TALK TO ME

Was reading through some of my old posts when I still used Blogger. This post seemed to get a lot of comments. It seems that people who read blogs like to talk about themselves. Fancy that. So I decided to re-post part of that post and let y’all do the talking today.

1) What item would you choose to put into a time capsule that would best represent you?
2) What is your favorite slow-dance song?
3) How many pillows do you sleep with?
4) What’s your favorite euphemism for “making out”?
5) What color are your eyes?

Now git busy…

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Added later:  wtf … Now, in my Top Clicks box there is a “file” link that is the entire photo which I referred to yesterday, the hyphen being a cropped version of the photo.   Did I grant someone blog administrator rights during a drunken stupor or something?  Stay tuned for the next installment of MY BLOG HAS A LIFE OF IT’S OWN*

*and it’s undermining my sanity! 

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES*

I just found out that all of my categories are not listed in my Category Cloud. I promptly went on my Dashboard and went into my Widgets under the Presentation heading and selected 40 categories to be listed instead of the 30 that was shown in the box. I clicked on Save Changes. That seemed simple enough to me. Yeah, right. Well, I’m still seeing only 29 or 30 categories listed in the box. I guess though, that it’s not inconceivable that when I come on here tomorrow 50 or so will be showing there.

Just another in a long, long line of my daily challenges. If you’re new here, you may have noticed that I don’t publish pictures on my blog. Why? Oh, I dunno. Maybe because I’ve tried only about a zillion times and can’t quite pull it off.

And this is weird: Down at the bottom of my sidebar in the box headed Top Clicks, under the listings, I noticed a hyphen. Hmmn. When I clicked on it, up popped a cropped version of a picture of myself holding Raggy’s Maybe Some Day CD that he’d sent me. (Autographed of course, and one of my most treasured pieces of music) How that picture got there is completely beyond my comprehension. When I tried to upload it for the post I’d written about it, I couldn’t do it.

I’m surprised that I even get my posts up most days…

Any advice would be appreciated. Otherwise, we’ll go on as before. It’s good enough for me.

Oh yeah, and as soon as I get permission from the other involved parties, I have a coincidence to share with you. JuJu will be thrilled, as usual…

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* Otherwise known as “The Story of My Life

I NEED ME A GPS*

I can’t call it writer’s block cuz I’m not a writer. But in all my years of blogging, this is the first time I can recall sitting here at the keyboard, wanting to post and coming up with NOTHING. Usually I sit down and go through three or four topics in my head and decide which one I feel most like writing about. Today my brain is scrambling all over the place and there’s a brick wall in every direction. It’s rather disconcerting… Let’s see. Where has my mind been lately? Hmmmn…

I’ve been missing warm weather. I’ve been missing my kids. I’ve been thinking too much and maybe that’s part of the problem. That’s never a good thing for me. I tend to get antsy and anxious when I spend too much time in my head. As it is, I already spend more time there than the average person, I think. believe. I start imagining where I wish to be on this Journey and then I see how far off that path that I actually am. Then I start making mental lists of things I need to do to get back on track and the longer the list gets, the more my motivation dwindles. Then I just sort of tend to wallow in the maze and find myself walking in circles in my head. I trust that I’m where I am for a reason and try to figure out what that might be. I’ve been here too long. It’s not comfortable. I’m reminded of a quote by Anais Nin that is always in the back of my mind and keeps popping out now and then. “ There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” It’s getting more and more painful in here. I hesitate to even share this here. I know when I come back here you will all have wonderful advice for me. At the risk of offending anyone, you can’t tell me anything I don’t already know. I know I need to trust in the Lord and pray about it. I know I need to get off my duff and start laying groundwork for the future. I know I need to quit my job and spend my days in my studio creating art and quit wasting my talent. I should probly even be consulting with some sort of a career counselor or something. I know all these things. But there is something inside me that’s fighting me and it’s bigger than I am and stronger than I am.

