Is Posting Pictures Vanity?

A reader of my blog has recently commented that they feel it is vain to post pictures on Facebook.

I found it to be a thought-provoking comment.

Here's the comment, which was written in response to my March 12, 2012 blog entry Posting Pictures Can Be Perilous. 

"this depends on how you look at it i dont have the guts to post a pic because i think i am not vain enough to do so face book is all about being vain so all i have to say is good luck with that".

My response was this: 

I don't see Facebook as being all about being vain. For me, working from home, and being busy with the needs of a large family, I have little chance to keep in touch with the outside world, including many family members and friends who live far away. I so appreciate it when they put up photos to keep me apprised of a piece of their lives. Vanity has nothing to do with it when I share pictures. In fact, some of the photos of myself I've shared, I've done so with a cringe, knowing it isn't one of the best ones I could take, but knowing how much I appreciate it when others post photos, I do unto others, ya know? :) 

And hey, you think Facebook is geared towards vanity, check out some other sites that are even more focused on photos, like Dailybooth, Hot Or Not, and Piczo, to name a few I've experienced personally.

Furthermore, now there are also "GIF" sites, like gifyo, where people can click a button to record a short GIF file (which, in case you don't know, stands for "graphic interchange format", pronounced "jiff", and is basically a moving picture that replays over and over).

Here's a link for my favorite GIF - the Snoopy Dance - which I almost posted here but have removed it because it was distracting me while I wrote, so it might also distract others while they read.

But there I go with my digression...

Back to the topic of posting pictures and vanity.

My love for being in front of and behind cameras was alive and growing even back in the 80s.

Is it really vanity to want to show yourself to others?

Is it vanity to want to capture a photo of something that you'd like to share with others?

Are women being vain by putting on makeup to hide their flaws and enhance their features?

Are men being vain by working out and wearing tight jeans to show off their butts?

Should we all wear burqa-like security blankies and hide behind them?

Are we wrong to crave positive attention and have someone say words to the effect of "you're beautiful"?

Are we not wired to love and be loved?

 (YouTube video here, "Circle Of Friends" by Point Of Grace).

Especially with people of opposing genders, it can be awkward to say you like their pictures, lest it be taken the wrong way, unless it's meant to be the wrong way, which, in some cases, isn't the wrong way at all.

The confusion, though, I think, is a side effect of our Hollywood-ized society where compliments are often taken as "hitting on".

Heck, most of the pictures I post receive little to no comment whatsoever, and if I dwell on it, I can feel pretty sorry for myself, and question why I continue putting more of them up.

But then, see my quote above about "do unto others".

Maybe it is vanity, differing in degree from one person to the next.  Like with opinions, mine may not be the same as yours, shaped by our individual life experiences and knowledge.

I haven't answered anything definitively here, have I?  I guess I really don't know the answers.

What are your answers to these questions? 

With love,

Dig my writing?  Click "follow" at the top left, and read more in the posts listed in the right hand column.

Here are some quick links for a few of my other blog entries:

• According To Him, I'm Beautiful
• Wow, I Love Being Ignored - Don't You?
• Don't Let Me Get Me 
• Mozart And Me 

Three minutes of thoughts

Do you ever get so tired that the only thing you can think of is the phrase "I'm so tired I can't even think"?

I'm there.  I know that doesn't make sense, but it is what it is.

Am I going crazy?

I was up till 2-something last night, working and goofing around on the computer.

Does everyone goof around on computers?

Sometimes I wish I never met a computer.

But then I probably never would have met any of the wonderful people I "know".

It's like penpals, only so much quicker.

I'm sitting here listening to Anna Nalick's song "Breathe", as I often do when I am feeling like this.

And I thought, "I'll take these few minutes to write anything that comes to mind, because I want to."

If it is of entertainment to anyone else, great.  If not, please stop reading.  You will probably find nothing of interest beyond this line if you've not found anything thus far.

"And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd, coz these words are my diary screaming out loud, and I know that you'll use them however you want to."

I transcribed the above line directly from the song while hearing it in my headset.  How fitting.

These words are my diary screaming out loud.

