Not Gone Yet ...

Save those prayers for Friday (tomorrow as I write this). I got lots of comments yesterday of 'pray for you tomorrow' and I want to make sure they make it 'upstairs' at the right time! I would hate to not reap the benefits just because I was a day late!

Gary called me at exactly 5:02 this morning and told me that he had good new and bad news. He then said he really had bad news and good news. He was supposed to meet with the dude that sets up wireless Internet in his apartment from 12:00 - 5:00 on whatever day it was he was calling me on ... lets see, it is our Thursday ... OK it was his Thursday. So he is supposed to get cable installed from 12:00 to 5:00 and he goes home from work and waits, and waits and waits - then calls when he does not show and finds out the guy came and hour early, no one was home so he left. While Gary was waiting they called and said his spanking brand new Rav4 car was ready and he could come pick it up, but he needed to stop by the bank and cut the check for the price of the car and then go pick it up, but since he was waiting for the cable guy - could do neither of those things. He called me (lets see if it was 5:02am my time and they are plus 15, add 3 to 5 and get 8:02 pm instead of am) OK he called me at 8:02 pm his time on Thursday and he was absolutely seething. It was scary even through the phone - the hatred he has for the wireless company is enormous! He apparently was doing it by going in and standing in line and working with apparently assholes every time that said they would set it up, change it to the correct 1 year policy rather than the 2 year policy lied about it. He's now found out you could apply online so he was at work rescheduling the wireless Internet and it will be installed next Thursday - and I will be there so there will be no problem with no one being home. I think in his 'wireless cable guy' rant that this is the good new part is that we are actually getting it - he told me that it has been by far the hardest thing he has done and could care less if there is Internet now in his apartment - which scares me to death - I might die if I am at the apartment for weeks and can't get my online fix. Just my inbox will die - I get hundreds of e-mails a day.

Gary told me I could take pictures and write my blog and just download them on Thursday - I thought it was sweet that he was worried about how I was going to get my blog up to date - since it is a stupid, silly blog! As if y'all care that I miss 1 week of blogging! I find it sweet.

So I will be out of blog land for a week starting after I leave some nasty note tomorrow right before I leave about hating to travel. Oh, and I am assuming that at some point between this minute and when I walk out out the door that I am going to have a major panic attack (and will probably feel the need to blog it) that I am leaving Ryan home alone to take care of the dog, get himself to seminary, not burn the house down, not have kegger parties, not have his girlfriend over ... OK I must stop the panic is starting and I have too much to do to worry about this now, I will do it later....

Off to the store to buy stuff Gary forgot to get ...

FW: Have a Better Day

My dad sends me e-mails that he gets from somewhere - I have no idea. He sends them to a passel of people, but today, I am very depressed over things that go beyond the boundaries of my blog and in pops this e-mail. That and having to trudge through airports soon enough - I just want to lie in bed and moan, so this came at a very opportune time and I am going to decide he sent it just to me, to make me feel better.

It made me smile. Thanks Dad.

The next time you feel that nobody loves you, no one cares, or that no one ever notices you, think of this poor guy: (Lori here, you might want to click on it and blow the photo up to read it)

(Lori here again - since Jen decided I needed a nickname and that it would be Lori-the-Gory and I - hopefully - assume she is not talking about my makeup, clothing style, etc - thought I would add the first question that popped in my head: decomp happens immediately - 5 days? Do they work in a refrigerator? WHO WOULD NOT SMELL THIS GUY AND THE STUFF LEAKING FROM HIS BODY?

The rest are not from a 'reputable new article' so I don't know if they are true or not, but they made me smile anyway)

Things Got Ya Down? Well Then, Consider These . . .

