Thursday night

I was glad to see the comment from Mystic about Tintin which inspired tonight's post. I just love comic books. I grew up reading a host of different ones and still love to purchase and read them to relax.

From the time I was about three, I would look at the Tintin albums of my brothers, mys sis was not that interested in them, and look at the pictures and tell myself my own story about what the pictures might mean. Also since my sibs would read them to me, I had a good idea of what was going on anyway, but sometimes I would deviate from that storyline and make my own. Those were precious moments to me, particularly because Tintin went all over the world and met with folks from all kinds of lands. I just fantasized about going there. It was great.

Since then, I have diversified my interest to include several other authors, and this summer while in Switzerland, I purchased four new albums. When I lived in Berkeley, I would visit the one store on University (I forget their name) that carries a lot of my old time favorites. And everytime I go home to Montreal, I am sure to pick up a few. Among my favorites authors or series are: of course Asterix, Le genie des Alpages (about a flock of sheep in the alps) the Daltons, Achile Talon, anything by Gotlieb, Rubrique-a-brac, Fluide Glacial, Cellulite, Philemon and Gaston La Gaffe (Goofy Gaston). There are many more, but these are some of the best. If you need to relax and get some good laugh, I recommend any of them. And this summer, at the library where I made some purchases, the kind woman who helped me recommended the "cat" serie. I really love it too. The recurring gag is that of the old proverb of "if you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day; but if you teach him how to fish, he can eat his whole life." One of the variant they offer is: "If you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you give him the picture of a fish, he can look at it all of his life!"

Another part of the Tintin legacy, or maybe it is just the product of growing up in a fairly diverse environment, is that I love to learn languages. English is a second language to me, as I grew up speaking french. Then I lived in Portugal for a year and became quite fluent, and here I have acquired a good grasp of Spanish, although I am not fluent yet. Now I am learning Czech, just because it is very intriguing and different. I see how far I get with that. Hopefully it keeps my brain working, and my energy occupied.

We had the accreditors at work today and it seemed to go fairly well.

I close with a picture that I took in New Zealand last January. One of Spinsterwitch's picture on her post reminded me of it. Blow it up full size for the full effect, it was the breathtaking view from our hotel balcony.

Birthday Presents

Since I have no idea of what to post, I thought I would write up a list of present I got for my birthday. I thought about doing that a while ago, but now seems just right.

A lovely painting from Spin
A hippy scarf from Hippy Chick
A pouch of make up and tea to cure the hangover resulting from the party from Boobsy
A bowl, silly fuzzy flowers, and a magnet of a friend's painting from Glamorous
A lava lamp from the Sailor Chick
A planter with Ivy from neighbors to the right
A bottle of wine from neighbors to the left
A painting from Belgian Artist
A small sequined shoe from the Author
Two books "Unbelievably good deals and great adventures that you absolutely can't get unless you're over 50" and "Ageless body, timeless mind" from the Army Brats
A pottery candle holder from the Balerina's family
A bottle of Hendricks Gin from the Martiny buddies
A bracelet, two tablets of Dark chocolate, and a little box from Hippy at Heart
Several Tintin books from the Best Friend
A handmade beaded necklace from the TieDie Queen
A bottle of Bailey and one of Kalua from the Sound Man
A bottle of Chandon Champagne from the Librarian and his Wife
A bottle of Heredad Segura Vieda Champagne from "the Girls"
A shot glass, and a jewelry box from the Hubby
A bag of tricks with balloons, Horns and a Shoot a boss game from the Kid
A handmade necklace from the Sis
A roaster and meat forks from the Gals at Work!

Woah! I think that's it. Overwhelming Hey! I don't remember being so spoiled for my birthday! I guess it pays to get old.

Well at work we have accreditation on thursday and everyone is freaking out as we have countless numbers of files to update. I guess some folks are starting to crack from the stress, including the big boss who apparently became unglued at someone today. Luckily I was out at the time. I have low tolerance for that kind of behavior. Especially when the folks doing it do not believe they should appologize for their outbursts. Anyway I hope nothing nasty comes of it as the person who received the invectivation is not someone who I picture tolerating it quietly. I will let you know I anything develops from it.

