waxing philosophical.

So I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and feel like there are so many profound things to be said or read or communicated. We live in a time and place where it is so easy to share things that we are thinking and feeling. At the same time, I feel like communication is something that is seriously lacking in today's society. One of the great ironies of the world? Perhaps. Does that make it okay? Not really. How do I plan to change it? Support those things which I feel to be important.
A few examples:
1) I went to XANADU at the local theater last night. Who knew that Australian accents, roller skates, and obscene amounts of glitter could be so fun? I really would like to try anti-gravity yoga sometime.
2) I'm going to my first caucus meetings tomorrow. I WILL be an informed voter this year.
3) It's pi day. There was chicken pot pie on the menu.
I plan on making my list longer every day.
Happy Wednesday.

Dear Walgreens...

Have you ever looked at your cold and flu aisle from the point of view of a person who has a cold or the flu? Speaking as one who has recently decided that she might have a cold(Okay. Fine. One who HAS a cold.)...it's EXHAUSTING! I left work with instruction/recommendations. "The doctor likes Zycam. I like Vitamin C....All you really need is vitamin C and zinc." 45 minutes later I find myself in your cold and flu aisle. Dissolvable? Chewable? Sprayable?...cherry? lemon/lime? strawberry? mint? mixed berry? All I really need is something that will make me feel better. That's all I want. I don't really care what form it comes in.
JUST MAKE ME FEEL BETTER PLEASE!!!
The One with the Cold

Dear White Dodge Ram Driver...

I can't express my gratitude at how kind you were last night. Normally, when I get off the freeway I cringe when I notice a large truck following me down the exit ramp. My retinas appreciated the fact that you turned off your headlights as you pulled up behind me. It was so very kind of you to also follow me at a distance so that you would not blind me yet again. I get the feeling that you too have be blinded by blaring headlights in your rear view mirror.
Thank you.
The Charcoal Honda Accord Driver

I know. You all thought I was dead.

I did too for a while. And then there was this phase of sketchy internet connections. And then there was all the traveling in December. And on top of the December travel schedule there was the end of policy year at work which just makes my life absolutely delightful. There may have been some overtime. Oh yes-and then there were all the last minute hand made Christmas gifts. Yup. It's been awesome.
On January 1st this year, I did something that I've never actually done before. I sat down and wrote out my list of new years resolutions. Don't get me wrong here, I set resolutions each year, but I don't think I have ever ACTUALLY WRITTEN THEM OUT on the 1ST. Why would I do that? That would be the practical thing to do.
Keeping the previous paragraph in mind, I think don't think this has been a normal year for me-resolution wise. I've re-read my list a few times over the past 28 days and have done my best to keep said-goals in the fore front of my thought processes. I'd like to make and addendum to my list. I think my dear friend Campbell said it best, "COMMIT Williams. COMMIT!" I think I regularly observe my inability to commit to things. The most recent is my list of books that I'm reading. I can think of at least 5 that I've started and haven't finished. I'm adding all of those books to my list of resolutions for the year. I will learn how to finish things. Even books.

Lessons learned from Mom; or "Oh where is my hairbrush?"

When I was 14-ish I lost a contact in my bedroom. Oh yes. It was THAT exciting. I was taking them out and I dropped it somewhere between my eyeball and case. I called for my mom and she came to my rescue, scouring every inch of my being to make sure it wasn't attached to some inconspicuous piece of clothing that I couldn't see or reach. After about 10 minutes, I gave up, came to terms with the fact that I was going to have to do some strategic planning for the next couple of months, and left. About 20 minutes later, my mom called for me. I found her in my bedroom pointing at a very shriveled piece of polymer on my carpet. Yup. She'd found the contact. Amazingly enough...I soaked it, cleaned it, and it was just fine. No loss whatsoever. I learned a lot from her that night.
Last night I had a very similar experience. Sort of. I was in the kitchen finishing up the dishes when roommate called for me, requesting a second pair of eyes. She had dropped a contact. I went for a head lamp hoping it would cause a glimmer. No such luck. We looked for a while and she left with a similar thought to mine in the previous paragraph. I said the silent prayer "Heavenly Father. There is absolutely NO GOOD reason for me to not find this contact. Help?" It worked. I found it. In her hairbrush. It was that simple. Simple prayer. Simple answer.

I should just tweet.

I really don't know much about Twitter other than it seems to be a way to get snippets of thought out into the real world. Anymore, my thought process is more along the lines of tweets rather than blogs, but I refuse to succomb to the vanity that drives one to document their every move to an inane cyber world. Therefore, I blog laundry lists of partially completed thoughts as seen and lived through my eyes (no where near 20/20).

-Due to physiological genius on my part, I managed to roll my ankle last Friday. I spent quite a bit of quality time with the Costco-sized bag of frozen mixed berries and developed a minor dependence on NSAIDs over the weekend. Last night I looked at my foot and actually said, "Huh. I think I'm actually disappointed by the bruising on my foot. I feel like it should be much cooler than it really is."

-Speaking of anatomy, I've been learning about art. Apparantly the head is standard unit of measurment when drawing to keep the body proportionate. I tried it out and discovered that I have no torso. I mean, I have a torso, but it is disproportionate to the rest of my body. My legs and head match each other, but the torso...it's just a little guy.

Nostalgia.

I know it's really late and I should be sleeping (because 555 comes really early), but I just had one of those highly nostalgic experiences that make me want to write something down. I'll be brief. A friend of mine just got a mission call to Chile. It makes me really happy. I'm so excited for her. She came over to chat for a while tonight and we talked about it. And life. And all those other great things. After she left, I had a realization about today. 7 years ago today I went a field trip with a 5th grade class. It was awesome. We went to a corn maze. And then it rained on us. I came home and showered afterward only to get a phone call telling me that my mission call had arrived. I wasn't expecting it for at least another week because of General Conference. As I've been thinking about it tonight, I realized that once the call came, time flew quickly and I found myself in the MTC, learning Spanish, and counting down my days to Chile. My life hasn't been the same since and I'm grateful for it.