Artzy Carmen’s Neighborhood

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Is this happening to anyone else?

Nacwolin
2 hours ago
2 comments

I haven't been receiving email notifications for comments, private messages, etc. This has been the case for a day or two, maybe longer.

Has this been happening to anyone else?

I sent a note to feedback, but it is the weekend, so...

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else was experiencing this.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In other news, I guess I kind of went AWOL again, eh?

I've been reading and commenting, but I haven't posted anything, except to a fitness group I joined (but that is a private group).

I was working on something earlier in the week - a devotional type of thing - but I haven't finished it. Perhaps this weekend.

I haven't slept well the past two nights either. I can tell Rob's concerned about the viability of the company he works for, and that type of stuff is never any fun. And as much as I hate to admit it, that stuff impacts me, my moods, etc.

(Hello, my name is Nicole, and I am a teensy bit high strung...)

As for good things, how about that Office finale!?

Very cool. But can't believe we have to wait until September to get some closure/answers.

Work continues to go well. I am really appreciated for the things I do, which is such a lovely change from where I used to work. I guess they did appreciate me - at least some - and a few would say so, but not at the level they tell me and show me here.

It is such a nice change.

The countdown to the last day of school has begun - less than 2 weeks now. I am happy about that. It doesn't look like The Daughter will get to start work at the summer camp until the last day of June, though. She is pretty bummed, but unless the enrollment doubles in the next 2 weeks, they just won't need her till then.

OH! We planned our vacation - a short one this year, but we are still going to get a few days away. We are going to Virginia Beach for two nights, then we'll travel a bit inland to stay near where most of our friends live for two nights. I found us an okay (*fingers crossed*) place right on the beach with two beds and a sofa bed. I've read that the rooms are small, and I am sure this will be nothing like the Hilton where we stayed last year for free (yay for hotel rewards), but since we are paying for it, we had to downgrade a bit. And we don't plan on spending much time in the room anyway.

I guess that about covers the latest in these parts!

And now since I am still in my pjs, I suppose I ought to remedy that and move away from this computer...

#50

Kelly
2 hours ago
2 comments

Finished The Unspoken by Thomas Fahy. Pretty good, nothing spectacular. It's about six teens who are the sole survivors of a mass cult death. (They killed the leader after he poisoned all their parents.) It's five years later and his last prophecy (that they would all die five years later) is starting to come true.

Not sure what's up next. There are a lot of options.

About Birds And Stuff--Part 3

R.G. Ryan
4 hours ago
5 comments

The other day java janie commented on me hanging out at St. Arbuck's when the temperature is in the triple digits: "I don't even know that I could even think about coffee, let alone drink it in that kind of heat!"

Well, Janie my friend, the way you drink coffee when it's 115 is one sip at a time. :-)

And lately the mornings have only been in the mid to high seventies.

Lovely.

Like yesterday morning.

My beloved and I were, as is our custom, sitting on the patio at St. Arbuck's--she waging her daily war against the sudoku puzzle (and usually winning) and I reading about the continual collapse of the housing market and other good news.

Peering over the top edge of the paper I spied a sparrow--young by the looks of him--standing a foot or so away from a piece of bagel the size of my fist!

He seemed too stunned to even move.

I could almost hear his thoughts: "Dude, I've found the mother lode!"

I mean that bagel represented enough food to last the rest of his life; a piece of pastry that was larger by far than his own compact little bird body.

As I lowered my paper and sipped my coffee, he looked behind him, over the top of the bagel; he looked over at me as if to say, "Can you believe this?"

Then reality seemed to set in and he glanced upward toward the Mesquite tree's canopy.

He looked at the bagel, then at the tree, then back to the bagel, back and forth, back and forth.

Finally he hopped a bit closer to the gigantic food source and kind of nudged it with his beak as if trying to gauge its weight.

He couldn't even budge it, so there was no way he was carrying it up into the tree.

I could almost hear him thinking, "This is just wrong on so many levels!"

Unbelievably, all this time he had been the only bird in sight.

A bit of fluttering motion from off to the left and a birdie buddy dropped into the scene, looked at his friend, the bagel, his friend.

They both hopped over and nudged the beastly bagel, which, even with their combined efforts wasn't going anywhere.

Finally the original sparrow pecked at the bagel dislodging a crumb, which he immediately consumed.

His buddy joined him and before long they were both pecking away and enjoying a feast.

At one point he kind of looked over at me as if to say, "You want some?"

