So Now I’m The Crazy Neighbor

My mother thought a good idea for a Mother’s Day present for my grandmother would be a framed photo of myself with Pugly, but she said that the photos I’ve taken of myself with the wigs on are all so fun that I should do the portrait with a wig on. O.K. No problem. In New Orleans, I used to do the costume wigs and costume stuff all of the time.

O.K. This is Maine. Definitely not the same as New Orleans.

And rural Maine? You cannot go out of your front door wearing a blue page wig, a Indian-made blouse, and blue jeans and carrying a tripod, a camera and a Pug and not have every single one of your neighbors come to the edge of your yard and stare like you’re about to climb up a water tower with a rifle or something.
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Tags: Pug, dog, the puppy, neighbors, dress up, New Orleans, rural, Maine, Mother\\\'s Day, family

I Hate When She’s Right

I’m annoyed at my mother.

Last night I was excitedly starting to tell her about this book I’m reading about gardening and what I was planning to do when Spring comes and she, being who she is, pooped on my party. She told me not to get too excited about it and not to go all out and invest too much in it and start too big. She told me I should start with a small garden and go from there because I didn’t want to overwhelm myself and take on more than I could physically handle.

*hrmph*

The sad part
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Tags: gardening, mother

Thursday Thirteen Things I’d Like To Do In 2007 (#18)

So this is the time of year when everyone is doing New Year’s Resolutions. I prefer not to do “Resolutions” because they’re generally broken and joked about by the middle of January and forgotten by President’s Day. Then, next January, they’ll be resolved again.

So, instead, I usually try to use the time to reflect and think about the things I’d like to work on in my life, changes, improvements, and so on. I don’t make myself any impossible promises though. I know my limits and I know physics. There’s no way I can lose 60 lbs in 2 months, for example; nor is it likely that I’ll be getting up at 5am any time soon to exercise 3 times a week.

Anyway, here is my list of things I would like to do in 2007, no promises, but I’m working on it. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Thursday Thirteen, bloghopping, meme, New Years Resolutions, gardening, knitting, debt, weight, health, writing, Green Living, housekeeping, dysfunctional family

Discombobulated Thoughts — 12/22/06

• I’m feeling incredibly grumpy today.
• I don’t have any clue why so don’t ask.
• Apparently my GP was supposed to order some follow-up lab work after the ER visit.
• Obviously they didn’t.
• I have way too much to do around the house and I just haven’t been doing any of it.
• I picked up a “Tofurkey Feast” dinner for 8 at Wild Oats for Christmas Dinner.
• I can’t decide if I’m excited about it or not.
• Though “Tofurkey” is kind of fun to say and my dog looks at me funny when I say it.
• I keep forgetting I have fresh raspberries in the fridge.
• Pugly was not happy
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  Tags: discombobulated, Tofurkey, Christmas, holiday depression

  comments See also in My Life, Friends & Family, Wellness, Discombobulated, Anxiety/Depression, Acid Reflux/Gastro B.S., Gallbladder Surgery

Is This Tacky Or Am I Just Too Judgemental?

My uncle sent an email to everyone in the family and all of his friends (I assume) — a gazillion email addresses in the “to” and “cc” parts of the email header.  The email basically said that it was their Christmas card for the year and attached were some photos.  The photos were family photos and some pictures of the giant inflatable Santa and Snowman he’d bought for the house.

He then said that if anyone wanted a real card to email him and he’d send them one.

Apparently there were a few individual comments because the next day we got a
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Tags: Christmas cards

Greedy? Too Generous? Thoughts That Count

I know it’s supposed to be all about the giving, especially this time of year, but as I was making up my Christmas card list last night a sneaky, greedy, nagging little thought occurred to me.  Over the years, I have tried to be very generous with my friends; when people moved into apartments and homes and left for college or moved away, I always tried to make up care packages of things they would need for their new adventures.  I’ve helped people move; I’ve even helped them move out-of-town.  I planned birthdays, bridal showers and Christmas parties and sent
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Tags: dysfunctional friends

WAL-Mart Won’t Sell Granny Pics

O.K. I don’t have any pictures of my great-grandmother. I don’t really have that many pictures of family at all and I’ve been trying to get at least one photo of each family member over the last six or seven months. I haven’t decided where to hang or put all of the family pictures in my new house yet, but it’s important to me to have this anchor for memories.

Anyway, my mother found a really nice one of my great-grandmother taken 15 years ago or so. It looks like she had it done at a Sears or
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Tags: WAL-Mart, photo duplicates

Back To Normal?

So, my parents departed moments ago.  Pugly is back in doggy daycare.  My space and my routine are theoretically my own again, even though it’s an entirely new space that isn’t quite sorted out yet which requires developing something of a new routine.

Back to semi-normal, maybe, I guess.

I love my parents.  I do.  Granted we have some issues.  Some conflicting quirks.  I think they still see me as twelve a lot of the time.  A twelve year old buying her own house, having her own job, trying to live her own life.  So they treat me like a twelve year
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Tags: alone time, little red house

My Brain May Explode

I wonder why my brain doesn’t explode from the sheer insanity of contradictory messages I get from my parents sometimes — mainly from my mother.

Mind you, I write that with love and thankfulness for all the help they both have been the last few weeks. I know that I could not have done everything that’s been done regarding the move without their help.

However…with closer, constant proximity, comes more regular contradictory messages and I suspect wrinkle lines on my forehead from the almost permanent perplexed expressions on my face. Certainly the strain on my forehead and brain has not
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Tags: dysfunctional family, move, little red house, credit card debt

Finally, A Reason To Sleep In, Mom!

My mom is one of those God-awful early-risers.  You know, those people who are awake before 5 am and have had breakfast, are dressed, and have read the paper and gotten started on the day by 7 am?  Those are my parents.

