Thinking About Thinking

By Lara

Recently, a friend asked me how I think. I asked for some clarification, because that's a strange thing to ask someone. He explained that he was curious about how my mind processed information and how aware I was of the inner workings of my though processes. Sigh. Engineers...

Needless to say, I haven't thought about thinking in quite some time. I decided to take the challenge and think about it. It is an interesting question, afterall.

I found myself trying too hard to be consciously aware of my thoughts. Nothing seemed natural. Every time I remembered that I was supposed to be thinking about how I think, I started talking to myself in my head.

I tried to explain this phenomenon to him. We talked about the modes of thinking for several minutes, but I was sure that I hadn't really captured my inner mechanism.

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Every Day Life: Winter Wonderland

By Beth

I was planning on doing an article this week about the changes happening in my life right now, there's a lot going on. But as I sit here getting ready to email my article, I am staring out my window into pure beauty and I just have to write about it.

Every winter all I do is complain. I don't like being cold, or wet, or especially cold and wet at the same time. I don't like shoveling snow (because I get cold and wet doing it, and it hurts my back). I don't like driving in snow, not because I am afraid to, it's all the other people out there acting like idiots! Of course, doing a 180 on my way to work this morning was not exactly the highlight of my day! I haven't been able to go sledding in years, the last time I did I hurt my knee. So what do I do all winter? Complain. It's too cold, it's too wet, people are crazy, when can I move south, what happened to global warming, get me another heating blanket.

As I sit here looking at this winter storm, listening to the thundersnow and seeing the way the ice and snow lay on the trees and bushes, all those complaints just disappear. This is truly beautiful. God made this and it is breathtaking. Yes I'll have to shovel my long driveway at 4:00 tomorrow morning and brave the roads to get to work (unless they are closed, everyone cross your fingers!) and I still won't like being cold and wet but for tonight I can sit in my warm house watching the beauty of God's nature unfold around me.

Beth is a gorgeous, size 6 blonde married happily these 20 years to Sean Bean, dreamy British actor. Their perfect children attend a boarding school in Scotland that they take the scarlet train out of King's Cross Station to each term. In her spare time, Beth likes to perform interpretive dance in local parks and raise awareness for S.P.E.W. Sean and Beth also own a German Shepherd named Chauncy who likes to nap. Beth M. and Lara were the brains behind our fun series on the Year of the Birthday. We are thankful they have decided to continue the fun with the Bucket List and Every Day Life.

Every Day Life: A Refrigerator of MY OWN!

By Lara

Many years ago, while I still lived with my parents, I wrote the following paragraph in my journal.

Sometimes I fantasize about the day when I will have my own refrigerator. A day when I can open the door without having to worry about bowls of leftover pasta falling out all over the floor because they were precariously perched on a quarter head of lettuce, a rotting green pepper and 3 half sticks of butter still in their tinfoil and covered with toast crumbs. Where I could open the freezer without seeing 4 hideously decaying bananas that have been reserved for "smoothies" that are never made... or banana muffins. I HATE banana muffins. A refrigerator from which I could pull a block of cheese without having to smell it in order to identify what is smeared all over it (peanut butter). A refrigerator that does not have a small tupperware container with a clove of garlic perpetually suspended in the ice flow forming in the rear corner. There would be no ice cube wars. There would be no battle to see who throws away the last piece of leftover meatloaf.

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Every Day Life: A Teller's Life

By Beth M

This month I am in the drive through at the bank where I work. I like it back there, gets me away from all the lobby nonsense. It's cash in and cash out, nothing more. I don't have to answer the phone or sell gift cards or cashier's checks or deal with the 'special' customers we all love so much. I'm back there, by myself and I can read and listen to my own music and I have a huge picture window in front of me which offers quite a view of the parking lot and surrounding areas. All of the things mentioned in my post this week are things that have actually been seen by the drive through teller, most of them by me. And these are just the tip of the iceberg, but there are some things I just can't put in print.

I'm sitting in the drive through and oh the sights I see!

      A half naked man in a beat up car
      A mom who just came from a bar
      Three screaming kids who want some sweets
      Dogs barking and whining for their treats
      Skaters keying an officer's cruiser
      A wimpy little car with the license plate BRUZR
      Some redneck idiot in a giant wheeled truck
      Driving over piles of snow and getting stuck
      A fist fight breaking out over a parking spot
      Couple of thugs meeting to swap money for pot
      Four enormous people in a tiny blue car
      Some amorous teens who may go too far
      I sit at my window and shake my head
      Wondering how they have the brains to get out of bed.

I'll spend one month in the drive through, and you wouldn't believe the sights I'll see!

Beth is a gorgeous, size 6 blonde married happily these 20 years to Sean Bean, dreamy British actor. Their perfect children attend a boarding school in Scotland that they take the scarlet train out of King's Cross Station to each term. In her spare time, Beth likes to perform interpretive dance in local parks and raise awareness for S.P.E.W. Sean and Beth also own a German Shepherd named Chauncy who likes to nap. Beth M. and Lara were the brains behind our fun series on the Year of the Birthday. We are thankful they have decided to continue the fun with the Bucket List and Every Day Life.

Every Day Life: Random Workings of the Human Mind

By Lara

All weekend, I have been unsure about what I would write for my article this week. I did see Beth over New Years, but we didn't have any huge adventures. Beth had just gotten over the flu, so we had a rather low key New Years celebration that involved playing board games and watching DVDs. Granted, sometimes that sort of celebration is nice as well. Still. That doesn't take a lot of words to communicate. You already have the picture in your mind, don't you? Two women sitting around a coffee table with a board on it eating rice krispie treats. There you go.

Earlier, while sitting in Panera enjoying a chicken Caesar sandwich, I started thinking about possible article topics. They had one of those folding advertising things on the table. I was slightly pre-occupied, but started absently reading about their fresh and tender chicken. I only started paying attention to the content of the advertisement once I saw the claim that their chickens are fed "a totally vegetarian diet."

My brain stopped. When it started again, I thought, "Carnivorous chickens, really?"

I wonder how many people per year are brutalized in attacks by voracious chickens. One minute they're scratching around in the dirt; the next minute they're flapping in your face and going for the jugular. I'd like to see more media coverage on these tough and less fresh carnivorous chickens. Perhaps an expose on 20/20 or 60 Minutes...

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