October 8

Who knew that mowing the lawn could actually be fun?

When I was a teenager, cutting the grass was my "job". Every week during the spring and summer for probably 6+ years I would hop on the old red riding lawnmower and mow my parents one acre yard. Do you remember those red mowers from the 90's? The kind where you had to hold down the blade with your foot? Yup - that was the one we had! Not particularly fast, very uncomfortable, and horrible to turn. When I first started cutting the grass, I used it as a tool to practice driving, and then it merely became a way to tan. I treated that poor lawnmower with great disrespect, throwing it into the 5th speed and bouncing directly into holes. (Why I don't know - bouncing around on a semi-cushioned seat is not fun) Three hours later, and covered in dust, I would be finished and earn my ten bucks.

When I turned 20, I "suddenly" developed allergies to grass... either that or it was my excuse to get out of it, so I only occasionally mowed the lawn after that. It was about this time that old red decided to die, and my parents bought a spanking new yellow lawnmower with a nice cushioned seat, wider blade, bigger tires, and faster speeds. My Papa took over the lawns at that point (grandparents live across the street), so he would cut both yards.

Fast forward about ten years to the past two. I lost my job in January of 2010, and had a difficult time finding work for a while. So, I went back to mowing the lawn. This time it was BOTH yards and there was a pay raise. Yellow lawnmower and I tooled around the yard, typically on high speed, before it decided to bite the dust a couple of months ago. Before it went to the lawn mower graveyard, I had tried to convince my dad that he really, REALLY needed to purchase a Zero Turn lawnmower. The mac daddy of all lawnmowers. But alas, yellow was still in good condition at the time I spoke with him. About two months after that conversation, yellow bit the proverbial dust and dad purchased a Zero Turn.

Finally, my "need for speed" has been answered!!! What used to take me about three hours, now takes less than one. Granted, one cannot just hop on a zero turn without a lesson. It takes a few moments to "get it", because you are controlling everything with the handlebars. But after about fifteen minutes of playing around with it, I was good to go. Who knew that buzzing around the lawn could finally be so much fun?

October 7

It's a girls night!

Typically my girl friends and I hang out with a big group of friends - but tonight we decided that just the ladies needed on our own. A hotel room was secured and the primping began! After getting all dolled up, we had a fabulous dinner at a nearby restaurant and then went out dancing! We had a blast watching people, dancing like idiots, and enjoying some of the "scenery". It was definitely a night we all needed!

October 6

Tonight was going to be a lazy, stay at home evening whilst resting on the couch. But, that did not entirely occur. A late night invitation from some friends to play "bingo" at a nearby restaurant, piqued my curiosity. I'm not entirely sure that I have ever played bingo before, but it was actually quite fun and absolutely hysterical! I didn't win anything, but had a blast with my purple crayon, coloring in the numbered squares. The intensity on our faces as we colored was unbelievable. I've never seen grown adults to intense over random numbers!

October 5

"There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama & the people who create it & surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but happy."

Don't want to really elaborate, but this was a picture post that I saw on Facebook today and thought it was very appropriate to remember. Sometimes the letting go is hard, and other times it is easy. But as a dear friend of mine always says, 'Life is about Choices'. Dear reader, choose wisely... your life depends on it.

October 4

Today garnered a little more excitement at work than anywhere else. The building I work in is currently under construction and expansion, and we knew that about two weeks towards the end (which is now) would be complete disruption of our work life. We've already been jumbled around a few places (I've been there for six months and have moved been in three different offices). This morning when I walked up the stairs, the last two remaining offices that had NOT been disturbed, had been vomited into the hallway. Needless to say, the remaining work day was spent trying to find files, chairs and various other things we needed to work with. 


The GOOD news is that they will be DONE in two weeks! And I will actually have a real office, with a door that closes - and locks. With my own desk, chair, pens, etc. LOL I truly can say I have worked in almost every type of insane environment now. 

October 3

My reading for this evening took a slightly different route. And I'm not quite prepared to comment on it, as my thoughts are still rather jumbled. But I thought I'd share the beginnings of my thoughts....

"Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily."

October 2

“God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.” – Shakespeare  

I love to read, and anyone who knows me has seen the myriad number of books that I have on my shelves, much less the number of them boxed away in storage. Books are an integral part of my life and allow me to stretch the bonds of my imagination. They have a way of transporting me to another time and place where I feel like I really live inside the story. Sometimes the books I read are not necessarily a story about someone else, but perhaps about ME. I joined an online book club group and we have started with a book called “TrueFaced”. To be completely honest, I can’t get out of the first chapter. It’s not that the book is boring, or uninteresting, but rather digesting the words on the page quite literally boggle my mind. The tag line for the book is “Trust God and others with who you really are.” Who of us really and truly share with others the “real” person inside of us? I would beg to consider that very few of us do. The man or woman in the mirror that we look at every day, is quite different from the mask of ourselves that we wear to everyone else. It’s as if life is a masquerade and our ability or status is measured by the depths of our concealment.

How many times have you been asked, “how are you” and replied with the words, “I’m fine”, “Good”, “things are going ok”, etc. Page 20 describes this as “The Land of ‘Doing Just fine’”. Can you relate to that? I know I can! DAILY. Sometimes its because we truly are doing just fine, but most times it is the easier answer. Because after all, the person asking the question is also wearing a mask and they really don’t want to know the truth. Perhaps that is the reason why it is so difficult to live outside the masquerade. Truth is scary, unknown and requires a vulnerability that most of us, quite honestly, are not ready or desire to experience.

 

As I think through the ramifications of the mask that we wear, it reminds me of a part in one of the Chronicles of Narnia books. In “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, Eustace outwardly portrays the innards of his heart. He was a greedy little boy, who literally hated everyone, and when he found a dragon’s stash of gold immediately began to hoard some of it for himself.  What he didn’t realize was that the outward manifestation of his heart turned HIM into a dragon! It wasn’t until after he had learned and faced certain things about himself that the realization of truth set him free. Quite honestly, it wasn’t an easy process for him and despite his trying to rid himself of the dragons skin, it required help from some ONE else.

October 1

Clearly I have been neglecting my blogging - which I shouldn't, because I have so many things rumbling around in my brain. SO, my thoughts at the moment are to take from today until the end of the year and write something every day. We shall see. LOL

Today began the first day of my favorite month! I absolutely adore the month of October. The smells, sites, and feel in the air are so invigorating to me. I feel inspired by the changing leaves, and full of hopeful thoughts as the year progresses to an end. And to kick off this wonderful feeling - I ran a 5k. A few months ago a friend sent me a link to the "Firefly 5K" nighttime run in ATL. It intrigued me because I knew that out of any of the available races, THIS would be the one most palatable to my non-running friends. So, I set up and invitation and five of my closest friends ran with me tonight. It was a blast!! All of us finished in 45 minutes or less, and for me I set a personal record with finishing in less than 35 minutes. So excited! What a great way to bond with friends! :-)