So I guess I rode 2004 pretty hard, and I’m ready to put it up wet.
Looking back on the past 12 months, I’ve:
Met and lost 1 great love
Worked for 7 different employers
Developed countless new friendships and strengthened the ones I had
Posted to my blog 190 times, comprising over 31,000 words
Doubled the number of my family acquaintances
Stood naked in front of strangers for 2 minutes
Traveled over 15,000 miles (major trips include Scotland, Rhode Island and Montana)
Said the ‘F-word’ to my mother 1 time
Smoked over $400 in cigarettes
Written 5 short stories, and submitted one for publication (rejected)
Gained and lost 10 pounds over and over again
Geez, its no wonder I feel so tired right now.
Ok 2005. Bring It On!
I drank way too much, and smoked too much yesterday in celebration of my bro’s bday.
Sorry I cock-blocked you and made out with the girl you were chasing. But really, the second girl you found was a better match for you anyway. :blush: Love ya dude.
Shout out to Pandora and Turtle for driving me home. Thanks ladies.
In other news, my favorite bartender had a baby girl yesterday around 5:30 pm. An 8-pound, 20” baby girl named Mia. Congrats! So it ended up being a double bday celebration. Welcome to the world Mia, may it be kind, splendid, wondrous and embrace you with open loving arms.
———–
On a positive side note: I did just get to do what I said in my previous post:
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Make-out
2. Go dancing
3. Laugh till my sides hurt
THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD (OTHER THAN THIS ONE):
1. feniks
2. seajay
3. hirsut
THREE THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My strength
2. My flexibility
3. My sense of humor
THREE THINGS YOU HATE can improve ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My willpower in some areas
2. My feelings of professional failure
3. My lung capacity
THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. English
2. German
3. Irish
THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Broken glass/Bare feet
2. My computer crashing without being backed-up
3. My mother dying
THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Internet/Computer
2. Friends
3. Music
THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Superman thong
2. Ring from my mother
3. Lotion
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR ARTISTS AT THE MOMENT:
1. Alanis Morrisette
2. Madredeus
3. Tracy Chapman
THREE NEW THINGS YOU WANT TO TRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS
1. Get healthier
2. Establish myself professionally
3. Tai Chi or Yoga
THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP (Love is a given):
1. Intimacy
2. Honesty
3. Strong attraction
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: (in no order, it’s more fun that way)
1. I have three nipples
2. I love with great passion and intensity
3. I used to ‘break’ wild horses
THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE SEX YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Intelligence
2. Deep, caring, intense, vibrant eyes
3. Smile easily and often
THREE THINGS YOU JUST CAN’T DO:
1. Eat raw onions
2. Live without compassion
3. Blindly accept without questioning first
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Computer stuff
2. Music
3. Writing
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Make-out
2. Go dancing
3. Laugh till my sides hurt
THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING:
1. Writing
2. Anything creative
3. Talk show host
THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Asia
2. Africa
3. Australia
THREE KID’S NAMES:
1. Drake
2. Alexandra
3. Tasha
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Make a difference
2. See more of the world
3. Feel successful
THREE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW:
1. ‘rangutan
2. Blyss
3. Fly
12:14am: Threesome birthday party for the folks who usually get lost in the holiday shuffle.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
“It’s just Fly.”
“What if it’s not? Maybe it’s the police.”
[peeking through door peep-hole]
“Yep, it’s the police”
[random hiding, shuffling and sobering, opens door]
“Hello.”
“Ya’ll might want to keep it down.”
“Certainly officer, we’ll do that. Happy holidays!”
“O.K. Good night.”
S.U.C.C.E.S.S.!
[memo to self: get another house soon! apartments suck!!!]
Just got back from Montana. Had a great trip and I never had to stop, drop and chant. I have mixed feelings about being back. It was good to get out of my head for a little bit. I’m starting to get the ‘in with the new’ and ‘out with old’ feelings that often accompany the coming of the new year.
But for now I’m just trying to be in the holiday moment, before it passes.
So we had a pretty uneventful day, lots of lounging and playing and eating. It felt really good to get the cards explaining what charities others had supported this year, how many families were touched, etc. I feel selfish sometimes knowing how pleased I am that others have been helped. It’s the BEST feeling in the world.
