Month: September 2011

I guess I blew the posting every day for a month thing considering I haven’t blogged in a week. Damnit! And I was doing so well. I’m almost tempted to try and catch up, just to know I can do it.

A friend of mine is turning 50 soon and her husband asked me to help decorate the party place with one exception. I’m not allowed to use the ubiquitous black 50 decorations and requested that no age-related gag gifts be included.

I can do that. Personally, I don’t understand why anyone WOULD decorate with that crap for a friend. Who wants to be reminded of their age in a fashion that suggests decay and uses the traditional (by our standards) colors associated with death? Gee, thanks!

I’ve figured out the colors, based on my friends home town and have ordered her cake and now I’m hunting some centerpiece ideas. When I started telling some of the other party-goers my ideas they were stunned by a few things:

1. I wasn’t going to use the black 50 decorations. (wtf?)

2. I had put together an internal plan and went to the venue to check out my ideas. (doesn’t everyone?)

3. I’d gone to the band website to make sure the played the stuff she likes and to get an idea of their sound/flavor to see if I could “use” them in some way. (um, wouldn’t you?)

4. I was making stuff by hand. (duh…)

5. I was organized. (shaking my head)

This may seem as though I’m being a bit arrogant, but let me assure you that I’m just FLUMMOXED that people don’t actually plan. I always wondered why party planning was an actual job, but this just demonstrates for me that it’s a needed profession. And being organized is not as common as I assumed. I really don’t understand how anyone gets anything done if figuring out balloons, tablecloths and streamers is really that difficult for them to imagine.

Anywho, whatever the deal is for anyone else, I like to plan with the person in mind and what they would like and how I’d feel if someone were planning an event for me. Maybe that’s what confuses me so much. I like to think that everyone works this way and I short circuit when I find out that it’s not as common as I believed. While I’m not willing to give up my optimistic viewpoint ever, I also have to remember that it’s ok to be this way and it’s ok for others to not be this way.

Now, back to the details… :0)

If this is how a spa treatment will make me look, I think I’ll pass.

I admit it.

It’s 2:39 pm and I’m still in my jammies. I slept in. I enjoyed a cup of coffee, and now I’m listening to the Chorus recordings from Italy to decide which ones to use with what pictures. The window is open, a cool breeze is blowing through the ever warm office (lots of computing power=increased heat) and thoroughly enjoying myself.

How come, last week I was berating myself for similar behaviors, yet this week I am reveling in them? What’s up with that? And please, the answer shouldn’t be, “Because you are weird, Sharon.”  Anyone who reads any of my blogs already knows that, so it’s a foregone conclusion.

YouTube, I decided today, is a blessing and a curse. Hubby sent me a link to a story about the recent Reno Airshow crash.  I went to YouTube to see if there was video because the article had described some maneuvers the plane was doing before the crash that I couldn’t wrap my head around, so I wanted to see what they were talking about. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to see the actual impact of the plane, but I was, and devastated to realize just how quickly that all could happen. I guess it’s a good reminder of  how quickly life can change, but it’s almost like  you can feel the extinguishing of lives in the puff of smoke and hail of debris, and that’s what gets me. Maybe I’m too sensitive, but there it is.

In the “Careful what you post on the Internet” side of things. (I guess it’s a different topic?) I had commented about getting some crosswalks repainted before school started along with some road striping that got seemed to get lost after repaving occurred on my street on the net. Little did I know that my comment went to my local representative, that DPW meetings have been had about it, that someone fed the rep some possibly untrue information – or maybe intercommunicated is a better term, and that a local newspaper ran an article about it. WHAT?!  Really? That’s also cool and scary at the same time. I just got off the phone with the representative for my district, who was trying to clarify the conflicting messages she was getting, letting her know the events as they’ve occurred on my side of everything. See what one comment on the internet can do?

Just further proof for me that the Universal Manager is busy at work doing what I think should be done in my world.

