Haiti

My heart is heavy. All the things I want to write are meaningless - I've read many blogs today whose writers have said it better. So I'm just going to ask for three things:

1. Pray. That's self-explanatory.
2. Give. Here are a couple of options, but you can't turn around twice without hearing about more: Episcopal Relief & Development & Red Cross.
3. Appreciate. Take a couple of days off from whining about the cold, or lack of sleep, or your diet, or your arthritis (I'm talkin to YOU Bug!). Perhaps even reflect on the ideals expressed by Martin Luther King, Jr. whose birthday we in the United States celebrate Monday. Here is a quote from a speech in 1967: A true revolution of ideals will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth (source, Wikipedia).

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and may light perpetual shine upon them.

Now I'm craving breakfast food...

I'm feeling uninspired today & really only have the creative energy to write bad poetry. Which of course I must share – because why do I have to endure bad poetry alone? That's right – you came here, you can suffer too. Or, you know, click the x in the upper right-hand corner right now. Don't say you weren't warned!

Random and scattered
isn't anything at all like
scattered & smothered.

No coalescence of
cheese and potatoes.
No high cholesterol
blue plate special.

Nothing special, at all.
But blue, perhaps.

Photo courtesy of Photobucket

A Snuggie of a Different Kind

As far as I can tell, there are several camps in the Snuggie Wars. Those who are aghast. Those who are FOR. And those who are aghast but secretly wear them anyway. I like the concept of a Snuggie – but I was always bumfuzzled by the backless nature of the thing. Sure it's great if you want to read a book on the couch – but what if you're at your computer 24/7 (hypothetically speaking)? That open back & an office-type chair? Draft city!

So Dr. M went in search of a better thing for me - & boy is it better! It's a Cuddlewrap (go here to read all about it). We call it my wigwam, which I'm sure is at least marginally offensive, but it's almost as big as a dwelling & has what appears to me to be a Native American-type pattern.

Here are some pictures of me demonstrating its magnificence. I am dismayed by my double chin. It mostly appears when I'm looking down. I forget about it because I don't see it that often. Sigh. But that's what my new healthy lifestyle is about, right? Getting rid of that thing! Also, my hair doesn't look nearly as red in these pictures – it looks more like what I expected – brown hair with copper overtones.

Here I am all zippered & snapped.

See? It has a back!

Here I am demonstrating one of its many uses. Right after this picture was snapped I went to get clothes out of the dryer. See? Versatile!

This is Dr. M's Anti-Snuggie – an old giant robe of mine LOL! He took this picture with his cell phone, which doesn't have a flash, so sorry for the poor quality. Doesn't he look like some kind of wizard in this picture?

There you have it – my entry into the Snuggie Wars.

Sundays in Zambia

In May we took a trip to the South Luangwa National Park in the Eastern Province. Luangwa is a game preserve – next week I'll post a handful of pictures from my experience there – you will note that my camera left a LOT to be desired. So mostly there are pictures of bush & trees where there may or may not be animals – except for the elephants – they showed up quite well!

Anyway, on our way to the park we stopped in a village near Chipata. This is the kind of Africa that all my friends were expecting. I kept telling them "I live in a city!" but this is what they wanted to see. Huts, dirt…

People carrying things on their heads…

What I saw were smiles. And lots of hard work. See the little girl pounding the grain? Hard work.

They let me try. It wasn't pretty. At all. Embarrassing, really.

I should never, ever complain about typing a letter at work. Or cooking a meal. Or shopping for groceries. At least I gave them something to laugh at.

Project 365 - Week Two

Here we are at week two of Project 365. I must say that it changes my perspective of my day to have to consider what type of picture I'll take each day. I like it! Go here tomorrow to see the links to the other folks pictures.

So on Sunday basically I spent the entire afternoon catching up on the newspapers. We only get Thursday - Sunday, but I apparently am only able to read them on Sundays. I kind of like the feeling of turning the pages & getting ink all over my hands - makes me feel a bit nostalgic...

Monday was the first of our snow this week. We ended up with about 6 inches total. I was just mesmerized by this little table by our back door. I took its picture as soon as I got home from work - before I even came inside. I love the light glinting off the snow crystals.