My life is a mess sometimes.

But it gets better.

If anyone's been paying attention, they may remember that I've posted this song at least once in the past.  Here's another version of Anna Nalick's song, "Breathe (2 AM)", done a few years ago by my oldest daughter (on the far right) and others in her music class.

Hugz,

For those who like my writing, there are more entries arranged chronologically in the right hand column of this blog.

Here are a few related, quasi-related, and completely unrelated posts:

• Just Breathe
• The NEED To Communicate
• Hamburger Helper Facebook Banter
• Are You Highly Sensitive?
• Pretending Everything's Fine When It's Not

Hamburger Helper Facebook Banter

From Saturday, April 21, 2012

The following is the banter that resulted from a Facebook status line of a friend, who has chosen his name to be Sir Basil.  As in all my blogging, all other names are changed, too.

"Hamburger Helper only works if the hamburger is ready to accept that it needs help."

Lady 1:  oy!

Man 1:  brilliant

Steeny:  LAUGHING LOUDLY HERE!!!!!!!!!!

Man 2:  What if Hamburger helper comes in the form of an intervention?

Steeny:  then it would be called Hamburger Intervention.

Man 3:  Hamburvention 

Lady 2:  Lol

Lady 2:  Good one!

Fish Burger:  Ah well. I guess it's time I admitted I have a hamburger problem 

Sir Basil:  ‎"I'm a meatitarian... I eat meat. It's a personal choice."

Steeny:  "Hi, my name is Steeny." (Hiiiiii Steeny). "And I've got a hamburger problem." (Welcome to Hamburger Anomymous, Steeny). 
   
Angus Patty:  There may be another way to look at this... What is the hamburger doing that it actually needs help? I mean really - It could be doing something that benefits society, or world peace (Unless you are a cow) or... maybe it is trying to take over the world in an insidious attempt give everyone Mad Cow disease... (The angry bovine thing, not the swapped t instead of a g in the gene sequence that creates a goofy prion... Just sayin... I mean really - what would hamburger need help with? Then again... it doesn't really have any arms... 

Steeny:  That was some good questioning, Angus Patty.

Angus Patty:  I do what I can... (Still smiling about your "Hi, my name is Steeny" bit - that was funny) 

Cecily:  Angus, you're getting too technical. Look at it from a different point of view...the hamburger meat is messed up, literally it is all mashed up. There's the proof that it needs help. If it was fine, it would be steak. 

Steeny:  I was just talking on the phone to my 19-year-old, formerly drug addicted, vegetarian daughter, Nirvana (she told me to tag her here) and had to read her your status line and some of these comments, Sir Basil, as I figured she'd appreciate them.

She said (and I typed as she spoke) that the hamburger probably has self-esteem issues and self-worth issues because it was brutally murdered and it blames itself because it doesn't know any better. It was raised to be killed. How can it know anything other than that?

Sir Basil:   Your daughter is warped - I like it :)

Steeny:  oh she is indeed - my kids are my favorite weirdos! :)

Angus Patty @ Cecily:  The mind does not always reflect the body... (How is that for .. Umm... ambient?)

@Steeny LOL - I think your daughter may have something there - somehow though, I do not think Dr. Phil would touch this one... As for Dr. Laura, she may, as it is not Pork. Then again, she would do the whole "tough Love your Burger" thing... Pop doctors aside, (No, I do not mean a side of doctors with pop) Trying to help these mutilated bovine is very.... MOOOOOOOoooooooving...

Steeny:  ‎"tough love your burger" - LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!

Steeny:  and Moooooooooooooooooooving, hahahaha! this thread has been hysterical!

Angus Patty:  The interesting thing is, that Dr. Laura would probably also tell the ground beef to "get a life", failing of course, to understand the irony of that statement. "And now a word from our sponsors"... (tag in music) "At Burger King, you can have it any way you like"... No wonder hamburger needs help. It is also clearly suffering form Stockholm Syndrome.

Steeny:  Poor, poor codependent burger.

