Friday, December 24, 2010

The Magical Bowl of Life Changing Proportions


2010 is almost over so it's time to make my New Year's resolutions. I like to joke about picking a resolution like 'don't smoke crack'. Since I never have done that (and never would) it helps me start my year off on a positive note. Seriously, I usually pick an item or two about myself that I would like to work on throughout the year but I don't ever seem to follow through or even remember what the resolutions were by the time March rolls around.

This year a friend of mine gave me an idea that I think will be fun, interesting, challenging and help me to learn more about myself and the world around me. I made a list of 26 different activities and put each item on a slip of paper in a bowl. Every other week I will pull a new item out of the 'magical bowl'. I will have one week to prep for the activity and one week that I will do the activity. These activities are just ways for me to mix it up and not stay in a routine. They range from cooking at home each night to being goth for a week...whatever that means.

Each week I will blog about my experiences with the item I chose and what it taught me. This could be expensive and time consuming since I will still want to do all my normal activities but it should be interesting too.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you take some time to come up with your own plan to make the new year fun, growing and memorable.

Cat "Should Old Acquaintence Be Forgot" Cathy

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Happy Happy Joy Joy


During this holiday season it seemed appropriate to do a blog about Joy. There are many things that bring me joy. One of my big sources of joy is a walk around the lake. It inspires and refreshes me. There is something about being outdoors, feeling the sun and wind on my skin and just relaxing and watching the birds that puts me in my happy place. It inspires me to do great things…or sometimes to do nothing at all…but it is still inspirational to me.

I think it is very important to know yourself and what you need to be joyous. Some days I need a lot of social contact so I go out to a big event and say hi to all my acquaintances. Other days I just want to be alone and reflective about where I am in my life. And still other days I just want to accomplish some errands so I don’t feel overwhelmed. For me it is all about understanding how I am feeling at that moment and making my activities fit instead of just doing the same thing every week.

I hope you take the time to enjoy each day and relish in your sources of joy. Sometimes even seemingly mundane activities can actually be a great source of joy and inner peace. It really just depends on how you look at it and your mood.

Cat “Feeling Joyous at Christmas Time” Cathy

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Don’t Hate the Driver Hate The Traffic



There is one point of my daily commute that I totally dread. I have to merge into bumper to bumper traffic that is already going 40 mph. I’ve learned if you stop you will be stuck there for hours and cause a major backup. So I always shove my little car into whatever sort of a spot I can find. I was feeling silly today so as I cut into the main traffic lane I said “Don’t hate the driver, hate the traffic”. I said this to myself but I still thought it was funny and chuckled a bit. My expression was a take off from “don’t hate the player, hate the game”. I absolute hate that expression but I thought mine was funny. So do you have a take off on this expression and if so how did it come about?

Cat “Don’t hate the Blog, hate the blogspot” Cathy

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Sailing…Takes Me Away


It’s been at least 10 minutes so I was overdue for a new hobby. My latest challenge is sailing classes. A girl friend of mine actually motivated me to take these classes and I’m very thankful to her for that. Usually I feel like I’m the one motivating so this was a nice change. I’ve gone out on catamarans (hobie cat type) with friends over the years and it’s a blast. Mostly I was just the ‘dead weight’ hanging over the side and I left the technical sailing stuff to the captain. So sailing always seemed easy to me. But as the captain I’ve discovered that there is a lot to learn and it will take a long time to master this hobby. I’m ok with that since I enjoy the challenge.

The class consisted of three days in a classroom and three mornings of sailing. I learned a lot including a new language. Ok not really, but everything in the boat has a name. The sail has like ten different names depending on which part you are talking about. Plus once you put a pulley in a boat it is called a block. A rope becomes a line. And don’t even get me started on the parts of the boat.

Our actual on water lessons were a bit stressful. The instructor was obviously a great sailor but not the best teacher IMHO. I can’t even tell you how many times we get ‘yelled’ at. She would ask “what should we do here?” I’d say ……tack? She would get angry so I’d say JIBE! Luckily there were often only two choices – head up or ease off, bow into the wind or stern into the wind, tiller toward the sail or tiller away from the sail. Unfortunately I was only right about 50% of the time which means I’m just an average guesser.

But I did learn some things and I hope to stick with it so I don’t forget. Only problem is trying to fit this hobby in with all the rest. It’s not easy but it will be fun!

Cat ‘Jibe Ho!’ Cathy

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Cougar or MILF?


Two new terms have recently emerged on the scene and unfortunately I am old enough to potentially be called either one. My friends and I were talking about which one is more offensive. Funny that we all agreed Cougar is more offensive. MILF while crude and including a curse word seems to just mean that a person is older and a mother and yet desirable. Cougar on the other hand with no curse words and a pretty animal seems to insinuate a woman who just dates much younger guys and has to chase them and support them. Somehow this just sounds more negative to me.

So what do you think? Which is more crude, rude and socially unacceptable? Which would you want to be called? I guess technically I couldn’t be called a MILF since I don’t have kids and hopefully I will never be called a Cougar since I try to avoid guys more than a few years younger than me.

Cat “Just All Around Cool Chick” Cathy