My own personal mid-life crisis (and how I solved it).

The surest cure for a crazy idea is to ask your friends’ opinions.

My latest crazed thought it that it is jolly well time for me to get my nose pierced.   I did my homework; there shall be no adolescent self-piercings.  Nothing but the best for this old gal trying to look young.

So I asked my wise and also slightly crazed friend D for her advice.  Here’s what she said:

Subject: Re: my mid-life crisis

Oh my … another mid-life crisis to deal with …

That’s what’s so great about being over 50 – you’re officially out of the “mid-life crisis” stage, and are now just old.  And boring, and conservative and taking risks is just not worth the bother – after all, risks disturb our little worlds.  We are just too busy dealing with pending arthritis, forgetfulness, fading eyesight, hearing loss, etc. etc.  It’s getting harder and harder to keep the gray covered.  Clothing and shoes are now chosen for comfort rather than style.  And our jewelry is now limited to easy-on/easy off stuff.  We don’t want to dig around inside our nostrils to change our looks.  That might mess up our sinuses somehow, and you know that sinuses can cause all sorts of medical problems.  As if we didn’t have enough medical issues to deal with …

But you, my dear, are not old yet.  And a mid-life crisis could be a lot worse than a nose piercing, and it’s cheaper than a red sports car like all the stupid men get, so I say GO FOR IT !!!  (Maybe *** [edited to spare myself embarrassment] likes a little nose jewelry!)  To inspire you, here are some looks you might want to consider:
    Simple, yet tasteful          a bit more fashion forward

the popular layered look   for those “ethnic” dress days

  playful and youthful            extravagant – for
occasions calling for something special

the “country”girl look

Now, you may be re-thinking the whole nose piercing thing at this point, so let me offer an alternative suggestion:

the corset piercing look             Yes, this is real piercing, lovely, isn’t it?

Before you do anything, Lorinda, you need to consider the effects of your actions on your family members, especially family members of a different generation, who might not be able to appreciate your body art.  A good reference before your next trip to see the parents:

Now available at www.amazon.com.

I swear, you certainly have livened up my Sunday afternoon web surfing!  And to think I was just sitting here laughing over comments about Heather Mills’ artificial leg!

I anxiously await your response, and hope I’ve been helpful to you in making the pierce/no pierce decision.

Care to weigh in?  And actually, my parents would probably be okay with it.  They usually take my antics with a grain of salt.  Probably why they’re still kickin’ around.

 

A must see movie

Just saw this today.  Go see it, and I’m not just saying that because I’m partial to men in wigs and hose in period movies.

Books, books and more books

A Book Meme

I found this over on Marsha’s. So many memes leave me cold, but this one seems interesting. Especially now that my book satiation period is over.

In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

5. The Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)

6.  The Two Towers (Tolkein)

7.  The Return of the King  (Tolkein)
8. +Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. + Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13.+ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. *A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha
16. +Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)

18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20.+ Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)

21. +The Hobbit (Tolkein)

22.+ The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24.  The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27.+ Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28.+ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. +1984 (Orwell)

35.  The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38.* I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. +The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
WHAT HAPPEN TO 49???? Missing in action, I guess
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52.+A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. *Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54.+ Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. +The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64.+ Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. +Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. +The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. +Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)

73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. +The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76.* The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79.* The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. +Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. *Rebecca (Daphe DuMaurier)

84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. +Emma (Jane Austen)
87. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88.* The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90.* Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92.+ Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)

94. +The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. *The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. *A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Thanks SP9 Pal!

I am humbly apologizing for my lateness in posting my thanks to Gretchen, who was an amazing secret pal in spite of the holidays, a full-time job, a family and the noro virus. Thanks, lady! I love my package! Here’s the scoop:

Killer mobster Yorkie Gino stands guard over the cool stuff, making sure no one tries to take it. Jinx looks on.

Gorgeous and 0h-so-soft bulky merino and cool thick-thin yarn from a local farmer’s market. I’m so going to NYC; our farmer’s markets don’t have cool stuff like that.

Chocolate soap in chunk and liquid form with a big note saying DO NOT EAT! Both smell completely yum. Notice kitty bum of approval in the background.  And I can’t forget to mention the cool knitting gadgets which are like black shoes–you can never have too many (especially someone like yours truly who is always losing stuff).

Amazing!

Bono is amazing

Check out this video of Bono that I found on Jon’s blog. Very thought provoking.

And for a rebuttal, check this out.

The soundtrack of my life

Sure to be a scary and slightly cheesy one.  Here goes:

Life Soundtrack
IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here’s how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie
Shout out to Adele for the meme.  Not sure why she chose two for each section, so I did too.