Angus Patty:  HAHAHAHA... Yeah... LOL

Steeny:  Sir Basil, would you mind if I copied all of this (removing all names, of course) to use as an entry in my blog? (This one: http://holy-sheepdip.blogspot.ca/ )

Sir Basil:  Go for it! I'll just sit here and wait for the royalty checks to roll in...

Steeny:  Excellent. I will be sure to share the wealth. I'll hold off on posting it for a bit, in case further words of wisdom on the subject of dead cows makes itself known in here.

Steeny:  Upon thinking further, I should change names, rather than remove them, lest some parts lose their sense. Does anyone have any preferred pseudonyms? If not, I will just make some up.

Steeny:  (I'll wait till tomorrow at the least, to give people a chance to see this if they're not on FB anytime soon, to think about an answer.)

Sir Basil:  Thing One and Thing Two?

Sir Basil:  Okay, you can call me "Sir Basil", ____ can be "Sir Jeffery", and ____ is "Cecily". I dunno about the rest of them :) 

Steeny:  ok! heeheheeee this is gonna be fun! (i'll wait to see if there are any objections or corrections to those suggestions, first, though). 

Fish Burger:  Call me fish Burger. :-)

Angus Patty:  Being as we are dealing with Cattle, it is tempting to try for a rugged western name... I dunno... say... John Wayne or some such... I am not thinking Sir Jeffery (The whole shtick would with what is implied would be a bit uncomfortable I think) Angus Patty? 

Steeny:  Angus Patty!!! ROFL! or vice versa for a girl. 

Angus Patty:  NICE



So, there we have it - a banter session from Facebook, unedited except for the name changes.

What did you think?  Am I the only one laughing at this?  Should I do more of them? 

Affectionately,

If you like my writing, click "Follow" at the top left of this page, or leave me a comment.



If you'd like to read more, there is a growing pile of it on the right hand column, arranged chronologically.


Here are a few samples:

• A Tea/Coffee Situation (a little silliness from my childhood)
• Wearing Masks In Walmart (a little silliness from my adulthood)
• My Attempted Weekend Getaway (an attempt to find sanity in my crazy adulthood)
• How Bloggers Make Money (some serious info)
• Pretending Everything's Fine When It's Not (some serious thoughts)

More Writing In The Works, But Not Quite Yet

Hi y'allz. 

 
According to the stats, there are still people coming back to read, although I've not posted much lately.  I do have more writing in the works.

I've been otherwise occupied, but I will be back.

I will be Bach!

And you be Beethoven.

Avec amour,

Here are a few oldies you may enjoy in the meantime:

Mozart And Me  (Surely I cannot be alone in my appreciation of this wonderful music!)
Holy Sheepdip! (a bit of back story on the title of this blog)
The Need To Communicate (some early testing-testing-1-2-3 type blog writing of mine)
Pickup Idea For Single Men (a silly little slice of life)
Short Version of My Long Story (I know a lot of my readers have been through abuse, so here's what I hope is some hope)

Plus, there's that whole pile of entries listed chronologically in the right hand sidebar of this blog.

And don't forget - bloggers make (a tiny bit of) money by readers clicking on links that interest them!

A Tea/Coffee Situation

Once upon a time, my sister and I were members of a tennis club.

I don't know how my parents afforded it, but they offered it to us and we gladly accepted, as we loved playing tennis.

My dad, who is a carpenter, built us a house in a beautiful British Columbian suburb, somehow managing to make the payments on the mortgage even though there were times when the carpenter's union had no work for him and we dug for leftover potatoes in a farmer's field in order to eat.

A picture I took of my dad in 1984 when I was standing on the deck of the house he'd built.

I didn't realize back then how poor we were.

I thought it was fun going out to the farms for potatoes, getting to spend time with my dad, digging in the dirt interspersed with playing in the nearby ditch and forest.

I like to think my dad really did love me back then.

I'd not know it if he does now.

He never - and I mean never - answers the phone when I call, and never returns my calls.

Funny how we'll still love those who don't seem to love us.

I don't chase after my dad anymore.

He's got his own life and has made his own decisions for reasons I may never know.

I still love him, though I hate how he ignores me.

