BEES AND JAZZ

The one thing that I notice is that regardless of what season we are in, I always find something to complain about. Winter is always too damn long, this Spring has produced premature sweaty summer days, Summer is always a promenade through Hades, and although the weather is beautiful in Autumn, nature appears to have signed a suicide pact, and the cycle begins all over again. And yet somehow, I find myself always saying......"I can't wait until........(insert season)".

So, there's the tree that sits at the side of our house. I love standing in our living room and looking at the fully bloomed branches. And that's where the love stops. With blooming branches comes bees, with bees comes my screaming in fear, from fear comes furious swatting and running, from furious swatting and running comes nasty bee stings, from nasty bee stings comes anaphylactic shock, from anaphylactic shock come a huge needle in my ass. Has this happened to me yet? No. But with an imagination like mine, that scenario is right around the corner.

Tonight I decided that I would go down to our local coffee shop and knit while stuffing a yummy raspberry tart in my face and washing it down with an iced latte. I find that sometimes my knitting creations progress far quicker if I can people watch while I knit. It's amazing how many people need a caffeine fix at eight o' clock at night.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a jazz pianist (who bore a remarkable resemblance to Schroeder from the Peanuts gang) sitting at the bench tickling the black and whites. It was very obvious that he probably learned to play straight from his mother's womb and jazz music was his passion. I was reminded at how annoyed I get when people talk loudly when someone is performing. Forget annoyed. I get downright pissed off. Here's someone playing for your listening pleasure..the least you can do is shut up and give the man some respect.

So after each song, I made sure to put down my knitting and clap very loudly and talk to him about the piece he just played. I wanted him to know that I appreciated his talent and he did play an awesome variation of Radiohead's "Exit Music For a Film".

The only downfall in this entire thing was that the man had a high pitched, nasally voice and all I have to say is that it was very, very unfortunate. He sounded like a Munchkin from the Wizard of Oz! I can just imagine this man proposing marriage. Oh boy!

Needless to say, it was a very nice evening. Some good jazz, yummy pastry, ice cold latte, and I managed to knit six rows.


TONIGHT'S A-HA MOMENT: If you're sitting by a jazz pianist who sounds like a Munchkin, request he plays the jazz rendition of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road". Then leave a really big tip.

AND HERE IT IS

So I am finally ready to write this blog. For anyone who is interested, since July of 2008 I have been the less than enthusiastic author of the blog "Not In Kansas". When I started that blog ten months ago, I definitely had an idea of what it was supposed to be like. It was going to be an interesting compilation of the things I did in my day to day life, things I found funny, things I happened to think about, interesting people, stories, songs, whatever. I really thought I was going to take a portion of my day and talk about me as a whole.

Well, I think as time went by my inital goal became a bit thwarted and my posts began moving in a particular direction that was A) not a true representation of my life and B) really starting to bore the crap out of me.

Here's what I figure. It's fun and nice to share how many projects I can knit up, and what new piece of jewelry I designed, and oh, oh, oh!!! I have a new car.....here....take a look at it! It all seriousness, exciting news (in a way) but it's definitely not all I am about. I mean, let's be honest, at the end of the day....who gives a crap?? There is a reason that the first question usually is "How are you" and not "What did you make today?"

I seemed to be more interested in taking pictures to show my accomplishments, instead of just talking about my day....the good days AND the bad days. My good thoughts AND my not so great thoughts. I got caught in this cycle of "you have to make sure everything looks nice and pretty so that people feel happy when they read your blog".

But here's the bottom line.....if I am not feeling happy or cheery on a particular day, I shouldn't have to act that way......especially in a forum that I embraced for the sole reason for being myself. And even more importantly, I shouldn't only write when my life is peachy keen. Do you really want to read about the perfect person with the perfect spouse and the perfect kids in the perfect house and so on and so forth? If you do, that is awesome......head to your nearest library and trot on over to the fiction section.

There's more to me than the physical things my hands can produce. As much as I love knitting, I actually do THINK and DO other things with my life. And at the end of everyday, I have learned something. And that something is what I call (and a lot of people call, so I'm not even trying to coin the phrase as mine) the "a-ha moment"....that moment when all of a sudden things make sense. Not EVERYTHING......just something.

So hopefully, with this new found desire of wanting to truly document bits and pieces of my life without giving a shit about what people have to say about it, I bring you "Chasing The A-Ha Moment". Hope you enjoy it.

Today's a-ha moment: Trying to be goody goody all the time is boring and uninspired.