Black Moon
I celebrated the Black Moon last night with friends. The next one won’t be until three years from now.
Here’s to new beginnings and positive energy.
Oh Puppy!
Today, my puppy Toby went in for his neutering surgery. He’s doing fine. Just resting. This is the first time I ever raised a dog, so everything is trial and error. I didn’t get a dog for the longest time because I wasn’t home enough to take care of one. Now that I own a house, I’m more inclined to stay home to maintain the house, so now I have time for a dog.
The idea of getting a dog was intimidating. To me, the puppy is closely related to the concept of having a permanent toddler around. For example, you have to make sure the house is dog proof, you get up in the middle of the night to let the puppy out to potty, you wake up at an early hour to feed the puppy to maintain a schedule, and so on. It’s work and time.
Babies and toddlers are intimidating to me on their own. They can’t speak to tell me why they are crying or what they need. So, everything is trial and error and a guessing game to me.
Same goes for a puppy. It’s all a guessing game. It is true that consistency is the key. Toby seems to be 98% house broken….except when he’s in another house. I’ve learned you have to retrain them where to go potty when they’re in different environment, especially if it has other animal smells.
Hello?
*microphone tap*
*tap*
*tap*
I thought I would be fine walking away from blogging. Yet, here I am. I’ve missed it.
I miss the chance to explain the amusing thoughts that visit me throughout the day. They are friendly and familiar guests who stay awhile and linger enough to ignite my creativity again.
I get my best ideas and solutions to problems when I wake up from a deep sleep around 3 or 4 am. It’s true. Every night (err…morning?), I wake up around the same time at a ghastly early hour. These ideas/solutions are fantastic! It’s a shame to not share them. This is why I’m back for now.
I am also hoping writing my thoughts will cure a growing restlessness I’ve had for months now. Restlessness is itchy and uncomfortable, but someone once said you can only grow from being uncomfortable. I don’t know who said it….some person….I’m bad at the quotes thing. Anyway, it’s nice to be back.
Hey! I’m walkin here!
I was at afternoon bus duty, when I suddenly hear, “Hey! I’m walkin here!” This came from middle school girl who was talking to another person in the bus line. I was thrown for a moment because it sounded exactly like the line Dustin Hoffman delivered in Midnight Cowboy.
Several minutes after that, I couldn’t help but think, Was she intentionally quoting Midnight Cowboy? I kid you not, I stood there at bus duty debating in my mind if this was an intentional quote or not. Finally, I had to say no because there was no way this girl has watched Midnight Cowboy. Most of our students don’t see movies over 10 years old.
Meaningful Experiment
I learned once that meaningful moments we perceive in our lives are….well….only known to one individual. You.
The concept about memories and meaningful moments was intriguing to me at a young age. I decided to do an experiment involving memory. I would take an ordinary moment and make it meaningful. On a whim. Just to see if I could remember that moment later even though it was something I did routinely.
If I were older and had thought the experiment through a little bit more, I would have caught the exact date…..but it was a spur of the moment experiment.
I was young. Perhaps around eight, nine, or ten…..and Julie and I were eating dinner like we normally did in the small den on a square table while sitting in arm chairs. I always sat in the arm chair on the left. We were having our standard evening meal consisting of chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, and corn. Very, very common moment. That’s when I decided to stop what I was doing just to take in that moment. This moment, I thought to myself, will be a meaningful moment for now on.
To my surprise, it worked. The memory experiment worked by creating that moment to be important and meaningful. There was also something else important to realize from the experiment also. Julie had no idea I was doing this memory experiment. That means that meaningful moment that i created does not exist in Julie’s memory bank at all. Sure, she definitely remembers the many evenings we did that routine, but she wouldn’t recall that exact moment like I did and why it was meaningful.
This is the first time I have written about this memory or discussed it. There is something exciting about knowing that I possess so many meaningful moments (whether actually meaningful or artificially created) in my memories that have never been shared. It is also equally terrifying that what I just talked about holds no value to my audience and the outside world.
How wonderful and terrible the realization is that a moment that holds so much meaning to you does not exist in other people’s minds.
And the truth is we don’t know anything.
Christian let me read his book about being a soldier. Then I turned to this page. Things just got serious quickly. Geez!
Chalk Board theme