A quickie post to say I am now typing on my new laptop. So much easier to blog, Facebook, email, and surf. Thank you my honey. You are always so sweet to me. This thing rocks!!!
Flip
Life on end
Right
Must right myself
Steady
Write to right
Myself
Life on end
Love pouring in
Hope
Fear
Love pouring in
Life on end
Light
Day
Life
Love pouring in
Web of love
Cushioning
Holding
Supporting
A life on end
A life upended
And righting
Folks out there in blog reading land, I apologize. I have been, once again, remiss is posting regularly. And not just here, but also on the other two blogs I run, image-ination and door number 2. My excuse would have to be that we have been inordinately busy. Loads going on in our lives. My plan, the plan in my head anyway, is that I will once again be ready willing and able to post fairly regularly after July 30. Before that I will try to at least put something up once in a while, but after that date I’m hoping I can get back on the blog wagon. Hang in there with me. I know it gets a tad boring not having something up all the time. People lose interest. I get that. I’ll just have to try and win you back. I’m up for the challenge.
I feel like crap. I have had the worst headaches of my life in the last few days. That’s sort of saying a lot since I’ve had migraines before. These are terrible. No getting away from them. The worst part is that I can’t even sleep. Woke up every couple of hours last night because my head hurt so bad. Laying down is not good. Sinus infections are a bummer. Hopefully this second round of antibiotics do the trick. OK, whine over. Back to my tea.
Yep folks… Not counting today, I have 49 more days left to work in my current job. Shocking.
As most people in our lives know, Karen was very very sick in late November and early December. She spent 6 days in a critic care unit at Sunnyside Hospital. It was a very scary experience for both of us. Nothing is worse than being so sick or watching someone you love be so sick, and not being able to just will them to get better. It was terrifying actually. Then… she got better. It was wonderful. And the reason she got better was because of the great work of the people at the hospital. They did their jobs well and they did them with grace and by truly caring for Karen as their patient.
A couple of weeks ago I sent a letter/email to the nurse manager of the unit Karen was on. I’d kept a list of all the people who worked with Karen during her time there and wanted to let the management know, and the staff themselves, how much their work mattered to us. How much it meant. How much we appreciated them and how grateful we were.
I thought to myself… you know, people don’t say a genuine thank you enough. They just don’t. We aren’t always the most considerate of a species. We should be. We should say thank you when someone does a great job waiting the table or pumping the gas (for all you Oregonian’s out there) or giving us a smile as they check our groceries at the store. We should say thank you when we are treated with kindness and a smile at the doctor’s office or when someone we don’t know holds the door for us. We should appreciate these things. We should smile. We shouldn’t take it all for granted.
Everyone is quick to get testy. To be annoyed. To judge, to make fun of, to rant about what they see as little slights. We tend to be so negative as a people. Why is that?
I say let’s get on the happy train. Sounds silly? It’s not. Let’s start noticing what’s right and beautiful and worth while in the world. Let’s concentrate on that. Let’s be awed and inspired and thankful.
I’m not saying we should ignore what’s wrong or put up with things we shouldn’t. I’m just saying we ALSO need to notice what’s good and honest and wonderful. Beautiful gracious things happen every day. People do things every day that are helpful and caring. So let’s concentrate on that. Put our focus there. Notice. I wonder what would happen. I wonder what would happen if when we looked up and around we saw the trees moving in the wind and the smile on a mother’s face as she talked to her child and how lovely it is to just be here, alive, living… being happy in this moment. I wonder what would happen if we all did it…. if we all noticed… how the world might change for the better. We need to celebrate our spirit our tenacity our willingness to step in for each other and our caring selves. It’s a wonderful place, this world is. Wonderful things happen all the time. It would be a place of even greater wonder if we all just considered being a bit more considerate.
Bah ha ha ha ha!! I had to do it. I think, additionally, what I really need to do is find the video of that song. Used to laugh… used to cry… used to sit around and wonder why… uh, no wait. That’s something else. I’m getting my 70′s tunes mixed up. Alas… being nearly 45 has it’s disadvantages, but also it’s advantages.
I was just chatting with someone about the aches and pains that come with getting older. My contention though is that yes, there are aches and pains, but the good parts about getting older are worth the occasional inconvenience of having an older machine. What, pray tell, do I mean? Well… what I mean is that as a person gets older they know themselves better, usually like themselves better, and are more of who they are… at home, out in the world, etc. We become more of ourselves and more comfortable with who that is. So I will take the stiff ankles (thanks to the racquetball injuries of my youth) because they come with a better me.
So what is all this alone again naturally stuff? No, Karen and I have not had some bad break up (not gonna happen folks… ever). No, what I mean is that I am the only PO in the office today. Everyone else is at a training. Apparently, according to my boss, I’m un-trainable. Can’t be trained. I accept this. Actually, I think I have it better than they do. It’s so quiet and peaceful around here. Music, birds outside, great view, good book to read during lunch… I can’t complain. I did go around this morning and take a photo of myself sitting at each of their desks. After the round of photos I sent them each a text including the photo I took in their office and told them I had them covered. Pretty funny. Funny to me at least. I obviously have no trouble entertaining myself.
And now, that song… Alone Again, Naturally I couldn’t get the code to embed it, but if you follow the link you’ll get a little treat from 1972. Enjoy!
The other song, I just looked up the lyrics, is I Need You by America. Here’s the video for that one… Gotta love America.
