TV diet, poetry, dollhouse and Walk the Line
Written around 11:00 a.m. today:
I've never given anything up for Lent before. I was raised Lutheran, and although some Lutherans and other Protestants give things up sometimes, I have always associated it with being more of a Catholic thing. However, this year I've decided to give something up. Actually, I just decided this morning so I'm starting just a wee bit late. And I have to admit that the idea came to me through NetworkChic and also someone who commented on one of her posts. So - I'm giving up pointless TV.
What that means is that I can still watch the few shows that I like and plan to watch, but the TV has to be off before the show(s) and after the show(s) and at all other times. I'll have music on instead, and not having the meaningless, mindless distraction of television on all the time will get me doing other things, really doing things. And that, in turn, will make me feel so much better about myself and so much happier!!
I'm thinking of all the possibilities right now! I'll read more of the tons of books I've bought that I really do want to read. I'll sketch out and paint the two paintings I have in mind. I'll work on making my dollhouse look beautiful. I'll write more. I'll practice guitar. And throughout all of that, I'll listen to all the wonderful music I have that I don't listen to nearly enough! I don't know if I'm supposed to be so happy about giving something up but I don't care. And it will still be hard every once in awhile because I'm used to turning on the TV as soon as I come home, so there's noise, and then I sit down and do computer stuff while watching show after pointless show. And then go to bed knowing that I have hardly really done anything, and I feel so frustrated. This is the start of a new me!!! :)
Yesterday I had a really hard time waking up. I kept resetting my alarm clock and wasn't really conscious until my mom called me and luckily we chatted for a very long time, enough for me to fully wake up. Then I discovered that my CD burner was working, so in between getting ready I was running back and forth to the computer to copy my pictures over to a number of CDs. So I didn't get to work until 10:30. Very bad me.
But this morning, even though it's a Saturday and I stayed up late last night burning part of my music on CDs, I managed to get myself up at 8:30 and I cleaned my kitchen and then my bathroom and did some minor straightening and then showered and got prettied up. Yay me! Too often on the weekends, even when I do get up early, I just sit on my couch with coffee and turn the blasted TV on and IF I shower, it's only much much later. The German called a bit ago and he's coming over soon to make us frittatas and then help me put together my dollhouse!!! (It definitely takes two people to put the basic structure together, hold it in place and glue it and then tape it to hold and also make sure it's completely straight!)
Yesterday, even though I was at work, it didn't seem like it at all. Shortly after I got there I went down the hall to see everyone and The Meat, Wake Forest and I ended up sitting in his office for about three hours while we talked about music and songs and The Meat played guitar and I played various songs on my iPod with the little speaker my mom got me for Christmas. And Wake Forest and I even sang a little! It was so fun!
Oh and also, the night before I had gone through some of my old stuff in my posterity box and I pulled out a number of poems I had written in high school, and a 1-page short story that I wrote in college which I was really proud of, and also a poem that a then-secret admirer in high school had given me, entitled "Ode to Helen of Troy". The Meat read the Ode, the short story and one of the poems aloud. We all laughed at and also loved the Ode, and they really liked my story and the one poem, which made me so happy.
When I had to leave for my doctor appointment, The Meat asked me to leave the big bunch of poems with him to look at. When I came back, he looked at me in his ultra-serious way and told me that I had some really good stuff in there, and he couldn't believe I had written all that while I was in high school. He also pointed to one and told me very very seriously, three or four times, that I need to put it to music. He said it reminded him so much of a John Prine song and once he started saying the lyrics to the song, I saw what he meant. He also told me, very very seriously again, that I need to write poetry again, and I need to put it to music.
This kind of stuff means the world to me - when I know that The Meat believes in me completely and really sees the special things about me. I think certain parts of his personality and mine are extremely similar, which is why we have such a special friendship. And another thing, I love that he cares. That he wanted to really read and did read my poetry, that he likes seeing these other sides to me. Not everyone would take an interest in reading the poetry I wrote when I was sixteen. And not only did he want to read it, but it touched him.
From here on out it's now 7:30 p.m.:
The German left about a half hour ago. All this morning before he got here I was burning music on CD after CD, and I just did a couple more and I think I may only have about 3 CDs-worth left and I should have everything all backed up - yay!
