Tag: Thursday Thirteen

1.

2. It\’s pretty.

3. It makes coffee.

(Really. You didn\’t see that one coming?)

4. It can make decaf!

(Really. My intern, gods bless her little ditsy heart, stood there with my coworker and I as we\’re setting up the new coffee maker. She looked quizical and then asked, \”Can this machine make decaf?\”)

5. …

Yeah, made me speechless too.

6. IT MAKES FREAKIN\’ COFFEE!

7. It heats the water inside the unit, so you don\’t have to have the burner on to have hot coffee. This is a plus when you\’re the first one in the office and have to make the first pot; you can just put your cup under the basket and voila! coffee.

8. People that put their cup under the basket to steal my coffee before it\’s even brewed. Hey. I do it. IT\’S MY COFFEEMAKER.

9. Put cinnamon on the grounds before you brew it.

10. Honey in my coffee is better than sugar or sweetener. Tastes lovely and isn\’t overprocessed.

11. No one is asking me WHERE IS THE NEW COFFEEMAKER? Did you know the old one is broken? When is the new one coming? Srsly. I actually had an email asking, I kid you not, \”how was it shipped?\”

IN A BOX!?

12. It makes coffee!

13. And the number one best thing about the new coffeemaker?

IT\’S NOT BROKEN!

So. I admit it. Our coffee maker at work died, and I’m caffeineless. For the second.day.in.a.row. A caffeineless Noony is not a happy thing. So, I figured I’d share. Don’t say I never gave ya nuthin’.

1. Paper cuts. Something about the winter air makes my skin dry, and I have been getting little nicks and slices every time I go in my briefcase for a file. And manila folders HURT. Maybe it’s a sign that I should not do my homework?

2. Weirdos on the train. I mean, I’m sure there’s a cultural awareness group for Weirdos, but really, who wants to join? Weirdos! This guy on the train today had these big silver dishes on the side of his head (okay, they were SOLD as earphone, but they looked like freakin’ plates, people!!). I looked up and he met my eyes and gave me this big grin – the kind of grin you don’t give strangers. I mean, hello??? We’re on a train, dude. Keep it down.

3. People with too much crap that they take up more than one seat. You know who you are. SCOOT OVER!

4. CELL YELL!!! Need I say more?

5. Small, yappy dogs. Dude. If you wanted a cat, get a cat. You don’t want to walk the damn thing anyway, so what’s the point? Annoying the neighbors? Well, you’re doing GREAT! “But terriers bark, that’s what they do!” Yeah? That’s what Draino is for!

No, I’m not THAT mean, I just haven’t had coffee. I’m not going to feed Draino to Muffy.

I sure might be tempted, though.

6. CELL YELL!!! Oh, wait. Said that one already.

7. Parking spaces that aren’t. (You suburbanites probably won’t get this, but that’s because you’re the ones DOING it in the first place.) You know, when you come home at oh-dark-thirty because class ran late and you just want to go to bed and there it is: Tah-dah! A spot, in front of your house.

It’s a spot, all right. Just won’t fit your car. The spot that will?

Yeah, that’s four blocks away.

8. Female gingko trees.

9. …

Okay, I’ll explain. Female gingko trees STINK. Somewhere between bar puke and dog shit. I’m not kidding you. Apparently, the male gingko trees don’t, since we’ve got one not four trees from our house and it smells just fine, thanks. No, this one’s a doosy, and it’s been stinking up the neighborhood for about two weeks now. It will go away, and has been fading. But dude, firewood mean anything to you?

9. People who complain about the broken coffee maker. Yes, I know it’s broken. I’m the one that put the frackin’ sign on it! Didn’t I order a new one? Didn’t I send an email about the new one? Do I LOOK like I want to discuss the finer points of coffee service and what we didn’t get but should have? I HAVEN’T HAD ANY COFFEE EITHER THIS MORNING, DO YOU REALLY WANT TO START SHIT WITH ME?

10. Broken coffee makers. See #9.

11. New biz-speak. Dude, seriously. The language is English. We have enough people in the cultural salad bowl adding words to the piquant dish that is our tongue. WE DO NOT NEED FAKE ONES! This was on my business school required reading panel for Module One: “Most educationists consider learning by doing to be the most effective learning methodology.”

Educationists???

The word, people, is “educators.” ~headdesk~

12. MAN, do I need coffee.

No, that wasn’t number 12. THIS is number twelve: PEOPLE THAT BUG ME ABOUT MY LIST! I’m writin’ it, I get to say it how I want. Type it. WHATEVER.

13. Bicycle messengers. No, really. If you don’t live in an urban environment, you probably think, oh, cool, they’re keeping down pollution and staying healthy. Yeah. Don’t you believe it. Those people are VULTURES. Worse. Ninjas with wheels. They have NO regard for pedestrians or traffic laws and are dangerous, the lot of ‘em. I once had one whiz in front of me, jump the curb, narrowly miss the woman standing near me, and careened into a planter. I’ve had them hit my car as they drive by, ignore red lights, and cause accidents. GAH!

~shudder~ There. I feel better.

1. Chocolate.

2. Chocolate.

3. Chocolate.

HAH! You thought I was serious, didn’t you?

Well, really, it IS chocolate. But if I can’t have chocolate, I also like

1. Potatoes

2. Scrambled eggs with salami

3. Quiche

4. Frozen mangoes with Greek yogurt and honey

5. Ice cream

6. Coffee

7. Tea, particularly hibiscus with lemon

8. Pumpkin pie

9. Macaroni and cheese

10. Tuna and noodles (not the casserole)

11. Hamburgers with bleu cheese and bacon

12. Corned beef and cabbage

13. Bagels

And, for a bonus, you guessed it! Chocolate!

It\’s been a while since I\’ve written a Thursday 13, but here goes:

13 Herbs and Spices

What’s the difference between an herb and a spice?

It depends who you ask.

To a botanist, an herb is a plant lacking a permanent woody stem. To an herbalist, it is any plant used medicinally (which can include trees and fungi). To a cook, an herb is the above-ground part used in cooking, as opposed to the root or the seed (celery, celeriac, celery seed). A spice, therefore, to an herbalist is the same as an herb (cinnamon is an herb used medicinally). To a cook, though, a spice is the dried part of a plant, i.e. the seeds, roots, bark, flowers, fruits and rhizomes that also are used as a flavoring agent in food,(rhizomes are an underground, horizontal stem such as ginger). Herbs can be used in either a fresh or dried state; spices are almost always dried.

Here is my favorite place to learn about spices and cooking, as well as to purchase your supplies:

http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/

Here is my favorite place to learn about medicinal herbs and techniques:

http://www.jeannerose.net/

1. Cinnamon

I love cinnamon-sugar on toast. It makes me feel comforted, like good comfort food should. I also like to sprinkle it on the coffee grounds before I brew a pot of coffee. It makes the area smell nice and the coffee taste really good.

2. Salt

While it may not be the most healthful of spices, I have to say I love salt. I recently got introduced to different kinds – and colors! – of salts and have had fun taste-testing them.

3. Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Salt

No, this isn’t a hoity-toity blend. But my grandma had it in her kitchen and it’s tasty. I have had trouble finding it since then, but whenever I do I make sure I buy it. Turns out they have their own website:

http://www.janeskrazy.com/products.asp

4. Oregano

Other than its uses in cooking, once I came to Chicago I got turned on to the concept of oregano on pizza. Try it.

5. Garlic

Need I say more?

Well, okay, I do. In Jeanne Rose’s class, one of the projects is to make a garlic soup. You’re supposed to simmer like 20 cloves, right? Then it says, take the cloves out, press, and discard.

Apparently, in my world, discard means “eat.”

I figured, garlic broth good, garlic cloves AND broth, better.

…

Don’t do it.

Just, don’t.

6. Onion

Yum yum yum. Just brush yer fangs afterward, will ya?

7. Ginger

Yummy! I love this in tea. It’s fun to buy, since it looks like a mutated plant part that’s going to eat your refrigerator…

8. Lavender

It’s edible. I read a book on it, you can make candies, and put it in a marinade for lamb. I tried it.

It tastes like soap.

Oh well.

It’s good in tea, though.

9. Basil

One of my favorite spices. I put this in my garden every year. We have Genovese, Opal, Purple, Cinnamon, Lemon, all sorts of basils. It’s good stuff, Maynard!

