Really though.

I swore I was going to get back into the habit of writing. I wrote it down on a very daunting to-do list last year, and I made a resolution to do it this year. 14 days into 2009, what writing have I done? My grocery list. One of them.

That’s right folks, I’m so out of practice I can’t even fathom writing anything in a non-list format. So here it goes, my first attempt in a while. I promise I’ll be gentle.

I’ve been consistently reading a few websites lately. Websites that make me feel a little more informed, and a little less like I’ve been cooped up in my house most of the winter. I shall tell you about them thusly:

XKCD. A web comic of romance, sarcasm, math and language. My good friend Andrew showed me a few comics long ago, but because they were math-oriented (and oh how I loathe math) I chuckled politely and likely closed the browser window without bothering to read on. Recently I saw this comic:

http://xkcd.com/68/

and that made me want to read more. So much more. So much more that I went to the archives and started at strip #1. And it has been a wonderful ride. I’m somewhere in the 200’s now.

Fark. Like the Onion, but real, crazy, weird-ass news. I love how the catgories start with things like “Scary” and “Sad” and “Stupid” and then “Florida” has a category all it’s own.

List of the Day. Thanks to Andy for this one. I’m discovering some of the wonders of the interwebs all over again, and new and interesting things too. Every day. Witty commentary, you tube vidoes, lists and more.

Do you ever notice when you’re about to have dinner guests, all you can think about is the things you haven’t done yet? I haven’t finished sweeping the kitchen well, I have to pull the trash can out of hiding (the cat climbs in it), I have to make room for coats in the closet, I have to pull out extra chairs, I have to wipe off the table as I know the cat has played on it at least twice while I’ve been at work. It’s quite the process.

And when I was younger I recall telling my mom “…don’t worry so much about cleaning! They’re family/friends! They love us no matter what our house looks like.” I was young. I was naive. I didn’t understand. I also didn’t have OCD at the level I seem to now. Works out nicely, though, the house stays spiffy.

Peace out girl scout.

With a buzz in our ears, we play endlessly.

It’s been a while, friends. I have become busy. A couple personal things, and then an admission of weakness will follow.

I have been spending more time busy and less time alone. It has rallied my spirits. Things have changed a bit… I have a mobility with my car. I have a roommate again. I have some regularity to my life. Monotony, but not necessarily in a bad sense.

I also have a radio show. That’s right, you can hear me Sunday nights from 8-10pm on WMHB 89.7 FM. There’s a live webstream at wmhb.orgif you’re not in the central maine area. My show is called Aerin After Dark. I realize, it’s summer, it’s not exactly dark at 8. But here’s hoping I get to stick around after the summer season has ended, and then it will be dark during my show.

In light of the radio show, I’ve been getting back into music. I’ve been waiting for the day I would be able to really dive back into the new, the unusual and the indie. Finally that day has arrived. A sigh of relief, for sure.

And finally, an admission of weakness. Not a new admission, though. I have a severe weakness for music.

I didn’t say it was going to be exciting.

But it has been quite a while since I have gotten chills from listening to a song. And here I stand, chilled. The new Sigur Ros single, Gobbledigook, is the culprit. I can’t explain why, and I doubt you’d expect me to try. But something about the melodic chanting and the heavy, almost tribal drum beats sends shivers through me. You can get it for the price of $0.00 here. I highlyrecommend a download and a listen, preferably in a quite room on some good headphones, or on a sunny day drive with the windows down.

That’s all I had, I guess. Feels good to be chilly.

I’m still in Maine.

(this is a response to a friend who asked me what possessed me to stay in Maine so long.)

You posed an interesting question. And it’s one I’ve been kind of wrestling with for the past year or so. Up until early last year, I had no intentions of leaving Maine. Mostly for comfort reasons. Maine is what I’m used to. It’s where the people I know are. It’s where my family is. Where I’ve always been.

And after last summer I felt like I had no one left in Maine. No reason to stay. So I started looking for other places to be. Didn’t get much further than NH/VT when I realized I couldn’t financially move until I was forced to, or until I’d fattened my savings account again (which had severely dwindled from my being unemployed). And even thinking now, if I do move, I think I’ll still stick to the northern part of the eastern seaboard. Here are the reasons I love New England (not just Maine).

