Hope is a thing with feathers, That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all.-Emily Dickenson

Monday, August 28, 2006

Where's a phone booth when you need one?

Last week was the week from hell. Our office was relocating. Because we were packing, organizing files, and uncovering 30 years of dust, dirt and grime... We were allowed to dress down. Great! The only problem for me is that I have been interviewing for a new job during my lunch hour upon occasion. One such occasion occured one day last week. Normally, I would have worn nice pants and a blouse and had a jacket in the car. That was not an option due to the nature of our work last week, so I thought I'd leave a few minutes early and change in a nearby McDonald's bathroom. Traffic was exceptionally horrendous that particular day and it took me 15 minutes to get near the McD's parking lot, but it was so crowded, I opted for plan B, which had not yet been developed. After several minutes of driving in the direction of my upcoming interview, I thought I'd change in the Starbuck's bathroom. It was only a block from my final destination. Did you know that Starbuck's on 5th and Muhammad Ali does not have a bathroom? The Galt House, however, right next door does. So, here I go parading through the Galt House carrying a suit... Not a big deal, it's a hotel. I change clothes, have no time to make it back to my car to drop off jeans, t-shirt and tennies, so I cram them into a plastic Kroger bag and stash it in a corner in one of the last stalls and hope for the best upon my return. I make it to my 12:30 interview at 12:27, and all is well except for the distracting concern that the FBI, CIA, or bomb squad might be investigating the mysterious bag left in the Galt House bathroom. I was imagining having to call a friend to bail me out of jail. When I returned, fortunately, everything was as I had left it. It merely left me thinking that Superman had it so easy with all those phone booths available.

Monday, August 21, 2006

I can read!

I have been unable to successfully read a book from cover to cover in over 5 years. I have always enjoyed reading, even as a young'un, but have seemingly had an aversion to it lately.

I set the task before my friend Dott of finding a book that I could make it through. She succeeded, and I have completed two dott recommends books since!
She started me out gently on Hoot, a young adult novel by Carl Hiaasen. I had never read any of his books before, but had always heard great things. This was a perfect start for me, as it takes place in Florida (my origins), it's about birds (my obsession), and is quite humorous(my need as of late).

That eased me in to the next pick, Lamb; The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal Absolutely hilarious! I think this is the funniest book I have ever read. As Christ has to remain pure, Biff goes out and experiences the world and tells the Messiah all about it. While Jesus learns about the Bhagavad Gita, Biff learns about the Kama Sutra, they then exchange lessons. Here's a bit I found immensely enjoyable:

While Biff has been studying the Kama Sutra, he has learned to replicate the illustrations very well. Here, he and Jesus (called Joshua) discuss the fact that his drawings are improving.

"I'm using the calligraphy techniques we learned in the monastery, only using them to draw figures. Josh, are you sure it doesn't bother you, talking about this stuff when you'll never be allowed to do it?"
"No, it's interesting. It doesn't bother you when I talk about heaven, does it?"
"Should it?"
"Look, a seagull!"
Thanks, Dott! I am presently working on my third "dott recommends"!

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Graphic Content! Read at your own risk!

Why do I have pets?

You will find no photos here; most of you will be happy about that, I think.

My cat, my beautiful, sweet, loving kitty... Kills other animals. I try to be a good parent and let her do what she needs to do for her own growth, so I turn my head the other way when I see her dining on some lifeless creature. The rules are, as long as she leaves no evidence of what she has done, we get along well. I do intervene if I see her stalking another animal. I usually try to shew the otherwise unaware creature away before it meets is demise. That's as involved as I generally get.

Recently, while out in the yard, here she comes, proud as can be, bringing me a common grackle. That's a fairly sizeable catch for my smallish cat. I stopped in my tracks, trying to decide what to do. I quickly realized the bird was still alive... This upsets me considerably! I then am in a quandary... Do I try to save the bird, is it to late? Will I only prolong its suffering? Much to my relief, Smudge the creature killing cat, paused to look at me just long enough that the bird wriggled free and flew away... Hopefully far, far away!

