It’s Monday. SFW! (to quote an obscure movie title)

Good evening, morning, afternoon. Wherever and whenever your are, welcome. I am Girlie and this is my place for writing words. Except it’s been quite some time, years in fact, since I’ve posted anything other than a Ten Things of Thankful post ( excellent bloghop created by international traveler Lizzie Lewis, newly administrated by the prolific Josie Two Shoes) or the occaisional Six Sentence Story.

I went to the FB this evening (I try and go at least every other day or two). One of the features I enjoy (no really!) is the “hey! look what you posted this day” (insert year). And so it was that this date last year I posted a Six Sentence Story. It was a Friday. I clicked on the link, read it, thought “yeah, I still like it” and then played the music video. Twice. The second time I turned off the light and turned on my favorite Christmas gift of this year, a very delightful “kalaidescopic light show in glass cube” given me by a co-worker. Imagine it blinking all colorful like 😀 I love it.

Today is a day of birthdays. Famous people. Not famous people. Today, I was given a gift of time. 2.5 hours of time that otherwise would be spent at work. Work closed early today for inclement weather. Gift. So, what to do with this time? We can’t go back in time. We can’t move forward in time. We have only now. In spite of the weather, when I arrived back, where I live, I changed out of my work clothes and into… gym clothes. In no less than 15 minutes I was out the door and headed for the gym. What’s so great about that?

It’s wasn’t about going to the gym or anywhere else for that matter. It was about using time that otherwise would not be mine on a typical work day, and using it to do something…good, of my choosing, beneficial, fun, outside of routine. It was an opportunity to engage the world in time that, only hours previously, did not exist.

It’s a new year. Another day. Another opportunity. Whether it’s filled with blinking lights, safe and secure, filled with work deadlines, editor’s deadlines, chores or children’s activities, it’s still our time, right? Why not accept the challenge and live outside of the box. 

A Birthday TToT Wish…from The Edge

Hello. Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge. It’s a late night edition of Lizzi’s bloghop, the Ten Things of Thankful. And I have 10. Truth be told, I have at least 10 thankfuls daily but for some reason, on a weekly basis, wreaking of writer’s block affliction, I succumb to sitting blandly, white screen of a mind blank, neurons firing nothing to get my fingers to tap a tap tap upon this keyboard. And then, driving this afternoon listening to Metallica’s Hardwired To Self Destruct, the cobwebs disintegrated and I realized damn! I love this CD!

My thankfuls are all Kevin Bacon’d. Where do I begin? Wait! It doesn’t matter ‘cuz of 6 degrees of separation 🙂 So my first TToT that came to mind this afternoon was my Secret Santa at work.  E gave me (among other “secret” fantastic gifts) the new Metallica CD. Most excellent. I love it. This thought, in turn, reminded me, “yeah, I work with a great group of people“. So #2 TToT it is.

Driving, volume of the music such that only a respectable Metallica loving person would still think insufficent, I thought how much I missed listening to “the old stuff”. Gone are the days of dueling guitarists (of the harder variety). I was caught up in the revelry of the revery of reminiscing of my earlier, musical days. Coming in at 3rd & 4th TToT respectively, but not necessarily in order of preference, (depends on my mood) are Glen Tipton & K.K. Downing and Adrian Smith & Dave Murray, respectively.

Earlier in the day, I was in conversation with a person close to me. His dad has dementia and, not unexpectedly, will tell the same story over and over or he’ll suddenly get emotional when talking about his little dog. D and I got to talking about how, maybe because we’re older, we both can get emotional about some of the more simple things, like our dogs, or hearing a particular song. And then I remembered, not for the first time, that today would have been my dad’s 99th birthday. He is a TToT, 5th and only. His muscial gift of sitting down to a piano and simply….playing, is TToT#6. His birthday reminds me of 2 other TToTs: David Bowie and Elvis. Today is their birthday too. Happy Birthday, Gentlemen.

A mere dusting of snow yesterday is a huge 9th TToT! Lo and behold, there is 1 TToT remaining to complete the 10. The 10th TToT? …..the gift of another 24 hours. The day that is both first and last. This day.

