Saturday

Want a shortcut to the funny farm? Try not designing a website for 2 years, then try uploading one to the host. Sure am having fun. (not really) - another day and it should be up though. This is the banner. The background is a navy blue. Not too fancy. I'm anxious to get it up and then - paint.

My former drawing teacher invited me over to her studio with a handful of other artists and teachers. They were getting a collaborative piece ready to submit for a juried show. Being with a creative group spirit fired me up. I wish I had her studio or similar - it was even air-conditioned! But I am praying for one, so maybe - soon? She has ventured out into encaustics and I absolutely drooled when I saw her warming plate, wax tubes, brushes, and the results. Yummy! So I think it is necessary for me to get back into circles and stop "lone dogging" it as I am going nowhere in getting materials to a canvas.

Today S. wanted "throwed rolls" (I wish I had taken my camera.) So we headed out to Alabama, a short trip actually. We found the throwed rolls restaurant and we ate two rolls apiece and had to bring our orders of food home. The portions are gigantic. We still have enough of the second chef's salad to easily serve four people.

We stopped at the huge outlet mall and purchased a few more shorts for summer for him. (I will never wear black jeans in the summertime in Florida again! HOT!) Then, I cannot pass a farmer's market without stopping. We bought a watermelon which is yucky and went to the trash, a yummy, juicy, sweet cantaloupe, ripened on the vine tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, and corn. The new corn has been sweet and really good. Tomorrow am going to make a black bean and corn salad. Ha, ha - to go with the chef's salad.

Getting to Know you - what was that tune?

Passed on by Candy Minx:

1. WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 Years ago. Working at a guardianship agency servicing mostly incapacitated elderly. Painting. Preparing to become grandmother for last little one. Art classes.

2. WHAT WERE YOU DOING 1 YEAR AGO..blogging and preparing for an election, worrying about voting machines, treachery, bawling around about being in Wyoming.

3. FIVE SNACKS YOU ENJOY, popcorn, fruit, pork rinds, nuts, string cheese.

4. FIVE SONGS I KNOW ALL THE WORDS TO: Lay Lady Lay (Dylan), You are my Sunshine - passed down from my grandma to me to kids, to my grandkids, Star Spangled Banner, Turkey Leg Woman (amost all the words), Amazing Grace, Do you know the Muffin Man. Ok, ok, don't laugh.

5. FIVE THINGS YOU DO IF YOU WERE A MILLIONAIRE...Grab my sister & take a trip on the Orient Express from England to Istanbul with lots of stops - particularly Paris and Prague, pay off all the bills in the family and make one of them way more comfortable - central air conditioning!, invest, have regular massages, maybe find a country that had serious infrastructure problems and almost nill employment, grab my old boss from the County and go to that Country and see what we could do! Nix, the last one - not enough energy left. At my age? Buy a luxury condo on the beach, paint from the balcony and lay in the sun by the pool. Hey, I blew off that million in a hurry, huh? Is there more?

6. FIVE BAD HABITS: too much introspection, compulsive worry, choosing insane jobs, looking at the impossible, thinking "ya, I can do that."

7. FIVE THINGS YOU LIKE DOING: Being high maintenance, YA! (Cuz I never have been - but hey, give me a pedicure, salon appointment, a hot stone massage, a new outfit - it doesn't take much!), blogging, doing art - any medium, visiting exotic places, being with family.

8. FIVE THINGS YOU WOULD NEVER WEAR AGAIN, knickers, high heels (can't), bikini, round and round stripes, a perm.

Tag: Red, * - (I don't hear much from you) and.........Puppy of course, oh shoot, all of ya...........L, ....., and.......all of ya.......

Why are these Guts in Jars?

From out there somewhere, from where ever wierd thoughts come from, came this one - why were some cardinals and catholic bishops, etc., buried like the ancient Egyptians? Not that they were mummified, but when touring a cathedral in Austria, I was curious as to why the intestines and "insides" of these high ranking church officials were buried in copper containers (why copper) away from the bodies which were lying in the catacombs of the cathedral. If my memory was correct the containers were in another room.

