Sights and Swingsets

This morning I took a bike ride to the beach following a path along a river. During this leisurely ride I noticed two things: The Benches and The Playgrounds (yes, I did just make them proper nouns even though it may seems ludicrous and they are referring to multiples...)

If I had the time, I would wish to stop at every bench we passed. This would take a great deal of time as we probably passed over 50 of them, but they seemed a little lonely, vacant, especially the ones located among overgrown grass. I imagined the landscaper positioning each bench to create a magical view. I wanted to see this view that each bench gave of the river and surrounding landscape. I knew that if I would actually sit down on each one, I would probably be disappointed in many views after holding each sight to such high expectations, but if there was that one extra spectacular view out of all those benches, I figured it would all be worth it.

The playgrounds are a different story. We passed maybe 8 along the way, and I think I stopped at 6 of them. I guess it's no secret that I love playgrounds, I even thought of designing them as a career, maybe still thinking about it! I love that they can be innovative, and encourage children to take risks in a positive way and in a good environment. The best one we came across happened to be the one that the most children were at, imagine that! It had a so many spinning features, a hands on water area, a human sized hamster wheel, annd...A ZIPLINE! Yeah, I thought the last one was pretty cool too. I shamelessly waited in a line of 3-10 year olds to try it out! I don't know how so many adults have lost the joy that playgrounds can bring. Maybe I'll understand when I'm older, but I sure hope not.

Make Every Word Count

The other night I stared at a word document, blank besides the prompt for the award application at the top, “300-400 word essay explaining what aspects qualify you for this award” Hmm, qualifications? And I have to be truthful? I thought to myself, "Come on I have lots of positive qualifications!" So I started writing, a few words at a time, more than I needed to in some areas and less than I needed to in others, going off on unrelated tandems as well as hitting those few, rare key points. I looked at the once blank document and began whittling the multiple pages down, cutting out the stories about sleeping in class and planning my roommates wedding events, you know, only leaving the essentials. After writing an essay where I thought every sentence was a key sentence and I couldn't possibly cut out anymore, I did a word count “754 words..." But it's not like I have a big head about myself or anything. :)

I didn't even study for it!

I took a Myers-Briggs personality test this week. Now, I haven't taken this quiz since before I realized I was an extrovert, so I was interested in what it would say with my new found knowledge. The result: ENFP
Here's the two paragraphs generated about me, I find them to be entertaining as well as decently accurate.

People like you are very outgoing, enthusiastic, and spontaneous. You love meeting new people and probably have a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Since you are always on the go and seem to have boundless energy, you are usually up for any new experiences and especially love surprises. You are very curious, ask a lot of questions, and are fascinated by people or things that are out of the ordinary. Because of your vivid imagination, you have many ideas a day and are great at finding creative ways of solving problems or overcoming obstacles. You love to talk - especially about fun or interesting possibilities. People enjoy your unusual sense of humor and find you fun to be around. You pride yourself in your uniqueness.

You are also a sensitive and empathetic person. Your friends know you are devoted and affectionate and that you feel things very deeply, even if you don't always show it. But you may also take criticism personally and find your feelings are easily hurt. When you have a lot of details to remember or projects to manage, you many become overwhelmed and discouraged. In fact, your curiosity often distracts you from the more routine parts of projects and you probably find that staying organized is one of the hardest things for you to do. Making decisions is also a struggle because there are so many interesting options calling to you at once. Whatever career you choose, it has to be something you believe in or you won't be able to stick with it for very long.

All or Nothing

I think I'm often times an extreme person. I don't mean that I do extreme things, but rather, when I do something, it's to one full extreme or another. I either put in 100% or 0% I don't know how to only partially involve myself in something, so it's either all or nothing. Now this isn't something I have just learned, however I realized that this mindset seeps into more of my life than I thought. For instance, earlier, I was washing dishes and I threw the tap the extreme hot simply because this is what I've always done. (I don't know if this is to encourage me to do the dishes faster, or because I'm too lazy to find that happy medium, or maybe it's to make the water evaporate off the dishes faster so I don't have to do as much drying.) As I finish the dishes standing there with my soapy hands and scalding fingertips, I flip the tap to the extreme cold to wash my hands, because I couldn't possibly wash them in the temperature I had the tap on earlier. I think this is weird... but it is what I've always done and will continue to do, I'm sure of it.

Other (shorter) examples:

~In a pottery class in 4th grade, I never had control of the wheel because I either had it at top speed or didn't apply any pressure until it was barely moving.

~I would rather drink a frozen hot chocolate or a boiling hot chocolate than a kinda warm hot chocolate. Often times, I place my mug in the microwave multiple times to warm it up as I drink it.

~I often go days without playing my ukulele, so when I pick it up, it's usually a five hour jam session.

~Any organization, team, etc I am either a devoted member, or I quit, I can never be only kind of involved.

The Art of Chewing Gum

I recently took a class trip to the South Australian Art Gallery. As I looked down over the railing from the third floor I was suddenly taken over by a fear. The fear was was that my chewing gum would somehow leave my mouth and fall onto the ground two floors below (is there a scientific name for this phobia?). As this irrational fear consumed my mind, I was instantly filled with questions. Would my classmates notice? Would it land on some unsuspecting person passing below? Would I run down to retrieve it immediately? Or wait until after my classmates had gone? Would I drop something else so I had an excuse to go down? What if that something else landed in a totally different area as the gum? Would I nervously look around embarrassed seeing if anyone saw and pretend it didn't actually happen? Needless to say, I kept my mouth shut.

Showers are for singing and long division...?

It begins with an ordinary activity.

Maybe I should clarify. When I say "it", I mean inspiration (I would have thought that is made perfectly clear, after all, they begin with the same letter right?), and when I say an ordinary activity I mean a shower. That might not be an ordinary activity for everyone, but for this kid I would say it's pretty habitual.

Now, you may have looked at the title of this post and thought, alright, this girl must have solved some algorithm or bizarre math theory that wont benefit anybody except for herself because she'll get to have something, that nobody will ever hear, named after her...Although I consider myself a reasonably intelligent being, this definitely is not the case.

This is a true story. It is not unique, and doesn't really have a full conclusion since it's a very short excerpt from my life, one that may continue to have an effect in my future in ways I will never connect! But back to the part about the story.

Showers are for singing. I must admit, I don't think I would take them on a daily basis if they weren't little echo chambers where I convince myself that my flatmates can't hear me due to the rushing water in my own ears. As the air surrounding you gets foggier we have this concept that the thoughts within our own minds get clearer. I for one think the shower is a terrible place to think. I have been told you have to write down all your brilliant thoughts and ideas or else they fade away into the air along with the rest of the meaningless steam. But then, how do you keep track of and remember your thoughts? As you might already know, paper and pencils are not necessarily water friendly. Also, it's weird to have paper and pencils in your bathroom, what will your guests think you do in there? That's a sure way to impress them (sarcasm...I use it as often as Google). Of course there's always your phone in the pocket of your jeans lying on the ground, but that is too far away, too much work to get a hold of, and frankly you don't want to risk getting those handy little electronic devices wet.......

Since this first post is way more than the initial sentence I thought I'd write I'll cut down to the chase. I was thinking about something in the shower that required some calculations beyond the capabilities of the internal walls of my head and with no paper around I used the glass door of my shower. How eco-friendly and resourceful of me, I know! After this occurrence I then thought of this sentence,

"In the shower this morning I sang and did long division."

From this I decided I would start a blog and intended it to be my first post (Fail).

Like I already said. It all begins with an ordinary activity.