Crazy, Cats, Quirks and All

I'm sorry that you don't think I'm as great as I think I am.

That is on you.

You can't make me feel small.

In fact, come to think of it, I'm not sorry.

Crazy, cats, quirks and all.

Shake it like a...

See Time Zero on Netflix!

I just watched the most heartwarming documentary: Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film.  If you are a vintage-loving nostalgia sufferer like me, you will love this.  It chronicles the rise and fall of instant film and interviews employees on the "Apple of the sixties".  I found myself wishing I lived in the late fifties or early sixties so I could work there.  The film interlaces the stories of current photographers and artists that still use instant film as their medium of choice.  It apex of the story is when Polaroid decides to cease production of instant film and the remaining stock around the world dwindles.  A group of people come together to start The Impossible Project in order to re-engineer production of instant film using chemicals widely available and safe today.

I think the reason I'm drawn to Polaroids is my affinity for nostalgia.  The photographs have a color palate that I can only achieve using a filter in Instagram.  I find myself using a word that many of the people interviewed in the documentary used: warm.  The photographs feel warm, the memories feel warm, the tangible photograph that is instantly provided feels warm.

This warmth of instant film is also the reason I am drawn to other analog forms.  Handwritten thank you notes are better than an e-mail, text or even phone call.  Listening to vinyl records on Christmas morning with my brother the year I got him a turntable sounded so much fuller than our CDs or MP3s.  I keep trying to figure out how to set up a "dark room" in the bathroom of every apartment I live in.  I knit, I crochet and I make pizza dough from scratch.  I feel such sense of joy going back to the basics.  Sometimes, in my opinion, the "efficiencies" gained for us by technology and modern advancements take us past the point of diminishing returns - what have we lost to gain it?

Vintage Armul Polaroid

These are the only digitized Polaroids I have saved...

In summary, watch the documentary and join me in scouring vintage shops for a Polaroid instant film camera.  I suddenly feel the urge to add one to my shelf so my other analog camera has a friend.  Also, many things have happened in my life since my last post: new city, new pet, new job.  It was an experiment to test that I am, in fact, actually in charge of my life.  Weird, huh?  One thing is for sure… a bigger city gives me better odds for scoring a deal on a Polaroid at a vintage shop.

If You Are a Dreamer...

My best friend had her baby shower last week.  The new trend is requesting guests to bring a book instead of a card to help build the baby's library.  I walked into Target trying to think of a book that would capture both my 15 year relationship with Kristen (and still going strong) and everything I wanted the little nugget to learn from his or her Auntie Katy.  My eyes fell to Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and while it wasn't a baby book, I could see the values Kristen and I share in every page of the poetry.  The inside jacket of the book has his poem "Invitation" ---->

by Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends

I have always been a dreamer, a wisher and a pretender.  And, while I probably shouldn't admit this, I am a pretty good liar (it goes along with the whole pretender thing).  I have so many dreams I want to test out before I die.  I want to build my own tiny house (see Tumbleweed Tiny Houses) and buy a plot of land and live in it while paying off all my debts and simplifying everything.  I want to put the house on wheels and experience living in places like San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Maine.  I want to try living in a big city and living in the middle of nowhere.  I want to blog about how I still cook and bake and live happily in a tiny house.  I would be free to find my happy.  I dream of being a teacher - the dream changes from little kids to college aged "kids".  I would love to be in a musical just once, even if in the chorus.  I dream of building a darkroom in my apartment and go back to taking pictures wherever I go, on real film, and developing them myself.  I dream of being a mother and teaching my children that quirky is good and anything can happen.  I have so many dreams, I lose track of them all as they slip out of my ears as another one is born in my brain.

by Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends

I have been restless for some time and I think while I can't quite follow any of these dreams just yet, I can start enacting change in my life to put myself on the path of change.  I love Cleveland, but my dreams involve seeing other places.  I love the people at my job, but my job doesn't embody quirky and independent.  So, my readers, I have accepted a job (still as an accountant) at a quirky company in Chicago.  While I'm not in a tiny house with no set job, I am shedding the required busy season and going to a company with a unique culture.  I am scared.  I will miss Cleveland a lot.  But this is something I have to do.  I can't be a magic bean buyer if I don't ever head to the market.

Have you been keeping up on your dreaming?

Workout Your Brain With Hobbies!

Humans are meant to create.  Hobbies are cultivated from what a person enjoys doing when they could be doing whatever they want.  I have found, especially with my peers, that hobbies are disappearing.  If any hobbies are engaged in at all, they tend to be athletically driven like running, hiking or cycling.  I workout for endorphins, health and clarity; however, if I could have a fit and toned body without working out?  Those 45 minutes would most definitely be spent doing something else.  Therefore, for the sake of this post, I'm referencing creative hobbies.  I'm talking about painting, singing, photography, writing, baking, gardening, playing an instrument, wood-working or party planning.  Something that makes the left side of your brain ramp up and start firing on all cylinders.

Creative hobbies can benefit your professional life, too.  There has been a plethora of papers and articles supporting the connection between having a creative hobby and increased mental dexterity in the workplace.  Evernote's Phil Libin wrote a piece for Inc. magazine about teaching himself piano in his 40's:

"When you learn a new skill, you learn new patterns. And then you start seeing these patterns interwoven into the familiar world. The impenetrable becomes less so. Things you always knew, you now know better […] I feel the effects at the office.  I'm smarter than I was a few months ago, with new ways of seeing things, a new mental vocabulary, and greater cognitive dexterity.  I feel more creative than ever, and I get more done every day."

I feel this myself.  Knitting during busy season quiets my brain.  My head no longer spins about how many audit reports I need to issue, how I can get my team to have more attention to detail, or when I'm going to have that difficult conversation with the client.  If I focused on those things instead of my knitting, I'll screw it up.  Knitting is repeating patterns, math, and a balance of tension… basically a mental workout that hones skills I use in the workplace.  Plus, in the end, I created something and creation taps into your four year old self's "look what I did!" pride.

So try it - for ten minutes build a city in the original Sim City game you haven't touched since you were nine (or maybe you were a Rollercoaster Tycoon kind of kid?).  Find some colored pencils and just doodle.  Bake a cake even if it isn't someone's birthday.  Our society is craving creative outlets - why else would Pinterest and Etsy be booming?  You don't have to share it with anyone… you don't have to be good at it.  View it as CrossFit for your brain.