MY HOBBIES AND INTERESTS

WHO I AM AND WHAT I DO
I get up at 5AM weekdays. I am at work by 8:30. Home by 6:15PM to 6:30. I am a "Communications Specialist"... which means I am a switchboard operator and answer the phone all day.
I sing. And I sing very, very well. With musical instruments, tapes, cd's or acapella. I can carry a tune, and I know it, and can really wow people with my voice!
I am very upbeat! A positive thinker, an optimist most of the time. Ah sure, I have moments when I fall and get really depressed. Who doesn't? But hey, we go on living. Loving our family, friends, church family, and make new friends and spread and share some happiness! Some good cheer! Hey, life is all about lifting people up!
I change the cat litter. I empty the trash. I do dishes most of the time. I dance in the kitchen alone, after midnight on Saturday nights. The music rocks out! It doesn't wake anyone, either!
I bring home a paycheck and it helps to pay the house payment and other bills. When I have the extra moolah, I like to buy some music or a good book or a magazine! I collect and read books on bible history, world history, medicine, science, weather, geology, geography, psychology, collect all kinds of books of different collections of quotes! I have a neat collection of pocketknives. Not big, not worth much, but I like them. I collect rocks and fossils, geodes, and minerals!
I have collected marbles, some old and new bottles, assorted pieces of beautiful wood and little boxes; I have 3 very cool letter openers! I like candles, blank journals, journaling, old magnifying glasses, little toy wooden tops, Hot Wheels, little toy farm animals.
I write poetry, songs, prose, and love blogging.
I collect some stuffed animals and have about 12 or 13 so far! They are little and of varying sizes of small. One is a pink teddy bear, one is a walrus, one is a white rabbit... I won't go on.
I love books about trees, about woodcarving, wood specimen collecting, photo books of trees, and I just have a really awesome collection of books of this nature. But I like books which are inspirational, and encouraging! And books on spiritual living, public speaking, the old west, strange animals...
I love movies and tv. Probably too much. I love CSI (Las Vegas) and lately have gotten hooked on CSI Miami. I like SHARK, CLOSE TO HOME, NUMBERS, HEROES, and MEDIUM. Is this too much tv?
And movies... woowoo... I like war movies, westerns, horror, true stories of inspiring kinds, comedies, romantic ones, romantic comedies, crime and drama... and if I watch too many violent movies, then its time to take a break for comedy and romance! And I like fantasy, some science fiction, and I thought CRANK was awesome! But so was THE HOLIDAY with Cameron Diaz, and friends, and was fun!
I bet I could talk your arms and legs off. I bet that we'd have a good time because I am a good listener, too. But be careful.. I have this thing about bad grammar and proper english. Unless you are under 30. I like to study language and it's varieties and forms, and changing perimeters. I like teenagers and could talk to teens just as much as my own age group or old people! I love talking to old people! I like little kids. Although I learned the hard way not to get little kids riled up with rough play. THAT's dangerous to everyone.
No I am not a time-waster, although maybe it sounds like it. I do what has to be done, and will not shirk my duties as a homeowner, husband, family member or church family. Everyone has ideas, I guess, about what they think everyone else ought to be doing.
Some people have games to play, emotional turmoil to spread abroad, guilt trips to sell. Sorry, if I want a guilt trip, I will call the Pope.
Some men and women have absolutely no time for themselves because they have to fix something, change another diaper, drive the kids somewhere, replace a part in the dishwasher, church activities, and then get mad at you because you don't do as much as they do, or you aren't as "holy" as they are. Bye-bye.
I can't do what ten people tell me to. Guess I'll just remain the same, sittin on the dock of the bay...
Music? I like most kinds. I have one rap cd- NELLY. I love classical such as Beethoven, Lizst, but I love to rock and also classic rock. But then, I like old country music and young-country, too. Yea, Shania! But I also love gospel, southern gospel, contemporary christian music, and the old hymns- sung by people like Elvis and Tennessee Ernie Ford. I like PINK... go figure... and some of the other new groups, young groups.

Who I Am Is Not Who I Really Am

I am a free spirit and I think that I am not really free. I am a prisoner of my own device- a prisoner to a system that I do not like being a part of. It sucks! I can't entirely and completely be who I want to be, can't be whom I am, can't live my life the way I want to live it- I have to earn a living within the "limits of reason"- and obey the rules of a societal hierarchy that I do not like- because I see it as "corporate America". I am a prisoner of fear, a prisoner of my church, a prisoner of social mores, a prisoner of a lot of rules I don't even like or appreciate. I am a prisoner who knows that if I say "the wrong thing" at church or to any of my "so-called-friends", I may be ostracized or "punished" emotionally, socially and that is really screwed.

I was born in 1948. I am 57. I was a hippy in the era of 1971-1976 or 77. In the early years of that time, I smoked pot, took speed once in a while, sometimes downers, tried snorting coke, and took LSD several times. I loved smoking pot the most! It was my "drug of choice."

And I lived rather aimlessly, without goals or direction. I lived to get high and have fun. By myself and with others.friends. I never like being lonely-i.e. and always longed for someone to love who would love me back. But I lived in such a stoned-out haze, and was so irresponsible, I did not realize that a commitment of love means that you do something more than exist for the moment. And I was not doing that.

I knew plenty of people who were getting stoned too, but they seemed to be living productive lives which were rich and full of the kinds of experiences I wanted! Or were they?

A productive happy life full of the rich and varied experiences which puts one out there ahead, in the race.. how does that happen? It isn't a college degree which causes it. It isn't wealth or an abundance of money which causes it. It isn't "knowing the right kind of people" which causes it."

Can I "develop" it? Improve on it? Do something more? Do more than think about it? What REALLY makes life great? Having a good "joint" and some great music?

CHANGE MY ATTITUDE! MY THINKING PROCESSES. THE WAY I REACT TO LIFE! CHANGE MY ACTIVITIES. GET OFF MY LAZY DUFF AND DO SOMETHING NOW, TODAY- THIS MOMENT. STOP JUST THINKING ABOUT IT. DO SOMETHING.

IF IT MEANS GETTING AWAY FROM THE NEGATIVE INFLUENCES OF OTHERS, THEN DO SO! BUT IF IT MEANS GETTING AWAY FROM YOURSELF BECAUSE WITHIN THE CONFINES OF YOUR OWN MIND, YOU ARE PRODUCING NEGATIVE INFLUENCES, THEN DO IT. CHANGE THE NEGATIVE INFLUENCES YOU ARE CREATING TODAY.

Who is in control of your mind, anyway?