In Other News....

How in the world do y'all find time to write so much in your blogs? Y'all are CRAZY! (in a good way) I go away for a few days and come back and there are 52 entries in my bloglines. Some of you have written FIVE ENTRIES in the past 3 days. And it's the WEEKEND! Woah. That is really remarkable.

And today I may disappoint you if you were hoping for something with any kind of depth to it. But I do feel I must post just to keep up with the Joanzez. Or something like that. heh.

Mostly I'm kidding.

We had a good weekend. We visited friends and frenz and some more frendzez. We got to see some folks from Texas we don't see often but they were in Northern Michigan so we drove way up into the woods to see them and that was fun. We found a LOVELY little JEWEL of a campground on Jewel Lake - maybe someday we'll actually camp there.

We're really blessed with terrific friends.

Our porch renovation is nearly completed. Someday I'll get pictures on Flickr so you can see the transformation. Way cool.

The cats are fine, I know you're all dying to know. They survived the weekend without us since Aunt Pat fed them and watered the plants like the lovely friend that she is. 2 of the tomatoes look like they want to get ripe soon. Which is fun. Yay for ripe tomatoes! Yum.

On Hotness: I remember a time when I could just lie in bed at night and imagine I was floating in ice water and my body would cool itself right down. Presto, I was fine.

And that reminds me: I had a memory the other day you might identify with. I saw the sun glint off an old fashioned metal slide in a playground when we were driving... Remember those? I think they make them out of vinyl now or something. But I saw the sun reflecting off this metal slide and suddenly I remembered how it felt to be 4 and our butt cheeks would BURN when we sat down on that slide that seemed ginormous because we were only 3 feet tall. But we did it anyway because it was fun to slide and we were brave! We'd go "OW! OW!! OOO! OOO!! OW!" the whole way down, but we did it anyway...... and then we climbed up the ladder and did it again!

'Member that? :o)

Listening and Telling

For all our individualism, it's amazing how much we need to know how much our experience is similar to another's - how greatly we are relieved to hear someone say "Ya. I do that too."

So we naturally ask questions: Was it like this for you? What did you do to keep from losing your mind? Is all this crap just in my head? Am I Effed Up completely?

I've read in some of the wounded healer discussions that it's not necessary to talk about one's own woundings, but I have to say I sometimes disagree. I understand the spirit this is meant in - generally, it's good to be reminded that "it's not about you". I've needed that instruction, and known others who should have heard it along the way. Sometimes it is good to shut up about your own stuff if another needs to air theirs. If one is sitting there listening and comparing the other's story to one's own, preparing a response, etc... the listening is stunted and the power is sapped from the process. I digress here... but I feel the need to fend off the potential of someone flaming me for not getting the general idea behind that.

I want to know why it is you sit there and smile at me and say "I know what you mean." Do you? I don't need every sordid detail, but I want to know what it is that you think qualifies you to say such a thing before I go unloading my vulnerable soul anywhere near you. It might not be the same thing exactly, but we can draw parallels, if we're paying attention.

I rarely watch Oprah, but the other day I did. It was a special they were doing on Oprah's favorite "ahah" moments, I think she calls them. She revisited a time she visited a prison group for recovering abusers. These men had beaten their wives and been jailed for it. They were learning how NOT to do that anymore, and she asked one of the members what one thing would he tell people that was the most basic to changing his behavior. He said (and I loosely quote here from memory) "That's easy. It's learning to feel pain. To feel right on through it and live in it and stay with it." And Oprah said "Oh! That's not so different from how I'm learning not to overeat." And she had an Ah Hah! moment right there - feeling a kinship with this man who was learning how not to behave in an abusive way toward others. She said that going in to work that day, she never would have dreamed she had anything in common with these abusers sitting there, she learned how alike they actually were. I like her honesty in that.

I remember my friend telling me the story of how she lost her leg and her journey of learning to compensate for that and how she tried in vain to hide this disability of hers. She told me with a great deal of honesty how she learned to live in such a way that others wouldn't treat her differently because of her difference. - And what that did to her spirit. - And how she healed from those wounds. I then found I could relate to her on many levels, and I trusted her immensely with my own story after hearing hers, even if it wasn't exactly like mine. She could have just said "I lost my leg when I was a kid. Ya, it was hard, but God got me through it." That would have turned me off completely. In fact, often when people tell me their stories in that manner I'm sad and disapponted. Because no matter how much faith we have, life is still stinkin' hard sometimes, and when we duck from the telling of that, we keep ourselves from each other.