In ancient Egyptian times, it appears that Pharoah and families were buried in the same manner, with the intestines,etc. in jars. These jars each stood for a god of a specific function, or reason. Hmmm, more research or does anyone know why particularly the body parts were removed?

The cathedral we visited in Vienna was awesome. I stood in its bowels and looked at layers and layers of bones of plague victims buried in the catacombs, not really buried, just heaped in layers. Can you imagine what going to church would smell like while the bodies decomposed?

The realization of how young the U.S. really is hit me. I wished I had paid more attention to history in school. And a little tickly seed is popping around in my mind, saying, well, why not go to BACK to school and finish up your art degree in art history? Well, why not? I don't have to do it all in one year, two years or any time-contained line. Just a thought.

While researching, I came upon a rather obvious fact about the pyramids. They were built with the point on the top because that is the least stressful way to construct something that large without a collapse at the top. But back to Europe and the cathedrals - at one point it was discovered there was a way to do the arches and the great proportions of the cathedrals - and then the "masons" become entwined in some of the history - and I wonder if even now in the U.S. putting a cornerstone in a public building and dedicating it to the masons/lodge/whatever is connected. "Twould only make sense.

One plus one equals two - or is that drawing conclusions where none should be drawn? (I have a knack of drawing either pretty observant conclusions or really way out there ditzy conclusions that make no sense. Or so I'm told.) Or is history of man so short that the time we view as such a long time is really a short time, thus the connection? The connection of one discovery building upon another before so much time elapses that the connection is forgotten? Imagine mankind with a collective memory dysfunction. We would still be in the stone ages! "Uh, how HOW do you make a fire, explain that one more time."

From the 12th to the 18th century it was common for the heart to be removed from the body and sent distances aways to be kept with someone or someplace. Why?

There are some speculations, from everyone wanting a "piece of the action" of a famous person to "custom" but I can't find any detailed explanation. When did the custom end - or did it? Any history majors out there? Or avid researchers who know?

Just thinking.

SCREAM

I lost my internet connection yesterday later in the day. Before church it was fine. I came home, it was gone. The network and router just disappeared off my computer. It took hours to figure it out and restore everything. Why should I freak? I can journal by handwriting, wow, that antique practice! I could use the time to actually do a painting. OR finish painting the outside door. So why the freakout. Is the computer a bit addicting, hmmmmmmm? I'm talking to my self here.

How do you have the files in your computer organized?

I have hundreds of files in my computer. Somehow while organizing my folders and files to do the new website for art, I started moving files to a root folder to set up a site, and I jumbled my files up. Don't know how I did it. I've been doing major moves, moving pictures off the computer onto CD's, anticipating eventual storage problems if I didn't, so the usual place I had everything put and knew where files were was rearranged.

This sounds incredibly stupid, I know, but this computer came with a pre-set "My Portfolio" folder. So what did I do when I wanted to move all the art to a folder for the website? I set up a "myportfolio" folder which became jumbled with "My Portfolio." And the root folder I name "myart" while having another folder named "My art." Stupid, stupid, stupid! So now I have to move files, redefine the site. I've lost some of my skills obviously.

So I am not only housecleaning a house, but housecleaning the computer. I am thankful I only began the initial design of the web pages, and wasn't too far in or the links would have come out like the "spaghetti" of wires and cords on my floor by the computer.

My life feels just about as jumbled. I have given myself two months to get organized with some kind of "earn at home" situation. I want to do art, but putting the house back together is coming so slowly.

There are "projects" sitting all over - plastic containers waiting for scrap booking which would make wonderful Christmas presents. Art supplies. My exotic materials are in Wyoming and J loaned my sewing machine to someone and hasn't brought it back. I need to yell! But would I use it right now, no? I make these wonderful purses that are fun and would no doubt sell. Where is my "git up n go?"

I sit here at the computer gazing out at the palms and decided I really did pick the right place to plant them. I want to plant more stuff. But haven't really fertilized the flowers properly that survived my absence. I used to be such a go getter - here I sit at the computer, happily typing away and thinking. Yaaaaaaagh!

