My Ordinary Life

     If you take all of the random things I have done in my life, and put them in a paragraph, sometimes it seems like I have this exceptionally interesting life. Until you realize that I have had 46 years on this planet and you can fit all the exceptionally interesting things I have done in a paragraph. The reality is that while my life is not typical for most people, it is pretty ordinary. And that's OK. I actually really love my ordinary life. Once in a while I do some really interesting things, but all of the ordinary makes the interesting stuff that much more interesting. 

     So what do I do with my ordinary life? Other than work and pay bills, which I do plenty of. Well, I do a lot of puzzles. And I mean, a LOT of puzzles. I happen to love puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles, escape rooms, word searches, cryptograms. I love puzzles. This was my latest puzzle. I got it at the Mary Todd Lincoln house in Lexington. The paint bottle is for scale. This small 7" diameter puzzle took me 2 days to finish. It made me twitchy and I had to walk away from it several times. But it was still fun. It's my first round puzzle. 

     Members of the miniatures club know that the club has now come to an end. The cost of everything has gone up quite a lot recently. That includes postage. Those facts, coupled with my extreme lack of extra time led me to the decision to discontinue the club. I have been considering it for probably a year. But now seemed to be the time to do it. Jennifer put together this cute photo with one of the July miniatures (the cabinet). I love Jennifer's photos. They are always so detailed. 

Photo by Jennifer Buxton

       I love to read and I do a lot of it. Even when I really don't have a lot of time, I read a lot. Yesterday, I was at my friend's shop and I picked up a journal by this name. My friend asked if I had read the book, I said no, and asked if I needed to. She said it would make the journal make a lot more sense. So I picked up the book. If nothing else, it is a hilarious read! Not for people that are offended by profanity. It's technically a self-help book, without being a regular self-help book. So far, what it is is a book reminding us that sometimes life sucks, and to learn to embrace it, and keep going. To be happy with the knowledge that sometimes life isn't all rainbows and butterflies. I do a lot of that already. More than one person lately has asked how I am always happy. The real answer is I am not ALWAYS happy, I am just happy much more often than not. And I do that by not dwelling on what I don't have or can't have. No, I don't aim for positivity in all things, I am snarky and sarcastic quite often. But I do acknowledge that I have a lot of really excellent things in my life. And I am happy with ordinary. Not every day needs to be an adventure (that sounds exhausting!) and not everything needs to be bigger, better, or more in some way. I have a lot of stuff, but better than that I have what I need. The fact that I have more than that is a bonus. 

     Mostly I wrote this post because there are people that want me to post and enjoy reading my blog. Sometimes that really does surprise me. In general, my life is fairly ordinary. Sometimes I get to do cool things, and sometimes I don't have much to say because it's just another week in my life. Summer is a bit more laid back than during the school year, but this summer I am still very busy. How did that happen? Well, I started working with a Spanish tutor, and I have 3 lessons a week with him. I also started going down to a dance studio in Connecticut on Tuesdays for a couple of lessons. But that is a whole outing in itself because the studio is about an hour away, there are usually several people that carpool, we usually get dinner before the lessons. Wednesdays I teach dance and there is a social dance after the lessons. And sometime in the week I usually have a private dance lesson as well. Friday I have my coffee date with Travis. I still have to work in the studio because paras don't make enough money to live. I have more time to read, and I like that. But even though I have a lot of things I have to do in a week, and the fun things I get to do might shift a bit depending on the time of year, I do have a pretty ordinary life. And most of the time, I really love that.