Category: Uncategorized (Page 146 of 188)

i’ve been reading, as of late, about writing and inspiration and life. it’s a non-fiction time of my life, i suppose. for some reason this has compelled me to compile a list of my favorite givers of perspective. in no particular order, other than first-to-memory:

1. anne lamott. she made it first because she’s my current read (Bird by Bird)
2. lauren winner. somehow her memoir Girl Meets God met me at a time in my life when i was quite needy for meeting God. she also jumpstarted my fettish for loving jewish culture & practice.
3. michael pollen. he fuels my love for talking and writing about food almost as much as good friends fuel my love for eating it.
4. donald miller. i loved blue like jazz. i continue to be memorized by a million miles in a thousand years and it’s ability to refocus my life story.
5. rob bell. i think he’s probably a more powerful presenter than writer, but he still communicates perspective and ideas that don’t belong in a velveeta box, and i appreciate that from a pastor – profusely. his book sex god is a must-read for anyone with a heart or a functioning sexual organ.
6. mark steele. i have read his first book flashbang: how i got over myself, repeatedly and still laugh aloud. it’s not just his way of seeing things, but his way of telling the story in a self-deprecating manner that i really appreciate.

well, those are my top. i’m sure some professional would tell me that lists need be an odd number much like elements of a centerpiece, but i’ll go with the “empty chair” approach and leave that 7th spot up for discussion so that i can be convinced otherwise. they say that 7 is a biblical number of “completion” and if my list were complete then i’d stop reading good books. may it never be! so that 7th spot will remain yet another quest in my life to fill. just another way i can invite conflict into my life and so tell a better story (more on that subject in a later post).

i’m also trying to come up with the criteria in which this list was composed. there was nothing standardized, but these authors / books frequently:
1. have been cited on this blog. multiple times.
2. were my offered solution to a friend’s problem (such as, “i was just reading about this the other day….”)
3. were purchased by yours truly (sometimes repeatedly), but none of the copies are currently on my shelves as they’ve been loaned out. because i keep recommending them. see #2.
4. were read more than once or i got it from the library only to purchase it later
5. causes me to exclaim with glee when i hear that s/he has something new out or, if i’m so lucky, when s/he is presenting within a 2 hour drive of my current location, i find a way to make myself a part of that situation.

a few things you should know:
1. i couldn’t name a single players’ name just 1 hour ago.
2. if you’re an alumni you do not fall into the “fair weather fan” category. there’s an exemption rule. section 8 line 7. i promise it’s there.
3. yes, i had enough faith to pick them in my bracket. it’s vanderbuilt that screwed me over.
4. tommy freemen’s cute in a geeky-athlete kind of way.
5. if i were fb friends with aaron craft, i’d ask him if he’s SURE he doesn’t want to reconsider which ohio school he goes to.

tonight after work my singular goal was to get my garlic in the ground. while i’m at it, DW says, toss in some onions. i shall! i exclaimed. so H and i stopped at the local hardware and picked up the bag of onion starts and headed to the garden.

the garage is very much the man-space. the husband is quite the tinker-er, so there are all kinds of things taking up space with which he can tink. I have a small little cart with my gardening tools and that’s pretty much it. so i dug into my little cart and in the process of finding my spade and trowel, the wall hanging that gathers our grocery sacks (thank you ikea) comes CRASHING down. on my left middle finger. nail. ouch.

i may or may not have introduced the little boy to a few words i prefer not make it into his vernacular.

my initial thought (after @#$%)? that this was somehow my husband’s fault. now, i should retell the story with the minor details: a) he is currently in columbus for a conference. b) he’s been so busy being superhusband that the hasn’t indulged in any recent tinkering and c) i had just attempted to rehang the said bag-holder just seconds before it’s aforementioned crashing.

so after some near-tears, i had a few angry thoughts toward the husband. i told myself that it was not he who hung the ikea contraption and refrained from cursing his good name. but again on the way to bookclub i had the urge to call and let him know how his incompetency had led to my finger pain. i was able to refrain. but still again, when i whined to him about the achy finger, there was a brief yet overwhelming urge to point out that this somehow was traced to his actions.

i’m not sure how i reached this point, but i’m not entirely thrilled about it. i don’t want to be that bratty. i don’t want to live with a sense that nothing is my fault or that it is the responsibility of those around me to make sure that nothing bad ever comes my way. sometimes containers full of grocery sacks make their marks on fingernails. it’s just the way the world works (DW would lovingly point out the inter-workings of gravity).

my question is this: how DO you just get over yourself? how do i help myself realize that no one thinks about me nearly as much as i do? how do i keep in mind that it’s not the job of others to keep me happy?

on a better note, it’s time to be a bit proud of the bobcats. we still have 7:22 to go, but wow. however, i will admit, i’m not a “true” fan. i wasn’t able to name a single player on the team until i turned on the game. but i think alumni status puts at a fair-weather exemption status.