Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Living the dream

Since the passing of Steve Jobs we've all been blasted with snippets of his wisdom, the most famous (or viral) of which is a commencement address during which he encourages us to live our dreams or some crap like that. No denying the guy was a visionary. No denying that he changed all of our lives. For that, I admire the guy. But do I actually want to follow his lead?

Would you be willing to make people cry at meetings? Steve Jobs did. Or to give up having children? Oprah. Or to lead a life that is a complete contradiction to the image you sell? Martha.

The question isn't whether we're willing to follow our dreams or to pursue what makes us happy because really, we all are. The question is - are we willing to do it at any cost?

For most of us the answer is no, not at any cost. So we end up with our ordinary lives. And that's really okay. Even admirable.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The mind is a terrible thing

I had no appreciation for the mysteries of the brain until a few years back when I wound up with chronic insomnia. Once I got it into my head that I couldn't sleep, I actually couldn't. For around a year and a half, I survived on three to four hours a night, sometimes in two to three small naps.

The worst part was, the more I tried to think it through, the worse it got. For the first time ever, the brain that I had always relied on was actually working against me. It blew my mind. And sort of changed my personal philosophy forever.

Anyway, I am hyper-aware of how the brain can convince us of things, even when we should believe otherwise, even when all evidence points to the truth, the opposite of what we've gotten into our heads. Or on our heads.

Which brings us to lice.

Ha! You didn't see that coming did you?

So one of Girlie's friends has lice, poor kid. Of course, both Girlie and I have been itching ever since the mother sent the message. I've checked Girlie over many many many times. Nada. But still, here we are. Itchy. Just got a lice update email from the friend. Itchy to a new level.

And then there is my other friend who recently commented, half seriously, that she had been wondering if she had some sort of auto-immune problem. She's been feeling run down, achey, cold symptoms, etc. Her brother died over the summer, so the illness is way more likely to be grief sickness, depression. But the terrible brain, such as it is, goes to the worst and most evil idea first.

It makes me wonder though - can I harness these crazy thoughts for good?

If only. For now I am googling homeopathic lice cures.

Just in case.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Date night

Nope not talking about date night with the Hubs, though my friend recently commented that the Mr. and I have been going out a good bit. I told her that we'd been weighing our options and recently decided that dinner and a babysitter is roughly equal to the cost of a marriage therapy session, including the wine. So, date night it is.

She thought I was kidding.

But this time date night refers to the fact that I am just home fresh from a "first date" with a new girlfriend. Met a great writer gal at a reading in July and just had a feeling we'd connect. This girl isn't in my everyday circle, so meeting up again was going to involve an actual invitation. After becoming facebook friends, I took the plunge and asked her out. Schedules kept colliding and months later we finally worked it out.

Tonight we met for dinner and drinks. I wore perfume and cute earrings. We had all that so where are you from kind of chit chat. All of which, I'm 99% sure (though it has been a while), qualifies it as an official date.

Anyway, it went well and we left with plans to exchange short stories.

Which is pretty much like second base for a fiction writer.