in mourning

Look at what someone or something (a squirrel perhaps?) did to my lone tulip. And because I didn't plant it, I'll never know what colour it would have been. I'm a little surprised at just how sad I am.

"Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light." —THEODORE ROETHKE

is it me?

Or does anybody else long for the Good Old Days when it was much easier to see whether shampoo and conditioner was for normal, dry or oily hair? Nowadays it just isn't as clear-cut. Personally, I only have to stand in the shampoo aisle for a few minutes before I'm completely bewildered and feel like tearing my hair out. Which maybe I should do simply so that I don't have to buy anything. Listen to this: clarifying, revitalizing, replenishing, volumizing, fortifying, hydrating, reviving, moisturizing, purifying, nourishing, refreshing, bodifying. Aaaaaaaaack!

Honestly, depending on my mood (and blood sugar level), I don't know whether to whine or wail. Yes, publicly, and loudly. Bodifying? Besides butchering the English language, I don't know what half of those terms mean! Or what they'll do for my hair. Not that the old system was perfect either. What if you have normal hair that gets dry at the ends, and sometimes turns oily if you don't wash it every day? Kind of like combination skin. And what about if you have dandruff? Or the worry that you might get dandruff if you don't use the right kind of shampoo?

And, now that I'm turning gray faster than you can say Taylor Hicks (of American Idol fame), I'm finding out that losing the pigment in your hair can be expensive. Have you seen how much shampoos for gray hair cost? Seems like a double whammy to me. You lose both the colour in your hair AND you pay extra for it. Oh, and mom? Thanks for the genetic "you too can start the process in your early thirties already" contribution. Appreciate that.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll just start using baby shampoo. After all, if it's good enough for babes, it should be good enough for me. Right?

Oh, and I saw a shampoo the other day made specifically for men. Now how do shampoos know the difference between male and female scalps? Sigh. Seems like I have a lot to learn.

I'd even

settle for these

delusions de la garden

Sigh. I wish these were mine.

Buddhist proverb

"If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking."

rain and wind

Why is it that the two always seem to go together? Believe me, I'm umbrella-challenged enough, and fighting to ensure that it doesn't turn inside out half the time doesn't make the experience any more pleasant. And why is it that no matter how I carry it, a part of me always gets wet anyway? Sigh. Other people don't seem to have this problem, so obviously I wasn't paying attention to the how-to-use-an-umbrella-properly lessons. Lessons which I don't even recall getting.

The worst part though is the muddy splatters I get on the back of my leg. The right leg, to be exact. How is it that I only get splatters on the one side? What's wrong with the way I walk? Then again, do I really want to know? I've heard before that I walk like my mom, but apparently, that wasn't a compliment. Snort. Speaking of mom, even though she happened to live in Holland when I was born (we immigrated to Canada when I was seven), my genetic code doesn't appear to carry the very handy enjoys-damp-weather gene, as you would think it might. And for that reason alone, you won't ever find me living in the lovely city of Vancouver (an apology to all Vancouverites), or in any other wet place for that matter.

But getting back to the umbrella, I also don't know umbrella etiquette. What do you do with said apparatus in certain locations once you come in from the rain? I never know for sure on the bus whether to hold it in my hand and let it drip, put it on the floor even though the floor is usually dirty, or put it in the seat beside me. And what about the grocery store? I don't like putting it in my basket because it takes up too much room and gets everything wet, but apart from awkwardly carrying it again, I don't know what else to do with it. Yes, sadly enough, even though I consider myself quite bright in most ways, when it comes to simple things that everybody else seems to have under control, well, that's just a different story.

Nope, rain is not my friend. Ever. (Although my tulip sure looks like it could use some.) And when rain and wind become co-conspirators, the battle is over before I can even put my coat on. Excuse me please, while I go and see if I can at least win the war of getting the finally dry umbrella back in its case. Snort.

waiting

for my lone tulip to bloom

the good life

why this template?

Was it because:

a) green is my favourite colour
b) the light green on top strongly reminds me of KJ's Catster page
c) orange is also one of my favourite colours
d) I like having the entries on the left side
e) I felt sorry for the template as it doesn't appear to be very popular
f) I like the overall look and feel, or

g) all of the above?

If you guessed g) then you're almost right. It's all of the above, with the exception of a). Green has always been one of my LEAST favourite colours, but all the other points cancelled that out. Especially b), which leads me to wonder if it isn't so much a case of recognizing what I like, as liking what I recognize. Hmmm.

I know. I'm sure you don't really care one way or another why I picked this particular template, but I thought I'd tell you anyway!

let's start from the beginning

Well, maybe not. As you can see from the snapshot, THAT would take far too long. Snort. So let's start from about a year ago. A year ago, I was creatively blocked. To be specific, writer's block. Even though I had always loved to write, I wrote less and less often, and finally didn't write at all. Then one day, on impulse, I decided to answer a friend's e-mail using the voice of my kitty girl, Kazumi Joy. And to my surprise, it was not only easy, but also incredibly fun. It just felt, so, freeing. After exchanging a few of those e-mails my friend remarked how much he enjoyed them. The voice was different he said: more fun, spontaneous, light-hearted, and definitely more relaxed.

That experience made me decide to start a blog using the voice of KJ. Soon after, I discovered Catster.com and began a diary there instead. She's been writing for almost a year now (okay, it's really me, but I like to pretend), and it's been a wonderful experience. So much so that I've decided I'm ready to write in my own voice again. Well, Kazumi's voice IS my voice of course, but you know what I mean.

This blog is going to include both new stuff and older material. The older material will consist of humour columns that have appeared in other places (namely a website I took down as its template format just didn't seem to accommodate the columns well) and newer stuff that will include anything else that happens to strike my fancy. Hope you enjoy!

And of course, don't forget to read my cat's diary as well. *Wink*