Yesterday my mood was lifted a bit when I paid our monthly bills. That probably sounds silly, but there's something I just love about the process of paying the bills: logging it all neatly in my checkbook, writing out the envelopes, figuring out how much we'll be saving that month, slapping the stamps/address labels on and making a little pile of outgoing bills in our mail organizer. I usually write at least one card to a friend when I'm doing them too, just to add something genial in the mix. Being happy about paying bills says that I'm able to pay them, which I am very thankful for. I recognize not everyone is in that position and that we are lucky. Blessings for all my friends and family that we'll have what we need.
Postal mail and check books seem almost old-fashioned these days. Walking back from lunch with a few colleauges the other day I learned that neither of them keeps a check book. Everytime I hear this from someone I just can't believe it. I couldn't live without our checkbook, even though I also bank online. There's a part of me that needs to be able to hold something in my hand that let's me know I've got it all balanced, that I know the most updated number despite what the bank says.
Most of the people I work with have iphones or blackberrys and use online calendars. We are required to use linked online calendars on our work computers. For a while I had my palm synched up to it, but it stopped working because of a big software change. I didn't want to go through the trouble of getting it set up again, but I also decided I'd missed having a paper calendar. Only being able to see my life reflected on a small, impersonal screen limited the way I looked at my commitments.
Using a paper calendar gives me a broader sense of time - it allows me to physically flip forward and backwards, to look ahead easily and see what's coming up at a glance. My paper calendar also shows my personality. Everything is written in my own hand. I can take notes or doodle. I can add pictures or little things I pick up to brighten my day when I open it. It reminds me that I don't exist in a sterile little world designed by software engineers to get me to buy more sh*t. Right now I'm sick of technology. It's never been clearer to me that for every technological "advance" that comes along we also lose something. I find myself wondering which advances are worth it and what we are trading off for the ability to be hyperconnected.
Consume, consume, consume. There's an end point to that.
I've had the song Mountains O' Things by Tracy Chapman stuck in my head for the past few days. She is one ferocious lady and she's certainly got it right:
Consume more than you need
This is the dream
Make you pauper
Or make you queen
I won't die lonely
I'll have it all prearranged
A grave that's deep and wide enough
For me and all my mountains o' things
Oh they tell me
There's still time to save myself
They tell me, renounce all those material things
you gained by exploiting other human beings
Ry and I finished watching the HBO series, The Wire, on DVD last night. It's an awesome show about Balitmore, Maryland. It explores the inner-workings of a post-industrial American city, starting with the drug trade and the police department but also touching on unions, shipping, urban violence, poverty, local politics, public school and the media. I'd highly recommend it. It's the best TV show I've ever seen, but I'm also thankful to be out from under its spell. I'll get a little bit of my life back.
A few pics from the weekend:
View from our bedroom window in the morning.
Stone detail.
Ry's dough explodes. Hello State Puff Marshmallow Man!
Ry's first take at baguettes. 
Me as Dr. Jekyll.
Me as Ms. Hyde.
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