ON BEING BORING...

I don't know where I found this....but I love it....it so describes me...



It's a poem by Wendy Cope called "Being Boring"



If you ask me 'What's new?', I have nothing to say

Except that the garden is growing.

I had a slight cold but it's better today.

I'm content with the way things are going.

Yes, he is the same as he usually is,

Still eating and sleeping and snoring.

I get on with my work.

He gets on with his.

I know this is all very boring.



There was drama enough in my turbulent past:

Tears of passion-I've used up a tankful.

No news is good news, and long may it last.

If nothing much happens, I'm thankful.

A happier cabbage you never did see,

My vegetable spirits are soaring.

If you're after excitement, steer well clear of me.

I want to go on being boring.



I don't go to parties. Well, what are they for,

If you don't need to find a new lover?

You drink and you listen and drink a bit more

And you take the next day to recover.

Someone to stay home with was all my desire

And, now that I've found a safe mooring,

I've just one ambition in life: I aspire

To go on and on being boring.

GOOD NIGHT BENJAMIN

I love movies and I love books. Maybe sometimes with an unhealthy passion....but I try to think not. To me a great movie or a great book has a great story; a story I get lost in; a story that I don't want to end....a movie that I want to go on. The book will be so well written that I can smell the rain, I can feel the breeze, my heart breaks with a character's heartbreak or I laugh out loud from the bottom of my toes......perhaps that is because I want so badly to write. I have so many stories in my mind aching to get out.........not just stories, but stories I would like made into movies........smile, if you must....as I am smiling too....at the thought that someday that could happen. I am easily drawn into a book or movie that is written and/or acted well, unconditionally and completely....I cry without shame (sometimes to the dismay of those sitting next to me) and sometimes I laugh way too loud. But that's me. It's means my emotions have been touched and I think that is a wonderful thing.

I write this today because I have just returned from seeing just such a movie....I am still reeling over the splendid story it was and how well it was written, acted and told. It was a jewel. I just got back from seeing "The Curious Story of Benjamin Button". Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji Henson and Julia Ormond truly outdid themselves in this movie........oh my gosh! The make-up was unbelievable....truly exquisite and exceptional. John said I cried through the whole movie...I didn't. And the times (even after the movie, when we were driving out of the parking lot of the theater) when I did cry.....it was not all because of sadness.....Part of me cried because it was such a beautiful love story, part of me cried for how it made me think about some of the things the story taught........how it's never to late to begin again.....or live happily ever after........or how in the end--we must all..."just let go".

But I cried too for the aching inside of me to write a story like that.......to write something that will touch someone elses emotions so deeply that they will lose themselves in my story, laugh and cry openly and never want my story to end...I ache to the core to do that....

.........and so perhaps, I shall.

I just finished reading a marvelous book too....."Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. Wow! It was phenominal....she did her homework. Her descriptions, flow of words, and twists in the storyline just pulled me right into each setting and conversation. She is the kind of writer that lends the reading of her book to learning for a "would be writer" as myself.

Well back to my real world....more writing will have to wait.

"HOW'S THAT WORKING FOR YOU?"

I'm sitting here in my office and as I type my hands are really cold. We have heat in the house so I'm wondering why this coldness....could be because the wind is whipping so badly outside and the wind chill is about 11 below !!!


I've missed writing here. As I always say time just rudely does not wait for me. She flits and flies by with no concern for my needs. As much as I'd like to pull her stem out and just stop her hands for a while, she doesn't allow anyone to do that. Each second just keeps ticking away as I listen to the beat of the pendulum rocking back and forth under the clock on the wall.

We've had snow here in Maine and there is snow on the ground. Today is bright and beautiful, but the wind is howling and kicking up the snow like a professional skater twirling with great speed on the ice. And yes we had a white Christmas. We've had some warmish days and some of the snow melted off the driveway and the amount on the ground lessened, but today even though there is hardly a cloud in the beautiful blue sky, there is no sign that any snow is going to melt today. But we're in Maine and so it goes. A friend of mine who used to live in Alaska and who now lives in Arizona wrote a short note recently comparing the fact that now they are where it's nice and warm and I, who used to live in Dallas & San Antonio, am now in Maine with the cold and snow. He asked in the fashion of "Dr. Phil"...."How's that working for you?" Well it's working just peachy!! Life is so good! When you are totally content and happy with someone and they are totally content and happy with you.....I think it doesn't much matter where you live or what the weather is like. Someday we might decide to move to a warmer climate, but we look at this this way......we're sitting here on January 1st, heading for a visit to Texas later in the month....then it will be February....then March and when March gets here be it Maine or Texas....spring is not far behind. It's all relative. Here in Maine we have 4 months of pretty cold weather and snow. In San Antonio there are 4 months of pretty blistering hot weather. If you are where you really believe you are meant to be, you adjust and take it in stride. So it's working just fine for me.... (except when my dear sweet 85 year old Daddy calls from San Antonio and jokingly says it's 70 degrees here and gasoline is $1.32)....now that's just mean! Ha Ha! But I adore him anyway.

We had a lovely Christmas sharing an evening exchanging gifts with our girls and grandchildren here in Maine and sharing gifts with my family in San Antonio and Denham Springs, Louisiana. John and I had a nice quiet Christmas day by ourselves celebrating the way we love to celebrate....lots of silly gifts (so we have lots to open) with riddles on each box to try and guess what's in the package. It doesn't matter if it cost $1.00 or $100.00. We take the time to think about something that made us laugh or something we mentioned to each other we'd like to have....the real gift to each other .........is each other. We are thankful for the simplicity of the day and our love for each other.

New Year's is usually pretty quiet for us, but this year we decided to invite a few neighbors over and we had a truly fun evening....a potluck of snacks and a mingling of laughter, talk, and thoughts. Good friends, good neighbors, good night. John and I even managed to stay up til the ball in New York dropped (on TV) and we gave a New Year's kiss and hit the hay....like the two old "party animals" we are.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I wish for you a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous 2009. Stay warm, tell those you care about how you feel and please keep in touch.

I'll be back here soon....til then smile and be happy.....2008 is over and done....you have a brand new sparkly slate to begin again.

I saw a sign in the mall the other day that I loved.....It said..... "It's never to late to live happily ever after".