In a hospital's Intensive Care Unit, patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning, at about 11:00 am, regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors and some even thought it had something to do with the super natural. No one could solve the mystery as to why the deaths occurred around 11:00 AM Sunday, so a worldwide team of experts was assembled to investigate the cause of the incidents. The next Sunday morning, a few minutes before 11:00 AM all of the doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer books, and other holy objects to ward off the evil spirits. Just when the clock struck 11:00, Pookie Johnson, the part-time Sunday sweeper, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so he could use the vacuum cleaner.



Still Having a Bad Day?


The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill in Alaska was $80,000.00. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were being released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both.



Still think you are having a Bad Day?


A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen shaking frantically, almost in a dancing frenzy, with some kind of wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Up to that moment, he had been happily listening to his Walkman.



Are Ya OK Now? - No?



Two animal rights defenders were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn , Germany . Suddenly, all two thousand pigs broke loose and escaped through a broken fence, stampeding madly. The two helpless protesters were trampled to death.



What? STILL having a Bad Day?


Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with 'Return to Sender' stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb; he opened it and was blown to bits. God is Good!



There now, Feeling Better?

WHAT?

Air travel. Not my favorite form of transportation.

Didn't bother me much, way, way back in time. Then the Challenger blew up and the engineers wanted 'real' computers to redesign the SRB's (Solid Rocket Boosters). Me being the 'Small Systems Specialist', the powers that be decided that those 'real' computers fell under my purview and I was elected to install them and get them up and running.

This took grundles of training classes in another city and grundles of flights to get there. Steep descents, steep ascents, high winds and white knuckled, near death experiences almost weekly, and voilà - you have a teensy fear of air travel.

Throw in a couple of screaming kids a few years later, add being frequently ill and schlepping through the airport, toss in a very large dash of OCD, add the two airplane pothole experiences (dropping straight down for a few seconds - sending you floating in the aircraft), and pages of intricate packing lists and you now have a severe aversion to air flight.

Years of fairly smooth flights and not travelling with a mentally handicapped daughter had lulled me into a fairly good mood about my upcoming travels. The 14 hour flight has me concerned, and coming back - the customs part looks a bit stressful - but doable.

So here I am - on track, getting my Enrichment Newsletter almost done today, my packing lists coming along quite well for being unusual (taking stuff to leave over there for when I am 'living' there), my list of Things To Do is actually getting some boxes checked off.

Treated myself for being so on top of things: I reward myself with a news break.

The top headline at MSNBC.com?

Swine flu has airports, airlines scrambling
Travel companies are on alert; governments issue travel alerts

What the heck happened while I was getting my act together?!?

The article actually says:

"Tour operators are skipping scheduled stops in Mexico and, as of Tuesday, Australian airports will not allow planes from North America or South America to land unless the pilot radios ahead with information about the health status of all passengers."

So I am not worried about the plane losing an engine, plummeting into the ocean, blowing up at 35,000 feet - me?

I am worried they won't let the plane land because some lady looks sick ...

Diverting a flight because I am run down? Now that is horrifying.

Laura's ABC Tag

Age - 46

Bed size - King

Chore you hate – Cleaning the shower. (Probably does not count since I don’t actually clean my showers …. So – folding the laundry)

Dog's name - Charlie

Egg preference – Hard boiled

Favorite color - Green

Gold or silver - Gold

Height - 5' 2"

Instruments you play – I played the piano for about 5 minutes when I was 10 or so …. Does that count?

Job title – Software Engineer / Computer Programmer / Computer Analyst …‘retired’

Kids - 3

Living arrangements –
- Husband lives in apartment in Australia
- Son lives in our house in Texas
- Daughter lives in Residence for the Mentally Handicapped in Texas
- I am a vagabond - wanting to be at all three places at once ....

working on that 'being in two places at once' trick

Mom's name - Marceil

Nicknames - none

Overnight hospital stay other than births –
- laparoscopy for endometriosis
- D&C (? not sure if overnight)
- One night for PTSD
- half dozen times or so for dehydration (all that barfing from medication)
- 1 or 2 times for multiple tests (I believe they called it ‘run the gamut of tests’),
- to stop pre-term labor
(not in order)

