Fixing v. Dealing

Paperclip drawer handle I added

My apartment's doorknob has been wiggly ever since I moved in. Yesterday one of my roommates mentioned it too, and it dawned on me. I can do something about it. So I did. I whipped out my leatherman's screwdriver and fixed it in less than a minute.
For me it seems easy to just deal with things and something has to knock me over the head before I realize I can actually fix it instead of just "dealing" with it. Which really sounds pretty silly but sometimes that is just how it is... It makes me wonder what other things I ignore until I am forced into doing something about them.
And the thing is, it always feels surprisingly satisfactory to complete these tasks.

Evolving Views of Friendship

I had an online conversation when I was a teenager about what a friend was (and I feel like I've written about it before but I couldn't find it so perhaps not). I argued that a friend was someone with whom you could be completely yourself, share anything. The person I was talking to disagreed. He said that was a far too narrow view of friendship basically saying that that was impossible. 

I think he was right. Perhaps instead I will define a friend (for now) as someone who appreciates you when you are being you. Being your most you.

Green Space

Once during my mission in Indiana I had been living and working in a fairly large city and it's suburbs. My life seemed to be mostly made up of getting in and out of a car or houses. Sure there were trees around and bushes but mostly I just looked past them at the sidewalks I was walking on or at the doors I was knocking on. Then one night we drove out a ways into a more country area to visit someone. As I was getting out of the car it was dark and the stars were shining overhead, there was little light pollution and it was quiet with only a brisk wind blowing over stubble strewn fields, and around the old farm house. I breathed out and the peacefulness of it was almost shocking.
Quite a while ago I posted about emotional needs that I need to be filled. Green space is one I didn't mention there but I will add now. As shown in the example above it doesn't even necessarily need to be green...
I spend the majority of my waking hours during the week in a room of cubicles. Many of my peers eat lunch at their desks. Sometimes I think I am overly protective of my lunch time but ever since elementary school when I would read my book at lunch, I have always set apart my lunch time as a time to do something I enjoy. Reading or talking and I love to do it outside even when it's cold, although it might be too cold soon.

Western Stellar Jay I saw where I take my lunch sometimes.

Living in an apartment complex with not very much green space around, especially not after dark, I have resorted to doing laps around my complex, and surprisingly it works. I think in this case the cold helps, because even though it isn't really "green" space it is a feeling of naturalness. So basically I shouldn't have said "green space" I should have said "time with nature" or something. Anyway.

Ripples in the fountain near where I take my lunch on other days (carefully cropped so you can't see anything).

Curiosity

Growing up, I remember countless times when doing homework I would ask some question and my mother would go look up the answer. She would look it up even when I begged her not to and she would just say "I won't tell you what I find." It drove me nuts. She was obviously putting far too much effort into an annoying, stupid homework assignment. I thought she was far too curious.
As I've gone back to school in a field I am unfamiliar with I find myself wanting to do well. Thus, when I learn a new word, or come across one in my readings (some required some not) I've been looking them up and then defining them on a spreadsheet. Yes I could just google them again later but it seems helpful to redefine it in my own words and type it myself. Suddenly I seem to have become my Mom, looking up everything and asking questions. And its kind of fun. I also find it exciting when I then hear the word or principle I looked up a couple of days before and say "I know that now!" But at times it also seems kind of exhausting. You have to take the time to look it up.
But the question that I do not have the answer to is: Is this curiosity just tied to my desire to do well in school? Or is it something that I will be able to continue?
Primarily so I can annoy my own kids

Types of People

Two posts ago I did a terrible job arguing that there were two types of people. Here I will not do the same but I do think it is interesting how many studies and books there are that come out about types of people.
The Color Test that matches a personality type to a color.
Introverts v. extroverts.
Another one that shows how different people see the world and remember it using different parts of their brain and senses (audio, visual, kinetic).
The Five Love Languages that point out what you and those around you will most appreciate and how you feel the most loved.
I was recently introduced to another one that is based on children and starts with some basic descriptions of four types of children that can be described in four ways:

• Animated, fun, bright, light-hearted, and friendly
• Tender, gentle, kind, and thoughtful
• Strong, active, persistent, and energetic
• Thorough, efficient, responsible and analytical.

