4t and 4teen both want to be cool at all times. 4teen will do it at any cost, but 4t will think twice.
My hubby chubby and I were a perfect complement to each other until Tom-Tom entered our lives. The initial discovery came when the first Tom’s charge appeared on the credit card bill and I almost had a heart attack! The second Tom happened, when my husband declared independence from me while traveling to places that he needed a map without me and taking the other Tom instead.
Despite our 40tplus plus differences in our lives, my husband and I, were a good team while traveling. I hate driving and he is clueless in directions and maps. Therefore, with my know how navigational talent and his aggressive driving, we have gone far together. We have been places and the plan was to continue, until I was replaced by not only one Tom, but by two Toms! An intro to Tom-Tom may be appropriate. This is a GPS system that is not built in the car and that is sold separately. You manually enter your destination and the address where you are starting from and the device talks and shows you how to get there in great details, including distances, yards, meters and you name it.
So hubby chubby started going places with his new friend Tom Tom instead of me and was elated. Then he started comparing me to his Tom-Tom and joke about it to his friends, “Tom-Tom talks as much as 40t, but I can turn it off anytime I want without retributions.” Or, “Tom-Tom navigates me, but does not tell me how to drive unlike those who do not drive…” and the jokes went on.
I shared a few negative stories about this system with him in hopes that he will conclude that this is only technology with restrictions. I was once driving with my family and Tom-Tom told us to make a right turn on a street that was one way and we ended up against the traffic flow. We were so lucky not to have head to head collision and die. Did he believe me? Of course not.
And miracles (like sweet revenge) happen to those who wait! One Friday night we had guests and he took his friend to pick up something in VA promising to be home by 7:30pm before their arrival. Come 8 pm and he is not yet home while almost everyone is there. Comes 8:30 and still no word from him. His cell phone was unanswered. Eventually he called and sheepishly admitted that he is lost, and that his friend Tom-Tom can not connect to the satellite to get directions to get him home. To make a long story short, the friends & I went and retraced his footsteps and brought him home close to 10:30 pm safe and sound. Now the joke is on him!! It honestly takes more than 2 Toms and a few friends to replace me, or Tom-Toms desert you in a heart beat, but 4t will stay with you till death takes you apart, despite your inadequacies!!
The way I see it, technology is great, but has it’s limitation after all. Also, Common sense in life is the true essence. We still take his friend Tom x 2 with us everywhere, but we do not follow it blindly. We do our homework first and then we let the two Tom’s to lead us, and it seems to work for the 3 or 4 of us!!
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
40t+ and healthy living.
4teen believes that he is invincible, therefore fearless in living, just as 4t is beginning to realize how she values life and wants to live longer.
As I turned 4t, I realized that I need to take ++ care of myself to live a longer and healthier life. So I started having annual checkups and blood works religiously and subscribed to tons of magazines in regards to healthier and longer living. Last week, I was reading (as always) when I stumbled on an article that was promoting websites that believe that”Mental Gymnastic Can Boost Brain Power”. And that did it for me!!
First, I have to exercise at least an hour, of cardio and some weight lifting to help maintain weight, build muscle, reduce the chance of numerous diseases and also to beat depression and stress on a daily basis. Whether I enjoy exercising or not, is a whole different issue, the thing is that exercise is supposed to keep me healthy.
Then, I have to do meditation, at least 20 minutes a day, to stay focused and release my inner stress and to feel big about myself in various funny positions that make me laugh more than meditating.
Then, I have to watch whatever I eat. That means extra specialty shopping and cooking, if not planting organic vegetables myself. I have to have low fat protein and dairy, tons of organic vegetable of a certain color, multigrain and whole grain carbs that tastes like cardboard to keep my system healthy and to maintain an adequate weight to decrease again certain types of illnesses, primarily diabetes and heart ones. Basically, whatever tastes delicious, I spit it out, because it is bad for me!!
Recently, I have started doing word puzzles and sudoku, because our minds need to exercise since brain like a muscle needs activity not to lose mass. That takes me about another half hour a day to do, before giving up with elevated blood pressure, because I stink at it.
Of course I have to have a full time job to pay for our basic life style, and perform my maternal and conjugational duties as well. This is on top of running a very hectic household, studying and much more.
And after adjusting to all these, now I have to go for about half to one hour a day on a virtual mental gymnastic to help me remember things easier, and not to forget. These websites are supposed to help me be less clumsy, more articulate and sharp.
So when will I have time to LIVE and enjoy life? I am doing everything I can to live a longer life, but if I have no time to enjoy life to my standards, then why should I keep myself healthy? What is the point?
The way I see it, the focus should be primarily on LIVING and then healthier life.
As I turned 4t, I realized that I need to take ++ care of myself to live a longer and healthier life. So I started having annual checkups and blood works religiously and subscribed to tons of magazines in regards to healthier and longer living. Last week, I was reading (as always) when I stumbled on an article that was promoting websites that believe that”Mental Gymnastic Can Boost Brain Power”. And that did it for me!!
First, I have to exercise at least an hour, of cardio and some weight lifting to help maintain weight, build muscle, reduce the chance of numerous diseases and also to beat depression and stress on a daily basis. Whether I enjoy exercising or not, is a whole different issue, the thing is that exercise is supposed to keep me healthy.
Then, I have to do meditation, at least 20 minutes a day, to stay focused and release my inner stress and to feel big about myself in various funny positions that make me laugh more than meditating.
Then, I have to watch whatever I eat. That means extra specialty shopping and cooking, if not planting organic vegetables myself. I have to have low fat protein and dairy, tons of organic vegetable of a certain color, multigrain and whole grain carbs that tastes like cardboard to keep my system healthy and to maintain an adequate weight to decrease again certain types of illnesses, primarily diabetes and heart ones. Basically, whatever tastes delicious, I spit it out, because it is bad for me!!