Opening Credits:
a) I Need Thee Every Hour–Jars of Clay

b) The Nurse Who Loved Me–Perfect Circle (would that be my mom?  she’s a nurse)

Waking Up

a) Turning–Les Miserables Broadway Cast (I usually am la miserable waking up)

b) Come Back, Baby–The Ramones

First day at High School:
a) Symphonic Dance–Phil Keaggy

b) Embraceable You–Ella Fitzgerald (my first day of high school–NOT!)

Falling in Love:
a) The Valley–Jars of Clay (valleys of sorrow–sounds about right)

b) Nel Cor Piu  Non Mi Sento–Cecilia Bartoli (something about being destroyed in Italian–yep, that fits)

Fight Song:
a) Oh, Darling–The Beatles
b) Spanish Caravan–The Doors

Breaking Up:
a) You Knit Me Together–Steve Green (from my kids’ CD)

b) Nothing Special–Duncan Sheik

Prom:
a) That Lucky Old Sun–Louis Armstrong

b) Deck the Halls–David Huntsinger

Life:
a) Faith, Hope and Love–Mark Schultz

b) Walking with a Ghost–Tegan & Sara

Mental Breakdown:
a) So Far Away–Dire Straits (nope, that mental breakdown is just around the corner)

b) Yellow Submarine–The Beatles

Driving:
a) Suite No 5 in C minor–Janos Starker (NOT! way too mellow for my driving)

b) Bring Your Kingdom–Worship Songs of the Vineyard (the irony is great–does this mean that I’m going to die or the people that annoy me will?)

Flashback:
a) The Lord’s Prayer–The Cambridge Singers
b) Angel Child–Samite  (ha ha ha!  cool song, though)

Getting Back Together:
a) Blue Skies–Eva Cassidy
b) Nothing at All–Third Day (yep, nothing at all)

Wedding:
a) Eine Kleine Nachtmusik–Mozart
b) We Praise Your Name–Matt Shepardson

Birth of Child:
a) Naive–Chris Rice (oh yeah, I was)
b) There’s No Business Like Show Business/They Say It’s Wonderful–Annie Get Your Gun 

Final Battle:
a) Voyage Around the Moon–Saturn 5

b) Take Me to the River–Eva Cassidy (would that be the Jordan River?)

Death Scene:
a) Worms–The Pogues (perfect! you know the one–the worms crawl in . . .)
b) Carol of the Bells–Mannheim Steamroller

Funeral Song:
a) Ada Plays–Gabriel Yared (nice song!)
b) Shield of Faith–Alison Kraus & Union Stations

End Credits:
a) True Life Blues–Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard (I guess I’ll go out pickin’ and a’grinnin’)
b) Honor & Glory–Songs of the Vineyard

I did NOT cheat, but I think it’s ironic that of the 6356 songs on my iTunes, most of the ones that came up on a random shuffle were inspirational.  A reminder to behave myself even when ‘meme-ing’?  Hmmmmm.

Hey y’all

Crazy Aunt Purl sure has me pegged.  Love that girl.
“SCORPIO (Oct. 24 – Nov. 21)
Scorpio folks are at better at justification than anyone! Ya’ll rock the self-propelled visionary bunch o’ baloney. A songwriter friend of mine from back home and I were on the phone the other night and he was telling me a story, telling me he had to get out of a particular personal situation real soon. And he said, “What you never meant can become your life.” Leave it to a songwriter to sum up some profound sh*t in one line. March is a good month for Scorpios to tie up some loose ends (and that is a nice way of saying “Get rid of the stuff you don’t want to become your whole life.”) It’s real easy to fall into the comfort of a thing, the rhythm and cadence and measure of something because it’s … well, because it’s there. It’s available. It happens to be there at the time and you’re too lazy or unmotivated to change it so you let it go on, then go on for too long. Don’t allow something you never meant to become your whole life just because you’re real real good at making up an excellent justification bunch o’ baloney excuse.“

Wooly Bullies

Props to Anne for this video about knitters v. crocheters.

Cool ways to help

Heather is raising money to buy books for a Montessori school in South Africa.  There’s yarn involved!  Great cause–Montessori, books, and helping underprivileged kids.

Eve is calling out for comic strip readers for a survey.  Admit it, we all read ‘em.  Sign up on her blog.  She’s talkin’ yarn too!

So since she’s studying it, I want to know.  What’s your favorite comic?  Since the retirement of the ALL TIME best Calvin & Hobbes, I’d have to say Purls Before Swine [oops!  knitter's mistake]  Pearls Before Swine.

Fur baby feet (or day late and dollar short)

I’m too late to enter La’s contest about furbaby feet, but it’s never too late to post cute feet.  Here goes.  And head over to JenLa and vote for your favorite cute feet.

Grubby Yorkie feet (Gino)

Soft as they look Velvet feet

Knubbly cuteness Charles feet.