Richard’s Neighborhood

Originally published at Creative Thoughts. You can comment here or there.

This idea has been floating around in my head for months. I am not alone in pondering it.

It wigs me out really.

At what point does a woman give up on their sexuality?

To clarify, I am talking about the apparent lack of desire to care for oneself. Men do it too, however me not being a man I do not care (although if J let himself totally go I may care, although I cannot imagine). To further clarify, I am not talking about sweats, hair tied back, with running shoes as a mom uniform (hello I have yet to shower today!) I get that. I am a casual girl, never really "dressing up", I tie my hair back and finding me time to pamper is totally hard.

I still want it.

I want to be pampered. Get a nice haircut. Look smoking hot in a pair of jeans. I want to display my style (or the lack thereof) with finesse. I want it.

Now some days are just blah days for sure. Nor I am not talking about weight, or clothes. It is not about money because I see upper middle class women doing the same thing. Yet it appears some women give up their sexuality completely. They cut their hair short and stop styling it OR they wear no make up OR their clothes are tattered and exhausted ... they do not want it anymore. Maybe the tie to sexuality is wrong? How does one feel feminine at all if they look worn down? (side note: some short hair styles are smokin', little to no make-up is totally cool, it is the ultimate give up not the actually look. I am not trying to pass judgment.)

When does that come?

I would like to duck and hide.

I want to want it...Forever.

My Grandmother takes good care of herself. She is still concerned with her appearance and presents herself to the world with grace. She is not vain or particularly fancy. She takes good care of herself.

That is what I want.

The desire to take good care of myself. No matter what the demands are on me, how old I am, my children, my husband ... all important, but so am I. This is part of my desire to run and swim. We are saving all our spare change so we can work on the house. SO that eliminates fancy haircuts, days at a spa, cute clothes, adorable shoes, etc. Really me staying at home and choosing to live with one income forgoes the expensive, high maintenance look (although really even when I worked it wasn't my thing). That leaves a few close to free options. I can run for free (minus the shoes and clothes but I try to make them last), swim for cheap (YAY Canada) and take good care of myself through natural treatment (have you ever tried avocado & mayo hair mask? it rocks!)

Have you all but given up? Am I just a vain witch? What do you do to keep yourself feeling beautiful, fresh, alive?

I really owe BlackFriday.info a debt of gratitude. I got so hyped up about some purchases, so far advance, that around Wed night I was completely over the whole thing and decided to return to my normal routine of not paying attention to the sales or going shopping or any of that hoopla.

Yeah, the TV was an insane price at Target - but I don't need another TV. Or diamond jewelry (actually, I plan to get bigger/better diamonds somewhere else - and not right now). Or more sheets, no matter how good the quality (700tc) and low the price ($30/any size). And though I do need a new cordless drill/driver, I don't need it today.

So I shall spend another day being a veg. Till around 5p, when I need to get ready for tonight's schmancy champagne tasting (I called to confirm its on and that I'm on the list). From there I head home and, assuming I'm not completely burnt out (which is a rather large concern), change clothes for the Miss Kitty's White Trash ball in LA. I totally plan to go but a little piece of me is starting to realize the very large chance that I'll be too tired and decide not to go. Not that anyone but me will notice.

Yesterday was soooo peaceful and quiet. Nearly everyone on my block was gone. Today it's drills and cars and people and NOISE NOISE NOISE. I supposed I could shut the windows but I really need to air the place out. I don't like living in "your house smells like cats".

It's oddly hazy outside. Supposed to rain soon? I haven't seen the news lately so I don't know.

Okay, it's noon. Think I'll go pour some coffee in me and see if that motivates me to do anything (mani/pedi?)... or if I'll just remain on the sofa, web and channel surfing.

Bon, j'en apprend encore tous les jours, c'est bon signe. Et là, je suis scotchée par cette découverte. Gérard Courant, réalisateur de son état, tourne depuis 1978, son Cinématon !

