Philosophically Bent

OK, a couple of things happened within my immediate family, but neither seemed very significant in the long run, and I think we all came out of it OK. Nothing drastic.

But I keep having dreams about someone who likes me. A lot. Often it seems like an old boyfriend - not someone I miss or anything. What's the deal with this? Did somebody die and is trying to get in touch with me? Is someone thinking about me? And if so, why? It was SO long ago.

It's nice to think somebody out there is drawn to me. But maybe it's just myself.

Since I've been meditating (as part of my Lent Challenge)I've been asking and asking what my purpose in life is. The current path I'm on seems so difficult at times that I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing.

Once I thought I heard "To bring joy." and I like that one. I'm not sure how I'd accomplish this, but I guess I could try. I also heard "To raise awareness" but it didn't say of what. But I'm not sure those were true messages. They were rather faint and could have just been my imagination.

But, thinking of bringing joy, it occurred to me that if one is indulged enough by others to live life in some way their own way, that one is therefore obligated to try and be a happy person! Because they are indulging you by loving you, you should try to bring them joy.

And since I'm getting so philosophical, I noticed at the local high school that there was a couple of teens outside kissing. That's so different from my high school, where people were hanging out in couples all over the place. It seems like these days, kids don't really date one on one very much. They hang out in groups and somehow manage to hook up.

That seems so different from me, and even my husband, who wanted to get into relationships fairly early in our teens. Not that we always did or that it worked out, but I think that was the number one preoccupations in my high school.

I wonder if it's because of the change in attitudes toward parenting. Parents these days are much more into their kids and what their kids are doing. When I was young, children were to be "seen and not heard." I wonder if this made us more prone to seek out relationships in our teens. Teens these days don't seem to have those same relationship needs. Maybe it's because they have better relationships with their families.

Well, it's an idea. It's a theory I'm working on.

I hate my horoscope.

It now says that someone close to me will show their true colors and I might have to break with them. The trouble is, this could show up just about anywhere as far as I'm concerned. Every relationship and deal in my life is ripe with opportunity for dissapointment.

What relationship or goal isn't? I hate waiting for something bad to happen. Just get it over with already! I hate this sense of impending doom.

I went with my daughter's class on a fieldtrip today.

It was to a local mexican fast-food restaurant, which is nearby, so I didn't really understand why I had to be there at 9:30. This is probably the least anyone ever communicated with me about a volunteer event, but there was a small note on J's homework (See you at 9:30!) that made me believe what J had told me.

It seemed kindof funny to just drive down the street and around the block, but it really wasn't far. It was really rainy this morning too, but it let up on us at some critical times, like getting into the car. I wore a crocheted cap since there was no point in fixing my hair for the rain. I love hats and have quite a few (too many!), but seldom wear them. I guess I feel like you attract a little extra attention with a hat.

It was a really good field trip, though. The owner was super-duper nice, and together with the District Manager, they took lots of time (1 1/2 hours) with the kids. They taught them about sanitation and hand washing, then they all made guacamole and tortillas.

With tortillas he gave them each a ball of dough (I got one too) which we rolled around in our hands, then set them down to rise. Then we went into the refrigerator and saw the dough cutting machine and the big grill for the tortillas. Then we walked through the kitchen and past the meat grilling and an industrial-strength blender.

Then we got our balls, flattened them in the tortilla-flattening machine, and threw them on the grill. The owner was funny and kept making us adults do it ourselves, so it was funny trying to turn over my tortilla on a big, rotating surface!

After both groups had done both activities, we got to eat! The kids got to choose either nachos or a burrito, and we adults got to order whatever we liked! So I got a steak burrito, which is still the only thing I've ever had there.

Later I was sitting with some other mothers when a lady walked up wearing a crocheted like mine, but with a thicker, chenille-like yarnc. She was walking up to us with a camera when whe realized she knew Gina (one of the moms), who was her neighbor across the street. It turned out this lady, who was also named Gina, says she's writing a book about "Places I've left my Hat" and she wanted to take a picture of me, since she saw me with my hat on.

Which was kindof funny, since I've been taking a lot of pictures myself for the 30-day Photo challenge. So we took pictures toghether, and she said her book might be vignets about people and their hats. Another mom said she was jealous because I was going to be in a book now.

The original Gina swore that she had a really great losing-my-hat story, but we didn't get to hear it.

Instead of giving up things for lent, I'm adding activities.

This idea started off simply.

The only problem is I'm up to 4 now! It started off easily enough with a vow to exercise a little every day and meditate.

Then I decided to add a little writing. Then I came across a site with a 30-day photo challenge! I don't think the quality of my photos quite reach this bar, but I'm thinking I'll try to use my photos to document some of the more interesting things I see during my day. I'll have to pick one picture to represent my day! (or take one)

I'm behind in 2 of my new activities already. Better go catch up!

Gallo's song

Josie made up a cute song for Gallo the other day. She's been bugging me to take him to get a bath, and it turned into a song:

I like to take
take, take a bath.
Gallo likes to take
take, take a bath.

I like the soap
and conditioner
He likes the soap
and conditoner

Even those flea baths!
Even those flea baths!

The best part of this song is the ending. The only problem with this song is that it just isn't true.

Melodrama & muck

I've never been able to get into Desperate Housewives, but I do enjoy BBC's Footballer's Wives. It's a really crazy show.

I started watching near the end of last season, maybe because there's not much else to watch on Sunday at 10pm, but partly because of all the great melodrama. Even more than American soap operas, FW is full of glamourous women (Tanya!) and crazy situations (a hermophrodite baby?)

But the new season started the other day, and talk about drastic story changes! People are just gone now! We knew that Jason got killed, but Chardonnay dropped dead from anorexia, the coach has dissapeared (gone crazy from his bad-ass daughter) along with his daughter, and where is the sexy Italian?

And what do they give us instead? A sexy pervert with his Baliwood wife?

It's a great show, though. Very over-the-top.

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Yesterday I heard a strange story about some muck oozing out from under downtown LA!

It started the night before. There was a strong sewer smell, so they called the City out, but they couldn't find anything. Then, some cracks started appearing in the street, and the street had to be closed down. Then some muck started oozing out from under an apartment building, and everyone had to be evacuated!

First, they said it was a white substance oozing out. Then it became tarlike, but it was very warm. The nightly newscast said that a neighboring business had been pumping out some hot water, and that might account for the heat. The next day the news said nothing about this neighboring business.

They did say that there are some oil fields in the area, and I think they said only lately did they stop pumping oil from that area.

So is downtown LA built over old oil fields? Are there hollow places down below where the oil used to be? In earthquake country?

This doesn't sound good to me, but what do I know?

Hooked on a Feeling

OK, this is great.

No way would he get away with this silliness in the good ole USA. I think this song was popular when I lived in Germany, so that's somehow fitting.

I started hitting the "Next Blog" button on Blogger, and found a bunch of sites that seem to be the product of random word generation, or some kind of metatag madness.

Spater Gator