How ever could I forget to post the obligatory pic of the tree, eh? Ok, here you go:
All better now. Have a happy day! :)
Dec 102011
Dec 102011
Noteshelf, I love you! I just downloaded this app and am addicted to it already. It’s a freeform note taking app that allows you to write, doodle, draw, or whatever else you can do with a stylus. I like that you can change ink colors and highlight text too. You can even add adorable icons to your page too. I added a tiger face, presents under the tree, and snowmen.
They also offer paper varieties. Here’s one example I liked, graphing paper:
I’m such a visual thinker that something like this is super helpful. It allows for more freeform than typing does and I’m very excited by that. I foresee less doodled sticky notes in my future. :)
Um, I also foresee some much needed work needing to be done on my penmanship. Lots of work…. :P
Dec 102011
I’ve been especially sulky this week. Most every day I got dribs of bad news in. By Friday I was ready to hide under my bed. This morning I got up still in a mopey mood, but I dragged my ass out of bed and headed out to run errands. I started the car and U2′s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” began to play on the radio. And as always, the song forced to take a moment and just appreciate all life has to offer.
I was first introduced to the song in 1988 by a then new friend of mine, Julie, who happened to be a huge U2 fan. We met at a Summer Youth Work Program at Bear Mountain. Here’s a picture from that summer. Julie is on my left. Another friend, Shelly, to my right. And there’s a reason this picture is crooked, only this many years later, I can’t remember what it was. :P
This may have been the best summer of my life. I don’t remember ever being so happy. We debarked trees with machetes, cleared deer trailers, built a shelter, and swam in all the “do not swim” lakes. A college student was our supervisor and drove us around in a white van that had no seats in the back. So we just piled on top of a giant wooden toolbox and tried not to fall off. The danger of driving through the woods like this never occurred to any of us. Julie and I would often times sit on one side of the box, sharing a walkman and listening to a U2 song. We’d sing/shout it from the top of our lungs. Thinking back, I don’t remember anyone else in the van with us minding. Well? We were all kids.
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” was the song we sang most and the one I most identify with that summer. After, I lost touch with Shelly (we were from different school districts) but Julie and I kept in touch because we both worked at Army football games. Julie was adventurous and had a great sense of humor. Even then, her vibrance told me she embraced life. It’s been more than 20 years since I lost her to a fatal car crash, but I’m still reminded of her every time this song plays. I’m reminded how much she laughed. How much she loved to sing. And I’m reminded most how quickly it can all be taken away.
But today, as I listened to the song, I took stock, and reassessed. My own recent miseries are irrelevant when I put it into perspectives like this. I want to laugh hard. Embrace life. And to not be bothered by the things that keep causing me grief. These things that keep happening may be out of my control, but how I let them effect me is in my control. I will do the best I can and try to remember every day to be thankful for the wonderful things life does offer.
I’ll leave you with the song that started my whole rambling thinking:
