Where did the time go?

I have many, many drafts of posts and nothing on my blog since my husband's birthday in November. Why?  I would love to say it's only because life got in the way or because Blogger didn't want to post my scheduled posts. Which is part of the reason.

The larger reason is that I took a break from blogging so I could reflect on what I want this space to be. In 2009 and 2010 I started many topics that I didn't follow up on here. Great topics that I think have a lot of value for me to write about and for others to read. I wasn't able to find my rhythm and I wasn't very good at follow through. Which is odd because I am a project manager and implementation is the name of the game at work.

So I took a break and asked myself why I was blogging. What was the purpose? What message did I want to send out to the blogsphere? How did I want readers to perceive me and my words?

I don't have a complete and total answer yet. Time is something precious that I don't have a lot of so I need to be smart about my blogging. And if I continue I want to be consistent. It's only fair to you and easier for me - less guilt at not posting and all that.

Advent, the religious and spiritual season we are in, is a time of reflection for me, so I'm taking the time to reflect, ponder, and to determine a course of action. I'll share what I come up with, I promise! In the meantime, thanks for sticking with me. I appreciate it, and you!

Soundtrack Friday

My husband turns 40 today. We've been together for 18 of those 40 years - not quite half his life. I love my husband. He's a wonderful man with many strengths. He can also be infuriating. Can't we all?

Today's Soundtrack Friday isn't about me. It's about him. My husband is complex yet simple. He has a hilarious sense of humor. He can think deeply and can also step back and see things from a broader perspective. He doesn't always have the best taste in clothes, movies or TV but I admire his willingness to try new things and to take my recommendations seriously.

We fell in love over a mutual admiration for Canadian prog rock group Rush. In some ways, Rush is the soundtrack of our life together. You name the song, I can tell you how it fits into our relationship. Scary, huh?

So, to my wonderful husband, today's Soundtrack Friday is all about Rush. I give you their hit single, a staple of concerts everywhere, Freewill. Babe, this one is for you!

Contests are fun

 An acquaintance from the Susan Elizabeth Phillips reader board has a new blog and for her blog she is having a contest. And who doesn't love contests!

Sanna's new blog focuses on her love of all things Christmas and romance novels. She is going to start reading as many Christmas themed romance novels as possible between November 1st and Christmas, I think. It's a great challenge. I do enjoy a great happily ever after wrapped up in a festive holiday theme.

To kick off her challenge, Sanna is having a contest for a book cover (made by Sanna herself I believe). The cover pictured above to be exact. Check out her Christmas Reading Challenge blog for more information about the books she has lined up to read and the contest. Hurry, the contest ends soon!

Soundtrack Friday

 I've never been a huge Hallowe'en girl. Growing up where I did it was pretty much guaranteed there would be snow on the ground. Or at the very least very cold making costumes unnecessary under the winter coats, wool scarves, toques (hats), and mittens. Getting free candy was always fun. Unless I happened to get candy I did like. Or my brother decided my stash was much more interesting than his.

What I did love about Hallowe'en were the cartoons. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Bugs Bunny's Howl-Oween Special. The Devil and Daniel Mouse. Any of the Scooby Doo Hallowe'en themed episodes. Young Frankenstien - while not a cartoon, a damn fine movie that I pull out every year about this time.

These I loved more than Christmas specials. Even as a child I loved being a little bit scared. Just a little bit. I wasn't into the slasher movies of the 80s. But I was into reading great creepy books like Lois Duncan's Stranger With My Face and Down a Dark Hall. The Twilight: Where Darkness Begins series, especially Fatal Attraction (not to be confused with the movie by the same name).

I also enjoyed the camp that came with the Hallowe'en themed cartoons and specials. They were often very hilarious and even ridiculous but that made me love them all the more.

Today, two days before Hallowe'en 2010, I give you The Monster Mash done up in one of the campiest ways I have ever seen. Not even a little bit scary, but that's okay. I like it anyway. :)

Running with the Bulls

Running with the Bulls
Originally uploaded by BaileyC

The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona is a celebration every July for St. Fermin, the city's patron saint. The run is a little over 800 meters long, 903 yards for you Americans. It lasts approximately 4 minutes and has resulted in the deaths of at least 13 people in the last 100 years. From the pictures, it looks like true and utter chaos to have 6 bulls and 6 steers (oxen)

The city of Pamplona advises, "Reunners need to be calm people with good reflexes and in excellent physical shape."

Think about a challenge you currently have.

• If you were perfectly calm, what would you notice about your challenge? 
• If you were in excellent physical shape, what could you do?
• What's the most dangerous thing you could do?  

Soundtrack Friday

This year a lot of my friends are turning 40. We all grew up in the 80s. Went through the disaster that was the 80s style, 80s hair, 80s slang. Not everything was horrible. Most of us became adults in the 80s. We learned a lot about who we were and several of us vowed never to wear shoulder pads that made us look like linebackers ever again. That was a very good thing to come from the 80s.

In a lot of ways, the 80s gave birth to the music video, the techno movement, bubble gum pop and some of the most unlikely one hit wonders ever.

The 80s was also a time of fertile imagination. And camp. Great, fantastic camp. Like this video for this song by 80s power group Duran Duran. I listened to this group a lot in the 80s. Even followed them when they temporarily split into Power Station (with Robert Palmer) and Arcadia. To date, my favorite Duran Duran title is A View To A Kill, which is also the only Bond theme song to hit #1 on the charts.

Back to campy songs. Hungry like the Wolf is fun. The lyrics are possessive, the music is catchy, and the video is cheesy, but does have some great bare chested moments. It's one of those songs that earworms its way into your brain. But it is a song I remember fondly from my youth. So to all my friends who are children of the 80s, this Soundtrack Friday is for you!

Duran Duran - New Music - More Music Videos

Follow the Sun

There is this amazing thing about sunflowers. When the flower is a bud, the sunflower will follow the sun across the sky over the course of the day. It somehow knows it needs the sun to grow that bud into a flower head so it tracks the sun as the sun make's its journey across the sky.
Once it flowers the head faces east. Away from the heat that could damage those tasty seeds. It protects itself against something that was once nurturing that may now be destructive.

I often think about sunflowers tracking the sun. They seem to know what they need and they know just how to get it! I wish I was more like that.

I don't always do what I know I need to. I stay up too late reading or watching TV instead of going to bed at an hour that supports good health. I don't make the best food choices. I don't always do the right thing with my time. I don't follow the sun. Or, I don't realize what I needed last week or last year isn't going to help me today. To be more deliberate about my choices, I ask myself the following questions:

• What repents the sun in my life? What do I need more of? 
• When does a good thing become too much? 
• The sunflower's goal is to produce fruit (seeds). Is what I focus on getting me closer to my goal? Or further away?