Turning 40

I wrote this as a kind of capsule before I turned 40 last October. Since then, I've revisited it a few times to see if life has changed much since the monumental, life-altering advancement into my 40th year. I'm pleased to say life has changed, not much, but enough, and in every way for the better - if you choose to look at it that way. I do. Hope you're enjoying yours as much as I am mine...

I have enjoyed sunny days; laughed out loud; read lots of books; eaten lots of spaghetti; cried to excess; made friends; made people mad; made people laugh; voted; loudly; been loud in general; been quiet; been healthy; been not; trudged through lots of snow; stood in the rain; walked in the rain; got wet; a lot; taken lots of buses and trains; been a student; been driven; driven others; drunk coffee; a few times; smoked; a few times; abstained when I needed to; exaggerated when I shouldn’t have; danced my ass off; worn high heels all night; paid for it; had faith; lost it; got it right back; dreamed; suffered; rejoiced; tripped; fallen; jumped right back up again; gotten sand in between my toes, in my hair and in my clothes; loved the beach anyway; said goodbye to my grandmother; not had a chance to say goodbye to others; helped build things up; helped take things down; cleaned; a lot; held hands; hugged; shrugged; gesticulated wildly; hurried; slowed down; not often enough; been a daughter; watched the Cubs; watched the Cubs unravel; loved them anyway too; gotten involved; gotten too involved; didn’t back off anyway; hurt people I loved; truly felt sorry for it; made promises I couldn’t keep; tried anyway; talked on the phone; lots; been a subordinate; been a boss; liked being a boss better; wrote my heart out on paper; edited it down a bit; not much really; been a bit full of myself; learned my lesson; got lost in thought; got lost in general; found my way; fought hard; lost and won; didn’t care how much; had money; had none; didn’t care much about that either; made babies; make that miracles; never understood why I was here; until then; fell in love for a lifetime; once.

Weather Wishing

Like most kinds of wishing, weather wishing is perfectly pointless. You can't wish the sun to come out. It comes when it's ready. You can't wish to be thin. You have to stop eating carbs. (Ugh.) Nonetheless, I find myself weather wishing alot lately. And as I do so, I plan out the days I'd enjoy if the weather were better. I smile wryly at my own dream of creating a garden of wild flowers and tall grasses, knowing full well that my very presence near things that bloom causes mass destruction on a scale known only to monsoon survivors and those vapid little mites eating the tree in my backyard. I fantasize about days at the beach, squishing sand and water between my toes. I wash away my worries imagining all the fun I'd have playing in a pool with my children. And so the wishing itself makes me happy, even though it does absolutely nothing to bring the sun about. Then back to reality. But for a while, however slim, it was so grand to have a wish.

Is it Social or Isn't it?

Have you ever asked yourself how an air-duct cleaning guy inserts "So, how often do you vacuum your ducts?" into casual conversation in a social setting? We just had a meeting at work about how we can use social networking sites to expand our client base and reach out to more potential customers. I know we can, but... I don't know. I'm kind of enjoying the reconnecting with old schoolmates and friends part of it. I'm enjoying posting absurd little things about my absurd little life and I'm enjoying taking dumb quizzes to learn that I'm really a closet Swede. If I start thinking of the online social networking as a place to be businessy, I'll filter myself. I'll have the online presence of a lapel pin and jacket with logo. I'll lose all the fun, silly, ethically challenged elements that made the social networking appealing in the first place. So I'm taking a stand. I'm just going to be social in the online social arenas. Here's a picture to prove it. Pretty social, huh? No veneer there, my friends.
Of course, maybe I'll put up some smartass comment once in a while, like I did today, so that people will know but don't have to take it too seriously. After all, taking things too seriously is tiresome and contrary to the purpose of ridiculous social networking anyway. And nobody knows ridiculous like I do. I mean, who the heck believes I'm a damn Swede? Besides, I do plenty of networking as it is, because I'm a realtor. (Totally casual insert. What a beaut!)
In fact, I'm a pretty darn good realtor. (Own horn-tooting a necessary evil.) I'm smart, very good at research, and thorough. (Toot, toot, toot.) I work with my husband, who is also a realtor and is better at it than I am, but don't tell him I said that. (Wink wink.) We both work very hard; we are honest and fair. (That's actually true, but you didn't hear it from me.) If you need some help with anything real estate related, or are just horribly curious, call us and we'll help you meet the need or satiate the appetite for good 'ol neighborhood news. (Curiousity being so lethal to cats 'n all, I'd not take my chances. Just call and I'll tell you what it sold for.) If you also work in the real estate business and would like to be included in our referral network, let me know and I'll be happy to add you. (This does not apply to you, Kristan, as you are pretty much my entire referral network for your line of work.)
In addition, on this page, I may take occasion to tell you some of our funny real estate stories sometimes, just to marry the elements, as it were. There's a great swan-attack story that my husband always tells (which includes a naked guy - very funny), and there's one about the time I had a client flap through a house trying to get a bird out of a window only to discover it was re-entering through a hole in the attic... classic!
In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy the fact that, mostly, I'm just going to be my un-business self here and in my online social networking. I rather like to think that my self is a good self to be, even without the lapel pin and logo.