My Year of Meaningful (2011)

so far, the best way to describe 2008 is:

pleasantly bizarre.

I wanted to change a few things, and I've done just that and it seems to be actually working.

How long can a slacker like me keep this up? I'm just crossing my fingers, because it feels really good at the moment. And for some reason, this amazing feeling of surprise attached to it, is nearly as good as a 24/7 flow of endorphins. Not to mention I'm puzzled: why has it taken 30 years for me to get this feeling? I feel unusually and strangely comfortable... how long will it last?

For one, we're finishing off the job that has been hanging around my neck like a voodoo charm for almost 8 months now. With that off my plate (by next week), I'll be looking at fresh work, with fresh new-year-eyes. That's damn good timing. I've gotten a lot accomplished during this first week back. Weird.

Two, January hit me with a big musical shift in taste and inspiration to find new stuff. Every year my friend back home (dave) sends around a big group email to all of his friends with gifted musical taste, and of course I'm on said list. HAHAA. He started this 3 years ago and asks the questions: "1 what new artist or album did you discover this year (including mini-review); 2 what did you hear that made you sit up and take notice (new or old) that you'd never heard; and 3 what old recording did you 'rediscover' from your past, this year". Everyone hits "reply all" and for the first few days of January the responses pour in and all of us have somewhat generally the same vein of musical taste so it's always interesting. And a good chance to pontificate on music, which we all love to do, obviously.

At any rate, every year I respond and every year I pretty much ignore everyone else's recommendations because I'm always happy (and awash with) the music that I already have on my 400000 billion playlists.

This year, however, I cranked up the old naughty mp3 downloading software and went hog-wild sampling the suggestions from our little forum. I don't even know what got me started, because I didn't even realize I was burned out or missing out or whatever. It wasn't like in December I said to myself: "when January gets here, I'm gettin' new music!" I didn't even think about it. Quite frankly it's pretty much just my workout playlist that I listen to the most anyway, these days, and that was working just fine for me.

New on the GOD for 2008 (new as in, not necessarily BRAND NEW, but stuff that hasn't made my rotation for a good few years, or ever) :

Gillian Welch (newer albums)
North Mississippi All Stars
Loudon Wainwright III
Chris Smither
Wilco (newer albums)
New Tom Petty album

Amazingly enough, just getting some of that stuff into my rotation has even made me feel closer to the bunch of guys back home that I've been detached from for several years. It's almost like those cheesy scenes in the movies where the geographically-separated lovers can still look at the same moon, despite the miles between them. Well, ok, not that pathetic, but still... It's a nice feeling knowing that I'm listening to the same tunes as the guys. kinda. (psycho)

Annnnnd with new music-listening inspiration, has come new music-playing inspiration. For over 7 years I've been ignoring all of my musical instruments (my viola doesn't even live with me anymore - mental note to get the parents to bring it in June) and feeling guilt over it, but not enough guilt to actually pick up one and start playing again. But it didn't really bother me, for some reason. Maybe it's being married to a non-musician? Maybe it's that I got too much overkill in the 15 years leading up to 7 years ago? Laziness? Lack of inspiration? I don't know. Whatever it was, I didn't even miss playing for the last 7 years.

All of a sudden, 2008 drops, my iPod gets a recharge, and my banjo came out of the spare room. I'm as mind boggled and bamboozled as my dogs and my husband are. I don't even remember making any sort of new year's resolution in this department or anything. I just came home from work on Monday and started picking, and haven't looked back since. OK I am so rusty it's pathetic, but it feels good just to do chord refreshers on "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" and picking out really easy Split Lip Rayfield songs. MAN! I definitely gotta get the parents to bring over the fiddle in June! Definitely. Jeez like what would happen if we got a piano?! holy crap! the possibilities are endless!

But along with the picking in the evenings has come new knock-on effects too, as a bonus:
- listening to music differently
- listening to different music
- less mind-numbing tv
- an unbelievably strange feeling of satisfaction at the end of the day.

The only way I can describe it is like the feeling one gets when they get really really fat and out of shape for years, and then they start going back to the gym or start a daily running routine or something (I remember being there, too- that's how I know how it feels).

Thirdly, both the Mr. and I have new haircuts. Done a couple days ago. Mine is quite short (for me anyway), it's at my shoulders. I think it looks good, and the husbanator has no complaints (which I'm shocked at). Looks good with my new posture. HA! No really, my posture is kicking ass, IMHO.

Fourthly, when I compare how this new year is starting out, compared to last new year (moving hemispheres, countries, houses twice, jobs, dogs, etc) I feel like I'm in a deep meditation or, better yet, comatose. There is no comparison. Last January was chaos, upheaval, instability, financial hell, and a leap with both feet into the unknown. Compared to that, I'm sitting in one big universe of zen/nirvana right now. I can't even describe how that feels. Strange, yet oddly peaceful.


Now to make up for lost photo-posting time.

In this post's edition, I got:


1. My Christmas booty... highlights were: Hillary Clinton autobiography; a hair straightener; Alan gave "us" a machete; a cook book of salads only; a cookbook of barbecue recipes only; a purse; a new PS2 game (Ultimate Rally); a dog named Sech. Needless to say, we've been eating a lot of salads this week.

2. The boys helping me get my turkey in the oven on xmas day. Side note about said turkey: it was awesome, and we all looked forward to having leftovers, even after stuffing ourselves with my giant 5-course meal. However, in the spirit of his already DAY OF GOING PSYCHO, Sech took it upon himself to hijack the bird from the kitchen counter (this is the reason we don't allow any of our own dogs in the kitchen) and finish off the carcass. This was after he attempted to eat Billy.





















3. The Mr. and I with Victoria Falls in the background. 7 years earlier we stood in the same place - I still have a photo of that... I was frickin PORKY!
















4. The Mr. making his annual new-years-eve-oliebollen (dutch tradition = balls of oil covered in powdered sugar) in my new potjie, over the fire at our campsite in Savuti. He was so proud of them. Actually, after 4 years of New Years' oliebollen, I can vouch for the fact that these were the best. Probably because they were NOT made from scratch, but rather S. had brought him a pre-made packaged mix from NL. Yum. Too bad he ate too many, which, combined with beer and wine drunk earlier that night, made him wake up sick in the middle of the night. :-o















5. New Years Eve smooching. We spent NYE on a campground at a lodge in Kasane (a real town), so there was actually a restaurant and a bar there, meaning we were actually surrounded by people (and real food!) on the night. The buffet was All You Can Eat, which even translated to "All Alan Could Eat", which is an amazing feat in itself. There was a local guy with a karaoke track who sang the whole night, backed up by his Casio which sounded like it was permanently set on "demo". Oh and there was some pathetic dancing by me and Alan to dude's really pathetic music. He did Journey covers. And LOTS of other reeeeally white nerdy 80s music. But most importantly there was food and a bottle of complementary champagne for all the diners of the evening.