Tunnel Vision

I started thinking on the drive home tonight about how we are completely surrounded most days by people's dreams. That car your driving? There is some car designer man out there that spent countless hours trying to make that car into something amazing.....that car is the manifestation of countless hours of work. And the roads you're driving on? Those are in the pattern that someone, somewhere started imagining one day. And that rotting old house you drive by every time you go to see your grandparents? Some farmer 100 years ago built that with his bare hands and couldn't wait to move his family in.

Every business you go to started off as someone's dream. Every movie you go to started off as a writer's dream. Every song you hear is someone's words pouring out of the radio. Your new dress started as a doodle on someone's notepad. Your old couch was once someone's baby for months and months while it was being designed and developed. This computer I'm on......this website YOU are on......the list is endless.

It is so easy to forget. EVERYTHING is someone's baby-- the product of their hard work. We are all connected....our dreams are all connected by everything we do every day. We are surrounded by the hard work and dreams of people who have a million different interests and most days we are blind to it all. We take it for granted and ignore each other.

Just take a second tomorrow and take a second look at all of the things you look at but don't see every day. It's kind of fun.

Jet Lagged Thoughts

It has not stopped raining in Hong Kong, for anyone who was wondering. It is a little bit harder than a Portland rain, but no nearly so hard as an Oklahoma rain. Apparently I'm quite lucky that it hasn't rained on me this much on previous trips....(yes Mom,I did remember my umbrella). In the reception area of all of the offices they have these handy-dandy little guys that you stick your umbrella in and they come our wrapped up in a plastic bag. They work great unless you havea little teensy travel umbrealla (like your's truly) and then the plastic bag is about 5 times longer than your umbrella.

And who would of thought that a whole paragraph about umbrella's could be so riviting?

Other thoughts:

Lesson learned about Customs line: pay attention to how many agents are working in each area. 4 agents= a faster line than 2 agents. Too bad it took us 45 minutes of standing in the wrong line to figure that out. Bad news? Wasted time. Good news? Once we moved lines a man from Austria got in line behind me who looked pretty cute and smelled even better! And trust me, nice-smelling men are harder to come by when travelling than you might think.

The bacon here still struggles, by the way.

Oh, and also? Watched the new Die Hard (don't think I've seen the other ones, actually) on the plane on the way from Dallas to Tokyo and it made me cry.....sorta. That was odd. Of course, Bruce Willis action movies have a history of that. The thing is, I don't think they were TRYING to make anyone cry. I guess it was just kind of scary/realistic with the KIND of terrorism that was in the movie. That's my excuse anyway.

Jini got moved up to first class (long story involving a lying mechanic, an footrest that wouldn't work, and a clever passenger who walked the fine line between making it clear she was rather put out but was never nasty about it)....so that meant I got two seats to sprawl my stuff over. You'd be surprised how handy that was.

And now I will bring the rambling missive to an end. I know you are all totally enthralled with my update, but I'm sorry people. The fascinating stories must come to an end for now.

So

I'm supposed to be packing.
I leave tomorrow....
And yet I am not packing.
I did start the washing machine....
That's something, right?

Home "Improvement" Question of the Day

Why do "they" use two different types of screws? Are philip's head screws supposed to be more secure? Are flat-head screws somehow more soothing?

WHY are there two different kinds of screws?

I Got Tagged

So, my cousin Emily tagged me for a blogging game-- I think the rules are that I have to post 8 random facts about myself (though I might point out that I am constantly posting random facts about myself....so apparently I tagged myself for this game a long time ago.....)

So here we go:

1. I really, really like the show My Boys on TBS.

2. I took the ACT for the first time in 7th grade. I filled the math portion in by creating a pattern out of the dots.

3. I don't like Guacamole (in fact, I'm not even sure that is how you spell it). I think it tastes like cold mush.

4. I believe in ghosts. At least I'm pretty sure I do.

5. I would sleep on flannel sheets all year round if it was at all feasible.

6. I am a terrible speller.

7. I haven't been able to drink Mountain Dew since my brother told me that it was made of a certain something when we were kids. I'm not telling you what he said it was made out of....and as an adult I know he was lying (sort of like the time he told me I was adopted, or the time he told me that Mom had flown on the space shuttle to the moon when in fact she was at the grocery store, or the time he was showing me how to get to my classes in high school and took me the long way to all of them)-- but I still can't drink the stuff.

8. I've never been to Canada.

A Salutation Like No Other

I like to share stories at times about the crazy and weird emails and calls we get at the office, but the start of an email that I received earlier this week takes the cake. It is officially my favorite "introduction" email ever from someone trying to get me to buy something from them. It's from a fellow named Gaurav, and it begins thus:

"Esteemed, Hope,your day starts with sweet smiles & tender touch of blowing wind. We added new range of........"



As it happens, my day had NOT started with "sweet smiles" OR the "tender touch of the blowing wind". That's never bothered me before, but now I feel I might be missing something.....

Granny T

Not many people can get to the age of 30 and still be able to say that they have 3 living grandparents...but up until last Saturday, I could.

