Holiday Time musing

So it's holiday time again and I've got a few thoughts on my mind I wanted to get out.
I just finished watching 'Elf' again (yay Zooey Deschanel!) and as absurd as it may sound, it gets me going sometimes right at the end when she starts singing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' You know why? well, because at that moment, everything is kind of just pure. Pure emotion whatever it may be, really affects. It's like trying to experience things like a child does. That child has no clue how to take his experience except from a completely pure and untainted state of mind. You can enjoy the wonder of the world for what it is, no pretense, no history to color your thoughts, just the moment. I know we've all experienced it before, just getting lost in the moment.
I've been listening to this singer (got it from Issa originally), Molly Lewis and the best i can describe, going along with this post, is that her music is just fun. That's it. and that's enough. =)

Sad day

So last night, around 10pm, my neighbor down on the corner, passed away. Him and his wife were the very first people that welcomed me to the neighborhood, even before my house was completed. He was a large and friendly gentleman, always willing to stop what he was doing and just shoot the shit as they say. He was a bit crass, but always always respectful and warm and him and his family make this neighborhood feel like home.
We don't usually get to pick our neighbors, but I can't say enough about the folks who have been placed by my side here and it's truly a sad day to have lost one so suddenly.
He had just celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary with his loving wife and she still calls him her best friend. Amazing. How absolutely lucky and blessed she is to have had 25 years and even in his last night, she told him he had stick around for at least another 20 years and although he had trouble speaking, he eeked out, "no, 70". I can only hope and pray to have even just a sliver of a moment of time with a love like that.
Say hello to Jesus for me Randy and pop a beer for me...

To the couple in 19A and B

Thank you for sharing your plane ride with me today! Isn't it funny how open and accommodating we all become when we're crammed up in small and uncomfortable quarters with the most stranger of the strangers out there?
If you don't believe that we as human beings long for connections and human interaction and belonging, then you really haven't sat next to anyone on a plane! It's amazing what we allow ourselves to share for the few little hours of our lives that we share with one another. Now granted, this can be a dangerous thing, but come on, go bungee jumping, live a little! Take a leap!
I've met some of the nicest people on planes and it really makes me put a little more hope in the human race when I do. There's so many people out there who don't give a d*mn about you and me and it's all me me me, but honestly, I like to think that's a small minority, and when I complete a plane ride as I did today, I am uplifted with a bit of hope.
So to John and Elaine from Jersey, thanks for the ride, I hope I was as much of a joy to your flight as you were to mine!

We all make our order

It’s funny how peoples’ minds work isn’t it? Take my own, my mind seems to make memories based on smells, tastes, and vehicles. Sometimes, I remember someone’s face by remembering the car they used to drive, but more often than not, it seems to come in that order, car, then face. A lot of times, it’s the same with events and faces when I’m eating. They say your memory is really linked to your sense of smell and it’s really true for me. Food, then faces.
So think how odd to me that this past week I spent in New Jersey and New York, working, eating. Food, work, then faces. I’ve been absolutely ecstatic that I was able to get reservations at Babbo Italian Restaurant, Mario Batali’s restaurant. It takes a month in advance at least, to get reservations and luckily this time around, I was able to plan things out to get those reservations. In fact, this time around, I had enough advance notice to actually put together a small group to eat with that was not just limited to coworkers that were with me on the trip. Faces, food.
Therein lies the oddity. For all intents and purposes, I should have been absolutely ready, prepared to immerse myself in this wonderful food, prepared with deliberation and intent for the sole purpose of eating and yes, entertaining me and my friends. But I have to say, the food wasn’t the highlight, I didn’t even THINK to bring out my camera to take pictures until almost the end of the meal, and did not stay the conversation to expressly enjoy the food itself. No, the conversation and fun, flowed just as evenly as the 9 wonderful courses made their way out to us, and in fact, overwhelmed the experience and makes me sit back now thinking. This was an experience! Gastronomical, yes, but social, and utterly enjoyable. 2 hours, 2 bottles, 9 courses, 3 unrelated, but completely open and enjoyable guests at the table. THIS is how we should all experience our meals, this is how we should break bread and enjoy people. So simple! Beautiful food, wonderful company, and truly, the time to enjoy it all. If only all our meals could be enjoyed as such! Faces, voices, food.

Extraordinary

I am absolutely flabbergasted that every day I am presented with someone in my life - friend, family, stranger - that is absolutely extraordinary in some way, shape, or form. Seriously. I am surrounded by the most amazing and interesting people. I may not realize it at the time, but reflection makes my eyes see what I may not have in the moment.
Let's all fine-tune our senses and find the extraordinary in others 'in the moment' so that we can reflect on how lucky we are to live this life.

Wake up in the morning

So every morning I'm woken by the sounds of Christian radio (KSBJ) via my alarm clock. Some mornings I wake up early enough to catch Dr. James C. Dobson and his Focus on the Family talkshow. I don't always necessarily listen full-ear to the ground when it comes up (I just woke up!), but today I woke up to him reading something.
It wasn't his voice that made me perk up, but what he was reading. I just sat, completely wrapped up in the words that felt like they were flowing from the author herself - Dr. Dobson's mother. It was a letter, a love letter in fact, to her husband who had just passed at the time. The words were absolutely heart-wrenching and left me in an almost grief-stricken state as I sat and pondered what had happened. The short of it? I think one line I remember sums it up best - "we became me."
It wasn't the eloquence that made me rapt to listen, but the simplicity of her letter - not in the simplicity of the words, but the raw, basic emotions that they were written from. It's like a single string in a cacophony of sounds that becomes bold and strong, different from the others around it.

This was truly love in the greatest and simplest form and I hope that we all get a chance to experience it.

sorry for the reference

So I watch 'How I Met Your Mother' pretty religiously and today's episode struck a chord. I'll just post a short transcript:

"...The great moments of your life won't necessarily be the things you do, they'll also be the things that happen to you. Now I'm not saying you can't take action to affect the outcome of your life, you have to take action, and you will. But never forget, that on any day, you can step out the front door, and your whole life can change forever. You see the universe has a plan, kids, and that plan is always in motion. A butterfly flaps its wings and it starts to rain. It's a scary thought, but it's also kind of wonderful; all these little parts of the machine, constantly working, making sure that you end up exactly where you're supposed to be, exactly when you're supposed to be there. The right place, at the right time. "


maybe we all need to take a lesson sometimes