The Man in My Dreams

For the last few nights I've had the same dream over and over.

The man in my dreams is an older Chinese fellow. He is dressed in beautiful Chinese garb and he is pushing a wheelbarrow down the road. I am standing on the side of the road watching him come toward me from the left. He goes right past me, never says a word. His wheelbarrow is empty and his expression is serious and determined. As he passes me he stares right into my eyes but doesn't smile or change his expression in any way.

I continue to watch him as he passes me and he never looks back. I remember thinking in my dream, "Why doesn't he look back?"

My little Chinese man is trying to tell me something. And I got it. Message received loud and clear.

Dreamin' of a Veranda

Today is one of those days when I so wish I had a porch.

If I had a porch , I'd spend the entire day out there. I'd have a good book, I'd eat out there, I'd relax and take in all the beauty of this gorgeous day.

I've wanted a porch for so long. The next place I live will have a porch for sure, I hope. Another dream added to the Cedar Chest.

Earworm

These guys are running me nuts. For almost a week now I've been plagued with "Sounds of Silence" stuck in my head. I can't get rid of it. Someone said the way to get rid of an earworm is to listen to the whole song and that will be the end of it. Nope, made it worse. So...........

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence. (written by Paul Simon)

No sounds of silence in my head!

Beware the Ides of March

I'm hoping to have a better day than poor Julius Caesar did so many years ago on this date.

Where did the Week Go?

This week seemed to fly past. Maybe because I was off Monday and Wednesday. Maybe because time really does fly when you're having fun. OH wait a minute, I really wasn't having fun. I was working most of the time. And though not unpleasant, really not what I consider fun at the moment.

I NEED a vacation but because of my up coming surgery I have to save my vacation and sick time to use it then. I really need to take a short trip to somewhere and see something a little different.

I have to work tomorrow but I am off Sunday. Tonight I stopped and got a sandwich from Subway and came home and swallowed it and haven't moved since. I am tired. We had a pretty busy day at work today. And that's a good thing.

So here I sit, making safety pin flags and watching Dateline. Wild Friday night for me for sure.

Nothing much new going on with me lately. Hope your weekend is a good one.

I Pledge Allegiance

This is what I've been doing this week for a friend who has been wearing one of these every day since 9-11. It's his trademark now sort of.

Tuesday Ramblings

As the older folks around here say, "I am feeling porely this morning." I could have gone right on sleeping but it is Tueday and I have Conference Call this morning.

I was off yesterday but spent a good bit of it with medical stuff. I hate it. But it is all necessary to get me where I am feeling right again.

My coffee is brewing and I am resigned to sit here for well over an hour and listen to my boss and the other managers talk about how to increase sales, how to train employees, yada, yada, yada. I am not in the mood!

Ok, enough complaining here! I got to do what I got to do. And it sure could be worse. But just for the record, I'd love to go back to bed and close my eyes and sleep just a little more.

Please Let Me Know......

...if you ever need someone to relay to you how wrong you've been about things, or that you made the wrong decision or to remind you if you'd taken care of a situation earlier things wouldn't be so hard to deal with now. If you need this sort of person in your life, send me your phone number and I'll have my MOTHER call you. She is an expert at this! And that's all I'm saying!

If I had a Flute

I want to learn to play the flute. I wonder if you can learn to play the flute when you're over 50 years old. I don't see why not.

I want to learn to play the flute, And not just any flute, I want to play the Native American flute. Its sounds float inside me and awaken feelings I can't explain. The sounds relax me so and take me to a place that brings me hope.

I want to learn to play this beautiful instrument made of cedar, hand carved by someone who does it with such love and care and respect.

I want to play the flute, but first I need a flute.

Just Takes a Minute

Ok, since I'm feeling really proud of myself for having my mammogram this week, I came across this and thought it was pretty neat.

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman

. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on ‘donating a mammogram’ for free (pink window in the middle).
This doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors /advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.
Pass it along to people you know.

Just click here:

Donate a Mammogram

This is in fact part of the same site where Chellie from The Dolphin Cove told us how we could donate a bag of food for a rescued animal a while back, so donate another bag while you're there why don't ya?

The Week in Review

Compared to the week we've had at work, today was relatively calm and those of us working today were sooooo glad. This has been one of those weeks where nothing seemed easy. If someone came in for a simple eyeglass repair, it turned complicated. Either we broke the frame or the screw was broken in the frames or something like that. It was the same with insurance. Usually working with Vision insurance is pretty easy, it takes a phone call for authorization and it takes more time for paperwork but this week, it wasn't that easy, there was quite often a problem. Anyway, you get the drift. But...today wasn't so bad and we needed the break.

On a more personal note, I survived a Dr.'s appointment to the GYN which had been way over due, have faced the fact that there is a hysterectomy in my very near future and had a mammogram.

And so as we move forward we'll see how it goes. I may in fact, since I hate to flood this blog with my medical state and details of my experience, start a new and separate blog just to keep up with this journey. We'll see. I'll know more Monday about what the plans will be.

