I hardly know where to begin so I suppose that I’ll begin right here where I am. Living life off-line is a different experience for me: different and wonderful. I feel that I’ve been out adventuring and apologize that I have been such a bad blogging buddy and poor blogger of late. I’d try to tell you all that I’ve been doing but I’m afraid it might clog the Net.

But I know how it is to lose a fellow blogger and I didn’t want anyone worrying about me. (You know how we like to do that with each other.) So here are my October good wishes for everyone with the hopes that you, too, are following your bliss. At the moment I’m all about the bliss, for as long as it lasts. Happy Fall, everyone! You deserve it.

Love and peace,

Angie

I am totally depressed (well, not totally but you understand) that I am only supposed to wear white pants for the next week-and-a-half. Who makes up these rules? Can I flog her?

Why does summer have to end? Why, why, why?

And while I’m at it with the questioning, why can’t there be a Dishes Fairy that comes and cleans the kitchen while I sleep? It’s getting ridiculous. (And I’ve been eating a lot of Chinese take-out. Who the hell is creating all this work for me?! I am unhappy with this person.)

I really should live in a townhouse or someplace without a yard to manage.

I don’t like to cook as much as I thought I did (hence, the Chinese take-out). Cooking for others = fun. Cooking for self = pass.

Struts on cars should rejuvenate themselves each year. Like spring. Or spiders’ legs.

So should sustaining pedals that get knocked off of pianos by playful, careless 8-year-olds.

Everyone should know about pandora radio.

And have the “Dark Knight”’s code of ethics.

Sabayon is incredible, especially when shared with someone who can pronounce it properly.

I heard a song today by Keri Noble titled “Ooh-Oh” and I can’t stop listening to it.

I’m convinced that some of us (if not all of us) have wild hearts and that they’re beautiful.

I got a call at work today from a woman who wanted to talk to me about “fortune cookie” advertising. I think it might be kismet.

Last week a lamp kept turning itself on. I think the gods were trying to tell me they were watching.

I now believe in true soulmates, even more strongly than before.

I think it’s funny how we spend so much time trying to figure things out when everything changes (or at least can change) in a heartbeat anyway.

Nothing beats good friends, good wine, good food, a good book, and people you love who love you back.

Kindness can not be overrated.

I watched a homeless man who was very dirty, ragged and forlorn-looking hitchhiking on the freeway yesterday and thought that he personified my soul. I felt connected to him in a way that made me realize how much we all need mercy, help, hope and love.

Earlier this week I watched the “Bucket List” and cried my eyes out at the end of it. I won’t spoil the ending, but if you haven’t seen it, you might think it worth a watch, especially if you need a good cry.

Yesterday, on Facebook, when they asked what I was doing, I initially wrote “Angela is hanging out waiting to die.” But then I felt like that was too morbid, so I erased it. I had another good cry last night, so I now feel better.

Bitch PhD was infinitely more interesting when I couldn’t google her.

On the other hand, a certain other person in my life became infinitely more precious when I could.

Life is beautiful.

The end.

For now.

The following was written by Max Ehrmann, a lawyer and poet from Indiana who said that “I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift — a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods.”

I think he succeeded with this poem and still remember the day in 1993 when I first found it. I couldn’t scribble it down fast enough. Desiderata, in Latin, means “desired things.” This poem found me again yesterday, and I was grateful. Here’s to this beautiful world.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

“Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.”

- Wayne Dyer

Never in a billion years did I dream that I’d be one of those people.

It’s 9:30 at night and I’m standing outside of the Chinese place talking on my cell phone waiting for the conversation to end so that I can go in and get take-out. I’m still dressed from work. In black.

If I were in New York hailing a taxi, then my life would absolutely be the antithesis of everything I dreamed it would be.

Do you know what my fortune said?

“If you want to know a man’s mind, ask him questions.”

Do you think the Fortune Cookie writers know that we’re all supposed to add “in bed” to the end of every fortune? Because, with this little tid bit, I figure that they must!

Note to self: If in need of a new career, pursue fortune-cookie writing as a viable option.

There may be a future here for me. Confucius say, “Very good, Grasshoppah.”

“Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.”

~ Dale Carnegie

With my thanks to Ralph Waldo Emerson and anyone who has ever reprinted this. A noble goal, don’t you think?

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

And because I find myself with a real lack of material to post. I could make some shit up, but that just doesn’t feel right, you know? Hope you enjoy. I can think of few things better than laughter. Anybody got a flag I could borrow?

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I dreamed you. I wished for your existence. You will always be a part of my life. If I love you it must be because we shared at some moment the same imaginings, the same madness, the same stage.”

~ Anais Nin