Note to Self in 2012: Live Like Lara Croft. Yea, the Tomb Raider.

I have a big to-do list for 2012. Ideas and changes that I need to make in my life. Things around me and things about me. I decided last night, while watching one of my favorite movies, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, that I want to do things more like Lara. Tomb Raider is a video game, but to me, Lara Croft is the character portrayed by Angelina Jolie in the two movies.

One of my all-time favorite movies.

Lady Croft has a sexy, graceful determination about her. A confidence that shines through no matter what crap she’s being dealt or who’s trying to kick her in the head. I had lost my confidence some time ago, but I’ve been working hard on getting it back. It’s taken longer than I would have liked, but going into the New Year, it’ll be kick-butt, guns-loaded, strapped-to-my-thighs, don’t-even-think-of-messing-with-me-confidence.

Lara Croft plans things to a T. But, she’s also flexible enough to figure things out on the go if they change. I want to be deliberate in what I do, but also be flexible. I will try harder to think things through with more logic. Lara Croft doesn’t have fluffy bunnies and rainbows bouncing around the Croft Manor. Well, I may never get rid of those around the Beige Home, but maybe I can have some logical bunnies find their way into my world and procreate with the fluffy bunnies?

Croft Manor is a wee bit bigger than my home...

She always looks cool as a cucumber.

The Tomb Raider is fit and sexy and adventurous. I’m going to continue my lifelong quest to be fit. A few years ago, I lost about 25 pounds that I put on during a long, bad relationship (think rusted-out jalopy). Best part is that I’ve kept it off. I’ve watched my portions. I eat fairly healthy. Not a lot of meat. Not a lot of fat. My new goal is to watch my sugar intake. I’m not sure I’ve seen Lara eat much in the movies but whatever she is eating she has incredible energy to do her extreme workouts and go on her unbelievable adventures. If you’ve seen her in action, you would also consider her to be a practitioner of Parkour with her super-physical prowess. I want prowess. I want to do Parkour. I’ll add more physical training in the form of adventures (I especially love hiking and biking and boogie boarding) to tone up even more over this next coming year. 

This guy rocks in the Parkour world. Check out the link below to see him in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNvJy0zoXOY

In the movies, Lara Croft lives in a fantasy world of endless money and getting whatever her heart desires (though she hasn’t quite found true love…had to shoot him in the Cradle of Life…totally freaked out my girls). I’ve always lived in a bit of my own fantasy world. But, we all need lightness and happiness like that in our lives. Without it, we’d constantly focus on the heaviness or problems that come along.

So, while I’ll never have those gorgeous lips of Lara Croft (aka Angelina Jolie) or the incredible bosom; and you probably won’t catch me dead in a shiny unitard (though I’d like to incorporate more boots into my wardrobe and ride motorcycles), I’ll try to copy her confidence, fitness level, zest for adventure and logical determination. I’m going to live like Lara and make 2012 my Tomb Raider year. I’ll just try not to shoot my true love.

Like the strapping and holsters. Not sure you'll ever catch me in an outfit like this though.

www.barbarabeige.com
@Ybbeige

Namaste in Notes

Recently, my Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend challenged me. Not to a duel or anything, but to a challenge not to write notes for a week.

My challenge note to not write notes.

If you know me, you know I write notes. I have notes all over my house. Mostly of things I need to do. Occasionally, there are duplicate to-do things. All in my chicken scratch. On little pieces of paper. I’m infamous for cutting up papers I had printed -- ones that have blank areas on them that would have just ended up in the recycling bin anyway. And, they’ve been neatly cut up on a paper cutter, just so you know. Not messily with scissors or anything.

My eldest's interpretation of what would happen to me if I didn't write notes.

A dear friend of mine gave me the trail name, “Pockets.” Not because I wear cargo pants (though I do like them but don’t currently own any) but because I always have a piece of paper in the rear left pocket of my jeans. On this piece of folded card-stock I have my weekly to-do list on it. Then, I always add to it. Things that I find interesting like movies, songs, websites or quotes people may have suggested. Or, things that I need to buy. Like groceries for meal ideas. Which I may have also added if I had heard someone talking about a great recipe. All in my microscopic print.

Beside my bed, on my nightstand, are 3x5 cards. More places to write down notes, thoughts or dreams upon awakening.

My house is fairly small. Think efficient, close-to-the-beach home. And even with its campy size, I have notes and paper for notes in almost every corner of my home. Everywhere but in my girls’ room. There is always a place for me to write notes and lists or whatever my brain is thinking. (And I always write using my favorite pens…retractable blue Uniball Signo 207 pens).

A note with a mantra from my Pocket-nicknaming friend's recent yoga class and my note to vacuum (maybe I didn't have to write that down...just looking at the floor should be enough of a reminder...but I write stuff down.)

When my Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend challenged me to not write notes for 1 week, she told me to “Ride the wave of life” and see what happens. She questioned my ability to remember things on my own without writing anything down. She wondered if some type of amnesia would kick in. I have to say that I felt naked for the first few days without that weekly pocket note. I’d reach for it to write something down and remember that I didn’t have it. I wonder how many things that I would have liked to have remembered that week slipped my mind? I couldn’t tell you. It wasn’t written down. I was happy that I didn’t have a lot going on that week to actually keep track of.

This is what I wrote on a 3x5 by my bed when my Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend challenged me. We decided it would make for an interesting blog subject.

Do I need to write notes because I’m blonde? Or, is there the fear of forgetting to do something? I think it’s a combination of those things. Maybe not so much the blonde thing because my brain is always in multi-tasking mode (do blondes really multi-task?). I’m constantly creating. Writing in my head so I don’t feel like I have a lot of extra room to remember the have-to’s. The have-to’s aren’t as fun to have swirling around in this head of mine. My head that lives in my land of fluffy bunnies and happy rainbows.

Because my pocket note went through the laundry (one of the hazards of pocket notes), I was forced to write down this idea at work for the coolest snowflake on some horrid yellow paper that would easily dissolve in humid air.

So, I survived that week’s challenge. But, I’ve written notes since then. There’s a comfort for me in writing notes. Then there’s the whole sense of accomplishment when you can check things off that have been done. I like that feeling. The more I have going on in my life, the more I write down. As Christmas approached this year, I found myself writing more lists and notes than usual. But, Christmas has a way of overwhelming even the most organized. I may try to limit my note-writing from time to time. Or, at least be sure to consolidate the lists in my house so they don’t overwhelm my Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend. But for now, for me, they work. And they are part of my wave of life. I am one with my notes. Ooh, let me write that down…

How my Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend interprets my world without notes...

www.barbarabeige.com

The Past is the Past

Wrong choices made in the past,

Ultimately affects my life today.

Somehow, I didn’t know that then.

At least the permanence of it all.

But, the past is the past.

Let it go.

I have.

Walk with me now.

Make the best of today and what it is.

Think about the future.

We’ll make choices together today that affects our tomorrow.

And when tomorrow comes,

Today will be yesterday.

And yesterday is the past.

And there is just no going back.

For good,

Or, for bad.

It just is.

http://www.barbarabeige.com/

The Woman I Am

Have you ever had someone in your life who inspires you? And, inspires you often? My Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend said something today that inspired me to write this poem...

The Woman I Am

From the earth I have come,

Molded and shaped like the clay from which I was born.

Weathered by the sun and hardened with time.

But, all is not lost for I have been softened by the rain,

And by your hands.

And in your eyes,

Seeing me for who I am.

Freeing me from my confines,

Forgiving me of my past.

With gentle touch,

And loving caress,

You shape me back

Into the woman I am.

Cloudology. Say It Like You Have a Mouth Full of Marbles. It’s Funner That Way.

I often find myself saying, “Today I saw the most amazing sky.” That should denote the best of the best. Like I couldn’t see anything more beautiful. But, I swear I keep seeing an even more amazing sky day after day.



Cloud dove.

I have a fascination with the sky. With clouds in particular. I’m forever oohing and aahing at the sky or taking pictures if some formation catches my eye. Okay, that’s almost every day. To me, and to others (because I think I’ve heard it quoted this way), the sky is like a canvas. It’s a blank canvas that is forever changing…becoming a priceless piece of artwork that we can only fully take in with our eyes and our minds. And, even then, I don’t know how fully it is because there are times when I wish I could hold an image of it and put it into the core of my being forever.

Took this yesterday somewhere between MA and ME.



One of the things I love about the sky is when you add the rising or setting sun in it. With all the colors that are exuded then, mixed with the swaths of clouds, it’s almost more than one can take in at any one time. That must be where the term ‘breath-taking’ came from. My Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend has told me that one of the things she’ll miss when she dies are the sunrises. I’d have to agree with her and add the sunsets in there, too, because I tend to take as many evening walks on the beach as I can. Right now I live close to the ocean and life is too short not to enjoy the natural beauty around us.

  

Sometimes, the sky seems uniformly grey and without definition of clouds. I find that our moods are changed by what we find in the sky. How many people mope around on gloomy days? Lots. When the sky is all grey, we should try not to get down. Instead, we should look at it as a canvas covered with tinted gesso readying itself for another glorious day.

Cameras can capture pieces of the sky and help us to remember the beauty of the clouds and colors before us. But unless you can photograph it 360 degrees around you, it’s hard to see exactly what you can take in like you can with the human eye.

I was joking with my oldest one day about how I thought that I should be a cloudologist. One who studies clouds. I’m sure technically that would really fit under the heading of meteorologist, but cloudologist doesn’t cover all of the weather and it is so much more fun to say. Especially if you say it like Bill Murray’s character, Carl Spackler, in Caddyshack would. (Now, you want to go watch that movie again don’t you? It’s a classic. Trust me.)

Now, if I was really a cloudologist, I’d have to know the names of the clouds. I do have vague recollections in my head of words like cirrus and cumulus and cumulonimbus. I’m sure I could and should go brush up on the names of the many types that I think I once knew. And, with the internet, that’s even easier to do these days. I guess, though, that I’d put myself in the artist-cloudologist category. I appreciate the beauty of the clouds in the sky without having to define them.

I see them and enjoy them. I’m in awe of their beauty. I think of ways I can capture their images. And, when I do, what can I do with them? I don’t need to use my voice to label them; to know the individual names of what I see in the sky. I would use my voice, though, just to say ‘cloudology.’ Because it’s wicked fun to say. Especially like Carl.

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