Sunday, July 7, 2013

Catching up

Well, I've been gone for awhile, haven't I? It's completely lame but at the same time true that I've just been busy. There are diapers out there to change, bottles to warm up, games to play and naps to take. There's also bike rides as yet unriden, (wow, I'm using Leif's computer which is set to Italian so 90% of the words are underlined with little red squiggly lines so I have no idea if unriden is even a word. I'm using it. It should be if it isn't) new friends to meet and old friends to reconnect with.

Which is no excuse, but the only one I've got right now. I probably need to reprioritise my life a bit.

So what have I been doing for the roughly two weeks I've been silent? Working, which is pretty much being a grown up trapped in a child's world. There's all the fun but with the adult foresight of the dangers. I pretty much have to balance my desire to wrap them in bubble wrap and duct tape them to a wall for safety with the understanding that if they don't do all these stupid things they'll have to stay taped to the wall for life. So I only step in when there's the possibility of bleeding or broken things, or when values need reinforcing.

It helps to remember that they aren't mine.

I haven't been riding as much as I like, mostly because about the only part of life I actively worry about is getting stranded out in the middle of nowhere when I ride alone. I do make my mad dashes across town on the city bike to and from work so I'm basically doing wind sprints for an hour every day. That's gotta count for something.

We also went to IKEA again for Midsummer.
I met a new friend last week. Well, I should say that I finally met someone I've been corresponding with for about six months. I used to think I was pretty good at shopping, but after a day with these ladies I can do nothing but concede to their greater abilities. They can go longer and farther with carefully spaced wine/prosecco breaks than I can with ice cream and coffee. They can fill a dressing room with things that aren't quite right faster than I can find one thing that probably shares the same fate. And they shop at better stores than I do. It was a great experience but the best part for me wasn't all the shopping but the chance to have spontaneous conversation with this woman I've come to respect. It's one thing to exchange letters or e-mails that can be written slowly enough to consider each word. Conversation is where the real person is discovered and I'm so glad I had that chance. Now when she comes back we can build on that first meeting and begin what I hope will be a long friendship.

I went to a 4th of July BBQ at one of my client's homes and spent an evening surrounded by American women and their Italian families. It was a taste of "the old country" if you will, with all the right foods but without the closeness that comes from celebrating with good friends and family. Of course I've only been here a few years and in time I may appreciate these celebrations more. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

That's about it. Nothing too exciting really. I do think that excitement often gets in the way. I'm trying to remember that living in the moment means leaving the past in the past and the future somewhere ahead. That living in the moment means paying attention to everything in that moment: sights, sounds, smells, tastes and what I'm feeling as those senses are awakened. It's too easy to feel busy and rush through things to arrive at some imagined moment that never seems to come.

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