September 30; Day Thirty

The episode that we did watch

Of “How I Met Your  Mother”,

Was stories told all in rhyme

One following another.

As we watched the credits rolling

And started to converse,

We found the words did not sound right

Unless we spoke in verse.

So on this last of thirty days

Of blogging every night

I choose to try to make my words

All rhyming nice and tight.

My 30 days are now complete,

It really has been fun.

Writing tales about my days,

The beach days in the sun.

                                                                         

Will I continue writing daily?

This I do not know.

For there are days my mind is blank,

The thoughts don’t seem to flow.

But writing seems to calm my thoughts,

And put things in perspective.

It is very therapeutic

To write my thoughts reflective.

I will continue to express myself

Through written words at times.

Although, I think, it would be best

If not too often in rhymes.

September 29; Day Twenty-Nine

Almost 30 days!

I went to have my annual eye exam today. New glasses coming. Actually, they will be old frames, but new lenses. I met a lady there, I think she said she was the Office Manager. I’m not exactly sure on that though. Anyway, her name was Happy.

Of course, I had to ask. At first I didn’t see her name tag, so I asked if she spelled it “Hapi” or “Happy”? She said, “Happy”. Happy told me that she is actually a twin and that her twin’s name is Tree. She and Tree were born in the fifties out in California. No surprise there.

She said her parents considered themselves Beatniks and had already picked out the name Tree. She was a surprise and came out crying and screaming. Her grandfather said they should call her Happy because she would need all the help she could get. The name stuck. It’s not a nickname, either.

I told her about my sister Penny. Penny’s name is actually Vanessa Kay, but my mom and dad didn’t have a penny to their name, so…..

I love both those stories.

September 28; Day Twenty-Eight

Sunday night. Today has gone by very quickly.

Liz and I had a lengthy discussion this morning about right-side brain and left-side brain dominance. It was a very interesting and enlightening conversation. We have decided that I am right-sided and have continually forced myself into left-sided jobs.

I would like to investigate this further before elaborating, but what I have found so far makes a lot of sense to me. It explains so much. I will probably write about what I learn in the near future.

But, for tonight, I want to go read for a little bit. Jessica bought me a book from the thrift store she works in. I started it while on vacation and read bits and pieces here and there this last week. Let’s see how much I can read before I fall asleep tonight. I’m going up earlier than usual hoping to be able to enjoy reading more.

I’m so sleepy right now, though. I am hoping for more than a couple of paragraphs!

September 27; Day Twenty-Seven

Well, I’m in the last few days of the 30-day blog challenge. I wondered if I would find enough to write about each day. There have been a few days that I didn’t have much to write. Some days I would work the blog in my head all day. Most days, though, I sat down at the computer and just started typing.

Today has been quietly uneventful. Jessica and I were going to work in the garage, but we couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm needed. I paid bills, did my little thing for work, filled out insurance claims, and wandered aimlessly around the house, stopping occasionally to skim through facebook.

We are still doing our massive purge of unnecessary stuff in the house. Jessica went through and cleaned out several cabinets in the kitchen. She found three bottles of ketchup. We buy our ketchup at Costco so we are set for awhile. She also pulled out the microwave bacon cooker. That really isn’t a necessary item in a home full of vegans.

The girls have been playing a Harry Potter Lego Wii game while I showered. We are about to sit down, eat dinner, and watch some more episodes of “How I Met Your Mother.” 

As I mentioned earlier, a quiet, uneventful, very nice day.

September 26; Day Twenty-Six

Oh my! I was about to crawl into bed and realized I haven’t blogged today. The 30-days are almost over; I wouldn’t want to miss this close.

It’s been a pretty good day. I went in to work about 7:30 this morning. Still have a lot to do, but made progress. Left work just after 5pm. Jessica suggested Chinese Food, so I went to a little restaurant called Lavender Asian Bistro for supper. Good food!

We discovered “How I Met Your Mother” season 9 is on Netflix. I love that show.  We watched four episodes before I decided I needed to go to bed.

I have a busy, but not stressful weekend planned. Nothing exciting.  Going to try to finish the final project for the Accounting certificate. I have a little work project to do, too. I plan to spend a couple of hours working on clearing out the garage. That project may take me and Jessica at least into November.

Other than that, not much going on right now. 

Okay, now I can go to bed.

September 25; Day Twenty-Five

Once again, I do not have much to say. After working 10 hours, my brain is drained. So, I thought I would pull out a notebook of poetry I wrote back in the late 1970s and reminisce.  Oh, the angst of a teenage girl. I would have been 16-17 years old when I wrote them.

I started reading to Liz. Even though I was laughing, she kept saying that for a teenage girl in or out of love at the time, the poems weren’t too bad. Then I read her the one where I rhymed “castle” with “pastle”.  They rhymed in spelling…sorta.

When I read Liz the one I’m about to type, she said she could just picture someone beating a bongo after each line read; the audience nodding their head and snapping their applause.

Ahem.

                                Who’s There?

                “Let me out!

                                I need to breathe.”

                I look around; I see no one.

                “Let me out!

                                I need to love.”

                I look inside me, I see no one.

                “Who’s there?” I ask.

                     “I’m lonely,” speaks my heart.

                “It’s so dead in here. Please do something soon.

I have no reason to keep beating.”

                Tears roll down my cheeks.

Snap, snap, snap go fingers all around the room.

September 24; Day Twenty-Four

When I first started this 30-day challenge to write something in my blog every day, I knew there would be a day or more that I would not have anything to say other than, “I am writing in my blog.”

Today is one of those days. I’m so tired. So: I am writing in my blog. That is all.