A day in my life some years ago: Get up and feed children breakfast, get self and children ready for school. (No cold cereal either!) Get them off to school. Go to work. At lunch go to Grandma's, check up on her and her house. Get off work, pick up kids, go home and cook dinner - a diet one for me, something the kids liked, and then something for an extremely picky husband who prefers living off of sausage and hamburger. Ok, then did the dishes, threw in the laundry, cleaned up the house, ironed hubby's work shirts and kid's clothes. Oh, yeh, throw in time to study/read the Bible. I prayed as I moved like a whirlwind.

Loved to have people over for dinner, to entertain.

If I didn't tackle the 2nd job of church secretary for the evening, I would sit down at the sewing machine and sew the girls' and my clothes. (Living in Wyoming is sort of like the mission field, not much shopping - these were pre-internet days). On weekends, it was more laundry and housecleaning. Then I would go over and clean grandma's house, and of course take her grocery shopping. My oldest would go with me and mow. Sometimes I did the mowing - grandma not only wanted the grass mowed, but we had to do the vacant lots and the alley. There are long stories to tell about grandma.

If her roof needed repaired, I got up on the roof and did it. I also went to church every time the door opened AND hosted a "care group" in my home. I repainted, redecorated my tract home, it was a beautiful oasis. My job was responsible, I was an administrative assistant to the City Manager. No wonder I'm falling apart. This went on for fifteen years, full steam ahead. My calendar had every 1/2 hour slot filled. No wonder I am crashed. BUT I WAS SO ORGANIZED AND GOT THINGS DONE! Now I can't even get the house clean all at once over a two day period. Or trim my blankety blank bushes!

All the memories my kids have of me in those years is of the busy whirl in my life. My son was living in another town with my mother in order to go to a private school. I would try to get down there when I could. That was a situation that tore me up inside, literally.

Sitting here at the computer now with crappy health and overwhelmed by the small (comparatively) amount I have to do now, I'm beginning to cry. I want to do it all, once again. If not all, just enough. No, be truthful, for me just enough is never enough. Don't like being exhausted after 4 hours. Don't like not being able to cook a picnic, pack it up, and pack to the beach for the whole day. Don't like running across these screwy situations I've ran across. Ok, ok, will talk to myself. I'm alive, I'm walking about, my family is nearby, I have a good car, my palms & yard are pretty, I have new skills, I have done about everything I wanted to do, that is within the constraints of my circumstances. But, still how I miss being young and pretty and energetic.

Have you ever enjoyed an incredibly beautiful day and you lived it to the max, being afraid it would be a long time before it came around again? Well, that is what life feels like and how I feel inside. I don't want to waste even a precious minute. I've yet to reassess what "waste" is, though, I guess.

Yeh, this rainy day is sort of giving me fits of nostalgia. The solution? Create the kind of life I want now within the parameters available to me. Meditate. Think! What is it? Focus and accomplish what I can. Look as nice as I can. Go to the gym. Eat right. Get enough sleep. Don't freak. Trust God, trust my gut. Pray. Be calm. Be calm. Be calm. Be calm. And paint. Just sit down in the middle of the blankety blank list of to do's and PAINT!

Too Funny to Resist Posting

You have got to be kidding!

I had things to say, but the more I thought about it, better remain speechless.

Food, food, and more food and Tales of food

What got into me? I went to the doctor today to be told I wasn't dizzy but I had - uh, something else - syncopathy? But he didn't know what that could mean. The symptoms I am having now, that I had until the second transfusion are not symptoms of anemia he said.

Maybe now designated symptoms of anemia are not really symptoms anymore and this information should be passed along to the many websites I visit as I look for management of the illness and ways to get better. Anyway, yeh, I'm still anemic, that new blood doesn't last so long, but not quite as bad as before the last transfusion. So just keep doing what I'm doing. OR not doing. ??????

I am supposed to go to the blood specialist, but can't get in for another month. So I guess if I faint someone will haul me to ER. Mostly I worry about the symptom of brain damage from lack of oxygen in the blood cells. Maybe its because I'm old - he doesn't think I need my brain anymore.

SO! I then went grocery shopping like a mad woman.

Well, my mother told me to do it. She said to go to Sam's Club, meat and produce were sooooo much cheaper and better. So, first I go to Albertson's for their sales. (However after driving the 27 miles back home, I discover they charged me about $20.00 too much on sale items - the deli man refused to steam the "sale" crab and I was mad.) But to go on - three of us unloaded the car when I got home.

