Something worth your consideration...

I found this on one of my friend's facebook pages, which I further traced back to this page. You can buy the poster here. Puts things in perspective don't it.

Spring

Spring in your step. Spring cleaning. Spring peepers. This, and more, is what Spring means to me. It may be my new favorite season (Fall was, and maybe still is my favorite, I haven't decided yet). Even the gentle spring rains don't get me down. And how I love to just turn off all the lights, and sit by my window during a thunderstorm. I get overly excited when I hear the season's first spring peepers low and memorizing in the night air. Too bad that I live in town for the time being. I miss those little peepers.

What's really got my in a Spring fever is looking at all the luscious blossoms and greens that are peaking out. Especially after a good rain to show the signs of Mother Nature wake. It kills me however, that I don't have a yard of my own. No garden this year. This is the first year in my 24 years of existence, that I won't be playing, helping, growing a garden. No fresh vegetables from my own soil. My hands are clean in my spare time. My skin isn't kissed by the sun. And it kills me. I have to take solitude in others outside garden creations, and find the little joys that Spring gives through nature.

I have come to a compromise though. I have brought some green love into my townhouse. A little catnip sprig, to share my love of gardening with Sonny Jim. If he's real good, I pluck a small leaf for him to roll on top of, and soon devour. I bought a small orchid that was on the sales rack at Lowes. The poor little thing is only about 6 inches tall, and has but only one blossom.

Lastly, I find myself wondering my townhouse community. When no one is looking, I pluck and snip small branches of blooming trees and flowers, and whisk them away into my home. If I can't live out in the country for the moment, why not bring the country and nature in?

Its a Sonny kinda Day

It's a gorgeous sunny day, I know it, the birds know, and Sonny Jim Scrambles knows it. I feel bad enough that Sonny Jim is cooped up in our little townhouse all day, but when the windows are open, you can just hear the birds taunting him. He spends endless hours sitting at the windows, tail twitching, making bird calls, and desperately wanting to be outside. If it wasn't for my fear of him being 'cat napped' or made into a roadkill pizza, I'd be fine with letting him out in the suburban wild. For now, he'll just have to wait one more week until he can be set free into the Pennsylvania Wilds

.

Until then, Sonny Jim Scrambles will have to make do with the ol' harness and leash when going outside. It's not the best for hunting birds and angry squirrels, but at least he can grab some fresh air, green grass, and the scent of spring.

Calm and collect
With the smooth drawl
Lighting up the night
Glowing with each touch to my lips
The night is still
With the exception of the sultry dance of your smoke
Colliding with the sweet, hesitant breeze
I inhale the tingle
I exhale the longing

The taste I cannot forget
The cigarette

Spring into Action

Yesterday was just such a beautiful day, that I absolutely couldn't waste it on staying inside for any of it. I did sleep in though, and it was a much needed sleep.

The boy and I drove around the many neighborhoods of Columbus looking for potential homes, and stopped in to our first Open House. Prior to this excursion, I googled 'Going to your first open house'. After reading a few articles, this is what I got from it, and put into practice:

• Treat Open Houses as if your visiting a new friends home
• Knock, or ring the doorbell before entering
• Wipe your shoes on the (hopefully present) welcome mat
• Greet the Realtor--she/he will then give you goodies and flyers about the house
• Feel free to wander around and look, It's what your there for
• Be nebby--look in closets and behind washer and dryers, this could possibly be your home
• Don't be too nebby--sometimes the owners still live in the houses, so while you're checking out the linen closet, you don't have to check out their towels and soaps.
• Compliments and Criticisms--I found it easier for me to remember homes when I said these out loud "Oh man, it has natural lighting' or "I can smell dog poop in the wind" Just don't over do your compliments and criticisms
• Ask questions! That's why the Realtor is there
• Be sure to thank the Realtor before you leave for their time

After about 5 houses, in 2 hours, the temperature started heating up. I could peel away my overcoat and enjoy the sun more directly. I still wore a long sleeved tee due to the Spring breeze. Still having a good portion of the day, me and the boy drove over to the State Park and did some hiking/geo caching. We bought some water and cliff bars, and brought our phones and cameras, but then had nowhere to put all this. Crafty me, I converted my sweatshirt into an over the shoulder sack. It worked wonders, and didn't get in the way of me walking. We found a little geo cache on our hike. We had nothing to trade, other than our thoughts on the day. We walked in the park for a good 2-3 hours, then decided to follow the sun and head home.

