Sunday, October 30, 2011

benefits...

well, it's been a perfect sunday...
i was off...
and i did absolutely nothing.
which gave me much time to look back on the last few days of another crazy georgia florida weekend, here, in fernandina beach.
always full of people...always quite memorable in some way, shape, or form.
most definitely :)
at the end of one of these kinds of weekends too,
it's easy to look back and think...'oh, my god, i drank too much, ate too much, screamed a bit, and stayed up way too late!'
but...
in the same breath, it's also one of those times that you have to remind yourself to live it and have a good time while you can...while it's here.
after all, the next georgia florida game isn't until next year.
right?
right.
funny thing is, i'm a fan of neither...i'm an fsu girl, that happens to always cheer for whomever is playin the gators.
but i'm a huge fan of being with people i care about,
people i can have some laughs with,
people that you look forward to breaking bread with,
people that you can tell your ridiculous stories to,
and laugh so hard that there's this funny squeal of breath trying to come out of you.
all of those things...
hey, you need to grab 'em and roll with it.
this really goes for just about anything.
it's quite easy to think to ourselves...'hmmmmmmm, i'll stay in, there'll be other times to do this or that.'
and yes, we should listen to our inner voice when we're tired or just not feeling it,
but there are also those times that we have to make a lil more of an effort to live, to laugh, to love, and honestly, just to have one hell of a time.
because don't people always say, at the end of your life, will you be angry at yourself that you shoulda taken a longer nap or you shoulda worked longer hours, or tried to make so much more money?
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
life, my friends...
life...
must be lived.
must be loved.
must be jumped into feet first...or is it head first?!
i don't know.
but how bout this...
there's always so much freakin time to be serious,
to do serious business types of things,
to take ourselves way too seriously.
geeeeeeeeeeeesh!
i know as for me...
i always look back at a night that i've laughed insanely with my friends, as a night well lived...a night i can look back on, and still laugh about.
now that...that's a good night.
there can't be enough of those.
nights that at the end of them, your knees are hurting like they have rust in them from dancing so hard...that when a friend walks up to you to give you a hug, you worry that you're way too sweaty from dancing, to be getting a hug...but you hug anyways, and you laugh and say it's good to see each other.
you hear things that make no sense, and you think to yourself...'what in the world is this person talking about?'...but you can't even hear yourself think because the music is so loud.
the next day you wake up, and your voice sounds like it's been dragged across the hot pavement...and in some way, it seems pretty damn sexy.
yeah...
those kinda nights.
there are those days afterwards that i sit and feel guilty that i did all of these things...after all, i am 43.
but then when i think about the people i did them with...
well, then...
then it all makes sense.
i was talkin to some friends this mornin while we were eating breakfast together, and the subject came up about the fact that as we get older, we are more apt to decide quite simply that we do not have time to waste on being around people that we don't want to be around.
that our lives and our time seems to be getting more and more precious, and we feel that it is important to choose wisely how we spend it, and who we spend it with.
now yes, this may seem a lil brash or too honest...
but think about it.
haven't we all been in situations where we're at a party or out with people and we look around and think...'why am i here?' or 'i don't really want to talk to any of these people' or 'man, i don't have anythin in common we these yahoos.'
but for some reason we stay and then the next day someone asks you if you had a good night the night before, and all you can think to say was that it was weird or that you just weren't feelin it or that it was just okay.
yeah...it happens.
more often than not.
those are the nights that we have to give up the ghost and go home...watch some hulu, listen to some tunes, or read a book.
but those nights,
those nights
that you're with your peeps...
the people that get you...
that laugh...that make you feel like home...
that you can say whatever it is that you need to say and feel safe saying it,
those nights that you look into the crowd and your entertained by everything around you...
now that, that, my friends, that's the kinda night, that you just stay out...
that you just pay for your sins the next day.
that when you talk about it, you find yourself shakin your head back and forth in the middle of the story. hahahahaha!
those are the kinda nights that remind you that you're alive.
still.
and that you still have some fight left in you to do all of the other things you have to deal with in this crazy life that's going on all around us.
yes, it's easy to get taken away by all of the bad that happens in this world...
the madness and mayhem can easily sweep you away.
it's those friends and that family that can bring it all to a halt,
and give you grand reason to smile, to laugh, to dance, and to love,
and to some days take it just a little less seriously.
i know, i know, as you read this, you may be thinking, 'obviously, honey, you probably should go out less, and get more serious about your 401k'...
haha!
and yeah, you're most likely right.
but...
and this is a big but...
we're all different aren't we?
i've desperately wished i was one of those kinds of people.
business savvy, money minded, career oriented...all of that sounds awesome! really, it does!
but...i've also realized...
it's just not me.
i'll leave that to other people.
maybe i'm here to laugh, to love, to dance, to write, to be a good friend, to spin, to yoga, to shoot hoops, to cook, to listen to awesome music, to run trails, to make other people laugh...
ohhhhhhhh, i don't know...i'm still tryin to figure all of that out.
i have been on a constant search since high school to figure all of this out, and there are times, when someone i have just met, asks me what i do, that i'm embarassed or feel a bit like less of an outstanding individual because i don't do something that provides benefits or that i make minimum wage plus tips...
yes...for those few minutes that i first meet people...i'm very aware that i'm not on the upper end of the food chain of careers...
but i hope too, that once we talk longer,
that none of that will matter.
and to the good people,
the people i want to spend my time with,
it won't matter.
it won't matter at all.
i always joke about the fact that everything that i like to do, i can't make money at...it's a fact of life.
and it's my life.
and it's a good one.
so, on this sunday of georgia florida weekend...
my voice is hoarse, i've been using a heating pad on my lower back from too much spin, too much yoga, too much dancin, and too much bag slingin. i've taken my glucosamine chondroitin with msm, i ate a mack daddy breakfast, cooked by people i love, and was just delivered an apple cream cheese poundcake by the best neighbor i could ask for.
benefits...
yep...i think i have benefits.
they may not be traditional benefits...
but i surely do have them.
i'm imagining, if you look around...you probably have 'em too.
and what i can say to that is...
stay up too late.
laugh too loud.
sometimes, not all the time, drink too much.
dance til you can't stand it any longer.
talk to the people you love til you're blue in the face.
watch the sun come up.
look at the moon at 3 in the mornin, when you're getting home and smile.
remember these times, my friends.
those are the benefits of life.
the good stuff.
what it's all about.
and, as a lot of people seem to be saying lately...
'that is all' :)
go dawgs.

3 comments:

  1. Excellent points Honey D and these kinds of memories are the ones I associate with following my Dawgs during football season year after year.

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  2. Nice job HD. Life, love, laughter, and everything after. : )

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  3. i'm way glad you guys enjoyed it! made me smile to write it :) life, love, and laughter...and definitely everything after. right on! thanks for reading!

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