I realize, fully, that very few people are actually “living their dream.” So many of us go through the motions of daily life, just working to make ends meet, trying to raise good kids, and giving them “a better life.” I want more than that. I’ve always wanted more than that. As I’m getting older, it’s become more of a need than a desire. I don’t want to find myself on that proverbial deathbed wishing I’d lived my life differently. I wake up thinking that now but am comforted somewhat when I realize that I still have a chance to change that. The window of time, though, gets smaller every single day. Damn Time. Where have you gone and why do you keep going there?

*Global Positioning System

A STEAL!

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(Ran across this in my travels this evening and thought I would share.  I hate to pass up a good deal like this, but what if you buy it (even at this great price!) and it’s bad… Then you’re just stuck with it?  Nah, I’ll stick with what I have now.)

QUICK TUESDAY

Hi kids.

Not a lot of time to write but that works out because I don’t really have much to say. What a coincidence!

I just took PD to the video store and while he was getting movies I watched a video that I kinda liked. The band was Luna Halo and the song was Untouchable. I liked it enough to come home and look them up on You Tube. I watched (I think it was called) Kings & Queens. Didn’t like it as much as the first one but am wondering if this is a band I should check out. You guys know my taste pretty much, what do you think? I hate to waste time checking out music unless it turns out to be something I really like. Who has time for that? Luna Halo kinda reminds me of Interpol, a band that I do love. And the lead singer has cool eyes, kind of like the guy from Blue October that I’ve been listening to and really, really liking. (Thanks, Sammy.) Why am I all of a sudden getting into guys wearing eye make-up. Been there, done that. Years ago…

This week I’m listening to:

• Satellite by Guster
• Into the Ocean (recorded and live, accoustic) by Blue October
• Congratulations by Blue October
• A Million Middle Fingers by Matt Pond PA
• Athabasca by Matt Pond PA
• Locate the Pieces by Matt Pond PA
• 16 Days by Whiskeytown
• Wordless Chorus by My Morning Jacket
• To The East by Electrelane
• When You Were Young by the Killers
• Stay Forever by Ween
• Ocean Man by Ween
• Born Too Late by Steve Forbert
• Fake Empire by the National
• The Day We Never Met by the Crash Test Dummies
• Melt Your Heart by ? Jenny Lewis
• 86′d by Subcircus
• Assorted Kaspar

Good Movies:

• The Brave One
• The Martian Child

I’m Reading (again):

• The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

K.  Sorry, didn’t allow myself time to include links.  No need for us both to be lazy today

ACTUALLY…

I’m not exactly sure what’s gotten into me today, but I’m on a rampage. An actual rampage.

I did my normal Saturday Morning thing, where I pour the coffee and sit down to plan my strategy for the day. As always, there is a pile of need-to-sort mail and assorted stuff I hate to deal with and so I don’t on the dining room table. After having been out of commission as I was for several days this week, the pile was more daunting than usual. Something in me just freaked and I got this insatiable urge to throw out every single item in my house that doesn’t have grave importance or strong sentimental attachment.

I only stopped now because I needed a coffee refill and I’m running out of space in the trash can that was almost empty when I started piling crap in there.

How does one accumulate so much meaningless garbage that takes up space and makes you feel bogged under? Requests from charities for donations, financial and health publications, odd little notes and phone numbers with no name attached and sale flyers for places I don’t even shop. Quirky little knick-knack things that I picked up, God-know’s-where because I thought it would add character to my dining room/livingroom/kitchen/whatever and all it really serves is one more thing to clean. That magazine subscription that I’m already four months behind in reading. That wedding favor that is just too cute to throw out and you know someone spent time and love to create. How many of those can you cram in the back of a curio cabinet? Art supplies that I keep buying with the intention of finding time to be creative. And the clothes… Don’t even get me started.

