Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanks

This last year has not been that great for me, and while I am doing better at the end of the year and not at the start, there are things to be grateful for.

Do we really need a holiday to make us think about this? Even when I was not feeling great, I would stop and list the things I still could be thankful for. One has been that I still have a roof over my head. Not everyone has that, in fact and L.A. Mission was handing out tarps to the homeless this week.

My chickens and the eggs they give me also make me happy. I am amazed at the chickens, they have personalities and likes and dislikes. I would never have guessed with such a little brain. They make me happy and having to check them everyday has given me a routine I needed. We have a few more now and they are getting bigger each day.

I still have a lot of the same goals as I have had in the past. I am glad I still have good health to keep working towards them. My friends have also been a comfort during trying times.

The summer brought the Farmers Market and beer garden, since I wasn't working I could get the same good spot every Thursday at 4pm. So much so that the other regulars waited for me and even kept an eye out if I was running late.

Some of the time this year I have been too blue and didn't write a blog, since all was going to do was whine and moan about, whatever. That would not be that much fun to read. While it is great if you love your family and want to spend time with them, have a great time. As for me, I am grateful for the fact that my man doesn't watch Football of any kind and today we can watch movies and eat and relax.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Years End

As the calender marks the up coming end of 2010 I am going to look back at my favorite things.

This year started out horrible with the close of the shop I worked at. Some customers understood and others were so irate. It was not fun and it took me months to get over the deep depression I felt. The thing that started to pull me out of it was getting out and walking my dogs more regularly. It may seem too simple but it really did help. Having pets and a regular routine helped me not to feel useless.

Keeping up with my dogs and chickens helped. Cooking new dishes at home and not asking to go out so much also helped to ease the tension around the house. If I didn't have good cooking skills and always wanted to eat at restaurants we would not have had the money to pay bills.

Also getting rid of some things on eBay helped me to have some spending cash. For pocket money it was taking in the recycling that did the trick. Thanks to that I was able to reward myself with a trip to Starbucks now and then.

Going to warehouse sales and saving some of the t-shirts helped. Last June I bought a lot of new t-shirts. I spilt them in two piles. One to wear right away and feel good about it, the other saved for BBQ invites and other events. That way I could have something new to wear each time. As if I always had new things.

We did have a few cheep and smaller trips this year. I would have loved to go to Europe again and visit my friends. I miss them so much. Instead we went to Vegas twice. Once for the Via Las Vegas car show and the other on a free two night stay we got for listening to a time share pitch. It was not easy and they tried to get out of giving it to us. We were able to see a show and had a two hour massage at a great spa.

The next highlight of the year was going to the grand re-opening of the Dior store at South Coast Plaza. I had been talking to one of the sales people a month or so before and he said he would send us an invite. I was still shocked that I got a nice thick paper invite to the opening. It was great and they served my favorite champagne. I met Eva Mendes and Mr. Segerstrom, the owner of South Coast Plaza. It was so much fun and I didn't have to spend a dime.

Then there was a short trip to see friends up North. That was a nice relaxing weekend and we brought up home made goodies. It was hot when we came back but nice to get out of the city for a while.

Of course I loved seeing the wolves howl. Highlight of my year! The Big Bear tiny zoo is well worth checking out.

Why am I doing a year end piece in the middle of November? I won't have too much time coming up. I finally have a job offer for part-time work.

The rewards for all my penny pinching? I was able to buy some nice things at the outlets coming home from Vegas. There was the corset sale in the summer and the vintage clothing sales. I have not suffered and have bought new things, always on a discount. Not to bad for a year with out work and staying home night after night eating my home made foods. I still have some jam I made over the summer. All of this is lessons from my grand mother, who went through the 1st depression.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Date Night

While I worked at my old job I used to make up lists of goals for myself. Some were travel goals, some were life time goals. On that list was 'go to a national park and howl with the wolves'. I had seen a spot on this on PBS years ago and planned to do it some time before I die.

Last Saturday on "Date Night", I was able to cross that off my 'Life's To Do List'. the original story i saw on PBS was of a park in Canada were in the summer the park rangers took a group into the woods and got the wolves to howl. Imagine my surprise and delight to find that a small zoo in big bear does a similar event on Saturday nights during the month of October. Not as far as going to Canada.

The small zoo is right across from Bear Mountain and open to the public. It houses three grown bears, some coyotes and a great big snow leopard. It was so great to see them live, not on TV and so close. They will be moving in a year or so, right now they are up close, I'm not sure it will be the same when they relocate. There were also birds of pray, with dead mice in their area so they could eat them. There was two maimed Bawled Eagles, and one wing or not, it was still great to see one that close, he is still pretty.

It was very cold and I had on a coat as well as a hat and a thick sweater, it was only an hour tour and that's about all I could take in the cold. There was two groups of about 25 of us taking the tour It was nice and yes we got to get close to the wolves, they were white and so great. I wanted to go up and hug them like I do my dogs. Of course I can't, oh well. They had been howling before, and we got them going. That great haunting sound, that starts out high, then deep and low then high again. It was so wonderful to see them and hear them, it was so cold that I could see the breath of the wolf as he howled into the night air.

If it hadn't been so cold and if I wasn't already getting sick, I would have loved to stay for hours just listening to them howl. Before I knew it, it was time to go. I have to come back in the snow and see them play in it, and yes get them to howl some more.

One of the more original date nights I have ever worked up. It really made my month. Yes I get to check off an other thing on my "life's to-do list" and it makes me so happy. I'm not ill with cancer or anything life threatening, I would not want to wait until then to work on this list. I want to do things that I love while I have the energy to do them and enjoy them. So what is on your list and what are you doing to get it done?