Grey Day

Today is a grey day in Morro Bay. For more than one reason. The sky is certainly donning this color, but also we had a memorial for a friend who passed away a few weeks ago. The celebration was very nice though as he was someone who loved life and celebrated it with gusto. He was wheelchair bound most of his life, but that did not stop him. He wrestled with addictions as well, and I know that it shortened his days; however, he enjoyed it all. Folks had many stories of him and of all the kids that surrounded him and it was nice to see some of those that we had not seen for a long time. One young man that I have known since he was about four was very shaken by our friend's death as he used to live across the street from him and visited daily. It was great to see the impact that this man had on all of us over the years, even though I had not seen him as much lately.

I stayed in bed a long time, a result of staying up watching DVDs too late. Funny how that goes, at night I think that I'm getting more of my day, but in the morning, I lose a lot of it by recuperating! Also, I am on-call for my agency this week-end, and that always disrupts me. Not so much that I am getting lots of call, I'm not so far, but just the expectation that I could have to spring to action at any moment. I don't do so well with that. That is one thing that scares me from private practice, is that there is no-one else to cover for you, and depending of your clientele, you could be called at any time. I guess you can still work as a team in private practice.

The other part that is grey today is the ocean. There must have been a strong storm out at sea as the waves are enormous and crashing over the breakwater. I could not resist and went to see close by. After battling the hundreds of tourists that were gathered close to the rock, I made my way up a small path (along with about 50 others) to get a good view of the waves as they gather up their strenght and explode on the rocks. It was breathtaking. I watched for a half hour, mesmerized by the force of the water as it very slowly gathers up in large pointy crests and then unleashes on the shore. The whole coast could be seen as white and "ecumous." (I combine a french word here as "foamy" just does not do it.) What a spectacle. The sound also was beautiful. The low, rumbling roar that you can feel climb up through your feet, and that would alert any creature of the sheer force it packs. Of course, humans take no heed to this and walk very close to the edge of the water, where moments before a huge wave splattered. There are multitudes of signs allerting them, but they want to see. I can't blame them, I want to see to. I am just chicken? Or is it all of the accounts of folks who have been killed doing just that? Some of both I supposed. Of course, I did not have my camera to bring you this performance. I have to train myself to bring it as I seem to find picture worthy moments almost daily.

I almost forgot. When I left the house to go to the memorial, a large jack rabbit was in my yard. He was facing the orange cat Rosco, but they had not started a fight yet. No doubt the rabbit would have won as he was quite large, with ears 10 to 12 inches long, light colored in the middle, and dark on top. He ran away at full speed and the cat did the same. I took it as a good "augure," something positive is in store for me in the near future. Why not?!

Great Party, and now I feel Ghetto!

It was so fantastic to have everyone at the house last Saturday. I felt truly spoiled to have so many folks show up, and some from so far away. As you can see from some of the pics, there were folks from all ages and all seemed to be having a good time. We ate, drank, listened to music, talked and laughed and it was wonderful. It just amazed me to see everyone there.

Now I feel truly "Ghetto" as I have a cooler full of beers leftover from the party sitting in my kitchen as I have no storage, and I have nowhere to put them until they get consumed! Humm, maybe I need another party? I am still recovering from the last one, though!

On Sunday we went to a party for a 6 year old who was very cute and funny. I got a book for her and as the group of kids were looking at it they would exclaim OOHs! and HAAs! at each pictures. It was a big hit; it is a book of the sargasso sea and has drawings of the sea life within the kelp. The artwork is amazing. Another gift that was a big hit was that of my friend the Tie-die Queen. She is a big yard sale buyer and she found for $30 a full therapy play house including all of the furnishing and a white family. It is a great find and the kids played with it right away for a while. I already put in the request that when the little birthday girl is done with it I would like to purchase it for my office! Those things are worth so much now. Unfortunately, I am not the patient one for yard sales, and when I go, I get stuff that I have nowhere to put and end up donating at goodwill or achievement house, a local non-profit that employs adults with disabilities.