I appreciate the sacrifices my dad made in order to raise me for 18 years.

Sure, he made mistakes.  Don't we all? 

When I was 25, showing him my first baby, the sight of whom moved him to tears, my dad looked at me and said, "I'm so sorry for the way I raised you.  I wish I could've done better."

I told him, "It's okay, Dad.  You did the best you could with what you had."

I think he really meant it.  I just don't understand why he has chosen to distance himself from me now.

Oh!  I know!  Maybe I could call him from my cell phone...

Wait, no... that's a tea/coffee situation.

Let me explain what that means:

You see, when I was 10-12, me 'n' my sister*, who's 18 months younger than me, were members of the local tennis club.

This ain't no tennis club, but this was me and my tennis (and badminton and assorted trouble) buddies back then.

Sis and I would go play our guts out on the tennis court, sometimes seriously, other times winging the ball over the fence as hard as we could into the forest on purpose, only to spend hours cooling down in the shade of the trees later hunting for our lost ball, coming out with at least half a dozen others -- and sometimes some empty pop bottles, too.

When we'd go into the club house, we'd brew up a mess of our favorite treat - coffee!

Yeah, I know, we were kind of young for it, but we loved coffee, with lots of milk and sugar cubes.

The sugar cubes were an absolute must.  Without them, we might as well have drank water mixed with dirt, that's how gross un-sugared hot beverages were to us.

One time when we had a hankering for coffee, we found that the sugar cube box was empty.

Our freshly-brewed coffee was sitting there smelling all delicious and tempting as we frantically dug through cupboards and drawers, hunting for sugar, but none could be found.

I said to my sis, "Oh well, that's okay... we'll just have tea."

 (I know I've put this song in another blog entry, but it fits here, too. 

 "No sugar tonight in my coffee, no sugar tonight in my tea.")

Late evening sun rays shone through the windows onto my sister's slightly annoyed face as her deadpan words came out,  "Steen.  We still don't have any sugar."

I knew that, but I'd just had to be facetious.

We burst out laughing at my mock-asinine comment, and for the rest of our lives, any time something came up where either way it wasn't going to work, we'd say, "Well, that's a tea/coffee situation."

Do you see what I mean now about my dad?  If I were to call him from a different phone, he's still not going to answer.

I have to humour myself or I'll let it get to me.

How about you?  Do you have silly things like that with your siblings and/or close friends?  Can you relate?

Love you guys.  Thanks for reading.

*For the grammar police out there, I want to mention that I do know it is improper to say "me 'n' my sister", but today I felt like ignoring the rules.  Thank you for your patience.

And if you still like my writing after all, go up to the top left of this page and click "Follow" to keep up to date with future blog entries.  Lots of old ones in the right-hand sidebar for your reading pleasure, and here are a few related and semi-related posts:

• Don't Let Me Get Me 
• No Shugga Tonight - Hot Beverages 
• Wow, I Love Being Ignored - Don't You? 
• When I Was A Teenager 

Nekkid Pictures Of Me

What time is it?







Time to think about nekkid pictures?









Time to think about what day it is?










Time to realize it is no longer March?












Time to realize it is the first day of April ?












As in April 1, 2012 - you know, April Foooooooools Day?









Time to realize you've been fooled?









APRIL FOOLS, preeeeevert!!!







Seriously, though, I do want to say one thing about nekkid (I love that spelling!) pictures of me, which I find disturbing:  back in August of 2004, a few days before my fifth baby was born, Sweet Man took some pictures of my pregnant belly, along with the rest of me, tastefully unclothed.

That's not the disturbing part.  He was enamored by my pregnant body, silly man!  Imagine!  My own husband loving the way I look!  Sinful?  I think not!

No, the disturbing part is that when we moved out of that house and into our new one in the summer of 2006, we couldn't find the pictures, and to this day we still haven't located them.

I've looked everywhere I could think to look, but still can't find them.

I hope they didn't fall into the wrong hands!

Maybe they accidentally got put into a bag or box of garbage and got thrown out.

It's bad enough to lose a batch of photos, but nekkid ones make it all the more disturbing.

