Get a Life!

 Someone at the gym asked me what was on my iPhone, and my answer sort of surprised them – and me too, quite frankly! The answer: Brittany Spears! Though I don’t feel like I owe anyone an explanation for my musical taste, I took the time to do it – and it made me feel pretty good!

I always thought that being hyper-responsible was going to give me a leg-up in life. For the past 20 years (give or take…), I've kind of reveled in that because it was easier to define myself by things I thought made me somehow seem more grown-up. But what I found out was that defining myself by things I thought other people wanted me to be can make a person pretty unhappy.

This past year has been so defining for me! I've learned that I spent so much time trying to be perfect, I missed out on some great stuff. I was once offered the opportunity to be a guide on the Gaully River in West Virginia. I turned it down because I thought it was too irresponsible. Full-time climber? Nope - I had a career to pursue! Music? Only classical, jazz and American Musical Theatre. The rest of that stuff makes a racket! Pop music?? I only listen to NPR. I could go on - but why?

But I'm happy to report that I'm making up for all the years I spent being hyper-responsible. No - I'm not going sell my house and hit the road, but I am going to try to loosen up a bit. Here are a few things I figured out this year.

• Top 40 music is fun – damn that Beyonce got some pipes!
• NPR is boring. Seriously. Boring. And if I ever hear Daniel Shore give another drab dissertation, I am going to happily roll my eyes and yell BOOOOORING.
• It’s ok to read the entertainment section before the real news.
• It's ok to be late every so often. The world won’t end.
• I don't HAVE to work 60 hour weeks. Really. I don't.
• It's ok - even good - to let other people be responsible for the important things like bills.
• I don't have to finish Anna Karenina if I don't want to. Damn, I don’t even need to read ANY Russian authors if I don’t want to! Woo hoo – what a relief!

This year, that list is going to grown. And I am going to be a happier, healthier me and get a life!

iLove

I've been really diligent about not using my phone in the car - been watching all those drama-driven PSAs with teens and regular folk having horrific accidents while texting and driving. Yah - It's a bad combo. But, I can't quite bring myself to commit to the full "No Phone Zone" pledge - it can't hurt anything if my iPhone is sitting next to me. Right? In the little console. Where I can keep an eye on it? (Maybe I could strap it into a carseat in the back and use one of those "check your kids" mirrors?)

But, this morning, I was in a hurry. I dumped my big gym bag into the passenger seat, and, not thinking about the safety of my iPhone, I put it on top of my bag. I was zipping along to work and a light changed faster than I anticipated. I stepped on the brake a bit hard, and then it happened: I did the "arm-swing-to the-side-in-vain-attempt-to-hold-back-person-in-passenger-seat" thing. (We've all done it to our kids and spouses, yes?) I actually had a vision about my iPhone cracking open on my windshield. Phone innards everywhere. Eeeew. But luckily my superhuman adrenaline-induced strength was able to hold back the entire pound and a half. Phew. That was a close call. I think I'm going to get that child seat. Because that's what good parents do. iLove.

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!

 Team Steam has turned a corner! I am no longer timid about the steam room – as long as nobody else is in it. But I think that’s really good progress. Don’t you? My therapist would say I am learning to take charge of things. Some of you may find that kind of funny since I’m sort of known as the bossy type.

On Monday, just before White Death Part Three took over Cincy, Midge and I went for our third visit to the steam room. And guess who was chatting it up? ME. Yup. Uh-huh. Oh yah. And, I even stood up to get to the hotter air (I know what you are all thinking – don’t go there….). And we’re sitting there chatting when Midge says to me, “Wow I can’t believe how far you’ve come.” And I laugh and said, “Yah, I’ve come a long way, baby! Ooooo – that’s my next blog.” So here it is. And it’s uncharacteristically short.

iHopeless

I haven't been blogging lately, but I have a really, really good excuse. Well, I have lot of good excuses. On top of the usual suspects - working, homework, tired - my camera sensor died, and I got irritated with my BlackBerry camera. I can't blog without photos, can I? It IS the whole reason I started in the first place! So for 2 months, I've been researching camera phones. Droid, Google, HTC - all of them. Everyone kept telling me to get the iPhone, but honestly I was resisting joining the crowd. But guess what? If you didn't already read my signature, I became a member of the iPhone cult. Gulp.

Now I'm going to confess my biggest reason for my lack of blogginess: the iPhone keyboard has no directional arrows. Do you know it took me and entire week to discover the little magnifyer thingy? How am I supposed to arrow back to a word I want to change? And I still haven't figured out how to select mutiple words (no shift and scroll??). Another thing - everytime I type "L" I accidentily hit backspace, resulting in interesting iSuggestions from the supposed smart speller. This little touch keyboard has me all flustered! Forget writer's block!

Ohhh - But now I'm addicted to these little apps! Gotta say those apple geeks must have taken classes and learned all about addictive personalities. They nailed it. News, word games, photo apps - yah -I've become a nerd nightmare! And I love making pages and photos bigger and smaller - cool! How did I not have this before?? So iPeeps, yah, I'm totally sucked in. Hopelessly addicted to my new gadget. But now I have to change my signature to read: Sent from my iAddiction. Please excuse iTypos as I no longer have no directional arrows. But look what I can do with my photo apps! How cute is that photo?? Can't do that with a BlackBerry....

Sent from my iPhone, iAddiction thingy