robin in my tree

I woke up this morning to find several robins perched on a tree in my backyard. Sitting peacefully in a tree. In the middle of the freezing cold, 30 mph wind, and heavy snowfall. How strange. Despite my efforts to tiptoe out into the backyard, so I could take a picture, they were frightened away. Only one remained on that tree.
I wonder, is spring is finally here?

fussy people and their over-priced vacations

I need to work on being more compassionate. I have that annoying, but extremely skilled, habit of pretending to listen intently when someone is talking. The thing is, I could care less about what they are actually saying. The other day, someone at work was going on and on about some Asian-American fusion restaurant in Hawaii. I would love to go to Hawaii someday, but until that day comes I refuse to listen to this person prattle on about how great their five-star dining experience was and how I "simply must go eat there". Yuck. How dare you give me your recommendations of expensive things to do, and outrageously over-priced resorts at which I should stay. Like I have $25,000 to blow on a Hawaii time-share!

That's another thing. Time-shares. What a ridiculous concept. You pay someone way too much money (usually somewhere between $5,000 and $25,000), to more often than not, go to the same vacation spot every year for the rest of your life. Yes, there are ways to "exchange" your chosen destination for another, but still. It is absurd.

baked goods, and fasting

I have been baking a lot in the last few months. Ever since we bought our house, with the beautiful kitchen that I would never have been able to afford had it not come with the house!
Yesterday morning, I got up early and made chocolate-chip cookies w/ pecans for a potluck at work. Everyone loved them! So congratulations to myself for learning how to bake. A little.

Today is Good Friday and there is a day long fast that our church organized, encouraging people to fore go food all day and use the desire for food to pray instead...and then end the day with a celebratory dinner at church (the food at these types of dinners is usually abundant and very tasty!) So, I signed up. I woke up this morning and thanked God for everything we have. Our beautiful little house, the kitchen I am so in love with, our affectionate and playful 60-lb beast of a dog. I prayed for people far away and suffering. I prayed for my family. I prayed for my co-workers. I prayed for myself.

The fast lasts another 11 hours.

And I am so hungry.

books, travel, and places far away

One of my favorite things to do is browse books on Amazon.com. Any books. It doesn't even matter if there isn't a particular book I am looking for. I catch myself thinking, sometimes in the middle of a meeting at work, "I wonder if that Michael Pollan book price has dropped.." (Amazon posts these cool alerts at the top of your Shopping Cart page that lets you know when something has increased or decreased in price). Or I'll have another thought - "I wonder if Jhumpa Lahiri's new book is available in paperback yet..." Needless to say, these kinds of wonderings can be highly distracting, and not at all supportive of getting any work done.

One of my other favorite things to do is look for travel deals, and build make-believe vacations on Travelocity.com. Yesterday, I built a trip for two to the Cayman Islands in mid-May, for approximately $1600, total (that's right, not per person, TOTAL). That includes the round-trip airfare, 5 nights at a 4-star hotel with its own beach, and transportation to and from the airport. We can pack swimsuits and paperback books, eat cheaply while there, and spend our pocket money (if we wish to) on sight-seeing and activities like swimming alongside exotic fish, or exploring underwater caves. How fun would that be? I want to go on this trip. But I can't. Well, at least not this year.

my wish for a garden

I want to have a garden this spring. With the horrible winter that we have experienced this year, it looks like "spring" is still weeks and weeks away. But, that hasn't stopped me from planning my little garden! I want the pleasure of growing and eating my own veggies! I want to experience running outside and grabbing a handful of some delicious leafy green spinach for dinner! It is going to be a small 6 by 6 foot garden, and in it I will grow spinach, okra, bell pepper, chili pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, parsley and basil. Maybe raspberries also. So what if I know nothing about gardening and have managed to kill every plant that I have ever owned? At least I am marching on, into the unknown. So what if I don't have the hours to spend tending to the garden, nurturing it and loving it? If I plant the seeds and water the earth, they will grow! People tend to complicate things that are simple and uncomplicated to begin with, so what is there to know? You dig up the earth, throw in the seeds, cover, water regularly, and wait patiently. Simple.

Ask me about my thriving garden in four to six months.

himself, herself, and themselves

There are some aspects of the English language that I find completely absurd. To elaborate, I recently discovered that "themselves" is not a real word. It's just a pretend word. Yet, everyone I know - myself included - uses this word. The rule, apparently, is that sine the plural does not exist, you have to say "himself" or "herself". So, in this sentence: "my neighbors went to the market, and they bought themselves some fresh mangoes", the word has been used incorrectly and it would instead have to say "bought himself and herself". Or something like that.

why I can't blog

So, last year I vowed to start writing down my thoughts and it only took me four months to get to it. This year, again, I took that same vow and it has only been three months to my first post. Nice improvement, no? My reluctance in joining the blogging revolution is not because I don't like or enjoy talking about myself but, probably because I despise that some other people can do it so well. They come across as pleasant, and likable. Unlike some other people, who can talk about themselves all day long regardless of who else cares, and they usually come across as self-important or arrogant.