 

 

Man Buns, Musings, the TToT and.. GirlieOnTheEdge

Yeah. Man buns. I can’t say I’m a huge fan. It’s not that I’m discriminating against men. I’ve always been attracted to men with long hair. Oh wait! I am. Discriminating. Not every man, guy, dude can pull off the “man bun”. Sorry guys but you have to have, je ne sais pas, a natural, self confident, high unselfconscious cool quotient. Otherwise, ..not gonna work. Here. Check out this website. Not all the men on this site are doin’ it for me. One, maybe two. Maybe :D. What do you think?

…is it any wonder that Doc Brown came up with the idea for the Flux Capacitor in the bathroom? Of course not! Of any single room in a house or apartment, this one is by far the room where all those creative, aha! ideas spontaneously errupt inside our craniums. Admit it. You know it’s true. The other magical thing about bathrooms? If you’re waiting for your ride. And waiting and waiting. The surefire way to have them show up is, if all of a sudden, you find yourself….needing to use the bathroom. Exactly! As soon as you close that door behind you, the phone rings, the doorbell dings. You know I speak the truth 🙂

Some days, some weeks, there are more musings, less musings. More distractions, less distractions. Throughout it all? Little things and maybe bigger things for which I give thanks. Often times I don’t recall them at all, other times….

TToT 1 – Hearing from/talking with significants from my other life(s). It brings me a special joy knowing there are some with whom I will always share a bond no matter time, circumstance…always.

TToT 2 – Persistence. My own. In finding a way to live. To thrive. To advance. To matter. To make a difference. To find peace and contentedness.

TToT 3 – My mentor. He who would tell me the harshest of truths. He who would irritate the hell out of me with only the best of intentions. He who will not stop telling me what I need to hear.

TToT 4 – Today! I woke up again. A-a-nd I went to the gym after a week hiatus for no good stinkin’ reason except I was housesitting and it was too far away (by 7 more miles) waah, waah.

TToT 5 – the Wakefield Doctrine. Of course!

TToT 6 – A growing comfort level at my new place of work. And of a growing willingness to participate in group activities the likes of which I always shied from in the past. (can you say clark? lol).

TToT 7 – Reminders that I haven’t gone all “stupid”. That I do have creative thoughts. I do have words that, should they find their way out of my head, might actually read well. Might even entertain. (just have to get them from head to screen!)

TToT 8 – Music! Thank you Roger for telling me about this because, as is the way, I somehow stumbled on this guy. How cool that he does acoustic Maiden, eh? 🙂 Check this one too. I stopped playing classical guitar why?!

TToT 9 – this post! Why in the world (I know why) did I not continue with so many things I obviously had a knack for? It’s not that I didn’t enjoy doing them….light bulbs keep going off. But that’s a good thing, right? lol

TToT 10 – Insistence. I’ve got to insist that life be how and what I want today, in the present. I can’t change the past. None of us can. Done and done. Here’s to waking up one more day…

Discomfort and the Wakefield Doctrine. TToT Edge Style

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge. It’s a snowy/snowing Saturday morning. Wind screams intermittently beyond my 2nd story windows, glazed from Mother Nature’s self expression. What on earth would we do without some form of self expression? Yet, oftentimes “it happens that we live our lives in chains, And we never even know we have the key“. See! I couldn’t resist. With the recent passing of yet another musician, storyteller, those lyrics insisted they follow “yet, oftentimes”. Self expression.

Title? Oh yeah. Hm. Discomfort. Well, the thought hit me not long ago that life ….oh no, here it comes again…..“he’s in the best selling show, is there life on Mars?”,  choices aside, I’ve gone through a coupla layers of “discomfort” in recent years. You might say I’ve traded up and yet I seem to persist in asking the question “how many more times can I trade up“. Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids!

Title? Oh yeah. the Wakefield Doctrine. Thank God. No, seriously. Especially for we clarks. For us, everything is understanding (clarks think). If we can understand a thing then somehow it will make us….what? feel better? about ourselves? give us the answer to the eternal question(s)? Well, yeah, pretty much. It’s a tool, this Wakefield Doctrine. A life tool like no other. A tool by which I/we can make sense of others’ behavior, our own behavior. It’s a perspective. Couple that with a desire to improve one’s own life and well, shit will start to make sense. Life can be better.

