"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
-- Henry David Thoreau

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence."
-- Henry David Thoreau

When I was a wee little girl, I wanted to be a cheerleader, a teacher, a veterinarian. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a marine biologist and a couple other things I've since forgot. I think I've always wanted to be a forest ranger. I wanted to live in the woods. I wanted to live where it snowed. I wanted a house to work on. I want to live some place where the moon and stars light up the night. I want to hear the breeze in the pines, smell the earth, hear and see the wildlife, feel the warmth of the sun and the cool of the shade. I want to get lost in the beauty of nature. I want to give back. I want to make a difference, regardless of how small it may seem. ...and I want others to do the same.

Boston.com's 2008 year in pictures part 1, part 2, and part 3. A good portion of these pictures are incomprehensible to me. I don't understand the hardships people go through as day-to-day life and I don't think I ever truly will. To be as disconnected as I am from world events is entirely too easy. I know that I consciously and unconsciously choose ignorance by not reading or listening to current news or reading about history as much as I should. I have the desire to learn...I just don't seem to take advantage of it very often in some areas.

"Going to the woods is going home, for I suppose we came from the woods originally." -- John Muir
(read it)

"In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in the streets or villages. ... In the woods, we return to reason and faith." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(read it)

"I would not have every man, nor every part of a man, cultivated any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated." -- Henry David Thoreau
(read it)

"Our lives need the relief of such a background, where the pine flourishes and the jay still screams." -- Henry David Thoreau
(read it)

I want a digital SLR...And I'd actually like to take some photography classes to go with it. Would be nice if they counted towards my art degree. Hmmmmmmm... "Someday I'll finish," she says. But four hour night classes twice a week are not in my immediate future. I've thought many times about enrolling and actually finishing the degree. The studio classes would be amazing and cathartic and I'd actually feel the creative bug again. That would mean heading to class directly after work and getting home just in time to go to bed. How did I used to manage it? I don't think I ever questioned it then. I was glad to be done with high school and absolutely excited to be in college studying what I love. Now I know why people always said finish it now else you never will. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.

Untouched sketch pads...blank canvases...dull pencils...full tubes of paint... and an out-of-focus inspiration barely the color of an old, faded, washed out dish cloth. "You need to find it," Mr. Brinks would say. Where did the reds, yellows, and blues go? There there. I see them every now and then. I'll find it as soon as I really look.

"Spring 2008," they say. The possibility of getting a new TDI is just around the corner. Platinum grey, please?

Getting my current TDI chip UPsolute-tuned through Kraut-Burner tomorrow. Yay. I'm very excited.

According to UPsolute:

I need a new gallery. I want something clean, pretty, and relatively simple to use and tweak. The Lightbox display is beautiful. I just dread going through photos to create a new gallery...again.

Today was a better day, of sorts. I was in a much better mood as I was away from the office for half the day, today was my Friday, and I have two five day weekends to look forward to. So I celebrated by going back to the gym tonight. It's been a while...I think a minimum of 3 months. Thursday nights are 8pm yoga nights so I thought this would be the perfect night to return. Ahhhhhh...I was right. Beautiful night. New teacher. A good teacher. Good music. Loud but wonderful joint popping, especially during pigeon pose. Awesome back extensions. I feel great. Hopefully this will give me the kick start I need to get back to the gym regularly. I miss having our personal trainer, but he taught me well and I want to continue training. This summer, I felt better than I've felt in a long time. I lost a couple clothing sizes, gained a substantial amount of muscle, and felt great about myself. Now why did I fall out of routine? Laziness...pure laziness. Shame on me. Na-Na!

It's about time for that annual event where I get a day older, and once again I don't know what I want. Well, I do, but I don't. I know more of what I want to do, instead of what I want.

I want to:	paint the living room / entryway, but I don't want to pay for scaffolding-use nor painters paint the laundry room replace our half-bath counter and sink with something not so dated and yucky replace our kitchen counter and backsplash tiles with something more natural add Elfa shelving to our upstairs reclaimed-attic closet add Elfa shelving to the garage and get it nicely organized (like this:)
I want:	a couple kitchen gadgets so I can try out some new recipes at least 2 8"x30"x3/4" cable-bracket shelves in driftwood from The Container Store to store my cds in my office

But for now:

I like the colors of these rooms:

an·ger [ang-ger] noun
a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence aroused by a wrong; wrath; ire

Ooh... I don't hear the word 'ire' enough.

ire [ahyuhr] noun
intense anger; wrath.

So, how do you let things go when it feels so natural to get angry and get even? How do you control your frustrations? What about when you are repeatedly wronged, insulted, or disrespected? Can you just turn it off? Can you ignore it? Can you accept it and move on? Look at the source. Why would they act the way they do? Is it worth any bit of unhappiness and displeasure to be angry with them? No, absolutely not.

These are the colors of our master suite. Bedroom walls are Blueberry Buckle with Heritage as the step ceiling. The hallway between the bedroom and the bath is the Smokey Slate as is the back wall of the tub area. The rest of the bathroom is a color similar to Shimmer. Found a nice color from Olympia (Balsam) and had it color matched for Behr. I'm planning on doing a light coat of an opalescent gold on top of the Smokey Slate by the bath. Looks good on my cardboard test. I painted most of the weekend since it rained straight through, but I still have a ton left to do.