This is the aftermath in my kitchen - splitting chicken breasts into small bags, and very, very lean hamburger as well. Grandson could not wait for crab, so we steamed it and ate it on the spot. Then he decided we needed to clean the kitchen drawers, but tired out in the middle. These photos are my kitchen today.

My mother was right. Got lotsa stuff but I did spend enough to worry me at other times, today I just had fun! I bought olives, I bought gardenalia, I bought pickled peppers, AND pepperoncini. I bought olive salad and three bean salad and more! And I have enough fruit cut up in the fridge to host a major party tonight. It sure would be good soaked in a white wine........sigh. MMMM. Champagne. And I bought THREE tubes of Sensodyne toothpaste. Toilet paper. Paper towels. Yeh! What fun.

So if I married a meatcutter, why do I buy meat? (He doesn't like it when I do.) Well, he brings home these bargains alright, pull dated meat, a good deal of it sausage. He puts it in the refrigerator for several weeks and it may or may not make it to the freezer. He says the new packing methods keep it just fine. Then he cooks it sometimes, sometimes it lays there mostly like forever. My mind is working. How did little boy stay alive for the two years I was gone? I am feeding him lots and lots of garlic trying to rid him of any disease picked up from the raw chicken legs PawPaw fed him a couple of weeks ago.

Why don't I take it out of the fridge and freeze it? You have to see our fridge to understand. There are layers. Stuff over a year old goes to the back, and all else is filed by the date it is put in there, filed to the front. Fridge is double wide. It hides things. Forever sometimes. It's kind of like the pine trees, you may or may not remember something was there - in the fridge.

Back to hamburger - hamburger made me awfully sick when I was pregnant (almost 30 years ago) with the youngest. I haven't eaten it until recently. Stale hamburger meat still makes my stomach churn. When I see hamburger and sausage, I see arteries clogged with these little yellow ball thingies. But I am trying to eat red meat for the iron. I was proud of my economical and very lean hamburger find today and cooked some up for tacos tonight - it smelled fine.

Oh, by the way 4D, I have the BEST recipe for curried hamburger and peas (straight from a Pakistani friend, yes) And,yes, it is out of this world! You scoop it up with bread. Hot and spicy. Red curry. Yum. I will do that tomorrow.

Help Solve the Mystery

See the three pine trees at the corner of the fence? They are about five feet tall. I planted them for privacy on the corner. Planted them a few years before Ivan visited. (Hurricane). They were beautiful. They were also standing when I left Florida AFTER Ivan.

Yesterday, out of the blue, I noticed they were GONE! And the swing set, which needs to be taken down, the chains have rusted and the wood is rotting, was sitting over "the spot" where my trees were. So I asked hubby. "What happened to the pine trees I planted?" "What pine trees?" "The ones in this photo, this is our yard, isn't it?" "I don't remember." "You don't remember?" "How does it happen that five and six foot trees can disappear and you don't remember?" "Did the swing set walk itself over to cover up the evidence?" He walks off.

Daughter doesn't remember - I'm not sure she is aware there is a back yard. Her days have become blurs of night shifts and sleeping.

Grandson looks at me blankly. Neighbor does not want to discuss it.

Clues? I look for stubs, none there - the only witnesses are not witnesses at all.

Odd the stub from the pine tree in the front of the house that fell during Ivan was removed as well. Hubby DOES remember that.

And, another mystery solved: The stately palms in pots on the front porch are missing. Hubby doesn't remember that either. Maybe there were long weeks at a girlfriend's house while I was gone and he really doesn't know? But grandson tells me they died and PawPaw bought new ones before I came home once, but they died too.

The gold fish died as well. No one can figure that out either. My guess is that living things need food to survive. And water. Plant food, animal food, people food. Ya think? However the pines were native pines - and very happy to live on whatever nutrients and rain they find in the environment.

Any thoughts? Perhaps Big Foot - travels through here at night ripping out trees, etc., and takes them home for his very own? Big Foot ate the fish? Vandalism? A confused fisherman, lost, not realizing the bay is only an hour's walk away? WERE MY TREES KIDNAPPED? Alien abduction?

