Sticky: Changes are coming!

Please note that this blog may be undergoing some growing pains in the short term. Blogger sent me an invitation to migrate to the new Blogger, and I've went ahead and migrated.

I will probably be updating the blog template eventually as well, so please bear with me. I'm trying to catch up on posting; I have entries for all of December, but I have to get them posted. Old posts are boring, though, so I will be sure to have some new posts as well.

As always, thanks for reading, and be sure to leave a comment or two.

In case you missed it

One Town's Price

Thursday 13—#17

Thirteen Things to do to get ready for a birthday go to local party store and buy goodies for 19 goody bags go to grocery store and buy two cake mixes and two containers of icing go home change clothes, load up dishwasher so that I can have room to make cupcakes, let dogs out look for cupcake tin find cupcake tin, let in dogs mix up cupcakes and put one batch in the oven for 20 minutes divide up goodies for bags and start to make them up realize that there won't be enough stuff for all the bags, so COUNT items and divide them up evenly take first batch of cupcakes out of the oven and put in second batch finish making up goody bags take second batch out of oven to cool instruct DH on what he is to do today so that DD will have a pleasant surprise when she gets home from school; she turns 7 today. Time flies.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Tuesday Ten

Ten Things that Make Me Smile

1. DD
2. the dogs
3. DH's work stories
4. finding time to write
5. finding time to meditate to relax
6. reading a funny e-greeting card from a friend
7. labeling blog entries instead of watching 4 hours of "Cops"
8. looking at some family pictures propped up on the keyboard as I type
9. reading several books over the weekend
10. recalling scenes from a couple of movies we watched over the weekend ("Talladega Nights" and "Beerfest")
    

Thursday 13—#16

Thirteen Things I've Been Doing Instead of Updating My Blog watching 3 to 4 hours of "Cops" every evening writing in my paper journal (#69, "Rebirth") catching up on my reading writing lists of things I want to do this year going to bed early playing with DD playing with the dogs watching football playoffs (yeah, don't ask) reading Metafilter and AskMetafilter watching tv doing laundry switching to the new Blogger and wondering if I will be able to update my blog template finding a million other things to do instead of get online :)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

10 Things

Ten Things Left Behind in 2006

1. personal angst
2. the Well of Self-Pity
3. guilt
4. anger
5. fear
6. self-disgust
7. unhappiness
8. dissatisfaction
9. bitter old hag
10. bitterness/jealousy of others
    

Ten Things Embraced in 2007

1. spirituality/spiritual journey
2. fearlessness
3. creativity
4. love of myself (self-love)
5. JOY!
6. faith
7. hope
8. destiny (!?)
9. mindfulness/living in the present
10. contentedness, but not complacency

Happy Birthday

Mag turned two today. We've had him for a little over a year. It was a struggle at first, to get him used to the routine around here. It had been so long since we had a puppy/young dog. Mag had never even seen stairs before.

I wondered if he and Husky would fight and end up not getting along, but after a bit of a "showing the mean teeth" by the Husky, Mag settled right in.

I wondered if he would have a good temperament. After all, he was living in a situation with two other dogs and a cat, so I hoped that he was well-socialized, but you never know. It was apparent in the first week or two that he was not so very smart (he's rather stubborn), but definitely loving and friendly.

Some people don't like Boxers. He is rather large to be an inside dog, and there have been messes to clean up. But he's not destructive, aggressive, or hyper-excitable. He doesn't seem to have any neuroses, and he's great with us and DD. We can do practically anything to him and he doesn't get mean.

We're lucky to have found such a great dog!

Musing on Life

Woke up feeling totally crappy today. Had a long day at work. Listened to my cassette tape of Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits album on the drive home, sang out loud, and started to feel better.

It was amazing how listening to my favorite artist made me feel so much better. I probably haven't listened to the Boss since 2003 or so. I used to sometimes play a CD when I was online, but the CD drive is jammed now, for some reason. As far as that tape is concerned, I probably haven't listened to it since around 2000. Yeah, that long ago. The tape is kind of warped, so it just sat in my car all this time. In fact, I was surprised that it still played at all, because it hasn't even been in its protective case.

As I listened to the music, I remembered all the words to all the songs. I was immediately transported back to all those nights I sat in my bedroom at home as a teenager, listening to the same songs over and over, believing that I'd be saved by a white knight in a muscle car.

Is a dream a lie if it don't come true? I've asked myself this question many times over the years. Dreams are not lies if they don't come true. Dreams evolve. Dreams change. People change, finding new priorities. Perhpas the narrator of that song, "The River," was unhappy that he got his girlfriend pregnant and had to get married, so he spent his life with the obligations of family holding him back. But, yet he still had those summers down at the river, when life seemed endless and perfect. Maybe he's living in those memories instead of counting his blessings. Maybe to his way of thinking--living in the past--his old dreams ARE lies because they didn't come true.

I also always wondered what happened to Mary and the narrator of "Thunder Road." She gets in the car and they drive off to find their place in the sun. But, where is that place? What do they do when they get there? Because wherever you go, there you are. So he's got wheels and the ability to leave the old life behind, but what kind of life replaces it?

I guess, at least in the song, it doesn't matter. The car is hope.

They have hope, together. Anything is possible.

Anything...

...I sometimes forget that.