Creativity Reawakened

I think I'm finally finding my creativity again. For two years it was wrapped up into wedding planning so tightly that there wasn't any room for non-wedding expressions. After the wedding, I was so drained that I didn't do much and when I attempted something, I wasn't pleased with the results or gave up half-way through. I didn't write, draw, doodle, nothing. And then I got a job at a company that allowed me to be creative. My emails to staff were outlets for me to write funny bits. I wrote a poem about turning off the lights and erasing the dry erase board before leaving a room. For our staff retreat we divided into different groups named after trees. So I did simple sketches of trees native to Georgia. I shocked myself with how good they looked. My creative expressions started off small and in spurts but my desk at work slowly became full of colorful doodles and my notes were interspersed with random sketches. This blog has picked up speed, I'm writing more and more, and I want to continue to write, color, and create. I spend so much time alone because of Sam's schedule that I have to do something when I come home. There is only so much tv and so many conversations one can have with a cat. Today, I grabbed the vials of ink of my shelf that I haven't touched in years. I pulled out the silver and gold nibs and carefully selected the right one. And then I sketched a colorful castle that I'm going to give to friends as a gift for their baby. My fingers are stained with ink, I'm jamming to Of Monsters and Men on my mp3 player, and badly dancing in between changing colors. I'm happy and I'm creating.

Ode to My Gray Hair

Oh, gray hair
I hate you so
Every morning in the mirror
I'm reminded you're my foe

I think about pulling you out
But I stop and think
Where one once was
Three more will sprout

It's simply not fair
That among my chestnut hair
One gleaming silver strand
Can give such an awful glare

The solution is at hand
I shall not further linger
Red dye will silence thee
I shall simply go ginger

Forevermore 

Facebook Nevermore, For Now

There was a guy I work with that was complaining about the new Facebook format and the way it uses your personal information to target you for ads. I frankly told him to just quit Facebook, what's the point of complaining about it? Deal with it or quit, either way, please shut up about it. I recently posted two posts about gay rights and the Bible and received a firestorm of arguments and was basically insulted about my beliefs by a guy I went to high school with but I honestly can't remember ever talking to him in person. Why the hell was I even Facebook friends with him? So I defriended him and a bunch of other people for the same reason. But it still isn't enough, I'm still annoyed and want to follow my own advice about quitting. Here's some backstory. Back in the good ol' days of 2004, Facebook was for college students only and that was the only time Facebook was awesome. You "friended" people that you knew...because they were friends and classmates. And because it was only college folks, there was no self censoring. I could post about doing typical college stuff (i.e. drunken behavior) and not be nervous that my employer would read it or Miss Nosy from church would read it. If you know me well at all then you know that I hate censoring or behaving in a certain way for certain people. You either take me the way I am, a foul mouthed, opinionated, Moderate, Christian, who loves Gay people, or you don't. I am currently Facebook friends with people who make me feel uncomfortable but if I defriend them, I will offend them and that will make my life difficult in a variety of ways. So I'm just going to kill my Facebook profile in one clear shot so no one is offended and I can breathe and be me.
The other reason why I'm quitting Facebook is that people share way too much about themselves. I'm not talking about the cool parts of your life, I mean the boring parts. I don't care what someone I haven't spoken to since 10th grade ate for dinner. I don't care that a 2nd cousin just painted their bedroom. Don't freaking care. And no one on Facebook should care that I'm currently in my bathrobe and don't plan on putting on pants until I have to. Facebook is full of the mundane and people who are on it way too much. If you comment on something everyday, go outside! If you message someone back and forth everyday, call them! Go out to dinner together! Physically hug someone, don't type ((hugs)). Type does not replace physical contact. Type does not replace the sound of your voice. The fact that I will no longer be on Facebook will hopefully challenge me to contact the people that are my friends to catch up on how they are doing. It will force me to call them, it will force me to visit them. If I want to see what a friend's baby looks like, I have to get off my ass and go see the baby, not pictures of the baby. Speaking of my ass, it's getting wider everyday so hopefully a Facebook-free life will mean a tighter ass for me. Probably not, I love TV too much but it's worth a shot.
So if you want to know what's going on with my life, call me. I'll be blogging hopefully a little bit more than I have but I'm not using it as a way to update my status daily. I'm using it because I like writing and finding ways to talk about my McFarBland misadventures with Sam and Squeaky in a funny way. Maybe I'll rejoin the world of Facebook one day, I don't really know, I just hope that if I do, I don't have to read about your new haircut and you don't have to read about me not wearing pants.