Pet peeve – cupboard doors not closed, items out of place on shelves, Campbell’s soup cans not in alphabetical order, you know – normal stuff …

Quote from a movie – “He’s been mostly dead all day” Princess Bride

Jen's 'R': River, Lake, or Ocean - Lake
Kimberly's 'R': Righty or Lefty - big shocker: Lefty

Siblings – 4 Sisters, 1Brother

Time you wake up – about every 2 - 3 hours – stay up for ½ to 1 hour - throughout the night (my ‘pain management’ routine)

Underwear –‘Under there’ ha ha ha ha

Vegetable you dislike? Asparagus

Workout style – Buying workout books and stylishly displaying them on my shelves.

X-rays –
- Chest (multiple times – pneumonia)
- right wrist (broken)
- right foot (bone spur on top of toe, still there, still hurts),
- head (dental)
- head and neck (migraine),
- lower back (herniated disc, still there, still hurts….)
.... I'll stop ....
OK, I pretty much just glow in the dark …

Yesterday's best moment – When Gary called.

Zoo favorite – Baby Panda bears

Progress

I have not been feeling well for a few days and absent from blogland. I just did not have the energy to type anything and had 'blog block'. Things are looking up as I have been vertical more and more each day.

As for accomplishing anything - that is debatable. When I am sick, I generally cannot control the pain like I can when I am well and can do my relaxation exercises, etc - so up nights roaming the house a lot more than my usual roaming.

Week one down with Gary being gone, and except for the first day or so that felt so alien and final, (and turned me into a crybaby) week one went off without any major hitches.

Photoshop, for me, has become a great distraction - from dealing with pain, from dealing with Gary being gone - apparently just from dealing. Don't know if that is good or bad - I'm just avoiding stuff. I just subscribed to a magazine called 'Elements' for Photoshop Elements and it has all sorts of cool stuff in it. My latest project was making a sunburst overlay and enhancing some photos from Maui (Nov 2008) that did not have a sunburst. Like I said ... distraction:

None of them had any rays of lights (or very few) but I liked the photos so I overlaid them with something I made using the gradient tool:

The question is - is it my photo anymore? What do you call it? Art? Fake photography? Crap?

Whatever ... it got me through the nights ...

Happy Earth Day!

True Love

Woke up to this note in my e-mail inbox:

"I went over today and made arrangements for Internet. They said 7-8 business days. It might be installed before you get here, if not will be available in the first few days after you arrive.

Gary"

So indiscriminate blogging to continue while I 'live' in Australia also!

And ... 'thank you' to all for your kind words to my last post. I have been moribundly ill (ok, just kidding - but it felt like it) and being that ill makes me very morose and puts me in a pouty mood. Sorry. The doc has upped my morphine, I actually fell asleep last night (as opposed to the last two previous to that) and I have been vertical here for an hour or so ... this is definitely progress.

He's Gone

**Alert ** Serious whining to follow: **

I didn't know it would bother me as much as it is bothering me. I mean, I am going to see him soon ... at 'his' place, so what is the biggie?

It kind of reminds me of Jessie leaving - that her spirit left with her and left a cloud of emptiness hovering over the house - it wafted through the rooms and as you walked through it, you felt a sense of yearning for things to be as they were, even though the way they were with Jessie was getting to be way too much for me to handle. Walking through that mist of emptiness, all that is forgotten and all you remember is the smiles and the laughter and the fun times.

With Gary - the cloud is thicker, more overbearing, overwhelming - because there are not the ugly things to forget - only good things and they have all left with him - and it is just a bit more than I expected to feel on the 'emptiness scale'.

When Jessie left, the physical house changed little. In fact, she had so many clothes that her closet really does not look as if anything is gone. Her beds and bedspreads, toys are all still there (a very strange guest room, but the guest have appreciated the beds and had toys to play with if they were bored!)