AND, the basic structure of my dollhouse is built!!! The roof isn't on yet, but the three floors, two sides and front are all on. And it looks gorgeous!!! I keep peeking over at it! And some of my books from law school finally came in handy! We also walked to the dollhouse store to pick up the different front door that I ordered, and stopped at a hardware store so I could get tons of paint swatches to figure out what color I want the outside to be painted, and possibilities for the inside rooms. I LOVE looking at paint swatches!!! I can spend hours looking at them!!!
So as to my Lent thing - it's harder than I thought it would be!!! Seriously, I keep feeling a compulsion to turn on the fucking TV! I didn't realize how addicted in
a way I was to it. Tomorrow morning I'll allow myself to watch a morning news program that I like, and then Ebert & Roeper after than, but then the TV goes off. And then tomorrow night I can watch the Oscar preshow and the Oscars. But that's all. And speaking of Oscars, last night Florida, Asparagus and I went to The Italian Chef's for dinner (yum!) and we rented Walk the Line. It was really good, and now I'm more intrigued by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash and want to see some video of them when they were younger so I can really picture them. I will say that for the first probably 3/4ths of the movie I thought Johnny Cash was just an idiot, but by the end I was liking him and absolutely loving their sweet love story.
Oh and the doctor appointment went fine. Everything looked normal but my doctor did a pap even though I'm not due until June, just to make sure. And she sent me to get my blood drawn for some various blood tests, just to check my levels of things to make sure that's not why I'm tired.
Okay, it's almost 8:00. At 10:00 I'll go to bed and read a little before sleeping. So I have two hours. Hmmmm. I'm so used to having the stupid TV on and watching stupid shows all night. I don't know what to do! I have to give myself some sort of plan. First I'll finish backing up the final stuff on the computer. Then I'll start to sketch the two pictures I want to paint. Then I'll play guitar for a little while before I get too tired. And then I'll happily look at swatches and start making plans for the dollhouse! That's the plan, and I may actually carry all the way through with it because I don't have TV to distract me! :)
Oh, and I got caught up in googling pictures of June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash, so I'll share one, because after I see a movie about someone's life, I want to see the real people. I never really knew or cared about them but now that I've seen this movie, I'm sad they have both died. I know it's silly.
I've never given anything up for Lent before. I was raised Lutheran, and although some Lutherans and other Protestants give things up sometimes, I have always associated it with being more of a Catholic thing. However, this year I've decided to give something up. Actually, I just decided this morning so I'm starting just a wee bit late. And I have to admit that the idea came to me through NetworkChic and also someone who commented on one of her posts. So - I'm giving up pointless TV.
What that means is that I can still watch the few shows that I like and plan to watch, but the TV has to be off before the show(s) and after the show(s) and at all other times. I'll have music on instead, and not having the meaningless, mindless distraction of television on all the time will get me doing other things, really doing things. And that, in turn, will make me feel so much better about myself and so much happier!!I'm thinking of all the possibilities right now! I'll read more of the tons of books I've bought that I really do want to read. I'll sketch out and paint the two paintings I have in mind. I'll work on making my dollhouse look beautiful. I'll write more. I'll practice guitar. And throughout all of that, I'll listen to all the wonderful music I have that I don't listen to nearly enough! I don't know if I'm supposed to be so happy about giving something up but I don't care. And it will still be hard every once in awhile because I'm used to turning on the TV as soon as I come home, so there's noise, and then I sit down and do computer stuff while watching show after pointless show. And then go to bed knowing that I have hardly really done anything, and I feel so frustrated. This is the start of a new me!!! :)
Yesterday I had a really hard time waking up. I kept resetting my alarm clock and wasn't really conscious until my mom called me and luckily we chatted for a very long time, enough for me to fully wake up. Then I discovered that my CD burner was working, so in between getting ready I was running back and forth to the computer to copy my pictures over to a number of CDs. So I didn't get to work until 10:30. Very bad me.
But this morning, even though it's a Saturday and I stayed up late last night burning part of my music on CDs, I managed to get myself up at 8:30 and I cleaned my kitchen and then my bathroom and did some minor straightening and then showered and got prettied up. Yay me! Too often on the weekends, even when I do get up early, I just sit on my couch with coffee and turn the blasted TV on and IF I shower, it's only much much later. The German called a bit ago and he's coming over soon to make us frittatas and then help me put together my dollhouse!!! (It definitely takes two people to put the basic structure together, hold it in place and glue it and then tape it to hold and also make sure it's completely straight!)