Birthday Parties

It's nice being back, I can take grandson to birthday parties when mom works on weekends and can't. Montessori parents have these really great birthday parties for the kids because the parents all go and have fun too! These folks live on the water and yeh, this is their back yard. I didn't ask them about Ivan. People want to forget. They had a 17 foot waterslide that the adults had a blast on as well. The kids went solid for 5 hours, then the adults joined in. There were great eats, and the little birthday Prince and Princess were celebrated in a bang up way. What a party. From the slide, I think there was one bloody nose, one bloody knee but no visits to the ER. The kids were having so much fun, they didn't let a little blood get in the way! At my grandson's party, a little guy ran out prematurely to get pinata candy and got whacked in the forehead. So, next year, what can we plan that will be fun for all ages, and safe as well? The little fellow coming down the slide with the snorkle mask on was my grandson. Five hours of water slide wearing a snorkle mask that covers your nose and you have to breathe with your mouth open? Ah, don't ask. I didn't.

Leaving Egypt

Received my walking papers at work. Odd how some jobs turn out to be something entirely different than what they are portrayed to you before saying "yes." I found this one to be a "nose in the computer and numbers" job, and no time for interaction with anything but blurs and blurs of numbers. My boss even wanted me to stack my used envelopes in a certain manner after I opened them.

He trained me on some things as to how he wanted them done and other things he just threw on my desk or didn't give them to me at all and pouted when I didn't do what I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I could not get out gracefully (with my unemployment insurance returned to me) unless I agreed to stay another week so he could go on vacation. So if I was such a failure, why did he want me there to take care of things while he's gone? I don't get it.

I'm thinking I am just too old to be in an occupation I've always disliked - administrative work. I'm burned out. I wanted to be an artist, a dancer, a writer. My mother wanted me to be a secretary. I wanted to go to college. She wanted me to work immediately, to heck with planning for a career or future - that was not for her daughter. I don't get that either.

But, I just know I don't think I can go back there without heavy psychiatric meds. Back to Egypt. I have been praying - what next. What next. I can't do this anymore. There is a mystique that goes with working as a secretary, administrative assistant, etc. It is a mystique that demands one to be usually subservient (and I'm always happy to stay in the background) but there is such a thing as treating people decently and with respect, even if they work for you. My boss at the County treated me as an equal and a partner, not someone to bully. Girls, it gets worse when you get older.

This area is also weird for employment. The clinic where I had my back treated has had almost a complete turnover in their support staff of several - yes, women. I don't get it.

I still say, and this is a very UNpopular stance, the whole thing about not guarding our southern border like any other sane country does and being strict on immigration for more than the few (like Albanians, Cubans, etc. - why can't they hop on over?) is to break the wage structure in the U.S. They (corporations) have already broken the unions. They've broken the farmers. They've purchased the politicians.

So what's that got to do with Egypt. It is Egypt. When I went to Wyoming God told me (yeh, God talks to me) that I would be dancing "over all those graves." I thought, huh? Well, my people are buried there. There's one left living - my mother. And I didn't do any grave dancing. I just wanted to dig my relatives up and get them out of that hell hole when I left. The corrupt can have government. Maybe if I were younger I would have more fight left, I don't know.

Lately I've realized how much being there ended that romantic notion of "Wyoming" and my life that I left there in '79. It's over. Gone. That was in the first leaving. The return was going back to Egypt - to government that I used to love, to mountains I used to love, to the town I used to love, to my ancestors' ground - to find it all like a dead body full of worms. So, a second Exodus was necessary. There was much that was accomplished there however - God is always graceful and I don't think I was out of his plan for me. It's just that the book is closed...finally. So in a way it is a dancing over the graves of the past. I was blessed with learning a lot, and great new friends, a deeper understanding of my spiritual walk, and I had a couple of things I HAD to do.

So back in Florida, what do I do? I go to where I worked before I left here - and as soon as I sat down at the desk my guts started churning, knowing this was the wrong place. What had I done - made the trip back to Egypt AGAIN - how slow am I? I am gracefully extracted and quickly! I think God is telling me to go into business for myself. After next week, I'm beginning my web site in earnest. And art. And we'll see where it leads. At least I think I'm out of the "Red Sea" now - perhaps wondering in the wilderness, but at least on dry ground.

