blog? what blog. (part 2)

Still catching up, but closer to getting current...
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For The Birds



This daylight savings time crap is for the birds. Actually, now that I really think about it...no. It is not even for the birds!! AT THE TIME I HAVE TO GET UP IN THE MORNING, THE BIRDS ARE STILL SLEEPING.

Who had the hairbrained idea to bump up the changing of the clocks into March???
I am not. A. Happy. Camper. I am having to wake up in the dark. After dinner time isn't all wintery cozy like it still should be this time of year. And MyFavoriteKid and I are totally off track with the bedtime routine. It's like, whoops...all of the sudden it's 8pm. And it's driving me nuts.

Makes me want to move to Arizona or something.
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Speaking of Moving

That's a good portion of why I haven't been posting as much lately. I'm on a mission to move. I've started looking at neighborhoods and checking out school districts. I've even spent a day touring homes with a realtor.

I can't stay in the house that I'm currently in for too much longer.

First of all, there is all those lovely problems with my neighbor. It's been all quiet on the western front lately, but still. Who needs it.

The bigger problem about where I live now though, is the schools. MyFK is only in 4th grade. and the elementary school is pretty decent. The local middle school however, is riddled with alllll sorts of problems. The 7th and 8th graders are already peddling drugs and whatnot. The kids from the more crime infested areas are being bussed in, and sadly the teachers are not equipped to teach them a new way of life. If you think that is bad (and I do), then the local high school is completley out of the question. There have been shootings close by in broad daylight, and students have to pass through a metal detector to get into the school each morning.

Ummm...I don't think so.

I'm moving us to a nice, clean, quiet, suburban (ugh), neighborhood. One with top ranking schools an a low crime rate. Yay. And it's only about 25 minutes north of where I live now, so getting back into down here to teach dance classes and see TheMostImportantGuy shouldn't be too big of a deal.

My intention is to move over the summer, hence all of this purging of crap from TheShanty. I'd already started organizing anyhow...but the notion of moving has kicked me into high gear.

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More About Purging

So, I'm learning some very interesting things about myself as I get rid of stuff. Expect me to be blogging about all these insights ad nauseum,

The current phenomena I am examining is the "Waste Not, Want Not" thing.

Here's a fine example:
I bought some shampoo and conditioner a couple of months ago, washed my hair with it for a couple of weeks, and I really hated the way it made my hair feel. All flat and greasy feeling. Yuck. So I bought new shampoo. But what did I do with the stuff I didn't like? I put it under the bathroom counter. Why? Well, because it was almost a full bottle and I didn't want to waste it, and besides...what if I run out of the good stuff? Let just forget about the fact that the shit was so icky that I probably wouln't even wash the car with it, right?? (I mean, hellooooooooo). Save the shampoo!! I might just need to look and feel that way again, right??

Duh.

So I'm passing it along or throwing it out. Someone with a different hair texture mioght love the stuff.

But this whole not wanting to waste thing needs to change, because if I never ever intend on using the item or passing it along....it is still being wasted.

I've figured this out by reading the blog over at The Seven Things Project. I've learned several things by reading that blog, actually. Check it out.
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My Current Motto For Life

It's PBS membership drive season, and that has meant lots of shows with lectures. Hours upon hours about, travel, spiritual inspiration, and adding fiber to yours diet. You get the idea.

I kept running into Suze Orman's Women & Money show, so I gave it a watch one night. She had lots of things to say of course, but there was one message in there that has stuck with me like white on rice. Well, okay. I prefer brown rice. So, it stuck to me like brown on rice.

Anyhow, this particular portion of her schpeel had to do with fear, and where we get the courage to do things.

She was talking about how when we need to make a change, really the only thing that will make that change real, is an action. Not thinking about it. Not wanting it. Not wishing for it. But taking a decisive action towards it. She was talking about how scary that can be, and how what is needed in that moment is courage. But from where do you summon that?

Well, Suze goes on to say she has a little motto she uses for that. For those times when she knows that she really needs to do something but is "stuck" and would rather bury her head in the sand and wait it out to see if it fixes itself (yah, right)....she tells herself:

I am a warrior, and I will NOT turn my back on the battlefield.

I love that. I mean love it. I can use it on every single situation in my life that I am fearful of and hestitate in the face of.

I guess it helps that I already see myself as a warrior, otherwise it wouldn't work....it's the not turning my back on the battlefield bit that I needed the help with. And the mantra is helping. And I love it. It's my new war cry.

I was telling TheMostImportantGuy about this new amazing thing, and he got a big smile on his (instant messenger) face and said that it was very Xena. I've never seen a single Xena thing in my life, so I have no frame of reference for that.

The image that comes to mind for me is of Eowyn from Lord of The Rings. I could be here all day trying to find a screenshot of the exact moment in the film that I am thinking of, but this is as close as I can get to it, and IMDB wont let me save the photo to upload here, so you'll just have to click it.

Here's a few more of Eowyn to give you the general idea, though:







But the image that keeps coming to me most often is that one moment when she and Merry just charge full speed ahead into battle, and it's working for me.

Must go get me sword ;-)
I got things to do, man.
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That's a little bit more of what's been up for me the past few weeks.
But there's still more.
Ciao for now ;-)