So, yeah, that's all I want to say about that for now.

Can you relate?  Have you ever lost photos?  Nekkid ones?  Don't try to fool me, I bet you've got nekkid pictures kickin' around somewhere.

Have you ever found those lost photos?

Go ahead, laugh.  But if you ever have nekkid photos, remember my blog entry and hide them under lock and key lest they get lost.

(Oh, boy, I bet I'm gonna get some private messages on this one - "Steeny, what were you THINKING?  How can you write such things?" LOL!  Well, you read this far, so hey...)

(Joe Cocker's famous "Leave Your Hat On" video here).

Related and semi-related blog entries:

• Posting Pictures Can Be Perilous
• According To Him, I'm Beautiful
• Just Breathe (A Few Of My Unfavorite Things) 
• Long Hair Going Crazy Video - Blondie 

If you like-a my writing, subscribe and don't miss a beat - just click on "Follow" at the top left of the page.

The Risk Of Friendship

It's a risk.

A gamble.

Putting yourself out there and not knowing if you're going to get anything in return.

I hate gambling, and I never do it with money, so why do I do it with the thing that is worth infinitely more than anything temporal - my spirit?

Why?

Is it worth the risk?

Friendship is worth more than any amount of monetary gain I could ever imagine.

Investing a little piece of my heart in something that may fail also has the flip-side of possibly succeeding.

But, oh how the failure hurts!

I'm one of those people who has a "friend list" on Facebook numbering in the hundreds, but if someone were to ask me how I know so many people, I'd have to say, "I don't."

Real friends in my life I can count on my fingers.

And with me, counting on my fingers is a serious thing.

I do medical transcription from home.  If my fingers get damaged, my income suffers, and that's huge.

When I lose a friend, my heart suffers, and that's huge.

("Knee Deep In A River", by Kathy Mattea)

Dang, the above video is a little off in the audio sync, but anyway, it fits here.  I wonder if Kathy Mattea knows about Facebook - she might find some long lost treasures there.

Don't get me wrong - those I count as real friends are more than the ten fingers I've got, but I mean a lot of the people on my Facebook friend list are acquaintances with whom I rarely or never communicate.

Is anyone truly close with a ton of people?

I wonder about that.

I've always been a semi-loner, being close with only a few people, yet adoring, admiring, and appreciating many.

One of my dearest buddies has nearly 3000 people on his friend list, but I know that he is the same as me in the whole "very few people are my real friends" thing.

I was about to publish this, but then I decided to add one more song, which I saw on the Facebook wall of a beloved friend, which speaks to me of brotherly/friendship love, something that is lacking in this world.

("Love The One You're With" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young)

As I commented to that friend on her wall, when I first heard this song in my early teens, the guy who was my boyfriend at the time got mad at me for saying that I thought loving the one you're with is a wonderful thing.  In his twisted way, he accused me of meaning "have sex with the one you're with".

Maybe that was his interpretation but it's never been mine.

I don't know what the song writers had in mind when they wrote it, but my take on it is that we should treat our friends with love - as in the Greek word "phileo", brotherly/friendship kind of love - for the one with whom we are communicating, the one who is giving us a piece of their life.

Reciprocate.

Give of yourself as they are giving of themselves, and enjoy it.

If you're my friend, thank you for handling my heart with care.

If you're just getting to know me, keep up the good work.  I'll try not to let you down, too.

My heart is an investment and an asset to you, as you and your heart are to me.

With phileo,

"Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor."

Romans 12:10 

If you like my writing, subscribe to this blog by clicking "Follow" at the top left of the page.

Related and semi-related posts:

• A Man Who Truly Loves Me
• The NEED To Communicate
• Alone In This World
• Wow, I Love Being Ignored - Don't You?

Wearing Masks in Wal-Mart

Do you have certain friends or family members with whom, whenever you get together, you go from an average, reasonably sane person, to, well, a weirdo?

(Video above - "Creep" by Radiohead)

I know some people like that.

Or maybe it's my fault.

I don't know - they ARE related to me.

Particularly when I'm out with any combination of my kids, especially my oldest three (daughters aged 19, 18, and 15 at this point in time), we feed off of each other's silliness and reactivity.