I have found baby opossums lying around in the yard, not merely "playing" 'possum. I have assumed that she was the culprit, although there has never been any evidence to suggest that... So, I don't blame her outright, I simply remove the carcass from the yard and try to push it from my memory as quickly as possible.

A few months ago, while company was heading out the door, we nearly tripped over a baby opossum that was seemingly strategically placed inside the house in the doorway. Not only was I devastated, I was also embarrassed that my company had to see the remnants!

It gets worse, folks.

Today... Horror of horrors! I am taking a peaceful nap. The dogs are resting, the cat is out doing her cat things, and I am unaware, life is good.
Taci (oldest dog) heads outside and starts barking, Joey (youngest dog) runs to check it out, and begins barking as well ... Nothing out of the ordinary, so I attempt to doze back off to sleep. Taci remains outside barking. Joey, barks frantically for a moment, I am beginning to wonder if I have company, he then quickly becomes quiet and runs into the house and under the bed. As he likes it under there, I am not yet alarmed. I try to relax again, and realize Taci is still barking, yet Joey seems un-interested in the ruckus. That's when I get a little concerned. I hear back-ground noise of dog-licking... One of those things you get use to when you have dogs. Taci is the one who has compulsive licking habits, yet he is still outside barking.
I peer over the foot of the bed to see Joey's butt sticking out from under the bed. He indeed is licking something. I try to look under the bed, it's dark under there and Joey is blocking any available light from entering. I can't see, so I try to push Joey out of the way a bit... He growls at me. Never has he growled at me... I realize he thinks I am trying to steal his prey. OH MY GOD, he has PREY under MY BED! I see legs and a patch of gray fur. I am now FREAKED out. I don't want to deal with this... What am I going to do? I have a dead (hopefully) creature under my bed that my dog is having for dinner!! I head to the door, grab my keys and call Joey (in dog language, that means "Wanna go for a ride").
He finally heads to the door, I am sure I am yelling, although I can't hear myself, Joey's cowering stance is indicative of such. He's confused. Somehow, I manage to get myself together enough to speak to him in excited, non-threatening tones and somehow actually, effectively communicate to him to go get "it"... "Come on, go get it... Joey go get it and bring it outside... Good boy... That's it! Get it... Bring it here.. Come on, Joey! GOOD BOY!" He ACTUALLY got it out from underneath the bed and took it outside. He then begins to EAT this poor innocent baby rabbit . I start gagging and yelling at the same time(quite a feat, let me tell you), Joey is WAY confused now. I somehow got Joey away from the carcass, and was able to pick it up with a plastic bag and pitch it over the fence into the brush pile... Where the opossum graveyard is.
I assume my cat actually was the original perpetrator, and Joey just stole her prize... She was wandering around loudly meowing during all of the excitement. Sheesh! Again, I'll ask... Why do I have pets? Someone please remind me!

Not exactly the kind of company I had hoped for after being awakened from my "most proper of naps".

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Meet Roxie!



I am shamelessly promoting my friend Leslie's relatively new website (I'm a little slow, it's been up and running for a few months, sorry for the delay Leslie)!

If you are looking to buy or sell a home, this is the place to go! ...and even if you aren't, it's a fun site to check out. And besides, Roxie's hot!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Have I ever blogged about my obsession with vultures?

Here are some photos I took in June at the Sacred Vulture Tree of an undisclosed location.




How time flies; whether you are having fun or not!

Unbelievably, it has been over two months since my last posting. Recently inspired by the excitement my friend Melanie has been exuding over the creation of her new blog, here I am finally making an entry.

It seems I fell into a pit of depression and mucked around there for a bit. More on that in a future post.

General life update: I wasn't selected for that silly radiology program that I didn't want anyway, although the rejection was initially devastating. Why is it that I seem to want what I can't have and sometimes really don't even want in the end anyway. A friend says it's often all in how we label things in our minds. I definately could use some new labels. Maybe I could simply re-label to say "I don't really want that anyway", and move along.

That sounds good in theory, but I tend to hang onto things so tightly and so long that I smother and squeeze the life right out of whatever the subject may be. Funny, I lack discipline in every area of my life except for clinging to things that are not meant to be.

You know, blogging is so much cheaper than therapy... and often just as revealing for me, or in this case, of me.