Musings on: Happiness

If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. - W. Beran Wolfe

Ever noticed how some people are just perpetually happy, and others aren't?  Dumb question, of course you have.  What I don't understand, is what the difference is.   Of course we all have highs and lows, but those who spend their lives in a perpetual low - just confuse me.


Anyway, I sidetrack myself again.   I just have a couple minutes here before the job comes calling (It's puppet show day - 50 kids in the back of the library.  Whoo-hoo!), but what I wanted to touch on, was how the small things in life can bring such happiness - at least to the heart of someone who is already happy.

This morning, driving in, it was gray and rainy.  I love gray and rainy days, so that is good, but you know how sometimes the sun filters through the clouds, and makes those long light beams that look like spotlights against the clouds?  That's what was happening today, and it was so pretty.  As I sit here now, the sun has come out, and it's shining over the wet leaves of trees, and across the courthouse.

As usual for a rural TN morning, there were deer everywhere as I was driving in.  Such power and grace, I could watch deer for hours.

Oh, and coffee.   Coffee is a very good thing - it wakes me up, for one, but it's also one of my favorite drinks in the world.   I do make it, for most peoples tastes, amazingly strong though.  Whenever someone who isn't used to my coffee gets a hold of it for the first time, you can tell.  One taste, and they dive for the milk/sugar again.  Oh well - it's not my fault I learned to drink it New Orleans style...

And maybe it's a Southern thing, I'm not sure, or just a small-town one - but I sit here watching people on the sidewalk passing, headed to work, errands, whatever.   Virtually everyone says hi as they pass, and if you know the person - the "hey, how are you - good, you - what's up" conversation can lead to practically walking backwards down the sidewalk as you talk and still try to get where you're going.  I know, I've done it many times.

Not to mention my friends.  I have some of the most awesome friends in the world, and when I get to talk to them - phone, internet, whatever, it just brightens my day.  Bonus points for when it happens first thing in the morning, because then that makes me happy all day long.

Anyway, I'm truly out of time here, I should know not to start a post when I'm in a rambling mood.  So I'll just leave you with this song, one of my all-time favorites, and one which pretty much describes how I feel about life at this point.   Have a great day, all!

~Zahrah

Sixwire: Look At Me Now

John Howard | MySpace Music Videos

Ignore the fairly cheesy music video style.  It's an awesome song -
 but Sixwire, much as I love you guys - this video is pretty awful.  ;-)

Musings on: Triskaidekaphobia

I know, I know what you're thinking - Zahrah, have you lost it?   (I plead the Fifth, by the way)  What the heck is Triskaidekaphobia, and why are you writing about it?

Well, according to Merriam Webster:

Main Entry: tris·kai·deka·pho·bia 

Pronunciation: \ˌtris-ˌkī-ˌde-kə-ˈfō-bē-ə, ˌtris-kə-\

Function: noun

Etymology: New Latin, from Greek treiskaideka thirteen (from treis three + kai and + deka ten) + New Latin phobia — more at three, ten

Date: circa 1911

: fear of the number 13

Yep.  It's Friday the 13th.  -insert horror movie scream here-

Which, contrary to the belief and stigma of it being unlucky, I've always rather liked.  How many days get instant recognition of this sort?   April Fools Day, perhaps, and that's only once a year, where as Friday the 13th can occur up to nine times in a year, depending on where we are in the calendar cycle.

Aside from that, my Friday the 13ths are invariably good days.  I once won a contest for concert tickets on a Friday the 13th, and you don't get a whole lot luckier than that!

Now, for me personally, I'm not saying that I don't  follow superstitions - primarily theater ones (The Scottish Play, anyone?), but I do think that many of them are just a case of self-fulfilling prophecy.  You think that Friday the 13th is unlucky, and thus it is.  I go into it with a "hey, cool" attitude, and thus it is.

That's true of life in general though.

Oh well, back to work...

~Zahrah

P.S.  If you are weird like me, and like to read about the histories and traditions of such things, I highly recommend this article 

A decision...

The hair is the richest ornament of women.  ~Martin Luther

I've finally decided - I'm going to get my hair cut.  Well, not cut so much, as styled.


It's incredibly long, and incredibly pretty, if I do say so myself, but it's just sort of - there.   All one length, long, straight - except when it decides to do this wavy/curl thing that I can't control, but is really cool.


So, I want to keep the length, but add a little "oomph" with some layering.   Something I can either style and make all gorgeous, or still pull back into a bun when I need to.


Yep, the decision has been made.

Now, I just have to go do it.

Which means finding a stylist.


And the time to go.


-sigh-


I'll keep you posted.  Right now, I have to go to work.  Which I *don't* feel like doing, but hey - I have $400.00 worth of college textbooks ordered.  Have to pay for those somehow! 


~Zahrah

Musings on - life?