10. Curry – not really one spice, but a blend

I didn’t know that it’s a blend. I like mild curry, particularly in egg salad. Raz al Hanout is really good in coffee with cocoa.

11. Vanilla

Sex on a plate. ‘Nuff said.

12. Anise

I love anise. Tea, in my chicken soup, all sorts of ways.

13. Thyme

This is a really good tea for when you have a cold. I love it!

13 Random Thoughts on the Train

1. The sun is really bright today. The sky is a blue field, no clouds visible as the train snakes its way toward downtown. There’s something about the air when it’s cold, even mores in the dead of winter – the air is so clear because it holds no moisture, it’s too cold to, so the light just fills your eyes.

2. Daylight Savings ends this weekend, yet another of Bush’s idiocies – I hope the new President will end that farce. The equipment manufacturers, even for new equipment purchased since he’s been in office, do not hold to the new change and I wonder if that’s because they don’t like it either, and know it will be eradicated like Akhenaton’s brief flirtation with monotheism.

3. The Noble Horse Theater is on my train ride in ever morning, and I want to go to the Nutcracker on Horseback this year. I mean, how do they get the horses to dance? Dressage is like ballet on a horse, and I’d love to see it.

4. Cabrini Green is nearly gone, a legacy to the failed experiment of public housing that Chicago, like so many other cities of its size, tried. It’s sad, the remaining buildings with their boarded up windows stand like elderly soldiers, the passage of years in their empty eyes while the world around them forgets why they exist. When the last one falls, will anyone be there to mark its passing, besides the wrecking crews?

5. Gas prices have fallen, but I hope too late to save this Republican presidency. I don’t understand my country anymore. The America I thought I lived in appears damaged beyond repair, though Obama offers hope. What balls it takes to write a book entitled The Audacity of Hope. It’s vindicating to have someone of his station write such a title, because hope is such an underrated commodity. I’ve spent my life teased for being an optimist, hopeful, cheerful, etc; to have the possible Commander in Chief echo my feeling is vindicating.

6. Samhain is here, at last. What year it has been. Not “bad,” precisely, but I won’t mind seeing it go. In fact, I would rather push it on its way.

7. Stuff always takes longer to do than I give it credit for. Which is frustrating, you know?

8. Breathing is underrated. I am forever reminding myself to take a deep breath. Of course, this backfired one day in the elevator, when another building occupant looked at me and said, “That’s a Monday sigh if ever I’ve heard one.” In spite of myself, I couldn’t find it in me to contradict him.

9. Artist dates are hard.

10. Halloween candy is enticing and way too fattening to indulge in. I’m proud of myself though, I’ve walked by that stupid basket all week and not indulged once. (Ever seen the cartoon Tazmanian Devil? Yeah. Me at the candy dish. Not a pretty sight.)

11. It gets dark fast when winter’s coming. It’s startling to look up from my desk and see the windows completely black, with offices across the way lit back at me.

12. I’m excited to see the new exhibit at the Art Institute on tapestries. Go here, look! http://www.artic.edu/, click on “museum.”

13. I like Sting’s music. He’s a tremendously talented musician and composer.

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

Andi\’s Thursday Thirteen
Eden\’s Thursday Thirteen
Heather\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kat\’s Thursday Thirteen
Dawn\’s Thursday Thirteen
Gwen\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kaige\’s Thursday Thirteen
Liz\’s Thursday Thirteen
MLF\’s Thursday Thirteen
Shelley\’s Thursday Thirteen

13 Balls in the Air

1. My blog – recently, I’ve only written Thursday 13’s, my Rachel Carmichael serial, and Wiley Wednesday essays. I’d like to get back to regular flash fiction as a method of priming the pump for writing my novels and nonfiction books.

2. My novel Conservator – my current WIP (Work-In-Progress).

3. Two Artist’s Way Workshop Clusters – one on the Writer’s Retreat, and one on PDS. I do the work along with the workshop participants and we share our experiences together.

4. One Vein of Gold Workshop Cluster – on the Writer’s Retreat. Again, I do the work along with the participants. I’d been looking for others to walk the Vein of Gold with me, because I found it an intense process to do alone. I’m enjoying it this go-round.

5. Morning Pages – from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. I do these daily. It’s been a challenge this week, which has thrown all the other balls in the air awry, so rather than this nice, neat juggling ring I have something more like bowling, except I’m the pins.