Now that Gary is gone, the house changed little - since his 'sanity pile' was stuff stored in the attic and shed and I did not see on a daily basis. So I should be OK, he's just on another business trip, right?

As I sit here typing, out of the corner of my eye I can see his desk:

No computer, no printer, no junk, no pencil holder, nothing but a discarded photo and a tray - empty of everything except the 2009 Stake Directory. It looks ... empty ... and it is a continual reminder that he is really gone - moved to another country and I panic a bit.

I find the emptiness I feel is exponential to the emptiness I felt with Jessie leaving. Odd since Jessie's is to be more permanent. But Gary is my best friend, and it is hard to see your best friend drive away from the curb (which I did not - I was in bed sick where he kissed me goodbye, then I heard the front door closed quietly behind him. I realized that with Ryan at work, that I was now totally alone - completely alone ... until a black wet nose nuzzled my face and questioningly looked at the tears running down my face - and I smiled).

I worry, unceasingly, obsessively, wanting to make this work and making my side of the pond not be a worry to Gary.

One of the toilets lost its mind the night before he left and he made two trips to Wal-mart to get the right things to make sure it was fixed before he left. I started to wonder if the rest will follow suite? OK, I will admit - I know that I say I am an idiot on a regular basis - and in some ways I am, but I also know that I am a very, very intelligent person (just don't admit it ... ever. Think nutty professor - that was my nickname in High School by my year book staff (I was Editor)) so if I studied the toilet, or whatever else decides to commit suicide - I will probably be able to figure it out or at least figure out my limitations and call someone in. Being stupid in my life is generally over little things I don't think through, but I know if I put my mind to something - I will be able to do it. I just don't want to do this crap!

Gary is a genius when it comes to home repairs, fixes, etc - his dad taught him electrical, plumbing, woodworking .... pretty much everything - if you could do it yourself - you were not beholden to anyone and were self sufficient. It has worked so well for us for so many years and I am so dependant on him for things like this, because I have had no interest to learn. I believe there will be times in the next year that I curse my inattention to his instructions.

In fact as I sit here, I have no idea what Gary left the sprinkler system set for, and not really sure how to program it (same here - I can figure it out, but much quicker if Gary just does it). Lots of things he takes care of that I am clueless about and and now I need to 'pony up' and take responsibility. Yuck.

I sit here at my desk an look at my beautiful orchids and realize - not all the flowers in the world are going to make up for the emptiness in the house. Gary was too big a presence, always happy, cheerful, playful - joking, and working to make our house just a little better that day than it was the day before.

I don't now how to fix this feeling. I guess just live with it and try not to look to my right (at his desk) very often.

Bet I don't take down his toothbrush, clean off his night stand and all the other things I used to do when he travelled.

Why not let them stay? Pretend that a part of him is still lingering in the ether ....

Sigh ...

At least the weather is apropos.

Dicking with my Dads photo:

My Dad puts out a family calendar every year for friends and family and Aprils photo was the following photo. I had never seen it before and immediately fell in love with it. I asked him if I could steal it so I could 'play'.

One of my final results:
And just in case anyone is wondering what I did to the photo:

-Changed the hue and saturation a bit to soften the colors (mainly decreased saturation).

-Softened it more using the Orton Imaging Technique – that makes it look a bit out of focus and feathers the leaves and grass.

-Put the photo on a brown canvass background.

-Used a clipping mask to shape the photo into the main photo and the photo creating a grungy ‘frame’.

-Used a brown matt over top of it (on overlay, could have used Color Dodge with about the same affect).

-Used the eraser tool on 40% opacity and erased the blue part of the truck bringing part of the color back.

-Flattened all the layers into one layer.

-Adjusting the lighting a titch and made it a bit lighter.

- It still looks like the original photo alone, but when you compare them side to side – you can see the differences better.

