The Undo Button

Forget the deep, thoughtful drivel I've been spewing of late. Today, I just want to make someone laugh. I think this honest (and slightly unnerving, if you ask me) post may do just that.

So, some friends of mine and I were sitting at a coffee shop the other day. We were chatting, catching up on some things, you know the drill. And it occurred to me that we needed an incredibly random concept to converse about, just to shake up a talk that was mostly comprised of school-related news. So I took a bit of a leap, socially speaking, and blurted: "Hey, if you had a giant undo button that you could use only once, what would you do?"

Even I don't know why or how my brain functions the way it does. And it's my brain.

Anyway, after a brief moment of further explaining what I mean by the rather abstract idea, I offered an example to my comrades. To summarize, it included running up to random people and assailing them with psychotic gestures and facial expressions, letting loose a barrage of irrelevant and meaningless phrases to frighten them further, and then stealing a shoe as I flee before they manage to react properly.

Now, you can imagine the incredulous looks on their faces. Man, sometimes I wonder how my friends keep up with my thought processes.

Moving on.

Being the person I am, I've been completely infatuated with my own proposed question since then. And I've been coming up with some, if you ask me, awesome ideas.

One. Jump on top of some cars as they sit at a red light and refuse to get off, even when the drivers jump out and threaten to inflict bodily harm upon me. (Side note: if/when the drivers actually move to inflict said harm, flee before damage is inflicted. Aka pain is bad.)

Two. Scale the roofs of various short-ish buildings and cause a public disturbance by dancing on said roofs.

Three. When law enforcement arrives on scene to remove me from the premises, act as crazy and unruly as possible while being restrained. (I'll only get to do this once. Better make it count.) Then escape.

Four. Find every person I've never liked and make them legitimately frightened for their own safety, without laying a finger on them.

Five. Find the undo button and use it before the real consequences set in.

Let's just hope that, for my own sake and that of the public, this wondrous button never comes into existence.

So, how about you? Yes, you. What would you do if you had an undo button?


Develop your plan. It's more entertaining than I care to admit.

Unknown Territory

U-N-C-E-R-T-A-I-N-T-Y. I have quickly become acquainted with this word and how it seems to have swallowed my life up.

I have a chosen career path that I am currently in the midst of following, and that is the path to becoming a Paramedic.

But wait! There's more.

As I pursue my current goal of achieving Paramedic-level certification in the field of Emergency Medical Services, I am currently employed at a little family-owned restaurant running the register and flipping burgers. Burgers.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind the job. But tell me, what does flipping burgers and earning meager tips have to do with stopping an arterial bleed, or taking charge at the scene of a cardiac arrest?

Ah, let's see, that would be absolutely nothing.

I have also recently enrolled in classes that will soon train me in the ancient arts of crafting alcoholic beverages. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I will soon be a bartender.

And does this have anything to do with my chosen occupation? Again, that correlation would be minuscule, at best.

Oh, it gets better.

I aspire to finish a novel that has been in its early stages for about four years now. The title "novelist" has a certain ring to it that I find rather appealing. So, let's add that to my list.

Ah, and my cockatiel has chosen this next one. She and I have had so much fun together that I've developed a desire to train more parrots. Maybe even see if there's a degree that specializes in avian behaviors and training. Eh, who knows.

One more that I almost forgot. I was, until about two years ago, enrolled in an art school. I was an A student in the program and then ran out of money, as well as grew rather frustrated with the level of skill required for the various mediums with assignments. (Turns out I'm more of an ink-and-paper type girl. Irony.) So, I was also an aspiring artist who might give it another go in the future. Time will tell.

Alright, let's see what we have here in picture format:

I'm working my way through Paramedic instruction by flipping burgers. I just enrolled in a course to become a bartender and hopefully pay my way through classes with fewer salary problems. In the meantime, I work on my book and pray that one day I'll be a respected novelist who actually gets paid to write. Le gasp! And maybe, in a few years, I'll have the time to build an aviary and specialize in parrot training. And mixed in there, I'll attend the rest of my art courses and become an artist.

And I won't even delve into the plan I had for about twelve or thirteen years... but to summarize, I was about 99.8 percent certain I was destined to enter a convent as a religious nun.

It's seriously official. I have no clue what my future has in store for me.

Ah well. I, as well as many of my fellow homo sapiens, have grown accustomed to that feeling you get in your gut when you're falling to only God knows where.

It's called life. And it's a rush.

In the Stillness

Have you ever reclined beneath clear skies, your skin warmed by the rays of the distant sun and cooled again by a mild breeze? Goosebumps prickle down your skin at the wonderfully contradictory sensations that manage to complement each other so beautifully. The day is calm, some would say dull, but you find such peace and serenity by merely existing in the midst of such a simple majesty.

Yes. Today is one of those days. Ironically, I haven't even been outside for any substantial amount of time, or relaxed beneath the sun and enjoyed the breeze. The closest I got to that ideal setting was pumping gas into the car and getting blown about a bit by gusts of wind.

Now, tell me how I can be feeling this serene in the midst of such a monotonous lifestyle. (Common sense would be baffled.)

And yet, here I am, happy as a clam and grateful for the life I've been given. And I've been lying in the lush green fields of tall grasses beneath a clear Irish sky in my head for hours. Go figure.

Rarely do I reach such a point of contentment that I pay attention to the joys of merely existing. My heart is pulsating in my chest. I breathe in and out, in and out, rhythmically and without fail. My eyes behold the beautiful world around me, the faces and movements of people I don't even know. I hear everything, from the low murmurings of distant voices to the rattling hum of the heater.

And I'm entranced by it all.

My message to the world today: Take time to smell the flowers. Watch the clouds go by. Smile at a stranger, and watch his or her face brighten at the gesture.

And live. Just live.