Who’da Thunk It?

This is just to distract you for a moment or perhaps forever.

ABC Award

Well now….It’s not everyday that a misophonic introvert like me gets nominated for such a prestigious award. And I must thank my buddy Ames for this nomination. Sneak over and poke about her kingdom of worditude, I must forewarn you, tread lightly upon the lawn of her castle or she’ll put you to work. She’s a teacher, and you know how they enjoy inflicting work on others. 😉 Really though, love you Ames. 

The rules of the Awesome Blog Content Award are:

Add the ABC logo to your new blog post.

Write a one-word or a phrase about yourself that begins with A, B, C, etc.

Nominate some blogs.

Leave a comment on those blogs to let them know!

Okay, lets see how well I can remember the alphabet:

A – Awesomenessosity (what can I say, I make up words. It’s part of my awesomeness.

B – Blank Stare (what I usually have before the coffee has kicked in.)

C – COFFEE! That nectar that kicks my brain into gear.

D – Deaf…..well, not really. More of a “selective hearing” thing guys seem to be most proficient.

E – Efficient (yeah, call it a pipedream, but I’m still claiming it)

F – Fortunate (why, because I am still breathing)

G – Gigantic Goof (self explanatory)

H – History (huge fan of history)

I – Introvert (no really, I am quite introverted. Almost painfully so.)

J – Just An Instigator (yeah, I like to quietly get things started and then sit back and watch the fun)

K – Klutzy (Hey, it’s MY alphabet game so I make up the words)

L – Lost (what has happened to my mind as time passes)

M – Misophonia (NOT a fun thing to endure)

N – Nuts ( take that as you will)

O – Oreos (wonderful treat with peanut butter)

P – Peanut Butter (that delightful food group that makes almost everything taste better. BTW, extra crunchy is the best!)

Q – Quietly Quirky (nuff said)

R – Indicative of a pirate. Go ahead say it outloud. See? You sound like a pirate.

S – Secret Agent (as a child, this is what I wanted to grow up to be. Shhhhh.)

T – Tattoo (yes I have one and no, you may not touch it)

U – Understanding (I try to be. Perspective has a lot to do with this attitude)

V – Ago Vacuus Desiderium “Live Without Regret” (My turn at this game so I emphasized Vacuus)

W – Words (I frequently use them. I also use grunts, gestures and bodily noises to get my point across)

X – Xylglyphy (I like these. No, look it up)

Y- Yearn to Learn (always learning. Some of it even helpful information)

Z – Zoo (one of my favorite places to visit. Yes the monkeys are adorable, but the birds like me it when I feed them)

For those who didn’t think I could do it, you may now breathe again. Now, if you don’t mind, I feel the need to remove my pants and drink coffee. No correlation, it’s just easier to appreciate the air conditioning AT HOME in shorts and I happen to like coffee. So there! 😛

And now for MY nominees:

Lala

Laura Beth

Jensine

Michele Marie

Comfortably Numb

Malika

Wisdom Comes From Odd Places

It’s been awhile since last I put fingers to keyboard and mind to focus to write.  During my hiatus, I took time to ponder and contemplate (as introverts are wont to do) and I enjoyed one of my favorite movies.

 

One of the things about a good movie or book is that each time you view or read it, you learn something new.  And such has been this was no exception.  The movie I watched is, in reality, rather cheesy but I enjoy it nonetheless.  Kung Fu Panda actually has some remarkably insightful lines that bear repeating.

 

My favorite character in this movie is Master Oogway.  He is the gentle wise Kung Fu Master of Masters. He has many sage nuggets of wisdom to share, but here are my favorites:

 

One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.

 

Consider this for a moment. Sometimes we make the choice to try to avoid a situation only to find the situation staring us in the face at every turn.  Trying to avoid the inevitable is like trying to live underwater without taking air to breathe….unless you’re a fish, it’s not possible.

 

Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, nor make it bear fruit before its time.

 

If you plant an orange tree, you will get oranges.  You cannot plant an orange tree and get bananas.  You might go bananas trying to make it give you something it can’t though.  Be careful what thoughts, ideas, words and attitudes you plant.

 

You are too concerned with what was, and what will be.

 

Learn from the past, it cannot be changed.