PD has been planning a yard sale for two, maybe three years now. We have a pile of items in a spare room ranging from Country CDs to DVDs that just aren’t good enough to watch more than once. Some things are just not garbage if you consider you could get a couple of bucks for them. That holds true, though, only if you actually create a forum in which you can actually interact with those willing to actually exchange actual cash for your unwanted items. In other words, if you actually have the yard sale. In other words, it ain’t gonna happen and the cursed pile of crap is going to grow and grow and eventually take over the house. It actually could happen. I can picture it.

Nobody has yard sales in PA in February. It could be months before that can actually happen. That, my friend, scares the actual bejeezus outta me, cause that creates the possibility of even more crap finding its way into our home.

Please Lord, grant me the strength to part with what I do not need, to keep what I do and the wisdom to know the difference.

Weeks from now, I don’t wanna be wandering around, scratching my head and wondering where the hell I put the checkbook or the remote for the upstairs TV. Don’t be chuckling then when I post about it.

SICK OF SICK

The most constructive thing I did today was roam around my house wiping telephones, doorknobs, light switches and faucets with Clorox wipes.

Around 4pm, PD said to me, “Oh, by the way, Happy Valentine’s Day!” I instantly choked up. Add to the already runny nose and watery eyes.

I also watched Gus Van Sant’s Last Days. OMG what a total waste of electricity.

I tried to sleep but the freakin’ phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

I’m going to work tomorrow no matter how lousy I feel.

Oh yeah, and I went outside for like 5 minutes for some fresh air and set off my car alarm. Don’t ask…

Now I’m going to go shower off some of this extremely appealing (cough) sweat.

Bleah, again.

Then I shall retire and say some prayers for all those worse off. This is the end of my pity party, folks.

AND THE WORLD GOES ON

I’ve been down with the flu since Tuesday afternoon.  Life has consisted of sleeping and trying to eat and then thinking better of it.  I’ve been on here a couple of times but I’ve gotten way behind on blog reading.  Maybe I’ll get caught up on the weekend.

I’ve come to realize that being confined to my home which contains another sick person is more than I can bear.

Sorry to sound less than enthusiastic, but Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you.  My gift to you is not getting all huggy and kissy and germy.  (That’s not a link, I just made it red so it seems that I made at least a little effort…)

Bleah.

I KNOW A ROCK STAR!

Still Funky – Kaspar Galli

So the other day I get mail from our friend Kaspar Galli, inviting me to view his new video on YouTube. It is quite funky and I wanted to share it with you. And guys, if you’re wondering if there’s anything in it (the video) for you, the answer would be yes… that is, if you appreciate a rather impressively-endowed scantily-clad female playing air guitar…

I told him I was posting about it here, so he may drop by to see comments. Make him feel good.

(Reason for the title… when I met Kaspar, he gave me a copy of his Stranded cd.  When I asked him if he’d sign it, I told him that I felt like I was 14 again.  His response was, “And I feel  like a rock star!”  I think maybe he is well on his way to just that.)

SHAWPIN’ UPDATE

My poor mom called me when I got home from work today to ask if she’d left a shopping bag in my car. Seems one of her purchases was missing but showed up on her receipt from the store where I’d dropped her off while I returned PD’s movies.

I checked my backseat and trunk and found nothing. I called her back and broke the news to her and suggested she call the store. She did and found that indeed, she’d left one bag at the check-out. When she asked if they could hold it for her she was informed of the store policy which stated that they will only hold a forgotten purchase until the end of the day on which it was purchased. They are not to remain at the customer service desk overnight. At the end of the day the purchase is returned to the floor. If she brings in her receipt, they will issue her a refund.

I think this kinda sucks. The chances of it being there when we go back, even if it’s tomorrow, are kind of slim. It was really nice and it was marked waaaay down. I can understand that there may not be a lot of room to store people’s forgotten purchases but how many people in one day leave things behind? I would tend to think that not a lot of big things get forgotten. And shouldn’t the cashiers be a little more conscientious, maybe taking an extra minute to help out the elderly customers?

I guess I’m having a hard time accepting that my mom isn’t as self-reliant as she used to be…