One of my grandmother's passed away on Saturday night-- and thankfully it was a peaceful end to an extraordinary life.

Hopefully she knew what she meant to me, and that I cherish the memories of daisy chains and pick up sticks.....tea parties and the Andrews Sisters......card games and counting in German......purple martins and springer spaniels......christmas ornaments just for me......the list of random snapshots from my time with her could go on for some time.

The way she always put plastic sheets on the bed (under the cotton ones) well into our teens and the way they would crinkle crinkle crinkle when my sister or I would turn over in our sleep. The way she hid my grandfather's sweets in the oven (or at least that is my memory of it-- in retrospect that doesn't seem to make much sense). The time I couldn't wait to show her that I had finally learned to tie my own shoes. The way she had to correct my grammar at all times (an impulse my father seems to have inherited). The way she adored my grandfather even after he was gone.....and after he died, I never heard anyone else call her Dottie. The way she decided a few years ago that she was to be called Granny T after I'd spend 26 years calling her Grandma.

She was a beautiful, complex, intelligent, loving and independent woman. I was lucky to have had her for as many years as I did.



(and by the way-- she would NOT have approved of the punctuation in this post--that thought shouldn't make me smile, but it does)

Today

Today- I am not in a good mood

Today- I woke up thinking about cleaning supplies

Today- I thought a lot of mean thoughts about people I don't know (who may or may not have been driving near me on the road)

Today- I didn't like any songs I heard on the radio

Today- It took very little to annoy me

Today- I forgot several crucial steps while getting ready for work

Today- I didn't pack a single box

Today- I realized my hair dresser lied to me when he told me he trimmed my bangs (or maybe he was just distracted by his glorious plans that seem to involve me painting my fireplace hot pink)

Today- I lived another day of my very blessed life and was rather ungrateful about it. Hopefully when tomorrow becomes today I'll do a slightly better job.

I Could Watch This All Day

Thought of the Day

"Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it."

~Emily Dickinson

A Matter of Perspective

Today I read an article about a woman who made the controversial decision to get married "young". It was called something like "Crazy in love or just Crazy?" I say "young" because the woman that wrote the article was 24 when she got married. Apparently this wild and crazy behaviour scandalized her family and friends who could not believe someone would settle down at such an early point in life.

I supposed I should have been appreciating the wit and wisdom of the article (if there was any)-- but all I could do was laugh. I don't know anyone who would consider 24 "young" to be getting married. And it just reminded me of something I know-- but tend to forget-- and that is the fact that the Midwest Christian view of the appropriate age of marriage is NOT the general world view. I don't know who is right and who is wrong, but it amuses me that in many parts of our country you can be considered too young to get married when in other parts you are an old maid at the very same age.

It was a good reminder for me that you can't live your life based on other people's opinions and expectations since those two things are going to be so different everywhere you go.

Friends

I saw this article today and it struck me as kind of interesting. I've been categorizing my friends ever since...




By Michelle Burford

(OPRAH.com) -- "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves," writer Edna Buchanan once said.

I consider the "family" I've gathered -- with five kinds of pals I count on for completely different things -- among the wisest choices I've made. If you can find even one who embodies any of the characteristics that follow, you can consider yourself fortunate.

The Uplifter: This woman's favorite word: yes. You could tell her you're trading your six-figure income for a career in offtrack betting, and she'd barely pause before yelping "Go for it!" Don't you need someone who looks past the love handles to notice the extraordinarily gorgeous you?

The Travel Buddy: When the hotel in St. Lucia is a bust, one characteristic becomes all-important: flexibility. This agreeable companion need not be the girl you traded pinkie swears with on the playground; it's enough that she's comfortable with quiet (between gabfests) and is a teensy bit mischievous (as in tequila after midnight).

The Truth Teller: Intent is what separates the constructive from the abusive. Once you've established that the hard news is spoken in love (not in jealousy or malice), you'd be smart to seek out this woman's perspective.

The Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun: One Saturday a pal and I -- and yes, we're both over age 12 -- pored over every glitter lip gloss in a drugstore aisle for an entire 45 minutes. Forget the crisis download (for that, see the Uplifter); this partnership is about spontaneous good times.

The Unlikely Friend: "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive," Anaïs Nin wrote. My friends -- some twice my age, others half, some rich, others homeless, some black like me, others Korean, Mexican, Caucasian -- have added richness to my life that only variety can

An Open Letter

Dear Woman With Too Many Bumper Stickers,

While I may agree with your sentiment that "Well Behaved Women Don't Make History", I really must insist that you not try to make history by being the world's worst driver. Please-- take yourself and your little station wagon off of the interstate. You see, driving on a freeway when you clearly don't know the location of your gas pedal is demonstrably UNSAFE. Furthermore, to exacerbate this problem by talking on your cell phone while peddling your vehicle like Fred Flinstone down I-44 seems downright silly. So I would like to take this moment to ask that you take your own advice: "Think Globally and Act Locally" by STAYING OFF your local freeway at rush hour. I feel this would be the first significant step towards world peace-- starting with me (and my sanity)

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Sarah

P.S. You may feel that "There is a Village in Texas Missing it's Idiot", but I rather suspect that people who have clearly spent a large portion of their monthly income on little sticky slogans that they like to put all over their rat-trap cars shouldn't talk. Just a thought.