And of course I replied, "No, dude, I'm good."

Within another minute there were a half-dozen sparrows surrounding the bagel all of whom were following the first sparrow's lead, including a mother who would peck off a crumb, chew it for a minute and drop it into the waiting mouth of her very young baby bird.

It wasn't long before all those birds were kind of standing around looking at each other with bulging gullets saying, "I just can't eat another bite. You take it."

"Nah, man, if I have anymore I'm gonna' puke!"

The funny thing was, the bagel was hardly diminished at all from its original size.

Just then, the bully of the patio, a black bird, showed up to take over, only the sparrows moved willingly, slowly, aside saying, "Hey, knock yourself out big fella."

He looked at them hesitantly at first as if considering the possibility that it may be a trap, but within a few seconds he was pecking away at the beast, ultimately dislodging a portion that with his superior size and strength could be easily carried to the branches above.

Maybe I just need to get a life, but I found the whole episode amazingly poignant.

I mean it's highly likely that the bagel was more food than any of those sparrows had ever seen at one time. So much food that it couldn't even be stored. So what to do? Well, you break it down into smaller portions, eat it on the spot--you eat your fill. You enjoy every bite and worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes, even going so far as to share the excess with a sworn enemy.

I looked at my wife and kind of shook my head.

She said, "What?"

"I love birds," I replied, returning my attention to the business section where I read about the dollar's continued slide against the Euro.

RG...out!

She was beautiful, in all the ways that matter. And more.

Here's my Mom -- when she was in the Coast Guard (WWII).

Mom, in the service of her country.

Wisdom Teeth Extraction!

Yesterday, I had my two bottom wisdom teeth out (and last ones in my mouth). Kyle drove me over there, stayed with me for the hour and a half and drove me home. He stopped at the drug store to get the drugs and took care of me when we got home.

I stopped bleeding pretty quickly. The pain medication didn't kick in right away so I know I have a lot of pain but with the meds finally kicking in, the pain isn't too bad. I think I'm even going to go to the Ladies Day Retreat from 10-5 today. Someone else is driving because the pain meds make me sleepy. I'm going to ask someone in the car (of 3 other women) to keep an eye on me and if I look piqued and tired, to make sure I lay down a while. The only thing that will be hard to finding something soft to eat that I don't have to do much chewing. That makes me feel the pain even if the meds are working!

Do I still have wisdom? I'll let you be the judge! Last night between "sleeps" the song from Heehaw was going through my mind, the one titled: "Gloom, Despair, and Agony On Me. The song is so depressing I decided to come up with my own version. Here's the real song for those of you who are too young for Heehaw:

Gloom, despair, and agony on me.
Deep, dark depression; excessive misery
If it we're for bad luck
I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me

This is my version (maybe still in the editing stage):

When a Holy Spirit burden comes on us
Deep intercession and praying is a must
When we seek the Father
Satan loses ground!
Takes worshiping Jesus and a lot of trust

You have to work to make it fit the song rhythm but it is a much better focus than the original one.

Well, what do you think? Did I gain more wisdom?

My Sweetie wears his heart on his shoulder

Yay! I FINALLY got some good pix of Sweetie's "heart" -- !!!

See his heart?

I *heart* Sweetie!

And then he'd had enough of the camera -- there was a bunny outside. Much more interesting!

Bunny Alert!