I'll work on school things with the little boy - maybe even talk mom into enrolling him in Karate and music....piano maybe...and I'll take him. I'll visit the older grandchildren who are growing too quickly...and not miss their lives. I try to pay more attention to their moms, my kids. To listen more. To listen to the outside, the birds, the big water, the rain.

So. It's good.

kitty kat

Grandson went to the circus and was so amazed to discover that housicus cattus can be trained. Does anyone know how to train a cat? I don't. I owned a persian once, they are more stubborn than any breed I've ever known. Look at this guy! (gal?)

Corn and Cars

Didn't go to the hospital and the dizziness has decreased. The reason I didn't go, little boy ccomplained of dizziness too - so dizzy is probably a wee virus. I'm just a scaredy cat because of recent events. Want to stand on mountains tops and scream "I want to live!"

I watched Mel Gibson's APOCALYPTO. It was great! I loved it - but in another life I would of been an anthropologist. All cultures and their history are so fascinating, I couldn't understand why no one would watch it with me. The costuming was splendid. The scenery stunning! The story - probably close to the real thing from what I've read. A lot of research went into the movie. Leave it to Mel Gibson - brilliant film maker. I have never seen such a depiction of the Mayan sacrifices before. Horrible. No wonder the culture died.

I kept thinking of Candy Minx's comments on the hunter-gatherer societies as I watched the movie. Then, at the very end, it starts a new story - that of the beginning of westernization in Central America, though the movie was actually filmed in a Mexico forest. At the beginning of the movie, and as it happens in all societies, war came - one society attacks another and carries off people (resources) to make slaves to do the hard work. (Didn't they ever hear of immigration?)

The line at the end of the movie was priceless - the explorers had arrived - the wife and mother looked up at her husband and said, shall we go down to them? His black eyes were serious - and he said, "No, we're going back to the forest." {sic}

Our society - I am reading about bees, about deforestation world wide consequences, pollination, about corn, about fuel, about the economy. Now, steak is $10.00 a pound or so. That's supposedly because 1/3 of the corn (a live stock feed staple, that and other cow's brains) is being used to develop and make fuel. That's it in a nutshell and I'm thinking, ok, the extremely wealthy barons and politicians are now controlling - our food pantries.

Because we are no longer villagers - we TRAVEL! (I commute 27 miles each way daily - no buses except inner city here) More blatant control over our lives than days of old. Our forefathers would not have stood for it. But history shows, it (control of economy by the rich) was beginning even back then! That's why the south stays mad at the north. No slave labor - well except wages are notoriously low here. There is sort of a lingering effect.

Anyway, back to corn: This, in turn, is affecting other markets as farmers switch their crops from soy, cotton, and others to more profitable corn crops. Again, I read that soy beans and corn are some of the more common genetically messed with crops. Do we really want to eat "modern" corn anyway?

And don't we sometimes yearn to stop the craziness, the complication, the wear and tear on earth, and just go back to being hunters and gatherers? Have we made that much progress anyway?

In re: my former place of work, I'm leaning toward letting the jackals just chew each others' legs off and preserving my own. Thanks for feedback...still not a 100% decision though.

Dizzy Introspection

Trying to do things today, but so dizzy I feel like I've been turning in circles as fast as I can. Ever do that as a little kid? I was dizzy while lying still in bed last night.

Trying to decide if I need to go to ER? Don't want to spend my day off up there, but in light of recent events I'm a little scared. If I go and ya don't hear from me, it means they have kept me. This time I'm taking a portable DVD player. And refusing transfusions from nurses that act like the one from "Cuckoo's Nest." In the mean time, my husband's health insurance has expired, but the new insurance has not kicked in, so I don't know if they will even admit me. I would not go, hoping it would eventually wear off but I dang near died even when I went last time.

