randomness

Going Solo

Aaron has just left with Jessie and Kris to go to the lake, leaving me to my own devices for the weekend. This is my chance to tackle some projects I’ve been needing to do, but haven’t been motivated to start in the evenings after work.

Potentially on the agenda for today:

  • Do laundry
  • Wash the dishes (not a major project, but it needs done, and I should take responsibility for my banana pudding mixing bowl)
  • Clean and organize my desk
  • Clean my corner of the bedroom and put my clothes away
  • Work on the LSM website
    (and throw together a trifold brochure like I promised I’d do months ago)
  • Practice my mellophone

I don’t know if I’ll finish all these tasks today, but I’m going to try to avoid getting sidetracked and doing something other than these tasks, anyway.

To start off, I think I’m going to go make myself some lunch and see what’s on PBS while I eat. I ate so much at yesterday’s potluck at work that I never got hungry for dinner, so now I’m starving. o.O

food 4 Comments

Potential Culinary Disaster

Since my department is having a potluck tomorrow, I went to Meijer over my lunch today to get ingredients for the banana pudding I was planning to bring. Our second car is on the fritz, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to hit Kroger after Aaron left for work, like I usually do on Potluck Eve.

I just went upstairs to unload the ingredients from the shopping bag… and realized that I bought not vanilla pudding, like the recipe calls for, but white chocolate.

I’m going to make the banana pudding anyway, with white-chocolate-flavored pudding as a base.

I hope this doesn’t suck.

music

Musical Poseurs

It’s a slow day at work today (again). So, while I’m thinking of it, I wanted to mention something I found on my work’s intranet.

There was an employee profile I read online, where the employee being interviewed said, “I love all music, Willie Nelson, Barry Manilow, Enya, Shania Twain and the Beatles.” I found this pretty amusing, being a person of fairly eclectic musical taste myself. If she loves all music, where’s the jazz? The industrial? The classical? All I’m seeing is country and easy listening and the Beatles. (I wonder if she likes their later, stranger albums, too?)

I’d like to be indignant and declare her a poseur and say that I really DO love all music… but I know I don’t. I’m not a big fan of modern country, or gangsta rap, or even recent “modern rock” in more than small doses. And I’m sure there’s other music I’ve never heard that I don’t like, either.

That’s the thing: everyone says that they like just about all kinds of music, but they don’t ? and can’t ? consider music that they rarely or never hear during the course of their daily lives. They may think they really do like everything… but it’s only everything within their own sphere of influence. Most people want to think they’re eclectic and tolerant and far-reaching in so many ways… but they’re not.

I include myself in this generalization, as well. As far as music goes, I enjoy alternative, some modern rock, some punk, ska, classic rock, jazz, classical, drum & bugle corps, barbershop / a capella, progressive rock, easy listening (“adult contemporary”), some techno/electronic, some j-pop, new wave, synthpop, old-school rap, folk, pre-90’s country, some international music, and some other music that can’t quite be pigeonholed. I know for a fact that I don’t like gangsta rap, modern country (“crossover” country is almost worse), really heavy industrial, a lot of modern rock and pop… but I can’t think of much else that I can’t stand, mainly because I don’t find myself in situations where I would experience music I may not like.

So, yes, feel free to claim that your tastes are eclectic. Claiming that you love “all” music is a bit of a stretch, though.

ruminations

Happiness Is…

Have I mentioned how lucky I am to be in such a loving and trusting relationship? Have I told teh intarweb lately how much I love my husband?

*sucks in a deep breath*

I LOVE THIS MAN.

Not for any reason in particular do I bring this up today. I was just thinking about us, after reading about and thinking about some of my friends’ failed and failing relationships. That, and I found a draft copy of our wedding vows (and some leftover wedding programs) as I was cleaning this evening:

I Aaron/Diana take Diana/Aaron to be my Honey Muffin (husband) / Boobie Doobie (wife) and to:

  • trust each other and be trustworthy
  • support one another in our worldly endeavors
  • continue to share our thoughts and feelings, our hopes and desires
  • and to love and cherish each other for the rest of our lives.

We have a really awesome relationship, and I count myself very, very lucky to be with Aaron.

This sounds like I’m patting myself on the back for being so cool in light of my friends’ relationship problems. That’s not how I mean it; this is more of a counting-my-blessings sort of feeling. Also, I feel genuinely sorry for my friends who don’t have this kind of relationship. One friend is coming to the end of a long, strange relationship and forging ahead in a better one. Another friend discovered that their spouse had posted a profile online at Match.com, claiming to be separated and looking for romance. Still others seem to be happy, I guess, but it’s hard to tell for sure.

We’re best friends, Aaron and I, and we like many of the same things. We do have our differences, though, and some of them are major parts of our lives. (Aaron, for instance, is not any kind of drum corps enthusiast. I, on the other hand, can’t STAND the Evil Dead movies I’ve seen.) But we’re OK with that. I go off for drum corps rehearsals and performances every other weekend, and he deals. He’s going off for a male bonding weekend up at Hemlock Lake this Saturday, and I’m perfectly OK with that (especially after all my drum corps trips). I’m happy to give him all the time he can spend with his friends, given that they hardly want to hang out anymore (due to wives, kids, and general lameness).

In conclusion, let me share some photos of where Aaron’s going this weekend. I went there with him and his friend Kris and Kris’s wife back in July 2002. It was a great time… until Kris’s wife and I got horribly sunburned and we had to leave a little early. Behold:

photo: sunshine and clouds photo: boaters fishing on a lake
photo: bare feet on a beach chair photo: kris's wife sunning photo: the pontoon boat, docked
photo: aaron with a sparkler photo: diana's amazing sunburn

Click the last photo to see myself and Kris’s wife in all our sunburnt glory.

At any rate, I leave you with this paraphrased bit of advice I recall from my old buddy Timmay: If you’re in a relationship, and it’s not making you happy, then get out. Why are you spending your life with someone, if not to be happy with them? Life is too short to stay miserable.

Life is too short. Go be happy.