Numero Dos. the TToT.

Numero Tres. That I’ve begun my Spanish lessons. No matter my tutor is 9 😀

Numero Cuatro. Generosity. Awareness. Perspective. When I am not entertaining the tonal, I can totally immerse myself in the joy of experiencing new things regardless of the “big picture”. Like new food! My Bolivian landlordess was cooking up dinner for her family last night. She explained all that she was cooking. It started with how, in her country, eggs are incorporated into dinner, not breakfast. The meal last night was a rice concoction with a little meat mixed in (hamburger I think), sliced sausage of some sort and fried plantain. You put a bunch of rice on a plate, sliced sausage and plantain on the side, then top if off with the fried egg. Carola gave me a small dish of the rice and a piece of plantain to sample. Damn! if it wasn’t tasty!

Numero Cinco. Ability to work remotely.

Numero Seis y Siete. OK. Invoking “Rule 7.35 found under sub-heading Dualities, that allows for the use of 2 Thankfuls when combined in a contextual manner. Obvious or not.” (Refer to Girlie August, 2014 TToT post. We talking legit rule here people. lol) Oh sorry! For anyone new, I refer to the SBOR/BOSR. Go ask Clark or Zoe, or Cynthia.  Combined thankfuls? 1) my sister in law + 2) my “new” car. Numero ocho explains it all.

Numero Ocho. God’s protection. My driving skill. Wednesday night commute from hell. (all 3.5 hrs.)

Numero Nueve. My health, my job, a room. I have a point of origin.

Numero Diez. Este día.

It is all yours. To see, to touch, to embrace. To share.

Capital Beltway Before 6 A.M.? Can You Say “Noir”?

Saturday morning….time to rummage through the box’o weeks worth of “wtf’s” and “hurrays” and etched on grimaces of “damn!” and “cool!” cuz ya know, it’s TToT time. I guess you could say it’s tea time :D…

…been many an hour since I hit the Beltway on my morning commute. In the dark. Before 6:00 a.m.  I refer to driving the Washington DC Capital Beltway at that hour as “cowboy” driving. Why? Excluding the 2 express lanes to the left (if you’re not in ’em, they don’t count), you’ve got a solid 4 lanes (don’t count the oncoming/outgoing lanes unless one or more cars in those lanes appear to be driving into you) of traffic.

When traffic is “light” (rush hour in a smaller city) and vehicles of a number that allows for “free range” driving (driving at speed and above!) pretty much all bets are off. Speed is a factor… for everyone. I admit to hitting speeds 15 miles (or so) over the speed limit. (btw, I don’t want to confuse anyone with “video game” driving which only occurs during evening commuting hours.) This morning was no exception. Who needs caffeine when you’re “cowboy” driving?

I walked out of the morning routine and the front door into the crisp embrace of dry, 30 something degree air. Lifting my head I looked up, around and marvelled at the brightly starred sky cradling the night’s crescent moon. Tilted ever so slightly, it appeared to recede reluctantly, not wanting to give in to the earth’s rotation.

With a double click, car doors were open, bags and body in.. I took my place behind the wheel and strapped myself in with not a clue as to what would transpire in the next 30 minutes.

I don’t know if it was the speed at which I was driving combined with the headlights of oncoming traffic on the other side of the highway or the glare of headlights behind me…but there came a weird, odd moment when I realized, felt myself, traveling in another place and time. Did time just suspend itself?

Metal box on wheels and me? One and the same. Glancing in the rearview, I left Tyson’s Corner, billboard bright office buildings consuming the skyline with it’s rush of human traffic, it’s busy, busy let me on, let me off, ramps…behind. In pre-dawn silence the bright, whitewashed lane markers splashed onto new blacktop rushing by so fast my eyes were transfixed. And it was so-o-o quiet (yes, even with the radio on). It was the quiet of pre-dawn…

I swear I might have been driving with David Lynch riding shotgun. He’s the first one that came to mind…can’t quite find the words to express the total “noir” of the moment, of that morning 🙂 But I was convinced, I knew, my body knew, what it was these guys of the “noir” genre of filmmaking were all about. Cool.