Standing calmly at the crossroads, no desire to run.

There's no hurry anymore, when all is said and done...


That's one of my all-time favorite songs.  Yeah, I know, it's ABBA.  So what?   For that matter, I even like the movie version with Pierce Brosnan singing it the best.  It's just - beautiful.

Anyway, that wasn't the point of this, actually.

The point was "Crossroads."

Which is an awesome Eric Clapton song:

But that wasn't where I was headed either. 

What I came in here to write about, before getting musically distracted,  was my own personal crossroads, which is pretty darn exciting.

I'm about to start on a college career I've dreamed of for years, and have finally been able to make a reality.  Work is going great, and I'm excited about the coming year at the dance studio.    Life is good, and I'm glad to be able to say that again.  I haven't been this inwardly happy, this content with myself and the state of my life for years.

The last nearly 10 years have been - well, interesting for me.   There have been good things, and there have been bad, but everything I've been through in that time has brought me to where I am now.   There can be no present without the past, and no future without the present.   

Anyway, I won't get off into a bunch of deep philosophical meanderings, suffice it to say that I have, quote, "found myself", end quote, and really like the person I found, and this path she's wandering off on.   It may not make sense to anyone else, but it does to me, and that's what counts in the end, I guess. 

I don't know what the point of this post is, or if there even is one - just seems like something that needed to said, and if it's worth saying - might as well blog it, right? ;-)

~Zahrah

"Popcorn Brain"

I have a serious case of "popcorn brain" right now.  If you could do a cross-section of my thoughts, you'd get something like this:

Black Space = My Brain.   Everything else = Thoughts.  Yes, I do think in multi-color.

So, as you may imagine, I'm finding it very hard to concentrate on anything.  Most especially the Algebra that I really need to be looking at before I take the COMPASS test at 8:00 am Friday.  At the rate I'm going now, I'm going to get placed in the college version of "basic arithmetic for dummies".  

So, in avoidance of Algebra and other things responsible - like school shopping,  I need a backpack, and all that jazz...  Anyway, short of doing those sort of things, I'm blogging.  But hey, I promised a friend that I'd keep up with it, so it has to be done too.  So I'm still being productive. 

Right?  Right.  Good.

Amidst the hub-bub currently going on inside my brain, I am immensely happy.  I have something of the feeling of hanging on to a carnival ride for dear life, but I'm ready to face the adventures ahead.   I'm also scared stiff.  But, that too is part of the adventure of life, so I guess I'm ready to face that as well.  Thank goodness for stage fright training, is all I can say!

Until another time, when my brain actual allows a full and insightful post...

~Zahrah

Musings on: Singing

“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer,
it sings because it has a song.”

I love to sing.  Music is a huge part of my life, and singing is a natural extension of that, I guess.   I'm even a decent singer - I don't think anyone is going to hand me a recording contract, but I can hold my own.

Problem is, I'm scared stiff of singing in front of people.  Well, of actually performing, anyway.  I sing randomly all the time, generally just for the heck of it to annoy people....  *evil laugh*  But as far as just standing up in front of an audience to sing - you want to talk about stage fright.  I've done it - and I always enjoy it after the fact, but that wait before you open your mouth for the first time is sheer terror.

So, that means that the shower and the car get the benefit of my singing skills.  I will admit to having gotten some strange looks at traffic lights - but really, who doesn't sing along with the Eagles?  Isn't that a rule?  I thought it was...

Once I get settled into the college routine, I'm going to take a look at joining the choir, if I can fit it in yet another major time commitment - I've already sold my soul to the drama department!  In the meantime, I'll just have to keep singing because I love it.


Huh.


Maybe that's not a bad thing though, eh?


~Zahrah

P.S.:  Readers, if you're actually out there - please feel free to follow my blog via friend connect, and/or to comment - sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself.  Not that talking to myself is at all an unusual state of affairs for me, mind you.  ;)
  

Travel Journal: Gatlinburg, Part 3 (photo heavy)

So, as I was saying a couple of days ago, (sorry for the delay, that whole "real life" thing popped up when I got home), I actually went out and played tourist, not only living to tell the tale, but enjoying myself at the same time!

We started out the day, after breakfast of course, by leaving the Park Vista hotel via the Gatlinburg Trolley System: Winding down off the mountain where the hotel sits, and through the streets of Gatlinburg via trolley

Park Vista Hotel, with trolley approaching

is a beautiful and relaxing way to see the city, (hold on tight though, some of those corners are killer!) not to mention getting you from destination to destination.  You can board the trolleys at over 100 stops throughout the city, so if you get the unlimited pass as we did, you could conceivably ride it from one end of the street to the other.  However, once we got down into the city, we departed from the trolley, and started wandering around on foot.  Everything is quite close to everything else, and with all the stores and attractions opening onto the street, it really has the feeling of one giant carnival.