Random Thought of the Evening

I have had several people in my life (over the years) tell me to stop analyzing everything so much. I've always pretty much just dismissed that as an outright impossibility......analyzing people and situations is too much of part of who I am to flip a switch and turn it off.

But I suspect that sometimes it is just an excuse. Analyzing is definitely a part of my personality-- but I wonder how often I'm really just second guessing (and third guessing...and fourth guessing....) myself but rationalize it because I've labeled it as something that sounds more "adult".

Always Be Prepared For Never Being Able To Keep Up

I gave my 7 year old niece, Meredith, a ride home from church tonight. When we finished discussing the pizza we were going to eat for dinner, she was quiet for a minute or so and then the following conversation was had:

M: Aunt Sarah, I just don't get it.
S: Get what, sweetie?
M: How God could have always been here! He must have had a creator. If He's here now, someone had to make Him. How could He have always been here?
S: [silence]
M: Don't you think?


I eventually came up with a response about that being an excellent question that many people have asked before, and that we can never really comprehend it since we're stuck with a severely limited understanding, you know the drill.....all the while worrying that I was not going to satisfy her with this response and that I was going to somehow lead a 7 year old into a crises of the faith....but then I heard giggling. I turned around and she'd picked up a box from my car seat and stuck it on her head. That's when this conversation happened:

M: [in a deep robot voice] I'M A BOX HEAD!
S: [laughing] You are?
M: [deep robot voice] YES. AND I'M HERE TO ANNIHILATE YOU! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.


And what lesson can we take from this? Hm. Maybe-- never underestimate the distraction powers of cardboard? Or maybe it's just never overestimate the attention span of anyone under 10. But really-- I think the main point has to be: When the world starts to not make sense-- talking like a robot is bound to cheer you up.

Oh To Be Mysterious

So I realize that the entire premise of this blog is the fact that I realize just how mysterious I'm NOT.....but there's a little part of me that still likes to think that I am. I like to believe that people don't REALLY know what I'm thinking unless I let them.....that I have my own secret little world of ongoing thoughts in my head, and that I have complete control over how much of that world anyone gets to see.

Lately I've begun to suspect that I'm accidentally giving away far more information than I've realized. And it wasn't until I had THAT thought that I realized what a control freak I apparently am.

I don't know what the point of admitting any of this is, really, since you all probably know this about me anyway. The "self-aware" are always the last to know.

A Non-Update

I haven't posted since getting home from my vacation that turned into a hospital stay....but I've been rather unsure how to approach the whole topic (or whether to or not since it's been so exhaustively discussed in "real" life). I really don't feel like being all serious and deep about it-- but on the other hand, there are only so many "public forum" appropriate jokes you can make about having a 6lb ovarian cyst. (One that-- as my sister so lovingly pointed out-- weighed more than Meredith did when she was born).

So I'm turning to my go-to post for when all creativity fails. That's right! It is the return of the "random list of nonsensical observations"!!



1. I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night. It was quite excellent even with the teenage boys squeeing at Harry kissing Cho Chang. Yes, I said "squeeing"....of course they did the more manly "YEEAAHHHH!!!"-- but whatever. That's the boy equivalent of squeeing. Just because you do it in a lower tone of voice does not make it any less fan-girlish.

2. I've become hooked on the TV show Bones over the the last few weeks (thank you Netflix). It's strange that I got hooked on it because I don't usually like "solve the crime of the week" shows and I definitely don't like "look at these dead people while solving the crime of the week" shows. The only explanation I can give you is that it made me laugh.....and not in an accidental way.

3. This is the best movie that I've seen in a long time with a soundtrack I am already obsessed with.


















4. I read today that shoulder pads are coming back in style. I am horrifed. That is all.


5. Wait-- that isn't all. I also read that apparently "jumpsuits" are also big for the fall. I am aghast. THAT is all.



6. And just so that my family vacation is not completely neglected...I will leave you with a taste of my time in Arkansas:

The Clip That Made My Week

As many of you may remember, I have a slight issue with a certain local weatherman....and now, Jon Stewart is officially ON MY SIDE!!

Albino Smurfs Moved In Next Door

A Confession

There's something I've been keeping to myself for quite some time now---
A sneaking suspicion that I just didn't want to face.



I kept telling myself that it wasn't true....that it couldn't be true...that the thoughts that
started popping into my head didn't mean anything....that they were just random--
because to face otherwise meant realizing that I might have been wrong all this time....and who wants to admit that?



But this morning I was reading an article on MSNBC and I just could no longer live a lie. I had to face the fact that what I thought to be true wasn't. That I was wrong....that I owe someone an apology.




I'm sorry, Prince Harry. You really are way way hotter than your brother, Prince William.