Fiche technique, regardez moi ça:

Réalisation, concept, image, montage : Gérard Courant.
Interprétation : 2252 personnalités artistiques dont Jean-Luc Godard, Sergueï Paradjanov, Wim Wenders, Jack Lang, Philippe Sollers, Juliet Berto, Jean-Paul Aron, Félix Guattari, Jean Dutourd, Pierre Gripari, Terry Gilliam, Samuel Fuller, Joseph Losey, Ettore Scola, Maruschka Detmers, Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, etc.

A ce jour, ce film, le plus long du monde du coup, dure près de 150 heures ! Et à  mon sens, c'est une véritable page d'histoire du cinéma mondial: 3 mn 25' (muettes) par personnalité du cinéma, bout à bout.

Tous les renseignements sont ici, sur le site officiel, y compris des extraits de nombreuses personnalités.

Mon petit délice personnel, en hommage à Maak (Maak, reviens, le [c'est top] is back !)

I haz it!

and i totally look just like her and can do that move on the cover... in my dreams!! (actually, not even then!)

This is one for people with a strong stomach. In the beginning i thought : okay this is how she feels and he brings it excellent to the screen.
Also i often thought ; How can they play this?
Some scenes i closed my eyes.
Not sure if some of the extreme  violence was that necessary..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Larsvontrierantichristposter.jpg
Still a very interesting movie.

Odds and ends from the past few days:

27 November 2009
This Envisat image features western North America, one of the most extensive mountainous regions on Earth.
 
The Coast Mountains (snow-capped, visible top left) cover the Alaska Panhandle (not visible) in the U.S. and most of coastal British Columbia (top left) in Canada. Many glaciers have carved valleys, resulting in the formation of numerous fjords with precipitous cliffs that can rise 2100 m from the water along the Pacific coast.

The Rocky Mountains (snow-capped, top centre), which include at least 100 separate ranges, stretch some 4800 km from northern Alberta and British Columbia southward to New Mexico, U.S.

The Vancouver Island Range, a chain of mountains that appear as a series of islands, including Vancouver Island (snow-capped and partially cloud-covered, located in the southwestern corner of British Columbia), is visible running parallel to the coast of British Columbia.

Covering more than 1200 km of the west coast, several U.S states are visible in the image, including Washington (beneath Vancouver Island) and California (from the middle of the image to bottom right hand corner).

Numerous aircraft condensation trails, or 'contrails', over northern California and southern Oregon (above California) indicate heavy air traffic over the area.

The Sierra Nevada mountain range is seen (brown, bottom right) in California and Nevada (east of California). Lake Tahoe (dark blue body of water located in the Sierra Nevada range) is located along the border between California and Nevada. Pyramid Lake (above Lake Tahoe), one of the largest lakes in the U.S., is located in Nevada.

San Francisco Bay is visible near the bottom right in green. Sacramento Valley and the northern tip of the San Joaquin Valley are visible in green and tan to the east of the Sierra Nevada range.

The Coast Range (snow-capped, visible northwest of Sierra Nevada) is a series of mountains along the Pacific coast, running from southern California through Oregon and into Washington. British Columbia’s Coast Mountains are not a continuation of these ranges but of the Cascade Range.

This image was acquired by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument on 3 November 2009, working in Full Resolution mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m. 

 

We had a great day today and celebrated the holiday with our family.  We also acknowledged that our nephew Shane and his longtime girlfriend Maggie just got married a few weeks ago.  They are such a comfortable fit.  They seem to have been made for each other.

We sent Bill, Lauren, Landen, and Brielle on their way to New Jersey.  They are moving there for work and will be way too far away for all of us.  It will be tough not having them around but we want them to be happy and understand that we all set off on our own at some point and tried to form lives for ourselves and families.  Their journey is just beginning and we wish them well.

All the grandkids and great grandkids were there for Miss Jessie and it was a perfect holiday. Randy and Charlotte are great hosts as are all our family and we always have a great time whenever we get together.

Shawn and Kim are in San Jose so of course we missed them.  I sent Gobble Gobble text messages to all my siblings and know many of them got together up north.  I miss them and will be up in February to visit them.

What a perfect holiday.  Truly so many reasons to be thankful.