Wandering Aimlessly and Mumbling Incoherently

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( Stolen from marilyndln )

Heh.

I take joy very seriously. My life would be so much less without it. But I'm not sure my definition of joy would be the same as anyone else's, so I thought I'd explain what joy means to me.

It's living my life in a state of quiet epiphany. It's looking at a field of grass and just being astounded that that mass of green is a gazillion little blades of grass. It's driving along and realizing that every other car on the highway has at least one person in it that has their own life, their own worries, their own happiness, and their own destination, and feeling the beauty of that, instead of just going "duh." It's marveling at a ball-point pen, and what a clever and nifty invention that is. It's seeing the mountains through my windshield and realizing that not everyone gets to see that when they are just out doing their daily errands, and how very, very lucky I am to live where I live.

Joy is not living my life avoiding the darker, less pleasant aspects; it's not just looking at them as a contrast to the happier times, or thinking "it's always darkest before the dawn". It's not even looking for the silver lining. It's not viewing shadows as just providing contrast; it's not hiding in them. It's realizing that they are an integral part of the whole thing.

It's living my life, but finding the lessons that are so abundant in every experience - the difficult ones, the sad ones, the happy ones, the ecstatic ones. It's being aware that the world really is my exercise book - and yours, and yours, and yours. It's being open to change and grow and adapt, and realizing that both the ability to change and the actual change are both beautiful and damned nifty.

It's knowing that should I die tomorrow, I may not leave behind any kind of "legacy" outside of a few amazing people I gave birth to and raised, and a bunch of pixels scattered over the internet, but the tapestry of the world would be irrevocably changed, nonetheless.

Stolen from heathwitch

It's the Musical Meme!

Step 1: Put your music player on shuffle.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Strike through the songs when someone guesses both artist and track title correctly. Yes the artist too.
Step 4: For those who are guessing -- looking the lyrics up on a search engine is CHEATING!
Step 5: If you like the game, post your own.

1. God thinks all blacks are obsolete farm equipment. dbmyrrha
2. So 1, 2, 3, take my hand and come with me. ithilien
3. Pearls and swine bereft of me; long and weary, my road has been.
4. It's been awhile since I could hold my head up high. paisli and dbmyrrha
5. Well, I take whatever I want to, and baby, I want you.
6. Earth our body, water our blood, air our breath, and fire our spirit.
7. Well, it's a rainy night in Paris, and I'm sitting by the Seine.
8. I won't forget when Peter Pan came to my house, took my hand.
9. A mother came unto her children, she told them why she'd gone away.
10. A bottle of white, a bottle of red; perhaps a bottle of rosé instead. ithilien
11. The direction of the eye, so misleading.
12. Photographs and memories, Christmas cards you sent to me. - davensjournal
13. And the full moon is a vagina spread wide. "anonymous"
14. Scanning the scene in the city tonight. paisli
15. Hello there, the angel from my nightmare. klover333
16. Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach. ithilien and skyewolf1
17. Turn around - every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never comin' 'round. - davensjournal
18. I had a dream late last night.
19. Well, I hear you're driving someone else's car now. paisli
20. The way you wear your hat, the way you sip your tea. ithilien
21. Hey, don't write yourself off yet. ithilien
22. I'm not the one who's so far away. klover333
23. Maryann and Wanda were the best of friends. eschewv
24. God of the poor man, this is how the day began.
25. Please don't let this turn into something it's not.

Juno didn't win anything at the Golden Globes?

Insane. Lame. Stupid. Just wrong.

I am recording a meditation for my coven for this Thursday. I really need to find an audio editing software so I can edit out awkward pauses and spots where I screw up, so I don't have to keep starting over.

Does anyone know of a freeware or fully-functional shareware program I could use?

Well, the day of my birthday:

• I have lost my weird sense of humor.


• I have no desire to play board games or video games.


• The insomnia is gone, and I now go to bed at a reasonable hour and get up at the asscrack of dawn ready to eat my prunes and oatmeal and yell at the young whippersnappers who dare set a foot on my lawn.


• And I most assuredly do NOT walk around movie theaters miming Indiana Jones using a walker while cracking his whip.

Oh, wait. None of the above is true.

Eh. Pretty much the same as ever.

I just saw this one someone's page:



and thought, "Wow, that's a lot of quests to turn in."

I need help.

I'm supposed to be at a party in 1/2 an hour. No, there's no reason my middle name will be changed to Procrastination. Luckily, it's a "come when you can" party.

Just wanted to share a couple pics from the photo shoot last week. Mark rocks.

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I was looking at my friends list, and there are a few people who have friended me, and I have no clue who you are. Some of you are friended to several of my friends, but your profile doesn't give enough info for me to figure out who you are. Please drop me a note and let me know who you are, if I know you! And hell, let me know who you are if I don't know you, too, please!

