The Dreaded Conference Call

Up early this morning, trying to wake up for the Tuesday morning conference call. There is one manager on our call who is just too dang cheerful this early in the morning. She's loud and almost sings when she talks.........and it is too much! But you can't help but smile when she tries to wake the rest of us up. When she's not on the call, I miss her.

Sometimes when you are trying to make some decisions in your life you start re-thinking some things you thought were not negotiable. These are things in your life that have been the same way for so long that you almost forget you can change them if you wanted to. When you start allowing yourself to think about these things it opens up different options that you've not even thought about before. It's like you suddenly realize you aren't on a one way street. You can actually do a u-turn and go the other way if you want to, if you're brave enough to. Just because you've done something one way for so long doesn't mean you have to go that way forever.

Even Swans...

...have been known to "divorce". That really makes me sad.

I'd like to someday build a wall out of stones.
When I visited my favorite bead store in Washington, the sidewalk leading up to the door had beads in it! TOO cool~I loved it. Maybe I'll make me a beaded sidewalk while I'm at it.

Bottles

I used to have a thing for bottles. I collected them but I couldn't choose exactly a specific kind I wanted to collect, I loved them all. Pretty soon there was no room to display them. So one day I decided I'd have to keep only a few and throw away the others. It was hard but I did it. But even now, if I see a pretty bottle I want to take it home with me and start my collection all over again.

This is my Recipe for the Day from Dr. Weil that I get in my email. Sounds good to me, think I'll try it.

Citrus Salad Dressing

4 Servings
This tart, sweet salad dressing is wonderful on dark, leafy salad greens like romaine or leaf lettuce tossed with orange segments, black olives and red onion slivers.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions:
Whisk all the ingredients together or combine in a small jar and shake well. Keeps

in the refrigerator for 2 days.

The Ocean is a Good Place....

...to find this. Something about the whole experience does it for me. The sounds, the smells, the sights, the beach touches all my senses. It is a place where I know for sure there is something more powerful than us that controls things. It is where I seek peace within my own soul and usually find it. It is time to plan a trip.

'Round and 'Round and 'Round I Go!

I don't know how people who abuse prescription pain pills function during the day. Maybe their bodies get used to them but I hate taking them. They make me groggy, the sleep I get from them is not a restful one and I wake up with a hangover! So I'm working on a pot of coffee this morning. But my tooth doesn't hurt!
I have to work today and it is suppose to rain, which we still need badly. I don't mind rainy days at all. I like them.

As usual when I'm around my grandchild my mind is working for a solution to be closer to her. It nearly drives me nuts. There are so many factors to consider. My job, my mother, the fact that my son and his wife may not settle down where they are now, money, my best friend and her little girl(family to me) are here and there's my other son. AH!!!!!!!! Same old story, no solution.

Part of me just wants to throw caution to the wind and just MOVE and let the chips fall where they may. They say home is where the heart is but my heart never has found a home. I feel misplaced and out of place and not where I'm suppose to be.
And yet, I can't find the courage within me to do what I want to do.

I know the people around me wish I'd decide what I want to do. I am growing weary and depressed and I must decide what I want and need and just do it. It's like being on a carousel and going around and around. And if the decision is so hard to make for me, if there's something not quite right about it, something that doesn't feel right, there must be a reason and I guess that reason will be revealed, (I hope) and then maybe it will be clear to me what I should do.

Friday Night Thoughts

Today I went back to work after being off for three days. It was a pretty pleasant day, not as busy customer wise as we'd have liked but it was ok.
I had a nice visit with my granddaughter and will get to see her once more before they go back to Washington.
I'm tired tonight so I'm not much into blogging right at the moment. Also on Wednesday I will have my root canal and that tooth is bothering me at the moment, a good bit. I have pain pills that the other dentist gave me when he pulled my tooth and I think I'll take one or two and call it a night. This tooth needs to hold on for just a few more days. It hasn't really hurt me much until now. Just my luck!
SO, that's my news for now.
Have a good weekend!

NO Time for Blogging........

........too many trees to climb! I'll be back full time after a certain little tree monkey leaves.

Ok, That's Over

I survived the tooth pulling. I'm finally home & have had a yummy concoction of strawberries, banana, plain yogurt, a little vanilla flavoring blended with a few ice cubes for some nourishment as I can't really eat yet.
My dentist here in my town doesn't pull teeth anymore (he had a heart attack a few years back) and so he sends his patients to an oral surgeon a few towns over. This dentist looks about 12! I went to him for oral surgery a few years back but he is the sweetest, most polite dentist you'd ever hope to meet. His shots hurt a little but he is really concerned with your pain he & asks about 20 times if you are ok while he is working. But I appreciate that. I have been to dentists who really don't care that much.
And so....the rest of the day I'll take it easy, finish my book. I'm still numb a little but I have Darvocet if pain comes and now all I have to do is look forward to tomorrow.
Oh and it is extremely HOT today. Everyone seems to be fussing about it. But after all it is July in Georgia. It's pretty normal. Thank goodness for A/C!

