Bonus

You see every day of life as a bonus once you have inner peace.

~ Steven Magee

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If you try hard enough, you can see every day as a bonus even without inner peace. Like today. Bonus February day this year. Enjoy it.

Unless it's really cold where you are or if it delays your payday by a day. In that case - sorry. Also, try to get inner peace and you'll appreciate it more next time around.

Time

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

~ Leo Tolstoy

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I thought the two most powerful warriors were a giant robot and another giant robot. 

I honest don't really keep up much with who powerful warriors are. I don't have the time or the patience for that.

(pause)

Hm.

Miracles

Miracles happen every day, change your perception of what a miracle is and you'll see them all around you.

~ Jon Bon Jovi

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I experienced a miracle today. I went to Target, got a shopping cart, and left without buying anything.

I experienced a second miracle today. I read the quote for this blog post and it was by Jon Bon Jovi. 

I have successfully changed my perception of what a miracle is.

Worry

Negative attitude is nine times more powerful than positive attitude.

~ Bikram Choudhury

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I believe this.

However, I do not know how to do the math to confirm it.

Tacos

Everything goes better with tacos.

~ Rachel Caine

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Is this a subscription error on the part of the magazine or the subscribers? Neither. Tacos are never a mistake.

You

If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.

~ Haruki Murakami

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I hesitated to title this post "You" given the Netflix series, but I decided to go ahead and go for it.

Whoever you are, I hope you find someone who inspires you, supports you, loves you, and holds you to a higher standard than you might hold yourself. But only if you want that.

If you don't want that, I hope you find a good book. Unless you don't want that. 

If neither of those appeals to you, then I hope you find some space for yourself on a beautiful beach. 

And if you don't want that either, try watching "You" on Netflix. Maybe you'll like that.

Charles Nelson Reilly Mug

The funny thing is that everyone thinks I'm dead.

~ Charles Nelson Reilly

- - - - -

He is dead.
He died in 2007.

(pause)

That's not really that funny. 

Angel

Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.

~ Voltaire

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But what KIND of angel are they playing? A fallen angel? A heavenly angel? Angela Basset? Angela Merkel? Angela Kinsey? Angela Lansbury? Angela - wait.

No, it is Angela Kinsey. My bad. Angela Kinsey is the one who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them.

Glass

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

~ Jonathan Swift

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If I ever look down at my glass and there is a face in it, I'm going to puke.

Restaurant

I wouldn't call being a chef gratifying in a lot of ways. 

It's an act of love.

~ Alex Guarnischelli

- - - - -

When I visited Maine last fall, I went to this restaurant in the basement of the house where I was staying. It was not really a very good restaurant. First, I ordered a chicken leg. My server brought me everything EXCEPT a chicken leg. And he wasn't wearing shoes. And he brought me the food in a shopping cart. That could have been a cute way to serve the food, but he just sort of threw everything into the cart.

I went ahead and tried the corn on the cob even though that wasn't what I had ordered. The first ear of corn was raw, so I sent it back. When it came back it was ridiculously hot and it scalded me. 

I'm afraid that despite the enthusiasm of the wait staff and the intriguing ambience of the restaurant itself, I cannot recommend it.

Reflection

Everyone and everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us.

~ Alan Cohen

- - - - -

I just heard a story about peacocks during mating season. Apparently, if you drive through an area with a lot of peacocks during mating season - if you are in a dark car the male peacocks will attack your vehicle. This is because they will see their own reflections in the car and think it's another male peacock trying to move into their territory.

It made me think about people. We also sometimes attack other people because we see things in them that remind us of ourselves. Things we don't particularly like. And sometimes we also destroy their cars.

Electronics

I don't think people change. Electronics change, the things we have change, but the way we live doesn't change.

~ Judy Blume

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Marconi beat out the Wright brothers for the Nobel prize. That's why airlines still make you turn off your electronics when you fly. Some bitternesses never end.

Dislike

There are people who dislike you because you do not dislike yourself.

~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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As I was working on my blog last night Kirk Facetimed me to show me a red and gold frame he and Jared used on the photo of my grandmother with Roman soldiers. When she was in Rome. The red of the frame matched the red of the Roman soldiers' outfits. Kirk he and Jared originally got the frame as a joke because it was so ugly, but it was perfect for this photo for their family photo wall.

This all reminds me of the old proverb: 

One man's trash is another man's trash, but he buys it because it's so awful and then it becomes that second man's treasure.

Crab

Have you ever watched a crab on the shore walking backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean and missing? That's the way the mind of man works.

~ H. L. Mencken

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I am not sure if I have made this explicitly clear or not, but Leslie is really quite a philosopher. She uses her philosophical insights in a passive-aggressive way sometimes, but they are insights nonetheless. 

For instance, the other day when I forgot to get out a new bar of soap to replace the one that was used up, she said:

Leslie: If we can afford crab legs, we can afford soap.

Pretty insightful, right?

I guess it's worth mentioning that we had crab legs the day before. Without mentioning that it makes Leslie sound like she is just babbling about random things.

But maybe that's what philosophical insights are.

Curating

An exhibition is in many ways a series of conversations. Between the artist and viewer, curator and viewer, and between the works of art themselves. It clicks when an exhibition feels like it has answered some questions and raised even more.

~ Thelma Golden

- - - - -

On the day of her TedTalk, Leslie was introducing Luci and Maureen and me to some of the students who helped put it together. She identified one student and said, "He's the curator." She paused then added, "I don't even know what a curator is."

Maureen replied, "Leslie - you were a librarian. You KNOW what a curator is."

To me this is evidence that we all need friends who will tell us we know more than we think we know.