Final Countdown

Well, Gary has been getting his stuff together for the movers. They come and pack all of his stuff up into 4 air freight shipping containers at 8:00 Saturday morning. Since his apartment is furnished, he is not gutting the house and I won't be left with empty rooms.

Since he is in an apartment, he does not have a garage to do woodworking in. He toyed with the idea of buying some tools while over there, but quickly decided upon looking at his living options that city life was going to be much more exciting than suburban living - thus scrapping the woodworking and lawn care.

This freed up his weekends to a frightening array of days with nothing to fill them with. If you know Gary at all, sitting around doing nothing is not an option - he would be nuts in just hours. Thus - the fact that he is moving to AUSTRALIA comes in to play and he started his pile - I call it his 'sanity pile'. He is working on moving most of his clothes, his toiletries, went 'shopping' through the kitchen last night - wantonly throwing stuff in a box, he has a stash in our sitting area of the bedroom: vitamins, bedding, pillows, just ... stuff. And I don't care a bit about any of it.

All I care about is his sanity pile. It contains: boogie boards, sand chairs, portable recliners (for the balcony and camping), backpacking gear, coolers, sleeping bags, tents, you know - stuff that will keep the guy sane on the weekends. When I get there in a couple of weeks I want to find a happy, sane Gary, not a Gary with wild eyes that has nothing to do with his free time.

His pile grew bigger after this photo, but I was too lazy to take another photo. The garage grew much cleaner after this photo also - as Gary decided to make the mover pack in there (it is air conditioned and they make a mess, so the mess won't be in my house). He actually vacuumed the entire thing last night and is going to mop it today (trying to get rid of all that sawdust). All ready for me to make it into my new craft room!

So, sadly in the photo - just his fun pile is going. He will be coming home for a week about every 6 weeks for a week of vacation and can play with his woodworking tools then.

So, how am I holding up with my husband moving to another country in exactly 2 days? I'm buying flowers:

They make me enormously happy, I get to take photographs of them, and these babies - are just so darn adorable they were impossible to pass up. They are little baby orchids - the pots they are in are about 2 inches high (can't tell from the photo the size, I know). They are sitting on my desk as I type making me smile.

But - plan on a bit of craziness (I know, big shock). I will be going to see him - but this time seems so ... final. He is really moving and I hope we can do this as smoothly as possible for Gary, me, Ryan and Jessie. I know I will be having a hard time at first, but it will get better.

I leave on May 1st to go 'live' there for 2 weeks. Hopefully he will have the Internet connection up and running - cause I don't need a pile of crap to stay sane ... but I DEFINITELY need the Internet!

Flower Fun

Click here and have fun! Click, click and drag your mouse create your own flower garden! (Click on back arrow to return to 'Lori's Blog')

Amaryllaceae

Thought I would cover all my bases:

"Amaryllidaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants." -Wikipedia.

Somewhere in the sixty genera and over 800 species my flower resides.


Somewhere between:

'Amaryllis' and 'Zephyranthes'


I am sure my guy has a name ...

do I care what it actually is?



Not anymore ...

Lori's 'Texas Lily'

Encountered this flower on my 'Idiot's' Wildflower run. Didn't see it on my other Wildflower outing, and it was always in a ditch. It does not look like a wildflower - it looks like, well, to me - a lily - but I know pretty much less about flowers than I do about birds.

I thought that all lilies came from bulbs and I didn't have the presence of mind to dig one up or anything, they just seemed 'tulipy' or 'lilyee' (yes I make up words all the time - this does not bother me in the least) rather than 'blubonnety' or 'daisyee' they had that thickness to them - I know I am not making any sense, but have you noted the time stamp of this post (and that is when I started it ...)?

I just could not get enough of them! I loved to photograph them, but now it bothers me that I don't know what it is, why it would be growing wild in random ditches along the back roads of Texas.

