40 Bags in 40 Days

One of my friends posted this on her Facebook page this morning.  The blogger who originated the idea is Ann Marie from the White House Black Shutters blog.

In a nutshell, the idea behind this project is to clear out your house, and get rid of 40 bags of stuff during the 40 days of Lent.  The bags can go anywhere:  Goodwill, the dump, consignment stores, preschools, homeless shelters.  The idea is to get 40 bags of  *stuff*  out of your house.  How cool is that?  You can combine spring cleaning along with some Lenten sacrifice!

 

http://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/ 

Take a good look at Ann Marie's blog: http://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/40-bags-in-40-days-2015/.

I've got my first bag finished today.  It's a small bag, and it's headed off to Goodwill this afternoon!

A Lenten challenge I can really get into!  Will you join me?

Saturday Night Live 40

Do you remember watching the first season of SNL?

I was 10 years old.  Word spread about this great new show on Saturday nights.  So, being rebellious, and very curious, a group of friends got together and we had a sleep over at someone's house.  Let's call this someone Mary.  Mary's Dad went to bed early.  He was sound asleep by 10, the sound of snores reverberating throughout the house.  We bid her parents good night a little before 10, and sat and giggled until 11:30, when we watched this magical thing called "Saturday Night Live".  We laughed, we cried, and we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if her, or any of our parents caught us watching this forbidden fruit, we would all be grounded until we graduated from high school.

Every couple of weeks, we would have another sleep over at another house. We'd sit silent and still as church mice until 11:30.  Gone were the seances and make overs.  The only thing we wanted to do was watch Saturday Night Live.  We'd laugh into our pillows, and bite hard on our fingers until tears ran down our faces.

When I was in high school, I'd occasionally get to watch SNL, but it wasn't an everyday thing.

And then, came the wonderful, magical year of 1984 happened.
Martin Short
Christopher Guest
Billy Crystal


It was an amazing year.  Nothing since then has ever quite measured up to that magical year.

I've watched on and off since then, and last night, my husband watched the 40th anniversary and reminisced.

 I've included are two links from the NBC Website below.  Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Bucket List

There has been much talk of bucket lists for a long time.  Older people will write lists of things they want to do before they die, and then they rush out to accomplish everything before they finish.

I remember writing my bucket list when I was in college.  I've been searching for it for a while now.  I'm not sure exactly where it is, but I know it's in the house.  Once I finish it, I will run the list.  It was the list that only a 20 year old can make.  I believe one of those items was to eat frozen dinners in a house filled with mahogany furniture and a Cadillac sitting out front.  Weird, right?

Meantime, I'm preparing for the 14th anniversary of my 36th birthday this year.  I've begun thinking of all of the amazing things I've done in the past, and what I want to accomplish in the future.

So, until I can find that list from college, here is the grown up version of my Bucket List, 2015 edition.  I will continue to add to it as time goes on.  Because you're just not finished until you finish!

1) Visit all 50 states.
2) Go to New Zealand, hike the Hobbit Trail.  (Lord of the Rings sites)
3) Visit Mile 0 in Key West.
4) Travel up the Pacific Coast Highway in a Convertible.
5) Hike most of the Appalachian Trail.  (This will have to be done in parts, as I'm older now, and not sure I could through hike it again!)
6) Visit Australia
7) Ireland
8) Scotland
9) Great Britain- especially London.
10) Go to Prince Edward Island, visit Avonlea (home of Anne of Green Gables)
11) Meet a President of the United States. 
12) Start a successful business.
13) Become a successful author.
14) Pay off our house.

Those are the top 12.  
I'm going to add them to the side bar of my blog.  As I make progress towards them, I'll keep track of them.

It's actually been kind of daunting.  For so long, my focus has been on growing my kids that I've kind of forgotten about my own goals and dreams.  You notice I don't have many personal goals on my list?  I need to work on that some more.  I really need to think that through a little bit more.  The trip parts are great, but I really need to set some personal goals that are not related to my kids!  Believe it or not, I've been working on the personal goals part for a while.  Earning my Master's Degree was a life long goal, and I achieved that two years ago.  Last year, I finally wrote "that book".  Kind of a great feeling to get it written.  I received a national award for Excellence in Volunteerism last year.  I feel like I'm at a crossroads right now... I know I've got another act, I just need to define what that act is going to look like.

So, have you put together a bucket list?  What items do you have on your list?

Nice to see you, too.

I'm just going to state up front that this is a rant.  If you don't feel like listening to the rant, just close out the window and come back tomorrow morning for something completely different.

I had a meeting at Panera Tuesday night.  I was meeting with a group of several other people.

I walked in the doors, saw someone that I used to work with, waved at her, and went to sit down at the table with my friends.  I had just pulled out my pen and paper, and we had fired up the laptop that had the information we needed on it when this former co-worker came over to "join" use.

Let me give a little bit more background information here:
I worked with her for 3 years.  I left that place of employment 7 years ago in order to substitute teach.
For 3 years after that, we were both part of a knitting group that met every Wednesday.
Since the group dissolved, the leader of the group has gone through a very ugly divorce, and another woman is getting ready to have open heart surgery that she might not survive.

So... when my co-worker came over, I was expecting her to say "How are you?  It's been so long!!  What have you been up to lately?  How are the other girls in the group?"  Or, possibly some such variation on that theme.

Nope.  She came over to sit down and tell us about this unique business opportunity she and her husband were offering, and how we had the opportunity to "get in on the ground floor." 

Can you say pyramid scheme?

I politely explained that we were just getting started with our meeting, and she walked off.

An hour later, our meeting was over and we were talking about an incident one of our kids had recently had.  Co-Worker comes back over, stands there through the entire duration of the story (it was a long one), and then gives everyone her phone number so that we can all "take advantage of this unique opportunity".

As she turned to leave our table, the bitch in me finally came out.

"Nice to see you, too."  I said. Without any acknowledgement whatsoever, she just kept walking away.

Rant over.  Thanks for listening to me.

Book Review: The Root of Chinese Qigong

Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming.  The Root of Chinese Qigong.  1997.YMAA Publication Center, Boston Mass, USA.

This book is a fascinating look at the "whys" of Qigong, and how it helps clear your channels and thus helps you prevent a build up of bad energy within your body that can cause the body to get sick.

With an eye towards Western Medical practice, the authors explain how Chinese Medicine works/ relates within the understanding of Chinese Medicine.

I found this a fascinating read.  While I am not versed in Eastern Religions, the authors did a thorough job of helping me understand how the different Qigong practices relate to meditation, prayer, and Eastern religious practices.  There is also a lengthy explanation of the history of Chinese Medicine and Qigong.

This book does not give the layperson the tools to develop their own Qigong practice.  Instead, the in-depth explanations give you the why's behind why certain moves are done, and the safe way to do these moves.

If you are interested in Eastern Medicine, or expanding your knowledge of Qigong, this is an excellent book.

For me, this book has given me a better framework for the field in which I now work.  It gives me enough of a grasp of the field so that if someone comes up and asks me for books about Qigong, I know enough to be able to ask the follow up questions and related search terms to help them find the book.

Am I going to start practicing Qigong?  I would if I could find someone who taught a class and guided me through the exercises.  I am fascinated by the thought that some simple movements will help keep my body moving and healthy for a long time to come.

One point made in the book, which has stuck with me, regards longevity.  To paraphrase: the body that moves lives longer than the body that sits around.

That's a truism worth taking to heart.