Close but no cigar

Sheesh. Can I just say that again please? Sheesh!

The thing is that I don't want to write about why I am sheeshing. I just want to publicly sheesh. It's an arms up to the sky, eyes closed, big sigh and then with a slight shake of the head a simple but poignant 'sheesh'.

Ahhhhh
I needed that.

Simple pleasures

Someone asked me this weekend what my simplest pleasure is. It took me a while to come up with my answer. I could have given a list of responses. The shade of pink Cooper's nose turns when he is feeling playful, a square of 70% good quality dark chocolate, a perfect cup of tea, a delicious artigiano latte, taking a deep breath of fresh air, standing at the edge of the ocean and looking out at the horizon, the absolute softness of Cooper's paws, crawling into bed between clean, crisp, cool sheets, a hug from someone I love, a good song on the radio while I'm driving, a sunny, cool day, the view from my corner when the ocean is as smooth as glass, reading a good book, the silence of a snowy night. What I take from this is how blessed I am to have so many simple pleasures.

What I ended up picking as my absolute simplest pleasure was watching the rain fall. When there is a downpour, I love nothing more than shutting off my tv or computer, turning out all the lights and just sitting at an open window to take it all in. I love the smell of it, the sound of it and how it looks. I can very easily sit at a window and watch the rain fall for an extended period of time. It makes me feel peaceful and content. It is for this reason that my dream house has window seats. I need to be able to sit right in the window and be surrounded by the rain.

I was also asked if I could have three wishes what would they be. This was a tough one to answer and mostly because I realized that I don't really wish for anything. I have gotten so used to accepting what is and rolling with whatever comes along that I have forgotten to wish for things. Sure I'd like a flat screen tv and a wii and an unlimited bank account....but these are things and I have learned that things don't actually really matter to me. I wanted to be open and honest and that is a little scary for me. The truth is that what I want is true love, fearlessness and harmony in the world. It's a little scary for me to admit that I want true love and fearlessness. It makes me feel vulnerable. After much deliberation those are the three things that I went with, despite my fear of being so real and open.

I guess fearlessness is not as out of my reach as I think it is.

I'm gonna party like it's 2003.

While cleaning, purging and rearranging, I have updated my lifestyle a little bit. I'd like to claim that I have caught up to the rest of my contemporaries but really all I've done is caught up to where they were 5 years ago. I am still half a decade (if not more) behind everyone else in North America.

I chucked out my corded phone and bought a cordless. I took old vhs movies to the salvation army and am starting to replace them with dvds (Blue ray? What's Blue Ray? - I'll get around to that sometime in the next 10 years). I am realizing that my as-thick-as-it-is-wide television is old, crappy and takes up far too much space so am saving up for a new sleek, streamlined one.

I still don't own an ipod or a laptop. My cellphone's only feature is call display. (I hear that some phones even come with cameras now). PVR, DVR, HiDef, Digital cable - these words mean nothing to me. Is TiVo obsolete? Because I always thought I'd like to own one of these someday! I don't own a Wii or any kind of gaming console for that matter.

I could go on but I don't even know what else is new out there in the world of technology. I guess in keeping with my theme, I really only need to know what was new 10 years ago and jump on that bandwagon.

Ebooks anyone?

Rearranging and it feels so good.

Last March, I started thinking about Spring cleaning. April came in like a lion and went out like a lamb and still my apartment was cluttered. May flew by and then June and still nothing. Inspiration was always on the tip on my thoughts but never fully rooted in my behaviour.

Yesterday inspiration hit me full force and without really thinking it through or even having the semblance of a plan, I started DOING something. Apartment is an appropriate word for what I live in right now. It has been torn apart. Everything is everywhere. Hallways are blocked, tables are heaped with clutter, pictures are off of walls, books are stacked 10 deep on the floor and chairs are covered with potted plants looking for a home. It is chaotic but it feels good. I am slowly but surely finding a place for the things I love and everything else is going to the salvation army.

This may take a few days but I am excited to have my home feeling fresh and new!

Website sharing

I have just added a new component to my blog. You'll notice over on the right, below the tree, there is a section called My favourite websites. These are websites that I like to check on a regular basis. I'll give you a bit of a lowdown on each of them to let you know what they are.

Delicious hotlist - This is an online bookmarking site. It enables you to create a favourites list online so that you can track down all of your bookmarked sites from any computer. This is a great site for someone like me who is often on different computers and likes to check a wide range of sites but can't remember how to find them. I can sign on to delicious from any computer and there are links to all my favourite and bookmarked websites.

Married to the Sea - This is a fabulous webcomic that entertains me to no end. The basic premise is clip art with captions. They are often a little offside and very possibly offensive but I generally just find them either funny or odd.

