A year ago I left for a ten day trip to Israel. It was quite different from what I was expecting - more beautiful and less crowded than I'd thought. It hadn't been super high up on the list of places I want to see, but had a great opportunity to go so I took it. Highlight pictures:

  

Jerusalem

 An ibex in Ein Gedi park

Hyrax also live in Ein Gedi

Camel ride

 The cat enjoys having a square in Tzfat all to itself

The view from the top of Mesada. There's so much rock and so little else!

 The Dead Sea

 That's Syria over there

One year later, I'm very glad I went. I shouldn't have been surprised since I'm American, but I wasn't expecting so many different attitudes and viewpoints from the people I met on politics and all the complexity of the Middle East. A good lesson to remember when reading or hearing about the "opinions" of people in any country.

Euphonious Advice

Another Word Whips prompt product for you today. I tried to use only words from a list of words Lemony Snicket thinks are euphonious:

Remember wisdom when you find it
Lament the malodorous and leave it behind
Mondays and November should be dealt with swiftly
Numerous monumental moments will occur - wonder at them
Let lovely lilac lullabies  linger
Volunteer mindful literature and minimal worry
Revamp, reroute, renew
Relive the whimsical
Live long

Happy Day

Yesterday was World Happiness Day and I wanted to post something to celebrate, but it wasn't a very happy day so I decided not to be a downer. In addition to general blahness, I found out about a couple of people passing away and although I can't really say I knew either, neither of them were old and the circumstances were unfortunate.

Today has been much nicer. There was sunshine and good news and to top it all off it's the birthday of three of my favorite people (plus someone else who's not bad). Better a late celebration than none.

I don't know why I never posted my thoughts below. Maybe it was because I get shy about voicing my opinions sometimes. Some people I know wouldn't believe that about me, but, as I've said, I often feel more comfortable living by example than getting vocal. I have no problem blabbing on about issues to those close to me, but in public I tend to be fairly reserved.

 From last June:

Glad to see that many of the people who left comments on this article agree with me. I found the comment that most women would only go without makeup when home with the flu really offensive. Why don't some women wear makeup? For some of us at least, it's because we know we're gorgeous enough without it. There's also the belief that I can spend my time on something more productive than painting my face. As long as people maintain hygiene and positive self-presentation, I think there are far more important things than beautification.

The Way Things are Looking

 I flew home to California a few weeks ago for a good friend's wedding and the day after I got back I came down with a terrible eye infection. The good news is that it didn't and won't affect my vision, but the bad news is that I'm stuck wearing glasses for the next few months. I've never been able to wear glasses because as soon as I needed vision correction I got contacts and every time I tried to wear glasses I'd get terrible headaches and be extremely grumpy and other, unrelated bad things tended to happen as well. But now I have no choice, so I bought new glasses that were carefully selected and measured to cause as little unpleasantness for my head as possible:

I've posted this picture because I realized that many people who've known me my whole life have never seen me in glasses. I'm pretty sure one of my grandmas hasn't even seen me wear them. But this is what I'll look like for the next little while.

On a happier note, spring is in the air and I'm looking forward to this being my view again as I walk to the bus:

The Ides of March

Since today is rather significant in Roman history, I've decided to share a few of my favorite quotes in Latin. I took Latin in high school and I haven't lost quite everything I learned.

"Amor tussisque non celaverunt." (Love and a caugh can't be hidden.) I've always liked this one because it's fun to say and so true that people can almost always tell when someone is in love.

"Nemo repente fuit turpissimus." (No one was ever very wicked suddenly.)

"Nunc bibendum est." (Now we must drink.") The gerundive with est indicates duty, obligation, or necessity, which is why we MUST drink. TGIF.

I feel all worldly and happening today. This afternoon I was listening to CBC Radio 2 because that's what I listen to at work since part of the day is classical music, which is good to work to, and the rest of the day they play lots of Canadian music, which I feel like I should be exposed to because I'm in Canada. The DJ did a whole bit on how John Mann from Spirit of the West is very funny and is randomly in the pilot of Battlestar Galactica. He's also married to someone I know from work and is always very nice, so I got to be like "Yay! National radio is talking about someone I know(ish)."

Tonight I worked at an author event for Meg Tilly, whose name I didn't immediately recognize, which made me feel bad because I almost always have at least a vague notion of who an author is if they're getting an event. But she's movie star who's connected to a few famous people in addition to being an author, and she's also a great speaker. Listening to her was lovely, and she was very open to answering all kinds of questions. If you ever get a chance to go see her, I highly recommend it. I also don't feel bad for not knowing who she was before the event, because a friend of hers told me she prefers that to being all famous.

Inspiration Strikes Again

My fiance's best friend Beth has been doing all kinds of cool things for the past few months and writing about them here. I hadn't really read her blog for a while because I've been getting the life updates straight from Beth, but tonight I was feeling a little blah and decided it would be a good way to procrastinate on all those annoying things I don't want to do even though I should. This line she wrote resonated with me:

"My hope has always been that what I write will inspire others to find solutions within themselves to the problems nagging at them".*
 
Helping people enjoy life more has been a major goal of mine for the past few years, but I've always felt it's a long-term goal. I'm still pretty young, inexperience, and sheltered by luck. Who am I to tell people what's good or better? Yet I feel that I've been collecting a lot of useful information that some other people might also find helpful. I've briefly considered looking into becoming a life coach or inspirational speaker or something along those lines, but none of that felt right. I've always believed that it's better to set an example than dictate.

So I'm going to start setting that example. The first step is to finally get back to blogging regularly. In order to do that I'm going to let myself post whatever I feel like and not only things that are "good" or so rough that I don't care if they're any good because I know I'll clean them up later. I need to practice writing and since I've never been prolific I need to practice any way I can, as much as possible. This will also help me write more fiction for the writing career I'm trying to build because if I feel like I have to update on progress then I'll have to make some progress.

Hold me to this please people! Follow-through has never been my strong point. I'm interested in doing so many things that if I start slacking on something I rarely notice immediately because something else takes its place. On the other hand, with my history I feel like I can be proud I'm not abandoning this blog after almost three years of not doing what I initially intended.


*Look at me using my period outside the quotation marks like a Canadian! Never fear Americans who are judging my grammar, you're allowed to do that up here.


On a completely unrelated note, I just read a reference to American Girl Dolls costing $110. When I wanted one in elementary school they were $81 (or $83 - even if I can't remember the exact price, you know I must have looked at that catalog a lot to remember approximately how much they were 20 years ago). So I decided to check out the American Girl website and see what's happening in the American Girl universe now. Oh man! I knew some of the original characters had been retired, but it's down to just Molly and Addy! Why Molly? I only know one person who liked Molly. Molly's not bad, but Kirsten, Samantha and Felicity were WAY more popular. And the new book covers! And 1974 is not historical! Okay, it is to little girls today, but not like 1774! Even if my Samantha doll is a knock-off, she's going to be treasured forever. And now I definitely can never give those books away because if I have a daughter she will only read the classic editions and not those new ugly things.