Monday, December 20, 2010

A Mishmash

I have a "real" post about happiness and work and money and saving for retirement coming up soon, but I think I need to accept that it isn't going to get written today. I was too busy baking some cookies (pumpkin chocolate chip with a caramel glaze... surprisingly nice), finishing my last bits of Christmas shopping, and going to a meeting with my outplacement adviser to work on my resume (I have a lot of edits to make now).

So instead, I give you a mishmash of links and thoughts. The links are courtesy of my husband, who actually manages to be a very productive software engineer in the time he takes off from surfing the internet.

First of all, if you have somehow missed the muppet wedding proposal story, go watch the video and read the story. It will make you happy. No, really. Go watch it now. Hubby sent it to me last week, when I was having a very bad day. Stupidly, I did not watch it then. I should have- it would have made my day better!

Next, here is a story about the most awesome iPhone app I've ever seen: a Spanish-English (and vice versa) translator. It is almost enough to make me want an iPhone.

Finally, a thought about how people become part of you, even when they are no longer part of your life: It has been raining here lately, which is unusual, but given our prolonged drought, quite welcome. I've had to be out and about in the rain a bit, but luckily, it hasn't been raining hard at those times. Every time I step outside into a rain that is more like a mist, I find myself thinking "'tis a soft day, by God!" which is what my Irish ex-boyfriend (and, I suspect, a fair number of his countrymen and women) would say when greeted with similar weather.

Now, my Irish ex is ancient history. We broke up more than ten years ago now. I have well and truly moved on. But little bits of him remain, which is nice and weird at the same time. Realizing this made me stop and think about what parts of my husband have become part of me. There are the trivial: my use of the word "heaps" instead of "lots", the fact that I say "car park" instead of "parking lot" half of the time. And there are the more profound: the part of me that likes kayaking and hiking and other outdoors pursuits (I'd never really done those things before I met Hubby), the growing tendency to look at American political issues from the outside, apart from the usual partisan labels (which of course don't mean much in New Zealand).

More interestingly, what parts of me has he assimilated? I don't know. I wonder if he does?

7 comments:

  1. I used to say flip-flops. Then I moved back to Australia and it became thongs. Now, after 10 years of Kiwi, it's jandals. And jersey, instead of jumper, instead of sweater. Sometimes I feel tri-lingual in English.

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  2. Ghosts of friends (and of boyfriends) past often sneak up on me at odd times, too. Even the ones who I cut out of my life entirely, and genuinely hope to never hear from again! I remember some good things about "the departed" especially whenever something very mid-90s music-or film-related comes up.

    Off to watch the muppet wedding proposal now! ;)

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  3. I often think about friends and boyfriends from the past. It's really quite remarkable how we assimilate pieces of other people into ourselves.

    For example, my evil ex-boyfriend? It's because of him that I truly discovered jazz and blues. I may still be pissed off about him and our relationship, but I'll always be thankful to have John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald CDs.

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  4. Ok maybe I'm weird, but I don't. I can't think of one thing I do or say or like that is directly because of some ex-boyfriend or some other person not in my life anymore. Sure, there are things like songs or movies that trigger memories of people or places. But I don't think that's the same thing.

    I love pepper jelly with cream cheese on a cracker. But that's because of my MIL who is very much still in my life. All of the little things like this that remind me of someone tend to be related to people I'm still close with.

    I wonder if on some subconcious level I either dropped habits that remind me of people of the past (there's normally a reason someone isn't in your life anymore, after all) or I just simply forgot that the thing is related to that person (my memory does suck, and is selective to important things only, especially for things 10+ years ago).

    Strange though.

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  5. It would be fun to make a list matching the person to the mannerism or phrase that we've picked up from them. There is weird stuff I still have hung on to from people I haven't seen in 15-20 years like saying "cool beans" (WTH does that mean?) and ending some sentences with the Canadian "eh."

    Do you see your kids picking up stuff from you and hubby? like facial expressions or gestures? I find that really scary!! cute, but scary we have that much influence.

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  6. I think about that all the time. Obviously.

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  7. I was thinking about doing a post about retirement planning, too.

    Want to do a joint one? I am 44 w/ a 10 yo so it is nice to have perspectives from people in their 30s and 40s.

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