Welcome to my unfinished life!! My life has been a continuous series of unfinished projects, hobbies and interests that, well, I lost interest in. Road biking, guitar lessons, surfing, and yes, even tap dancing lessons. Similar to the Island of Misfit Toys, we refer to the garage as the Island of Lorie's Abandoned Endeavors. My hope is to learn to follow-thru a bit more on things, until I become at least proficient in something rather than mediocre at lots of things. Please join me on my journey as I try some new tricks and maybe pick up some old ones as well. I will blog about my travails and post some old stories of my prior mishaps as well. This includes abandoned boyfriends I lost interest in. My husband is lucky - he and the lazy cats are about the only thing I have managed to keep around!!







Monday, August 29, 2011

Longing

I have spent a lifetime yearning,
to fulfill my forgotten dreams.
But squandered time better spent learning,
may not be the waste that it seems.

I cannot look back and say,
I should have done better somehow.
Made better use of my day,
the day that has now become now.

Should have, could have, would have,
longing for what might have been.
But experience now is the salve,
the balm for the things I still yen.

We often look back and we wonder,
could we have done much more with our time?
We fall and we fail and we blunder
But the flaws are what make us sublime.

Should I look back and wish I’d done more,
with the time of my god-given life?
In my heart I’m enriched and not poor,
with a gift oft-confused as strife.

As I enter my second act,
I know what is right and is wrong.
So, with this I now make my pact,
Life is short.  Never long.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Frenemy

We have all had one.  The friend, the confidant that you have been pretty good friends with for a couple years.  You notice that she tends to gossip about others, and has a difficult time getting along with other females, especially her in-laws, but you like her, and she's fun and likes to drink wine. While not being a long-term friend like your old roommates or your sisters, she has potential.  Perhaps you met her at work.  Maybe you both started right about the same time and felt something in common.

Usually this person is someone that you introduced to your circle of friends.  She is funny and charming and fits right in, and you are pleased with yourself for introducing this witty, urbane person to your group of friends and them instantly clicking.  She is invited to your parties.  Before you know it, she is in the circle of friends. 

Then it starts.  She makes fun of some of your friends, and has her "own" friends.  You feel a change.  Your status is not the same.  She joins a work clique, and they have "friend's night".  You find out she has hosted a friend's night and you were not invited.  When you ask why, you are made to feel like you are weird, because the clique was formed before you started there, and she was asked to join, not you.  She couldn't invite someone that wasn't part of the "friends", right?  These are people you know and have had at your house for many occasions.  You cannot help but wonder "did she say something to them that is keeping me from being invited?"  You feel paranoid, and try to keep a brave face and not let it get to you. 

You see on Facebook that she has contacted one of your old friends that you have known for almost 20 years, who she met at your house a few times when the friend was visiting, trying to make plans that don't include you.  When you are chatting with this friend, she jumps in and wants to "get together" and when you respond "when?" she never responds.  She just wants to see if you would go, but she has no intention of issuing an invite.  She wants to make her rejection of you public.

She e-mails you, but only to borrow things or to see if you have any magazines, because she will not pay for her own, having pilfered yours for free for years.  She shamelessly borrows books and Halloween costume accessories while never returning them.  When you question their whereabouts, you are made to feel cheap for asking for them back.  You have confided in this friend some of your most intermost thoughts and you feel them being turned against you in conversation.  Compliments do not come except in a backhanded manner.  When you point out your good qualities in your horoscope profile, she points to the bad stuff and says "I think of you more like this".  You feel the dynamic of the friendship shifting, not in your favor.  You do things to try to please frenemy, like buy her lunch or take her to the movies.  These are never reciprocated.  You are scared of her, because you realize this is not someone you want on your bad side.

Then someone tells you something that she said about you.  Someone who cares about you and was worried about what she was saying.  Something so horrible and shaming that you cannot believe it and when you confront her she turns it around so that you are the bad guy because "how could you believe I would ever say that?  She was lying!!"  And she rants for days about how this person is a liar and a horrible person and you start to realize that she is protesting too much, and not because you are devasted by the comment, which she could give two shits about, but she is pissed because she got caught.  She accuses you of "disloyalty" when you suggest the person had no reason to lie.  Then you get the e-mail telling you she can not longer be your friend, because your friendship has been "compromised".  She spreads rumors in your workplace that you have "issues". 

This is not just a female thing.  Anyone who has read Othello knows that "bromances" can become quite complicated as well when you are dealing with someone whose creative energy is devoted to the destruction of others.  It is so systematic and it usually coincides with good things happening in your life, such as career success, or maybe a really happy marriage, which frenemy has neither.  Be careful of these people.  When you start to feel the shift, adjust your relationship before too much damage is done.  These people don't have much going for them, and destroying people is fun for them.  It usually comes back to bite them, but not before they hurt you.  I say justice cannot be served soon enough, but it will not be at my hand.  It will be by their own frenemy, and I hope she is a real bitch. 

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Life In Less Than A Hundred

Growing up fast, crazy teen years, twenties full of parties and career, early thirties full of angst about said career, then meeting the right person, buying my own wonderful first home on my own, marrying right person, selling first home to create our own home and then -  family trips, love, laughter, weddings, big dinners, travel, pets, sisters, friends, wine, music, writing, reading, walking, hiking, singing, health cares and health scares, supporting and leaning as needed, good times and bad, love and death, occasionally awful, sad death , but always, always happy to be alive today.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Some Things Don't Grow On Trees

 "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree"... Joyce Kilmer

The Money Tree
The Money Tree
Oh, tell me what
I mean to thee

I'll shower you
with wealth galore
Untold riches
all in store

Boats and cars
and houses, too
Diamonds, gold
await for you

But Money Tree
my health is not fair
Sorry, ma'am
I can't help you there