And remembered…

…we were in my mom's kitchen…

03 July 82

My sister-n-law had the chaplain set us up for this photo and she kept flashing me the "ok" hand sign, which would make me laugh.  I didn't realize she was wanting me to flash it over my new and darling husband's shoulder with our wedding license on his back.

I also learned that everyone does not really "kiss the bride" that day…

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Sometimes when people ask me what kinda of dog I have and I answer a Great Pyrenees and they say they don’t know that breed — but they almost always remember those old Sam the Sheepdog cartoons.

Here is Sam
sitting on the cliff
watching over his sheep
ever alert for danger
(danger = Ralph)
keeping watch
Here is Lily
sitting on the edge of the deck
ever alert for any leaf
that blows in the wind
…six blocks over.

Okay.  Sometimes Lily keeps a lazy watch:

Lily still keeping watch...

Honestly?  I think she’s just exhausted of all the barking she does at every leaf that blows in the wind six blocks over!

And here’s a treat — one of Sam and Ralph’s cartoons:

Today is mother’s day and I have no mother to call, but I’m dealing okay with that.  I woke up from an afternoon nap to discover my son had sent me a text message, "Happy Mom’s Day."  And then a couple of hours later his darling girl friend arrived with a bouquet of flowers from the two of them.  How sweet is that!  And there were so many flowers I even made up a little vase, too!

Happy Mom's Day                    Happy Mom's Day

And LInda sent me another Sunshine award, too!  (Thanks, LInda!)

Tomorrow is my first day at the new job.  I’m excited and nervous.

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article I might be a manipulator.

NOT.

If I could selectively control my memory I would do a much better job of it.  Like, firstly, I’d forget every bad thing that ever happened and affected me in a negative way.  I got a million of those.

I would forget what different pains feel like. 

I wouldn’t forget when a bill was due to be paid.

See, yesterday I forgot I had a meeting to go to — I missed a meeting because I had it in my head that the meeting was today.  Tuesday.  Oh, I knew the meeting was on the 14th and at 2:30, but I had that day in my head as being a TUESDAY.  Today.

I can’t even manipulate my dog, pholks.

If I could manipulate (TRAIN) my dogs properly I would totally become a professional dog trainer

And I would be the best dog trainer ever, and people would hire me from all over the world, and pay my first class airfare and presidential hotel accommodations, in addition to the very large fees they would pay me!

Yeah, I let you know how that works out for me…

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Like I did today.  I heard an old Joni Mitchell song and it made me think of my Mom.

And I missed her.

I don’t know why a Joni Mitchell song would bring such a strong feeling of my Mom to the surface.  She didn’t even listen to Joni Mitchell.

It was Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson my mother listened to.

Thanksgiving dinner was a big deal with my Mom.  She always made out her menu weeks before and would shop for goods up until the very day before.

She always made too much of too many different things to eat.  Seriously.  She’d have like 15 items on the table and a turkey with all the trimmings, too!  And then there would be 2 or 3 pies — and a pineapple upsidedown cake.

Pineapple upsidedown cake. 

I never cared for it until the last Thanksgiving I remember her making it.  I don’t even know why I cut myself a slice.

It was delicious.  It melted in my mouth.  It was so good.

I did my Thanksgiving meal shopping this morning after I dropped darling hubby off at his office.  It will be just him and me for dinner.  Darling son will be his girlfriend’s family — but he will still be expecting leftovers at home for the rest of the week.

My Dad is driving up from the big O to have dinner at my brother’s — then he is driving back home.  He is not even staying overnight.  It’s my plan to pop over for a quick visit before he leaves.

I thought about him.  Driving up by himself and then back.  Alone.  And back home to his empty house.

My Mom cooked for my Dad.  Every meal was about my Dad.  Sometimes she would say she’d made this or that because one of us, her children, favored it — but she really cooked for my Dad. 

I never cook like my Mom.  We’re having turkey and like 5 other things with it tomorrow.  I did get two pies from a local charity sale and I’m baking them tonight (actually hubby is doing it for me).  Pumpkin and Cherry.

My Mom and I talked on the phone at least once a week — for hours.  And then she went into the hospital.  She was hooked up to a respirator and oxygen for the months and months she was in the hospital.  I only got to hear her speak once more in all that time.  It was only for a few minutes when the nurse came in, took her off everything, and then stood by at the ready in case being off all the equipment was too much…

I could barely hear her.  I imagine it was because her throat was incredibly dry.  I can’t remember what she said.

Oh, God.  I can’t even remember what she said.

I mourned my Mom every day she was in the hospital.  I mourned over the loss of our telephone calls.  Oh, I could call and talk to Mom, but she couldn’t talk back. 

I wrote to her in the hospital until my Dad complained about how long it took him to read the letters to my Mom — and about the crazy way I would spell some words.  So I stopped writing her.

I don’t know who I hate more for that.  Prolly me.  I shoulda just said, "fuck you, Dad."  And kept on writing her long letters with lots of crazy spelled words.

I knew she wasn’t coming home ever again.  I knew. 

I am still so angry at her.  She was supposed to live into her nineties.  Her mother did.  My grandparents did.  They lived long lives.  Mom didn’t even make it to seventy.

I missed my Mom today.

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… were home alone the past two days and I wasn’t sick!  She is recovering from her spay surgery.  Hump.  We all should recover so well.  I’ve had to crate her a few times because she was getting too rowdy (playing with Mini or Gracie) and I was afraid she would rip open her stitches.  In the crate she go promptly to sleep.

Except for late this afternoon when she decided it would be a good time to rip open her bed, tear off pieces of the inner foam, and shred them.  Yeah, I think she may have bored.

Living with 70 pound six and half month old puppy is a whole different kinda life than we had with Emma

Emma was so small, delicate looking, and quiet.  Lily is big, clumsy, and loud!  LOUD! 

