As a perfect ending to a really great vacation, I found the time to process a number of the pictures that have been languishing in my camera. I also found the time to learn a new technique.
Now I realize it's all brain chemicals, but for me learning new things produces an almost euphoric sense of well-being... Almost like mainlining Godiva... 'I've LEARNED something! All is well... I am at peace with my twisted inner drive to accomplish... SOMEthing...'
... but I think i'm finally relaxed...
There's a gentle smile on my face as the energy turns in a slow spiral...
And even though I hold out my hands in a characteristic open, palms outward, arms raised pose no one seems to notice...
And to think, I used to have to go hide in the closet to be alone with my thoughts and my stars and my energy...
And the color blue...
How can anyone not be greatful for the color blue... and laughter... and singing... and high cliffs and lonely girls... and the color blue...
And the color blue...
| Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP) |
 Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving. |
I don't know what YOU talk about over the breakfast table but since we are in the Green Mountains on a ski vacation, our conversation naturally went toward skis and ski equipment... Maybe I should get my skis tuned... I like that wax that doesn't have to be melted... These rental skis are too soft... But really those are better in the bumps, even though they skitter over the flat surfaces... How it's all a trade-off... It was all going so well, and then...
'It's funny how you can easily predict that all this will happen through simple mechanical engineering.'
Simple mechanical engineering... you know... the stuff you study right after 'play-doh sculpture' and right before 'food that sticks to the ceiling'... I think I must've skipped over it because I'm... um... gifted... yeah... gifted...
It's all just 'beam bending' you know... You can take a whole course in beam bending...
'There's beams supported at both ends, there's cantilevered beams, beams supported in the middle...'
Feel my pain...
(If you need me I'll be on the internet looking up the the definition of 'cantilevered' (ok that's not really true because SOMEONE already demonstrated it using a pepper shaker and a spoon :p ))
I guess just means it takes longer to freeze your A@# off...
It IS gloriously beautiful though...
If you're a white middle-class liberal, and you have the unusual ability to laugh at yourself go here.
If you're not a white middle-class liberal (and let's face it, how likely are you to be reading this?) then you can go there, but don't laugh at the white people (we're sensitive)...
If you're a white middle-class liberal who wants to preserve your sense of decorum and pride, run far far away (don't say I didn't warn you)...
I have to go take a shower now cause I wet myself laughing... (and cringing)...
Editorial side note: I had to roll my eyes at some of the comments... I guess it doesn't matter what ethnicity you are, if you can make fun of someone who's different than you, you can feel better about yourself...
Second editorial side note: I had to point out to my (asian) husband that he is, in reality, white (and now I've gone down a path of spiral thinking whereby I question every THINK I thought i was thinking (I have a headache))...
HA!
I didn't trip on the stage when I went to accept my diploma...
I didn't trip on my wedding dress going down the aisle...
When I think back to the important moments in my life there is never any tripping...
There is never any falling...
There are no embarassing moments...
Oh no...
Those wait for there to be no visible reason for them to happen...
Then they sneak up on me...
Like this afternoon when I was gliding effortlessly down a wide easy blue trail...
When suddenly for no reason at all...
I'm upside down in a pile with snow down my neck and all my equipment is somewhere in the next state...
Everything hurts... Even my hair...
:p
It's spring it's spring...
I can breathe again...
I can breathe
Again...
It's time to fly back home...
:D
photo: Googled
Q: How can you tell you're about to have a really bad plumbing day??
Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that phrase is a harbinger of doom for all kinds of days...
In fact, I'm not sure I can come up with ANY kind of day that would be improved by having to get the sawZall... Just the fact that it's CALLED a sawZall ought to tell you something about the kind of day you're about to have...
sigh...
(It's really bad when they say 'Oh SH$&!' after using the sawZall isn't it?? I thought so...)
Um last I checked cats are carnivores...
I need to beg borrow or steal their client list and figure out if I need to move...
'Cause there's a full scale kitty revolt coming, I'm sure of it...
Ok to be fair, I read the FAQ and the people running the site seem to have a good attitude:
If all the vegans out there who are worried about feeding their cats a vegan diet would instead strive to feed them a partially vegan diet, the collective benefit to animals would be tremendous. For this reason we believe that advising people to give their cats a mix of vegan and meat food is not only not hypocritical and anti-vegan, it is actually the most moral, ethically consistent, vegan position that we can possibly hold at the present time.
