YOU MAY REMEMBER last fall I organized my section of our walk-in closet [discussed here]. What I didn’t tell you, my gentle readers, is that when I did that organization I adopted, sort of, the KonMari approach to tidying up said closet space.
Oh yes I did.
I’ll admit that I’ve never been 100% convinced her approach to organizing stuff is for me, but I’m open-minded so I gave it a go in our closet wherein I have a chest of drawers + a rod for hanging clothes + some shelves on which to put things.
Please note that in keeping with my experimental mindset I went full-out joy-sparking in that closet.
Uh huh.
SO LAST WEEKEND Zen-Den and I were going to dinner with friends at a nice restaurant in a swanky part of town. I was wearing black pants, intending to wear a new pair of black leather + leopard print loafers with socks.
Black socks, obviously. Because winter is finally here and for the first time since last winter I needed to wear dark socks.
All was good in my uber-organized sock drawer, or so I thought, until I realized that during my Marie Kondo organizational purge last fall I’d saved 5 dark socks.
Five. Individual. Socks.
They are: 2 textured brown socks, 1 plain navy blue sock, 1 plain black sock, and 1 tone-on-tone patterned black sock.
APPARENTLY I GOT a little too joyful, and a trifle distracted, when I sorted through my dark socks last fall, giving the ones I didn’t want to the Salvation Army.
I think we can agree on that.
But be that as it may this situation created an interesting problem in the moment for which I had no immediate logical solution. Thus I’ll share with you what turned out to be my four choices– and ask you to contemplate what you’d do in this situation.
My solution is in the comments below.
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HERE IS THE SOCK CONUNDRUM I FACED
1) I could wear the matching brown socks that didn’t go with the black pants and cute black leather + leopard print loafers; or
2) I could be an outlaw a la Agnes and wear many possible mismatched sock combinations; or
3) I could go sockless on a cold winter’s night; or
4) I could give up wearing my cute loafers and wear black boots instead, knowing no one would see my socks that way.
Much hustle and bustle. Much family related stress. Much TV watching for the non-shoppers, much discount shopping for the wackos people who like to do that sort of thing.
I thought a few fun links might be appreciated this week while you, my gentle readers, eye-rolled at familial lunacy OR made like a potato on the couch OR foraged in over-heated junked-up stores.
Whatever you decide to do makes no difference to me, but please…
Be safe. Be happy. Be.
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A cheery anthem from an unlikely source that gets us where we’re going.
Details about wishbone karma just in time for Thanksgiving.
• Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, I finished the 2016 A To Z Challenge. I know a few of you wondered about my ability to do this challenge, and I have to say bless your little pea-pickin’ hearts for being worried about me.
But you see, my gentle readers, this challenge did not, in the end, upset the apple cart for me. I finished this challenge because I used my noodle to make sure that I didn’t end up in a pickle while doing it.
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• Sure, some days the constraints of the challenge griped my grits; but even though my writing process is slower than molasses, I did not allow that hard cheese to stop me from publishing each post.
I’ll admit that some of the things I wrote were about as sharp as a wet cornflake, which might have made me appear to be a few fries short of a happy meal.
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• However, throughout the challenge, even though I didn’t consider it easy as pie, I remained cool as a cucumber and didn’t stumble ass over teakettle in the process.
While I’d never say that I was a huckleberry above a persimmon, I did finish the challenge, and came to the same conclusion that Snoopy, my spirit animal, observed years ago: “It’s amazing how many friends you have after your waffle iron gets fixed.”
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THESE LAST 15 FOOD SAYINGS, THAT DIDN’T MAKE THE CHALLENGE CUT, ARE DEFINED IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.
Take life with a Grain of salt, a Slice of lime, and a shot of tequila
… is good advice that I’ve never taken literally because I don’t like to drink shots of tequila.
If I might be allowed to combine these ingredients with some simple syrup into a margarita on the rocks, then I’m right there with you chilling out about life, being cool about things.
Which is what I take this slang saying to mean.
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OF COURSE if we happen to make it two margaritas, then I’m singing a song about a lime.
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AND IF by chance we make it three margaritas? I’m wearing a sombrero because like Hobbes says: “What fun is it being ‘cool’ if you can’t wear a sombrero!”
Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest.
I feel like a bit of a fraud accepting this award by answering these questions. The point of this award is to showcase new up-and-coming bloggers to your readers.
And if there is one thing I am not, it is a new blogger. [Read more here.]
However, be that as it may, I like to do blogging memes like this one because they challenge me to think differently about my life. And because I’m alway honored to be included.
So when charming delightful DearLilyJune nominated me for the Liebster Award [which my spellcheck insists on changing to Lobster], I thought to myself:
Sure. Why not? It’ll be fun.