I get the Texas Wildflower concept: I envision First Lady - Ladybird Johnson flinging wildflower seeds out her car window with wild abandon while driving the highways and byways of Texas (I know this in not entirely historically accurate, but my off kilter overactive imagination takes me there) I don't see her tossing bulbs out by the hundreds - and anyway - I was told I could not grow bulb plants in Texas unless I dug up the bulbs each year or they would rot and here they were growing out of control in ditches - the low and I am assuming - wet spots!

So, clearly I am confused, but this is a state that I am very familiar with and won't fret over it much - I will just enjoy my 'Texas Lily' until I have information to convince me to rename it something else ...

I Dreamt in Photoshop Last Night ...

Decided to get up and at least try to do what I dreamed I did:

I think today is going to be a flower themed day ... one of my two 'indoor gardens' is blooming:

... I have flowers blooming outside with morning light hitting them, and more wildflower photos to play with. I have a feeling more flower photos to follow ...

Happy Easter!

"Rodney The Ingrate" got to go it alone for this holiday (Harriet had a last minute modeling gig and Tess was feeling under the weather) and still - he looks unhappy. There is just no pleasing him ....

You'll Never GUESS What Gary Brought Me Back From Australia!

Jewelry! Dude brought me jewelry! Not another Froggie Coin purse to add to our budding family (Harriett grudgingly agreed to model for me here - but ONLY if she could flip the photographer off - as usual), no Kangaroo Scrotum Coin purses ... just really cool looking jewelry (aren't the earrings just funky?).

I'm telling you - the dude is slipping ...

"Happy Feet"

Guess what day it is? Six months ago I posted my infamous Yearly Well Woman Exam post and snapped a photo of my feet. Little did I know that it would become Sarah's and Jen's all time favorite photo of mine - which comes as quite a blow as I would like to think I have taken some pretty photos, maybe not ... (Jen did rescind just the other day).

And being cursed for writing said post, the fates decided that I needed to experience it all over again six months later. It is fun sitting around for six months waiting to retest to see if you have cancer - but actually discovered today wasn't that test - it is the test that, if abnormal again, THEN I get to go in and be tested to see if I have cancer. Maybe they will tell me I have to wait a year or something for that one ....

Got to wait an hour in these:

And I did bring a jacket this time so the arctic temperature was not so bad.

So in honor of my 'I will only post photos of my feet on this blog' motto (OK except for those a few weeks ago of my engagement and wedding photos) I bring you a slide show of where my feet have been in the past six months (and it is a paltry set - I need to be much more diligent or go to more exotic locales ...):

Time Travel

Gary: "See you tonight."

Lori: "No, see you tomorrow."

Gary: "It's Friday all day, all they way home."

So it is Friday morning in Australia (as I write this Thursday afternoon) ... Gary is packing and heading to the airport (whooo hooooo!). The limo will drop him off at our doorstep 26 hours from now, and it will only be late Friday afternoon - how wrong is that?

Sounds like a story problem from High School ...

And yes, I get it. He crosses the date line - but that is pretty good for me ... being without my saner half for 6 out of the last 8 weeks!

"Idiot Driving the Back Roads of Texas" Photos

Part I




Didn't get as many photos on my "Idiot's" Wildflower hunt - unfortunately I was looking for road signs (ok, and .... well bathrooms - Jen). But there were a few beauties.

"Bluebonnet Fence"

"Yellow"

"Red"

"Donkey Windmill"

"Pioneers"

Dodged a bullet ...

(so far) and didn't even know it until today (back to this later).

So - based on the photograph here - where did I go today? Anybody? Anybody?

This is a photo of my retina - VERY COOL! Fun retinal scanner. You get to feel like James Bond for a second or two and it replaces those disgusting drops. Y'all probably know all this - but it was news to me (it has been a few years since I have been in to the eye doc). Being the geeky nerd that I am, I requested a copy! I mean, who wouldn't want a photo of their very own retina, optic nerve, macula, etc?