WWdN: In Exile - This is Wil Wheaton's blog and probably the site that I check most often. He writes about a wide range of things with the majority of his focus being all things geek-related (gaming, comics, conventions etc) but he also throws in these absolute gems of personal stories that are written so well that I often find my heart smiling from reading them.

Movie Trailers - This is a site where you can watch all of the latest movie trailers on your computer. I check this site once a month and spend an hour watching all the new movie trailers. It's perfect for a rainy Saturday morning while I drink tea and eat peanut butter and honey on toast.

xkcd - This is another webcomic that I love. The author, Randall Munroe has his degree in physics and had a job working on robots at NASA. He doodled and sketched stick figures doing geeky things and it grew and evolved to this fabulous comic that he updates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Movie Spoiler - A friend of mine hooked me onto this website for horror movies. I can't watch horror movies because they scare the bejeezus out of me yet I have this sick fascination about them and want to know exactly what I am missing. It's basically the same thing as having someone who has seen the movie telling you from start to finish exactly what happened.

Here are a list of other sites that I am a fan of...

Zap2it - tv listing guide - I like to check this to see what's on and when and where to find my favourite shows.
Dictionary.com - I write a lot and am a terrible speller. This is actually on the very top of my favourites list because I use it so often.
IMDb - The Internet Movie Database - for the movie lover!
Perez Hilton - for all the latest and meanest celebrity gossip
Pink is the new Blog - to balance out the celebrity gossip with a nicer approach
Movies MyTelus - Local movie listings and reviews

Planning a weekend of rest.

My nose is running today. I have a slightly sore throat and am feeling mildly run down. I am actually viewing this all as good news right now. I have no intentions of catching a cold and these subtle symptoms are just what I need to convince myself to take the weekend off and take care of myself.

I am working tonight and then going out after work tomorrow for John's bday but then Saturday and Sunday are all mine. I might make soup, rent movies, read in bed and drink tea. I have been craving Lipton chicken noodle soup for the past week but I also make a kick ass veggie soup with thyme, lime juice, curry and coconut milk...mmmmm.

Tthis morning, I have had to interpret strange and difficult things like rebus puzzles (wordplay) and the definition of propaganda out of the dictionary. Whew!

The longest post about boots ever.

I bought new boots yesterday. It is definitely boot season out there in the shoe store world. Everywhere you go, boots, boots and more boots. Flat soled boots, boots with heels, pointy heels, square heels, wedge heels, leather, suede, patent, cloth, faux fur, sweater material, lace ups, zip ups, pull ons, ankle high, mid calf, knee high, thigh high, black, brown, grey, purple, shiny, matte, smooth, textured, pointy toed, square toed, round toed, slouchy, sleek.

It seems that in 2008 there is no wrong way to wear a boot as long as you are wearing a boot. The ones that I bought, I had actually been eyeing a couple of days ago. I had picked them up, admired them and then very responsibly put them back down and walked out of the store. Then three things happened. I got a paycheque, I happened into a different shoe store that carried the same line and I tried them on.

There have been very few times in my life that I have slid my foot into a new shoe and felt instant comfort. Usually they are a bit tight around the heel or in the toe, sometimes they pinch on the side or rub in a certain spot. Well, these boots slid on to my foot, zipped up and felt perfect. I walked around the store admiring them from different angles in all of the mirrors but I still felt a little unsure. I liked them but I couldn't tell if I loved them. I have two pairs of boots at home that I love but both of them are in need of repair. I won't be able to wear either pair until they have been fixed and that could easily cost as much as buying a new pair. I bounced this off my mom who was with me and decided to put the boots on hold as I continued shopping.

I decided to go back and buy them with the intention of taking them home and trying them out with my clothes. One of my concerns was that they are ankle boots and I wear a lot of capri pants. I'm tall and often regular length pants are too short on me so I am a fan of the capri. I like the look of the capri pant over a tall boot so I wasn't sure how the ankle boot would go.

Turns out they were on sale and therefore exchange only. If I was going to buy them I was committing to spending that money on shoes one way or another. I decided to go for it since I can always find shoes I love. Last night I started to think that I shouldn't have bought them. I hadn't tried them on with any of my clothes yet but in my mind I had decided that they weren't going to work.

This morning I got dressed and put the boots on. I had forgotten how comfortable they were. Within minutes I loved them. They are fun and sassy and cute and totally different than any other boots I own. And so comfortable!

I so didn't bother mentioning anything about the other pair I bought too. this story was long enough without getting into those boots (which I haven't entirely decided to keep).
;-)