I hope you won’t be looking for some philosophical discussion or enlightenment here. I do know there is a rhythm to life, a cycle that repeats itself in humanity as well as in nature, as is visible in our lives on many levels. But, that’s all you’re going to get here.
Category: life
Totes amazeballs
A share from The Happy Hausfrau.
7 Things You Totes Need to Stop Saying if You’re Over 30 (Oops, There’s One of Them)
A lot of us are guilty of it. Especially those of us with teens, or tweens, or kids of any age who watch kid-centric television shows or who spend a lot of time on Instagram.
We start to talk like them. Words, phrases, the flotsam and jetsam of another generation’s vernacular seeps into ours and before you know it, we catch ourselves (or our friends) dropping these little beauties into everyday conversation, Facebook updates, blog posts and tweets.
Someone needs to step in now, and beg of us all: STOP IT. For the love of all things good and pure and age-appropriate, please stop. Continue reading “Totes amazeballs”
I feel like that grumpy-faced cat
By the way, I hate that stupid cat. (One sentence in and already I digress.)
I’m feeling grumpy because I just spent five hours (five!!) putting together two applications for jobs I’m pretty sure I don’t even want. Not pretty sure, damned sure. The five hours is the result of a 10-round, knock-down, drag-out fight with the stupid website (NeoGov.com) that was determined not to let me apply. My resume is done, my cover letters are almost rote by now, so all I had to do was answer three questions that were also terribly repetitive – about diversity, my ability to play nice with others, and my ability to work independently. Both positions are actually with the college I currently work for – and I know most of the people involved in the hiring and work process. This all smacks of a trap to get me to work a real job again.
As I write this, I’m wondering if NeoGov wasn’t actually on my side, sending up multiple red flags about the insanity of doing your best to get something you don’t want.
They all try to put us down…
I’ve seen this before, some time ago, but when I ran across it again yesterday I was suddenly struck by the thought that it’s The Zimmers singing about me and my generation now, instead of The Who.
It’s entertaining to realize that as kids we thought we rocked the world, and we were blamed for the country’s social ills. Now we’re at it again, this time we’re blamed for ruining Social Security and Medicare and a slew of other things.
Every generation has something to be proud of, and something they wish would fade quickly into oblivion. Me? I’m sad we gave our returning Vietnam vets such an unconscionable “welcome” home. But, I take pride in being part of a generation that fought hard to end the war so no soldiers would have to go. Now? I’m sad many of us didn’t continue to fight for those same ideals, but I’m proud to be part of a generation that has made such a ruckus – at both ends of our lives.
So, sing it Zimmers! I’m off to join a picket line. I’ll be the one screaming “Hell no, we won’t go!” because I may be the last of a generation to remember a time without war.
50 days … and daffodils
In 50 days my job ends. I find myself smiling all the time. Someone at work even commented how happy I look. (They don’t know about the job thing; it hasn’t yet been announced.)
I’m not losing my job in the sense of being fired, or I’d be here whining, I suppose. The job was a temporary, part-time thing for the academic year while they decided how they wanted to restructure/redefine the job. They restructured it into a full-time job and I’ve been smiling ever since because I don’t want it!
Spinning out into a bigger world
I had the thought a couple of days ago that what makes me feel my age more than I think others do is that I didn’t have children. I never shared those milestones of a child’s life that make you think, “wow, they are getting older … and so am I.”
I don’t think I was aware of my aging self until about four or five years ago when it seems that suddenly everything just seemed to break down. A knee injury, a foot injury, crinkles at the corners of my eyes, and yes, this is gross, chin hairs. Continue reading “Spinning out into a bigger world”
20 life lessons from a 65-year-old
Eat your broccoli.
Don’t bother to stop and smell the supermarket roses.
Don’t be afraid to tell your doctor what you think.
Give your cat anything he wants because he’ll just pester you until he gets it anyway.
Start Kegels and sit-ups when you’re ten and keep doing them until you die.
Marry someone who makes you laugh.
Read, then read more.
When times get tough, dance furiously.
Don’t listen to what people say about you.
Merry-go-rounds are for grownups. Swings, too.
Wear sunscreen even when you’re not at the beach.