First I have to clean up and sanitize poopy stain where Ms. Meowi relieved herself - wish I knew how cats think. She'll be really good and then out of nowhere - the assault upon my senses! Then after that episode, this morning she ran over my foot leaving deep claw marks, enough for blood to run on the floor. (You can tell a cat lover by their scars.) Right now she is staying away from me because I sure did yell at her. I wish there was some way to indulge in a love for animals absent pet hairs, vomit, poop & pee, wounds, and expense and a lot of work. I mean kids are work enough - but face it, they hit the toilet much more often than pets. And if a child wounded me, I would have the child at the therapist's office. How unsanitary are pets? I hate to think. How insane am I for having this menagerie. Maybe I should see the therapist.

I turned the one workplace into EEO. They say I have a definite case for age discrimination. Now, I'm wondering if I should go through with it. Half of me says, yes - they shouldn't be able to flaunt the laws. But they do it all the time in all categories, but that is not my job to make them obey laws. My job is to take care of myself. I'm still angry at them. But the other half of me tells me I need to get my strength back and get well and move on. I have the EEO papers on my desk looking at me. Other possibilities are that, even though I did nothing wrong, and served the entity and my boss and even the commissioners well, because of politics and viciousness they may come after me even though they know that I spoke the truth when they started after us politically. It has happened and continues to happen in that town. In politics, if you aren't in with the crowd of the moment, then you're trashed. Yet recently two long time residents who were/are embezzlers of other people's money (thousands and thousands) walk the streets and the Elk's club with what looks like immunity - but that's only my knowledge. Most people would be in jail though.

Oh, enough, I need to access the website for my husband's work and see if there are any instructions on how to get medical care when the store is saying they don't know if there is coverage.

Costa Rica

Candy Minx, once upon a time suggested I post some pics of Costa Rica. I wish I could find the camera disc with the sunsets on them, but here are some. My daughter is going back in July! Beginning with the airport terminal in Quepos and breakfast, enjoy!

Ya'll know anything about swate tay, bolled peanuts, or the pole-eece?

Folks, Ahm just proud ta know that my Wahoming drawhl has gone to the bottom of the pahl. When I first came here I couldn't understand anyone. My first boss ask me to poleeze ask for the spelling of names when people called. Anyway, here is my mix:

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English 25% Dixie 10% Yankee 5% Midwestern 5% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

The weekend is here, the weekend is here......

Can't think of much going on. Tonight, during the 40 minute minus or plus commute to work I listened to an interview with an author, Ross, who wrote "Everyman." Was interesting - I want to read it now.

A detour was necessary as it looked like a setup for a parade downtown. There is always something interesting to see. I pass this beauty shop/gallery almost everyday. I really enjoyed this Afro American painting. Whoever it is, is quite prolific. I think he sells quite a bit too!

I hope to get some beach sunshine this weekend. We'll see. I think I can walk more than normal now to get to a good spot, which for the last six months was shuffle, or walk then suffer a day or two. The physical therapy is going well. I just wonder how I will manage without the great machines they use, that have padded knee guards - which are really handy for people like me whose knee caps tend to twist off on a whim. In fact, those twisty knee caps have been a literal pain all my life. But the time I realized that type of problem could be fixed, I had so much damage in them that I wasn't ready to undertake the surgery and the time off work that it necessitated.

The physical therapist was a professional weightlifter. This is the first time I have used weights without pain. He's good. I try to get my daughters to go there for treatment - there is Antonio Banderas who runs the clinic, then this guy, who has longish wavy silver hair, a deep tan, muscles and blue eyes. Well, to be fair he is taken. He's a good one though, he calls all the old ladies "Sweetheart."

Antonio sits at his desk most of the time. He's not into much bone cracking, but is taken with all these wonderful machines that make one feel quite better.

I am reading four books on ADD/ADHD and one of them explains the value of alignment for our bodies, massage and the effects that the body has on the brain. We always think of it the other way around - at least I do. Body/brain is a two way street! I'm learning lots of interesting things some of which I already knew.

I'm so sad to say that the little boy has been diagnosed by a neuropsychologist. I get a sick feeling when I think of medications. He's very bright, but has memory problems and problems staying on task unless its computers, video games, or the TV and the latter two are not good things for any kid (too much of it anyway) let alone an ADD kid. And I wish his parents would quite giving him candy and cakes and ice cream. When I wasn't working, I had his diet cleaned up pretty well. I guess we will overcome, but for now I feel very sad about it.

Have a good weekend!