Weekly Random

*My dad is, as of today, retired. Such a weird thought!

*I had two lunch dates this week and my next two Tuesdays are also booked. It's doing wonders for the January blahs.

*Ring of the week:

My mood ring. I've had it for years. It's cheap and adjustable and I never wear it. My mom has a cool mood ring that I may steal someday (as well as an opal flower ring...).

*It's cold.

*I AM going to see He's Just Not That Into You when it comes out. I'm not sure how or when, but I'm going! (Man, Diane! Where are you when I need you? Want to fly out and come to a matinee with me?) Oh, wait! Sharon, don't we need payback for Isaac and Jacob going to see Hellboy?


*Starting (well, just having, really) a practice in this economy is taxing my nerves! Did I not mention I love stability?

*The tv is on in the other room and I keep hearing snippits from a local morning show about "vibrators". This makes me laugh, but then I remember where I am and what show is on, and know they are most likely talking about something benign, but only hearing snippits is still making me laugh. Why, yes. I am indeed a twelve year old boy.

*I picked my February book, but I'm waiting until the craziness of this weekend passes to start it. I'm pretty excited about it and hope it lives up to expectations.

*I hate the Super Bowl and REALLY hate that it's on my birthday this year.

*Chuck is back starting Monday. So...watch it. Unfortunately, due to my yoga schedule, I'll have to start watching it delayed.

*Song of the week:

(breathe, how can I fall?)
I remember sneaking and watching MTV and VH1 with my sister when my parents would leave to run errands. I was SO in love with this video. I found the vest / jeans combo to be an incredible turn-on. Gotta love the 80s!

Hey, Jealousy

I see people online and in real life and I often want to emulate something about them. I let whatever quality is there play around in my mind, finding ways to fit into my life and then I don't try; either because I forget I'm the one in charge or change seems to be for others. Is it fear? Is it laziness? Is it a case of being too stuck in my ways? Or simply that I cannot see things in myself that are worthy? I'm not sure and want to start a quest of relaxation. Sadly, that's not an easy thing for me.

I often forget that I am the adult. I'm days away from being 35 (yikes!), which, seems to be FIRMLY into adulthood, by all accounts. I've been married, divorced, remarried nine years and have a kid and I still forget that I'm the one who's in charge. I can make the decisions on where to go, what to buy, what to do. I make the rules. How can a simple thing like that be so hard to remember? I think part of this comes from being so anti-spontaneous. I like rules and structure. I am happiest when there's order to my life. So, when something comes up, I am often heard, saying "no, we can't..." like a nine year old afraid of getting out of line instead of, "why not?".

As I face down my 36th year on earth, I want to change. I want to embrace life more. I want to be less structured, more spontaneous. I want to say yes to Sammy more. I want to gather those traits I admire and work on being a better me. I want to remember that, if the mood strikes, I can pack up Sammy and take a drive somewhere just because, schedule be damned. I want to remember that if I want a spoonful of frosting at 9 pm, no one can say no. I want to shed the fear and timidity that makes up a percentage of my personality and live. That is what I want most so that next year, as I turn 36, I can say I lived as fully as possible. And, if that happens to include a trip to England (ha!) who am I to complain?

Whoever Said It Takes A Year To Settle In...

We finished Sammy's room this morning. Finished, finished. It has been a work in progress for the past...however long we've been here! I'm pretty pleased with the results, though.

A little tour, starting in the doorway and moving right:

(Shoot. Not finished, finished. I will be taking the animal print / animals from above his bed down at some point and replacing them with these...)

For Dustin

My brother and his wife live in Australia. They have for several years and will most likely be there for several more before making their way back to the U.S. Because of this, they miss out on the growing up of the neices and nephews. They've never met Sammy and most of the other kids are frozen in time in his mind.

So, when he saw this picture on my Chirstmas no shame post:

he made the comment that, in his mind, that is what my sister's kids still look like. He has difficulty picturing them any other way.

Dustin and Cindy called last night and my sister came over so we could all talk to them. They are coming for a visit this summer and he's afraid he won't recognize anyone! He mentioned that we should recreate that picture so he could see the difference. So, for Dustin, here's the recreation from last night:

I love that you can barely see me! (however, less love about my messy kitchen!) So, D, it's your turn for some recent pics!

Oh, and this. Because it never fails to crack me up when I ask Sammy to smile for a picture and this is what I get:

That's not right at all...

January Book

For January, I decided to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's the recounting of Kingsolver's journey (along with her husband and two daughters) to eat only what they could produce or buy locally for a year. I knew going in that, while interested in doing something similar, I couldn't sustain her level of commitment. But I was curious about the hows and whys of their year of eating locally and seeing different ways to reach that goal that I could implement in our lives.

The bad: It was very wordy. I don't usually mind this, but recounting the ways one loves asparagus was a little...tedious. I felt more could have been said with less and I found myself skimming entire parts to get to the good stuff.

The good: It was very wordy. I loved the poetry she wove about food. It's so easy to get bogged down in the thinking that food is simply here to serve us and not get any deeper, but she did. After that first layer, we see what food really means to us (or what it SHOULD mean to us). I loved that they included recipes they loved involving the produce that was in season during that section. Most of them looked amazing. I loved that her 18 year-old daughter wrote the last pieces / recipes in each section. It was great to see the experiment through her eyes.

Overall, I really liked the book. While they took dramatic steps to accomplish their goals (moving to a farm, etc) that aren't practical for the average person, I still gleaned enough information from the book to get me thinking about the smaller ways to change our eating habits. We did an ok job last year with local produce to can / freeze for the winter (and to just eat throughout the summer / fall), but I now want to triple my efforts and really track next year how much we need to go all winter without buying produce from the store. It made me think about the 'fuel trail' my food has to go on to get from there to here and ways I can limit that. I will definitely need to do a few things differently from last summer, but I think I started on the right track. It was definitely a useful book to read and I'm looking forward to reading other books in this area.