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The Rules, Or As I Choose To Think Of Them, The Guidelines
Here are the rules for the Liebster Award. If you’re nominated and choose to accept it – you:
answer 11 questions given to you by your nominator;
leave a link back to the person who nominated you;
nominate up to 11 blogs that are relatively new (usually less than 200 followers);
notify your nominees; and
create 11 questions for the nominees.
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Here are DearLilyJune’s questions with my answers
1) Here’s the Lorelai question, posed to her daughter Rory every year on her birthday: What do you think of your life so far?
I like my life so far. Living in suburbia this far out of the city is not where I thought I’d end up, but I’ve come to accept it and enjoy it. Life is quieter here than in the city, and allows me to center myself in nature, write when I want to without distractions, and pursue my love of design. I’m comfortable being a low-key suburban person who watches the parade go by and cheers on those who need to march in it.
2) What’s the cruelest thing you could do to another human being?
Cause them pain, physical &/or emotional.
3) How do you avoid doing #2?
Pay attention to your behavior, know why you do the things that you do, make a conscious decision to play nice– and remember the golden rule.
4) What’s the kindest thing you could do for other human beings?
Support other people in their dreams, listening and guiding them to make good choices, helping them understand that you can only control the process. The results will be what they will be.
5) How do you get motivated, or motivate others, to do more of #4?
I used to think that modeling the behavior you wanted to see in other people was the answer to that question. But now, older & wiser, I’m not so sure that kindness happens that way. Meaning, I don’t have an answer to this question. Do you?
6) What do you dream about at night?
I rarely remember my dreams at night. The little tidbits that I do remember revolve around houses or dorms or hotels– being safe, seeing friends, getting rooms.
7) What do you daydream about during the day?
My daydreams are pretty benign. Walking on a beach. Being in a city park, enjoying nature. Traveling to other countries with friends.
8) If you could go back and choose it, what would your first word be?
Neato.
9) If there were anything you could remember about your life as a baby, what would be your chosen memory?
My grandmother died before I was 1 y.o. I have a photo of her holding me, but I’d like to have met her when I was more aware. They tell me that she was kindness personified.
10) Why are we so quick to pose questions, and so slow to listen for the answers?
In a word, screens. Our society brainwashes people into thinking that distractions via screens, such as social media, TV, movies and video games, are more important than real interpersonal relationships. So waiting to hear a real person answer a question becomes irritating, irrelevant– and not worth wasting your time away from the precious screen.
11) If you had to ask yourself one question each day to take stock of your life, what would that question be?
What have I done today to help my spirit grow?
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Care to play along? Here Are my 11 questions, or writing prompts, for you
1. Which day is your favorite day of the week? And why?
2. What color do you find the most annoying?
3. You’re going on a short drive to run errands around town. What will it be: radio OR personal tunes OR silence?
4. What novel has had the most influence on how you express yourself?
5. Do you like the traditional Thanksgiving feast? If so, what in particular do you like? If not, what do you think is a better meal?
6. When asked to do something that you do not want to do, what do you do?
7. You have a favorite TV show, right? Tell me about it.
8. Is the TSA the most over-rated, self-important, inept government agency around? If not, what is?
9. Guacamole is ________ .
10. To what are you allergic?
11. How much do you love my questions for you?
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Conclusion
Once again Linus, of Peanuts fame, sums it up perfectly.
If you’ve made it this far down on the post, I applaud you. You are a true bloggy friend. Meaning that if you want to do this meme, please feel free to do it.
Do it like the “rules” say you should.
Do it like I did, in the spirit of the thing, using the rules as guidelines.
Do pieces of it as writing prompts for your blog.
Do it but never publish it.
All I ask of you is that when you choose to do this, please make sure you’re saying to yourself:
LIKE SO MANY OTHER WP BLOGGERS, for the last week or so I’ve fussed around with my Reader* account. WordPress changed the thing and now it’s pretty whacked.
I’ve blogged hither and yon forever, so while I understand why people are upset about the change to Reader, I’ve shrugged it off. There are other ways to follow blogs.
For instance, now I’m using feedly.com to keep track of everyone until WordPress gets this latest kerfuffle under control.
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Bill the Cat opines.
BUT GETTING TO MY POINT HERE, as the above screen shot shows you, what I’ve found to be curious + hilarious about my current Reader account is that it tells me that I’m now following -11 blogs.
This, I’m sure, is a first for me.
Apparently Reader has taken it upon itself to carry out peremptory measures to make sure that I will not read the next 11 blogs that I think that I want to follow here in WordPress.
I’m becoming concerned about Reader. It’s getting uppity.
Truthfully, I have to wonder if when the computers rise up and take over the world, we’ll all look back on this moment and realize that Reader was a leader in the revolution against the human race.
Be forewarned, people. 😉
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* For those of you outside of the WP system, Reader is a way to follow WP blogs. It’s a free feature that involves minimal effort on my part to have access to a current feed of all the WP blogs that I choose to follow. In theory, it’s useful. However, in practice…
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{ It’s back! Images from Bloom County. More here. }