Yesterday I was asked how many more work days I had at the department. I didn’t know then, hadn’t been counting them at all. I have still felt it’s not really real. This whole changing careers thing. After all, I’m still in my same job doing the work every day. The kind of work I’ve been doing for 20+ years. In some ways July 30 seems like a long way away. In others it’s coming on fast. Which, in situations like this, is pretty ordinary. Real or not though, it is coming.
So…. after being asked yesterday I finally counted, and here is the truth of it… there are t minus 64 days until lift off. Saying it like that… out loud for everyone to hear, is a might shocking. Wow. There’s a big change a comin’.
Humps….. check! Really enjoyed the flavor of the meat at Humps!
We were taking a walk the other day and went past a school with this quote over the doorway. Absolutely love this.
Weston is loving spring just as much as the rest of us.
I just returned from a trip to see the advice nurse, which turned into a visit with my doctor. Seems I have scarring on my eustacian tubes, which combined with allergies and drainage (I know, gross) has caused me to have severe ear pain. Pressure changes, which happen all the time apparently, are causing searing sharp pain in my ears throughout the day. They asked me what I meant by that and I said it felt like someone was shoving a hot poker into my ear with a lot of force. My doctor, who has a great sense of humor, then said to me… is someone shoving a hot poker into your ear when you feel this pain? I laughed. She asked me if I had hearing loss because the scarring was bad enough she suspected I did. I said… huh? Then she laughed. I told her I had no idea if I had hearing loss. I didn’t think I did, but then maybe it was about to go suddenly, kind of like my eyesight did a couple of years ago. We both laughed. Other than the searing pain I told her my ears are just nicely a bit sore and full feeling. Still not good, but not searing pain… which equals good in my book. I am not whining here. OK, maybe I am just a tad. But seriously, I’m not really whining. It’s just that I hate going to the doctor, already really knowing what’s up, and then having them tell me what I thought all along. Though they said it was good I came in because I might have had an infection. They don’t want this to turn into one so they have given me something to try and clear them up and then told me to take stuff to take the swelling down. Yay… they are swollen too. They asked me questions like… did you have tubes in your ears when you were a kid? No. Did you ever have them lanced? No. Do you get dizzy once in awhile. Yes… I get vertigo occasionally. Do you know you have scarring in there? It’s obvious you’ve had some sort of ear trauma. Do you shove q-tips in there really deep to clean them? Uh… no. I do use them, but I don’t shove them way in there… that would just be silly, and painful. I had no idea I have scarring my ears. Like I said above, scarring has caused my tubes to be a lot smaller than normal. I’ve had a lot of problems with my ears over the years. Had stuff as a kid a lot. Had vertigo on and off all my life. And the culprit of all of this is… scarring and the resulting small tubes. I left with a smile on my face… which, let’s face it, is me anyway. Regardless of what’s going on I am usually smiling like an idiot. Smiling or not though, I’ve had about an ear full of this right now. This ear pain can go it’s own way any time soon. Yes it can.
After A Walk, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Had to post this little number. Karen and I took a walk, with the pups, around the Belmont neighborhood last weekend. It was gorgeous out and gorgeous weather always calls for a walk. The dogs, of course, love it when we go on a walkabout. They were a bit thirsty, as you would expect, by the time we got back to the car. Riley is in the red collar, and Weston is behind her.
What It Was All About, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
At the end of the day, when the vows are taken, the rings exchanged, the cake cut, the dinner eaten, and the dances danced the most important thing is really this… these two people found each other, fell in love, and decided to marry not just each other, but their lives together. It was a beautiful day. Unbelievably beautiful actually. A perfect day. I felt that way, Karen felt that way, I think the guests felt it, and I know Mary and Martin did as well… which is really what was most important. The kids had a fantastically happy day.
In the foreground are Don and Carolyn, famous first dance orchestrators. Wow… that’s quite a handle.
Martin’s parents getting down.
The first dance. They did very very well. They’d been practicing for days. The kids sent their song, More Than This by Roxy Music, to Mary’s aunt and uncle. Don and Carolyn, Karen’s brother and his wife, had then worked with their dance instructor to come up with the moves for the song. After they worked out the routine they filmed it and sent it in pieces to Mary and Martin who then practiced after watching the videos. It paid off. They rocked it out.
Martin’s dad, Dave, getting some refreshment between dances.
I have to say that, besides the wedding, of course, it was a great pleasure of mine to meet Martin’s brother and also to meet Karen’s son, Thomas. Needless to say… I cried.
Charles worked the room like a pro with that camera of his. He had it down, moving around the ceremony and the reception without making a spectacle of himself. Stealthy and unobtrusive. It’s an art form he’s obviously mastered. Until, that was, he put the camera down and started shakin’ his grove thing. Then he was a dancing machine!
Mary, Martin, and I had a bit of fun while we were wandering around outside near the Glessner House taking photos after the wedding as evidenced by the photo here. We had a little laugh about this and of course had to take a picture. I love hanging out with these two. One of the amazing things about marrying someone is joining another family. If you’re lucky you end up loving the family you join, and they end up loving you. I’m lucky.
Ok, this is the corniest title for a photo I might ever have come up with, but what can I say. I think my witty well has gone briefly dry. So, Walking Into The Future is what it shall be and remain.
Speechless Reaction, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
There were some great speeches. Karen gave an amazing one that included a poem she wrote for Mary. I think everyone got teary during that one. Way to go honey! Martin’s speech was also good. You could tell, as he got going, he went into professor mode. Very engaging and a great speech. And then the girls and boys, in turn, gave speeches. This would be Martin and Mary reacting to something Mike, Martin’s brother, said.
|
Netflix Queue
What You're Saying