Do you throw the fish back?

I read a story the other day that I found intriguing ... about two guys who would go fishing together. Whenever one of the men would catch a 'larger' fish he would look at it closely and then throw it back into the lake. After doing this several times the other man finally asked him, 'Why do you do that?' The first man replied, 'Well, I only have a very small frying pan in which to cook them.'

This is a great story ... not just for its simplicity, but also for its comparison value.

Do you limit yourself by your present situation or do you allow yourself to dream and to imagine the life that you desire to live? Think of it this way: Five years from now, if there were no obstacles in your path, what big dream or journey would you be actively pursuing? If your potential were unlimited, what would you be doing with your life? Would you be going back to school to finish a degree? Would you be retired and coaching your grandson's Little League team? Would you be traveling the world and seeing some of the things you always wanted to see? Would you be writing a book or perhaps starting a business of your own?

I remember when my husband and I were much younger we would try to plan our future and determine that when we had a certain amount of money saved and in the bank, we would start our family. Little things like 'life' pop up and often altar your plans. We finally put our faith in God and decided after a few years that we would go ahead and start our family, and guess what happened? We didn't have absolutely everything in place, but everything worked out anyway.

My question to you today is what dream or personal journey are you postponing for 'someday'? Exactly what is standing in your way? If you're waiting for the stars to all be perfectly aligned, you may be waiting for a very long time. I know I certainly find myself in this category too. I'm sure many of us, if we're completely honest, put things off. The bigger question would be are we putting things off for justifiable reasons or are we just scared and afraid of perhaps failing? There's an old saying that says 'you can't fail at something if you never tried to begin with.' Maybe we should go ahead, be brave, support each other, not be afraid of failing, and JUST GO FOR IT. What do you think? What's your dream?

Do You Quote Lines From Movies?

How often do you flip the channels on the TV remote and stop on a movie and say to yourself, 'Oh, I'll watch this. I know every line and I know how it ends.'? That happened to me the other night. We were visiting my mother-in-law. She was watching a Hallmark movie and quickly said, 'You can change the channel if you want to. I've seen this movie so many times I have all the best lines memorized.' I had as well, but we watched it anyway and laughed at each other as we quoted aloud all the lines before the actors had a chance to say them. If we had turned the volume down it would have reminded someone of a bad Godzilla movie where the mouths moved but there was a 2 second delay for the words to be heard.

It had me thinking about great lines from movies. I certainly don't want to be known as a biased blogger so I'll share some of my favorite lines from gender-neutral movies.

• 'Taking it to the mattresses.' Although some would argue that it came from The Godfather, I only know it from Tom Hanks using it in an email to Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail. I'll admit I've never seen The Godfather movie. I prefer my horses to be galloping in a green sunny pasture rather than in a bed. Yuck!
• 'Who would have thought ... my nanny, your butler.' One of many classic lines from the remake of the Parent Trap (back when Lindsay Lohan was an innocent preteen.)
• 'In case I forget to tell you later, I had a really good time tonight.' I needed a Kleenex handy when Julia Roberts stood in her red evening gown and told Richard Gere that in the elevator. I think even he was stunned. Pretty Woman is definitely a classic chick flick.
• If we really want to talk chick flicks, there's always Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing telling Jennifer Gray's father, 'Nobody puts Baby in a corner.'

And of course who could forget ...

• In Remember the Titans there was a scene when Julius walked solemnly into Gerry Bertier's hospital room. The nurse said, 'I'm sorry, only family can visit. He needs his rest.' To which Gerry replied, 'Alice can't you see the family resemblance? This is my brother.' I absolutely LOVED this movie.

So my question to you ... what are some of YOUR favorite movie lines? And if you can be really honest ... how many times have you seen the movie?

To 'Garage Sale' or Not? That is the Question.

This past weekend I participated in the 'annual' neighborhood garage sale. I say 'annual' loosely only because our homeowner association rules indicate that we are allowed to have 'one' garage sale per year, which is why they organize it to get the most exposure possible. However on any given day I can still drive down my street and observe a garage sale taking place. Guess they didn't thoroughly read that part of their By Laws. Garage sales, though, are like outdoor graduation parties ... you plan for them despite having no guarantees on the weather. Our sale was advertised for Friday and Saturday. Friday's weather was damp, on the cold side, and rainy. Not a good day for a garage sale. Saturday was a bit better ... bluer skies, a tad warmer, but extremely windy. Overall, it was a lot of work without much reward, but that's the gamble you take.

Like anything else in life you have to look for the good within the not so good. The weather wasn't great, my sales weren't amazing, and the overall turnout wasn't anything to write home about. So what's the 'good' in this weekend's garage sale experience? Well, I finished my library book BEFORE it was due, I read through my week's newspapers and advertisements BEFORE Tuesday's recycling/trash pickup, I got a ton of exercise lifting things up and putting them down (kind of like Planet Fitness), I did some effective spring cleaning, I made a few bucks, and I got to have fun with some serious people watching. The last part can be very entertaining. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against anyone who has a garage sale or anyone who goes to one, but I was rewarded with a few chuckles. There was the lady who brought her own scanner to check the UPC codes on my paperback books. I was intrigued. She explained that she resells items on Amazon and by scanning the codes she can determine what the current values are and whether or not it's worth her purchasing it. I guess my 25cent charge for the paperback version of the Horse Whisperer was too high because she left without it (lol). Then there was the chatty lady who was in a great mood but somehow felt it necessary to share with me that she'd just eaten a '7-layer bean burrito' at Taco Bell and as she said 'It was worth every calorie'. OK, so tell me exactly WHY did I need to know that?

Well, my garage is almost back to normal and I have some donations ready to be dropped off this week. All in all I'm glad to be done with the sale. I hadn't done one in 3 years and most likely it'll be another 3 years til I do one again. Maybe by then I will have stocked up on the apparent premium garage sale items ... WWII items, tools, Barbies (in the original boxes, of course), hunting and fishing stuff, and kids' clothes. Well, maybe not. None of those items seem to be in my supply anymore. Oh well.