Thursday, February 22, 2007

2Peas Blogger Challenge

Not a very interesting one, but I've got a really light night at work so here it is...

When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up????

I wanted to be different things at different times. An interior designer, a doctor, an archeaologist, a pilot, a teacher. I NEVER wanted to be a nurse when I was little, but one summer volunteering at a pediatric hospital did it for me. I loved the flexibility that nursing offered. And when I was in high school, I'd decided that I wanted a family so I wanted something that would allow me to spend a lot of time with my kids. Ha!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Big News

So I forgot to post the news that brought on the previous post...as a present to myself for turning 30, I'm going to Ireland! It's always been on my Places I Want to Visit List, at the top actually, so in celebration (yes I'm going to celebrate this) of turning THIRTY, I'm going. I really wanted to try to go it alone, but I can't quite do that yet so my friend Carmen is coming with. Maybe if it were a tour group I'd go alone, but we're planning on driving around (praying the whole way that we don't forget which side of the road to drive on) so I need a buddy for that. So I am super excited and really wish it were May already.

Anyway, I thought it was funny that when I mentioned it on my scrapping board, a couple of the ladies said they were jealous. I replied that travel is one of the perks of being a spinster, to which some replied that I wasn't a spinster...yada yada...

So here's what's funny, I spent the last couple of years somewhat jealous of others' families, being married, being mothers, having real homes, etc. And now I'm not. Sure I have moments when I think I'd still love to win the lottery and be able to afford a house and a kid on my own, but I've become very selfish lately. I really love not having to wake up early, being able to take off for dinner or drinks any time of the day, not having to worry about taking anyone to the ER for stitches or what have you, not having to worry that someone or something will hurt my child. I'm quite a worrier, so it's a good thing I don't have anyone to stress out about otherwise I'd never get any sleep.

Anyway, I know there's a reason why they say the grass is always greener on the other side. I've been there. But now, right now, I'm really digging the not-so-green grass on MY side.

The Spinster

Something I wrote on my scrapping group's board...just want it in the appropriate place for future reference.



There are a few of us in the world who are trying to reclaim the word "spinster." Watch out, I'm about to drop some info from Wiki...

A spinster is a woman who has never been married, though it is usually applied only to women who are regarded as beyond the normal age for marriage, which has varied between cultures and eras. The word spinster came into common use during the early 19th century when spinning thread provided unmarried women a useful role in the home.

There used to be quite a stigma related to being a spinster, but this has somewhat disappeared in modern Western Civilization along with the establishment of women's rights to vote, own property, and pursue career goals as well as changing social mores regarding nonmarital sexual relationships and advents in birth control. Stereotypes historically perpetuated about spinsters include sexual and emotional frigidity, frumpiness, depression, moral virtue, religious devotion, victim of an oppressive mother and family caretaker.

The notion of the spinster has been adopted by some in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as a positive and even empowering lifestyle choice, one not necessarily linked to romantic or sexual abstinence.



Ok, so I definitely fit some of the stereotypes of the old-fashioned spinster, but that's my choice. And I've had love and oppportunities for marriage, but for certain reasons they didn't work out. I may go through my occasional boo hoos about love and loss, but ultimately I know that if I really wanted to get married, I'd have no problem getting married. But that's not enough for me. I don't settle. Period. I will not have a substandard man, and that's not to say that I'm picky or shallow, I just know what is important to me. Like the saying goes, I don't just want someone I can live with, I want someone I can't live without. And I haven't met that guy yet, and even if I don't, I'm ok with it.

So that's all I'm saying, I'm a spinster (in my culture), and I'm glad. I'd rather be a spinster who's in control of her life than feel trapped by a poor choice. Please don't think that I'm fishing for reassurance that some day my prince will come. I don't want you guys to think I'm feeling sorry for myself (I think I'm over that hump already).

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Saturday Laundry

I am currently composing my manifesto, and due to events of today I will be including something to the effect of:

A spinister may engage in hand to hand combat with a fellow spinster and neighbor over use of the single dryer in the building. However, dreaming about kicking her scrawny ass out of the window will suffice.

Other items up for inclusion in my manifesto are:

A spinster has license to be as eccentric as she sees fit. She has earned the right to be kooky.

A spinster does not have to shave, wax, pluck, dye, or suck in anything not covered by clothing if she doesn't want to.

And for this I'm missing taco night at my sister's. Humph.



Thursday, February 08, 2007

Valentines Day is upon us...

and I suppose this calls for tales of Valentines Days past.

Picture it, Lincoln Heights, 1993. I had just met Boyfriend #1. Back then we didn't have cell phones or myspace, so the way boys told girls (especially at all-girls Catholic schools) they were thinking about them was by sending a Candygram. This is how student government made a chunk of change, selling little cards with candy and then hand-delivering them to the other schools for a dollar. So imagine everyone's surprise in my homeroom when this little mousy girl, yours truly, got a candygram. It was quite the sensation. Every year for the rest of my high school days I had a boyfriend for VDay, so I guess that first Candygram was a good omen. I still have all my Candygrams in a box someplace. Like I said, not my best story, but it's a story.

I've never really been a hopeless romantic. I'd much rather be the recipient of small gestures of caring and consideration every day than once a year cliches. But, I do have a couple of those overdone stories too.

Boyfriend #4 (aka Love of my Life) once lit about 100 tea candles in his apartment with the help of his roommates, who had left us a very nice romantic meal and set a Keith Sweat CD on a loop to set the mood (hey, it was 1997 and these were homeboys). And the card he gave me had a very clever contract in fine print all around the edge binding me to stay with him forever and give him lots of kisses every day for the rest of my life, among other things. Sigh. Still, it'll be one of my deathbed memories.

Then there was Boyfriend #5.5 (forgive my dodgy boyfriend classification system). He once left a bunch of red roses sprinkled on my car before I left for school. And the guy deserves credit because I was in nursing school at the time so I had to leave pretty early in the morning. What was funny was that the gardeners were waiting by my car because they'd seen him bring the flowers and wanted to see my reaction. Very nice guy that one.

And now that VDay is approaching next week, I'm a bit nervous.
Candy Man from work told me yesterday that I had to remind him of "something funny" he has to tell me "next Wednesday." Hmm...Maybe this year he'll give me a lump of coal.