A little bit of purple, a little bit of glamour-puss

As my previous dream post involved the color purple and its meaning of creativity in my life, there is no better way to show your creative side than making something.  Last weeked I spent some time with my wonderful other half, making a rather creative lamp and re-using pieces so it's a bit green too!

My girl came up with the idea by looking at some website. While I had been trying to decide what lamp to get for my own apartment, it was decided it would be way more fun to make our own.  Sarah has a strange passion for mason jars and I absolutely love bicycles.  What better way to combine these two items than building a chandelier for the dinner table?

The Components!

The first step in the project was to really find a good layout for the design and after spending time trying to get the framework down, I came to the realization that an old bicycle rim would be a good piece to use (After we walked through one of those home improvement stores for about an hour trying to find something useful there). 

Once we went back to her place we had ourselves a mini date as we biked through downtown Minneapolis to the great store of One on One Bike.  Inside the basement there is a wonderful bicyle graveyard in which you can find old, used parts for virtually any style or size of bike. And for those on a budget, its cheap!  The two rims were a grand total of 3$.  Now that we had all of the pieces for the lamp, we spent time learning how to wire properly and worked to remember the laws of physics and electricity.

Confirming suspicion on wiring methods.

Once I discovered the proper way to wire the lamp I got things setup and started threading through the rims after drilling the holes a bit bigger so the wire would fit through.  Also, just to protect the wire against the sharp metal edges we placed rubber grommets in the enlarged holes.  Getting the wire through the grommets was almost of job of its own, but after it was complete the final product came to "light."

Threading the wire. Almost complete.

After making a silly mistake and not creating a full circuit, the light finally worked after repairing what I had initially done in slight error. And  it looks pretty good!  It was a really neat project and pretty cheap too; somewhere around 50$ for all of the parts.  The best part was getting to use things that are unique, and stylish. Oh yeah, and creating something while spending time with my girl is cool too!

The final product.

P.S. I still don't understand this glamour-puss term but apparently its the cool thing to say now when you create something fashionable out of old junk.  I always thought that was just being creative.

"Where there is love, there is no question"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZQmFClnuOM

Every time that I hear this song I think about my future and how lucky I am to be with the most amazing girl that I have ever come to know.  My last blog post may seem vague and it really is.  I do have lots of ideas for things I would like to accomplish in the future, but having the love of my life trumps all else.

Say Anything is a group that has some interesting songs, but some have deep meaning.  The lyrics to this song in particular are great because it shows that it's the beginning of a beautiful new life.

I want to know your plans and how involved in them I am.
When you leave for good will I be forgiven?
And If you want roses you can go buy a bouquet.
If that just won't cut it, well what can I say?

You're what keeps me believing the world's not gone dead,
Strength in my bones put the words in my head.
When they pour out to paper, it's all for you.
'Cause that's what you do. That's what you do.

I want to know your fears, from your feet to the back of your ears
and when they raise the landing gear will your heart stay here?
If you could forgive me for being so brash, well you...
you could hit me or whip me, I'd savor each lash.

You're what keeps me believing the world's not gone dead,
Strength in my bones put the words in my head.
When they pour out to paper, it's all for you.
'Cause that's what you do.

No more fighting.
this is only a waste of our time
'cause soon we'll be leaving.
Will this strength still be mine?
I'll look out for you 'til I die, 'til I rot.
I'll remember you 'til I die, until I rot.

You're what keeps me believing the world's not gone dead,
Strength in my bones put the words in my head.
When they pour out to paper, it's all for you.

You're what keeps me believing the world's not gone dead,
Strength in my bones put the words in my head.
When they pour out to paper, it's all for you.
'Cause that's what you do.

I strongly believe in the lyrics to this song because when someone comes to say I want to know how involved in your plans I am, you know that it means there is really something true being lived.  Having those hopes and dreams build a stronger relationship because when you are really going for those plans in the future, true love exists.  One thing that is certainly needed more in this world is love.  The words "You're what keeps me believing the world's not gone dead" proves that we do need more love in our life because of the war, crime, and death.  We need to show that there is the glimmer of hope in the future.  The second verse is wonderful:

"I want to know your fears, from your feet to the back of your ears
and when they raise the landing gear will your heart stay here?
If you could forgive me for being so brash, well you...
you could hit me or whip me, I'd savor each lash."  