Liver tastes gross for a reason.
Be generous.
Sleep as much as you want. Play even more.
Build a fort.
Good people sometimes die young for no good reason.
Some things are more important than having a boyfriend.
Not everyone likes bossy people.
Even mosquitos and spiders are here for a reason.
Make your life plans flexible.
Me and the cuke
Let me disclose this first thing: I don’t like cucumbers; they don’t like me.
Two nights ago my doorbell rang – at a reasonable hour, but we hardly ever have anyone ring our doorbell or even come onto our porch. The doorbell rang a second time and after exchanging surprised looks with my husband, I answered it. I expected door-to-door Bible thumpers who wanted to convert me, or at least a couple of guys farmed out by their company (always a cable/internet provider) to drum up business on the block. These are the only people who come to our door. But, people like this ring the doorbell and stay politely behind the closed screen door.
Imagine my shock when I opened the door and a very nice woman, holding the screen door open, shoved a huge cucumber in my face and asked, “Do you want a cucumber?” I hesitated only slightly, said “sure” and took the cucumber. She smiled and quickly left the porch.I closed the door and held the cucumber up for my husband to see. “You don’t even like cucumbers,” was all he said before returning to his book, leaving the cuke and me alone. I held the big ugly thing for several minutes, wondering what had just happened. I tend to be the kind of person who questions most everything, and so it was that I found myself staring at it, trying to wrap my head around this mystery gift.
I’ve spent odd moments since wondering if there was a message for me in that cucumber (which, by the way, left the house the next morning for a new home on the “take it” table in my husband’s office kitchen). Was it telling me I should be more accepting of gifts from others? Or, that cucumbers can be gifts, too? That the cucumber-bearer just had the wrong house? Or, maybe, never to answer my doorbell? To lighten up a bit and stop looking for ulterior motives and meaning in everything, especially cucumbers? Or, was it a sign that aliens now lurk outside my windows, under the Buddleia and lilac?
And, after all this stewing, here I sit. I still don’t know. Maybe it was just a sign that I should let my husband answer the door from now on.
Back from a deep, dark place
But more about that later. I don’t want my first post in over a year to get me right back to that dark place again. Get a few under my belt first.
Reminder to self: More flowers, more belly laughs
I’m usually loathe to forward or post any piece of “just shut up and be joyful” writing that comes to me — usually from well-meaning friends. That said, this one arrived in my inbox yesterday and as instructed by the friend who sent it, I read it all the way through, slowly.
And, I got it. I think reading it slowly helped. I usually skim stuff like this but this time I tried to absorb every sentence.
Then again, who knows, maybe it was just the right thing at the right time. Just the thing I needed to hear at that moment, like when the pages of a particular book fall open at the perfect time to leave a lasting impression.
Anyway, I bought flowers when I was shopping yesterday and I came across a compilation of “Whose Line is it Anyway: Scenes from a Hat” on YouTube. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. And, even though the clip was an hour-long and I kept telling myself I had other things to do, I just kept watching it. It just felt good. (See the end of the post for an hour’s worth of laughs!)
Rereading this piece today as I post it, it borders on a little sappy, a bit over dramatic. Sort of illustrates that thing I was saying about something just touching you at the right moment.
I hope you find something here to remind you to find some (dare I say it?) joy in your life today. And, no you don’t have to forward it to your 50 closest friends. (I’d like to reference the author of this piece, but I can’t find the source. Apologies.)
Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I’ve tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn’t suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word ‘refrigeration’ mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched Jeopardy on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said , ‘How about going to lunch in a half hour?’ She would gas up and stammer, ‘I can’t. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain’ And my personal favorite: ‘It’s Monday.’ She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We’ll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of ‘I’m going to,’ ‘I plan on,’ and ‘Someday, when things are settled down a bit.’
When anyone calls my ‘seize the moment’ friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller-blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.
Now…go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to…not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry-go-round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ‘How are you?’ Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say ‘Hi’?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift….Thrown away….. Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
‘Life may not be the party we hoped for… But while we are here we might as well dance!’ ~ Anonymous
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Whose Line is it Anyway: Scenes from a Hat”
In other words 