Words: Fuck - A Study On Overuse

I remember elementary school and thrill of trying out swear words in a quiet corner of the playground for the first time.  There was no way I would have said them at home, or in front of a teacher, but you have to try them out sometime.  It was fun...then I got bored, knowing I wasn't allowed to really use them.

In High School life started to get frustrating enough that I found real opportunities to apply the swear words...in my head, still not out loud.

By college I used them freely, when warranted.

In my 40s sure I still use them, when I'm really angry about something, and occasionally when I'm really excited about something... but not all the time and I don't understand why anyone would.  Maybe it's because I hear them way too much.  In my neighborhood (the hood) fuck is an all-purpose word, noun, adjective, verb, adverb, and often used as a proper name or the replacement of such.  It gets old.   I hear it screamed outside my windows all the time.

Someone I know said that she was surprised when I mentioned the overuse of swearing because I was "one of the most liberal people she knows."  Sure, I still am, but I also like language, and some variety in it.

There is a brand consultant that several people I know follow (including me) who swears to excess in her writing - and she's proud of it. For her, with her back story, a lot of the time it works.  But there are times I can't even finish reading her blog posts because I'm weary of the swearing.

If someone just cut you off in traffic and caused your life to flash before your eyes?  Swear it up.  If you had a crappy day?  Swear words are in order.  If you just found out you're going to be a proud new aunt/uncle/grandparent and you're so excited you can help but slip some expletives in there?  Cool.

But when we are having our first few words in the morning and I'm still sleepy and getting my bearings?  I don't want to hear it.  If I'm trying to have a serious discussion with you about business?  No. It's crude.

There's always a time and place where that language makes sense, but it also gets to be too much all the time.  There are so many other lovely adjectives, and adverbs out there that are more succinct and descriptive than variations of fuck. 

Ponderings

It's one of those days where you stop and evaluate. Somehow these days always involve some article or another out of 'O'. I don't know if that means that reading 'O' is a necessary component to my personal growth, or a disruptive force. Most likely the former - if we don't self-correct our course in life things could get really out of hand, right?

 Here's what got me today: From an article on regret in the May 2013 issue:

How can we fee less regret in the future? The next time you have to make a major decision, breathe slowly and deeply before asking yourself, Does this feel right to me? Pay attention to your body's response and what you hear in your mind. If you don't immediately feel a strong yes or no, just wait a moment. It's the relaxed, aware mind that is least likely to have regrets and - when they do occur - to let them go most easily. --Ashley Williams 

Since I've got some decisions to make that are likely to spawn some regret either way I choose, this sounds like exactly what the labyrinth is built for. A meditative walk that allows you to relax and listen to that inner voice. And the labyrinth at Prairie Woods just adds another layer of peace - everything about that place from the super cool nuns to the sustainable living practices soothes my soul. It also reminds me that I should be taking advantage of more of the speakers they bring in, but that's another topic entirely.

Have you ever walked a labyrinth?  Does it help you hear your inner voice or just seem like an oddly twisting path?

The New Dog: Introducing Bogart (Bogey)

That's Bogart.

Meet Bogart, also known as Bogey, Bo, or Booger.  He's not new, new - he's been a part of the family for nearly two weeks now, and he's starting to really settle in.

No, we didn't mean to bring home another Rottweiller (mix).  I'm still not quite sure how it happened.  We had been going to the shelter to try to adopt CID, the celebrity dog the airport found on the runway, but she was adopted before Uriah had a chance to meet her.   Then we were looking at all the other dogs at the shelter and Uriah was sweet on this white spaniel-ish fluffy dog as I was walking down the row.  The white dog had a note that she wasn't good with cats, so I wasn't sure that was going to work...and I came to the kennel with the poor little skinny Rottie mix in it.

I tried to walk away, I swear.  But those eyes!  And he was very calm and leaning against the kennel door to try to be touched.  *melting*

I did walk away long enough to check out the other dogs...but I kept coming back.  I reminded myself about how gassy Rotts are, and how powerful they are, and how they can get anti-social if I'm not really really careful this time.  It didn't matter.  My heart was a goner.  I clearly have a tie to this breed even if I try to get past it.

Too skinny a couple of weeks ago.

He was a scary 41 pounds when he came into the shelter and you could see the square shape of his hip bones when we adopted him at 46 pounds.  Magically over the weekend with another five pounds on him he's starting to look healthy.  He thinks he's going to starve all the time, probably with good reason, but I hope he'll learn reassurance that there will always be food for him here.  He has a bunch of hair loss on his ears, around his eyes and around his face, and since we can't find any parasites or mites on him the Vet assumes it's malnutrition.  Hopefully his coat will fill back out soon too.