Decided to make new userpics today while I was on the phone. Check 'em out. The bottom dozen fourteen seventeen are new.

Okay, I'm outta here.

Would any of the handy-dandy folks on my flist be willing to help me with one of these ideas for installing a window unit? I would serve you yummy food and offer undying gratitude.

I'm writing up an ad for my old van for Craigslist. What do you think?

Conversion Van for Sale - 1997 Dodge RamVan 1500. 125k miles. Maroon. v8 engine. Power locks and power windows. Stereo/CD player is 8 months old. Tires are 9 months old.

Needs work: It overheats, and I had the water pump replaced by a friend, but the problem returned a few days later. It may need a new water pump, it may be something else. It only got into the "red" once on overheating, though, and I parked it so as not to do further damage. The repairs aren't extensive, but I can't do them myself and I can't afford to pay to have them done.

It also needs a new coolant sensor and the air conditioner needs to be recharged. There are a few smaller problems that my mechanic assures me are nothing to worry about, but they make the van a bit noisy.

$1500 OBO. Please contact by email for initial contact.

Too much info for the ad? I will disclose all of this (and a list of those smaller problems) to anyone before I sell the van. I'd rather donate it somewhere than sell it to someone who doesn't know what they're getting into.

I will also include a picture.

So, what do you think? If I can sell the van, I can recover my down payment for the new van and still buy air conditioners for my house.

We all know that full, un-opened Coke cans will explode at freezing temperatures, but have you ever wondered if they will do so at hot temps?

Wonder no more. Because, see, it works like this: If you, say, had an un-opened Coke can in your car for days during stupidly hot weather, and then perhaps you moved it out of the drink holder and onto the seat so you could put your fresh Coke in the cup holder, and then drove a bit, what would happen is that all of a sudden, the can would explode, sounding very much like a very loud firecracker just a foot and a half away from your ear. You would duck automatically, somehow avoiding swerving and hitting the cars travelling at 50mph around you, while the shrapnel-like tab from the can whizzed past your face. Then you'd realize what that incredibly loud bang was. You'd manage to navigate traffic enough to pull over in the parking lot of a nearby park (because of course you'd be in Westminster, Colorado, where there are parks every three feet), where you'd sit and shake for a few minutes before getting out of the car to work the rest of the adrenalin out of your system. Then you'd go back to the car and clean up the mess, throwing the now-empty pop can into the trash (okay, fine, the floor of the backseat that serves as the trash), while noticing that your hearing was maybe starting to come back in your right ear.

Then you'd drive on and continue your day.

At least, that's how it works in my experience.

The Universe (pink and sparkly that it is) has some very strange people in it. I gave birth to some of the strangest.

Also, I am congested and red-eyed from crying while watching Jericho tonight. Well done, Jericho people, well done. I may be depressed all summer.

Crying at a TV show - damn, I'm becoming a sap. Old age really isn't for wimps.

Nineteen years ago tomorrow, I was getting Alyson ready to go to the sitter's , while I also got ready for school. I picked up the daily paper and read news that made me sit back down and cry for long enough that I missed my first class:

Robert A. Heinlein had died the day before - nineteen years ago today.

Today, I've spent the morning scouring the web for a poem that showed up in a science fiction magazine that I read back then, a tribute to RAH. All I remember of it was that it had the word "Cradle" in the title. I don't even remember what magazine it was - but I remember that, at the time, it summed up for me what Heinlein had given to the world... given to me. I wish I could find it.

Today, I think I will take some time to curl up on the couch, a stack of Heinlein paperbacks beside me, and re-acquaint myself with some old friends.

4 hours, 47 minutes, and 35 seconds until Heroes is back!

MADISON, Wis. - The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on government-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18274639/

We might be getting a puppy tomorrow!

(ish on the morning, not on the good)

Date? Incredibly, magically wonderful. Public transportation? Notsomuch.

It's smelly, loud, inconvenient as hell. Yes, I prefer the immediacy of jumping in my van and going. I also think I have some control issues where transportation is involved. I suppose I could explore those issues, but really, I think I will just drive from now on, and get over my fear of parking downtown.

A girl can't work on all of her issues at once, after all. Gotta prioritize.

Oh, and what the hell is with the cold?????

And now I am so tired that I feel like my brain is going to leak out my eyeballs (you're welcome for the visual) and there's no Coke in the house. I was considering a nap, but I think I'll run to the grocery store and then clean house for game. If there's time after that, then nap. Definitely.

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Yes, I know it snows in spring in Colorado.

But today? Does it have to be today?

I finally had an occasion to wear my black flirty skirt and my green wrap shirt, but we'll be doing a lot of walking outside, and I don't know if shiny patent pumps and bare legs are the best idea for that.

I may never get to wear that outfit. Come summer, the shirt's too warm (3/4 sleeves).

Dammit.