Share Your World – Page 3 – Change of Perspective

Share Your World – January 2, 2017

Thanks to Cee for this week’s challenge, Share Your World – January 2, 2017.

Would you prefer to receive a unicycle, bicycle, tricycle or motorcycle?

I’m so out of shape that I’ll probably never be able to ride a bicycle for much distance again in my life. So last summer my husband and I bought battery-powered bikes. The battery provides the umph to get up hills. I was hoping we’d be able to ride the bikes around right away, but riding this bike is so different than riding an ordinary bicycle that I never got comfortable enough to ride it very far before the end of summer. Next spring we’ll take them out again, and I hope to get proficient enough to enjoy riding around the area during the summer and fall.

What is one thing you’d like to accomplish this year?

I am determined to work on my writing this year. To help actualize this goal, I have signed up for a 52-week challenge of publishing something (we choose whatever kind of writing we want to do) every week during 2017. We’re just now completing week 1, but so far I’ve kept up!

What was one of the highlights of 2016 for you?

2016 ended up being a topsy-turvy year for us. I think the highlight was the fact that it ended. There were also a couple of other highlights at the end of the year: spending Thanksgiving week in Long Beach, WA, with our daughter (even if it did rain almost all week) and having our daughter spend Christmas Eve/Day with us. But I’m glad to be in 2017 now.

Would you prefer to fly a kite or fly in a hot air balloon?

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to ride in a hot air balloon. I keep dropping hints, but so far none of them have materialized.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for the start of a new year, with new opportunities. I’m looking forward to trying to keep up with my goals for reading and writing throughout 2017.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 52

Thanks to Cee for this week’s challenge Share Your World – 2016 Week 52.

What’s your favorite ice-cream flavor?

I only get one? Impossible!

I have various favorites:

chocolate (alone and in combination with other good stuff)
mocha (esp. jamocha almond fudge)
blueberry
pumpkin
peppermint (seasonal)
salted caramel hazelnut

If you were to treat yourself to the “finer things” what would you treat yourself to?

Like a lot of other people, I’d want someone to cook and clean for me, if funds were unlimited.

But my biggest “finer thing” is travel, especially international travel (although I still have a lot of things left to see in the U.S. before I’m through). I want to go back to Ireland, and to Stonehenge, and to Italy, and …

Have you ever been drunk?

Yes, a couple of times back in my college and early adult days. Honestly, it’s not an experience I have any intention of repeating. I can’t understand why people would frequently and voluntarily make themselves feel that awful, and the next morning is even worse.

Complete this sentence: My favorite supposedly guilty pleasure is…

Dark chocolate. And ice cream. And dark chocolate ice cream.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend (if we leave out the horrible Seahawks game), and I’ve enjoyed kind of lounging around this week. But I’ll be glad for the start of the new year, when we will focus on eating more healthily and I will try to get back into the groove of serious reading and writing.

I hope everyone has a good week. And Happy New Year!

Share Your World – 2016 Week 50

Thanks to Cee for this week’s challenge, Share Your World – 2016 Week 50.

What is your favorite smell? What memory does it remind you of?

I have always loved the smell of lilacs. Since they bloom in late spring, they are among the flowers that herald the coming of summer. When I wanted lilacs in my wedding bouquet for my June 5th wedding, my mother cut some of the last fresh blooms and kept them in her refrigerator for about a week so they’d last just that bit longer. I think I also like them because my grandmother had lilac bushes, and during much of my life I had a lilac bush that was started with a rooting from her bush.

What type of pet do you have or want to have?

I have always been a cat person: all my pets have been cats. But right now I don’t want to have any pet. We are trying to do some major traveling during our early retirement, and a pet would seriously complicate that aim. So, at least for now, we are petless by choice.

Are you usually late, early, or right on time?

I am so afraid of being late that I end up being early (sometimes even ridiculously early) for everything. That’s why I almost always have a magazine or book with me, so I can read, especially if I’m so early that I have to go somewhere or sit in the car for a while.

For recharging, would you rather meditate, swim, walk, listen to music, write, read, yoga, qigong other?

For clearing my head, walking is my best activity. Writing helps me to figure out and understand what I think or feel about something, but that’s such an active undertaking that I don’t think of it as “recharging.” The same is true of reading for me. It’s such a participatory activity that I don’t think of it as “recharging,” although I admit that it often does teach me something new.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m looking forward to next weekend’s Christmas Eve celebration with my husband and daughter.

Have a good week, everyone.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 49

Thanks to Cee for this week’s challenge, Share Your World – 2016 Week 49.

What do you value most in a friendship?

Not too long ago I had to break off a close friendship because the other party did not demonstrate one quality that I require in a friend: reciprocity. My philosophy of friendship is that when I’m at the top of the wheel of life and you’re at the bottom, I’ll do whatever I can to help you about. But I also assume that, when that big wheel of life turns, leaving you at the top and me at the bottom, you’ll do likewise for me. My former friend was a taker: I did all the giving and she did all the taking. When I was on the wheel’s downturn, she had neither the time nor the inclination to help me out with a sympathetic ear or a caring pat on the back.

