Update

Bonjour Blogworld

I'm making progress at French class. I bet you're glad for me.

It's preoccupying me, taking tons of time and energy and I'm really trying to do well at it. Does anyone want to correspond with me en français? If so, I'm at nosyparker9@yahoo.com

What else can I tell you.

Because of French class, I don't have much time left with The Man. He's pretty busy anyway and just doesn't have much time available, so it's probably just as well.

The Olympics are over. Did I mention that we won at hockey? Women's and Men's? Yes, I thought I had.

I'm thinking of getting a new phone. Everyone in the world has a smartphone except me. Maybe it's time.

I've finished a big work project. I've hired a cleaning lady. I haven't been to the gym in ages. It's time to go. I know.

I'm not sure what else to tell. I've scaled back on volunteer activities and actually said no to a couple of requests. I think the requestors were surprised. I was sort of surprised by myself.

What else should I write about? Write me and give me some advice, ask questions, or be provocative and annoying so I write back. Inspire me!

-sin

Questions

Who is getting up to watch hockey tomorrow morning at 7? 

Will you be drinking coffee or beer while it happens?

Will you be at home or at a bar or in Sochi?

Who thinks it's crazy? Who wouldn't miss it for the world?

Volunteering

I spent this morning doing a volunteer thing.

Which was really nice and completely exhausting.

And now I just want a nap.

And I feel very very happy that I did it. And that it's over.

I was in charge of organizing this event, and I wasn't sure how well it was going to go, or whether all my volunteers would show up (only one didn't show!) and whether everyone would like my volunteer thing. Because I'm such a pleaser, I worry about people LIKING everything.

So it was good. It went well. It's over.

I made some friends, and did some good and taught some stuff and worked with kids and ... It was good. 

And I'm sooooooo tired.

Prayers

Yesterday was a weird day. A funeral, a hospital visit to the psych ward, and two moms who I'm close to have desperately ill babies.

Makes you think about priorities.

And prayer.

I'm not really a big believer in prayer. I'm a skeptic.

But sometimes I really really want it to be true.

I think this is one of those times.

Please let everyone be alright.

Praying for a speedy and full recovery, for the babies and the anorexic girl in the wheelchair.

Ah Football...

I know... shocking to some of you, but absolutely true. In fact, I don't even know who is playing. Okay really I don't usually know there's a game on.

Just sayin...
                 

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And yeah, I'm working on questions we'd want to ask Dominants. Do you have a Dom you have questions for? What questions would you want to ask? Would he answer?

Winter Prayer

Seriously.

It's stupidly, horribly cold.

They said yesterday was -41 Celsius with the wind chill. Fahrenheit and Celsius meet at -40 btw, that's probably all you need to know.

And it's been insanely cold for most of a week that I had off. So cold that going out risks frostbite or hypothermia unless you are just rushing out to the car and even that's pretty miserable. We talk about which car we are going to take, heated seats or heated steering wheel. And which car heating system works the most efficiently.

No skiing, no skating, no winter fun. No walking or running outside.

Wear a hat, scarf, boots and WARM mittens. Wear a jacket with a hood, just in case. If your car does have problems be prepared to walk away.

The furnace in my house isn't keeping up. No it's not cold in my house, not really, but it's not warm either. The restaurant we went to last night was in an older building. It was cold there.

And for my asshole facebook friends who are in Florida or the Carribbean or Mexico and are whining about having to come back. We've heard your boasting for 2 weeks. We do not feel any sympathy for you having to return. In fact, we want to meet you at the airport and hose you down so you can catch up on the cold weather misery we have felt for a week.

Brrrr.

Something I Never Leave The House Without - Day 3

My phone. I know it's boring but it's the thing I never go without.

I was the first kid on the block with a cell phone. It was 1991 and it was huge and heavy. I sure knew whether it was in my purse or not. 

I've had a few new ones since then.

Right now I have 2. One for work, and one for me.

I take mine everywhere. Just in case.

I live not quite in the country but almost. And I take it in case I get stranded. It's a safety thing for me. It's less about always being able to chat with my friends or family, and more about being able to call for help if I have car problems.

And my Dominant likes to be able to reach me, so I take it for him.

And I run, so I've called for a rescue a couple of times, and a couple of times just cause I couldn't make it home again..

I didn't always take it running. When you run, you want to run light if you can.  My husband used to nag me to take it, and sometimes I would, and sometimes I wouldn't.

Once I was training for a half marathon. Training was going well, it was several weeks before the race and I was doing a long practice run. It was cold and damp, kind of crummy but the run was going well. At about 15 kilometres I slipped, twisted my ankle, badly, and fell by the side of the road, onto the shoulder rather than the busy highway thank goodness. I called home to say I had hurt myself and to tell them where I was. My rescuers were there in about 10 minutes to drive me home and ice my ankle, which was about the size of a grapefruit by the time I got home.  Which prevented me from running the darn thing, or running at all for about 6 months btw.

So when I'm tempted to go without I think of that day and almost always take it.  Though occasionally, very occasionally, If I only go out for 20 minutes, I'll live on the edge and go without.