Now how’s about those thankfuls….

1) New Quentin Tarantino movie out Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve! The Hateful Eight. Samuel L. as a cowboy! Yeegads! Can’t wait!! 😀

2) New Coen Brothers movie out February 3, 2016!! “Nuff said.

3) A reliable car in which to enjoy any and all types of driving no matter where (or when) I am!

4) The generosity of friends and family!

5) The weather. Again, it appears, with the exception of this weekend, that atypical warm will be with us for the upcoming holiday!

6) Reminders….of cirmcumstance. How it boils down to one’s perspective!

7) the Wakefield Doctrine (#6 was totally an unintentional segue into this one, I swear!)

8) Music!

9) An invitation to go to Christmas Eve mass (that totally came out of left field!)

10) Today! My only day.

It’s a Non TToT Sunday.

It’s Sunday night. I’m sitting on the bed, in the room that has been “home” for the last 9 months. I have the overhead light on because I have my laptop plugged into the outlet usually reserved for my bedside lamp. Not that it’s dark in here. Not yet. In fact, it’s still light outside. I can see it seeping through the slits of the verticals. It’s a soft sunset tonight. I can tell.

I went out over an hour ago for a walk. My bone building walk. After I cooled down, after a not uplifting conversation with my distant other half, I decided to fix myself something to eat. Yes! I’ve made progress in the weight department – up to 106 lbs. Woohoo!

I don’t often buy meat but when I was in the store a couple of weeks ago I spotted a package containing 3 little steaks. Boneless, red, oval. I took them home. This evening, God forgive me, I put one of them in a frying pan. It is my only option. After keeping an eye on the tiny piece of protein and when it was cooked as well as could be expected, I put it on a small plate. Not the dinner one. The salad one. Or did they used to call it the desert plate? At any rate, small steak on plate, I headed back to “camp”.

I’d been sitting on the left side of the bed.(left, as in looking towards the bottom of the bed). In my other TimeLine, I’d be sitting on the right side. The right side had been my side. Huh….. anyway, back propped by 4  pillows, the wall served as headboard.  The laptop was in front of me. A minimum of 2 books, a couple of magazines, a pen, some paper were strewn beside me. Table set.

I put the plate on the bedside table to my left and situated myself. Ok. Computer screen at 12 o’clock, right leg straight out, left leg curled in. Half Indian style I guess. Anyway, I set the plate on the bed directly in front of myself, moved the computer a little closer and dug in. Yeah, it was a little tough but hey, I’m just eating it to get the benefits, yo.

Almost immediately, I slowed down (seems I was a bit hungry) and decided to cut the few pieces I’d already cut into yet smaller pieces.  I did this….slowly. Deliberately. Suddenly my thoughts were totally of my Dad. I remembered how, in his later years, he would cut his meat – precisely, in small, bite size pieces. Immediately, I made the concious decision to cut the entire tiny steak before me in this same manner. It felt weird, but not.  It made me think of Phyllis and her guest post at the Wakefield Doctrine’s Guest Post Thursday’s Guest Post.

There is no one who will iron and think of me. There is no one to cut their meat and think of me. What in the world, I wonder, will someone think of me. One day.

 

 

 

 

 

Once I fell off the Beethoven Edge…

….I found myself studying classical guitar.  Although I loved it, I languished.  I did not practice as I should and ultimately allowed distraction to take me elsewhere.  And then there was Anthony Jackson.  There will always be Anthony.  It’s when I fell in love with the bass guitar.

Thanks to a dear friend, former lover and musician extraordinaire himself, I found myself in possession of a bass.  He took me shopping one sunny afternoon in the infamous Wakefield, of the Wakefield Doctrine (yes, that very Wakefield!).  There, on the second floor of the former Stringed Instrument Workshop,did we find a bass to set me on my quest, an Aria Pro II. 