Change your future by altering your present!

 

I am rather dorky, I know, but some things just strike me as interesting and worth sharing.

 

Are You Afraid To Live?

“It’s astounding….time is fleeting…..” I won’t ask you to take a jump to the left (unless you feel so inclined), but these lyrics ring very true. It truly is astounding how time is fleeting. Okay, unless you are waiting in line at Disney or the DMV, time is whizzing past us at a rate of 24 hours each day. While that may not impress some people, it is still the truth. How many times have you heard or said, “There just aren’t enough hours in the day”? Really? You get 24 hours each day to accomplish all the things you want and need to accomplish.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to be busy or to have a lot to accomplish or wanting to do more. What I AM saying is, if we are so pressed for time, then something is going to have to give, what is it? Are you too tired and brain fried to deal with your family? Are you so busy that you don’t make time to eat properly? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you enjoying a sense of accomplishment?

We expend a lot of time and energy trying to do it all, and make sure we don’t miss anything, that we are aging ourselves with stress and strain. This seems to make the cosmetic surgeons and make-up companies pretty happy so they can target their customers with “anti-aging” goodies and services. But my question is “why?” Why do we have this compulsion to constantly strive to do more and more and more? Is there some reward for who does the most in their lifetime? Will someone build monuments to you posthumously, that you won’t get to enjoy, for all your accomplishments?

I am all for Carpe Diem! Seizing the Day and squeezing the most life I can out of it is always a good thing. But I am also including in my squeezing the occasional nap, time to read and relax. Seizing sometimes means “fitting into your day time to do little or nothing.” We weren’t designed to run wide open for long periods of time. To me, Carpe Diem is more about how do I want to be remembered. Do I want to be remembered as someone who worked so much that he got every promotion and yet had no time for friends and family? Do I want to be remembered as someone who studied all the time earning degree after degree but didn’t really do anything with them except hang them on his wall?

No! I want to be remembered as someone who tried to enjoy life and tried to share that enjoyment with others. Why would we want to be completely stressed out to the point of a heart attack all the time? It’s hard to learn to slow down and let go of some things that really don’t matter much. It’s hard to release that Type-A personality, that driven personality, that can’t relax without being shot with a tranquilizer dart.

It’s important to Carpe your Diem. To squeeze every drop of living out of every day. But it’s not a good thing to choke the life out of every day.

Illuminate, Educate, Ruminate

 

The candle is not there to illuminate itself.

You CAN Fly!

Sometimes the best way to fly is to close your eyes, open your mind, and spread your wings.

Ummmmmmm……..Uhhhhhhhhhhh……..

There was a time when I once used the excuse, ‘I forgot’ to get out of trouble because I didn’t do something (like chores or homework). The fact of the matter is that, at that time, I actually didn’t forget (I can tell you’re stunned), it was that I simply didn’t wish to do those particular things.

That was then. Back then I could remember details down to the pattern of someone’s clothing without so much as a sniff of effort. I could recall, verbatim, the dialogue of a movie I enjoyed, and could quote passages from books that I had the pleasure of reading.

That was then.  Remember being told not to make that face because one day it will stick like that? Apparently it also works for memory. I dipped once too often into the pool of ‘I forgot.’ For, you see, now I have discovered that if I wish to remember something, I must write it down. And even then, writing it down does little good if I forget where I wrote it down.

More than once, I have had to call my cellphone in an attempt to remember where I put it.  It has become not uncommon for me to put things where I “won’t lose them” only to forget that: a)  I had something I wasn’t supposed to forget; and b) where it was I put them.

Have I reached the point in my life where I am beginning to lose the few functional braincells I have left? Am I doomed to roam the rest of my life with a bag around my neck full of the things I need to remember? Does this mean I will begin to repeat myself because I can’t remember if I have said it? Is there such a thing as a reset button for my brain to reboot it back into safe mode?

Yesterday I had a mental list of specific items I needed to pick up from the grocer/pharmacy (my heart meds being among them). I remembered the list perfectly, reciting it all the way to the store and all the way across the parking lot. But the moment I stepped inside, I couldn’t even remember my name, much less what I came for.  I must have had a befuddled look on my face, because the pharmacist I’ve been dealing with for years happened by and asked if I wanted to pick up my meds. No bell went off, I just numbly followed and got my meds and eventually wandered back out to the car. Upon arriving home, my list magically re-entered my mind.