A Favourite Movie - Day 2

Ummm, I'm not a very movie person. I don't see lots of them, don't watch lots of TV, I'm more about words on a page than pictures on a screen.

And I'm a hopeless romantic when it comes to movies. I'm a bit more nuanced when it comes to books, but I like romantic movies, teary movies, but movies where the guy gets the girl in the end.

My favourite movie might be Gone With the Wind. It was for a long time. I love it. I love Rhett Butler. He's so damn sexy. And I love that he's pretty Dom and the clothes are gorgeous and there's so much undercurrent about morals and expectations and ... yeah. I love the interaction between the two of them, the tension, her trying to boss him around, his refusal to be bossed. Growing up, I think that Rhett/Clark was my perfect man, smart, bossy, successful, older and oh so sexy. That might be my favourite movie. And I know it doesn't really seem like it, but I've always been convinced that it does eventually end happily. He comes back to her, because he can't stay away, and she's learned her lesson, works at making it work and they live happily ever after. Could happen, right?

 I also love Star Wars. It has adventure. Technology. Ideology. Some comedy. Good against evil. A bit of love interest. She says, "I love you." He says, "I know". Yes of course it was always Han Solo. It kind of shocks me that there could have been any question there of choosing Luke over Han. Han had that bad boy thing going on. Luke was ... well more like your brother right? So no big surprise when that turned out to be the case. And really, anything else that Harrison Ford has ever been in... yum.


Or Pretty Woman. Yes, so politically incorrect in so many ways. Happy, sad, unrealistic, great music that makes me happy. Of course I know that it's not that simple and that life as a hooker isn't pretty. But I just love the love story in it. Does it matter that she starts off as a hooker? Maybe not, I think it's a Cinderella story with a great shopping scene in it.And it's funny. And the guy gets the girl in the end. Or is it the girl getting the guy?

So those are my movie picks. What do you mean I was supposed to pick one? I don't think it said I had to just pick ONE did it? No way. And btw, they might be different picks on different days. Maybe. Although nothing else comes to mind. Yeah, I know they're all old. Hey, do you notice they all have older men in them? Coincidence? Probably not.

A Place I'd Like to Go - Day 1

There are so many places I'd like to travel. How can I choose?

 

I’d like to go everywhere. And somehow there aren’t that many places I’ve been.

 

I always thought I would travel more. But first I was in school forever. Jobs were hard to find and I was good at school so I did several degrees and finished late. There was really no money for travel at that point.

 

After grad school I found a job, got married and started having babies pretty quickly. Once again there wasn’t the time or the money to travel much.

 

I did go a couple of places, to France and to England. They were the top of my list of must see places, but there were so many other places I wanted to see.

 

So what’s on my bucket list? Everything? Everywhere? No, not really.

 

But the top of the list is Italy. 

 

I’ve always wanted to go to Italy.

 

From the time I was a little girl there was a fascination, first with the Romans. The Gods and Goddesses, the Roman Empire, the legions, all of it. History everywhere. Later the Renaissance, the castles and cathedrals, Vatican City, museums, statues, paintings, Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice, Tuscany. 2000 years of history and museums and galleries and beauty.

 

I knew a woman once, who used to rent a villa in Tuscany every year for a month or so. I was and am so envious.  

 

Two of my best friends got married a couple of years ago and went to Italy for their honeymoon. They’re both arty, creative, they spent weeks in museums. I wanted to go too.

 

I want to see it all, I want to stay for months and see every bit of it. My family is disinterested. I might be able to talk them into a couple of days, perhaps a week. I’d never persuade them to go for longer.

 

So that’s my dream vacation.

 

Sure there are other places too, Spain, Portugal, back to France to see the castles in the Loire Valley. China, India, Nepal. Hawaii (it seems so exotic to me, I know it probably isn’t but I want to go anyway!), Turkey, Egypt, Brazil.

 

But Italy is my first choice.

Intimidation - Vanilla

This isn't dirty, so if you are here looking for something dark and twisty today, you'll want to move along quickly. This is kind of angsty real life stuff.

I have to  write something for work and I'm nervous about it.

I write stuff all the time. I write here, as you know.

And for work I write memos and letters and presentations and briefing notes and persuasive stuff and ... this is different.

It's different because it's something to be published and I'm nervous about the permanence of it. I'm nervous about people reading it now or in 10 years and thinking wow, she was so stupid, she didn't get this at all. I'm nervous of them thinking I've missed the point, or made a bad argument or (worst of all!)  not done enough research.

It all just paralyzes me. I've started this paper I'm trying to write at least 3 times before. I research it, write it, play with it a bit and then for no apparent reason I just leave it and walk away.

I don't HAVE to publish stuff in my job. But it would sure help. It would help in terms of prestige and credibility and those would be good things.

I do presentations all the time. I'm good at them. Somehow the transience of the oral presentation helps me. Even if it's not perfect I can cover. I can distract, turn the conversation, shape the discussion. Control things.

I think it's needing to be perfect that intimidates me. But it's also somehow, just submitting the project and letting it sink or swim on its own.

Interesting how the language fits here isn't it? Control, submission.

So in this coming week, I need to find some way past that intimidation, to producing a product.

Wish me luck.