Sharing My World 5

Would you rather take pictures or be in pictures?

My dad used to say the only pictures people liked of themselves were the ones that didn’t look anything like them.  Maybe that’s why we can look back at photos from years ago and finally see them objectively because that’s not who we are anymore.  Hey, look at me, I was kind of cute back in the day, who knew?  In real time I have never considered myself photogenic so I’m the one snapping pictures and shying away from being in them.

What did you most enjoy doing this past week?

I most enjoyed being the recipient of attention and concern as to my well-being.  Who doesn’t enjoy that?  Best to milk it for all its worth when it happens, hey?  I have been filling my “healing time” with lots of reading, sleeping, coffee drinking, drawing, pencil sharpening, pill taking and movie watching.  Maybe I’ve died and gone to heaven.

What is your greatest extravagance?

I am always trying to curb my many excessive and unnecessary expenditures.  It’s hard to decide what exactly the greatest one might be.  You could sell me pretty much anything in a health food store, for instance, even though the same products might cost much less somewhere else.  I’m a sucker for skin care products.  Coffee is hugely important to me.    But for the sake of making myself sound slightly less self-indulgent, let’s say it’s books.  I would like to line every wall in my house with book shelves and fill them all up.  So far I’ve done only a wall and a half.  I could do another wall full if all my e-books were real.  I used to have a library card, but discovered that it was much too stressful having to give books back.  Now I buy them and keep them and cherish them.  I will never be rich as long as people keep writing books.

Which letter of the alphabet describes you best?

I don’t know – M?  It’s the thirteenth letter of the alphabet.  Thirteen has been a significant and even a lucky number in my life.  The top of a horned owls head looks like the letter M  and I like to think I’m at least as wise as some pointy headed bird.  I am a MOM.  I like M & M’s.  “Mmmmmm” is the noise I make when I can’t think of anything intelligent to say.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming?

I’m grateful for not having to make a Thanksgiving dinner.  Is that a selfish thing to be thankful for?  Probably.  I should have said my alphabet letter is Z because it figures prominently in the word LaZy and signifies sleep.   (zzzzzz…..)  I’m also grateful for four seasons of the 4400 on Netflix and a theme song that is now stuck in my head forever.

It drives me a bit crazy every time that bath tub overflows.

Next week I’m looking forward to sharing with you whatever happens next.

Share Your World – 2014 Week 41

Just Jazzy 291

Jazzy Does 100 Days of Happiness 78

Happiness is having a million pictures, remembering the good times, where you’ve been and what you’ve seen, and being grateful for all the memories.

Pictures and Pages and Seasons Oh My

You might think, because of the nature of these book related pictures from various Facebook pages, that I have spent my entire Sunday reading.  But I haven’t.  I’m saving that for tomorrow, day two of two days off.   I’m part way through The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt, which is turning out to be a book with no end in sight.  Had to take a break.

What I’ve actually been doing today is making myself feel less sad about the fact that there are only two seasons of Downton Abbey available on Netflix by watching The Good Wife instead. I didn’t notice how many seasons there are to get through on that one, but I’ll take a serious stab at getting to the end of them.

It’s a hard life I know, but don’t worry,  I’m managing okay.

Early Morning Yesterday

It was an early morning yesterday, I was up before the dawn

(Supertramp, Goodbye Stranger)

I wasn’t really up before the dawn and it wasn’t actually yesterday, I think it was the day before, but let’s pretend for the sake of my awesome quote that no one cares about the details.

Every morning when I get out of bed I pull the curtains aside and look out into the backyard to see what the day looks like.  And I guess to see if anything interesting is going on back there.  Nothing ever is, but you never know.  On this particular day the morning sky was absolutely gorgeous, so I grabbed my phone and took a picture through the bedroom window of….. the garage.  Then I woke up a bit more and decided to put a little more effort and some zoom into it and came up with these.

  

A normal person might have put some clothes and shoes on and actually ventured outside to take clear pictures, but if I were one of those and had done that I think I might have missed it all.  In the second last shot which was over to the right, the colors were less intense and soon it all started to lighten like that. By the time I had coffee made the sky was back to its regular faded winter ice blue.

I’m so happy I didn’t miss this!  It was amazing.  If you’ve never heard of or seen the color called ‘sky blue pink’ before, there you go.  This is what it looks like.

Just Say Whatever to That Vision Board

An example of what a cardboard Vision Board could look like (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Prompts for the Promptless Season 2 Episode 2:  Vision Board

A vision board is a collage or collection of images of tangible and intangible things you want in your life. 

Wow.  People who actually make these things for themselves must be super focused and organized and on the ball.  And of course have a really good idea about what they want out of life.

I wouldn’t even know where to start.  My needs are simple, my wants are few.  My head is empty.  Therefore my (imaginary) vision board at the moment is pretty bleak and blank.

I’ve always tried to be very careful about the big and important stuff I wish for because things rarely turn out with the results I expect.  It’s so much easier to just let life happen without trying to control and force and manipulate the crap out of it.  There’s been nothing so far too hard to handle, and a million unexpected moments of joy that I never imagined could happen until they did.

Or maybe I’m simply too old and lazy for such brave visions of the future.  I have a year to go before retirement.  I would like to survive it.  Is there a picture to represent that?

I guess I could put it into words and hang that on my wall – GO TO WORK.  STAY ALIVE.

But then what if tomorrow I get run over by a bus?  Does that make me a failure?  If I had a board covered with pictures of places I’ve never been and people I’ve never met and expensive things I can’t afford and my family had to look at that after I’m gone, it would just make them sad.  Poor lady, never got to do any of the crazy things she imagined she might.  I would not want them to think my life had not been full because of a few small things it lacked.

If I had made a Vision Board for myself when I was 20, it would not have included pictures of me married to an outdoor camping wildlife enthusiast or living in tiny remote settlements in Canada’s Arctic.  But that’s what life handed me, and I happily accepted.  I never imagined myself living in Alberta either, but here I am.

English: Zodiacs navigate between icebergs in Arctic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I never wished to travel, but I’ve gone on some amazing trips.  Next spring I might end up in Greece.  But if I don’t, it doesn’t matter.  I like my life more or less the way it is.  That either makes me content and easy to please, or utterly unambitious and boring.  I suppose I am all those things.

There will be no Vision Boards for me.  I can see how they would work for some people, helping them to keep their goals and aspirations in view, reminding them where they’re going and what’s important, and inspiring them to stay focussed and full of purpose.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to wander around in the dark and deal with whatever I bump into. At least I know it won’t be one of those boards.

And if I find myself on a beach like this one, I’ll try really hard to cope.

English: Goudouras (Crete, Greece): the beach Nederlands: Goudouras (Kreta, Griekenland): het strand Français : Goudouras (Crète, Grèce): la plage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Picture Potpourri

I’ve spent my morning pretending to reorganize things in an effort to make my work space more efficient.  Now that the clutter has been successfully rearranged (for better or for worse remains to be seen) I thought I might work on moving pictures around.  Then I decided chronological order is perfectly fine.

Here’s how the world outside my front door looked a few days ago.  It’s hard to capture a downpour with the rain coming down so hard it bounces back up again.  The neighbors car went from dusty to squeaky clean in two minutes flat.  And look at that golf course quality green lawn!  I continue to pay a lot of money for its beautification and upkeep while taking all the credit, although the rain deserves honorable mention too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s the next couple of pictures on my phone sent to me from the other side of the country.  A lucky granddaughter on holiday in Nova Scotia.

She gets to go to the ocean and I get to look after her dog.

Sometimes he’s very dignified.  Sometimes not so much.  Today he’s happy because I’m not going anywhere.  That makes two of us.

Keepers

Impossible to share the best photograph I’ve ever taken, because I haven’t taken it yet.

But this one is definitely in the running. What makes the shot so great?

Well, it’s two of my grandchildren, so greatness is simply a degree.

They’re together and not together. In the middle of the room but oblivious to everything around them, concentrating with intensity on their respective games. Cousins first, great friends next. Two peas in two I-pods. When they get together it’s a beautiful thing – a sibling-like bond that I think will last a lifetime no matter what future directions they both may choose.

They are compatible and comfortable with each other and they have a lot of fun. Somehow this picture says all of that.