Year of Living Dangerously...

  This morning I was chatting with someone on gardening and different things each of us was planning to grow this year, when the conversation turned to cooking. They mentioned that this year they wanted to be adventurous, live dangerously, try new foods, different herbs, recipes, etc. My mind drifted to stir-fried squid, stinky tofu, and a host of other exotic foods heard about but never tasted. I shook my head and mumbled something about can I just live the year dangerously with meatloaf?

Meatloaf is safe, meatloaf is calming, it's filling, it's hot, it's something I can make that requires little effort or skills and still turn out. Anyone that is single out there, knows that we think nothing of calling a handful of pretzels and a diet soda, lunch. When we delve into making a meatloaf it's almost like a commitment... a safe commitment.

A year of living dangerously....it got me to thinking. I haven't been dangerous in a long time. I have been content in my little rut, continuing to make it deeper so that my rut has ruts. Meatloaf, like my life has been safe ....and predictable. Reading the blogs by Teddy and Possum lately of their plans to go on the Orange Walk in Vietnam have made me realize just how un-adventurous it has been around here lately. I have never been to a foreign country, flown in an airplane, or even experienced a culture completely different than my own. A huge part of that I blame on fear. Fear of people speaking differently than me, fear of flying, and fear of tapeworms. Yeah, I know, I have watched too many reruns on tv of Gregory House, but it's still there....fear of tapeworms or some parasitic creature in that foreign delicacy about to be served to me. So I play it safe and stick with what I know. Maybe this should be the year I live dangerously too.

I am not even sure where to begin on living dangerously. There are so many parts of my life that could stand to be shook up and given a change. Adventure and change go hand in hand. Some adventures, okay a lot of adventures though are out of my reach, just as they are for a lot of people. Changing myself though or being willing to change isn't. At my age...it's kinda scary. Old habits are hard to break, ruts are hard to climb out of, making a change to live dangerously is scary. I know for me it will take babysteps.

A year of living dangerously....it sounds like an adventure. Maybe this year of 2008 will be that big adventure. I don't even have a clue on where or what to change, but if only one small thing happens, it will at least be something.

As I sit here writing this blog, StinkPot the cat is perched precariously on top of my old monitor, trying to keep an eye on me while enjoying the warmth generated from the computer. Looking at her, it's obvious from the left side of her face, with the shortened, frizzled whiskers she has gotten to close to a light bulb or from the crock pot bubbling away on the kitchen counter. Poor StinkPot, I don't know, maybe we should stick with the "Year of meatloaf", this year of living dangerously stuff just might kill us...

Romantic...

 

"Isn’t it romantic?

Music in the night, a dream that can be heard.

Isn’t it romantic?

Moving shadows write the oldest magic word.

I hear the breezes playing in the trees above

While all the world is saying you were meant for love.

Isn’t it romantic

Merely to be young on such a night as this?

Isn’t it romantic?

Every note that’s sung is like a lover’s kiss.

Sweet symbols in the moonlight,

Do you mean that I will fall in love perchance?

Isn’t it romance?

(instrumental)

Sweet symbols in the moonlight,

Do you mean that I will fall in love perchance?

Isn’t it romantic?

Isn’t it romance?"

( Lyrics by Lorenz Hart, music by Richard Rodgers)

 

 

What is romantic?

The past couple of days leading up to Valentine's Day today I have pondered on that question. Every person has different thoughts and views on what they would consider is romantic. I thought that for this holiday for lovers, it would make a good blog entry,... this romantic stuff. So one evening this past week after having dinner with my mom I asked her the question...."What is romantic?".. Our conversation didn't exactly quite go as I was expecting,... It went something like this:

Me: "Mom, what do you think is romantic?"
Mom: "What is romantic? I don't know any romantic men, all I know is rheumatic men".
Me:... (eye roll)...Okay well what do you think is the most romantic gift you have ever gotten?
Mom: "Expensive jewelry".
Me: "Expensive jewelry you consider romantic?"..."you don't wear jewelry hardly at all".
Mom: "Well getting the jewelry was a surprise".
Me: "So anything else you want to elaborate on stuff that is romantic?"
Mom: "I did date a few guys in my younger years, but I just wanted a good time".
Me:...(shocked look)" MOM, do you know how that sounds?"
Mom: "I didn't mean it like that, I just liked to go out dancing, dinners, movies, some guys wanted to be more serious".
Me: "So when I write my blog on romance, I can tell everyone my mom said she only sees rheumatic men, thinks expensive jewelry is the most romantic gift, and you only were out for a good time"..."do you know how bad that sounds?".
Mom"...(giggle)... "well I did have a few encounters in my life".
Me:.. "ENCOUNTERS??!!"...."MOTHER!"...
Mom: ....(giggle)..." I only meant I have dated more than I thought when I look back on my life when I was younger"...."maybe I have been reading too many romance novels"....(giggle).
Me: "Yeah I think so"....(eye roll).

So much for going to my mom for the source of romance. Having four kids I thought for sure she would enlighten me on to what could be considered romantic.

Off I went on a search for what is romantic. I was lucky enough to catch a few friends on messenger and I posed the question to them. I asked the same amount of men and women to make it more fair and then thought I would post the results from my survey of what is romantic.

I have to tell you I was shocked. Not shocked at the answers but by who gave me those answers. Would you believe that the more romantic and sentimental answers were given by the men? I thought for sure when I asked the question of them, I would receive answers back such as ....hockey tickets, powertools, and sex.. Okay maybe that is a bit chauvinistic of me to expect those kind of answers, but I didn't expect the level of "mushiness" from the men. Maybe they were giving me the answers they thought I wanted to hear, but I don't think so. When you get right down to it, men like romance as much as women. Some of the responses I got from both sides of the spectrum when asked the question "what is romantic" were:

Feeling special, feeling supported
What someone does
Cooking dinner for your lady while she is taking a bubble bath
A loving glance
Touching and holding someone's face
Kissing
Holding hands while walking
A gentle touch
A gleam in the eye
Watching sunsets together



Hearing their answers it made me think harder on what I thought was romantic and I was asked by one or two people on what I thought was romantic. I told them, what I think is romantic ....is the unexpected.

I am not just talking about spontaneity either. I think romance can be found in almost anything and in anyone. It can be said with flowers, candy, jewelry, greeting cards....and it can be said with just a smile, a touch or fried potatoes....

Fried potatoes you ask,....yes in fried potatoes. I knew a guy that would stay up waiting for his wife to get home from working second shift. When she walked thru the door after midnight he would have waiting for her a plate of hot fried potatoes,...one of her favorite foods. He did it just because....

I like that... fried potatoes....it's just so unexpected.... and romantic...

 

 

Shadow...

 It's official...

Over this past week-end, Santa saw his shadow and it will be at LEAST another six weeks til Easter...

...or something like that....

This past Saturday my family finally gathered on groundhog's day to finish the last of our Christmas celebrations from 2007, that had been rescheduled 3 times because of the weather. It was a nice day overall, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, with nary a groundhog or reindeer or any other creature making an appearance....(well, not counting relatives of course).

After finally coming out of a sugary,chocolatey, fudge induced coma from December, I found my own shadow looming over the fudge plate again....twice. I will promise to refrain from fudge again for another year, or 10 months, or whenever Christmas should make it's appearance again in 2008. I have even contemplated giving up chocolate......(yes you read that right)....giving up chocolate for the next month or two, along with all of the other candy delights of Valentine's Day and Easter.

No chocolate for 60 days. It's hard to type, let alone whisper out loud. It would be a lot easier to substitute brussell sprouts instead. I could give up those too,....those cabbage-y tasting brussell sprouts. Brussell sprouts and chocolate...chocolate covered brussell sprouts... or I could just give up one of them....say the brussell sprouts and still have the chocolate.

So there ya go....I am giving up brussell sprouts for the next 60 days....who said I didn't have will power?...

Well....we will see about the chocolate...... I am weak... weak and pathetic...I willingly admit that...But thoughts of being shadowed by a big behind might make me stick to it....

It's been a long winter, and I have been having the worst case of cabin fever. Just when you think the weather will start to warm up, more snow will fall, along with the frigid temps. I keep searching for the slightest hint of spring, but haven't found it yet....

No robins....no flowers....no green buds....and no chocolate.

I guess it's still stuck, hiding in winter's shadow....

...along with the groundhog, Santa...and the fudge.....