dream a little dream

Ginger_sister
14 hours ago
2 comments

A friend of mine challenged me, yesterday, to remember that my story hasn't been written yet. It has gotten me thinking.
Actually a lot of things have gotten me thinking.
What is my story? What is my dream?
I admit, I've been fairly myopic over the past number of years, and I know why, to some extent. Part of it was the journey I was on; part of it was because I don't trust hope, finding it a very dangerous commodity when your heart is fragile; but mostly because I don't really know what/who I want to be when I 'grow up'.
Moving to England has been a big desire for me for a while, not news to most of you, but it has, in many ways, been an excuse to remain stagnant. As a result I'm often the one who can be relied on to cover the bases, to pick up the pieces, to bring support, and sacrifice, and deep inside I've been crying "What about me? Can anyone see the me beyond what I can do?"
I'm beginning to realize that this is, in many ways, my fault. I have allowed myself to come to this place because I've forgotten how to dream. I've forgotten that there could be more to my life than a potential move.
I've really done a good job taking on other people's dreams, almost convincing myself that they're mine. I've gotten passionate about things that I long to see happen, because I need to be passionate, but none of them are things I can take ownership of. I've even gone so far as to ask my siblings "If I went back to college, what do you think I should study?"
The truth of the matter is, I could do many things well, I could have a smörgåsbord of options, however, Just because I can, doesn't mean I should.
Just because I can, doesn't mean it's mine.
What's my dream? Do I even know how to dream any more? I can't continue to appropriate others' dreams and be happy, it doesn't work that way.
I've also realized something else.
I've got to stop trying to not be a trailblazer. This is me. I think I've been joining with other people's vision because I don't want to embrace that I am to be a pioneer. I've experienced a fair amount of pain on that part of the journey so far, and so therefore, subconsciously, I've backed away from leadership of this sort because I am tired of pain.
I think I realized that running from who I am causes pain too.
It's good to have this realization, but I don't even know where to go from here. How do I start to dream again? How do I stop viewing hope as dangerous? How do I stir the waters? How do I step out as a leader again, but on my terms, on God's terms, and not as I'm expected to?
I haven't a clue, but staying here isn't an option. It's killing me.

Friday the 13

Kelly
Yesterday
5 comments

Heard about this new group that posts 13 things every Friday and I figured I'd try it. So this week's topic is 13 things that I'm happy/excited about...

1) My upcoming vacation--I'm off Monday-Friday and I'll be back in the 'bury for a few days of hanging out with friends and family, sleeping and eating those glorious seafood skins from Market Street. And since I'll be at Market Street anyway, the odds of me partaking of a martini or three? Very good indeed.

2) Next Tuesday (the 27th), Jen will be on Jeopardy. I feel like it's been so long since I saw the taping, and I'm excited to watch the episode again. (I'll be at work but I'm DVRing it--how awesome is it that I can watch it every time I miss her?!)

3) This week, I get to watch season finales of all my shows. It's sad that after Thursday, they'll all be gone, but meanwhile? Two hours of Desperate Housewives and Grey's, plus a usual-sized farewell to Gossip Girl, OTH and How I Met Your Mother. Oh, my cup runneth over.

4) And since the regular season is over, that means that we're getting really close to the return of Weeds and Big Love. And if you know me at all, you know that the return of Weeds is worth anything. :)

5) I'm doing really well on the DVD project. I've only watched 32 movies, but I've watched the special features for over 200 movies. (201, if we're being specific.) So far, almost everything has been really, really fun. I've also amused myself by doing the singalong features on My Best Friend's Wedding and The Wedding Singer.

6) I only have to deal with one more sweeps story (on Monday). And then we don't do sweeps again until November. To which I say "huzzah."

7) There are so many good books to read out now. I have a huge amount to read, and I'm falling behind (thank you, DVD project) but I'm doing the best I can. I plan on taking a whole bunch back to Salisbury with me and maybe I can get caught up. (Of course, I'm also bringing my portable DVD player and some movies, so we'll see which wins.)

8) Amazon's awesome TV on DVD sale. I just bought seasons 3 and 4 of Melrose Place for $10 less than normal. For the unitiated, season 3 is the one where we meet Brooke and where Kimberly kidnaps Jo's baby, then goes even crazier and blows up the apartment complex and season 4 is the one where Brooke dies and where Kimberly...well, goes back to her usual semblance of sanity. I also have the first three seasons of 90210 (the high school years) and I have to decide if I want to keep going with the series. The first three seasons are the best, but I'm a completist and also, I love Susan and Claire.

9) Speaking of 90210, I am very excited about the fact that the CW has a spinoff of it in their fall lineup. AND that Kelly (and maybe Donna) will be involved. :) My childhood self is doing cartwheels.

10) There is actually food in my kitchen. This is a minor miracle, because generally there's only popcorn, water and soda here. But now? There's food. I have apples and pears, sandwich stuff, frozen dinners, meat to cook...it's almost an embarrassment of riches here. :) Also there's salt and vinegar Pringles and, for the various season finales, ice cream. It's awesome. :)

11) We are approaching (very slowly) the August horror con. Spending time with Katie is always fun but this time I get to meet Chris Sarandon and Michael Biehn and every time I think about it, I spaz out a little.

12) And by the time we get to the horror con, I will have read Breaking Dawn, the last Twilight novel. And I probably will have cried at least twice. (And if Edward doesn't turn Bella into a vampire, I am calling shenanigans on all of it.)

13) Still totally gobsmacked in the best possible way by the Office finale. I love that show.