I Think I Can, I Think I Can

My friend recently read The Lost Symbol which I blogged about previously when I was on a kick about book reviews. She was quite taken with the idea of positive thought and the power of group thought that was presented in the book. So she decided every day at 1:00 PM she would picture her mom, sister and herself each with one million dollars in the bank. Her sister and he mom were supposed to do the same thing in order to generate the group thought idea. When she told me about the idea I decided I wanted in. After all I’m always up for trying something new and who wouldn’t want a million bucks!

I set a reminder on my phone and every day at 1:00 PM I think of my friend and her family and myself each with $1,000,000 in the bank. I mostly picture my friend and I skating down the trail with no stress or worries since we have enough money to live comfortably. I really enjoy the feeling when I take those few minutes out every day to think about what it would be like having enough money that I don’t have to work. The feeling it gives me is almost worth the million dollars all by itself.

So far none of us has found our magical million dollars but the experience was worth it to me. I feel good at 1 pm everyday taking time out to picture a fun and stress free life. I also just enjoy knowing that someone else is thinking of me at that same time. I’ve decided if I ever have a boyfriend again I would like to have a reminder time where we think about each other. That just sounds so romantic to me and like something out of a movie.

Cat “Show Me The Money” Cathy

Life Is Difficult

From my title you may expect this to be very negative blog but it’s not. My latest new year’s challenge was to try Buddhism. One of the major principles of Buddhism is that life is difficult but you can still be content or dare I say happy even when there are bad things going on in your life.

To do this challenge I checked out two books from the library. One was very basic and good for a beginner such as myself. The other was right from the Dalai Lama and was just a wee bit too intense for me. I'll spare you any more details on Buddhism but I recommend reading your own book sometime if you are interested in some enlightenment.

The first thing I had to learn about being a Buddhist is how to spell it. I kept leaving the ‘h’ out of Budda, Buddist, Budissim. Thankfully my friend told me this before I wrote this blog. I told him I guess I wasn’t a very good Cristian either. To which he explained maybe Towist would work best for me.

After reading my two books I went to a Buddhist temple with a friend who already practices Buddhism. Unfortunately the service is in Chinese so I probably wouldn’t have gotten much from it. Just sitting in the temple was a relaxing experience though. And the temple offers an English speaking discussion group so we attended that. I found this class to be very rewarding and informative. It was much different from the engineering classes I'm used to. After class there was a free vegetarian pot luck which was a nice bonus. I ate so much I had my own little Buddha belly. I also attended a tea ceremony. Everyone at the temple was so nice and seemed so happy. It was a good experience and I even made a few new friends.

I like Buddhism and would like to learn more. Unfortunately with limited free time and many other resolution challenges, I’m not sure how much more I will pursue of this.

Cat “Buddha Belly” Cathy

Older Women Role Models

I used to worry that getting old would stink since I wouldn’t be able to mountain bike, jet ski, do aerial silk or other cool sports that have not yet even been invented. Now after seeing a video of an 80-something woman who still competes in track and field and another woman around 91 years old who still runs I realize I will be able to pursue my sports for many more years.

These ladies are great role models and have really given me hope. I don’t recall having these role models when I was younger. In fact I remember being in my teens and wanting a dirt bike after my parents sold the family one. I figured by the time I got out of college and could afford one I would be too old and not into that kind of stuff any more. Since I had no role models of women who did anything active or fun like that I thought some day I would magically wake up and become a ‘woman’ and not like those crazy sporty things. Thankfully this never happened. It’s been many years since college graduation and I still like dirt biking and still want to buy one!

Sure there will come a time when I can’t do my sports quite as aggressively but it will still be fun to be out jet skiing when I’m in my 60’s and beyond. I’ve already enjoyed jet skiing for the past 23 years but knowing I have at least another 23 years to enjoy it is definitely good. Who knows, perhaps someday they will do a story on me?

Cat “What’s My Age Again? “Cathy

Up Up and Away

I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately. Most of this was due to my illness and injury which has made it hard to do much else. But some of it was due to my new Netflix membership which provided movies direct and immediately to my computer making for a very easy viewing habit. Most of the movies seemed to blend together and I hardly remembered them once they were over. Part of this was because only older movies and not so well known ones were available for immediate download. Still I managed to find a few that had me thinking days after watching so I wanted to share those with you here.

-Food, Inc. is a must see in my humble opinion. I want to be healthy and live my life to the fullest and seeing what is done to our food supply all in the name of making more money was really sad to me. But it also showed that we can make a difference by how we spend our money. I’ve always shopped Whole Foods and bought organic and free range meat whenever I could. I would rather pay more for food and be healthy. Plus if you add the additional costs from doctor bills (not to mention feeling bad) it’s probably actually cheaper (and feels better) to eat well.

-Timer doesn’t rank as high as my other two recommendations but I still enjoyed this movie. It’s set in a world where most people get a timer put on their wrist that counts down until the day they meet their soul mate. As a single person who hasn’t had much luck with the whole soul mate thing I found the concept interesting. How would I have felt if I knew my soul mate wouldn’t come around until my 40’s? How would this have affected my choices in careers, hobbies and in dating?

-Up was the best movie I watched. I was really just expecting something silly but it had me crying a few minutes into the movie. I couldn’t believe I was crying from a cartoon. Up was about love, life and how it goes by so fast. It was also about adventures which have always been important to me. But the movie also showed that it’s the little things that matter too like just spending time with someone you care about. And then there was the whole ‘squirrel’ thing which is now a joke I use whenever I get distracted. I’ll let you see the movie to see what I’m talking about there.

