MIA

I have been MIA because of the F-L-U. I have only had the flu once before in my entire life and I didn't enjoy it then. I don't enjoy it now. This is day #4 and I'm starting to feel slightly better. My fingernails and hair folicles don't ache anymore.

I'm getting a new computer! Actually, I should have already had it. Irony of ironies, I had it delivered to my parents' house thinking there would be a much better chance they'd be home than me and Friday, when UPS attempted to deliver it, I was home all day being sickly and my mom wasn't at her house. Argh.

I'm finally at the stage in my sickly where I can go outside and I need to because being in my apartment for too much longer will drive me insane. Just ignore the sneezing and the hacking cough. I always cover my mouth.

Wacko Dream #2

Is it something I'm eating?

I dreamt that some of my friends and I were at a McDonalds, just hanging out. That is weird in and of itself, but I digress. So, we're at the McDonalds and the old couple who owns and operates the establishment says, "We're going out for awhile. Would you mind taking over while we're gone? It'll be really easy " and of course, we agree.

After awhile, a customer calls (yes, on the phone- calls in an order to MCDONALDS) and orders a cheeseburger, fries, a soda and a sundae. No sizes. He'll be there in a bit to pick them up. I go into the cheeseburger room and find several cheeseburgers on the grill, already prepared. I get one into a bun and then look for the paper to wrap it in. All we have is Burger King and Wendy's papers. I look all over the room- piles and boxes full of the other papers, no McDonalds paper. I go into the room next door- lots more boxes, no papers. I find calendars, time off requests, planning sheets... nothing that says McDonalds to wrap this cheeseburger in.

Segway to the next bit of my dream- no, I never get resolution on the cheeseburger situation.

I'm at my parents' house. An acquaintance whom my parents don't know is also there- someone who will likely never meet my parents- and he's been hanging out for about an hour with my brother, just watching TV. This is strange. Not just dream strange, but in my dream, I knew there was something off about it. So I suggest we go... and we head toward the back door, and he goes into the bathroom. He locks himself into the bathroom and I wait and wait and wait and ask if he's okay. He starts telling me things, awful things about himself and things he's done in the past and his voice gets strange and crazy and I realize, "This man is psychotic and he's in my parents' house... how do I get him out??" He tells me I should call the police. I ask him to just go... I'll go into my bedroom and he can just leave and not have to face me. The dream gets so scary I wake myself up.

I don't have scary dreams. Maybe once every few years. This one was disturbing to the point I had to get up and distract myself, put some distance between me and the dream before I could go back to sleep.

Bloomin'

I was looking up these pictures to try and do some creative things for scrapbooking and thought I might as well post them. I wish I could take credit for how beautiful the flowers are- my mom is the one with the green thumb!

She had a garden full of zinnias in the fall... she would give me bouquets to take home every week because there were so many. And they were so huge! This one was probably 5 inches in diameter.


Snapdragons were my favorite as a kid. I used to love pulling open their mouths and letting them snap shut. They DID look a little fierce...

Usually, someone would get silly and start making the snapdragon talk or sing... stupid? Yes. But I say if you can amuse yourself with a flower or a stick for awhile, you have an imagination that will come in handy for the future. You'd be surprised how enviable a good imagination is.



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Side note: I believe I have encountered the friendliest Arby's in the entire world. Every time I go there (which is more often than I should. But I like they're market fresh sandwiches. And in my job, cooking for myself at 9:00 when my day is done is SO unappealing), the staff is so cheery and happy and not the kind of cheery that makes you want to stab out their eyes with a ballpoint pen, but the cheery that actually makes you smile. I have complimented them several times on how wonderful it is to get good customer service and feel like someone is happy with their job. So, if you're ever in upstate NY, exit 11 off Rt. 81- stop in at the Arby's and get service with a smile.

Wacko Dream #1

I have bizarre dreams. I always have. It's come to be a part of my life and I enjoy them, actually. I thought, why not share my insanity with the rest of the world?

Last night I dreamt that my father had been kidnapped by Scotland. Yes, the country of Scotland. Turns out he wasn't the only one who'd been kidnapped, though... several people in the financial (my father is in banking- yes, in real life) world had been taken. It seems Scotland thought they'd been cheated out of money by these various people and posted ransoms for each of them according to how much they felt they'd been cheated. Luckily, my father's ransom was just over $2,000- not much considering some people weren't going to be released for less than a few million.