Last night the Hubby and I went to see Wallace and Gromit, the curse of the Whererabbit. That was great fun. I loved the little bunnies throughout the film and laughed at all of the corny jokes. So finally today I have a little time to blog and catch you up with some of the latest. Works continue to be a struggle as one of my team members is looking to move on in a month and is now very negative and refusing to do some of the assigned work which just mean that it leaves more work for all the others. It saddens me that she is choosing to end her time with us in that manner, I really enjoyed having her as a co-worker, but now I am frustrated with how she is conducting herself. We also have a new client who has been hospitalized three times this week, and the hospital wanted to release her today, rather than planning for what needs to happen. It was very stressful as all agencies involved did not want to cooperate and were trying to shift the responsibility to each others. That job can be so stressful sometimes, the best thing that we have is that we can support each other well when these things happen.

AAARRRGGGHHH!

So last summer I finally broke down and bought an Ipod. I love the device and have listened to it several hours a day at work and home. It's great. HOWEVER! I am having a problem with my computer not accepting I Tune. I have tried to clean it, reinstall, uninstall, reboot, etc., etc., etc. Nothing is letting it work. The last thing I have to do is to reinstall all of my system, plus reinstall service pack 2 through a serie of downloads that took about 4 hours the first time around. Not looking forward to wasting another day on this. I am so frustrated. And last night, the computer erased all of the music that I had stored on the pod, I thought I had a breakthrough, but nooooo, same old shit! AAARRRGGHHH!

Oh well, on a good note, I have this mondo party tomorrow night and went to get tons of food and libation in preparation for the event. I will make a veggie lasagna, a spicy cornbread, a huge salad, chips and dips, crakers and cheeses; the Hubby will bar-b-que some chicken, shrimps and sausages; and the Kid will make a grilled veggies salad. The guest should also bring stuff and I know some bread and cakes are coming. Other than that it will be pretty open. I bought a bottle of Patron tequilla, a large bottle of Saphire Bombay Gin, that will make some of my friends who always laugh at the "little" (normal size) bottles I usually buy, some wine and beer. If there is alcohol leftover, I know it won't go to waste with the holidays coming up, and we can always freeze leftover food, if there is any. It should be a lot of fun!

For the music we will have to rely on the Kid's ipod, as mine is now cleaned out, unless some guests want to venture in our CD collection. It should be lots of fun!
Spin and HippyChick should be coming down, as well ShotGun from our euro trip, folks from work and the Hubby's work and ouf!, lots of folks, kids, it'll be great.

Last night of my fourth decade!

Me (the baby), my sister and brother.

Tonight is the last night of my fourth decade in this world and I feel a little bluesy. It is a feeling that has pursued me of late and I am unsure what to make of it.

I had a very fun week-end at HippyChick's party with the Kid on Saturday, and shopping on Sunday. I bought a new entertainment center for the house and we spent many hours last night, till two AM, and many more today to put it together and for the hubby to plug all the electronics back together. It looks good. I also spent a lot of time organizing our CD collections. We get a ton of Jazz CD because the Hubby is also a DJ for a local Public Station and is given tons of CDs that the station does not want anymore or has in double. Many of what we have we never even heard, so it was quite the project, but I am glad I did it. I wanted to organize these for a long time. It also makes me realize that outside of Jazz, we don't have much! I guess I need to download more or go back to the music store.

We went to dinner to this very chick restaurant here in town. It was very nice. I had duck and the Hubby had a bouillabaise. It was much nicer than I expected and not as expensive. We had a salad that was exquisite with pecans and pomegrenates, mmm, good. Then after fulfilling my obligation to a professional organization, I write a small blurb for our local unit in the state's newspaper, I went for a walk in the neighborhood. It was lovely. I only saw one car. Everything was quiet. I could ear the roar of the ocean, the mournful cry of the fog horn, and enjoy the start and the half moon, smiling at me. I saw the Pleiades, Cassiopea, and what I believe to be Mars, very close to the Pleiades. Any astronomers out there who care to rectify my potential faux-pas? The moon, as it is getting ready to set, becomes very red these days as there are many fires in southern california. Last night as we were driving back home, we saw it turn a pinkinsh red as it sank in the fog bank. It was beautiful.