Bogey is turning out to be smart and stubborn.  There is going to be a lot of negotiation and bribing/training to get him well-mannered, but there's also not a bit of meanness in him.  He's curious (overly so, sometimes) and has some interesting separation anxiety - he really hated having a closed door between him and a human which sucked on cold mornings these past few weeks.  He's already getting better with that and he's learning the routine of exit kennel, go outside for a break, and he will let me stand inside the closed door now as long as he can still see me.  

He's good with the cats...unless they run, in which case he feels compelled to chase, but who wouldn't?  So far at the end of the chase he can't get to them and he just walks away.  I'm not sure who needs more training, the dog or the cats.

But I liked being the center of dog attention.

He and Waldo are getting along - and now that Bogey is neutered I think they'll get along even better.  It looks like they're going to be about the same size. Bogey has some big-ass paws but the vet thinks he's a year old and done growing; and that the earlier malnutrition will keep him on the small side.  The boys even stretched out next to each other on the dog bed the other night.  I wish I'd captured a picture of that, hopefully it's the first photo op of many.

I was surprised what a relief I felt the first time I called "Boys, come inside" - it just doesn't feel right when I only have one dog, happy as Waldo might have been to have all the attention.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

Mini banana chocolate chip whole wheat muffins

I haven't been baking a lot.  Or cooking a lot either - way too many convenience foods going on. Since I committed to a summer CSA through Bass Farms I decided it was time to start thinking healthy (or healthy-ish) again.  Tonight I picked a new recipe to try out and use up some of the whole grain flour that I picked up this summer. I had some pretty gnarly bananas going to waste on the counter which clearly meant I needed to make banana muffins.

I found the recipe to work from on allrecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moist-Banana-Streusel-Muffins/Detail.aspx

I was afraid that these would be dense and chewy - but so far, warm and straight out of the oven, they turned out pretty light and fluffy.  I didn't make the streusel topping in the recipe, I ran out of butter (horrors) so I put chocolate chips into the batter instead.  I also meant to put flax seed in these, but I got distracted by Bogey's need to scrounge for food around my feet during the whole mixing process and forgot to grab the bag.

Muffin berets?  They still taste good though.

I didn't have my regular size muffin tin so I tried making the muffins just with the liners.  I learned that the muffin liners I had in the cupboard weren't really made for that -I got some pretty flat banana muffins out of the deal.  The smaller batch of mini-muffins were even fluffier since the batter had a surface to 'climb' as it baked.

Just like running (which I also took up again this week) and how good you feel after you get warmed up and into it, I forget how much I really enjoy baking when I get out of the habit.  It's not just the finished product that's enjoyable but the process and the experimentation too.  And there are the invoked memories too.

As I was mixing up these muffins I remembered all the way back to 7th grade Home Economics when we baked muffins and our teacher kept telling us not to over-mix the batter.  I didn't know what she was talking about then, and I remember that I must not have over-mixed but I did overfill my muffin tin because my muffins came out like cone heads.  I also have to wonder if they had too much baking powder...maybe I didn't measure very accurately.  That wouldn't be a big surprise.  I'm always fudging measurements, that's what keeps it fun.

Do you have a go-to muffin recipe?  Are you a fan of home-baked muffins?

Words: Murder, Hate & Hope

Murder isn't actually in the list, thankfully.  But it's a word that I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around.  It's been an abstract term to me most of my life - it's the plot for books, t.v. shows and movies.  It is a horrible story in the newspaper.  But it's not something that has ever touched my life...until last week.

Growing up and living in the United States I realize that we are more insulated than many nations in the world.  We are safer in our day to day lives than people in so many countries.  We have a police force that patrols our streets with, I believe, an honest desire to "protect and serve".  Corruption happens, to be sure, but the many police officers I have met have been good, honest, hard-working people.  Our volunteer military is full of men and women who are willing to put their lives on the lines for our nation which, I hope, makes us all value them and each other a little more than average.

We have a myriad of faiths in this country, but at the core almost all of them respect life and honor it.  They reflect on the value of being a good neighbor and caring for one another.

And yet, murder happens.  Our protective forces can't anticipate it, and our morals fail us, and the lives of innocent people are taken.  Last week one of my closest friends lost her father to that sort of senseless violence.