Normally, this type of dream would be amusing, but in the dream, I watched them take my father away- he didn't know I saw them take him. It was scary! This group of soldiers took him and several other people out of a building and hustled them away, and I didn't know where he was going or when he'd be back or what was happening. I had to read about it in the paper the next day. Of course, it was strange that I was in a swimming pool with a blanket wrapped around me... the soldiers got us out of the pool before they brought the people through. The blanket didn't seem to weigh me down in the water at all.

There you have it. Any dream analysts, professional or otherwise, out there? I'd love to know what you think...

And watch out for shady Scots.

Free plug

I don't normally endorse other people blogs or websites, etc.... but I can't help it today. waiterrant.net has absolutely touched my heart and my funny bone and I think this piece of life is worth reading about. And apparently it's working real well... there's merchandise!!!

Reading about other's lives... I've rekindled some of my faith in a good humanity. There are decent people out there. There are talented people out there. There are TONS of idiots out there... but we've got a fighting chance.

Read Waiter Rant. You won't be disappointed.

hee hee hee

After seeing so many other photo blogs and asking what photo editting software is used and more than one person telling me Picasa, I checked it out.

I likey.


More to come. 

Going up?

I was having a conversation online the other day with a friend who is unhappily married. He breaks my heart a little bit because he is so warm hearted, so fun... and destined to live the next 50 years with a woman who doesn't make him entirely happy. Yes, he's there by choice... which brings me to my analogy.

I've thought about this for awhile... and I think life is a spiral staircase. We don't ever repeat what it is we've done (barring amnesia and the like) and we can't ever unlearn the lessons we've learned. But it seems, every now and again, that we come to a place where we've been before and we do the, "WHAT THE HELL??? I've already DONE this!!" It's not the same, not really, because we have already learned from the past, but it looks all too familiar. It's the spiral.... we're in the same place, just a lil higher up.

I've come partially out of my seasonal funk. I payed my bills and emailed a few friends back, long over due. That's how I know.

This staircase is looking up from the bottom of the Highlands Light on Cape Cod.

Just Pics

same pond... loved the contrast of the dark tree in the blue, blue water

sunset along the highway... I had to pull over and shoot... lines will be removed when my Photoshop stops acting like an ass.

Black-eyed Susans against a white plastic tablecloth

Middlebury, Vermont. This will be in my coffee table book of pathways someday.

Winter? HA!

It seems that either snow has forgotten it's summer home here in central NY, or global warming is so extreme that snow is a bygone era for us here in the snowbelt.

I'm not complaining. With no snow, I have to shovel less, the roads are passable, walking outside is quite pleasant... but it's strange. We all keep waiting to get pummelled in 6 feet of white stuff, drifts so high you can't get out of your house on the first floor... people keep recalling the blizzard of '68, hoping it will appease the precipitation gods.

I pass this pond every time I go home to my parents' house. I rescued a turtle here once. It was crossing the road. Slowly. It didn't appreciate my help at first- tried to pee on me- but I got it accross the road safely.

The ice... just a thin layer... just enough to capture the last little driftlets of snow... and the sky so blue. Begged me to stop.


I also had to take this picture. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland and the Chronicles of Narnia- I think in The Magician's Nephew there is a land where stepping into puddles takes you to different places. I wonder what the roads are like on the other side of that puddle...

Heavy

I'm not sure this post will actually show up. Seems Blogger has lost my blog entirely. This adds to my mood.....


This is Sedona, again. This trail looked impossible, and we did not, in fact, use it to get to the top. Instead, we found the easier path.

I feel like I don't have an easier path right now. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough. It's one of those times when it seems that everything is pushing back. The job... ah, burnout.

I was convinced that I would never get burnt out. I thought, c'mon, if I have my faith and my family and I really believe in what I'm doing, I'm not gonna burned out. HA! I'd like to stay home for a week... or two... and pour myself into those things that spark my mind and my creative energy.

Listening to Collective Soul right now... "And I've got a long way to run...." It's striking a chord right now. I'm turning 29 in little over a month. I know, to those of you that are older, you think wow, so young, etc.

This is a pivotal age for me. I'm single, with a POS car, a stressful job that I don't know if I can do sometimes, don't own my house, a piggy bank of coins making up my whole savings... and I'm facing the 30's. Just seems.... depressing. Then I try to think positive- I have a masters degree, I have a secure job, I'm making a difference in people's lives, I have great friends, I'm close to my family.....

I wish it were enough.