Yesterday, even though I was at work, it didn't seem like it at all. Shortly after I got there I went down the hall to see everyone and The Meat, Wake Forest and I ended up sitting in his office for about three hours while we talked about music and songs and The Meat played guitar and I played various songs on my iPod with the little speaker my mom got me for Christmas. And Wake Forest and I even sang a little! It was so fun!
Oh and also, the night before I had gone through some of my old stuff in my posterity box and I pulled out a number of poems I had written in high school, and a 1-page short story that I wrote in college which I was really proud of, and also a poem that a then-secret admirer in high school had given me, entitled "Ode to Helen of Troy". The Meat read the Ode, the short story and one of the poems aloud. We all laughed at and also loved the Ode, and they really liked my story and the one poem, which made me so happy.
When I had to leave for my doctor appointment, The Meat asked me to leave the big bunch of poems with him to look at. When I came back, he looked at me in his ultra-serious way and told me that I had some really good stuff in there, and he couldn't believe I had written all that while I was in high school. He also pointed to one and told me very very seriously, three or four times, that I need to put it to music. He said it reminded him so much of a John Prine song and once he started saying the lyrics to the song, I saw what he meant. He also told me, very very seriously again, that I need to write poetry again, and I need to put it to music.
This kind of stuff means the world to me - when I know that The Meat believes in me completely and really sees the special things about me. I think certain parts of his personality and mine are extremely similar, which is why we have such a special friendship. And another thing, I love that he cares. That he wanted to really read and did read my poetry, that he likes seeing these other sides to me. Not everyone would take an interest in reading the poetry I wrote when I was sixteen. And not only did he want to read it, but it touched him.
From here on out it's now 7:30 p.m.:
The German left about a half hour ago. All this morning before he got here I was burning music on CD after CD, and I just did a couple more and I think I may only have about 3 CDs-worth left and I should have everything all backed up - yay!
AND, the basic structure of my dollhouse is built!!! The roof isn't on yet, but the three floors, two sides and front are all on. And it looks gorgeous!!! I keep peeking over at it! And some of my books from law school finally came in handy! We also walked to the dollhouse store to pick up the different front door that I ordered, and stopped at a hardware store so I could get tons of paint swatches to figure out what color I want the outside to be painted, and possibilities for the inside rooms. I LOVE looking at paint swatches!!! I can spend hours looking at them!!!So as to my Lent thing - it's harder than I thought it would be!!! Seriously, I keep feeling a compulsion to turn on the fucking TV! I didn't realize how addicted in
a way I was to it. Tomorrow morning I'll allow myself to watch a morning news program that I like, and then Ebert & Roeper after than, but then the TV goes off. And then tomorrow night I can watch the Oscar preshow and the Oscars. But that's all. And speaking of Oscars, last night Florida, Asparagus and I went to The Italian Chef's for dinner (yum!) and we rented Walk the Line. It was really good, and now I'm more intrigued by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash and want to see some video of them when they were younger so I can really picture them. I will say that for the first probably 3/4ths of the movie I thought Johnny Cash was just an idiot, but by the end I was liking him and absolutely loving their sweet love story.Oh and the doctor appointment went fine. Everything looked normal but my doctor did a pap even though I'm not due until June, just to make sure. And she sent me to get my blood drawn for some various blood tests, just to check my levels of things to make sure that's not why I'm tired.
Okay, it's almost 8:00. At 10:00 I'll go to bed and read a little before sleeping. So I have two hours. Hmmmm. I'm so used to having the stupid TV on and watching stupid shows all night. I don't know what to do! I have to give myself some sort of plan. First I'll finish backing up the final stuff on the computer. Then I'll start to sketch the two pictures I want to paint. Then I'll play guitar for a little while before I get too tired. And then I'll happily look at swatches and start making plans for the dollhouse! That's the plan, and I may actually carry all the way through with it because I don't have TV to distract me! :)
Oh, and I got caught up in googling pictures of June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash, so I'll share one, because after I see a movie about someone's life, I want to see the real people. I never really knew or cared about them but now that I've seen this movie, I'm sad they have both died. I know it's silly.
