getting (re)aquainted

First off, is my font too large?  At first I liked it, but now I kind of feel like it's got a "large print book" thing going on.  Feedback, please.

For my first entry in November, I wanted to do something that might reveal a bit about me in a general sense, and then I remembered a friend's entry in her blog last week where she posted a "list of fives".  I enjoyed reading hers, and figured maybe others might enjoy reading mine.

Here goes:

Five things you don’t know about me:   Well, I guess this depends if you *know* me or not already.  I'll try to hug the midline in my answers.  Some of you will think "yeah, I knew that", but maybe a few will be a surprise.

1. One of my biggest goals this year is to be able to do the splits. Yes, you have NO idea how deep I am.  (ack!  no "smileys" allowed!  Rule #7 is already causing me grief!).    In Yoga, the pose is called Hanumanasana (which I think sounds waaaaaaaay cooler, and coolness stands for something when you're putting your body in strange positions), so I think that's what I will herein be calling it.  Hanumanasana.   I'm not even close.  I was actually *much* closer back in the Summer, but I stopped practicing and lost a lot of the openness in my hamstrings.  I'd really love to be able to be able to do this by the end of 2011.   I think I can.. I think I can...
2. Our family lost our home and about 65% of our belongings to Hurricane Ike in 2008.  A rule about Natural Disasters?  You tend to *not* lose a lot of stuff that you'd have happily handed over to anyone who would be so kind as to schlepp it away for you.  You know, the kind of stuff that's piled way, waaay up high in your garage?  Because you NEVER use it?  Yeah, that stuff.  Old cassette tapes, tupperware without lids, ugly "just in case we ever need them" sweaters? They'll be just fine;  high and dry.  Your couch, kitchen table and beds?  Adios.    I gradually began to develop a mild-moderate anxiety problem since Ike.  It's something that my Yoga and Meditation practices help me with, but I continue to be challenged at times.  There's a lesson in it, somewhere, I figure.   Still, it can be a bit of a pain in the ass at times.
3. My husband and I met in Jr. High School, and have been together for .... let's see... 24 years.  Egad.   We did have a "let's see if we still really like each other in six months" break in our early 20's, and married two years later.  We celebrated our 15th Anniversary this past August.  Aaaaaaaand now I've let it slip that I'm not 26.  Dang.
4. I don't eat any dairy, *except* (oh man, this is embarrassing...) for dry, shake-able "parmesan" (yeah, right..) and that horrible pseudo-cheese orange food-like product that they call "Queso" and dish out with nacho chips at the football games down here in Texas.   Obviously, I have no shame... or taste.
5. I breastfed both of my daughters until they were three.  That actually wasn't an unusual thing where we were living in Canada, but certainly isn't something that was commonplace when my youngest daughter was a toddler.   Oddly, I've never been given grief about it.  I think I must have one of those "ain't likely to take any shit" airs about me.

Five things I am knowledgeable about:

1. Photography.  We bought our first digital camera, a little Canon Powershot P&S back in December 2001 after we discovered we were expecting our first daughter.  It instantly became something I loved - capturing life's moments, big and small, in picture form.  There's nothing like instant feedback and the all powerful "delete" button to help you follow the old adage: practice, practice, practice.  I've read somewhere recently that the biggest predictor of future success in any area of your life is the degree to which you are willing to practice.  I've found that to be very true in Photography.  I'd still describe myself as more of an "artsy" Photographer than a "technical" Photographer, but I've learned my way around that side of the camera, too.
2. Photoshop.  The "digital darkroom"... oh, how I love thee.  It is pure joy for me to open up a photo and let the artistic juice flow.  To me, while a technically strong photo is integral, there is something more to be unearthed in each image.  Often I "see" the end result before I even snap the photo, other times it unfolds in it's own organic way as I work on it later on.  
3. Yoga.  I've been practicing sporadically for years, and much more consistently since the Winter of 2009.  I think the whole Hurricane Ike aftermath turned me on to the spiritually nourishing dimension of Yoga, as opposed to simply the physical practice.  I'm not fluent in Sanskrit, but I probably have at least attempted most of the poses.  I "get" savasana now, too.  It is crazy to me to remember how I used to leap up at the end of the end of a yoga practice, turn off the DVD, etc - why bother laying around?  So much to do!   I get it now - how savasana is the culmination of the practice.  How you surrender into it, allowing the good to flow through you.  I seriously now feel and see the cells of my body squealing in joyful exuberance, like they're sailing down a waterside, while I lay in savasana.  Good, good stuff.
4. Transforming pretty much any recipe into its tasty, meat-free counterpart.  Granted, I don't like to cook as much as I used to (to my poor husband's bafflement and deep disappointment), but when I get in the cooking groove I can cook very well.  I thank my Mom's good genes and many hours spent in the kitchen alongside her growing up for that.   I don't need to follow a strictly Vegetarian recipe;  I can pretty much adjust anything to a "without a face" version.  Except, perhaps, for something obscene like Turducken but.... well... yeah, I could probably do something there, too.
5. How to make dang good coffee.  It's a gift, I tell you.   Drip, cold brew, French Press - I'm  your girl.  The secret involves good tasting filtered water, good quality beans, *freshly* ground beans, correctly ground beans, and perfect coffee:water ratio.  As I said, it's a gift.

Five things I know nothing about:

1. Computers.  Alright, so I have a good, basic *working* knowledge, but if something goes wrong?  A bad, bad blue screen kind of problem?  Forget about it.  Thing is, it's not that I couldn't learn, if I wanted to... I just don't want to.   That's a common theme, I think, among all of the things I know nothing about - they tend to be things I don't care to know.  Luckily for me, my husband is a bit of a genius in this area.   He likes to (lovingly, I prefer to think) refer to my computer problems as "Virus at Keyboard).  
2. Organic Chemistry.  My first year CHEM 160 professor could attest to that.  If he had a clue who I was which, I'm fairly certain, he did not given that I had not a whit of interest in the course and pretty much doodled my way through his classes.
3. How to change a tire on a car.  This is one of those things that I kind of *wish* that I cared about, or think I *should* care about enough to learn, but... yeah.... I just don't.
4. Cell phones.  I only broke down and got a cell phone when our daughters started school.  Knowing that I didn't want to feel shackled to the house during the school day (nor be one of those mothers whose child lies barfing in the Nurse's office because no one can be reached to come and get her), I caved and rummaged through my drawers to find the "throw away" $15 drugstore phone that a friend gave me two years earlier when I was her emergency "call me if you're in labour and need me to watch your older child" person.  The phone literally does nothing but 1) make calls and 2) play yahtzee.  No camera, no internet, and I'm not even sure if it texts.  It probably can but, like I said, I know nothing about it.  
5. Sewing.  I can reattach a button (if under duress) and nip the waist in on my daughters' shorts, but that about covers the range of my skills.  My Mom?  She sews very, very well.  Made me some most impressive Halloween costumes as a child.  I almost wish I knew how to sew, and every so often I get misty-eyed, imagining the creations I could make for my daughters, but if I wait 20 minutes the feeling passes, replaced with memories of jabbing myself in the forehead with the needle when I was embroidering kitty faces on homemade pillows as gifts for my Grandmother when I was 6.   I'm lucky I still have two eyes, y'all.  

Five things I believe:

1. Gratitude is one of the most important elements when it comes to creating happiness in your life.  If you wait to be happy to feel grateful, happiness will always elude you.
2. Meditation and Yoga are two of the most powerful healing forces out there.  From a holistic viewpoint, they combine the physical and the spiritual natures in a way that, I believe, is fundamental for well-being.   It's the whole mind-body thing.
3. The loving relationships in our lives are *it*.  Without love, we miss so much.
4. I really believe I'm a better, more well-adjusted (for lack of a better word) person than I was five years ago.
5. I believe my life gets better all the time, and that there is something to be grateful for in each moment, in each experience life brings our way.