I finally had to break off the friendship because she neither respected nor appreciated me. So I guess those are two more qualities I value in a friend: respect and appreciation. But reciprocity still tops my list, because friendship requires mutual respect and appreciation.

Do you prefer eating the frosting of the cake or the cupcake first? Do you prefer a specific flavor?

I break the cupcake roughly in half horizontally and eat the bottom first. I save the part with the frosting to savor last.

Have you ever been in a submarine? If you haven’t, would you want to?

Yes, I have been in a submarine, but it was not submerged. A few years ago we toured a former WW II submarine on display at one of the piers at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. I was glad to see the interior, but I was also very glad to emerge at the other end.

I am slightly claustrophobic, and I also have a primal aversion to anything requiring me to go under water for more than a few seconds. I can put my face into the water to swim, but I’m not going all the way under for anything. For these reasons, being in a submarine under water is my personal vision of hell.

If 100 people your age were chosen at random, how many do you think you’d find leading a more satisfying life than yours?

Not very many. Retirement has been good to me. I love where I live (in the Pacific Northwest, where I can see the mountains and the ocean), and I now have few obligations to do anything I don’t want to do. I love my life.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Yesterday was our daughter’s birthday. All her life we have put off Christmas preparations until after her birthday so that she wouldn’t feel ignored on her special day. Even though she’s now well into adulthood, we still wait to start doing Christmas. Now that we’ve celebrated her birthday, I can begin to get into the Christmas spirit.

So let me expend my best wishes to everyone who observes a holiday at this time of year.

I hope everybody has a great week!

Share Your World – 2016 Week 48

Thanks to Cee for this week’s challenge, Share Your World – 2016 Week 48.

Do you prefer eating foods with nuts or no nuts?

I like a good nut in things like cookies and brownies. I even eat nuts by themselves sometimes, particularly almonds and macadamia nuts.

And I like Almond Joys, because sometimes I feel like a nut.

If someone made a movie of your life would it be a drama, a comedy, a romantic-comedy, action film, or science fiction?

I imagine a movie of my life would be a drama, or perhaps a melodrama. When I was a kid my mother used to tell me that I think too much. Sometimes too much thinking leads to overdramatization. I wouldn’t exactly call myself a drama queen, but I do like to try to look at things from more than one angle.

Who talks real sense to you?

My husband. He’s a scientist by training, so he helps me analyze and evaluate things instead of simply reacting emotionally.

Do you have a favorite board game?

As a child, I played Parcheesi with my grandmother. I loved the game, but I think what I loved more than the actual game was the fact that my grandmother played it with me.

When my daughter was young, my husband and I would play Sorry!, which is a modern adaptation of Parcheesi, with her. Again, I think that I liked the family time just as much as, if not more than, the game itself. We all enjoyed the opportunity to yell “Sorry!” as each other while sending the most advanced man back to the beginning.

As an adult I enjoyed Trivial Pursuit, which we played with friends. But it’s been many, many years since we’ve played that, or any other board game. I don’t think any games came with us in our most recent move.

Maybe we should see about starting a board game club here at our retirement community, since we don’t play bridge.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

We were out of town for much of October. Yesterday was our monthly Lunch Bunch trip, and I was glad of the opportunity to reconnect with friends over a lovely lunch. I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things in the upcoming weeks.

I hope everyone has a good week.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 46

Thanks to Cee for this weekly challenge: Share Your World – 2016 Week 46

Are you a traveler or a homebody?

Before retirement we didn’t have much time for traveling. We’re trying to make up for that now, so I consider myself a traveler. I love to see new places and to learn about new cultures and countries. I also like to meet people from those cultures and countries and see how we’re different and how we’re similar.

I think that stretching my cultural awareness has become an even more important task since the U.S. election than it was before.

What kind of TV commercial would you like to make? Describe it.

I can’t think of any kind of a TV commercial I’d like to make. We watch our shows off the DVR specifically so that we can fast-forward through the commercials. In fact, we recently had to trade in our cable remote for a new one because we wore out the fast-forward button.

Describe yourself in a word that starts with the first letter of your name.

Mental

(As in crazy or intelligent? You decide.)

List some fun things for a rainy day.

Reading a good book.
Reading an ordinary book.
Reading a bad book.
Thinking about reading a book.
Writing a killer blog post.
Marathon viewing of a new (to me) TV series.
Watching a movie to see how it measures up to the book.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’ve been immersed in doom and gloom since November 9, when the U.S. Election results became evident. I’m looking forward to feeling a little better soon, but with renewed determination to be vigilant and to work toward restoring civility, tolerance, and respect.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 39

Thanks to Cee for this weekly challenge: Share Your World – 2016 Week 39

Cee writes on her blog that the questions for this week’s and the next two weeks’ challenges come from kids. And they ask the darndest things!

A class you wish you would have taken?

