Closer to Being Older

(J says I'm the only person she knows whose laugh you can feel coming right off the picture.)

Or closer to reverting to back to childhood due to senile dementia.

Or one day closer to death. (thanks PinkFloyd)

Whatever, gonna get there either way...

Anyhoo, as I sit here typing and drinking my cuppa choco-doctored green tea (which is going down fine every morning thank you), I'm thinking about how fortunate I REALLY am, especially in the things that make life meaningful and worthwhile tho we tend to take them for granted and forget how important they are when bogged down with the day-to-day shit: family, friends, cats, home of my own, books, interests, employment, transportation, overall health, and what passes for sanity nowadays.

I'm going to add a new "habit" this birthday to the other ones I started on other birthdays in an effort to keep things in perspective which the other two are helping me do.

The original two are: 1) finding the golden side of the coin and 2) counting to ten to stop the knee-jerk reaction of saying "no" immediately when asked or invited to do something new or outside my comfort zone. So far I've done fairly well with both although I have to admit my "inflexibility and rigidity" (description courtesy of friend J2 which she uses on both my pseudonephew and me) does still trip me up. But I have gotten better, I have.

The new one is going to be to learn something new everyday or at least identify something new I've learned, even if it is very small and seems insignificant, it might not be later on down the road.

So starting just this week, I learned:

• 1 & 2) Safety-Care - a two day course on safe behavioral interventions, so that takes care of Mon/Fri.
• 3) If the bread is dense and chocolately enough, I can eat zucchini bread. And zucchini brownies ROCK! And I HATE zucchini!
• 4) Safflower oil has a high burn doohickey (unit, rate, ratio, limit, something technical which unfortunately did not stay in my mind) so it is much better for you than all the other cooking oils, especially for frying stuff.
• Aside: Someone told me olive oil is better for you and when I tried it, it tasted the way grass smells so I've not done it again. I'm hoping safflower oil isn't the same case, we'll see.
• 5) Organic dark agave nectar is way better for you then the light or any other sugar due to the low glycemic index.
• 6) Mr. L explained some building stuff to me in regards to the house he is sitting and while I got the gist of the heat/cooling premise, I have to admit I did not retain the more technical aspects:(

Wonder what I will be learning today?

I did see two shooting stars Thursday night, so that makes a grand total of three shooting stars I have seen in my entire life. No, I did not make any wishes. I read a story way back in my impressionable days about a boy who had a choice to keep/use his wishes or give them to charity (to ones who were in need). He chose to keep and make his wishes and things did not turn out well, at all. So I decided then and there to give all my wishes to charity. And I continue to do so. Besides, true change comes from within when you are ready and make the decision to change and I'd like to experience what it takes to make my wishes come true for myself.

Mr. L wants to take me to dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday since we both work long days Monday. He had his boys wish me happy birthday too when I ate dinner with them last night. Those are some seriously awesome kids and I don't say that very much in today's world.

I need to think about where I want to go have some birthday dinner - where we had our first date, second date, somewhere we go alot, or somewhere new. I have all day. Maybe it will come to me while baking in the sun before dogsitting or while I'm walking Mr. RileyPants.