Later in the evening we were exchanging stories and one of the stories that struck me was of a 50 something year old woman who my mother and her friends met over the summer. She was recently separated and had decided to hike the Rocky Mountains alone. Along the way she met my mother and her friends, and for a few days was able to eschew her backpack and find some ‘solid ground’ to lay her head before moving on.
I wondered who she was, and wished I could have met her and talked to her. It was an amazing story of one woman alone against the Montana Mountains, trails and wilderness. I never met her, but tonight I wonder where she is, and how she is doing and I would have liked to have talked to her.
So we’re all sitting around the table enjoying a wonderful breakfast. After some serious over-eating I leaned back, stretched and announced that I was full. My 3-year old niece was sitting next to me and looked over and said, “I see you are full.” I smiled and rubbed my belly, “Yep.”
“No” she said, “Your other belly looks full” and she pointed at my chest. At this point my brother-in-law almost spit his biscuits. I explained to her that what she was looking at wasn’t my belly, and then she and I proceeded to have a minute and a half conversation about breasts, over breakfast. Finally she turned to my brother and said, “Daddy, look!” Without looking up, Fly just kept eating and said, “Yep, I know honey, now eat your breakfast.”
It’s a good thing my mom didn’t actually start choking from laughing so hard…I would’ve just thought she was faking her “coping mechanism.”
I spent time with my mother today delivering some of the gifts for her charity organization, Sharing is Caring. It was fun to tromp through my old hometown, and as I dropped off the packages it felt like reverse trick-r-treating. The houses were familiar, but I was bigger and this time I was giving instead of getting. Plus, there was a light, dry snow falling so that part made it feel like Christmas.
As we drove around we also chatted a bit and at one point talked about some possible coping techniques for if/when the family started to get wacky over the next couple of days. I didn’t share mine with her, I told her it would be a surprise but I was sure she would enjoy it. (I decided that if people get crazy, or situations get tense, I’m going to immediately drop to the ground, assume the lotus position and start doing some of the chanting stuff I learned earlier this year. I’m sure it’ll go over really well. ) Anyway mom had decided on the ol’ fake choking bit. She demonstrated for me and began to make gagging noises and faces, at which point we both started laughing so hard it brought tears to our eyes.
Now many of you out there may think from reading this that my mother and I ARE the cause of drama in my family. Hmmm. I’m not too sure, maybe we are, but at least the drama we prefer is of the comedy genre, and not the tragedy sort.
Later as we were driving home, talking about my ‘career’ (I use the term loosely) she said, “You think you have it hard? Just think of those poor companies you’ve worked for, you’re the kiss of death, baby. Moved to Singapore, suffered huge stock loses and layoffs, filed for bankruptcy, ended up married to your ex. (She didn’t actually say that one; I made that one up just for the blog, creative license and all. But it does make sense for those of you in ‘the loop’.) Frankly, I’m worried about what’s around the corner for your last employer.”
No one can cheer me up like ol’ mom! Gotta love her.
So Pandora, ‘Rangutan and I stopped by the local sushi joint for some lunch today. After we were seated, a large group of women were seated directly behind us…looked like a business group of friends. As we waited for our food we overheard them making disparaging remarks about “Domestic Partnership” and “Significant Others” because it added a challenging new dimension to simple forms. Wasn’t “Divorced,” “Single” and “Married” enough, etc.?
As soon as I overheard this, it raised my hackles, and Pandora’s too (being lesbians and all.) We began to ‘up-the-anti’ with loud comments of our own and finally ‘called’ them by walking hand-in-hand back to our table from a smoke break. All eyes got HUGE and you could have picked their tongues up off the floor. We proceeded to have loud conversations about why these “two lesbians” were having lunch with an “old guy” (kinda like the sit-com that was invented at 20×2, ‘Three Lesbians and an Old Guy.”)
What if you lived life with great presence, with great thoughtfulness? What if you assumed your every action was a devotion? What if the way you engaged was the way you prayed? What if every sense, thought, love, grief, humor, pain, every thing you did or experienced you considered to be spiritual, something holy?
What if you strove to live from intention, love and power? What if you truly treated every moment like it was precious?
What would you do differently? How would your life look?
What if all my memories, as well as my thoughts, current choices, dreams and future actions really are building a Cathedral?