Age, thou art a heartless witch!

Thinking In The Rain

There is little that puts me more into a contemplative mood than drinking coffee in the quiet while listening to the rain outside.

Sadly, I know the quiet will not last. People have a way of disliking quiet and simply MUST bring noise. I don’t understand those who seem to want to make noise just to make noise.

So I enjoy the quiet while I can.

…Just As I Was Ready To Smack Them…

I simply must share this little scene with you that happened recently.  I was at the grocer, picking up a few items.  When I got in line to check out, I was behind a tired looking mother of an extremely active, highly vocal, and quite insistent child who was letting everyone know that he was “BOOOOOOORRRRRRRREEEEDDDDD!”  Everything was boring. Everyone was boring.

Mom gave him her cellphone so he could play a game, he promptly threw it at her, breaking the cellphone against the wall, and Mom just sighed, picked up the pieces and tried to remain composed.  Which prompted the intrepid young prince to begin his tirade of “Mom….Moooooommmmmm…….Mama…….Mommy…..Mah….” which would have tested the patience of even the most devout saint (of which I am not).

Mom attempted to console this child with candy, promises of a movie on the way home, an entire list of promises of goodies which stunned me to the core.  Honestly, when I was his age (yes, I’m sounding old now) my mother put me in the shopping cart seat and told me “Do NOT move!” And that was that.  Had I engaged in the behaviour I was witnessing, I would probably have gone the way of Jimmy Hoffa (look him up if you don’t know who this is. He disappeared without a trace).

Finally, after about ten minutes into his loud tantrum and continuing increase in pitch and volume, one of the mothers from the other line (who had 5 children with her and each one very quiet), leaned over and whispered something into his ear.  Instantly, he was quiet, still, and very compliant.

And the child’s rampage sparked a thought.  How can we be bored?  Life is an adventure!  Every single day there is something new to learn.  You’re only bored because you choose to be.  You’re only bored because you expect someone else to entertain you.  Think for yourself! Be adventurous.  Life isn’t always about the adrenaline rush of ceaseless adventure; rather, it is about those WOW moments that we see if we look.

And as a matter of note, I asked the mother of five what she said to this young noise enthusiast.  She smiled and said, “I have a snake in my car. I left home with six kids, can’t find one, want to take his place?”

Time Well Spent?

Spending Time

Isn’t it odd?  Each day we have approximately 24 hours to spend (give or take a few microseconds).  Each one of us.  

Some facts about time:

• It marches on at the same measure, even though sometimes it feels like it drags or rushes.
• It always moves forward.
• It cannot be stored, saved, earned or purchased.
• Once it is spent, it can never be unspent.
• We aren’t guaranteed a certain amount of time.

What do we do with our time?  Some of us try to cram as many activities as we can into the time we have.  Some seem to put in more and more hours at work.  Some choose to do nothing with their time.

Time is a gift to be spent. Time is precious, invest it well.   

Popular?

 

We go puttering through our day set on maintaining our schedules, appointments, meetings, and activities.  We are glued to our watches, cellphones, tablets, gadgets and gizmos.  We must remain connected!  We have to be in constant contact with our social group.  The one with the largest set of contacts is somehow deemed the most important?  Why? Would it not be much less strenuous to have a few close friends than to have a myriad of contacts you wouldn’t leave alone in your house for the weekend? 

 But my mind has begun zookling about like a monkey stuck in a banana field. We spend so much time trying to add to our social register, that we forget what it is to be human sometimes.  I overheard a young person (“young” being rather relative) boasting that they had over 1000 Facebook friends.  Which made me wonder how many of these “friends” has actually taken the time to talk to face-to-face over coffee or if there has been ANY meaningful communication between them.

 We are becoming calloused toward one another.  I saw on the news one night that a crime had been committed which left one person severely injured from the beating by their attacker.  Sadly, no one came to the victim’s aid because they were recording the incident on their cell phones.  Seriously?  Have we ceased to care about people? Is being “popular” REALLY that important?

 We’re becoming more like a ship out of water.  Not of much good except as a place for seagulls to poop.