The new thing I learned from the doctor today is that if you have late stage Lyme disease - it can affect your eyes:

"Without treatment, the infection can spread through the bloodstream into the joints, brain, eyes, and/or heart. Excruciating headaches may occur" (that 'without treatment' for me stemmed from my immune dysfunction masking the symptoms .... just thought it was the same old same old).

The medical site I was on goes on to eerily describe my experience:

"In late stages, when eye disease, arthritis or neurological disease is present, therapy consists of intravenous antibiotics (e.g., penicillin or ceftriaxone). However, in late stages antibiotics may be effective only to a certain extent or may even fail to work. In these cases, neurological damage may progress or blindness may result." I am only in remission, but the new thing - that little ditty at the end 'blindness may result' - never discussed this with my Lyme disease specialist.

I love to take photographs, I love to edit photographs and I don't know what I would do if I couldn't enjoy the beauties of nature on a daily basis.

The good news?

My doc says my eyes look perfect.

For now.

"Hi, my name is Lori, and I am an addict"

Well, I have many addictions - if you have read this blog for awhile you would know. Addicted to photographing people taking pictures, addicted to photographing flowers, addicted to my pimped out, two monitored computer, I'm a Sonics Route 44 Diet Coke with cherry and lime addict ....

and I am a jewelry addict.

So ... my cleaning lady comes on Tuesdays. Here I am working on a website design and she has to kick me out of my office. There always comes a time when she actually needs to clean the room I am in most of my day. Off I go with my photography books - which I should be reading, but rather hoping that through osmosis I will absorb all the info and become a good photographer.

On to my bedroom - sitting in the sitting area reading, bored so I go to lay down and see a familiar site:

Hiding in the corner of my room, right next to my armoire is what I call my "Oriental Corner". Since the furniture in our house was all built by Gary and he has designed it all with a very Scandinavian flair - it is grossly out of place - thus the hiding in the corner part. The baseball bat? Is an extra - something Gary made for me for protection. (One really weird thing I know a lot about is crime - and statistically you are more likely to be killed with that knife you have in your room for protection than you are of actually using it on the perp. A baseball bat - you are willing to swing away. Read that somewhere, so Gary made me a baseball bat on his lathe).

Gary brought both of those lovely herb cupboards back from Korea - knowing that I would love them for my jewelry. Yeah - there are ... 29 drawers and a big cupboard that locks. On top of the cupboards is an adorable folding jewelry box (a real Korean jewelry box) and two other wood inlaid boxes. My moms jewelry? Fits in the folding box that we gave her as a gift and is exactly the same size as mine.

After my immune system decided to go elsewhere, leaving me with fewer options in life than before - one of the things I had to let go of was costume jewelry - infection is something I deal with every day - and infected ear lobes was easy to fix. So, embarrassing as it is - everything in every one of those drawers is either sterling silver or 14k - 24k gold.

And while in Norway, with an excess of funds to spend, I started my rather large collection of Swarovski crystal and Murano Glass - since the rule was I could only buy a product in the country it was make in - so Swarovski - bought my first stuff while in Austria, Murano Glass? Italy (Gary did this for me), Mont Blanc pen? Germany - just a silly self-imposed rule...

And I have not even mentioned the really weird part (you SO knew I would have a really disturbing weird part to this post, didn't you?). Every single solitary piece of jewelry I own is in its very own teeny, tiny (adorable) zip-loc bag. It protects it from tarnish, scratches and damage and makes me ... I don't know ... completely nuts? But I sleep better at night knowing that all my jewelry is safely ensconced, nestled with their neighbors and in a place where I know exactly where it is (I have a system ... and no - no excel spreadsheet or anything ... weird ...)

I'm thinking I should sell the stuff - I hardly wear it now. I wore, and collected some of it when I went back to work when the kids were in school - but I was already sick and it just made me sicker and sicker. I also had my Stage Three Lyme Disease disaster during my working at Shell - complete with my own surgically implanted IV line in my chest for my IV meds anaphylactic shock and many, many hospital stays. Had to 'retire' and really, really miss working.

