, and we didn't have a lot of time to think about what we wanted and didn't want and why. Not that we regret the purchase (we love our house), but there's a certain luxury in having a few months to give more thought to what we're hoping to find.

As I think I've written before, I'm not a good mover; I don't like the feeling of packing up my life into boxes, I don't like the disorganization, I don't like the chaos, I don't like the stress. But of the moves I've made in my lifetime, I'm most excited about this one. The new house we buy will probably be a place we live in for a long time and a place in which we raise children.

And that's a lovely thought.

In which Chorus Identifies Irony

("It's like goldy and silvery, only made of iron." Two points to anybody who can identify where the quotation comes from, and who isn't a member of my family.)

WH and I were talking yesterday about how two or three days of dirt liftin' will do great things for toning one's muscles, but also about how much easier the task would have been had we had a Bobcat (the machine, not the kitteh) to help. Isn't funny how people will pay for gym memberships in order to get fit, but will pay extra money in order to limit the physical demands of work itself?

Humans are funny.

On a 100% unrelated note, as a lover of old game shows, I would just like to say that Regis Philbin can't hold a candle to Allen Ludden, and the new format of Password on CBS is a poor substitute for the original, which included the creepy voice-over whispering the password to the audience: "The password is ... turtle."

Weary

Weary, by Sue McNiel Jacobsen

In which Chorus looks at Houses

I went for a walk today at lunch through the neighbourhood directly to the west of Colourful University. It's a very pleasant neighbourhood, and if you walk far enough, and make the appropriate left and right turns at the correct moments, you wind up connecting to a long winding road that comes back east towards the campus and is lined on one side by the river valley, and on the other by some fantastic houses.

Looking at houses is one of my favourite pastimes; it's always interesting to look at homes and think about what kinds of people must live there, to look at the things in other people's homes that you wish you had in your own, and alternatively, to look at homes that you are very glad you don't own. There are very few of the latter on my walk; these homes are beautiful. And many of them are very large, but not all. I think that the original neighbourhood was built some time before the real estate market realized that the combination of gigantic homes and a view of the river would equal big bucks. Over time, many of the original homes have been torn down, but there are still a few charming little houses tucked in between the mammoth ones.

The neighbourhood is interesting too because it does not have a consistent design from house to house, so there is pleasing variety, entirely unlike the new neighbourhoods being built on the edges of our city. No, this neighbourhood hasArts and Crafts homes, which I ADORE; beautiful big brick and stone homes built to look like English cottages onlymoreso, which I ADORE; interesting modern homes built on funny angles to maximize the size of the lots and the view of the river, which I don't ADORE, but wouldn't turn away if someone offered me one for free; and big imposing grey stone houses built like plantation mansions, which I think are cold and ... well, ugly. There are also about 6 houses built in a Frank Lloyd Wrightish kind of square boxes-piled-on-top-of-each-other style, which I think are fascinating, but I can't imagine how they don't have major roof problems, considering how much snow we get. There's a certain smug self-satisfaction in looking at a giant home you'll never be able to afford, and thinking that you wouldn't buy it, even if you could, because it wouldn't be a rational decision given the climate.

I think this fascination with looking at houses began at a very young age for me; my mom and I would drive around the old neighbourhoods of Prairie City and look at homes, and we were always especially on the lookout for little tiny charming houses, the more tilty and quaint the better. With big gardens. And folk art in the yard, if possible.

In which Chorus Resigns Herself.

The Jogging Experiment is over.

Why?

Because I hate it.




When I made THE decision, about a lap and a half in on Monday at lunch, I was reminiscent of a recent conversation I had with my brother and his wife about the maturation process that involves recognizing the things that we aren't good at or can't do, because our obsession that we must be good at everything distracts us from enjoying the things that we ARE good at or that we CAN do. I find this process of recognizing and accepting my flaws to be immensely gratifying, and it doesn't mean that I try any less hard to be a good person and a well-rounded person, but it's a nice feeling to give onself a break now and again.

So I'm not a runner.
And I'm not much of a crafter.
I don't ski.
I can't watch scary or gross movies.
I can't eat mussels.
The inside of my car is almost always a little bit messy.
I can't say no to candy.
I don't wash my makeup off at the end of the day.
And there are many, many more...

And I'm ok with almost ALL OF IT!

How about you?

Life Lessons

My Mum and I were sorting and tossing old magazines in a determined kind of way recently, and in the process, I came across an issue of Esquire from 2002. The top article was titled, "The Meaning of Life," and features a series of mini-articles detailing the life lessons learned by some of the world's most famous (and infamous) people.

For example, Barbara Walters states, "My biggest regret - and I regret it every day, yet I don't anything about it - is that I've never kept a diary.

Loretta Lynn: "When I walk out on stage, I don't want nobody leaving."

Homer Simpson: "A fool and his money are soon parted. I would pay anyone a lot of money to explain that to me."

George Carlin: "Someday they'll find a gene for putting on your overcoat."

Yogi Berra: "I'm lucky. Usually you're dead to get your own museum, but I'm still alive to see mine."

God: "Say something in a deep, booming voice and people take notice." and "The Second Book of Samuel is much better than the first. It's a Godfather II kind of thing."

Browsing through all the features got me to thinking about what my own Life Lessons, the definitive statements of my life, have been to this point. And while I continue to muse on those, I would LOVE to hear some of yours!

Thinking through challenge...

Isn't it interesting how often our struggles with the attitudes of others is a call to examine our own? Today I am thinking about my own ability to have a positive impact on a situation in which the attitudes of others is supremely frustrating to me. Sweet Lord, give me strength. I can handle this in a better, more positive way. I know I can. I just need to think a little bit more about how. While I'm thinking about that, I should also say that WonderHubby's positivity and good humour is like manna in the desert. He's a big part of the answer to the "how."

On an entirely unrelated note, I saw somebody comment somewhere that the current crop of Wannabe Presidents makes one pine for The West Wing. I dug up this video from the show, still one of its finest moments (among many!), in my opinion!