Even when the teller needs nothing from the listener - it helps to be reminded we are all of us mere mortals.

C'est la Même Chose

I've been tagged by martha, martha to do a meme.

What I was doing 10 years ago: Was working as a receptionist for Melange. Also teaching a studio of private students to play the flute. I rented a little studio in Miller Music Studio and had some really terrific and interesting students. It was also about that time I began realizing how much of a mess I might be and that perhaps I couldn't straighten it all out on my own.

5 years ago: Was working as an office manager for Melange (same company as above). Bought my first house. Turned 30. Survived one of the most stressful years of my life.

1 year ago: Still working at Melange - getting used to a new house and being married to Amazing Man!

Yesterday: NOT working at Melange anymore.... or anywhere else! Just at home. heh. Slept in. Ate blueberry waffles made by Amazing Man for breakfast. Played Cities and Knights with Amazing Man, Made dessert for Sunday Night and then went to Sunday night potluck.

5 Snacks I enjoy:
Doritos
chocolate
triscuits
banana baby food
trail mix bars

5 songs I know all the words to:
Amazing Grace (maybe)
Little Bunny Foo Foo
The Poop Song
Tom the Toad
The Farmer in the Dell

5 things I would do with $100 million dollars:
(Tell no one except my closest family and friends that I had it)
Pay cash for a reasonably nice house (and housekeeper) that met our needs but didn't seem too obviously flashy.
Take care of family and friends in ways that could be accepted by them and/or were appropriate to the situation.
Donate to ministries/charities I care about
Invest, invest, invest.
And have fun with it.

5 locations to which I would like to run:
St Kitts
the Upper Penninsula of Michigan (in summer)
Rocky Mountains
Washington (the state)
Anywhere no one else is.

5 bad habits I have:
I don't have any.

What? You don't believe me?
Well, maybe I swear just a bit too much sometimes. (this is a matter of opinion, of course)
I tend to be too critical of myself and others
I have a bad habit of periodically obsessing over things that aren't my business or that I have no control over.
I almost never make the bed
Forget to floss

5 things I like doing:
reading
hanging out with loved ones
playing settlers
cooking
camping

5 things I would never wear:
barbed wire
burlap
gaudy jewelry
jumpers
micro mini skirt

5 TV shows I like:
friends
seinfeld
csi
i want to be a hilton
funny video shows

5 biggest joys of the moment:
Air Conditioning
Happy Amazing Man
Happy Kitties
Terrific friends
Coffee (simple life)

5 favorite toys:
my computer
MP3 Player (I still have the dinosaur Creative Labs Jukebox!)
Kitchenaid Mixer
Mini electronic Yahtzee Game
Reciprocal Saw

5 next victims:
anybody brave enough!

The More You Wear The Less You Need Nair

Dear Nair,

Do you ever actually watch those commercials that you made that make shaving women's legs seem like rocket science? I mean - have you actually watched them? I know it's about making money - but please. How often does one actually CUT one's legs shaving like the girls they show on the advertisements?
Do you really think we are all that stupid? Most of us have been doing it so long we're really quite adept at it. We don't need you portraying us like ditzy airheaded bimbos who mangle themselves and shoot soap all over the bathroom and fall down every time we try to shave.

Shaving is a pain in the - uh - LEG, or wherever - I certainly won't deny that. Your product might be Really Great - but my point is this:
We're not a bunch of uncoordinated idiots.

Got it?

Thank you,
Captainwow

Of Waterfalls and Earthquakes

by Captainwow

There was once a city named Bire. The city sat directly on a faultline, so there were often earthquakes in the land. The townspeople got used to the earthquakes, as they were rarely ever big enough to do any real damage.
A river ran through this town, and it was beautiful. The people loved the river, and they took good care of it. It gave them a place to row boats on, swim in, fish from, and they set up water wheels to power their grain mills and various other endeavors.
One day though, the earth shook. It trembled, it roared, and it grated together. Everyone was terrified, as it was the worst earthquake anyone remembered living through. Buildings toppled, and property was damaged. Some of the livestock freaked out and ran away, plowing through fences and tearing through the fields into the woods.
The land split and there emerged a great cliff under the river, diverting the river and creating some magnificant waterfalls. People came from miles and miles to see the waterfalls. After everyone in the town of Bire recovered from the earthquake, they fell in love with their falls as much as they had with their river and they set up tourist traps around the falls - because everyone who came to see them always said the same thing:

"Goodness Gracious! Great Falls of Bire!"