In the end I felt I was watching too many movies especially older ones I’d already seen so I canceled my membership. There’s a big world out there and while movies are a nice distraction I really want to experience real life most of the time.

Cat “Pass the Popcorn” Cathy

Resolution Bowl Challenge #2 – Artsy Week

The Challenge:
My second challenge of the year was to do some artsy stuff. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but the last artsy thing I did (besides making balloon dresses) was an art class in High School. I remember the teacher was odd and I was ignored and ridiculed since I didn’t have any natural talent. Well enough of my sad story but it does help explain why I stuck with sports and math which were my strong points.

The Skinny:
As I blogged about before, I was going to try for lots of free art tickets from an event called ArtsFest. So I was excited as I sat at my computer waiting for 10 a.m. to roll around so I could register. I quickly realized this was not going to be an easy task. My computer kept timing out and when I did get to an event it was already full. Apparently I wasn’t the only one taking advantage of the free stuff. I almost gave up but finally I managed to score 4 free ballet tickets and also 4 free pottery class tickets. I wonder if it is even appropriate to use ‘score’ in reference to ballet…it doesn’t sound sophisticated enough.

Results:
I attended the pottery class with two girlfriends. We were given a partially made tea pot and had to add a handle and spout. (For some reason this reminded me of a song). We then painted and decorated the pots. It was fun to be creative, get my hands dirty and use the much underused side of my brain. It was also fun girl time. We were having so much fun that we went to lunch at a German Restaurant and walked around a farmer’s market. My artsy time was off to a great start.

That night I went to Battle of the Sexes Ballet with 3 friends including one of my rollerblade friends. I got all dressed up in my LBD for the event. As someone who can only walk these days due to injury I was very impressed with the athleticism and grace of the dancers. But I did have to joke around with my friends by saying “They’re good but can they rollerblade”. They put on a cute and entertaining show. I just wish I was seated closer since things were a little blurry from my nosebleed seats. But that’s what you get for free I guess.

Decision Time:
Will I add more pottery, ballet or other artsy stuff in my life? Perhaps. My friends and I discussed taking a pottery class where you can actually use the wheel and start from scratch. I think it would be fun but that would require time in my already booked schedule. Though, if I was going to do it, now would be a great time since I’m still injured and sick and limited in what I can do anyway.

The ballet is a bit easier of a decision. I did enjoy the night and being exposed to something different since this was my first ballet ever. But I wasn’t that comfortable being all dressed up and I never like to just sit around and watch other people have fun. It’s just not my thing. I’m more of a doer than a watcher I guess. I would rather take a ballet class even though I know I would be horrible than watch other people doing an awesome job.

I’m glad I exposed myself to these new things and kept an open mind. Life has many wonderful things to offer and I want to experience them all!

Cat “Short and Stout” Cathy

Girls Who Play With Goats

I know based on one of my last blogs this should be titled Women who Play with Goats but it just didn’t sound as good. Anyway, living in Orlando I consider myself a ‘city girl’. I would guess people in New York City would laugh at me for this but still much of my time in spent around asphalt, parking garages, big buildings and small crowded parks.

So imagine my surprise when I visited a friend who lives outside the big metropolis of Orlando and actually owns goats. I was so excited I went to take some pictures from outside the fence since I wasn’t sure how menacing these creatures were. My friend laughed, opened the gate and handed me some food and said it was like candy to them. Judging from their reaction I think it was more like crack to them. But it was fun feeding them out of my hand and petting and holding them. It was so exciting to be in such a different setting from what I’m used to. I guess some people go to petting zoos but this was a first for me and I really enjoyed it. The only sad part is these cute little guys are going to end up on someone’s dinner plate soon. But at least they had a good ‘open range’ life up to that point I guess.

The beautiful view of the river, the goats and the open space made me question my city dwelling life. But then I was reminded of the effort to raise goats, the hour commute it would take to get to work from there and the minimum 15 minute drive to get anywhere and I wasn’t as questioning. Like many things in life it’s just a trade off and for now I can enjoy some country time on the weekends with the convenience of everything in walking distance during the week.


Cat “Curry anyone” Cathy

Resolution Bowl Challenge #2: Artsy Week

The best laid schemes of mice, men and Catastrophe Cathy often go awry. This was supposed to be my artsy week. It sounded easy enough. I had a whole list of fun art activity. Most of it was hands on since I’m more of a doer than a watcher but I also had my eye on a few plays to watch. It was adding up to be an expensive challenge but ohwell what’s money for anyway if not to spend…right? Then my friend told me about Arts Fest which is essentially 10 days of free art events which starts in just two short weeks. It was a no brainer decision to wait two weeks and save around $200. So Artsy week has been somewhat delayed/extended.

I debated picking another activity for the next two weeks but between physical therapy appointments for my injury, a long overdue hair appointment, a short weekend vacation and needing brakes for my car all in addition to my normally hectic schedule, I’ve decided to change the rules of my game a bit. Instead of picking a new activity every two weeks I will just pick the new activity whenever I can based on time available. So I may make one challenge last a few weeks and another a month or so. It’s all part of being flexible.

I’ve looked at everything including gardening classes, chocolate decorating, voice lessons and balloon art. But I’ve decided on the three P’s - a play, painting and pottery for my artsy activities.

Cat “Picasso” Cathy