From this hour I ordain myself loosed of limits and imaginary lines. -Walt Whitman
LiFe
We spent the day hanging out at the house, mostly watching The Gilmore Girls. We went to bed at 10:00 and ended up staying awake talking until after midnight. We were there, in the dark, whispering so as not to wake the baby, and saying… woo hoo! as we heard the fireworks go off somewhere in town. It was nice. Us, together, quietly ringing in the new year together. No better way to do it actually.
We also happened to be awake the next morning at 8:00 am Lancaster time, which was midnight back home in Scappoose/Portland. We were able to say another quiet woo hoo, still together. Nice. Two celebrations in an 8 hour period, pretty good.
As for resolutions… personally I told Karen I want to be kinder. Just kinder in general. I know I’m pretty kind as it is, but I told Karen there’s always room for improvement in the kindness department and definitely always room for more kindness in the world.
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 24,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 5 fully loaded ships.
In 2010, there were 181 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1984 posts. There were 13 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 3mb. That’s about a picture per month.
The busiest day of the year was January 7th with 213 views. The most popular post that day was 50 Movies of The Future… And Some Sequels.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were networkedblogs.com, en.wordpress.com, mail.yahoo.com, facebook.com, and search.aol.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for movies that will make you cry, wedding script, stow, blade runner, and gaudi buildings.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
1
50 Movies of The Future… And Some Sequels November 2009
3 comments
2
13 Films That Will Make You Cry August 2009
4 comments
3
A Script For A Wedding January 2010
6 comments
4
10 Cheesy Movies I Love… and two bonus features August 2008
4 comments
5
Pass and Stow February 2008
Yes, it’s true… we have a house full o’ sick people here. Thankfully Karen and I have so far successfully avoided it, but Sebastian, followed by Mary and Martin, have been sick. Sebastian (who started with it) seems to have broken his fever, but Mary and Martin are both running some decent temps. We opened presents this morning and then I was sequestered to the guest room (our room while we are here) by Karen. Karen has been running around taking care of the little gent and Mary and Martin have been trying to sleep, taking tylenol, and battling the temps.
Here’s hoping everyone feels better by tomorrow who has been sick, and those of us who haven’t caught it still haven’t…
Here’s also hoping that all of our family and friends have a holly jolly one filled with love, laughter, joy, and more love. We wish we could give each and every one of you a Christmas hug today….
This is something I wrote on the plane ride over to the U.K. a couple of weeks ago. Tried to post it when we landed and couldn’t, then with all the business of getting here and such I forgot about it, until today. I re-read it, liked it a lot, and so am posting it now. It’s relevent, anytime really….
December 10, 1:20 AM, Pacific time
Sun coming up over the Atlantic. Traveling in this plane, just having woken up from a nap laying across two seats and Karen (a miracle in and of itself). Taking pictues with my phone out the window and listening to the Hip (80) playlist on the ipod on my phone. Bose quiet canceling headphones on. The world is a beautiful place.
I’m having one of those moments… So filled with gratitude and wonder and love. So much love I feel like this smaller body of mine might not be able to hold it all in. Overflowing out of me as teardrops falling down my face. It’s so quiet in here right now. All these people sleeping, watching the movie or listening to their own music. All these people going somewhere…. To see someone they love, like we are, or to see somewhere new, or just making the journey home. And here we all are together, on this plane winging our way across the Atlantic as the sun comes up. I’m listening to Good Life right now, and it really is a good good life. Thank you thank you thank you thank you….
Here I am… Shopping at Saturday market. Street musicians, artisans, shoppers, food, and beautiful.
I took this for granted before. I didn’t mean to, but honestly I did. I don’t any more.
I’m sitting here waiting to meet up with my honey at the agreed upon place, a little early. We went our separate ways to shop for each other. I’m sitting here with tears in my eyes…. A little emotional. I love this… Being out and about in this city that I absolutely adore. I love the personality of this place. I love that I am healthy enough to be out here. It’s a marvelous wonder. I am so happy right now.
Had to post this shot… Sebastian in his bear suit. He’s not super impressed, but he’s totally cute, as his his grandma!!
Today was a good day. Karen went and had dinner and then a walk and coffee with her son, Thomas. It went exceptionally well. Really really well actually. She is very happy, which makes me very happy. It’s a wonderful thing. He heads back to Japan on Friday, so it was good they got to meet. He told Karen that April was a good time to visit Tokyo. We may have to try and figure out how to go. I wouldn’t mind seeing Tokyo and I definitely would love to spend some time with Thomas, get to know him. That would be lovely.
We, Kev and I, also had a visit from our friend Dan. Kev and Dan went to dinner at a local place and then came back here afterward. Kev gave him a tour of the house and then we all chatted for a little bit. It wasn’t a long visit, for me anyway, but it was really nice to see him. Dan has such a great soul. He is one of the best men I know. I love the guy, what can I say.
So a day of visits and seeing people we love. What can be better than that? Nothing is what I say. Nothing is better than spending time with people you love. That’s what makes a life.
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.