Originally posted on Neatorama

Once upon a time, there was an adorable little girl in Brazil who had trouble eating because she had a cleft lip and palate. She was a happy child, but she hid behind her stuffed toy because she knew she looked funny. Then a team of strange people from Operation Smile came and recorded her on video, and also let her look at herself in the video monitor.

The next day, as she was recovering from surgery, the people brought the video camera again, and let her see her face in the monitor. And it was so different that you’ll want to have a handkerchief ready when you see the video at NeatoBambino. Link

 

Fake Science

As mentioned, we had rain, cold, cranky children, an incline, fatigue, a looong trek to the rest rooms and various other conditions yet we left the campground scoping out the cabins and talking about “next time”.

On Friday, Hubby had been up for 24 hours before we even set off for the weekend. He was in good spirits, but you could certainly tell that a lack of sleep was taking its toll. Short term memory was a bust, hearing was going and fuzzy thinking was the order of the day. Still, he made it through the ride to Skyline Caverns with me. We met up with Jenny and M at a place call “Spelunkers” for a “cavern burger” for lunch.

I’ll leave it for you to make your own jokes here, but at least it was a good burger. As we were leaving the restaurant, we saw some tiny kitties by the dumpsters. Sadly, one of them seemed to have an injured rear leg. Jenny and I wanted to save the kitties and I wanted to make the injured one a little wagon, but Hubby said we had to go.

Not far from Spelunkers was Skyline Cavern, where our tour guide, Dustin, took the four of us and two other poor souls who had to deal with us, for the tour. Dustin had a habit of starting every sentence with a very loud, “NOW” and it quickly became the random blurt out phrase for the rest of the trip. NOW, we did like Dusting quiet a bit and found him to be a great tour guide and quite funny, so if you happen to go to Skyline Caverns, give him a request.

Once we were finished our tour, we drove up to Charles Town to hit the SuperCenter Wal-mart for some victuals, and headed off to our campsite. We got there just before dark and started to quickly build Jenny’s Vacation Home. (It’s a tent, but it actually says ‘Vacation Home’ on the side of the box.) Both Frank and I worked very hard and trying to get a fire going and once we did, we cooked up our burgers and had our supper. By this point, we were all pretty exhausted, so it was a fairly early night for us. It didn’t help that it was about 45 degrees and we were all shivering in our sleeping bags.

Saturday morning, we awoke to the sound of raindrops. Jenny decided that God officially hates her and we set about throwing the rain cover over the tent. Good thing too, because later in the morning it decided to pour. We nixed our original idea to go to Harper’s Ferry since we weren’t in the mood to climb even more hills than we were climbing in our own campsite, so we chose to go to the Charles Town Heritage festival. Even though the rain had chased off some of the vendors and most of the crowds, we enjoyed wandering around and looking a crafts, listening to the band and enjoying the sights.

We did try to go to the races, but timing wasn’t on our side, so we ate our dinner with the thought that we’d be able to hang out long enough to watch the horses run after our meal. Wrong. After our chilly night, walking in the rain and a warm food in a warm place, we were all trying to keep our eyes open long enough to get out of the restaurant. Instead, we decided to go back to camp and burn stuff!!

After another evening in the damp chill (I thought that in mid September we would have been in the 50’s at night, not the mid 40’s!) and sleeping on enough of an incline that we felt we were on a slip ‘n slide, we packed our stuff up and sat like zombies trying to get our bodies moving. Eventually, we headed for home and naps in warm beds.

Ahhh, the lovely sounds of chirping bugs, the hiss of the fire, the plonk of the RAIN, the barking of dogs and the shreiks and wailing of small children, the trek to the restrooms, scrabble games and blog posts on smart phones while we ignore one another.

Nothing could be more relaxing(?) than the modern campsite.

On a hillside.
In an aircast.
Brilliant!