6. Artist Dates – also from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. I find these incredibly difficult, and also rewarding. I finally managed to make myself, coax myself, whatever myself into doing one tonight. And voila, just like that, I’m writing my Thursday 13 for the first time in three weeks. Ms. Cameron, you are a genius.

7. Daily Walks – from Julia Cameron’s Vein of Gold. I do these with varying degrees of success. I had a lot better luck once I started wearing my pedometer regularly again. I like the one carried by Weight Watchers, since it’s easy to calibrate and will track miles once you enter your stride length.

8. Strategic and Operational Planning class – for my MBA. I’m enjoying it a lot, but there’s a lot of reading and essays.

9. Principles of Accounting – for my MBA. It’s an online course through my university, which is a first for me in this context. While I’ve taken online courses before, I’ve never done so for credit. It’s a challenge but I’m getting the hang of it. I still prefer in-person classes but this may be a way to accelerate my program.

10. Business Manager – my job. I manage a small practice for a financial counseling firm. It’s challenging and rewarding, but we’re entering our busy season and I find my time gets telescoped.

11. Relaxation – I am naturally a driven person, with lots of balls in the air (as you may have already guessed). I actively work on relaxing, with scheduled massages and yoga. Oddly, “doing nothing” is hard work for me.

12. My physical health – I recently joined Weight Watchers again and am not paying attention to my weight. In fact, I ask the weigh-in person to not tell me. I want to focus on changing my behavior, not on the scale, because my behavior is something I have control over. Breakfasts are challenging me, but as my first goal I’m optimistic I’ll succeed eventually. (Just HOW many light bulbs did Edison create before one finally worked? It’s like that…)

13. Some kind of social life – this is actually difficult, since it falls under the “play” category. We’ll see. Some days are better than others.

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

Andi\’s Thursday Thirteen
Eden\’s Thursday Thirteen
Heather\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kat\’s Thursday Thirteen
Dawn\’s Thursday Thirteen
Gwen\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kaige\’s Thursday Thirteen
Liz\’s Thursday Thirteen
MLF\’s Thursday Thirteen
Shelley\’s Thursday Thirteen

13 Things I Carry With Me

1. Backpack – To hold stuff. Has a cool laptop case.

2. Lunchbox – Front pocket holds transit cards and stuff.

3. Umbrella – One too many times impersonating a drowned rat.

4. Cell phone – In case I get stranded somewhere. (Like, say, Minnesota.)

5. Journal – For morning pages, talking to myself, self defense.

6. Extra pens – Never write in blood on the train. It causes talk.

7. USB keys – Jump drives, portable memory cards, whatever they’re called, I love them. Lets me carry my writing with me.

8. Homework – Why they have to make textbooks so bloomin’ heavy, I’ll never know.

9. Extra sanitary napkins – What? I have to spell it out for you?

10. Makeup – I’ve heard guys complain about ladies doing makeup on the train. Two words for you: shut. up.

11. Nail file – Why am I the only one in a four block radius who carries one of these? Srsly!

12. Clive Owen – What? I can dream, can’t I?

13. Food – Bananas, apples, cheese, nuts, yogurt, vegemals, all kinds of things.

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

Andi\’s Thursday Thirteen
Eden\’s Thursday Thirteen
Heather\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kat\’s Thursday Thirteen
Dawn\’s Thursday Thirteen
Gwen\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kaige\’s Thursday Thirteen
Liz\’s Thursday Thirteen
MLF\’s Thursday Thirteen
Shelley\’s Thursday Thirteen

13 Thoughts on the Nature of Time

1. Humans experience time in a linear fashion.

2. Cats can bilocate.

3. The written word provides permanency of thought.

4. Written media propagate ideas across time.

5. Time for humans only goes forward.

6. To slow the relative personal experience of the velocity of time, one must pay attention.

7. Writing helps this process of paying attention, because by its nature writing by longhand is an immediate task. It’s difficult to keep the pen moving while the mind (attention) is elsewhere.

