currently

Books I’m reading:

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy - I started reading this while in nursing school, probably 2007 or 08. Didn't have much time to give it. Still going. Someday I’ll finish it.

Notes on Nursing by Flo Nightengale- a book I've recently acquired, but wanted to read since nursing school

Another Country, Exploring the Emotional Terrain of our Elders by Mary Pipher, PhD- a book I acquired in nursing school, and hadn't bothered reading until now


TV shows I catch on Hulu:

LOST
Glee
Parenthood


Movies I’ve watched Recently:

Woman of the Year (with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy)
I Me Wed (some lame hallmark or lifetime movie)
Adam’s Rib (with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy)


Music:

Right now: Jason Mraz, I’m Yours is on the radio
Sunday I listened to a “Best of EFY” CD, and a Hilary Weeks Cd “If I only had today”
Yesterday I listened to an Eve 6 CD (or the music from that CD off my computer)
In the car I usually bounce around 6 different stations. If it’s not Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Uncle Cracker, Miley Cyrus, or a few others I don’t tolerate well it stays, but I have to check each of my 6 to make sure I have the best possible option going- then I’ll let it stay there until objectionable content (talking or one of those few songs I don’t like) arrives.


Things I’ve recently purchased:

A table and 4 chairs (40 bucks at a garage sale! Woo!)
Gas
More Gas
cilantro
gum


Things I haven’t done lately that I miss and need to do soon:
go jogging
play the piano
make and eat air popped popcorn (ok so I had some on Saturday, but that was 3 days ago already)

Love and Beauty

A few days ago somebody on facebook posted his favorite lovey dovey quote to celebrate Valentine’s Day: “You don’t love a woman because she is beautiful; she is beautiful because you love her.” As soon as I read it, it rubbed me the wrong way. I know it was probably supposed to be saying something deep and meaningful and referring to inner beauty rather than outer beauty but I have yet to interpret this quote in a way that makes me like it unless it’s talking about how people appear to be more attractive once you get to see the goodness that is in them rather than just liking the outer appearance.

I don’t like this quote because it gives men credit for the beauty of women. Maybe that wasn’t the intent of the quote and maybe I do not understand it in the way it was meant, but in reading it I feel like it’s saying a woman isn’t beautiful unless a man loves her. “She is beautiful because you love her”. Does that mean she wasn’t beautiful before he loved her? That isn’t right. To me this is either saying that she’s ugly to everyone else but beautiful to the person who loves her, or she’s beautiful to everyone because you love her (like Johnny Lingo’s 8 cow wife, Muhanna). No matter how I interpret it I can’t agree.

A beautiful woman is not beautiful because YOU love her. She is beautiful because SHE loves HERSELF. She loves herself because God loves her. She proves her love to God through keeping His commandments and treating her body and herself with respect. Through this love between God and his daughters we become beautiful. It’s the same process for men. This is what makes a person beautiful. For that I have to believe that you DO (or should) love a woman because she is beautiful and by saying a woman is only beautiful because you love her is not giving credit where credit is due.

This quote bothered me so much, and when I saw a girl “like” it I really thought she was not thinking it through. I don’t want to be beautiful because a man loves me. That is not a compliment. I want a man to love me because I am beautiful in the way that I understand beautiful to mean.

Operation: be happy

1. Keep a clean bedroom
2. Pray on my knees twice a day and keep a prayer in my heart in between
3. spend quality time with the scriptures every day
4. go to bed by 11
5. wake up by 7
6. take a multi vitamin
7. eat nutrient dense foods and avoid unnecessary calories
8. get at least 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week
9. spend time with other happy people
10. avoid spiritually damaging or otherwise depressing forms of entertainment and people

2009 had left me feeling a little less than peppy, and I got to a point where I was determined to feel better. Just over a week ago Tuesday night I created this list of 10 basic things I’ve discovered throughout my life that I need to do on a regular basis to feel good spiritually, physically and emotionally (minus # 5. I’ve never felt good waking up before 9 no matter how early I went to bed. #’s 4 and 5 are personal goals I’m failing at right now, but making progress. I’m hoping for some truthfulness in the saying “Early to bed, early to rise…” However, based on actual experience I do feel better when I get enough sleep in general).

Since implementing my “operation: be happy” plan I have improved in the areas I was slacking on and I’m starting to feel more like my cheerful self. It feels good.

What's on your mind?