I wanted to take music appreciation in college but was afraid to because it was notoriously difficult. For exams, the professor would drop the needle on a record (yes, it was that long ago) and you’d have to identify the composer, the work, the movement in the work, and the significance of the excerpt. I was a scholarship student, and I was afraid I wouldn’t do well enough to keep my financial aid. (Not only was this the dark age of vinyl records; it was also the dark age before the pass/fail grade option.) I sometimes think I should check out a music appreciation course at my local community college, but instead I just listen to my favorite music, even though I can’t articulate exactly what I’m listening to and why I enjoy it.

What’s your favorite comic figure and why?

Calvin and Hobbes. I like the humor and the truthfulness of the presence of an imaginary friend.

Come on, now admit it: You had an imaginary friend when you were a kid. Heck, I had two, although they were people, not stuffed animals, and I think they were sisters both to each other and to me, an only child.

Name something you wish you could like.

Boy, do I wish I could like exercise. Even during the times in my life when I exercised fairly regularly, I never enjoyed it. It was always a chore, something that I knew I had to endure for a set amount of time.

Who was your best friend when you were 10?

My childhood best friend was Esther. We lived near each other in a small New England town, and whatever age children can be said to know each other was the age at which we met. We are still friends today, even though we live on opposite coasts of the U.S. I think it’s remarkable that we’ve known each other literally all our lives.

What sign are you? Do you believe in astrology?

I am a Virgo. I don’t believe that astrology determines our lives; I’m in control of my life and make my own choices. However, I do fit the major characteristics of a Virgo—organized and analytical—and occasionally chuckle to myself when I realize how like a Virgo I’m acting.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

My hometown Seattle Mariners are still chasing the possibility of a wildcard playoff spot, and I’m looking forward to their last two games. If they don’t make it, at least my first team, the Boston Red Sox, will be in the postseason.

I hope you all have a great week filled with good friends, good food, and good fun.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 38

Are you a hugger or a non-hugger?

I was never a hugger—until I met Frayne. We met at a book group in our local Borders store and quickly became close friends. She was one of the warmest people I’ve ever known. She’d arrive at book group with a big “Hello, darlings!” and brighten up the day. She was a tiny person, barely five feet tall, but she had a big heart. And she loved to hug. When she wrapped her arms around me, I’d shrink into myself and stand awkwardly, uncomfortable with the contact and not quite sure how to respond.

I hadn’t known Frayne for very long when I found out she had cancer. “You’d better learn to hug back,” I told myself, “and you’d better learn it quickly.” I only knew her for about three years, but I still thank her every time I hug a friend for teaching me this remarkable life lesson.

What is your least favorite Candy?

As much as I love chocolate, I don’t much like Three Musketeers bars. I think it’s the whipped texture that I don’t like; I’d rather have my chocolate in a more substantial format. I also don’t much care for cotton candy. A small bite or two tastes good, but after that the taste becomes overwhelmingly, unbearably sweet. I might buy it occasionally if I could just buy that first couple of bites, but I resent having to pay a bunch of money for all the rest of the stuff on the stick, which I don’t want.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “fun”?

Travel. I love to see new places and new people, to learn about different customs, languages, and ways of life. There’s nothing more fun to me than a trip to somewhere I’ve never been before.

List of Favorite Smells: What smells do you love? Whether it’s vanilla scented candles or the smell of coffee in the morning or the smell of a fresh spring rain…make a list of all the things you love for a little aromatherapy.

freshly brewed coffee, especially the current seasonal pumpkin spice
lilacs
clean sheets, even without the benefit of fabric softener
pot roast cooking on the stove
pumpkin or apple pie baking in the oven
turkey roasting in the oven

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

We’ve had quite an unhurried, unstressful, peaceful week. I’m looking forward to more of the same next week.

Until then, I hope you all have a great week.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 37

Have you ever owned a rock, pet rock, or gem that is not jewelry?

I have a lovely pair of bookends made of amethyst quartz geodes. Unfortunately they’re at work in my office, so I cannot take a photo of them right now. But trust me, they’re beautiful.

What is your greatest strength or weakness?

I think that perhaps my greatest strength is empathy for others, something I acquired as a result of verbal and emotional abuse in my childhood and adolescence. Because of my experiences, my mantra is “I should not be the source of someone else’s pain.” When tempted to make a cutting remark, I try to remember what it felt like when I was verbally humiliated or castigated.

What makes you feel grounded?

Seeing Mount Rainier and watching the waves roll in.

Would you rather never be able to eat warm food or never be able to eat cold food?

These “either/or” questions are always so hard. If I had to choose, I guess I’d choose not to have cold food, since I certainly would want my meals to be warm.

But wait—does that mean I could never again have ice cream? See, I just can’t do this. I want my steak warm, but I also definitely need my ice cream.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week contained several pleasant activities to occupy my time. I’m looking forward to a lighter schedule in the coming week so that I can catch up on some of the work I’ve been neglecting.

Have a pleasant week, everyone!

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