So, sell? Or keep just for funsies? I do wear some, but putting jewelry on for Church on Sunday and that is about it - it would take me years to get through my collection if I wore something different each week.

Problem is: I LOVE my collection. I will go through the drawers and remind myself what is there. I see a piece and it reminds me where I got it, the fun I had selecting it, all good memories. I will take it out and polish the pieces that need polishing, or clean it in my totally cool ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. I make sure the colored items are in their proper assigned color drawer (those are below my solid gold and silver drawers).

Why I am confessing this in my blog, I have no clue ... just something to write. But I realize that it makes me look, well ... completely nuts!

But then again, who out there hasn't figured that out by now?

"Idiot Driving the Back Roads of Texas"

Maps! They so used to be my friend. I LOVE maps. They got me all over Europe, Hawaii, road trips in the states - EVERYWHERE except today. I trust maps, I rely on maps, I assume they are correct ...

So today I decide to go put air in my tire that was low and had been forever - decided to get it done before Gary got home so I would not look so pathetically like a 'girl', and something in my brain did another of those dangerous *bing* 's. This one literally screamed Road Trip!!!

I have been missing working on my Wildflower Trip photos - so I decided to go again. Went in the Exxon and bought a map. Looked at the roads available and set off (I ALWAYS travel with my cameras - somehow I feel naked without them - and there is still that two headed zebra out there just waiting for me to spot it...)

I get on 90 and look for the road I want - which never comes, and the road forks. I take the north one since I am wanting to head north and sort of decided that any small back road was as good as another small back road - you see, I had my trusty map to get me home again.

I take a few forks and all of a sudden I am at a house that Bonne and I drove by! I mean I was lost in the backwoods of Texas how could this have happened? But I was very, very excited. I had told Bonne that I needed photos of it and she said "on the way back" - sounded good to me. Unfortunately on the way back there was a big ole mini van parked in front of it which totally changed the photo from 'creepy, old, run down house' to 'stupid house'.

So I drive, and drive and I have looked at the map and I am looking for my road - my tiny road that will have magical fields of bluebonnets, Elsie the cow grazing peacefully in a field of bluebonnets and daises, windmills, unicorns and fairies...

NOT ONCE did I ever find the road I was looking for. There were roads approximately where I thought my road should be, but I would always pass it thinking that surely this time, my road would be just up ahead. Nope. And I went back to my mantra that 'any back road is a good back road', pull over, try to find myself on the map (only twice, TWICE - in the course of 5 hours did I find myself on the map), pick a new random road or, having not found myself, shrug and decide that a town would show up sooner or later (mainly later). I will note that this is not exactly the best way to go about things when you are on your second - yes, I am addicted - second route 44 diet coke with cherry and lime.

Took some photos, and all of a sudden I was at I10 - I had gone under it hours before and really thought I was still slowly making my way north. After a few 'damns' I decided that this was fate telling me that my adventure was over, so I turned East and headed home (I actually might still be driving around, lost, had fate not intervened).

A couple photos from my: "Idiot Driving the Back Roads of Texas" collection (of course you will be pestered with these photos for days, so I am pacing myself):

And, I might really be addicted to taking photos of flowers ....

My Photographic Addiction

I know, y'all guessed flowers, right?

Wrong.

My all time biggest 'thang' I love to take photographs of?


People taking pictures.


Now, just getting someone with a camera in front of their face might be ok for me, just to have it, for my collection - but my real addiction is getting someone taking a picture of something spectacular:

"Dad in Denmark"

"Ryan in Rothenburg ob der Tauber"

"Jeff on the Road to Bergen" (my brother)


"Marci in Copenhagen" (my sister)

"Gary on the way home from Bergen"


This one puts in context the last one that I added as a bonus. It is the one I saw today on my slide show and made me decide on this post. I call it:


"The Sky is Falling"