Recently, I have started doing word puzzles and sudoku, because our minds need to exercise since brain like a muscle needs activity not to lose mass. That takes me about another half hour a day to do, before giving up with elevated blood pressure, because I stink at it.
Of course I have to have a full time job to pay for our basic life style, and perform my maternal and conjugational duties as well. This is on top of running a very hectic household, studying and much more.
And after adjusting to all these, now I have to go for about half to one hour a day on a virtual mental gymnastic to help me remember things easier, and not to forget. These websites are supposed to help me be less clumsy, more articulate and sharp.
So when will I have time to LIVE and enjoy life? I am doing everything I can to live a longer life, but if I have no time to enjoy life to my standards, then why should I keep myself healthy? What is the point?
The way I see it, the focus should be primarily on LIVING and then healthier life.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
The course of the week: History
4t and 4teen both need history lesson to make sense of this life and world.
Since the arrival of the 4teens in my life, I have started thinking about immortality, my immortality! As I was thinking, I sadly discovered that my parents were not immortal to me in a theoretical sense either. It started to bother me that I did not know the details of the lives of my parents as individuals and how they were as kids or teenage years. My mother never spoke of her childhood, and my dad never had the time until many years later that he retired.
It is sad that we teach our kids the history of the world, but we never teach them the history of their own parents, or at least I did not. We tell them that the history repeats itself, so learn from it, yet we fail to tell them that personal histories do the same as well. The last course of my family history was completed last week when I spent the whole week with my mother, sisters and nieces. A household full of smart, determined and opinioned women and that is when it struck me where did we all get this gene from!!
A few years ago, when my dad spent two weeks with us, we shared stories of his childhood and his background. He told stories of himself and his life that illuminated a new angle of him unknown to me until then. He has written his family story on a broad perspective, but the pieces that he shared with us put a real human touch to it and after that we never stopped talking about his life as a 4teen, 4t and the following years.
Last week, we all explored the details of my mother’s childhood and as we were discussing that, I realized how much more I have learned about myself. It seems to me that in the past 4teen years, I have been weaving this rug from a design in my head with any color wool thread that I could find and finally last week, it started to take shape and pattern. Some patterns are crooked and sometimes the colors do not match, but it is part of the rug and it blends together and in fact it fits there. It may not be the most beautiful rug in the world, but it is real and it is mine and I am proud of it. I will make sure that I will complete this rug with my history and as I leave this to my 4teens, I will ask them to continue with adding their history into this rug for the next generation.
The way I see it, this is how I will live forever.
Since the arrival of the 4teens in my life, I have started thinking about immortality, my immortality! As I was thinking, I sadly discovered that my parents were not immortal to me in a theoretical sense either. It started to bother me that I did not know the details of the lives of my parents as individuals and how they were as kids or teenage years. My mother never spoke of her childhood, and my dad never had the time until many years later that he retired.
It is sad that we teach our kids the history of the world, but we never teach them the history of their own parents, or at least I did not. We tell them that the history repeats itself, so learn from it, yet we fail to tell them that personal histories do the same as well. The last course of my family history was completed last week when I spent the whole week with my mother, sisters and nieces. A household full of smart, determined and opinioned women and that is when it struck me where did we all get this gene from!!
A few years ago, when my dad spent two weeks with us, we shared stories of his childhood and his background. He told stories of himself and his life that illuminated a new angle of him unknown to me until then. He has written his family story on a broad perspective, but the pieces that he shared with us put a real human touch to it and after that we never stopped talking about his life as a 4teen, 4t and the following years.
Last week, we all explored the details of my mother’s childhood and as we were discussing that, I realized how much more I have learned about myself. It seems to me that in the past 4teen years, I have been weaving this rug from a design in my head with any color wool thread that I could find and finally last week, it started to take shape and pattern. Some patterns are crooked and sometimes the colors do not match, but it is part of the rug and it blends together and in fact it fits there. It may not be the most beautiful rug in the world, but it is real and it is mine and I am proud of it. I will make sure that I will complete this rug with my history and as I leave this to my 4teens, I will ask them to continue with adding their history into this rug for the next generation.
The way I see it, this is how I will live forever.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Math Or Science?
4t and 4teen both need adequate education to get through life.
When I was 4teen and in high school, math made more sense to me than science. It was logical and made a lot of sense and I could relate to it with my whole heart. I was the master of equations, correlations, graphs and algebra.
Now that I am at 4tplus, I need science to explain a few of the correlations that have direct or inverse relationship.
I need help to figure out why is it that:
The higher we think of ourselves, the less people think of us.
The more we lie, the less we believe other people.
The more we hang unto something, the less is the chance to keep it.
The more we see our self in the mirror, the less we see out of the window.
The more we learn, the less we know.
The more we talk, the less we act.
And my million dollar observation that has direct correlation with 4teen,
The more I nag, the less they listen.
Anyone wants to take a shot at it?
When I was 4teen and in high school, math made more sense to me than science. It was logical and made a lot of sense and I could relate to it with my whole heart. I was the master of equations, correlations, graphs and algebra.
Now that I am at 4tplus, I need science to explain a few of the correlations that have direct or inverse relationship.
I need help to figure out why is it that:
The higher we think of ourselves, the less people think of us.
The more we lie, the less we believe other people.
The more we hang unto something, the less is the chance to keep it.
The more we see our self in the mirror, the less we see out of the window.
The more we learn, the less we know.
The more we talk, the less we act.
And my million dollar observation that has direct correlation with 4teen,
The more I nag, the less they listen.
Anyone wants to take a shot at it?
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