Tuesday was my hair crisis - which you can read about here. Nuff said.

Dr. M has had a cold all week (I feel so bad that I'm a terrible nurse). This has not stopped him from shoveling the driveway numerous times. I don't know why I can't do it when I get home just because it's dark. Anyway, on Wednesday he pulled a Kleenex out of the box & this is the result. At our house we are highly amused by such things.

I took this picture on my way home from work on Thursday. It's my favorite of the batch I posted here. Although I like the sheep picture a lot too. This just makes me sigh & relax into myself when I look at it.

I'll admit, this is a bit of a cheat. Dr. M took the picture because I was driving. If you click on it to enlarge it you can see the geese. We were wondering if it was a training mission - the back of the V looks a little raggedy to us!

And here we are to today. I colored my hair - can you tell? It's a bit redder than I expected (happy, Greg?), but I'm sure that will fade pretty quickly. I think I like it - but lets give it a few days to make sure.

I hope everyone had a great week!

This, That, & T'other Thing...

This

First - I have been super remiss. I'm not going back & checking, but I'm pretty sure that I haven't updated you guys on my health goals in at least three weeks. So. Still plugging along. Renewed vigor this week. Down three pounds since the beginning. Since my goal was to maintain my weight over the holidays I'd say Score! Now it's time to get a little more serious. The one component that I'm not being very successful with is exercise. I may have to have someone (Dr. M perhaps?) give me a thump each evening to get me up & at 'em. I'll work on that this week & report back to you next Friday.

That

I WON something! Jayne at Journey Through Grace had a giveaway of her favorite music & I was one of the winners! I'm so excited. And this reminds me that Amy at *All Things Ro is ready to pass on the book from the I Won, You Win giveaway tomorrow. Go to her site to enter.

T'other

Like a lot of you, we're getting a nice little snowstorm. I thought I'd share some pictures. I actually stopped in the middle of the road on my way home to take a couple of them! Fortunately there weren't any other cars going my way at the time...

This is a small sheep farm I get to drive by every day. Lots of times there is at least one sheep on top of the hay - makes me smile every time.

Lest you wonder if the middle of Ohio is flat

Oh my heavens that little penguin is drenched in snow!

Here's a closeup...

Penguin luminaries - heh.

Finches in snow...

The End

The Old Lady in the Mirror

I’m sorry if you came here looking for the Random Dozen – I decided that I need to focus on one very important thing this week instead of giving you insight into 12 different boring intriguing facts. Yesterday at work I borrowed a ponytail holder because my hair was MAKING. ME. CRAZY. Seriously – I might have had some sort of hair related meltdown if my coworker hadn’t saved me.

Anyway. I pulled my hair back & went on my merry way. Then I went to the bathroom (I go, oh, about 8 times during an 8 hour workday). As I was washing my hands, singing the ABC song under my breath, I glanced at my hair in the mirror.

Hmm. Do I have flour in my hair? Get in a fight with a bobbin of white thread? What is that stuff in my hair?

Yes, the hair that doesn’t see the sun very often has been going seriously gray. Apparently my last color job didn’t touch this hair. I know that at 45 I should not be surprised by this. But, you know, except for the arthritis, gimpy shoulder, need for reading glasses, and cranky old lady attitude, I FEEL young. Wait – I’ve had the cranky old lady attitude my whole life, so that’s not new. I guess I should be happy now that I have the hair to match the attitude.

Dr. M predicts a L'Oreal saturation bombing soon. I wonder what color I’ll choose this time?

Where I Thought I Would be in 2010

Lee Ryan from Occasional Notes had a post the other day about where he thought he would be in 2010 a year ago up through 35 years ago. I was entertained by it & decided to steal it for my blog. Although, frankly, my imaginings aren't nearly as interesting as his. But they're written & ready to post & that's the important thing. Really.

One year ago: I thought I’d still be living near Cincinnati because it looked like Dr. M wouldn’t be able to get a new job (the job market SUCKED last year).

10 years ago (2000): I thought I’d be living in a small college town walking to work while Dr. M was teaching. It could still happen – if I get a job near his new school. If the economy ever gets better in that area.