Well the reason that I have felt very bluesy these days is that I have not heard from a friend I made during my trip this summer. I have friends in many parts of the world and I even though we do not meet often, we keep in contact through mail and e-mail. I am sad that what I thought would be another good friendship may turn out not to be so. I love people, and I love getting to know new folks and deepenning friendships over the years, even when folks are far away. So I have been dissapointed at this turn of event. Maybe I should just be content with the fun times that we shared. After all they were very worthwhile, filled with good time, sharing of each of our human experiences and dreams. That in itself is worth a lot.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, I spoke to the Sister tonight. She is still so wrapped up in her anger at her husband. We almost had a conversation without him being mentioned, but then I did receive my dose of how he slighted her, and how much money he has and how that was supposed to be her money, etc, etc,etc. Five years of that! AAGGHH! At least, we had half of a decent conversation. She has moved to the country and really enjoys that new home, her neighbors and all of that. So that is good. I think she is recovering, slowly! Maybe I will get my actual sister sometime in the future.

Twelve more minutes 'till I'm fifty, Fifty Years Old! Better get ready to Kick, Stretch, and KICK!

Music

Violoncello, Eisenstad, Austria.

As I was driving to my client today, I was listening to "Cold Heat" a compilation of funk music that is fantastic that was given to me by the Spin Doctor. By the way he is now a daddy and I venture to say a proud one! Anyway, as I drove up to my out of the way client's home, I was thinking how there is so much music in this world that we should have a thousand ears to be able to hear at least some of each style that is out there in the world.

Right now I am listening to the soundtrack of "Garden State" which I just got earlier this week. I like it quite a bit. I also want to make a copy of the Ry Cooder CD "Chavez Ravine" which is also excellent.

Lately, I have been feeling lonely, even though my job and my life include many folks. It is an inner feeling and I am unsure what it is all about truly. It reminds me of the line of a very old favorite song from a singer from Quebec "solitaire dans la foule come en foret" which means: alone in a crowd like in a forest. Maybe it's fall, maybe it's age, maybe it's the routine of life that weighs on me every now and then, maybe it is goals accomplished and the need for a new one. Maybe it is frustration from my coupled life that accumulates with the years and do not always get resolved to my liking. I think of Spinsterwitch post of yesterday and question on love. I guess love has so many different facets, it is so hard to define, let alone live with, or express in daily life. I think of all of the friends that I have scattered throughout the world, some of which I am in close contact regularly thanks to e-mail, others who have fallen by the wayside and that I have no hope of getting close to again despite the road of life that we shared for sometimes. I think also of all of the friends that I have turned away from, for whatever reason, and what has become of them? Some I know have died, and some I could not find even if I went looking. It leaves me confused, and blue-sy on this Thursday night. Oh well tomorrow is another day, and the week-end, a three day one for me, promises to be fun with a trip to see some great friends with the Kid in tow. A break in the routine, I always love that!

Sorry to be so down tonight, but got to write what is there in my head and heart.

I have been tagged!

Hippy Chick tagged me, so there goes! (Or is that a meme?) Sorry not too savvy on the blog terminology.

1) What's your favorite color of nail polish?
I guess the clear irridescent kind if I'm wearing it. On some other folks, I like dark colors, deep reds or purples or even blues and black.

2) What's your favorite place to kiss someone else besides the lips (on your face)?
Cheeks and nose.

3) What's your favorite place you like to be kissed, besides, etc etc?
Close to the ears, but I guess that is going away from the face.

4) What's your favorite pasta shape?
Angel Hair.

5) What big lie did you get away with when you were younger?
I can't remember any. My mom was way too good at reading right through me, as a result, I'm still a terrible lier.

6) What big lie have you been busted for?
Telling my mom (at the urging of a not so good friend) that my wallet was stolen when I actually lost it. I don't know what I thought would happen if I just told her I lost it?

7) Who are 3 famous people you'd love to date (if you are partnered, then answer as if you were single)?
#1 Viggo Mortensen, no hesitations or even thinking needed.
#2 Ewan Mc Gregor, Hot and smart!
#3 Ian Cummings, or Alan Rickman, but they are definitely on a lower priority than the first two.

8) Who would you most like to smack for being an ass?
The Pres of course, there is no more ass than that.

9) What are 3 states you'd most like to try living in for a couple of months?
Upstate New York, Washington state, (even though I know it rains way too much for me, but the cultural aspect is definitely up and coming) Florida, just for the tropical climate, the rest pretty much sucks the disneyitis and corrupt legislature (read Carl Hiassen).
1o) What is one thing about me that you don't know that you are (even mildly) curious about?
Did you ever dive in a mosh pit and how did it feel?