Receiver of Memories

Now that I'm re-living my 20's (without making the same mistakes ;-) ) I'm taking the time to keep my life in balance, enjoying the things I've always loved (such as reading books, playing vball, and building lego,) with new adventures and new horizons. One such adventure is being involved in HLAA - Hearing Loss Association of America. I'm now the President of the KC Chapter (I need to finish the paperwork involving that transition, natch) and that means I'm full-on responsible for getting people motivated to grow the chapter, fundraise, involve others, and generally keep the ship from running aground. I'm not much of a sailor... but the U.S.S. "KC HLAA Chapter" is steaming full speed ahead towards Walk4Hearing in St. Louis!

Another new-ish thing I got into when I started living in KC is the Kansas City Roller Warriors. I like sports, but watching them just isn't my style. I like to play - being active is soooo much better than lounging around. But there are a small number of sports that I really.... can't play, or that I have difficulty playing. That mostly involves sports where my feet don't touch the ground.... like ice hockey, or the aformented roller skating. That's partially why even though I'm looking forward to snowboarding this winter, I'm simultaneously dreading it. But the Roller Warriors are a hoot to watch - these girls are rough 'n tough and FAST on 8 wheels, racing around a track to score points against XX's bent on taking 'em down with a well placed block. Coindentially, one of my favorite players is named "Dominant Jean" ;-) Last game of the season is this Saturday!

Since I'm able to enjoy myself more now, I'm making time to read again. I've always loved reading - I read voraciously, consuming every book I could come across, hungry for knowledge and new words. One book that I apparently missed the first time around was "The Giver." I'm fascinated the idea of a utopian future - it's an ideal, where perhaps everyone is happy, we're able to achieve dreams, etc. Well, this starts out that way, but then the ugly stuff starts coming out, and the future isn't so perfect anymore. A society where there are no emotions, no passion, no love - that's not one I would want to consider living in. There's a question that I see posed every once in a while:

"If you guarantee you would live to be 100 if you cut out everything unhealthy in your life, like drinking soda, eating steak, doing risky sports, stuff like that - would you do it?"

I would answer no, because without those things, life would barely be worth living. I'm an cautious risk-taker, out to experience life - and I'd hate to miss out on all the fun stuff. ;-) So that Giver society.... not for me. I should probably make a post on just the Giver and the sequel.. errr, companion novel that I'm reading now - Gathering Blue.

Eh, I'm gonna get going to focus on Wednesday business. Ciao, all!