My Week Ahead in Review

The GOOD.....My granddaughter will be here Wednesday and Thursday. (and her Mom too!) and I have those days off work.

The BAD...... She's only staying two days and I have to go back to work on Friday.

The UGLY.....I have to go to the dentist and have a tooth pulled on Tuesday.

Fortunately

Have you ever come in contact with someone, someone who's not had that easy of a life, someone who has little and doesn't expect much? And has it ever hit you that if a few circumstances in your life had been different, if you'd taken one road over the other, that this person could be you?

That happened to me today and it makes you step back a little and be thankful for your life even though it's far from perfect, even though you'd imagined things to be different. And it makes me wonder about the age old question, is our destiny pre-determined or do we have a say so? Or did you just happen to choose the right fortune cookie?

Deep thoughts for my tired brain tonight, but good timing to make me thankful for the people I have in my life who care about me, because there are plenty of people in this old world that are really and truly alone. Sometimes you need that reminder.

Discontentment Rears Its Ugly Head

Sunday morning coffee, a rainy, dark morning, and a good book to read. Sounds like just the kind of morning I like but I'm restless today, my mind jumping around and I want to be somewhere I'm not, doing something I can't with someone miles away. How's that for discontentment? And I so hate it when I'm like this and I have to remind myself of what is good in my life. But it's hard in this frame of mind which I do not choose to be in. I can't snap out of it at will, I can't pretend the feelings aren't there, so.......I'll go with the flow until the feelings pass, which they will, as I keep working toward just what it is I want and need.

Big City Life

This time of the year our little town is bustling and it's all because of the Watermelon. Because it was a good year people are walking around with a little extra money in their pockets.

There are migrant workers here from Mexico, from Haiti, and other places that normally are not. Migrant workers even have groupies that follow them from place to place and they are here too. They walk the streets at night. Ok, this is the not so nice part of the Watermelon season but to me it's interesting. You see these women know the migrant workers mostly get paid cash and so they are there to offer whatever they can do for them. Yep! It's true.

So for a few weeks our little town is like a big city with all that goes with it. In a few weeks all will be back to normal but for right now we are like New York City, and our little town never sleeps during the whole season.

Every Once in a While........

...it would be nice to have someone to come home to.

The Games People Play

My parents have discovered a new sport called Ladder Golf. It's become quite a competition as my mother continues to win almost every game they play and my step father is and always has been a sore loser. So, now he is begging me to play with him every afternoon. (He can always beat me.)
It really is a fun game, just hope it doesn't cause them to get a divorce! My mother has always been very competitive and being almost 70 years old, doesn't change that at all. And my step father should know this after being married to her after 30 years. In fact, even though he is 11 years younger she can out work him, out play him and outsmart him at every turn. But still he tries. Got to give him credit for that.

Today I'd rather be here......

...but instead I must go to work. Life is so unfair sometimes!!!

A litte confused

Isn't it funny when a holiday comes in the middle of the week it messes with our brains and we get all mixed up on what day it is? Yesterday seemed like Sunday to me, so all today I kept thinking it was Monday. If it's Monday then I have to get up early in the morning to have conference call, only it's not Monday so tomorrow's not Tuesday so I don't have to get up early......I just got to remember that! We think we are so smart, and just look how easily we can be fooled. Or maybe it's just me.

Speaking of books....

I have a few things that I treasure as if they were they were very valuable when in fact they mean nothing to anyone except me. For reasons I won't go into on this post, I don't have much left from my childhood. I somehow, and I'm not even sure how, managed to hang on to one thing though. It is a literature book that belonged to my father. He was forced to quit school to work on the farm and in 1945 that wasn't uncommon in rural areas, especially down here. He later went into the army and after he served he went to night school under the G.I. bill and got his high school diploma. This was after he and my mother got married and before I was even born.

I must have been 10 or 11 when I found this book on the bookshelf and claimed it as my own. It's copyrighted in 1952 so it's pretty old now, and very well used and tattered but to this day it still has the best collection of short stories and poems, essays, plays and even photography that I've ever seen compiled together.
It was my first introduction to Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain. I was first scared out of my wits by Edgar Allan Poe and read my first love story by Maureen Daly all between the pages of this old literature book.

And now years later, the best thing about this special book is on the inside on the first page my father's name is written in pencil and in his handwriting, and right underneath that in my own childish handwriting is my name. It's quite priceless you see.