Just Whatever

Now it is summertime. No coats to wear, no windows to shut, no socks.
Our son graduated from High School, and with any luck, we still hope to see the other two kids some day. It has been 5 years now. Gene is looking for work to earn $$ for college as well as for a camping trip to Gettysburg with 3 other buddies, much inspired by his Uncle Dave's trip out west after HS. NOW he is more serious about getting that summer job... Whatever works!
In the meantime, my husband continues to learn to be a salesman, something I think he has a knack for. We have a couple of good things that may come of it. I played secretary today and typed letters of info, thank yous, faxes, etc. Tomorrow it is back to making glass jewelry.
Wednesday and Thursday we gather to say goodbye to and celebrate the life of one of our dear friends at church, Clarence. He was rarely sick, but bacterial infections got the best of his lungs. I really thought he would make it. He was 70. Too young. My dad was only 72, and so was Bill and Frank all of which passed last year.
I wake up in a lot of creaking pain from killing my back last year and from a couple of falls (and maybe arthritis?) this year. I want to wake up and swim or work out, but I just haven't gotten there.
The Brookings made it in town and out. They look great and got around to all the people (almost) who wanted to visit them. We had a great creek walk that was marked by a mysterious buck in the woods and a hail storm.
My pup has cancer but is doing well. She is as sweet as ever.
I've NOT been to the pool yet! We have not had a whole lot of sunny days since it opened.
I miss singing.
My studio is an ignored mess.
The garden is beautiful. I had to call Ultra Lawn twice to be sure they stop shooting their chemicals into my poor garden while they "service" my neighbor's lawn. I freaked out when i first saw all those pellets. I started picking them all out one by one. My goliath aster seems to be taking it the worse. Those things go right through the covered fence.
I found out what happened to ALL THOSE SUNFLOWER SEEDS! Nothing had been coming up, so figured they were bad seeds, Heck, none of the holes seemed disrupted! But we have shrews or moles in the yard. They stole them thru the "basement" and buried them so deep, it took until just yesterday to finally see them sprout! They were all in little bunches in the garden, evidently forgotten in storage. I spread them around and hope to see them all grow up and bloom. I got red and cream colored ones this year. I guess the rest of them better be sprouted indoors...
I would love some DQ right now.
Goodnight.

PCs are annoying

My husband would get all worked up because he had an old computer. If he just had a new one, how nice that would be! After trashing a few used PCs, he found me a pretty decent Mac for $400 on Overstock.com. He used it for quite awhile, with NO PROBLEMS. A few weeks ago, he decided to finally go ahead and get that PC, and do a trial on wireless.
ACK! I hate using it!! Popups from the right hand corner are endless, and the whole system is confusing. There are endless things to restart and reinstall and uninstall.
Get a MAC, folks. I am still using it with no problems... And it is so much cuter.

Arguing or Discussing

Within my family of origin, it is known that I want to discuss issues much further past the point of comfort than others. It can be annoying and amazing to families and friends that I want to continue to discuss uncomfortable subjects when people present are either shaking their heads, cutting off the conversation or leaving the room. Typically, the topics are things like elections, abortion, philosophy, race, or sexually related issues.
Why do I go on? First, I argue, not to win, but to understand. Second, I typically have a great deal of trust in the relationship with the person I am discussing things with. I ask a lot of questions to see if they will rephrase their response, hopefully in a way I can understand what they are saying. I am also working to broaden the topic a bit, in search of some context. This can go fine in many cases, especially if I am talking to someone who knows me well enough to trust the relationship will not dissolve if we agree to disagree.
Speaking of, I am so "okay" with agreeing to disagree. Think about anything important you believe. Did you come to this belief while in the heat of an argument? Of course not. Most of us need to come to our beliefs on our own, while either thinking, praying, writing, pondering, walking, or sometimes, after just waking up after a good night's sleep. Everything needs some time to process. I really want to hear what you are saying, for the sake of knowing, not for the chance to pounce on you. I hope you are the same.
What is disheartening is when you are cut off from people because they do not have enough faith in the friendship or the process, when you really thought they would. There is a neat "hump" you get over when you go ahead and discuss your topic to a clearer understanding, working through the discomfort. It is hard to realize that your friend (or family member) cannot discuss things with you maybe because they either think you will disagree or dislike them afterwards. It does not even cross my mind, and it is amazing to me that it would cross theirs. Maybe there are other reasons, however. Sometimes the subject at hand is too personal or painful for the other person to discuss. They do not want to cross a line that will seemingly condemn them, and beg to not enter that area of discussion. Maybe the time or place is wrong. Maybe they have a headache or lost friends on this topic once. I have to be so careful not to insist on continuing. I have to be loving and sensitive to those possibilities, whether shared or not.

Only in America...(click here)

New York City Garbage is for sale! Not like I don't already have enough junk, but it is a very interesting way of making a buck... From LiquidTreat.com:

Justin Gignac is making art out of garbage. He scours the streets of Manhattan for junk and then carefully installs each array of rubbish (crumbled coffee cups, cigarette butts, pages ripped out of phone books) in sealed plastic cubes which are signed, numbered, and dated. Originally from Norwich, Conn., Gignac started collecting trash when he moved to New York to attend the School of the Visual Arts. For $50 you could have garbage shipped to your home within seven days of payment.

Reasons I am Stressed Out

1. We have a friend in the hospital, taking a long time to recover.
2. My dog has cancer.
3. I am so overweight.
4. My son just graduated, which is great, but it is a change.
5. I am switching off working 2 or 3 jobs.
6. I need exercise.
7. My husband's ex stiffed our son $5000 in child support, but since he just graduated, they figure we don't need the money.
8. My husband's ex is hateful towards my husband for no apparent reason. We have to be the recipient of her inability to deal with the truth, due to her personality disorder.
9. We still haven't seen our 2 other kids in 5 years thanks to her pranks
10. The judge still hasn't decided the case in 4 years because it sits in hicksville.
11. My house is a mess.
12. No one talks to me at the ad agency job.

Reasons to be happy:

1. There are ALWAYS reasons to be happy.
2. I have a great husband and kid and mom and sibs.
3. I have some work.
4. Gardening.
5. Hope in Christ.
6. Al-Anon friends.
7. Health.
8. America.
9. Elmo.
10. Yogi.
11. Cruise Night on Saturday.
12. Mary and John and their Flying Monkeys are coming in from Maine!
13. Swimming Pools.
14. Creek walks.
15. Beaches.
16. Music.

Ze Frank is Brilliant! (click here)

The entertainment value of this site is immeasurable! There is one link after another with valuable information such as How To Dance Properly, How To Impress Your Date, and Interactive Toys such as the one below. Be sure you have the time, cuz you won't want to stop!

More Photos, Just Because

Graduation Time

We have two graduating this year. One is on June 5th, the other happened a week or so ago. One is Gene Jr., who is 18 going on 19. His mom held him back in kindergarten. The second one is Crystal, who is 16 and will be 17 in August. She graduated early, from a school in Kansas somewhere. We got the photo of her from an email to Gene Jr. Other than that, we've not seen her or heard from her in years. It is sad.