But some of the questions coming in... DAMN people... cats need meat...
...than sliding into your own bed after more than 24 hours awake and two weeks away?
I don't think so...
It's 6:15am where I am right now, and it's 10:45am at my destination...
But my PC is stubbornly insisting it's just after midnight...
I just have to stay awake until I get to the hotel...
13 or 14 hours from now :p
Why did I think a 5 hour layover was a good idea??
Oh wait... I didn't...
:p
Oh! And due to a SERIOUS mis-calculation on my part... I'm stuck here for 5 hours with only about 90 minutes left of laptop power... (why didn't I drop the damn power adapter in my purse!!!)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a to-do list as long as my arm LISTING all the things I need TO DO (hence the clever origin of the name) to get ready for this trip, and I spent the greater part of the weekend trying to plough my way through it. (Status: 15 down, 4 in process, 6 to go)
Meanwhile, I was also waiting for the latest pictures of the spotted jungle guard kitties which had been promised for Friday evening.
Now I know you will find this hard to believe, but I was distracted by all the things that are much more fun than packing, and also a little obsessed about getting these latest pictures (can you say 'incessant email checking'?). So to keep myself progressing through my ever-growing list, I set goals for myself. Now you would think a grown woman would not have to do things like telling herself 'No you cannot check for spotted baby kitty pictures for the 3000th time this afternoon until you do... um... FOUR things (yes FOUR) from the list.' I even marked them (Anjolie, I know you will get this one). Must be a throw-back to my childhood or something ('No you can't leave the table and watch The Brady Bunch until you eat THREE BITES of liver' (WHO in God's name would make a kid eat liver?? (My mother that's who (love you Mom!)) But that's a post for another time.)
Regardless of the reason, it worked... Until the pictures finally arrived of course:
Yemaya - 5 weeks 
Jakuta - 5 weeks 
Now my to-do list is hanging out there like substitute teacher; the lesson plan is there but I am making up excuses about my sick cousin from Philly... (No offense to any teachers out there, I know what a tough job it is!)
Send help immediately!
photos: Holly Hummel
How can I POSSIBLY be without you for two whole WEEKS?????
I miss you already :p
(You woo me until the sun comes up and you saaaaaay that you love me...)
photo: Googled
So as is usual I waited too long to eat this morning...
Also as usual I waited until it was 5 minutes before the end of the breakfast run to decide I NEEDED a sausage biscuit (mmmmmmmm biscuit)...
AND, firmly in the 'what else is new category' I was late late very very late for an appointment when all this went down...
So...
I did NOT check my order as I sped away from the drive-thru...
sigh...
Sausage Biscuits consist of (wait for it) sausage...
and biscuit...
ahem...
Eggs & Cheese do NOT a Sausage Biscuit Make!!
AAAAACK!!
So ok, all of the latest evidence indicates that eggs are pretty close to the perfect food for humans (incredible edible (sing it with me))...
However...
There is not a single person on this fair planet who would claim that American Cheese is in any way nutritious:
American cheese (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes), water, cream, milk fat, sodium citrate, salt, artificial color (apo carotenal), sorbic acid (to maintain freshness), lecithin (non-sticking agent).
(non sticking agent??? obviously they did NOT see the complete melding of cheese to biscuit)
What? Of COURSE I ate it anyway...
:p
I am ditching you guys and going to the other side of the planet...
Ok, I am not ditching you (as if I ever could (I can't quit you!)), but I AM going to the other side of the planet...
I have arms full of holes and a to-do list a mile long, but at least I have a weekend to get my S*(% together!!
I'm actually looking forward to 18 hours with no cell phone! Though I think going 18 hours without internet is going to give me a serious case of the shakes... Good thing I have that layover in Amsterdam so I can mainline a little Google...
I'm bringing the good camera with me, so hopefully I'll get some decent shots this time (the one above was taken with my Konica snappy and turned out suprisingly well considering I was in a moving car at the time) and hopefully I'll have some free time to use it and not be falling over from lack of sleep...
And with any luck I won't end up taking a cold shower for 2 days because I'm apparently too STOOOOPID to figure out the plumbing...
Wish me luck!! :D
*'Horn Ok Please!' is a phrase painted on the back end of many vehicles in India which apparently means 'Kindly sound your horn to let me know you're coming up behind me rather than just straight running me off the road like you usually do ^$$hoooles thank you!'
