a conglomeration of randomness

Goodmorning, dear faithful readers! ;-) And it is indeed a good morning. The sun is shining, the sky is clear - which means it's effin cold, but still beautiful and invigorating. I hit the gym this morning, after too many days off. The long weekend messed me up, and then I had to work yesterday morning, so it was like four or five days without. Felt good to get back to the grunting and sweating. lol.

It was nice to walk into the gym this morning and have the girl at the front desk say, "Go ahead, Jessica!" Yes, the morning staff knows who I am now - and I've only been going for a week. She's pretty good. Nice to not have to pull out my card every morning, though. And some of the bus drivers know me too. Apparently I ride the bus a lot. lol. It's nice to have a driver remember you and remember your stop. I guess it makes me feel like I matter enough to be recognized. And it's always nice to mattter.

So I went to see Jumper last night. Not a bad movie, actually. I rather enjoyed it - and my nachos. The only thing I would've changed would be to have thought of going sooner so I could've caught an earlier show. I went to the 9:25 one, which meant I didn't get home til 11:30 or so, which is a bit later than I like. But other than that, it was a good experience! My first movie with just me, and I didn't feel like a depressed loser. lol. Maybe because it was my choice to go by myself. I could've found someone to go with, but I wanted to go alone. That does make a difference. It was a bit lonely - I missed having someone to laugh with at the funny parts - but it was actually really good for me, and I think I'll have to do it more often...

A "long-lost" sorta-cousin found me on facebook the other day. I remember him from when I was little - like 15 years ago - but hadn't really heard much about him since then. Pretty cool that he found me, and I am enjoying exchanging emails and getting caught up. It's a bit sad that life tends to "disconnect" us from people we once knew and hung out with, but always enjoyable to get back in touch again. Frankly, I know I could extend the time and energy to keep in touch with absolutely everyone - every extended family member, family or childhood friend - but it's just not a priority for me. I can barely keep in touch with my immediate family and a handful of friends from back home, let alone everyone. But I'm okay with that. And that's that. Facebook is excellent for getting in touch with old friends/family, though. I've heard from more than one person that I hadn't heard from in years through facebook. I like how it keeps you up to date, without having to expend too much time or energy, as well. It's easy to drop a quick note on someone's "wall", and not have to write out a whole email or make a phone call. Am I lazy? No, I don't think so. I just don't have the time to spend on things that aren't a priority for me.

Speaking of priorities and spending time... Have you ever been at a point in your life where you changed direction - maybe reorganized your priorities, changed jobs, set some new goals - and felt like you were leaving your friends behind? Or maybe they just took a different branch at the last crossroad? I am feeling that a bit right now, and have definitely been there in the past as well. It's hard for me to know how to really handle it, because I'm not one to just ditch friends and stop hanging out with them, but at the same time, I know where I want my life to go, I know what I want to do and what I want to accomplish, and I am going to head in that direction, whether it's the same direction as my friends or not. But how do you balance that? I find my time being filled with new things, different things. Instead of going out every weekend, I'm spending more time working on my business, getting up early to go to the gym, and going to bed earlier. This really changes the way I interact with my friends - and I've found myself "ditching" them more than once in the last while. I'm not quite sure how to juggle it all. I know what I want with my life. I know I want to be getting up and going to bed earlier because I feel better when I do. I know I want to grow my own business and start traveling. I know I want to be doing more networking with other local business people. But I have some good friends that I want to be able to hang out with too - just not late at night (unless I'm having an emotional/mental crisis). I want to do more than go and hang out at bars. Maybe I need to do some brainstorming and come up with some ideas for things do that would be different... Any suggestions? I miss the days of doing things like playing soccer or red rover - or good old fashioned tag, going swimming at the lake, horseback riding, hiking, sledding, having a bonfire - that was what we did with friends growing up.

Okay, now I'm into the reminiscing stage... I know I have some readers from my family and home, who grew up with me, so this is for you. Remember the Sabbath afternoons down by the Mitten bridge? Playing in the sand and the achingly cold water? Remember the time our dad's canoed down the river and dumped - and we had to eventually go looking for them cause they didn't show up? Or how about those summers spent camping, going to the lake in the evening, picking strawberries, haying, gardening, building forts? I think it's time to start those memoirs...