The battle to sleep in on Saturday mornings began the moment I turned pre-teen.  Or maybe it was when Saturday morning cartoons stopped being interesting.  I don’t know.  Either way, I always wanted to sleep until 10am or later.  My Mom thought sleeping past 7am was a crime against nature.

Even after I moved out, it was not unusual for
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Tags: sleep, health, weight loss, wellness, interesting trivia

Exercise Your Mind - 11/08/06

Election 2006

• You have your marching orders…. — Nicole Belle @ Crooks and Liars reminds us of the Republican’s “Contract with America” when they took control of Congress in 1994.
  

  This year’s election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

  Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.
  

  Let’s hope that the Democrats learn from the Republicans’ mistakes.

• A Remedy for Negative Political Ads — Paul Silver @ Donklephant has a remedy for all of those negative, deceitful ads since there’s not likely to be any law regulating truth in political advertising anytime soon.
  

  Perhaps the solution lies in changing the geometry of the question. Instead of trying to regulate the content of ads, we use public funds (or funds from the Parties) to run a frequent public service message that corrects the inaccuracies of any recent ads - perhaps produced by the Factcheck.org folks. Since a candidate would not want to have the airwaves filled with objective criticism they would be inclined to stay as reasonable and civil as possible.

• A Remedy for Election Tampering– Paul Silver @ Donklephant also thinks there should be a reward for information leading to a conviction in crimes related to election tampering.

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Tags: 2006 election, Republicans, Contract with America, Contress, ethics, scandal, Democrats, negative political ads, election tampering, politics, factcheck.org, DHS, TSA, passports, Hasan Elahi, FBI, mental illness, anxiety, depression

I Should Be Happy

I’m thirty-five years old and I am intelligent enough to know I do not need the approval of someone else to make me happy or give me self-worth. However, being brainy enough to know that is somewhat different from being able to control the emotion or the need. I’ve never quite been able to disconnect the wiring on my insides that would allow me to be free from seeking the approval of my parents in all of these years. I’ve said so many times here. That’s why even now after doing triple handstands and cartwheels I
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Tags: little red house, depression, parental approval, dysfunctional family

Signs That My Mommy Has Gone Home

• Last night all of the animals slept with me again.  The cats, betrayers, had been sleeping downstairs with her.  Needy in particular has formed a particular bond with her over the last few trips and now spends most of her visits on her lap, which is good for him and her.
• There was no coffee this morning.  I became so used to having her make it and have it ready for me that to my dismay I couldn’t figure out why there was no coffee when I was ready to start getting ready for the day. :(  I guess I’m going
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  Tags: mommy

  1 comments See also in My Life, Friends & Family

Maybe I’m Doing It Wrong

(Click for larger view.)

Tags: Dilbert, cartoons, friendship, depression

Monday’s A Bitch: Randomness

1. If you could have a view of anything you wanted from your bedroom window, what would you choose? I was a true city girl before I moved to Maine, but now I really like seeing trees outside my window; I like knowing what season it is by studying their branches. This week there’s been this soft natural orange glow filling my room from the changing leaves outside. That’s something I didn’t get with the view of the canal in New Orleans.
2. Have you ever tried Red Bull? Did you like it? I’ve never tried it.
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   Tags: Monday's a Bitch, meme, bloghopping, friendship

   comments See also in My Life, Friends & Family, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, Memes, Monday's A Bitch

Missing Friendship

Two nights ago I dreamt about N2. Well, it was sort of N2.

O.K. Let’s start with what I actually dreamt.

I dreamt that N2 contacted me via IMs, except for some reason I could hear her voice when she typed, like in one of those movie voice-overs. It was like everything was forgotten and forgiven. It reminded me of that one roommate I had in college who I used to argue with all of the time and we wouldn’t speak for days and suddenly China Beach would be on and everything would be fine again even though no
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Tags: friendship

What Part Of “Not Far” Didn’t You Understand?

Originally when the vacation planning was being done, my parents were only supposed to be here until last Thursday so when I was trying to swap the on-call pager, I thought it’d be o.k. to be on-call starting last Thursday as long as I was clear for the weekend before so I could travel to see my aunt and drive back with my parents. And let me tell you, it hasn’t been easy, the last month or so with the pager swapping. We’re all getting a little picky or we all have particular plans around this time.
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Tags: dysfunctional family, work, sight-seeing, Fall

Discombobulated Thoughts — Parental Units Edition

• My parents are visiting.
• I love them very much.
• My father is just a tad bit too set in his ways.
  • Since he’s arrived, I’ve had to remove the closed caption from my tv, which means that I only get about half of what’s said on the shows.
  • We all have to find seating in the living room depending on where he wants to sit, even if someone is already in that seat.
  • He has a real “issue” with the way I’ve set up my lighting in the living room. (This was a serious point of contention on the last visit.)
• They’ve decided that I
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  Tags: parents, discombobulated

  4 comments See also in My Life, Friends & Family, Discombobulated

We’re Baaaaaack….

Well, Pugly and I made it home all in one piece.  My parents are at my house and my aunt and her husband are back to their lives.  I’d say everything went well.

Pugly was a very good boy at Auntie J’s.  He had two oopsies but both were easily handled.  He even got along well weith Auntie J’s parot.  In fact, the parot and Pugly didn’t seem interested in each other at all, much to the disappointment of everyone — I think the lack of feathers and fur flying was something of a let down all around.

Pugly was a bit
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Tags: travel, the puppy

Salt. Wound.

Maybe I should just keep remembering why it’s better just to avoid people. Supposedly I’m the crazy one?

The sooner I’m done dealing with those PBeM people, the better. Every day is more salt in the wound. A new low for them…and I really think they honestly think I’m the crazy bitch.

Tags: PBeM, dysfunctional drama