In one of those funny how things work out stories, a few years later the SIW was sold and I subsequently became the manager of the new “SIW”.  We dealt not only in new instruments but used ones as well.  Once upon an early fall day a most lovely, lovely (was certainly “used” a lot!) Fender Precision found it’s way to our store.  Alas, my I always have tomorrow procrastination led to another person’s happiness.  A determined 16 yr. old, dad in tow, walked into my store looking for her first bass.  She was starting a band.  You go girl!  There went my youfeelsogoodinmyhandsmyfingersjustglideoveryou Precision.  In the land of wouldacouldashoulda there went my dream bass forever, a circa ’70s Fender Precision.  Yes, now it would be worth a boatload of bucks.  But let’s face it.  It most likely would not have had as full a life as it deserved. (this is what I tell myself lol)  Not the life I’m betting 16 yr. old rockin’ girl gave it:) 

Fast forward a gazillion years and you find yours truly, the professional dilettante, still attempting to learn to play bass.  Never mind the innumerable  inspiring musicians I’ve listened to over the years, more recently Tal, Mel, and Trevor Bolder (geez, you only had to die for me to appreciate your talent!).  Because of Trevor, I believe I have found my final (?)  muse.  My get off your ass you don’t have any more time inspiration, Gail Ann Dorsey.

Thank you Gail.  Because of you, I’m going to sit and practice my scales, positions and all the other boring stuff.  I’m not going to go off all clarklike like I often do, playing songs in “different” timing.  I’m going to learn “the right way” first and then go all…Girlie.

NOTE: Only by clicking on the black box will the vid appear.  Freaky…considering.

Roll me, dr-edge me, fry me…I be done

…and still, we can be heroes just for one day….D…G…C…D…A…E…D…D…G…

Today I say, “on with the new and out with the old!”   Or should it be “out with the old and in with the new?”  Whatever.  So yesterday was a milestone holiday.  Yes, yes, the “official” start of summer.  Woopdi..doo.  I live in a quaint, little (very) beach town on the east coast of Florida.  It’s been summer for weeks.  We had spectacularly nice weather the entire weekend, which by the way, began on Thursday.

See, it’s a little different here.  For example, in the place I moved from light years ago (and other sane places), Friday is considered the last day of the work week.  Always filled with exuberant anticipation that, at 5:00 pm sharp, the weekend would begin.  The 2 day celebration representing the freedom from one’s occupational obligations whatever they may be.  Here, I call this day Fraturday.  When a great many people decide that they don’t want to/have to work the entire day.  I mean it’s the weekend afterall so we’d better get started on that right away!

While the rest of the folks in all the other “countries”  had a 3 day weekend, here we had a 4 day weekend.  See how it works?  We simply extend the time for holidays and special events.  Why? ‘Cuz we want to.  I mean whose gonna complain, right? LOL  That’s a big LOL my friends.  For all the positives that go with living in Florida there are some mighty, shall we say (I’ll be polite today), messed up things that go on down here.  A thing not easily explained.  One of those “ya got to live here to believe it” kind of things.

Huh, makes me think of Stephen King’s Under the Dome.  Classic King.  The roger that he is, Mr. King takes well over 900 pages to speak of life in a small town that suddenly finds itself cut off from the rest of civilization by a dome of mysterious origins.  No, I didn’t finish the book and at this point, I might as well wait for the TV telling coming next month.

Don’t spoil it for me.  I can pretty much guess the characters who make it out from under that mysterious dome.  Come to think of it, maybe I’ll skip the TV telling and read the book after all.  If history persists, then the book is far better than the upcoming series anyway.

Well, it’s the end of a 4 day weekend.  Lots of work to do so I had better get on with my day.  I’ve found a microscopic tear in my own dome and need to get to work on that.  Before I conclude this ramble-ette, thank you for stopping by today.  I was going to talk about emotional content – what it is, it’s uses (if you are lucky to procure it)  But we all have to begin another cycle in this the second day of “summer’.  Carry on. 

“What? What is it?  What is emotional content?”  That’s a tough one.  And topic for another post.  Yes, yes I am committing myself to writing the next post.  Yes, soon.  No, not weeks from now.  Simply, it (emotional content) is the thing that allows a person to achieve the seemingly impossible.