Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Z is for Zzzzz's

The final and 26th letter of the alphabet is Z!  How many words begin with Z that I commonly use in a sentence?  The Z word that applies in my life is Zzzzz - as in sleep.  I don't know if I can ever catch up on the amount of sleep that I've lost in my lifetime. 

I've been a night owl for most of my life; even as a child I fought my sleep.  I think I was always afraid I'd miss out on something if I went to sleep. 

As I'm getting a little older (in my mind it is only a little), I find that it feels so good to get more sleep and some nights I actually crave sleep.  I just wonder when I'll actually make myself go to bed at a reasonable hour; that generally happens only when I am exchausted.   Take tonight for example:  I was sleepy a few hours ago and felt like I needed to go to bed, but instead took care of a few last minute things that I needed to do and made the mistake of writing a quick e-mail and saw that someone had commented on my blog.  It doesn't take much to get me sidetracked away from sleep. 

Now that I've finished the A to Z Challenge (and three posts all in an hour!) I think I can go to sleep.   (If I can stop myself from checking comments on facebook!)

Y is for Yellow

I love yellow!  It's a bright, cheery, happy color; don't you think?  Whenever I have colored a sun in coloring books I have used yellow which produces the feeling of warmth and comfort.  What better feeling can you think of than laying in the sun (for a short time) and feeling the warmth of it? 

I use a country yellow to decorate my home with.  My kitchen walls are that wonderful, warm color; as are other decorative accents in some other rooms in my home.  I have been drawn to that country yellow for some time now; I'm sure that means something.  I must need the feeling it conveys, but whatever the reason I really love it. 

And finally, my personality color is yellow.  I took a personality test (years ago) called the Color Code in which I was defined as a yellow, but before I took that personality test I took one in which I was defined as a Chimpanzee (also yellow).  Chimps are fun animals, right? 

If I looked good in yellow clothes I'm sure I'd purchase some, but the main color in my wardrobe is black; go figure.  (black is a slimming color, right?)

X is for Extremes and Excitement

I know the A-Z Challenge is long past, but I  just need to finish it; I'm so close!  I wish I could blame my lateness all on being busy, but the truth is that I have been home and could have taken a few minutes to finish; it's all in my time management skills (which I blogged about a while back).

X is for Extreme.  I've had (for myself) an extreme three weeks.  I've experienced extreme excitement doing things and seeing places and experiencing things for the first time. My husband and I went on a cruise to the Caribbean with his family (our first cruise thanks to my Mother-in-Law).   I experienced extreme anxiety at our first port at Cozumel, Mexico when I couldn't find my passport before getting off the ship, only to run up to our cabin on the seventh deck (all by myself), feeling like I was the only person on the boat with it sinking and in returning in exasperation to my family to find out that it was in my back pocket!    I experienced some extreme adventure with cave tubing in Belize, eating what we were told was chicken but thinking it was iguana after all (my sister-in-law said she had a spine on her piece of chicken!),  zip-lining through a very beautiful jungle in Roatan, pushing through my fear of sharks and snorkeling off the coast of Roatan as well as being in the ocean with stingrays and even kissing one (on the Grand Cayman Island) and then snorkeling again (I had just gotten the hang of it when we had to quit; I think I could grow to love snorkeling!).   On the cruise ship we had an extremely pleasurable dining experience in the evenings and enjoyed lots of extreme laughter.

Then only to return home with a day for resting and day of cleaning before we had each of our four extra bedrooms full of loved ones for a week and then on to a time share with some extremely wonderful friends whom we haven't seen for several years.  Needless to say, I was extremely tired but extremely grateful for all of it when it ended this past Sunday. 

There's something about having extremes in my life that I love.  I love the highs and lows; the feeling of being high on a rollercoaster and then the feeling of coming down off of the high part.  Without extremes in my life, I'd feel a little flat, a little one-dimensional. 

Now that I've gotten to experience some new extremes I'm looking forward to some more new adventures; I think I could get used to it very quickly.  After all, life is short and it's a good thing to live every moment to its fullest, right? 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

W is for Wishes

The A to Z Challenge has been over for several days, but I was out of town and still have w, x, y and z to finish so here goes.

In the story of Aladdin, he found some kind of old oil-type of lamp and in the process of shining it up a bit, released a genie who in gratitude to Aladdin allowed Aladdin three wishes.  I don't remember all of Aladdin's wishes but I've been thinking about what I might like to wish for if I had a genie to make them come true.

Having only three wishes would cause me to do some deep thinking to see what I really wanted.  Of course I'd love to have good health, a happy family, and peace on earth, and I already have so much, but there are a few things that I'd love to have that would help me along the rest of my journey.

Wish #1:  I'd love a clear and focused mind.  I sometimes have trouble focusing on one idea without my mind wandering off in another direction, making it more difficult to have clear thoughts.  I don't even know what it would feel like to have clear and uncluttered thoughts, but I'd love to experience clarity. 

Wish #2:  I'd love to have the communication skills to clearly communicate my thoughts so that others would understand them.  It's sometimes frustrating for me when I can't clearly communicate what I'm thinking or ideas that I have; better communication skills would be a wonderful gift!

Wish #3:  And I guess if I only get to choose one more thing (and boy, is this difficult!) then maybe I'd choose a career where I could help others and make a difference in people's lives.  Or maybe instead I'd like to have a decisive mind.   Or maybe my third wish would be to have a few more wishes granted? 

If you could have three wishes granted, what would they be?  And would you have as difficult a time choosing your wishes as I obviously have?