Opening Unlocked Doors

One goal I have for this year is to post more. In order to do that, I have to get less hung up on writing full-fledged posts and, as often as I can, do more sharing of the random detritus that runs through my head. Thus the Allison Krauss song - which is still running through my head. Help! I need something to replace it!

My new favorite blog: Serious Eats – www.seriouseats.com . It’s torture when you are hungry, but has a multitude of great ideas and information. For example, I now know not to waste my money on a *$ Tea Latte. I’ve already slowly weaned myself off of their Chai, so this should be fairly simple. Currently, I stick to the peppermint teas. What? Yes, I know that I’m basically paying for hot water and two tea bags, which I can easily do cheaper and more efficiently for myself at home. But sometimes I’m out and about and want a warm liquid, but I don’t want any caffeine or sugar. Ta da! Also, scroll down the front of the web page for recipes for homemade Girl Scout Cookies. Yum!

On Saturday, J and I went to see Twelfth Night, maintaining our two year old streak of seeing every major production of a Shakespeare play rolling into the new year. Yay! We watched a movie version of this play a couple of years ago, featuring Ben Kingsley as Feste and (I think) Nigel Hawthorne as Malvolio. The production on Saturday was SO much better. I was able to understand intricacies of the plot more and thoroughly enjoyed the acting throughout. We now have been to enough of these plays that we can recognize the actors from other productions. We can knowledgeably compare the merits and the failings of different productions. Our sophisticated theatergoing continues to get more sophisticated!

Did I mention that I’m not on my church’s Pastoral Search Committee anymore? Oh, yes. I dumped that activity a couple of months ago. Luckily, it was right before the Committee started meeting regularly and decisions were still being made about who else would be on the committee and who would chair it. I had delusions of being the Chair, but at this point I was in the middle of papers and exams and teaching and other draining, busy tasks, so I wised up and said, “NO. I cannot handle ONE more thing!” Of course, I felt horrible about resigning, even though those involved understood. Now, I am so relieved to not have another slate of meetings on my plate for the next 6 months.

There’s some lingering drama about whether I’ll be able to afford to take another class this semester. Don’t classes start today? Yes. Didn’t I already buy the book for my Social Psychology class? Yes. I am hoping upon hope something works out . . . which probably means it won’t, but I have to hope.

What else? I had a very lovely holiday. It was odd because Mr. Random went out to California to visit his family, but I remained alone in the DC area. I was much too worn out to want to spend two weeks visiting in-laws – my brain was simply fried and I just wished to revel in peace and quiet for a while. (Oh, by the way, Random Cat is much slimmer now than when she started on the “cat-kins” diet. However, she now acts as if she is starving all of the time and will take any opportunity to steal food off of your plate or out of your hand.) I did get to spend a lot of time with my own family, since both of my sisters were home for the holidays. It was nice to just have the Maiden Name girls together for a while.

Activities are slowly starting to ramp up again. I miss the quiet and self-directed-ness of the holiday break. Now it’s back to school and teaching and work and figuring out what the heck I’m supposed to be doing in this world . . .

Just so you know, I got an “A-“ in my Money and Banking Econ class. I worked my fanny off, so I feel I truly earned that grade. I’m rather disappointed that class is over. I thoroughly enjoyed both the professor and the topic. I have to figure out how to do incorporate more of those subjects into my current state of being so I don’t lose the knowledge I gained . . .

To end for today:

On Saturday, my friend J told me a story - the kind of story that comes up when you’re taking about random stuff and usually contains some larger, obvious truth that when you hear it you think, “I need to remember that!” I am hoping I get the story correct – I think I have most of it.

Some time ago, J had watched a show where there was a hypnotist. One of the things the hypnotist did was hypnotize a guy who was led into a dressing room at the store. The whole thing was filmed. The hypnotists told the guy that the door to the dressing room would be locked and that he wouldn’t be able to get out. Now, in reality, the door was NOT locked at all, but the man THOUGHT it was. The camera filmed the guy trying to get out of the dressing room and thinking that he was locked in, just working himself into a frenzy trying to get out.

How many times do we put “locks” around things that aren’t there? How many times do we have doors open in front of us, but for one reason or another we psych ourselves out of moving forward due to some imagined boundary?

After J told me that, we both thought about opportunities we had in the past that might have turned out differently if we hadn’t thought “Well, I can’t do *that*!” How many opportunities do I have in front of me now that I’m not recognizing?

I believe this is a good question to constantly keep in the forefront of my mind as I move forward though the year. Who knows, it maybe a good question for you guys too?

Waving warmly . . .

Let's Go Down to the River

Today, at the church I attend, the pastor discussed baptism as the theme of this week. As part of the service, he showed a scene from "O Brother, Where Art Thou" where the three guys come upon the scene of a mass baptism and one of the gentlemen runs down to the river to be saved.

That scene has one of the most beautiful songs that I know of, Down in the River to Pray, which is sung by one of my favorite performers, Allison Krauss.

Here is a BBC video overlaid with her singing. It is very peaceful . . .



There was a video of her singing the song live with Robert Plant, but that version seems to have been filmed by someone in the 30th row of the concert hall, with people walking back and forth in front of the lens and other people screaming "WOOOOO!" at very inconvenient points . . .

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!

Momentary Rumination

Mr. Random was away for Christmas and New Year’s, visiting the Random family, and came back home yesterday afternoon. This meant that I had the whole Random condo to myself for almost two weeks.

Am I a horrible person for enjoying the quiet as much as I did? The Random Cat and I had a nice routine going each day – she woke me up in the morning, I fed her, I gathered the morning papers and read them while eating breakfast and monitoring the Today Show. Then I would either start cleaning or organizing something in the house until I either finished or got sick and tired of it, then I would take a shower and then run errands or read or watch TV or nap.

It was a very easy going existence which I am going to miss horribly next week when work and school and teaching start to fill up the schedule again . . .

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009, everyone! I know we are all thankful that 2008 is finally over and are looking forward to all of the opportunities that this new year will bring to us. I know that I certainly am . . .

I wasn’t going to have any resolutions for this year and just try to see how things unfold, but when I think about it further there are a few goals that I have for this year:

• Continue to see plays
• Continue to be adventurous
• Use my passport at least once – whether it is for a quick weekend in a Canadian city or to finally make it to London
• Continue to have a sense of humor about what life throws at me
• Continue taking college classes
• Continue to spend time with people I care about
• Find ways to best use my talents and gifts to help others

In other words, I’d like to continue on the path I’ve started and see where it leads. Even though I’ve been super busy this year, there are many experiences that I can point to that I am very proud to have had. I do want to try to write more on the blog this year, and I will do my best, but I’m hoping that will become a natural function of things that are already going on in my life.

Notice that I didn’t say “lose weight” or “find a new job” or anything that specific. I’m just hoping that finding my own groove will make me improve in other areas.

I’m wishing that everyone finds their own “groove” this year! I’m looking forward to hearing more about your experiences and thoughts and also sharing my own with you all. Happy 2009!