I live by this credo: Have a little laugh and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations. Even in your darkest moment, you usually can find something to laugh about, if you try hard enough. ~ Red Skelton Yesterday's Entries 2000: Crawling Home TODAY's FOOD Breakfast: Southwest
Airline Peanuts CURRENTLY READING The Oath (Lescroart is a Davis resident
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HEY, LOOK ME OVER 8 May 2004 Since I am spending the entire day today traveling to Boise, I'm doing a "cop out" entry. I just joined The Alchera Project, another collab, one which looks kind of interesting. As with the other collabs, the idea is to choose from among several prompts to address. I decided I wanted to address this one:
They’re right. It is easier to point fingers and to talk about all my shortcomings, so coming up with five things I like about myself, especially at a time when I’m struggling with food issues again, is going to be a little more challenging. 1. Hair. I’ll start with the obvious one. I like my hair, about the only physical attribute that I can point to that I really truly like. I’ve always liked my hair. I was born with naturally curly hair which hung in long ringlets until I was about 7, by which time my mother and I were tired of the daily crying sessions, as she tried to brush out the wire-tight curls. It’s never been that curly since then, but it has retained the wave and the amount of curl has come and gone. Right now it’s pretty curly, when cut right. Whether long or short, it requires little care--just a wash and a brush and that’s it. I have always been grateful that I inherited such great hair! 2. Humor. There’s not a lot that one could say positive about my father, but the one thing that even those who didn’t like him can agree upon is that he had a great sense of humor. "Nobody could make me laugh like Al," my mother still says, many years after his death and even longer after their divorce. I may not have inherited the same kind of humor, but I do have a quick wit, sometimes bordering on the sardonic (in fact usually bordering on the sardonic!). My writing generally has some humor about it. I cover up my insecurities with humor. I like to look at the lighter side of life. (All you have to do is to look at the title of this journal to figure that out!) I am not a fan of slapstick humor, and I don’t like humor which makes someone else uncomfortable, but if together you and I can laugh at something that amuses us, that pleases me greatly. 3. Curiosity. They say it’s a trait of Aquarians. We have inquisitive minds and we like trying new things. We go overboard in learning them and then just as quickly as we acquired the passion for something, we drop it. I have always had a curiosity about many things, some were things that I followed through to deeper learning. Things like cake decorating, Chinese cooking, scrapbooking, classical music, and biking were things I jumped into feet first and wallowed around in for varying lengths of time, buying stuff, learning stuff, enjoying stuff, and then suddenly realizing that I wasn’t as interested in any more (though I hope that physically I will be able to be "interested in" biking again some day!) There are things that I am currently wallowing around in--things like digital photography and PhotoShop, on-line journaling, to name a few. I can remember being interested in things like archaeology, architecture, genealogy, and a host of other things too many to list which I have, from time to time, thought I’d like to explore more fully and have not yet done. But I love the fact that I am open and curious about so many things. It has brought me great joy over the years, introduced me to things I would never have dreamed possible, and given me a much fuller life, I believe. 4. Typing. If I would have to pick one "talent" that I have which has served me best throughout my life, it would be that I am a damn good typist. I was born to bond with a keyboard. I took to it like a duck to water from my very first day of typing class, sitting in front of a clunky old manual typewriter, on through the electronic typewriters, the dedicated word processors, and now into the computer. The last time I had an official typing test, I was tested at 135 wpm and I’m relatively accurate. It is a talent which has been the source of both my income and my recreation and relaxation all of my life. I type better than I speak. I think more clearly with a keyboard under my fingers. It’s a talent that has brought me some of the most satisfaction throughout my entire adult life. 5. Caring. I like that I have always been a caring person who, from time to time, have worked hard for the causes in which I believe. It started back in college when I adopted a Korean orphan through one of those mail-away child sponsorship programs. It has encompassed helping women with breastfeeding, working with school projects and clubs and organizations when the kids were growing up, taking in visitors from all over the world, working for AIDS, the homeless, and gay rights causes. While I am not as active as many people I admire (like my friends Shelly and Ellen, for example), I have done my own part in my own little corner of the world to help make life a little better and I’m proud of that. When I sometimes wonder if I’ve accomplished anything in this life, especially when I’m sitting here like a slug watching junk TV, those memories--and the knowledge that sooner or later some other "cause" will come along that will get me off of my butt and out into the world again--makes me feel that perhaps I haven’t done too badly with this life that I’ve been given.
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Created 4/30/04
