Goals 2011/2012 Month 1 (of 9)

Goals 2011/2012

Month one down and eight to go. I walked into this entry thinking I'd done a sucky job this past month, but actually I feel good about what I did accomplish and confident that I can get back on track with what I didn't. We should keep lists not to punish ourselves but help us keep direction in a chaotic landscape.

Future Guests?

Goals 2011/2012

Getting back to the roots of this blog, I'm setting up hopefully-doable goals for the next nine months.Year 30 did not start out smoothly and while I'm over the initial drop kick, my feelings about where I should put my energies (or you know, goals) is shifting. So this list may look different in not too long. But a girl needs to start somewhere.

Learning Make-Believe Truths

I brought some work to the local Starbucks this afternoon and the shop is made for group sitting. About half the available seating is made up of long, narrow tables. They work great for Mom groups and police officer get togethers but they are a little weird for strangers perched next to one another. Today I was seated just kitty corner to a 7(?) year old girl and her grandmother. The young girl had as a snack a wedge of the blueberry coffee cake. And I couldn't help but notice how she ate it. Loudly. With open mouth smacks while talking. Out of the corner of my eye I could almost feel the fistful of cake go in and then half of it falling back out again.

Now I am not perfect when it comes to eating food and talking. Within the last half an hour I have proven myself quiet inept in such food/talking logistics but it got me thinking about the complexities of dealing with children. As a stranger, I kept waiting for her grandmother to tell her gently that it was, well, really gross to eat like that. (More like, "It isn't polite to eat with your mouth open.") They were both clearly well groomed women. This young girl is going to join a sorority some day and be part of Young Business Leaders of America. Wouldn't she just figure it out on her own? Or is it someone's responsibility to tell a child when they are or aren't fitting into the society's modes of acceptable? Or should parents just let their kids grow up without constraining them to all these socially-structured rules?

Glitter

Portraits of Collections Past Present

Hey remember when this as half photo blog half thought rambles?! Photos are back! (But only kind of :)

Importance of Sleep

Z surprised me with a weekend in San Fran for my birthday. We emerged from the plane in Oakland and all the Oregonians let out a gasp at the 65 degrees and sunshine. Z and I actually had to buy sunscreen day II so that we wouldn't come back lobster style.

Part of his unofficial itinerary was a Planning Morning where I would hang out in the hotel room journal in hand and Figure Shit Out. (While he got champagne and bread for brunch.) I no longer do New Years resolutions. Not really. Any major resolutioning I do happens mid to late Februaries. This gets me out of the New Years malaise but throws me double into the birthday malaise. And this one could be a lot of malaise. This year it's 30.

Sitting down with a journal and 30 years to come to terms with wasn't a historical re-visitation. It was more of a lesson in perspective. Every day we are breathing we are learning more about ourselves. Whether or not we recognize it and log it is a totally separate issue but every day we bump into good and we bump into bad and we react emotionally to those experiences.