Playing Dress Up

SnapChat filters give us all a new way to waste our time.

Awakening

How can you buck the system if you are "the man"?

Today I got to thinking about the world and how I want to be a part of it.  I'm not exactly sure of the answer to that question in total yet.  But what I do know is that I don't want to be "normal".  I don't want to go with the grain. I don't want to be a rule follower.  And, I most definitely do not want to be "the man".

I know, I know...systems and rules are put into place to organize people and  minimize chaos.  Well, I'm all for that.  I don't want people running around killing each other and rioting in the streets.  But I also don't want to be a drone. An empty void of a person passing the time by satiating with a myriad of worldly addictions.

You might be thinking...

How did you start thinking about this?
Are you some kind of an anarchist criminal?
What's wrong with you?

Well, I'll tell you.  It all started on my run yesterday.  I was running and feeling truly satisfied.  And wondering why it was hard for people to find satisfaction. The Stones had it right when they said "I can't get no Satisfaction".   I was thinking about satisfaction and how people (myself included) are so numb to being able to tell whether or not they are actually satisfied.  Why can't we get no?

 I think most of us are this way because society is set in a way in which humans are bombarded with distractions.  We have to distract ourselves from the banality.  This is how we become addicted.  Addicted to food.  Addicted to drugs and alcohol.  Addicted to sex.  Addicted to television.  Addicted to shopping. Addicted to exercise.  Addicted to surrounding yourself with people.  These addictions provide temporary satisfaction which we highly evolved 21st century beings have confused for real happiness, or santosha, contentment, if you will.  Our confusion and displacement of contentment allows us to float along through life, through the systems which were set up to contain us, unaware of our own oblivion.

I don't want to be a slave to the distractions anymore.

I hear people around me saying things like "We're all just finding ways to pass the time".  And maybe that is true.  Maybe we all need to find a delicate balance between our spiritual fulfillment/pursuit of contentment and our worldly distractions because we are only human.  And what about things like art, music and literature?  Couldn't these things be considered "distractions".  I don't know the answer.  But I do know that I can't ever hope to find my way to the surface for a breath of fresh air and reality if I continue to be "the man" participating in a system that condones the exertion of some kind of power over others. A system that is based upon power imbalances, control, and oppression is a system that breeds tendency towards a need for diversion and beguilement.

I want to be awake.

OLD school

Crows feet and saddle bags aren't the only signs of aging.

You'll also know that you are old when your students begin to

1) Grow up, go to high school and show up on your husbands high school roster
2) Drop out of school and have babies
3) Think that you are lame
4) Not remember you

Do not...

accidentally or purposefully google two-headed animals... It will take you down a black hole of internet horror, unstoppable link-clicking, and irreversible damage to your soul.



Don't you kind of want to do it now?

The case of the uncut grass

The school couldn't afford to get the grass cut on the playground. It got very very tall. The students braved the ticks and snakes to find the actual equipment to play upon. Students are not seen here, as the grass is too tall and conceals them. Fights broke out, and even some students went missing within this tall grass.

Today, they finally cut the grass.

Creeeeepy

Antiquing has always struck me as a strange and unsettling activity- looking through a bunch of other people's smelly old weird stuff and then paying a large amount of money for it. I mean, what?

And some of this stuff is just down right creepy.



"Hello, I'm going to eat your brains."




Is there a person in there?




What is this? 50's fairy porn?

Lights Out.

First day back to school and there is some kind of weird power outage. No lights, people.

I think the universe is trying to tell me something.

Whoops!

Today, I was probably the clumsiest I have ever been. I got the day started by tripping on the rug in the kitchen. Then, I almost cut my big toe off with a paring knife while chopping onions. Things seemed to be getting better until I dropped a glass milk jug, and yes, it shattered and milk spilled everywhere. While cleaning it up, I banged my head into a metal shelf. And to top it all off, I spilled hot split pea soup all over the counter and myself.

Just call me Butter Fingers...

Airports are weird

It always baffles me that you can exist in this strange in between place where you are neither here nor there. It is only how I would imagine it to be if humanity were to relocate on Mars and live inside of an oxygenated bubble thing that resembled a super sized mall.
Whenever I enter the airport, I am instantly overwhelmed with a sense of craziness, that can only be reined in by going to a place inside myself where I am not actively participating in the ongoing events, but watching, from box seats in my frontal lobe.
You can be certain that you are on the ground. But where are you? Something is not right here. Normal rules do not apply: you must put your toiletries in tiny bottles, pour out your water, pull around your rolly bag as if it were a dog on a leash, and stuff your belongings in and around your person so as to not appear to have too much stuff. But they do have beer. Unfortunately, it does cost 10$, and is served to you by aliens who, by the way, do have to clear security before going to work. Airports are weird.

Friend or Foe?

This guy has been camped out at our back door for a few weeks now. At first he left his web up during the day and would go and hide somewhere. Then, I started to use beer bottles to take down his web because I didn't like this big scary guy at my back door (He is super scary, the picture does not do him justice).

So, I took down the web. "Ha..that is that...no more spider", I thought. But instead of it being over, he came back...and now, he just takes down his own web every morning, and rebuilds it every night. Smart spider, no?

Jason likes this spider because he is cool looking and eats the moths that congregate by our back door light. But, I have never liked spiders and definitely do not like this guy. However, I think I do respect him for his resilience and steadfastness. Maybe a lesson to be learned here?

Inception Karma?

So, after I openly gave Inception a mediocre review, I had a little Inception moment of my own. I was running in an area in which I don't usually run. I got to a park that I remember from a dream that I have had 2 or 3 times before. It was the craziest thing! I had this distinct feeling that I had been there before, but in a dream. I actually had been to the park before, but my memory of the park was from the dream. In my dream, I go to this park with freinds from high school...there might be a dog there...we're trying t find someone or get away from someone...we walk around... wait under a picnic shelter... try to go to someone's house up a gravel driveway.

I saw the gravel driveway on my run!!!!

Next time, I'm going up the gravel driveway to see what I find.

Will I have the dream again?

This got me thinking about the whole dream/subconscious thing. Why do I have this dream? Why am I remembering it? Is it a dream or is it my memory from real life that is shrouded in some way.

You guys got me thinking. A movie should do that, right? Sorry Chris Nolan, I may be willing to rethink my review. Unless...Was it Leo who traveled into my dreams to plant the idea that I liked his movie? Or maybe just a major case of deja vu?