 

Weather. We have all four seasons, and the nature is gorgeous as a result. Not to mention our weather drives away the super poisonous reptiles you find down south, and our worst ‘natural disaster’ is a blizzard. Which we usually lose 1-2 old people in because they’re too old to find firewood or don’t have enough blankets or something. I’ll take a blizzard over Hurricanes or Tsunamis.

 

Nature. The huge fields, tons of parks, lakes, waterfalls, gardens, beaches and mountains.

 

Location. This is one of the few places in the US where you can drive under 2 hours to do anything from hiking a huge mountain to deep sea fishing to skiing (snow or water) to white water rafting. There is a lot to do, and that’s one of my biggest pet peeves of those that’re all like “Maine sucks! There’s nothing to do!” because that’s just not the case. What they really mean to say is “there aren’t enough bars and clubs for me to go get drunk at and grind with skanky chicks.” I will agree that there aren’t nearly enough 24 hour diners, but that could always be remidied. We’re also only 3.5 hours from Boston and 5 from Canada. Or at least I am.

 

People. The friends and family I do have around the area are people I really care about and would miss terribly. So even if I do move, it could never be too far away. There are still good, even great people in this world. Some of them live in Maine.

 

Family. Meaning, this is a great place to (someday) raise one. I’m not ready now, but when I do get that ‘bug,’ the schools are decent, the crime is low and the neighborhoods are safer than a lot of places.

 

Money. The jobs don’t all have the most desirable pay, but they often end up being jobs you enjoy anyhow. A friend told me, “if you like your job, it probably doesn’t pay well, and if it pays well you probably won’t like it. And if it’s likeable and it pays well, it’s probably illegal.” But the cost of living is lower and yet the quality doesn’t really suffer as a result.

 

Ocean. I love the ocean. I love the smell of it (love driving through portland) and I love being near it and walking through it. And I’m less than an hour from it  

So I guess that’s why I’m still here. I may move some day, but I imagine it won’t be that much farther south.

I like it up here.

For your viewing pleasure.

I’ve recently made a list of goals. This is something I’ve done in the past, but the goals were more ‘wishes’ and the wishes never really happened. This time it’s a more realistic list. Things I need to get done in the next year to five years. It’s just nice to have them down on paper. It’ll be nicer to cross them off when I’ve completed them.

Anyhoo, one of the goals on said list is to start blogging again, at a minimum of once a week. So I cleaned out this ol’ thing in hopes of completing that goal. Not really sure what I’ll be writing in here, but I wanted it to be a place where anyone could read, family members included. It might mean that some topics I might not normally treat with kid-gloves will be treated as such, but I promise you that if I have something poignant to say, I’ll still say it, just not in any sort of colorful language. Heh.

So, to start off, I must again reiterate my love for working with small business. No, US Cellular isn’t small, but the location I work for is an Agent Location, meaning it’s owned and operated by local folks and the only thing US Cellular really dictates is what price we sell their phones at. This is nice, because it allows us to get close for our customers, earn their trust, do them favors and be involved in the community without having to check in with big business before we do every little thing. It’s stores like this one that make the difference in the US Cellular experience, for sure.

That’s not to say I’m against big business. It does a lot for our economy at both the state and federal level and can sometimes make the previously unaffordable, affordable. My mom and a few friends keep mentioning that it makes them nervous that everything you pick up in a store these days (even in Maine Made…heh) seems to be made in China or Korea or Taiwan. And yes, it may feel strange, but that’s part of what makes us work. If we started creating the things we buy from those countries here in America? I don’t even want to THINK of how much they’d charge us to purchase it in Wal*Mart. Things made in America are more expensive. Why? Because we not only have a higher standard of living, but we require higher wages for any job, no matter how simple. If someone in China can find a job for $2 USD an hour and support themselves or their families by working that job? I’m certainly not going to take away their income just because it seems strange that we buy so much from other countries. Besides, I’m sure China has come up with production line technologies that are 10-20 years more advanced than anything we could come up with. Things just wouldn’t get done. You think we’re in a recession now? Try getting everything we buy to be made in America.

Them’s my two cents!