Is it weird to be inspired by a sitcom? Because Pam Beesly just inspired me via this clip of The Office (more listen to it than watch it, not-so-hot quality). I’m watching TBS right now, and this is the episode that’s on, and I wish I could be this honest with people in my life. I don’t know why I can’t.
I kind of identify with her on this. Not so much the whole calling off of the wedding, but the rest. It may be lame that I identify with a fictional character in a fictional situation, but I do. And it’s a sucky place to be in. Maybe one day I’ll be that brave. But probably not.
I’ve been thinking about noise for the last few days. One Sunday afternoon, I was walking through my apartment complex to my car. There was so much noise going on – at least three different apartments were blasting music thru their open windows, kids were running and skating in and around the complex just being kids, and there were the typical nature sounds like birds and cars and trains and whatnot. It completely overwhelmed me for a minute, for no apparent reason.
But it made me really evaluate what noise does to me. I feel so inundated with noise all the time. And not just actual noise, but things going on around me. There’s information to take in and websites to look at and news blurbs to read and emails to reply to and phone calls to return and just NOISENOISENOISENOISE. Even now, the TV is on, I am chatting with a friend AND reading thru posts AND writing messages on Facebook, a grocery list is currently in progress, I’m texting Monkey about pie, and there is a heated debate going on in my head about what recipe I should take to the wedding shower this weekend. This is a typical evening for me. I think that’s it. Gosh, just re-reading the sentence made me exhausted. And sound kind of crazy – you can ignore the last part about the recipes.
So, anyway… it made me stop and think about how little we actually listen. There’s so much to listen to that we tend to filter it all out.And a lot of the time that includes what God is trying to say to us. I hate to say it, but it kind of stresses me out to sit in silence and just listen. I start freaking out and imagining things, and I let my imagination run away with me. In a bad way. And I hate it because I wonder what I’m not hearing.
Silence freaks me out. But it’s something I obviously need to work on. How can I expect to hear what God is trying to tell me if I can’t even hear what’s going on outside of this room? I can’t. Until I can learn to quiet my television, my computer, my ipod, my mind, and my heart, I’ll never truly be able to listen. And I will miss out on more than I could ever even dream about hearing.
I don’t particularly care for reality shows. I don’t even know how the heck I ended up watching this show. I think I thought the news was going to be on.
But no such luck. This amazing, horrible, AWFUL reality show has me hook, line and sinker. Seriously, a guy just came out dressed like an Indian chief.
What has my life come to?!
For those of you who are still blissfully unaware of this show, you should probably stop reading. Your life will be better if you stay unaware. If you’ve chosen to keep reading, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The name is pretty self-explanatory. 35 guys come out on a conveyor belt (a CONVEYOR BELT), one at a time, and have about 30 seconds to get at least one of five girls to choose them. A girl can say she’s not interested, or that she is interested – if more than one girl is interested, the guy gets to choose which one he prefers.
So once all the guys are paraded around and all the girls choose a guy, they have to go on a date. Just Google the show.
This show is amazing. Monkey (one of my coworkers-don’t ask because I don’t know what happened there) and I were just talking about it, and we decided we want a conveyor belt in our warehouse for three reasons (yes, I get to incorporate a list into this post!!):
Our next art show would be much more amazing with a conveyor belt somehow incorporated – maybe a performance piece?
It would be so awesome to travel thru the warehouse on a conveyor belt – a CONVEYOR BELT. That would be pretty rockin’.
We could have our own version of Conveyor Belt of Love. Hey, there’s quite a few single ladies in my office. Obviously what we’re doing is not working.
It just restored my hope in mankind. Ok, that’s totally not true. There’s no redeeming value about this show, and I think I lost some brain cells because I watched it. Actually, I know I lost brain cells. I can feel them dying as I type. But I was feeling a little bit blue tonight, and it cheered me up 100%. Also, I now want to learn to play the accordion. Yes, a guy came out playing the accordion. He sucked, but I would be just so much better.
It’s that time of year again. The time where one ends and another begins, that is, and everyone gets all nostalgic and introspective and whatnot. I’m going to go ahead and do it too.