That was an honest typo!  I meant "creativity", but reactivity works, too.  

Freudian slip or what. 

Anyway, about the masks.

Last October (2011), a couple of my daughters and I were in Save On Foods in Williams Lake, BC, and we were eyeballing some eye masks.  They were presumably for Halloween, but because I don't celebrate that (I'm bad enough in my own way and have no interest in celebrating something with blatant darkness behind it, but that's fodder for another blog entry), I decided not to buy them.

I regretted it later.

Then in February, we were in that store again, and I asked the lady at the cosmetic counter if by any chance they might possibly have any of those eye masks still kicking around since October.

I expected raised eyebrows and a comment to the effect of, "Um, it's long past October..."

But no! There were some left! We tried on several until we found just the right ones.

After we bought them, we went to the water place, where we go to fill up our 5-gallon jugs with purified H2O to take home to our dispenser for our drinking pleasure.

We walked into the water place wearing our masks, and the lady who owns the business laughed and laughed and laughed.  She told us to go into the back room and say hi to the lady working there, telling us to address her by name, with which she furnished us - I'll call her Sally. We greeted Sally and got a strange look in return as she apparently wondered if she knew us. The shop owner then joined us, with peals of laughter. We explained to Sally that we really weren't people she knew, so not to worry. I think she was relieved.

Off we drove to get gas for the vehicle.  I got a few strange looks from passersby as I pumped gas. Then in the grocery store, we got questioning looks. A security guy lifted his walkie-talkie to his mouth and looked right at us from several yards away. When we were at the check-stand paying for our items, the cashier had such a questioning look, I volunteered the story without her asking.

Finally, we headed to our ultimate destination - Walmart! - and someday, maybe we will achieve the appropriate level of weirdness to wind up in a "People Of Walmart" video.

As we walked through the door wearing our masks, the Walmart greeter lady greeted us with a huge grin and a hearty, "WELL!  WELCOME to WALMART!" (translation - "Yo, look at these chicks!  We get ALL KINDS in here!")

We headed to the stationery section, where we knew they sold wooden letters, and set up for our mini photo shoot, the product of which you can see below:

 

Several people in the store asked us variants of "what's up with the masks?"

I retold basically what you've already read in this blog entry, and by the fourth telling of it, I said aloud, "We should print out leaflets to explain what we're doing, to rest the mind of curious onlookers."

We thought we were being so incognito. Imagine my surprise as I heard someone call my name while we walked through the parking lot.

I turned to see several members of a family we know, and I again retold the story.

And now you know... (said in a Paul Harvey voice) ... the REST of the story. 

I'll end with a quote from one of my favorite movies, "The Mask", starring Jim Carrey:

"We all wear masks - metaphorically speaking."

Think about THAT!

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Have you ever done anything "weird" in public, just for laughs?  

Or are you hiding behind a mask and aren't going to talk about it?

Leave me a comment in the box below!

Here are some other things I wrote:

• Highly Sensitive People
• Neil Of Fortune
• Serbian Accents
• Nekkid Pictures Of Me 

Upcoming Blog Posts

I've got over 60 blog entries in draft mode.

Some of them are just a title with a note or two, some of them are almost done, and some are finished but are sitting in limbo waiting to find out if this author will post or ditch them.

Here is a partial list of what I've got in the works:

1. Hewlett-Packard Stole My Hard Drive
2. Unschooling
3. Cloth Menstural Pads – Yeah, You Read That Right!
4. How I Lowered My Cholesterol – Green Tea et al
5. The Joy Of Coconut Oil
6. Living By The Skin Of My Teeth
7. How Shakira O’Neil Came To Be
8. Short Video On The Power Of Words
9. This Thing About Men’s Fingers
10.  The Only Time I Had An Energy Drink
11. My Dad Smashed My Tape Deck & My Guitar
12. Rebuilding Credit
13. Free Food For Homeless In Kamloops, BC
14. Ridiculously Romantic Heart
15. So Much Love Yet Feeling Alone
16. Medical Transcription From Home?
17. A Mini Journal of a Sh***y Few Days
18. Hiding Behind Internet Masks
19. How I Deal With Telemarketers
20.  Misunderstanding Love
21. Wearing Eye Masks In Public
22. Foiling A Shoplifter
23. Livening Up Long Hair
24. Love – Everybody Wants It
25. Cussing
26. Home Churching In The Alaskan Wilderness
27. What’s Up With Me and “Religion”?
28. I Hate HATE HAAATE!!! TV
29. Big Soft Round Cookie With “Peaunt”?
30. When People Say “Nevermind”
31. Why Bus Rear Windows Don’t Open
32. Anonymously Ordering Pizza For Neighbours
33. Saving For Retirement – Not Too Early or Too Late
34. By Blog Has No Niche
35. What Is Love? (Don’t Hurt Me)
36. Nekkid Pictures Of Me
37. Sadness and Heartbreak
38. The Led Zeppelin Post (1 of possibly many)
39. Horse Logging in BC
40. Lost Love
41. My Stormy Seas Jacket
42. Alaskan Wilderness and Snail Mail
43. Beauty Secrets Of An Average Jane
44. Stevia – No Mo’ Shugga Tonight!
45. Ghosts Of April Fools Past
46. Pointless Stories I Tell My Kids
47. Rocketman (Harland Williams) – Movie Review
48. Being A Mom of 7 Is Serious Bidness
49. Respectful Communication
50. Courthouses and Me
51. Hugs!
52. Oatmeal – Da Plain! Da Plain!
53. Lesser Of Two Evils Re: Love
54. My Teen Years 3 - Gorbachev

If any in particular grab your eye, let me know in a comment so I will be motivated to hurry up and get those ones churned out.

I type over 100 words per minute so it's no big deal to rack up this many posts in a short period of time, squeezing a few sentences in betwixt working or waiting for something to cook, or when needing another break in my endlessly busy days.

I'll leave you with a song, just because I like it:

Bron-Y-Aur Stomp - Led Zeppelin

Avec amour,

Past posts you may enjoy:

• Pretending Everything's Fine When It's Not
• Mozart And Me
• Serbian Accent 
• Fet Bottom Gerrells - Russian Eccent 

My Teen Years 2 - About A Boy

I sat in the hallway of my old high school on a bench beside a window, reading a huge book of poems by Bob Dylan I'd borrowed from the library.

Although I was enjoying the book, the real reason I was on that bench was in hopes of catching a glimpse of this guy I liked.

I was in love with a boy who didn't love me.

(There's a song here by Cheap Trick)

Oh, we were friends - partners in crime even.  We hung out together sometimes, but other times he avoided me and I knew it.

I had boyfriends, some good, some bad, but none of them stuck.  All through high school, since I met him in grade 9, he was the one I really wanted.

He was cute, and cool, and he played guitar. 

He had a job and he had a car.

He was smart, creative, and witty, and he made me smile.

He came from the same kind of background as me

A rebel, a dysfunctional family

A mystery, a sinner, a friend, a heart-breaker with style.

I'm not feeling creative enough to rhyme the time he stole a pair of my jeans, nor about when he showed up blithering drunk at my parents' house late one night and I somehow swiped his black leather jacket.

Age 17, playing his guitar, at his house, picture taken by him.

We've kept in touch sporadically, running into each other here and there, and over the past few years even chatting the odd time on Facebook.  I still consider him a friend.  I've long ago gotten over the insane infatuation, of course, realizing that any guy who's going to ignore me isn't worth chasing, but at the time, in my wild and untrained youth, he was the only reason I stayed in school.

Foolishness of the past?  Or lesson learned?  I'm leaning towards lesson.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,

to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Can you relate?  Did you ever love someone who didn't love you?  Tell me about it - leave a comment!

From the heart,

If you like my writing, check out my other entries in the right hand column near the top of this page, and click "follow" on the top left of this page.

Related and semi-related posts:

• When I Was A Teenager 
• Wow, I Love Being Ignored, Don't You? - Ugh!
• Poetry And Song Lyrics, My Own And Otherwise