Not sure why I feel the desire to post so many songs lately, but I do! Loving the Civil Wars' version of a Cohen classic.
Dance Me to the End of Love:
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Changes and gifts, simple and otherwise
As much as I talk about being a free spirit and "bebopping around", really, I much prefer change that I've chosen. So, for example, when I go to my co-workers house to help her pack up 8 years of time here, that won't be my favorite. It's a good reminder about the transient gift of relationships, about not taking for granted the short time you might have with someone and other cliché things of that nature.
I'd like to salute her--one of the main reasons I still work where I do. When I first started as one of 4 females in an almost-entirely male dominated workplace,the boys were shattering my illusions of control, respect, and how I saw myself and she grabbed me by the elbow and said, "Don't you EVER back down, or you'll be backing down the rest of your time here." So I wiped the tears off, tipped my chin up and showed those boys what I was made of, both the ones I worked with and for. She reminded me to work hard, be firm, be fair, and do it with a motive to help these boys succeed and make it in a world that could care less what their reasons for acting out are. I've since learned the difference between backing off and backing down and how to respect myself and the boys I'm helping. Another friend once reflected gratefully on her decision to be friends with people outside her age group. And I'm glad I did the same with my co-worker because I don't think I could've made it without her.
Other changes are not quite so hard to swallow. The new computer arrived, and I said a bittersweet goodbye to El Dinosaurio who started cooperatively at first, but parted bitterly, refusing to receive power and let me transfer the last of my music. I filled out my vaccination form, ordered more biodegradable cosmetics, discovered the glory of Savers when I was shopping for gardening clothes, and had a nice conversation with a Verizon rep on how to stop service on my cell while I'm out of the country. (If you've never chatted with them, they're pretty legit and you actually talk to normal people who are fairly quirky.)
Aaron Copeland, anyone?
I'd like to salute her--one of the main reasons I still work where I do. When I first started as one of 4 females in an almost-entirely male dominated workplace,the boys were shattering my illusions of control, respect, and how I saw myself and she grabbed me by the elbow and said, "Don't you EVER back down, or you'll be backing down the rest of your time here." So I wiped the tears off, tipped my chin up and showed those boys what I was made of, both the ones I worked with and for. She reminded me to work hard, be firm, be fair, and do it with a motive to help these boys succeed and make it in a world that could care less what their reasons for acting out are. I've since learned the difference between backing off and backing down and how to respect myself and the boys I'm helping. Another friend once reflected gratefully on her decision to be friends with people outside her age group. And I'm glad I did the same with my co-worker because I don't think I could've made it without her.
Other changes are not quite so hard to swallow. The new computer arrived, and I said a bittersweet goodbye to El Dinosaurio who started cooperatively at first, but parted bitterly, refusing to receive power and let me transfer the last of my music. I filled out my vaccination form, ordered more biodegradable cosmetics, discovered the glory of Savers when I was shopping for gardening clothes, and had a nice conversation with a Verizon rep on how to stop service on my cell while I'm out of the country. (If you've never chatted with them, they're pretty legit and you actually talk to normal people who are fairly quirky.)
Aaron Copeland, anyone?
Monday, July 4, 2011
6 Tips on Mowing the Lawn
I have decided to share some wisdom on lawnmowing that I have learned in my time.
1) Unless you spend about a million dollars, they're all cursed. And the million dollar ones are probably all cursed, too, I just don't have experiences with mowers of that price range.
2) Don't lie to yourself. You will be thwarted. You will be pwnd before the lawn gets mwnd. <--definitely invented that one.
3) While you are being pwnd, you may find a temporary high in exhibiting displays of rage--kicking the lawnmower, using words that require all symbols to type and that would cause your mother to throw you out of a moving vehicle if you said them in the car, etc. But it's really freaking the neighbors out, and besides, you need all that energy you're devoting to telling your lawn mower exactly where it can go and what painful surgeries you're going to perform on it. Why?
4) Because you need to spend precious moments of your summer not drinking tea, not swimming, not setting off fireworks, but pulling that goddamn starter cord. And that noise? It's not the motor trying to start. It's the mower laughing at your naive optimism in thinking it will fire up in fewer than 16 yanks. It is also making bets, telepathically, with other neighborhood lawnmowers on how long it takes before you are reduced to tears, begging the mower to just, please, just start, lavishing praise on all its lawnmowing glory, attempting to be one with the mower.
5) And stop talking to the mower. A few expletives here and there are understandable. But when you speak directly to your mower, saying, "You know, it is quite possible that I am beginning to hate you even more than the last mower," you will look up to find your neighbor no longer pretending to water his lawn, but staring at you with his mouth open because you are talking to a very inanimate object. It doesn't matter that the only reason you are talking to it is because it is currently inanimate.
6) There is only one option. You must set your jaw, and prepare to spend 2-3 times as long as you think will be necessary, and start and restart that infernal machine as many times as it takes to get the lawn mowed. Only consistent persistence will prevail.
Good luck.
1) Unless you spend about a million dollars, they're all cursed. And the million dollar ones are probably all cursed, too, I just don't have experiences with mowers of that price range.
2) Don't lie to yourself. You will be thwarted. You will be pwnd before the lawn gets mwnd. <--definitely invented that one.
3) While you are being pwnd, you may find a temporary high in exhibiting displays of rage--kicking the lawnmower, using words that require all symbols to type and that would cause your mother to throw you out of a moving vehicle if you said them in the car, etc. But it's really freaking the neighbors out, and besides, you need all that energy you're devoting to telling your lawn mower exactly where it can go and what painful surgeries you're going to perform on it. Why?
4) Because you need to spend precious moments of your summer not drinking tea, not swimming, not setting off fireworks, but pulling that goddamn starter cord. And that noise? It's not the motor trying to start. It's the mower laughing at your naive optimism in thinking it will fire up in fewer than 16 yanks. It is also making bets, telepathically, with other neighborhood lawnmowers on how long it takes before you are reduced to tears, begging the mower to just, please, just start, lavishing praise on all its lawnmowing glory, attempting to be one with the mower.
5) And stop talking to the mower. A few expletives here and there are understandable. But when you speak directly to your mower, saying, "You know, it is quite possible that I am beginning to hate you even more than the last mower," you will look up to find your neighbor no longer pretending to water his lawn, but staring at you with his mouth open because you are talking to a very inanimate object. It doesn't matter that the only reason you are talking to it is because it is currently inanimate.
6) There is only one option. You must set your jaw, and prepare to spend 2-3 times as long as you think will be necessary, and start and restart that infernal machine as many times as it takes to get the lawn mowed. Only consistent persistence will prevail.
Good luck.
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