15 years ago (1995): I thought I’d be living in western NC somewhere while Dr. M taught high school.

20 years ago (1990): I was terribly afraid that I would be a pastor’s wife.

25 years ago (1985): I was a junior in college & figured I’d be a high-powered CPA in 2010 (although frankly I couldn’t even IMAGINE being this old!).

30 years ago (1980): I was going to be a librarian! Never mind that I could not figure out the Dewey Decimal System to save me…

35 years ago (1975): I was almost 11 & really couldn’t think beyond my next book. But I’m pretty sure that when I imagined a future career it was in a library.

I’m noticing that all of my dreams after I met Dr. M revolve around his career. Hmmm. I’ve always had trouble figuring out what I want to do with my life (ever since I nixed the CPA thing – whew!). Perhaps now, at 45, it’s time to clean the rust off that area of my brain…

P.S. When  I scanned in the 4th grade picture I realized that there is a blob of ink on my nose. I can't tell if this ink was put on the picture after the fact or if I actually had ink on my nose when the picture was taken. Guess I'll have to see if there are other copies at Daddy's house. Heh. I tried to fix it but all my efforts made me look like I had three nostrils. I decided to leave it, because I was the kid who might have absent-mindedly put an open pen in my nose. Just sayin.

Sundays in Zambia

This Sunday I'm telling the story about how much I was loved by the missionary kids (MKs) while I lived in Lusaka. Ha! It was the same kind of love where the boy pulls your pigtail. I'm pretty easy to pick on - people find it enjoyable for some reason. But I enjoy it. I get this trait from my mother.

Anyway, on this particular occasion we were having a going away party for one of the missionaries and a volunteer. We had a great time with a meal and a program. I was innocently enjoying all the fellowship. Then I was told to go outside to look at my truck (a Toyota double-cab). This is what I saw:

Yes, that is newspaper filling the double-cab truck.

I had some help with the cleanup. The whole mission had been saving up newspapers for weeks.

I got distracted. What? I love comics!

These are the culprits - two MKs home on a school break. I look like an idiot because one of them had just gooched me in the side right as the picture was taken. Really, that's the reason. I didn't always look like an idiot. I promise.

Project 365

I've decided to participate in Project 365 - which just involves taking a picture each day & posting it to my blog once per week. The other participants will be posting on Sundays, but we all know that I already have a regular Sunday gig (yes, it will be back tomorrow), so I'm going to post mine on Saturdays. Go here to meet the author of this madness (Sara at make Music from your heart to the Lord) - if you check in on Sundays you can see the links to the other folks pictures. Since today is January 2 there are only two pictures for today's post.

Yesterday we took down some, not all, of our yard ornaments. Yes, Pooh & the Penguin are now back in hibernation until next year. I thought they looked a little poignant all deflated on the living room floor.

Today I enjoyed looking out at our finch feeder. It's always a busy place & vastly entertaining to see all the little busy bodies gobbling up their dinner (or breakfast in this case).

That's it for this week. We'll see how long I can keep it up - I am NOT a photographer, but I'm looking forward to seeing my world through a camera lens for at least a few minutes per day.

Yeah, it's the post about resolutions - sort of

So, are you in the camp of folks who are glad it’s a new year and a new decade? I’m ambivalent – Dr. M finished his dissertation, graduated, and got a job doing what he loves in the 2000’s. I finally started making real money in the work place (don’t get excited – it’s not that much! But for most of the 90s I was making $18,000 - $20,000 per year). I lost 50 pounds & gained them back. My mother died, & Dr. M’s mom was placed into a nursing home. I watched a friend’s baby die, & another friend had twins. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Wow – really applicable to this past decade!

I try not to

look over my shoulder -

it’s all awkward

and I tend to trip.

I need all my

graceless focus

to take that next

step skip giant running leap

Where in the world

will I land?

It makes me weary

to contemplate.

I probably just

need a little more caffeine.

Here are my wishes for 2010:

1. Financial Responsibility
2. The Usual Thing (darn 50 pounds!)
3. To Be as Green as I can Be
4. Marriage Equality in All the World (I can dream, can’t I?)
5. Peace on Earth (I know I’m not a beauty contestant – I really mean it!)