What Is This Flower?
I’m doing that Steve Garfield thing, where you have a question you want answered (and your last Ask MetaFilter questions was asked too recently) and you ask your reader…
What is this flower? Mom says it isn’t a morning glory.
Daily Redecision
Just about every day, I reconsider my move away from Boston to Raleigh, and just about every day, I redecide that moving is the right thing to do. Yet, in my head, there are a few repeating thoughts and questions: Since I made the decision to leave in the middle of a very dark time, was my decision influenced by the lens of that time more than it should have been? I wonder if my questioning myself about this has to do with the fact that the weather is nice right now – the time of year that makes it easy to forget about the short, dark days of winter. Do I question myself because I’ve met a delightful boy to spend my time with? Because I’ve reconnected with another old friend who is going through many of the same things I’m going through? Is it that I can’t bear to move away from Kristin, my "boyfriend" when I think her life is about to start getting really good? Can I really leave Linda? Jon? Sooz and her game nights? All the friends I’ve met through Kristin, through Friday karaoke, through blogging? The hope of actually seeing Scott and Michelle? I ask myself, "Was my skin REALLY that bad all winter?" and then I remind myself that it indeed was. Will Bostonians stay out of their caves all winter? No, I know they won’t. This level of fun doesn’t seem to happen year ’round, despite what people say. It does if you look hard, but on the whole, it’s really cave time.
Is Raleigh a better match of a place for me? I think it is, but it’s an unknown, and unknowns are hard, especially when leaving a known place where I feel so loved. I’m glad I have Christopher and his mom down in Raleigh, egging me on. I’ve started making contacts and have some phone appointments set up, but I do notice that sometimes I drag my feet on this stuff, and that’s surely because this is hard. I never got traction like this in Memphis. I’ve been missing that sense of belonging since I left Bloomington. To uproot myself again seems so stupid in so many ways, but then, do I really want to spend more time in a place that doesn’t seem like THE place? It’s like staying in a relationship that you know doesn’t have longevity. When you’re "of a certain age," remaining in those relationships isn’t smart. My relationship with Boston is a complex one. Has been from the start back in ’92 when I first arrived. Boston is where I come when I want my life to change a lot. Works every time.
For context, here are all my posts about moving, starting in January just before my breakup:
Pictures or Words? Can’t Have Both!
So I can hear Veronica (AKA Smoooochie) typing away on the next bed, while I have spent the last half an hour or so rotating pictures and cutting the 414 pictures I took today down to 178 to upload. I’m making fast decisions, since I can’t leave this work until I get back. When I get back, it’s work time again. And so there will be the text documentation of the trip (a la Smoooochie) and the visual documentation (a la me).
It’s been great seeing Anne and Veronica. They are such great friends, so easy to be around. Even though I rarely see them IRL (“in real life”), I talk to them more than just about anyone else. I never have to give a back story for anything, because they know it all. I love it! Dan has been a seriously great 4th wheel, as has Paige. Tonight, they will both be with us at karaoke. Yes, it’s Friday night, and a karaoke adventure has been planned for me – and I thought I’d have the week off. We may even see some people from Ask MetaFilter! That would be nutty!
The Seattle Flickr set keeps expanding. I know there are too many to view casually, but in the end, the pictures are for us, and we don’t mind! If you happen to enjoy them, too, then that’s an extra bonus. 😀
Dahn Yoga – A Cult?!
I’ve done yoga for years, and when I saw that Dahn Yoga was opening, I was excited about it. One trip in following their opening, and I wasn’t as excited. It had that creepy feeling to me. They were very weird about telling me the cost, and I had to ask REALLY direct questions to get a straight answer. There was also this aura reading thing that looked a lot like the weird stuff I saw when I went into the Church of Scientology in Memphis (It was actually on a neighborhood tour of homes, and I couldn’t resist an inside peek!). Anyway, Dahn Yoga was so creepy that I came home and posted a question about it on Ask MetaFilter and quickly decided to give it a miss.
Today, I came across this report on the local CBS affiliate.
I-Team Investigates Yoga Group Some Call a Cult
Glad I trusted my gut!
There are so many great tagging / social networking / folksonomy / bookmarking sites launching lately. It’s hard to keep up. I tend to join all of them, just to see what works and what doesn’t. I have a strong need to affiliate, as you may have noticed. Here are some of the ones I’ve been checking out lately. See what you think.
And the ones that are for reviewing cool places:
And don’t get me started on my favorites:
- Ask MetaFilter
- del.icio.us
- Flickr (oh, and if you want to get some GORGEOUS books of the photos you have uploaded to Flickr, I highly recommend Qoop. I got my mother some of these for Christmas, and we were all VERY impressed.)