This verse is wonderful because the description of full understanding of your significant other shows there is vested interest.  Understanding every little piece of them from their feet to their ear also means that you have spent so much learning about the other you know then better than yourself.  The verse continues to say that even though there may be fights, when you say what needs to be said and all is done and over, each word still means so much because it is said through love.

I hear this song and think about my future and how great it is becoming as each day passes.  Knowing that you are with "the one" is a scary thought.  It is a beautiful kind of scary though.  The beauty comes from being so connected to someone there is just that feeling of peace and serenity when you are with them that you forget the world is moving so fast.

Love is scary, but love is beautiful.

Dreams

Dreams are interesting stories that are able to tell you more about what is going on in your life than what may appear, or what you may be willing to accept.

For instance, earlier this week I had the strangest dream in which all I can remember is that I was eating something, I do not know what, but it was stuck in my teeth. A I started to try and pull it out, the next thing I knew I was holding my teeth in my hand, I had dentures.  As I looked at my dentures I saw something purple sticking out of the side and as I turned it over I realized that purple thing was an elephants trunk.  I was staring down a tiny, 2 inch tall purple elephant standing on my dentures.  At this point I stirred awake and thought, "Holy cow, that was weird."

As I thought more about the dream and what each thing might mean, I decided I should look online to see what these items are commonly understood to mean


Purple -          Signifies great aspirations and understanding
                       of the visible and invisible world.  It shows
                       there is creativity, dignity, and devotion.


Elephant -          Wisdom, memory, persistence, power,
                           strength, faithfulness, and intellect. 
                           The elephant means that there could be a memory
                           I am holding onto for too long, and that I also need
                           to be more patient with something, or more understanding
                           of others.  I was not afraid of the little elephant, but if I
                           were afraid, it would have meant that there was a problem
                           I needed to confront.


Dentures -           False teeth are interpreted as not being completely
                           truthful in some waking matter, or rather I am lying
                           to myself about something.

When I first woke up, I was thinking that the elephant trunk sticking out may have been from an octopus or something.  If it had been from that, the octopus means I am entangled in difficult matters, clouded judgement, overly possesive, or maybe too clingy in a relationship.  Since it ended up not being an octopus I will just throw this item out because it doesn't completely relate.

Since I looked at the meaning of these things I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what this might mean in my life, and if these items really do hold true to what is the common interpretation.  I have continued to tell myself that it is just that as well, only an interpretation, and only a dream.

There have been some conflicts recently in my life, and I think the one that has been bothering me the most is my current housing situation.  I have been trying to buy a house an up until this last week I thought there was a good chance I would become a new homeowner.  However, this did not occur and I am now going through the rigorous process of apartment hunting and trying to decide where I want to spend the next year as my life evolves into a new career path.   I feel that the elephant could mean that I just need to forget about old memories with this process and begin my new life, as I also look to begin a new lifestyle.  Since I wasn't afraid of the elephant, I feel like this housing issue could be the topic of the dream. 

I do feel like the dentures are showing that I have been lying to myself because this house really may not have been what is best for me, and I was just going through steps because I was tired of how I was living my life.  I may not really be ready to be a homeowner because there are a lof things I would like to do over the next year or two.  If I were to teach overseas then I would struggle to take care of the house and in reality I probably wouldn't end up going if I did have a house.  As these last few days have gone by I am relieved a bit that I didn't get the house because it does allow me more freedom in my life path in the coming months.

The purple in the dream is something I am still somewhat trying to figure out.  Creativity, dignity, and devotion are three strong aspects of my life because I am devoted to what I do, the way I live, and whom I love;  I work to provide dignity to others in my career; and add a bit of creativity to my life as I try to reform my life and go down this new path.

The relationship between purple and my understanding of the visible and invisible world is a part I struggle with a bit because I'm not entirely certain what this means.  I  think that all of these parts of the dream come together to show me that there are a lot of things in my life that I shouldn't try to set in stone yet and that I should allow a bit more freedom and creativity to what will come.

Over the next few months/next year I will be having a lot of life changes as I finish my licensure to teach, look for a teaching position in a new school district, most likely be moving somewhere, and possibly do something exciting like spend time working overseas.

Now all of this is interpretation, and this was only a dream.  But if Martin Luther King's dream became so great, I suppose this little dream could be telling me there is something interesting to come.