September 23; Day Twenty-Three

"Cease striving, and know that I am God..." Psalm 46:10

This is one of my favorite verses. Only, that “cease striving” or another version states, “be still”, is more of a wish for me. I find it very difficult to cease or be still.

I had to make myself slow my thoughts and consciously take deep, relaxing breaths while sitting on the beach last week. Sometimes, at work I find my hands clinched, my shoulders hunched, my stomach in knots, my anxiety level way out of control. Nobody is driving me except me. My boss reminds me that our job is not life or death. I don’t know how to stop.

Maybe because other people seem to make everything look much easier. Maybe because I seem to step into positions that the previous person left huge shoes to fill. Maybe because sometimes I feel stupid and inadequate. Or maybe it’s because I feel the need to be “god”; to be perfect, to know everything, to not mess up. That’s just slightly an unrealistic way to be.

However, when I seem to be at my most stressed, this verse pops up. “Cease striving, and know that I am God…” He’s got this. But then I think, “Yeah, He’s got this, but I have to do it.” So, in essence, I take it back from Him and continue to strive.

I’m thankful He is patient with me. Just wish I wasn’t so stubborn in this.

September 22; Day Twenty-Two

I’m not sure where this blog will go today. I’m just going to type and let the thoughts spill out. Random stuff.

The Fellowship of the Ring opens describing an upcoming birthday party for Bilbo Baggins. He shares his birthday with Frodo. Their birthday? September 22. Rather coincidental that I started listening to this book on cd this morning.

Today was the first day back to work after my vacation. Even though I checked my work emails on a daily basis on vacation, I still came in to over 200 emails this morning. I slowly whittled that number down to 98 before calling it a day. That was including tackling the ones that came through today. Half-way through the day I actually cried.

I came home, talked with Liz a few minutes, then changed clothes to go mow the yard. I borrowed Liz’s ipod and used the ear buds Jessica gave me for my birthday. Awesome sound! I didn’t even look to see what was playing on Liz’s ipod, but I hit shuffle. The band was Lorde. Liz was rather surprised when I came in stating I really liked what I was listening to. Sometimes, listening to music while mowing the yard, shutting out the world, is very therapeutic.

Jessica came home and told stories about how a lady she works with brought in a bunch of kittens to give away. We have seven cats and a dog. We don’t need another cat. Jessica said she probably prayed harder today for good homes for those kitties than she has in a long time. Each baby found a home with people that Jessica approved of. She’s confident that was a God thing.

A co-worker/friend gave me a devotional book several months ago. I keep moving it around meaning to read it. I picked it up yesterday and started looking through it. I think I’m really going to like it. The timing is good. The book is called, “All Will Be Well”. It has readings from Julian of Norwich. I haven’t actually reached the 30-day readings yet, but already like what I have read. With some things going on in my life right now, I really need to hear that all will be well.

When I get really tired, I start rambling from topic to topic with no particular place to go with it. No beginning. No end. That’s where I am right now.

September 21; Day Twenty-One

I still have the end of vacation blues.

However, I planned that when we came home, we would busy ourselves with home improvement projects. We have enough of those to keep us occupied for several months. One of the things we are doing is another massive purge of stuff. We have a large basement with a loft and a two-car garage with stuff. Stuff, stuff, stuff!  I estimate that 95% of all that is out there can go. Jessica weeded through Halloween decorations today and helped Liz clean out a few bins from under her bed. I went through all my clothing and cleared out quite a bit there.

Jessica loves to go through things and organize. I keep telling her that people would hire her to do that. Liz and I dislike having to decide what to do with everything. She and I have the thought process that we could possibly use that broken piece of light bulb for a craft project of some kind so we need to save it. Jessica says it needs to go.

I have been in this house for almost 21 years. I am ready for a change. Growing up, we moved approximately every two years. The house we moved into when I started high school, I stayed there for four years. When I married and moved to Oklahoma City, I lived there for five years. That is the longest I have been in one place until moving here in early 1994.

The restlessness has been growing in me for the last two or three years. So, we are purging, cleaning, fixing up, and then we will see what happens. I would like to live in a single level home. We could even go a little smaller.  It would be nice to live somewhere that we could walk or ride bikes in the neighborhood. My current neighborhood has two streets and both are on a hill. No sidewalks. The neighbors are really nice, though.

I usually get edgy in the fall. This year, there may be more than the colors of the leaves that change.

September 20; Day Twenty

This is my twentieth day in a row to blog. Last week was much more interesting to write about.

Today was spent recovering. Eating Oreos yesterday, although they are vegan, they are not gluten-free. I’ve battled a headache all day.

When we returned home last night, each animal had a different response. A few were very happy to see us; others were mad at us. Before we went to bed, however, they each had warmed back up and wanted a lot of attention. That has continued into today.

Vacations are wonderful but the post-vacation blues have set in. I intentionally came home on Friday knowing that today would be for recovery and that tomorrow would be the buffer day to start preparing the brain for reality and routine to set back in.

Not much to say today. I’m going to take another Tylenol and go to bed. Maybe my brain will be less foggy tomorrow.

September 19; Day Nineteen

Today was the last sunrise walk on the beach. We walked up and down for two hours. We didn’t want to leave.

We finally went back to the condo, cleaned up and packed. We took the keys to the rental office, picked up some ice and snacks for the road trip back. Then we stopped one more time at the beach. The girls brought home a little bit of the sand. As we were headed back to the car, Liz turned back again and again, and went and dipped her feet in one more time. My heart was wrenching. Jessica and I both teared up.

The trip home was long. We ran into rain and road work. We ate Oreos as comfort food.

So ended an amazing vacation. The best one I have ever had. Maybe with this ending, it is possible the seed has been planted for a new adventure.