The Professional Lap Cat

I've finalised my thoughts on last year's theme (also known as my year long enquiry).

Final Reflection on my 2011 theme: Conscious Faith.

It's been a huge year, immensely painful and the joy has been entirely related to people dear to me. Particularly those I'm closest to who've held my hands and let me cry and reminded me of all the things I don't remember when I'm upset.

Next up, setting up and beginning 2012's enquiry: Renewal.

Just a note that I've done some updates to flists etc, mostly removing communities and so on also streamlining my Dreamwidth reading preference (so if you're posting regularly over there and want to friend me, feel free: I'm transcendancing). If you're posting duplicate in DW and LJ I may have unlisted you on my LJ side, it's not a lack of love, I promise!

I've also had to just cut down overall on the number of blogs I'm reading regularly as study is going to be exceedingly full on this year and it's one less stress.

If I've unfriended you by accident etc, prod me and I'll fix - I've been staring between DW and LJ and it's entirely likely I got something wrong.

Time to chicken again, the reflection is helping so much with being conscious of what I'm achieving and how my experience of things progresses and changes. Thanks to Havi for the inspiration.

( cut for length (as usual) )

It really is about all the little things at present. Still loving the way my Pinboard interacts with all my other stuff, particularly Twitter. Still behind on my information feeds, but if I sit down over a weekend sometime soon and find some productivity I'll get it all up to date without any real issue.

And that's us done for this week. Mostly I'm caught up in the {PROXY} and trying to cope with it.

Hoping the week gone has been kind to all of you.

So japester and Kitkat tweeted this to me yesterday. I have to say that it is *very* apt!

http://cheezburger.com/JimPrice/lolz/View/5527219712

I bring you a cute kitten and a funny to begin your day :)

Damn, I seem not to have uploaded my 'fluffiest 'fear me' kitten evah' icon... but here's a link to the image to give you the idea:

http://allcutecats.blogspot.com/2007/09/fear-me-kitten.html

Kittens! Cuteness! Not a bad way to begin Thursday really :)

I got to spend two glorious days with my beloved K holed up in a deluxe hotel room. Hearing it was our anniversary, the lovely folks at the Pan Pacific booked us into a room on the almost-top floor, with a view of the river (and the surrounding city - so very pretty!)

We didn't do much exactly, and that was the point. We hunted munchies to sustain us through marathon tv watching that we'd planned, I put the bottle of Moet in the fridge to chill. We had dinner in the restaurant (Montereys, thwarted by the opening days of Origins which had been my preference), which was delightful.

Of particular note is that I still don't think that I enjoy buffet food, I think the only way to really enjoy such is as a seafood fan (of which I am not). That said, Kaneda smashed last year's desolate hunt for crayfish (and related) seafood out of the water by consuming 3 (maybe 4?) and he was a happy person indeed. The food was overall lovely but I shall be reassured by my desire to order al a carte next time.

We were seated near to this other couple who also happened to be celebrating their anniversary - by chance, double ours at 28! So serendipitous, and the conversation we had was delightful. It was just one of those moments that make you smile :)

We got through almost the rest of last year's season of US SYTYCD, just 4 episodes left! We slept and snuggled and wandered along the esplanade, had a bath in darkness while watching our marathon, ate cheese and chocolate for our second night's dinner, ordered in room service dessert and enjoyed the Moet.

It was reasonably hedonistic, intimate and very peaceful. The latter by way of no internet the whole time and the only person we had any contact with was Cam. It was wonderful to have K all to myself for the time, and we enjoyed just being in company with one another. We touched on future plans and fears and hopes, but mostly we just relaxed, slept, cuddled (or in K's case bore with good grace my starry eyed cuddling).

Part of the success of this plan was that at no point could K do any work... he had to take the time completely off, which as a result made him sleepy and relaxed and fun to be around :) I'm pleased to have been able to give him that gift, and to enjoy the delight of his company in this way. This man... I am so in love with him. Our connection has grown and changed, stretched and tightened and is the deepest and most profound experience of my life.

I should also note that the boys' additional christmas present to me was a gorgeous little herb garden outside our back door. I'm so delighted with it - it's so pretty and it has most of my favourite/desired herbs/leaves in it :D

I hope next to blog about the farewelling of 2011, the welcoming of 2012 and doing little mini farewells/welcomes to december/january. I will also write up my final thoughts on my 2011 theme 'conscious faith' and my beginning thoughts on my 2012 theme :) But not tonight...

Tonight I almost have the brain and I almost have the heart, but not quite. Sleepy time.

So IE just ate my almost finished post! :( *shakes fist*

But the Chickening will happen! Reflection on the week past, Havi style!

( details below the cut )

That's the review for this week gone. Putting to rest the low points and the hard things, appreciating again the good things and taking those positive desires forward with the lessons for the week(s) ahead.

But I'm sure that it's Monday somewhere in the world :P

On with the Chickening. Inspired by Havi of The Fluent Self, it's a gentle reflection process that I've taken on. You're welcome to join in if you like :)

( cut for length )

And that's me for this past week. Now to immmerse myself in the current week at hand.

So upon examination of when I feel 'done' from the past week, ready to reflect and consciously engage with the week now turns out to not be Friday. So, I'm going to do try Mondays instead, it's either that or Wednesday as that is when I muse about doing a post. And then I don't because in my head it's supposed to be 'Friday' ala the inspiration from Havi @ The Fluent Self. But there are always complete amnesties around these things, and the ability to take what works and make part of my systems. It's about me and my moving through the world, which is mine and not Havi's and thus... Monday Chicken.

However, I'm going to keep using my Friday Chicken icon because I love it so (Thank you so much leecetheartist

The idea of the Chickening, is to 'check in' (heee!) and to reflect on the hard, and the good. Take stock of the things that were and how they worked or didn't work, achievements and lessons and ways I want to move forward. Also, you're welcome to join in if you like :)

( On to the Chicken!!! )

And that brings us to now. Lots of reasons to be thankful, grateful and express love for the wonderful people in my life and the experiences I get to have. A tiring but deeply rewarding week.

Today I have achieved some wins at being adult!

I...

* renewed my learner's permit AND

* booked myself a driving lesson for Saturday morning


*happy dance* Needless to say, despite these being small things it is huge for me :)


Also, I've blogged over at my Posterous blog about a Blog Swap Meet if you're interested :)

This is my potential answer to my google reader sharing features being taken away as I miss the network of reading and sharing that was going on - especially the bit where people were reading and sharing things that I wasn't and thus I didn't have to read the feeds separately - the sharing covered the best bits and the highlights :) I'm organising it over on posterous anyway if you're interested :)

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Time lapse photography of the Earth. Heartstoppingly beautiful!