I wait to make changes until it seems like there’s a good starting point. Case in point: I’m going to start going to the gym – on Monday though, because that’s the beginning of the week; nevermind that I’m sitting here doing absolutely nothing right now. Or I’m going to start writing on a regular basis – next month, because between now and then I can organize my thoughts and brainstorm ideas; nevermind that I’ve got twelve thousand thoughts rattling around in my head right now that could go down on paper.
Or my personal favorite, in which this is the year that something life-changing will happen and things will never be the same and I will finally be complete and whole; nevermind that I said the same thing last year and proceeded to spend the year without having moved forward more than a few inches.
2010 isn’t going to be one of those years where I start with the resolutions to go to the gym and write regularly and make sure that some life-changing event happens so I can live happily-ever-after. I still want all of those things, but instead of making resolutions to do them, I’m just going to go out and do them. Why bother with the extra step of resolving? Why not just do it?
And that life-changing event? Every day is one. One thing 2009 taught me is that life-changing does not equal happily-ever-after, even though I wanted it to equate so badly. I thought I had found my happily-ever-after a few different times in the last couple years. But now I’ve realized that my perception was just off a little bit, because while happily-ever-after it was not, it was most definitely life-changing. That realization has been a long time coming.
My goal for 2010 is to have an open mind and an open heart. I’m going to be me, and not try to transform into something I’m not. For once I’m not making a resolution to change, but to stay true to who I am and what I love. It seems counter-intuitive to what the new year normally stands for, but guess what? I’ve never really been all that normal. And for once, the new year doesn’t seem laden with both possibilities and frustrations.
It just is what it is – another year of life and love and hope. Happy 2010. I hope yours is filled with life and love and hope.
So says Geoffrey Latham. I don’t know who he is, but he’s one smart cookie.
Which brings me to my thoughts of the week. It has been a long time since I’ve confessed my undying love for a television show. Pushing Daisies was the last one that deserved that confession, may it rest in peace (random sidenote: got Season 2 for Christmas, and I’m so excited to put it in and watch it. I miss the pie maker SO MUCH). There just hasn’t been anything worth loving quite that much.
But, Fox has done it again. They did it with Wonderfalls, even though they only aired three episodes and then canceled it abruptly. They did it with Arrested Development – at least we got three seasons out of it before they canceled that. They’ve done it with 24, and American Idol, and Fringe, and Bones… wow, I love a lot of Fox shows. Another random sidenote: Time Warner Cable and Fox are in a huge bidding war and they may not carry Fox starting January 1. I’m extremely upset about this.
But I digress, again. The new show, the one that has resurrected my faith in network television programming is… GLEE!! I am not ashamed to admit that I am, without a doubt, a Gleek. I love this show. Not as much as I loved Pushing Daisies, which is currently playing as I type, but it is pretty close.
For those of you who have been living in a cave for the last six months, Glee revolves around a Breakfast Club-esque group of misfits that comprise the Glee Club at McKinley High School. Of course, they face competition from the award-winning Cheerios (the cheerleaders) and their insane coach, Sue Sylvester; they face internal conflict from the diverse members; and they face conflict in the road to sectionals.
It’s totally corny and cheesy, but it’s quirky and full of music and dancing and just overall happiness. I’ve had the soundtracks on repeat since Christmas, and every song makes me smile. Plus, it gives me and Holly-pie something to do during tea-time!
There is laughter.
There are tears.
There is inspiration.
And there is love.
Really, there’s something for everyone. I don’t know what exactly it is about this show that touches my heart every single time I watch it. There’s a tiny part of me that identifies with being the outcasts. But I think it has to do with the fact that music expresses things that you just can’t with dialogue alone. There’s no scientific why or how or wherefore, at least not that I’m aware of, but music and lyrics do something that one or the other just don’t on their own.
It’s not that words can’t be moving – they are. And it’s not that music alone can’t touch my soul, because it does and has for years. But these songs have something just a little bit more. Well, maybe not “Single Ladies,” but the rest of them for sure. They express so much more than just words or music can do itself. And they all make me tear up just a teensy bit. It’s true, music truly is the vernacular of the human soul.
So anyway, that is my newest television obsession. And that’s only a teeny-tiny portion of the epic-ness of this show. I think it’s well-deserving of the love, but it has only been half a season. There’s so much more to see next year! April 2010, here we come. Gleeks of the world, unite!!
