Be where you are

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I've been suffering from a mild case of nostalgia. Despite society's (and my husband's) pressures to conform, I remain a die hard, pen and paper using, radio listening, barefoot in the kitchen, hard-bound-book, page turner. Now, I won't lie. I do appreciate the ability to read my Kindle, long after lights out without disturbing his highness's sleep, and Pandora is simply one of the best inventions ever but I am hesitant to fully give myself over to all that technology has to offer.
While listening to NPR today I heard a piece about the declining percentage of manual transmission drivers. This saddened me, as I am a manual driver and thoroughly enjoy it. In related news, I recently made three purchases that made my husband roll his eyes: a sewing machine, a turntable, and a refurbished 1920's Remington Model 3 typewriter complete with the original glass keys.
Back to the manual transmission. During the interview, the gentleman who was a devotee of the "stick" spoke fondly of being connected to the experience, of being in control and fully being in the moment.  I can relate. I recently told someone that I had an aversion to technology. I was wrong. I have an aversion to the virtual experience.
Enter: the sewing machine, the turn table and the typewriter. The need for these items came about because I want to be connected to the things I do instead of having them done for me. I want to feel like a participant in my life and the events that take place and know what it's like to do things "the hard way". I am convinced that we are willingly giving up this right little by little as we let the virtual seep into every crack of the authentic.
Instead of actually going through the trouble of visiting our friends, we Facebook them. Instead of shopping for, preparing, and lovingly serving our families dinner, we hop on the computer and order it without the inconvenience of dealing with a real person. Instead of putting ourselves through the humiliation of wearing those God awful bowling shoes and drinking cheap domestic beer, we simply bowl on the Wii...ok now that I kind of get. But I think you get the point.
We are losing out on real life experiences by leaning on our technology crutches. I overheard a conversation referring to cell phones as 'adult pacifiers' and to be honest, I couldn't find a good argument against it. It's true. Watch a line of adults and everyone of them will be occupying their time on their phones, sadly, as their friends and family stand right next to them doing the same exact thing. How many conversations have we missed out on because we were to busy being with someone via text, Twitter, or Facebook, instead of being with the people right in front of our faces. Wake up my darlings. The virtual friendships and experiences cannot hold a candle to those right in front of you. Put down the phone and be where you are.

Happy living my darlings.

The Day After

It's the first of March and it's 77 degrees in my house. No, I do not have the heat on, but for those of you who know me well, I can understand why you'd think that.
I opened every window in the house today. When I woke up, the staleness of the room made me feel as if I couldn't breathe...and I needed to breathe, badly. With a day as beautiful as this, I felt that I would be remiss if I didn't at least get out for a little bit of exercise. I also badly needed to move and stretch and feel something solid beneath my feet. Unfortunately, it turns out that it's true what they say about past performance not being an indicator of future performance. I went out for a little 3 mile run/walk, during which I had hoped to be doing more running than walking. Let's just say that nothing ever goes as you'd expect. That's ok though. Life goes on and you just keep moving.
Which brings me to my next point, I quit my job. Yesterday was my last day at Kincaid's. After eight years, I have finally decided to pass the torch and move on. Don't ask me why. I'm not sure I could answer in a way you'd understand. There are a million common sense reasons I could give you but none of them would be true. When it comes right down to it, I got the urge. At least, that's what I call it. For me it's that little tickle in the back of my brain that tells me that it's time to go. It happened in my first marriage, after my first enlistment, the day I met Steven, and now. When something pushes or pulls you this strongly, it's not wise to ignore it.
Yesterday, someone asked me why I happen to make such drastic changes in my life (first marriage to U.S. Navy to GM of a restaurant to the corporate offices of a tax company). Clearly this person does not know me well. I've always been the one to make the crazy decisions...to uproot myself in perfectly fine situations in the hopes of finding something new and exciting. Ok, so maybe the situations weren't perfectly fine but I could have stayed and been content in almost every one of them.
Everyone said I was crazy for joining the Navy. Then, everyone said I was crazy to get out and go to culinary school. Now I am crazy for leaving a perfectly good position for an industry in which I know absolutely nothing. I won't say that I am still finding myself because I don't believe that to be true but I do feel myself becoming stronger as a person and loving the adventure with each daring jump. I highly doubt I'll ever be disappointed.

Happy change my darlings.