And we also need friends who will call us liars when we are lying.

And in the best of circumstances, those are a bundled skill set.

Movement

                   


                   


                   


                                                            

All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.

~ Martha Graham

- - - - -

I don't know if Leslie knows that Martha Graham quote or not, but she sure does live by it.

Thinking

To find yourself, think for yourself. 

~ Socrates

- - - - -

On a trip one time, I was trying to take the luggage cart from our hotel room to the car. Leslie said, "So, you put the luggage cart --"

"I THINK I CAN FIGURE OUT WHERE TO PUT A LUGGAGE CART," I stated angrily. I hate being micromanaged and told what to do. It goes way back to my childhood. I hate it. Just let me do what I'm doing or YOU do it so I don't have to. Don't tell me how to do everything.

Anyway, I stormed off with the cart. It was moments later I realized I was going in the wrong direction and ended up at the ice machines instead of the front door.

I think we both learned a valuable lesson from this. I learned I'm an idiot sometimes. Leslie learned - well, she also learned that I'm an idiot sometimes.

Lincoln

I have a congenital aversion to failure.

~ Abraham Lincoln

- - - - -

I know Lincoln was assassinated in a theatre. I wonder if we'd engage with that part of our history in a different way if he had been watching a 3D movie and had these glasses on.

(pause)

I guess we'd think, "Wow. He was way ahead of his time," because 3D cinema didn't even exist then.

Antiques

We had two grand antique professors who had been teaching at Lombard since before I was born. 

~ Carl Sandburg

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I'd like to be a grand antique professor. But I'd prefer no one call me that to my face for 50 or 60 years. Until then, "grand professor" will suffice.

Play-Doh

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I'm feeling bad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't feel

So bad

~ Oscar Hammerstein II

- - - - -

That's nice, but simply remembering Play-Doh isn't going to keep you from getting rabies.

Awards

I'm an example of what it looks like when support and love is poured into someone.

~ Regina King

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Tonight the Oscars are on. The quote above is one of the things that Regina King said at last year's Oscars. The award above is an award that my nephew Zak recently got.

He has a lot of support and love poured into him, too. Does that mean I expect him to win an Oscar? No. It doesn't have to be an Oscar. It could be a Nobel Prize or an appointment to the Supreme Court.

I just hope all my support and love doesn't go to waste, that's all.

Snow

The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.

~ e. e. Cummings

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I hope we have a snow day this winter. I have had more snow days in South Carolina than I ever did in Iowa. It's about preparation. They don't have a lot of snow plows here and people don't know how to drive as well in the snow.

The winter before I moved here from Ames, Iowa, we got a LOT of snow. I believe our grand total was a lot of snow.

Dolls

I like sitting close to windows.

~ Parker Posey

- - - - -

Tilda woke up ready to go. She was excited for another day of adventure. Margot, on the other hand was not quite awake yet. She thought about the dream she had been having just moments ago. She was riding a unicorn and beating Tilda with a stick.

Thoughts

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

~ Buddha

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A while back, Leslie came into the office where I was working to share a story with me. Here it is...

Leslie: I just realized something.

Me: What?

Leslie: I got a notification the other day about Kirk's birthday. It said it was from M and I was annoyed because I knew it was Kirk's birthday and I didn't need reminding. The last one of those notifications I got was from you about Jared's birthday -- which I also knew about. Today I got one about my friend Steph's birthday and you aren't even friends with her, so I didn't know how you knew and why you reminded me. Then I realized it wasn't you. It was "M" a reminder thing on Facebook.

Me: So you thought I was an idiot.

Leslie: I didn't say that out loud. I didn't even tell you about it because it sounded unkind.

Me: I think you should apologize for it.

Leslie: Apologize? No. I didn't say it. I just thought it.

Me: That doesn't make me feel better. You're going around annoyed with me and thinking I'm a doofus and not talking to me about it.

Leslie: Right. I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to be unkind.

Me: But if it had been true, I could have changed my behavior to be less annoying...  But it wasn't true.

Leslie: Right. Isn't that good that I didn't say anything?

Me: No ---

Leslie: I didn't even have to tell you this story, but I am.

Me: The story of you thinking I was an annoying idiot.

Leslie: You're welcome. See? You never know (pointing to her own head) what's going on in here!

Me: That is not reassuring.

Leslie: You're welcome.

Beach

I honestly think the beach is the only place children actually entertain themselves.

~ Donna McLavy

- - - - - 

I like seeing children playing on the beach. It's good for them to be outside and running around or swimming or building things in the sand. Well, I don't like seeing children playing on the beach if they're playing Operation. I hate that game.

Women

 

That we have the vote means nothing. That we use it the right way means everything.

~ Lou Henry Hoover

- - - - -

I did this women's suffrage puzzle, but the real puzzle is not the jigsaw puzzle. No. The REAL puzzle is why all the white women on the puzzle looked like Mrs. Maisel.

Plates

I say peace begins on your plate.

~ Jane Velezmitchell

- - - - -

I just learned that the difference between dishes and plates is that plates are generally flat and designed to hold food with little liquid content. Dishes are a broader category that could include plates or bowls or serving dishes.

Of course when you grow up in a house that refers to these kinds of things as "food frisbees" I guess the above might be irrelevant. Also, what an awesome house to grow up in.

Traps

A trap is only a trap if you don't know about it. If you know about it, it's a challenge.

~ China Mieville

- - - - -

This is so true. Like the game Mousetrap. That's just a challenge. 

Whereas the game Hogtrap is a trap. I am assuming. 

Also, this reminds me - it's a good thing animals can't read. Well, not really a good thing for the animals.