8. Dogs live in the now.

9. The word, written, has power.

10. The word, spoken, is ephemeral but not devoid of power.

11. Control of the written word is hallmark of, but not limited to, dictatorship and totalitarianism.

12. Humans are driven to communicate.

13. The word, written, can only be temporarily blocked but the Flow cannot be stopped.

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

Andi\’s Thursday Thirteen
Eden\’s Thursday Thirteen
Heather\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kat\’s Thursday Thirteen
Dawn\’s Thursday Thirteen
Gwen\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kaige\’s Thursday Thirteen
Liz\’s Thursday Thirteen
MLF\’s Thursday Thirteen
Shelley\’s Thursday Thirteen

13 Questions

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions they don’t have to worry about the answers.” – Thomas Pynchon

1. Who says morning is the most productive time? Why do we have to start work in the morning? Why don’t night-owls rule society?

2. Why DO we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

3. Why in the U.S. are the polls (you know, those thing you vote at?) (yes, dear, I know that’s grammatically wrong; pay attention, or we’ll never get through this!) only open during working hours?

4. Same question re: banks. Don’t they WANT us to give them our business?

5. Why is the sky blue?

6. How come they don’t teach budgeting, checkbook balancing, grocery shopping – and bargain-hunting, job search skills, etc. in high school and college?

7. Why are bonuses taxed at 40% in the U.S.?

8. Why do cats always land on their feet and have to sleep on my computer – WHILE I’M USING IT?

9. Why are squirrels really nice when you DON’T have a dog, but the minute you get a dog, they turn into little harlots? “Wanna touch squirrellie?” “Don’t I have a nice tail?”

10. Why are people who own little, disgusting, barking, yappy dogs convinced that their dog is an angel – while it’s barking at effing THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING? (You know who you are…)

11. Why are people so rude? I mean, come on. If I’m walking on the sidewalk, TWO OBJECTS CAN’T OCCUPY THE SAME SPACE AT THE SAME TIME. It’s simple physics, people.

12. Why are CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) conductors so communicative when absolutely unnecessary (like, when we’re stopped short of a station with a train ahead of us, “We’re standing momentarily while the train ahead of us clears the station…”) and absolutely non-communicative during crises (like, when we’re stopped dead on the tracks, the conductor gets OFF the train to check out something on the tracks, then gets back on and we get underway without any explanation… what, did he see a donut or something??).

13. Why do people in public office lie and then stand by it when caught out on it, as though sheer repetition will make their lie true? (What? Of COURSE the sky is purple!)

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

Andi\’s Thursday Thirteen
Eden\’s Thursday Thirteen
Heather\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kat\’s Thursday Thirteen
Dawn\’s Thursday Thirteen
Gwen\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kaige\’s Thursday Thirteen
Liz\’s Thursday Thirteen
MLF\’s Thursday Thirteen
Shelley\’s Thursday Thirteen

13 Things That Have Happened

Who in the heck IS this Murphy guy anyway? I wanna give him a piece of my mind! (And a kick on the seat of the pants. And maybe a baseball bat…)

1. My car died. Got stranded in Minnesota.

2. Got stranded in Minnesota. Winona, to be exact. While it’s a beautiful town, it’s still five hours from my house.

3. Got stranded in Minnesota. And the rental car place in Winona wouldn’t rent me a car one-way to get home, so I had to go NORTH (the opposite direction from home) to get a car at the Minneapolis airport, so I could drive SOUTH (the opposite direction from the airport) to go home.

4. My car died. In Minnesota. I got back to Chicago with a rented car. But MY car was still IN MINNESOTA. (Astute readers will begin to sense a theme here…)

5. The Bluebook on the car was $2,000. Repair costs STARTED at $1,000. I blew the head gasket, see. Going 75 mph on the open highway in the middle of a cornfield, IN MINNESOTA. (Fixated? Me?) Winona, while beautiful, is five hours from my house. Which is TOO FAR TO WALK. Ergo…

6. The mechanic offered to purchase my car. My boss, a financial planner, blew HIS head gasket at THAT suggestion, and told me that I should donate the car. The deduction, under U.S. Income Tax law, is good for up to five years, by which time we will have purchased our first home and could actually USE the deduction.

7. We managed to donate the car. In Winona. The internet is a beautiful thing.

8. I started MBA courses at Argosy University the same week I got stranded in Minnesota. I love stress.

9. The three classes I’m teaching, two on Artist’s Way related material and one on fiction writing, got behind while I was having my car drama. Two of these classes concluded last week. The fiction class is like a run-on sentence. (It’s a demo. So sue me.)

