Quotes + Sayings

Come Inside, Come Inside

/ Ally Bean / 13 Comments

“Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.  We’re so glad you could attend.”

~ Emerson, Lake & Palmer. “Karn Evil 9.” Brain Salad Surgery.

•  We awakened yesterday morning to snow.  We’d taken down our outside Christmas decorations over the weekend, so we were happy to see it.  It was the first snow of the season and as such, looked delightful.  Just a dusting that sparkled– and provided a unified color scheme for the outside.  A perfect conclusion to the holiday season.

•  Looking back on events I realize that this year during the holidays we got together with all sorts of different people.  We had a party here at the house that went okay.  [If we decide to make it an annual event, next year I’ll know better what to do: more beer & carbs/less wine & healthy.]  We met friends for breakfast, lunch &/or dinner at various restaurants all over the city.  We went to the Zoo & the Art Museum;  we shopped at outlet stores & a huge, unique, locally owned grocery store that specializes in foods from around the world.  In other words, we had some low-key, middle-aged, inexpensive fun.

•  We’re not ones to buy each other Christmas gifts per se.  Instead, in the month of December we tend to buy some things that we each have wanted during the year, but never got around to purchasing.  So our “gifts” this year were some Le Creuset coffee mugs in a variety of colors;  a new [“virtually indestructible”] Swiss Diamond skillet to replace our previous Swiss Diamond skillet that I destroyed;  and a Roku for our un-bedroom (aka the upstairs sitting room).

•  There’s really not much more to report from here.  I’m feeling rather mellow today.  No issues to discuss.  No events to explain.  No reason for me to keep babbling.  So I think that I’ll just say Happy New Year to everyone– and be on my merry way.

[Hello FTC!  Just a note to let you know that I haven’t received any sort of compensation for writing about these products.  But you knew that already, right?  I mean, have I ever been paid for anything I do here on this blog?  Heck no!  That’d be the day….]  

Speaking Of Archetypes

/ Ally Bean / 5 Comments

“If you can’t say something good about someone, come sit next to me.”

~ Alice Roosevelt Longworth

~ • ~

‘Tis the season of… meeting and socializing with lots of different, unique people.

So we’re sitting at home discussing where we’ve been and Zen-Den, who is not at all fluent in archetypes because he did not major in English in college, asks me:  What’s up with X?

I explain to him that she considers herself to be a Possibilitarian.  That it’s an archetype.

And he counters with: that’s the most ridiculous term I’ve ever heard– you mean, someone who doesn’t actually do anything, just talks about what is possible?

I tell him that’s the gist of it–  someone who focuses on aspirations.  Who thinks and talks about what might be.

A dreamer with a fancy vocabulary.

He nods in amazement.

Then Z-D, who doesn’t usually drink very much, asks me:  Do you suppose if I drank more alcoholic beverages more often I could call myself a Chillaxatarian?

I tell him that I’d refer to him as such.  And that he could definitely get X to refer to him as such.  And that by doing this he’d have his own, very special, archetype.

A goofball with a bottle of beer.

He nods his approval and then wanders off to the frig to get something more to drink.

And so, with that, a new archetype was born.  One that encompasses all that is relaxed and beer related.  One that you know is bound to be popular.

~ • ~

Hallelujah and pass the brewskis, there’s a Chillaxatarian in our midst!

Not So Smooth

/ Ally Bean / 10 Comments

“Man plans, God laughs.”

~ Yiddish proverb

~ ~ • ~ ~

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions anymore.  I gave up on trying to do that a long time ago.  Instead, I focus on one word for the year– attempting to make my one word happen in all that I do during the year.

[I adopted this idea years ago after reading this blog post by Christine Kane.]

So, this year I chose the word SMOOTH as my one word of the year.   SMOOTH.  As in: calm;  consistent;  without harshness;  having no rough edges.  Lovely word. Wonderful concept.

But here’s my problem, 2011 is three-fourths over and I’m not getting anywhere with my word of the year.  In fact, I think that I’m doing just about the complete opposite.  Things are getting rougher, more problematic, and less consistent as this year drags on.

I thought that in 2011 I’d have the inside of the house finally put back together after our years of remodeling and painting.  Hasn’t happened.

I thought that in 2011 our little backyard project [understatement of the year] would be finished in a timely fashion and that we’d be having fun out there by now.  Hasn’t happened.

I thought that in 2011 I’d get back into blogging and feel more connected to the world at large again.  Hasn’t happened.

Instead, I’ve experienced flux & difficult endings & weird people– lots of ’em.  This would not be my definition of SMOOTH.

Fortunately, I’m good at going with the flow and adapting as needed.  If I was uptight and took myself more seriously, I’d be in a heap of hurt right about now.  But I’m not and I don’t.

I do have to wonder, though.  If I say that for the rest of 2011 my one word is unSMOOTH, will God laugh and make my life SMOOTH?  ‘Cause if that’s the trick to getting what I want this year, I will be a contrarian and do that.  Just watch me.

unSMOOTH.  unSMOOTH.  unSMOOTH.   😉

Oh Well. Whatever.

/ Ally Bean / 10 Comments

[This is my second attempt to publish this post.  How appropriate that my week should end with me unable to get one simple post to show up on my blog.]

It’s Friday and I’ve not accomplished one thing that I set out to do this week.  Nary a one. There would have been a time when this would have made me very upset with myself. Surly, even.

But not any more.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”  (Bible.  King Jame Version.  Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Good advice.  I figure that as long as I’m accomplishing something positive each day– even if it’s not what I set out to do— I’m doing okay.  I trust the process more now than I used to, and I don’t confuse my self-worth with the results.

Not that I don’t like results.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m very fond of accomplishing things. It’s just that I’ve come to understand that I can control only so much of anything, everything– and the best that I can do is to make a go of what’s right in front of me.

“You adapt. You overcome. You improvise.”  (Heartbreak Ridge.  Clint Eastwood as Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway)

So that’s what I’ve done this week.  Spent more time online than I would have liked. Spent more time researching future projects than I wanted to. Spent more time goofing around in the kitchen and in the garden.  All the while not finishing that which I wanted to finish.  That which I’d planned on finishing this week.

Don’t know what it all means.  Don’t know that it matters.  This is just where I find myself on a Friday afternoon.  Nowhere near where I thought I’d be on Monday morning.

Again.