We had rehearsals tonight. Normally when I come home, there are a 
bunch of emails in my box asking questions and whatnot. Tonight I 
got the following message, which made me cry.


Sharon, I just wanted to you to know how thoroughly Chloe enjoyed
rehearsal tonight.  She has been asking to do something like this for
years.  When I picked her up tonight, I asked how everything went.
She replied "I wish I had a time machine so that I could fast forward
to next Thursday night or go back and do it again tonight." Please do
feel free to share this with Mrs. F if you wish.
Thank you so much. My daughter is happier than I have ever seen her.
E.

Perfect!! It was just perfect, and certainly good to hear after a 
long night and feeling bone tired. This is exactly
why I love the job I have. It's always about the kids.

Today, I got nothing done. For whatever reason, I failed to work today and that means I’m going to have to work most of the night and  all morning tomorrow, and it’s all my darn fault.

Please, don’t feel sorry for me. In fact, you have my permission to laugh and point fingers in my general direction. I’ve been the Queen of the nation of Procrasti. It seems that every time I even thought about starting a project, my mind went numb. In some ways, I welcome the quiet gray fuzzy-headed thinking, because I believe it’s actually my minds way of making sure I have “down” time. Personally, I’d just stuff it with more and more stuff and maybe even be a workaholic if it would keep chugging along all the time. I guess I should be thankful for these foggy days and revel in the illusion that there’s not tons to do. Eventually, my mind kicks back into gear and I work it until it overheats and goes back to the fuzzy zone, so in some ways this is an expected cycle.

Beyond wandering the house avoiding work, I baked some mug cakes, walked, talked to my children, listened to some music, chatted with a friend (the highlight, actually) about our upcoming camping trip, exchanged lists of what we are supposed to bring/pack, wrote some emails, talked to another friend, did some laundry, cooked dinner, am writing my blog and poked around online. For me, that’s an off day. Now, whether I want to or not, I’m going to have to work on some spreadsheets and get rosters and uniform paperwork ready for tomorrow. – Uh oh… the thought occurs that I may have left my copies in the copy room last night, which would be bad. Hmmm… Meh.. I’ll figure it out.

In my cyber travels today, the top three things that caught my attention are as follows, but not necessarily in order of importance.

1. The recent floods from Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene have mucked up the Chesapeake Bay. For anyone who loves oysters, crabs or simply the Bay.. this isn’t good news. Chemicals, furniture, uprooted trees and tons of fresh water spilled into the Bay and disrupted what was an increasingly healthy ecosystem. I’m a firm believer that the Bay can work through these changes, Nature always does, but in the meantime, it’s got a bunch of scientists worried. 

2. Kirstie Alley!! Whoa, momma! She looks fantastic and is proof positive that getting your ass off the couch is a great way to lose some weight. 60 years young and she looks amazing. I’ve always fluctuated with my weight, so I can totally relate to her trials and tribulations (sinking in a gentle pool of wine… – JCSuperstar reference.. if you don’t get it, you don’t get it) The main point here is that the photos I saw today were definitely an inspiration and further proof that I can live to be 113 and be fit and cute forever!

3. Baltimore Homicides. Yep.. there you have it. Why in the heck the Baltimore Sun has decided to show you an interactive map of homicides in Beautiful B’more City is beyond me. And not only can you see the total amount for various date ranges, but you can sort by age, gender and type of death. Wanna know how many were shot or stabbed? You’re in luck! How about blunt force or asphyxiation? No problem…. just click HERE and you too can play the game of B’more Murder Battleship. It’s easy! Just pick a few cross streets, jot them down on a piece of paper and then check back next week to see if that guy with a sickle has found your hidden victims.

So, that’s about it for the day folks. I felt like I needed to leave you with something cute after #3, so here you go….

Oh WAIT!! That’s the wrong photo… did I mention it’s been that kind of day??  Here  you go!

*I did say I made some mug cakes today, right?

 

*No kitties were harmed today. I promise.