Tick-Tock (No i'm not Kei$ha.)

I went out of town this weekend to indulge in my annual nerdyness. It's always a positive thing to extract myself from the day-to-day and do something a little bit different, with new people and new surroundings. There is just something about it that rattles your brain a little and allows you to re-focus. I am not sure how everyone else in the world operates, but to me vacations, no matter how small are a must. I know that there are a lot of people now that do not take vacations away from their work or routine due to money or time limitations. Well I am the caped crusader of vacations here to say "just do it" in a Non-Nike copyright sort of way. There is something to be said for perspective. Making more money at your job cannot buy you the perspective a week of peace sitting on a beach can. Some things in life cost money, others cost time. The things that cost the most money are often the things designed to save you the most time so that you are able to make more money to continue contributing to this vicious cycle.
A few of you may know my biggest pet-peeve of all time. Waiting. What you may not know is that this peeve was originally brought to the forefront of my mind by my brother. He said to me one day "I hate waiting because you can pay me back for a lot of things, but one thing you cannot refund to someone is their time." Well it really struck home to me. I am a very punctual person, always have been. I can't say as much for the other members of my family. There is a very solid truth in this statement. Lots of things can be refunded or replaced so long as you hang on to your receipt, except our time. We all have an allotted amount of time in this world, and we must decide how we will spend it. So I find myself growing more and more irritated by the second when I am stuck twiddling my thumbs waiting on someone to show up for something that is scheduled. They are making good use of their time, but think nothing of wasting mine. This being said, I feel that time and how we use it, is much more precious then how we use those green, greasy, wrinkled, dirty slips of paper we are always fixated on stuffing into our pockets. I choose to spend as much time as I can speaking to, and being around people that are important to me. Sometimes, I even spend some of that time simply on myself. Call it vanity but sometimes you just need it. Time heals wounds, creates both past and future, it is the basis for our memories, and the thing we are constantly running towards. It is the lord over our days and what we often plan our lives around. We cannot escape it so long as we are living. So be a good steward of your time, not just your wallet. What can you do for yourself or for others that is actually WORTH spending your limited time on? Put some thought into it next time you are scheduling yourself into oblivion. What are your priorities, what is really most important?

At least the view....

At least the view from my cage is nice. I doubt you would hear any animal in the zoo say that (perhaps partly because they do not talk. But you get my drift) That's the only thing I can think while I look out the sealed up window beside my desk, that and, I really wish it opened. The sun is out and the trees are beautiful, I'm sure its a miserably humid southern summer day, but I wish I was on the boat all the same.

I have found recently that stroking my creative intellect is like opening a can of worms, the more I think, write, and read, the more my creative thoughts bubble over. I use writing as an outlet for it, but the more I write, the more I have to say. So I've been toying with the idea of taking art lessons to try and relieve some of this creative tension. If that also spurrs any more creative thoughts and tendency's I think I may very well burst. Even when I was very small I always enjoyed doing anything creative, making Christmas tree ornaments or new coin jars, it wasn't always writing, but I had to flex my creative muscles to feel happy. I have interests in pretty much all the known arts, I did lots of stage acting in my teenage years, I've always drawn moderately well, while I cannot sing I am able to play musical instruments with some success if I practice. On the other side of the coin, watching me play sports or do a math problem is about as awkward as a camel climbing a mountain of ice.

I can also remember a lot of stories my mother always told me before bedtime. I'm a lot like her in my opinion, she is also a writer but in terms of what we write, and how we write, we could not be on farther ends of the spectrum. She has written some of the best bedtime stories I can think of to date. She is an incredibly gifted story teller, and that is not my strong suit. I am highly technical and am more of an essay/persuasive writer, even though I have written my share of stories they really pale in comparison to hers. Some I can still recall almost word for word. Her writing is very uplifting. We are two different spirits yet very much the same. My father is very technical, a perfectionist, and somewhat cynical. I think some of my differences from her come from his hand in my genetics and upbringing.

That's just a little insight on who I am, as my mind wanders on this beautiful summer day.