10. Michael (my husband, remember him?) had surgery on a deviated septum two weeks after I got back. BEFORE we were able to purchase the new car.

11. I got stranded by a cab driver! (GAH!) Actually, to be fair, I didn’t get stranded. But the idjit couldna get his credit card thingie to work. So he had to take me to the bank to get cash – while my drugged up husband wandered into our house by himself! I love stress.

12. I took the week of Michael’s surgery off, intending to clean my house from front to back, top to bottom. I love stress so much, that I slept most of that week. During the DAY. Because I was too stressed to sleep at night. My house is now in WORSE shape than it was BEFORE I took the week off. How the heck does THAT work? (If you know, this is a rhetorical question. Do not attempt to answer this question. In the event that you feel you must answer this question, stab yourself repeatedly in the left eye with a pencil until the urge passes. That’s it. Just like that.)

13. Where was I? … Actually, that’s not a bad question. Where WAS I? (If you say Winona, I’m so going to climb through the intertubes and kill you it isn’t funny.) (No really. It isn’t funny.)

If the foregoing was funny to you in any way, shape or form, you are a sick puppy. Please seek professional help immediately. Me? I’m going into a convent.

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

Andi\’s Thursday Thirteen
Eden\’s Thursday Thirteen
Heather\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kat\’s Thursday Thirteen
Dawn\’s Thursday Thirteen
Gwen\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kaige\’s Thursday Thirteen
Liz\’s Thursday Thirteen
MLF\’s Thursday Thirteen
Shelley\’s Thursday Thirteen

Thursday 13 – 150th Edition: 06/19/2008

13 Things I Am Grateful For

Note: these are listed in no particular order.

1. My health

2. My spouse

3. My home

4. My puppy dog

5. My kitten, Belii and Marina

6. My writing

7. Summer weather

8. Air conditioners

9. My friends

10. My voice

11. My doctor

12. My family

13. My computer

Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in other\’s comments. It\’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! Leave your link in a comment, and I\’ll link back to you here:

Andi\’s Thursday Thirteen
Eden\’s Thursday Thirteen
Heather\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kat\’s Thursday Thirteen
Dawn\’s Thursday Thirteen
Gwen\’s Thursday Thirteen
Kaige\’s Thursday Thirteen
Liz\’s Thursday Thirteen
MLF\’s Thursday Thirteen
Shelley\’s Thursday Thirteen

13 Ways To Waste Time

1. Television
The average American adult, according to A. C. Nielsen, watches five hours of television a day (in 1990), and that the television is on at least eight hours a day.

2. Chattering on the cell phone
Time-filler conversations, that just pass the time, are a large time waster for people. (You wouldn’t believe the stuff I’ve heard people talking about during my train ride.)

3. Text-Messaging
I once was in the car with someone who was texting while she drove. (A practice I asked her to either stop or let me out of the car. She stopped, but looked grumpy. Stay off the sidewalks in her neighborhood!)

4. Unimportant Emails
How many times have we opened stuff ‘just to see what it is?’ This is the modern world’s version of junk mail.

5. Online Chat
Again, not actual conversations, but time-filling chatter.

6. Procrastination
Wasting time putting off important projects is a big one.

7. Not Setting Goals
I’ve met people who have no goals. They just wander through their lives, without any purpose. Boooring!

8. Inefficiency
Instead of grouping tasks in order, we waste a lot of time running back and forth, making too many trips when running errands.

9. Disorganization
We waste a lot of time looking for routine things. Keys, wallet, purse, etc.

10. Busywork
We’ve all done it – the easy projects that make us look busy, so people don’t know we’re not really working.

11. Unmindfulness
Acting on autopilot. We lose a lot of opportunities by ignoring the moment that we’re in.

12. Trivial Concerns
Rather than giving our attention to what truly matters to us, we waste our time getting excited over things that don’t matter – celebrity relationships, gossip columns, etc.

13. Not Taking Ourselves Seriously
I’m not suggesting a humorless existence. I am suggesting that we decide to make ourselves and our highest values and goals the driving purpose of our lives. Spending time on the people and activities that matter to us would benefit us far more than wandering around the internet and gossiping about unimportant things.

Happy TT!

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