After all the good clean air, and the much need hike in nature, I fixed the boy and I a hearty meal of junk food. Chip dip, buffalo chicken wings, and philly cheese steak sliders. Mmm artificial and very non healthy goodness. Good thing this isn't a habbit!

Cheap Date

After a long week of work, and the whole weekend off, I decided that I wanted a date night with the boy. We tossed around the idea of going out to eat. Nothing fancy, maybe to an Applebees or Chilis. Naw. I didn't want any of that. Neither did I want Chinese, Mexican, or Thai. Then we thought about skipping a nice dinner, and just going out. Find a band. Find a seat. Find some drinks. Naw. Then I thought, Let's have a date night here!

We drove down to the local liquor store and gave it a walk through. I wanted to try something new, instead of the same old domestics that I always drink. I chose a Spring Sampler Pack of New Belgium Beer. Spring was in the air, and the box looked cool and retro. The boy, after much deliberation, chose 6 random beers and made a sampler of his own.













We drove home. The boy did research on the beers he had selected, I naturally dove right into mine. We both jumped up on the couch, put up the Netflix channel, and agreed on watching past seasons of Saturday Night Live. Only 3 beers later was I done, which is kinda lame, ha ha. The boy, not really being into beer, drank one and was done. By then, it was already tickin to midnight. At some point I fell asleep on the couch, and the boy had to wake me up and guide me up stairs to the bed.

All in all, it was a nice, and cheap date night. Instead of us spending mucho monies on a meal, then add drinks on top of that, our bill would have easily amounted to $50.00+. If we had just went out to a bar, again, our bill would still have been around $30.00, plus we would have lost the intimacy of each other. And most likely return home smelling like cigarette smoke.

Why?

Why are you here?
Do you fear death?
Are you fulfilled?

I came across this book the same way anyone comes across anything through the internet, you just stumble upon it. I read the description, wrote down the title and author, and left for the library, all in a time span of 30 minutes (I had also written down the title and authors of a few other books that I have yet to read). Anywho, I just finished John P. Strelecky's The Why Cafe, where it points out who the person you are presently, and gives a mirror image of who the person you want to be in the future, and sets the guidelines of how to get there. But beware, if you're looking for cut and dry answers on self improvement, you won't find them here. In this book, which I wholeheartedly agree with, the answers all involve your Self.

To answer the top, 3 questions of why, do, are, honestly I would have to say, I am here to help people. I do fear death. And I most certainly am not fulfilled.

The story takes the scene of a stressed out man that needs to 'get away from it all and recharge'. On his way to his sought out retreat, the gentleman becomes lost, and in his despair, he finds this lonely, little cafe along the roadside in the middle of nowhere, and stops in. This scenario surely represents all individuals who were, or still are, lost at one point. I am very confident to say, that I am still lost, but I have great feeling that I'm at least on the correct road.

Perspective is a theme in the book. I know that I am so conditioned to look at life at one perspective, that it's very hard for me to break that concentration, and view the world through other perspectives. I tend to see the world through others expectations. Have a career. Make lots of money. Get married. Raise a family. Retire. And this book hits all those points head on. The man in the story might as well have been myself. Trying to look at the world through my perspective is much harder to do. I am very programmed, but I have recently started to try and unprogram myself to be me, and seen things through my eyes, with my own perspective.

The book also emphasizes a time line of sorts. The characters share stories, and through these stories you find out that, Do what you need to do now to fulfill your existence. Why wait till you're retired? By then, you may be too old and feeble to follow your aspirations. Your outlook on life may have changed. You may have forgotten what you use to dream about. Why wait till it's too late? Start doing that which fulfills you. But don't be fooled into doing that which you think fulfills you.

I don't want to give too much away, and surely don't want to you to take away only my thoughts and translations to what the story means. This book is very idividualized, meaning, it has a different agenda, lesson, and perspective to each reader that it finds.

Oh, and Happy April Fools Day!