Lumbering Lily.

And Lily barks.  A really big bark.  BARK!  BARK!  BARK!  And then she ends all her barking with some grumblling.  It is just so funny!

You look at her and you think "dog," but then you watch her for a few minutes and realize "puppy." 

A big giant awesome puppy!

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Read this:  How to Moonwalk like Michael 

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…in September.

I’ve not made up my mind yet.

I did tell Renee that I’d go for her, in case she needed moral support, but honestly — she’s the bravest person I’ll ever know.  I’d just be being there because she can so take care of herself. 

Is there anyone I want to see?

Idunno.

I’ve been trying to think of anyone.  Special.

I’ve run into old high school pholks from time to time and I was pleased to see them.  I’m thinking maybe that’s the best way for me.  A one on one kind of reunion.

I’m just such a homebody.  It’s my favorite place to be.  Ask anyone who knows me.  I’m a stay at home kinda gal…

I was only in a couple of clubs and mucked about in the theatre group a bit.  I just wasn’t much of a joiner…

I didn’t go to ball games except maybe once for basketball and once a baseball game.  Pretty much because one of my friends had a crush on someone playing.

I wasn’t very scholarly at all.  Most subjects I just got by from what soaked in during class.  Oh there were some things I put my heart into, but because they interested me, not because someone was making me participate.  It seemed whenever I truly attempted to be a "student" I’d get chastised for trying to fit in somewhere I didn’t belong; or told it was a little too late for me to be taking this education thing seriously.

No one at home pushed me to excel in school — except in appearance.  All aspects of appearance.  Written papers were to be flawless in their penmanship or not worthy of any review.  Neatness wasn’t requested — perfection was demanded.  Like perfection could ever be truly achieved.

Excellence, yes.  Perfection?  Are you kidding me?

And then there was personal appearance.  The one subject assigned to me beginning in the third grade at the grand old age of eight.  It was not an elective.  I was not given a choice between personal appearance or childhood.  I was not even given guidance.  It was just expected that I should already know.  And striving for one or the other meant I failed at both of them.  Miserably.

Intellectually, I bloomed in college.  I was so surprised to find out I even had a brain that worked (because I was such an idiot while growing up — I was told so all the time) that when the capacity of my intelligence was truly revealed?  I went into such a downward spiral I became certifiably committable.

And it was such intelligence that saved me from myself.

I am still in recovery.

And smart enough to wish I were smarter….

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Which is at the top of your suffering list…

I’m sitting in a Charbucks at the KY Clinic waiting for an appointment with my PCP.  We’re gonna talk migraines and ingrown toenails.  I think.

I’ve never had an ingrown toenail so I don’t know if that is what the problem is.  It’s sore and numb at the same time.  There seems to be a blister like redness upon much of the toe below the toenail.

Honestly it’s the mirgraine, but I had to bring up the toe for content.  LOL.  The toenail thing is just annoying and I thought I’d kill two birds and all that crap.

The problem with a lot of migraine meds is you can’t take them if your taking this or that.  And I take two of those.  Crap.  I thought about wearing my ice bag on my head while here in the clinic.  What better place not to look outta place with an ice bag on your head, right?

So I got a regular coffee and the biggest oatmeal cookie I’ve ever seen in my life.  I’d take a picture and post it, but I’ve already eaten half of it.  Okay, two thirds…

The thing about the coffee is they don’t really give you enough room for the cream.  Or whole milk.  I like my coffee light.  I’m having to drink some of it just to be able to add enough milk.  And it had to cool first.

I can’t believe I’m writing this crap. 

I brought some note cards, too.  Figured I’d get on some thank you notes I’ve been putting off writing.  They should be less painful than staring at this computer screen.  The Charbucks area is dark enough, it’s the screen.  THE SCREEN.

Oh my eyes.  Oh my head.  OMG.  What a bunch of crap I’m typing in.

This is me, putting off writing those cards.  Still.

I think my laptop eats my battery power up faster when I’m on the net.  I also think it has something to do with the glowing apple on the case…

A good thing about being here is that my husband was able to park in the gararge connected to the clinic where he works instead of the one so…far…away.  You can do that when you have an appointment here.  Or your wifey does.

I had a dream last night that like a bunch of teeth on the right side of my mouth came out.  All at once, and connected.  And then when I turned the mass of teeth over instead of roots there was this alarming collection of little baby teeth with roots, and there was not pain.

I have amazing dreams like that.  The other day I awoke from this awesome dream about mass flooding and everyone trying to get to some place higher.  And I was everywhere in this dream (as usual) in a factory trying to climb some pallets so I could get out a window and upon the roof; trying to climb high into a tree; running up a hill.  Thing is, even in your dreams, if you can see the water coming it’s already too late.

I remember when I was a kid and some other kid was telling a bunch of us that if you dream about dying in your sleep then you die in real life.  And everyone was like really impressed with that kid’s knowledge and I was all — how would you know that was why they died in their sleep?

Big Mistake.  After I explained —WHICH SHOULD HAVE IMPRESSED THE HELL OUTTA ALL OF ‘EM — instead they dwindled away from me. 

It was pretty much the same when I was in class and we were watching an animation of one of the Apollos orbiting earth’s atmosphere and I blurted out that what we were seeing wasn’t real, that it’s a cartoon none of them got it.  They all thought I was saying the Apollo wasn’t real, that trip to the moon wasn’t real.  I couldn’t get them to understand that there was no ship flying behind the Apollo filming the Apollo orbiting the earth.

I should write a book about how I’m always so misunderstood.

P.S.  I had a dream not too long ago where I was shot point blank in the head and died.  I’m still here.

Proof.  Proof!  PROOF!

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