Pilgrims, tea parties, boats, and the like

Recently I've become interested in investigating my ancestry. Unfortunately, the most anyone can tell me is that we came to America at some point in history from someplace white people live. Nobody really seems to know, or care — not even my grandmother. This leads me to believe my family has been in America for a good long time, since nobody can seem to remember anything but that. I think that's kind of cool, actually. What if we came over on one of the first ships? I could totally dig that.

My friend Elise came up from San Diego to visit me last weekend, and we were discussing how and why certain parts of the world appeal to us. She said she'd always felt called to the landscape of the British Isles and Portugal, which is where her ancestors hail from.  She said she felt really comfortable when visiting the English countryside, like a feeling of belonging, of home.  Well, I get choked up whenever I hear our National Anthem, even if I'm balancing a beer and a dodger dog and trying to avoid stepping on something sticky.  Does that mean I have ancestral ties to America that are so old they're stronger than any other? Maybe… or it could just be the patriotic brainwashing we all received in elementary school while coloring pictures of the pilgrims and Indians eating Thanksgiving dinner together.

I heard another interesting thing on the radio recently: Studies have linked a person's heritage to his or her ability to learn accents. For instance, many Americans are decended from Southern Irish ancestors, and find a Dublin accent easy to learn, but have trouble with a Northern Irish one. I say it's just because that accent is weird, but who am I to say? But really, I like the theory, and I hope it's true. I think it's really cool that we could be tied to our ancestors in that way.

Another thing I've heard is that some wounds can be so deep they last for generations. Maybe this is why sometimes we find ourselves sad and don't know why, or why we're extra sensitive to certain topics. Elise wondered if something like that may explain why she's always been drawn to melancholy songs, even ones that are so maudlin they make her miserable. I wonder if it's the reason I'll start crying if I even imagine losing a lover. Maybe too many women in my family have watched the men in their lives die.  But then again, I've been known to cry at credit card commercials, too.  ("Going Home! It is priceless!  It's priiiiiiiicceeeelllleeeessssssss!")

Could this explain why sometimes we arrive at a place we've never seen, but it looks so familiar we just know we've been there before? Or when we have deja vu, could it be our great great great great grandmother had the exact same conversation, or sight, or sound, and that's why we get that feeling?

I wish I could find out more about what really happened. I wish I could read the diaries of my ancestors. That's why I'm going to write for as long as I live, so my thoughts can be waiting for my daughter, and her daughter, and on and on for a hundred years. So if they suddenly decide, as I have, that they want to know, they can. I want to give them a legacy. 

Or at least some bathroom reading material.

Whoa.

Last night I started reading The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, and Oh my goodness.

My friend Elise was talking about it when she was visiting me last weekend, and I went to Barnes & Noble last night to browse around and be a nerd, and I picked it up and started browsing through it, and just for kicks figured out my personality type, and WOW.  It's so weird.  I was hooked like a fish on a… well… on a hook… and I bought the book, and read it and read it and read it last night, and can't wait for my lunch break so I can read it some more. 

This is the description on the cover of the book: "The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types."  You start by taking a short, two-minute-ish test to determine which of nine types your personality fits into, then there are all these extensions of types, and categories that the types fit into, and it makes so much sense, and when you know what type some of your friends and loved ones are, you can figure out things about how you interact with them and all sorts of fun stuff like that.

It's SO weird — I would read a description of a type or sub-type, and think, "OH, that sounds like me, yes, I could maybe be a whatever," but then I'd read another one, and this new one was so dead on that it made me laugh outloud in bewilderment, because it had totally hit the nail on the head, and there was no denying it.  I know when the wide-eyed, helpless, bewildered laughter comes that I've found the right one.  It's so creepy, yet fascinating!  Like an intelligent scary movie that just blows your mind. It does, it blows your mind.  OH… and you can actually take a long, detailed test to discover your type at this website: www.enneagraminstitute.com. This is a much longer test than the one in the book. I haven't taken it or even looked at it, and I recommend the book whether you take the test online or not, because it goes into great detail about alot of fascinating stuff once you figure out which type you are.

 I'm telling you, though, it will seriously blow your mind. Like, whoa.

OH!  Do you want to know what type I am?  Maybe if you leave a comment and ask me, I will tell you.

Has Anyone Seen My Butt?

I seem to have lost it.  Seriously.  I can't find it.  I guess maybe i've been losing weight because I haven't been eating bread or anything made from wheat, but why can't I lose any inches in my waist?  Why just the butt?  I need all the butt I have.  I can't spare any.  I didn't have much butt to start with, and now I'm pretty sure I have less.  It's disappearing.  My pants are saggy. 

Please, if you see a little butt wandering around lost, can you send it my way?  Thanks.