In the meantime, DON'T forget to Spring Forward in time, else you'll be late for church or work or whatever you plan tomorrow.

Last night I dreamed in animation. Not about animation, in animation, in cartoons. There were people in my life in the dream and they were cartoons. Sometimes I wonder about me!

Oh Woe is Me

It is stormy and raining hard this morning. The thunder in fact woke me. Kind of matches my mood. OH, my mood. My moods are on a rampage at the moment, changing from one end of the spectrum to the other. It's exhausting really.

My mother and aunt had their last periods in their forties. Neither of them remember having one hot flash, mood swing, irregular anything. That was that. They never looked back. I would have liked to go through this pause like that. Not going to happen.

But I am dealing, I have no choice and at least now I am going to the Dr. which is a big deal for me since I really hate that. Today I go for a mammogram.

But this morning I feel so old.........ancient, and I'd like to stay home with the covers pulled up over my head and not face the world. I feel like crying for reasons I don't even understand.

And I understand why years ago men put their wives away during this time. No wonder they thought they were going mad! I am so not the person I used to be. I've lost myself somewhere. I know I'm still there somewhere.

Because I am looking most probably to having a hysterectomy I've done nothing but read and read and research and now I am over loaded with information and I've over done it for sure. I need to stop reading now. I need to stay focused on getting this over with and then maybe I can get on with my life.

Please excuse this entry. It probably makes not much sense to anyone. Just rambling this morning and in a Oh Woe is Me mood. I'll get better. I promise.

Oh Look.........

...Amazon just sent me a book that I had completely forgotten I ordered. I pre-ordered it in January and here it is.

Chili Surprise!

This is Vicki. She works with me. We had a rough day at work yesterday. Our patients can be very demanding and it wears us all out when they all happen to be this way, which is the way it has been all week.

Vicki went home last night at six, leaving me to close the store at eight since it was my night to do so. I know Vicki was worn out when she went home, we all were.

I stayed pretty busy even after she left. At some point I was waiting on a customer and looked up to see Vicki's daughter standing there patiently waiting on me to get done. She was holding a container and a pack of crackers. It was Chili! Still warm from the crock pot.

And it brought me JOY that Vicki took the time to share her supper with me and to take the time to come back to the store and bring it to me. Thank you Vicki, it was yummy and filled my tummy and my heart. Double Duty Chili!

BLUE BOY

Isn't it funny the things that stick in your memory from childhood?

My grandmother always had a picture hanging in her house that always intrigued me. As a child I would look at it and study it and try and imagine who this boy was and what toys he had and I always thought he looked so nice, like someone I'd like to be friends with. I also thought he looked very rich. Although from another time in history I tried to imagine what his everyday life must have been like.

My grandmother told me it was a copy of a famous painting called Blue Boy. I looked it up in the World book and read about the artist. It was the closest I came to be exposed to true art as a child.

When my grandmother died, I asked for the picture which was only an inexpensively framed dime store version and only a 5x7 picture. I'm sure it would have just ended in the trash but it was important for me to have him. I needed him. And I still have him somewhere packed away.

Of course with the Internet I've learned other things about him, Cole Porter even wrote a song about him. He's even appeared in movies. HE is now hanging in Huntington Library in San Marino California.

I'd like to one day see the real painting. Putting this dream in my Cedar Chest for now.

For My Son

Climb every mountain, search high and low

Follow every byway, every path you know.

Climb every mountain, ford every stream,

Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream!

A dream that will need all the love you can give,

Every day of your life for as long as you live.

Climb every mountain, ford every stream,

Follow every rainbow, 'til you find your dream!

(From the Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein)

Anxious to hear all about your experience. I bet it was awesome!

JOY

Pink and Blue Skies, dancing trees, the coming of Spring, Narcissus bulbs preparing to bloom, Woodpeckers, wonderful blogger friends who share the boring details of my life and take the time to really care, dreams of a new life in a new place with people I love very much, all of this brings me JOY. I hope your day is full of Joy today.
Love,
Robbin

Spring is Almost Here

I love flowers but I am in no way able to grow them. My yard is bare of anything but unkept shrubbery and trees.

Years ago, before I accepted that I have no desire or talent to grow things, I planted some Narcisssus bulbs. They never amounted to much and never really did so well. There was a time when I moved from this area for ten years and about nine years ago I came back here. The first Spring I was back I noticed one little bulb had popped up in the area which in no way is a flower bed anymore. It was just a single little Daffodil standing proudly. I knew that Spring had arrived for sure. Every year that has sort of been my gage for the coming of Spring.
THIS year LOOK! Count them, there are eight of them! My goodness. I am nearly going to have a flower garden. I'll take pictures as soon as they bloom and then we'll know Spring has arrived and this year my one little flower is bringing a crowd.

Yesterday's Sky

Although it never stormed where I live yesterday, just before sunset the sky was amazing. It was like the pretty pink clouds were battling the darker meaner looker ones and then they sort of just merged.