From My Head Down to My Legs

I love eggs. Remember that commercial? I always thought it was pretty catchy. No Daisy sour cream ad for sure, but still catchy.

Anyway, it is because of my love for eggs that every morning I pick up my plate and lick it clean.

I wish there was a good reason for this. I came up with a few including gas prices and the Bush administration. I toyed with the connection to global warming, but it was slippery at best. I really think this awesome new habit I have came because this is the fifth year that have lived Alone. One day you just realize that no one can see you, you will not hear keys jingling in the door and then have to explain why there is yolk in your hair, and no matter how badly they may want to, your pets can't tell on you.

Once you realize that, a transformation occurs and your Living Alone self comes out. It is the part of your brain that would be Booger if all the characters in Animal House represented parts of your psyche. I look forward to discussing Booger the Living Alone self in greater detail in the coming weeks.

Have a lovely day. :)

Happy Sleepy Time

Alright, perhaps I have gotten far too introspective.  I have to admit that I usually think of blogging when I'm doing random daily things like enjoying my variety of new skin care products from Origins -- bless Origins -- or drinking ginseng tea that makes me feel like a fresh-eyed kid again.

Right now I am listening to my Happy Sleepy Time mix in iTunes.  I've been perfecting two mixes: one soporific mix of peaceful tunes for when I'm in a good mood, and one emotionally cleansing mix called Time To Let Go for when I'm down.  Each only lasts about half an hour, long enough to let you drift off but not so long as to be a distraction.

This latest incarnation of Happy Sleepy Time is my favorite:

1. "Write You A Song" - Plain White T's, Every Second Counts

2. "Across The Universe" - Fiona Apple, Pleasantville (music from the motion picture)

3. "Another Rainy Day" - Corinne Bailey Ray, Corrine Bailey Ray

4. "Down To The River To Pray" - Alison Krauss, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

5. "Julia" - Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood, Out Louder

6. "No Ke Ano Ahiahi" - Medeski, Martin & Wood, Combustication

7. "Pablo's Song" - Ana Serrano van der Laan, Chocolate and Roses

I submitted it to iTunes as an iMix today; maybe someone else will like it, too.

I can't wait to see what Holly's listening to; she needs to tell me the name of the Dutch Prog Rock band she introduced me to last summer!

Testing....Testing......Is this thing on?

I would like to formally announce that I am here, and that I intend to dilute the meaningful soul searching on this blog with things such as essays written by my cat, and ode to the skirtini, and an essay on the wonders of cinnamon toast.

This is only a test.

The real fun will begin at a later time. I think that I should have a column here, and I have a few ideas as to things that I would like to cover:

Things I Like
What I Am Currently Listening To/ Music I Think You Should Like
Confessions of Gross, Odd, and Generally Unsavory Things I Do When No One's Looking
This Week in The Election Year

Christine, please pick one or two and then just let the magic happen. Thanks in advance.

The Road To Happiness Could Use Some Road Signs

I shall not go into the reasons for my silence these past couple of months.  Those months are behind me, and my husband and I are making a conscientious effort to embrace the possibilities of the future.  That being said, when a positive opportunity came up this weekend, we found that we weren't sure we were ready to take advantage of it.

We live in a small apartment in the top of a house at the top of a hill.  We are surrounded by trees filled with deer, raccoons, foxes, owls, chipmunks, bunnies, squirrels, and a rainbow of bird species.  We love our little apartment, and we pay a petite sum for it relative to it's location overlooking downtown Nashville.  We have only two wishes: we'd like to be in the house alone, without a family living beneath us (friendly and tolerant though they may be), and we'd like a yard for our Border Collie to play in.  This weekend, a coworker showed us her house that she's putting up for rent.  Other than the micro-machine oven/stove combo, it seemed to perfectly fit our needs.  It was as though we'd brought it into fruition through our desires.  Less than a mile from where we currently live, it has nearly everything we want at a great rental rate.  Within a few hours, we called my coworker to tell her we were definitely interested.

Then, a few hours after calling to claim the house for our own, my husband's face reflected his discontent.  He kept asking me what I was thinking, and all I kept thinking about was how I was going to make that tiny kitchen work.  My husband, though, worried that we might not be making the wisest choice financially.  Although I just received a raise at my job, the new rent would suck that up and then some.  In this precarious job market, with my husband working for a car dealership, we suddenly both began to worry that if he lost his job, or if I finally had an opportunity for a job in publishing that required me to take a pay cut, we'd be screwed.  I wanted to believe that if we embraced the opportunity with the house and had faith that God would continue to provide us with great opportunities, our financial stability would follow.  The cautious side of me saw that we could be using my raise to pay down our debt and to start an emergency fund.  Perhaps the blessing was in the raise, and the house is a temptation.  Perhaps everything would work out just fine in the new house, or perhaps by staying where we we are, we'll be rewarded for managing our money responsibly.  All day on Sunday and all morning yesterday while we prepared for work, we debated the pros and cons.  In the end, though, it just came down to the fact that the increase in rent came out to about $2,400 over the course of a year, and that's a big chunk of change towards becoming debt free and building a cushion of savings.

The book Conversations With God explains that God has given us everything we need, if only we accept it.  Joel Osteen in Your Best Life Now reiterates that thought and proclaims that God wants abundance in our lives, and we must believe that God can do anything to help us gain that abundance.  Dr. Wayne Dyer in The Power of Intention (which I haven't read) explains that we must open ourselves to The Source, and when we put good things out there, good things will come back to us.  I believe the new book Quantum Wellness, which I would like to read, also says that.  So taking all of this into account, I wanted -- oh, how I wanted -- to embrace the opportunity in that rental that we'd dreamed of, perhaps even dreamed up, and have faith that abundance would soon follow.  Of all these inspirational authors, though, no one tells you how to determine when an opportunity is a good one or when a responsible decision is the better one.  My husband and I thus decided that we could have complete faith in the abundance to come while using our current abundance to pay for the things we bought on credit when abundance was lacking.

A friend of mine who is going through radiation to treat breast cancer took me to lunch today.  After explaining the aforementioned situation to her, she came up with a great analogy that eased my anxieties.  She explained that there are jigsaw puzzles in the cancer treatment center waiting room.  As she worked on one yesterday, she found a piece that seemed to fit in a hole, but it wasn't quite right.  The colors were close, and the size was almost the same, but it just didn't fit.  If she left it there, the whole puzzle would have been messed up.  She said that perhaps the house was, for us, like that puzzle piece.  It seemed so close to perfect, but it just wasn't the right fit.  If we had tried to make it fit, it would have messed up the bigger picture. 

She bowled me over with her wisdom.  Of course, it's hard to feel too anxious about one's choices in how to best spend a raise when speaking with someone who's winning the battle against cancer . . . and who still believes that God has fantastic plans for her.