Even the school houses from Harry Potter (Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor) has almost become a personality analysis.

I don't think I have ever read a self-help book and probably never will but things like the stuff above I find fascinating. They aren't really self-help books more of a self-awareness books.

In one of my classes we talk about different theories quite a bit and which ones we prefer to adhere to. One of the arguments my Professor, Stephen Yanchar, makes, is that critical flexibility should be used, meaning that you don't have to choose just one theory, but you should also not just use all of them all at once. Instead think through what each theory implies and see how they can work together. One of my previous theory teachers would also talk about how theories are tools we can add to our tool boxes and we can use different tools for different situations. 

For my conclusions I will just say this: I am a person observer (some people talk about people watching and that can be interesting but I prefer observing the people I know better than those I don't) and I like to use all the tools in my tool box to understand people.

Firehydrants

I noticed that I haven't posted any pictures in a long time so I thought I would add a few.
Here are some from my fire hydrant collection.
While I was on my mission in Indiana I realized for the first time that fire hydrants aren't always just the typical red, and they aren't all the same shape or size either. So ever since I have been collecting fire hydrant pictures of different sorts and in different places. Honestly I'm surprised I haven't already posted about them.
I have almost 90 pictures from 25 cities or towns in 10 states and Washington DC. And if you think the ones below are a lot, just be lucky I limited myself to 10.

Nauvoo, Illinois. I love how the house and the firehydrant match.

Springfield, Illinois. This was President Lincoln's home. I love the colors.

Bloomington, Indiana. 

Bloomington, Indiana. I just wish the dog had been repainted.

Indianapolis, Indiana. My first fire hydrant.

Zionsville, Indiana. I just love the contrasts.

Zionsville, Indiana. It's kind of cute.

Omaha, Nebraska. 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It's a cool old fire hydrant in a cool old city.

Draper, Utah. I like the perspective on this one.

If I want to read meaning into this odd obsession/quirk/whatever I would say it is about actually seeing the normal things around us and appreciating it. Seeing old things with new eyes. And really in able to still take pictures of them I have to find a reason to do so by matching colors or seeing the fire hydrant in the bigger picture or whatever.... so the next time you see a fire hydrant think of me. . . or at least just notice it.

Nicknames

I feel like there are three types of people.

Full name people: Those who go by their fullname and always call others by their full names.

Short name people: Those who shorten their own name and everyone around them.

Nickname people: Those who lengthen or completely make up other names that don't really relate to the original name.

Now, I have no idea which type I am. So you know I am super confident in my initial categorizations...

I almost always introduce myself with my full name and I always write it out full on everything, but when people ask me what I want to be called I always say Rebecca or Becca. They ask which I prefer and I say I don't care. And I really don't. Sometimes I notice what they call me and it does seem more personal somehow when they call me Becca. That's what my whole family calls me. That's even what I call myself when I talk to myself. But it still seems wrong somehow to introduce myself as Becca.

Then there is how I address others. I tend to call people by the name they introduce themselves as (I would call myself Rebecca if I met me) and yet all my family I seem to have shortened even when most people call them by their full name.

In the book I wrote and the one I'm writing the main characters both go primarily by their nicknames. For Audrey she is almost insulted when people call her that (her fullname). And I end up giving most of my characters either really short names or nicknames that are one syllable: Oon, Hak, Will, Cor. Because apparently two syllables is just too long for me to write. 

So basically, I am a full name person because I introduce myself with my full name, and I'm a short name person because I shorten my families and characters names.... and I guess I'm even a nickname person because there is a character in my book who renames people random things.

Maybe there are more types of people than just three...