I know I’m in a cranky mood when I start wishing for a “this is DUMB” button while looking through people’s status updates, things they become a fan of, and groups joined on facebook. My negative feelings for stupid things on facebook are kind of like my road rage. I don’t usually have it. I’m a pretty calm driver. Some lady almost ran into me on the way to work today as she speedily backed out of her driveway without looking, but I avoided smashing into her and we waved at each other like friends and drove away. However there are days when some things will irritate me on the road.

It’s the same with facebook. Usually things don’t bug me and I “like” everything and calmly hide, reject or ignore the stuff I prefer not to see but today was a bit different. When I saw people become a fan of (insert silly facebook application here that I won’t name specifically to avoid hurt feelings) I cringed and tried to remember my Sunday school and relief society lessons on not being judgmental.

“That’s dumb”, “why in the name of all that is good would you post THAT!?” “ I… do… not… care…[hide]” “I’m sure this group is a scam, I can’t believe I have friends joining it and I can’t believe they asked me to join it too [reject]…again! I should only have to reject a group invite once [reject]”…“stop sending me fan page suggestions [ignore][ignore][ignore][ignore]”… were some of the things running through my head as a navigated through my homepage and invites/suggestions. I had no idea I was cranky today, but apparently I am, otherwise I’m sure these things wouldn’t have bothered me to the point of writing this dumb blog…which fits nicely into my theme of “about nothing”.

Whether I’m cranky or in a fantastic mood, I am always surprised at the level of personal TMI-ness I come across in what some people choose to post. Many of those posts are from people I haven’t seen in who knows how long, and whom I will probably never speak to or care if I ever spoke to again. It’s not that I’m being mean or not caring about friends I once had, but some of these people I was never great friends with to start. I’ve been debating lately about whether or not I should wipe out a significantly sized chunk of my facebook friends. Is it rude or mean to de-friend people? Would it make me a facebook snob if I did? Just because we were acquaintances once upon a time, does it justify being facebook friends now?

Cyber friendships are a way to make us feel like we have more friends than we really do. I have 330 facebook friends, but when I count the number of people I choose to spend my free time with I can count them on my two hands (not including family because then I’d have to take off my socks and maybe borrow someone else’s fingers and toes). Granted some friends that would be included on my fingers are too far away to be counted, and that’s what facebook is for. Right? Who are all these other people?

Katie

The longer I look at my name and say it in my head the more I like it and I loved it to start with. The only thing that would make it better would be pairing it with a new last name of Wadie or Beatty. I’ve never even heard of Wadie as a last name, so I might have more of a chance meeting and marrying a Beatty, but I don’t think you could beat Katie Wadie. I would laugh every day of my life by just saying my name.

On my blog soundtrack I’ve included a few of my favorite “Katie” songs.

25...

...Plus or minus. I tried counting my white hairs the other day and I gave up.

Random tidbits from the last few days

Thursday (like every 3rd Thursday of the month) I got to go do baptisms for the dead at the Oakland temple with my ward. The names I was given were from Chile, Denmark, Italy, Korea, England, Michigan, and probably a few other places I can’t remember. The Korean names had Korean characters followed by the name spelled out after. It was neat. I’d never seen that before. I was glad I wasn’t the one having to pronounce those names.

Earlier on Thursday I was filling my gas tank at Safeway. I put in my home phone number so I could get the 3 cent discount since my Dad has a Safeway membership card and as I was hitting enter I noticed a 6 in there. I must have mis-entered my number, there aren’t any 6’s in it so I was anticipating an “invalid phone number” message to flash on the screen, but instead it said “Kim Tweedy, your discount today is 3 cents a gallon” and I proceeded to fill my tank.

Yesterday was Lauren’s birthday and for the first time in a couple years I got to yell her birthday poem at her in person rather than over the phone. I wrote this poem for her when she was 8 and this was the 6th time I got to read it to her. At one point I yell her age as loud as I can. It’s fun. It’s a very childish, rhyme-y sort of poem; I just change the age as she gets older. I plan to yell it at her every year until I die. She’s going to love it when she’s 48 and I’m 60 screaming her age at her through a Dr. Seussish sounding poem.

And just for Danny, here’s a picture of Lauren taken about 5 minutes ago eating left over birthday cake. Notice her beautiful hair straightened with her new hair straightener from mom and dad.



I finally saw “Where the Wild Things Are” last night. My 2 friends and I ended up having our own private showing which was nice. I’d much rather wait for empty theaters than see something opening night. I didn’t know what to think right after it was over. It wasn’t exactly enjoyable to watch for me. I’ve decided that I’m glad I saw it, and it was definitely worth watching at least once, and if it’s going to be once it might as well have been in the theater (especially since we had it all to ourselves), but it will take a special kind of mood to want to see it again- and I’m not sure if I will.