Autumn Leaf Of The Day #78

 

“That is the way the leaves fall round an autumn  tree; it is unaware of it, rain runs down it, it is subjected to sun or frost and life slowly retreats. It does not die. It waits.” 

~Hermann Hesse,

  Demian

 

 

B/W 2024 #4

 

“Your desire to be near to window is your desire to be close to life!” 

~Mehmet Murat ildan 

Color or Black/White?

I can't decide. But windows, and window treatments have been on my mind a lot lately, because I am decorating the spare room, and not one set of my curtains has looked good. I have about 35 sets of curtains, that were for 3 different homes, but somehow the windows in my condo are demanding something different! Unfortunately, what it is wanting is absolutely eluding me! Anyway. here is a color and black and white window. I suppose with the natural color version, a nice warm cream color would look good, maybe in Damask. With the black and white, you can let your mind wander, personally for that I see a nice mid-century look, maybe Atomic Cat. I think I will photograph more windows for inspiration, as my quest continues! Is it me, or wasn't the curtains in my living room lovely? You couldn't beat the light that came through those windows! Autumn light was especially pretty! I smiled a lot in that room!

My office curtains as we were packing to move.

Yuletide Aliens: Earth Verses The Flying Saucers

 

 

 “We’re socially distanced over here,” her mom had called to tell her.

“You put the leaf in the dining room table,” Reagan replied. “That’s not social distancing.”

 
― Rainbow Rowell,

  If the Fates Allow

 

We always watched black and white monster/ghost/aliens/ghoul/vampire/invisible man/ type movies on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. We loved that kind of thing! When I was growing up there was 4 channels, and those networks and local affiliates didn't put non-stop holiday specials on, so when there was a spooky movie to be had, we watched it, otherwise it was whatever show happened to be showing when we turned the TV on. But I remember watching this movie one Christmas when I was a kid. Which one, I couldn't tell you, but I remember it. So, if you are on overload with the yuletide business, sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy this fine SCFI movie from a bygone era, where gas cost 30 cents per gallon.

 

 Those were the days!

 

Enjoy!

 

Comeback a little later for a special video featuring my kitties!

 

Hullabaloo November 29 1965... The Byrds

 

 

“Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.”

 
~Alphonse de Lamartine 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #67

 

“All at once, it seemed, the leaves of cottonwood trees around the cabin turned golden and whispered to themselves, then curled into black flutes and floated to the ground in crispy, lacy heaps.”

 
~Kristin Hannah,

   The Great Alone

Open Your Eyes And Dream

 “It was the golden time of year. Every day the leaves grew brighter, the air sharper, the grass more brilliant. The sunsets seemed to expand and melt and stretch for hours, and the brick facades glowed pink, and everything got bluer. How many perfect autumns did a person get?” 

 
― Elif Batuman,

  Either/Or

 

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, was perfect! Hubby and I shared the delicious chore of preparing dinner. A feast actually, of turkey, cranberry sauce, peas and carrots, yams, and of course, pumpkin pie for dessert! Swoon! Later, we watched two of our favorite holiday movies, The Lemon Drop Kid, with Bob Hope, and Miracle on 34th Street, with Sebastian Cabot. It's my favorite version of the story. I know, I know, I am mostly a purest when it comes to movies. Rarely does a remake of a masterpiece turn out as good as the original, but this version did! It was a 1973 TV movie, and I loved it! Every single minute of it. It didn't really stray from the original, but the actors in the movie were folks I had seen in other projects, so it made the whole thing more relatable. David Hartman, Roddy McDowell, and Jane Alexander were brought it all together perfectly. Plus the incidental music, Miracles and Open Your Eyes And Dream, are 1970s background gems. Thanksgiving can be a hectic holiday, so go put your feet up, grab something soothing, like hot chocolate, and watch Miracle On 34th Street. It doesn't really matter which version, but if you have never seen the one this post is about, just press play, and ENJOY! And Happy Day After Thanksgiving! Can you believe has fast this year has gone?

And Christmas Eve is exactly one month away!

 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #59

 

“I would regret losing the warm green of summer
were it not for autumn’s promise of gold.” 

 
~Laura Jaworski 

 

 

The Magical Autumn Equinox

 

“His beard was all colors, a grove of trees in autumn, deep brown and fire-orange and wine-red, an untrimmed tangle across the lower half of his face. His cheeks were apple-red. He looked like a friend; like someone you had known all your life.” 

~Neil Gaiman

  Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

 

My friends arrived at Woodbridge yesterday afternoon. This will be the third year in a row I have been lucky enough to be one of a very few to see the Sandhill Crane arrive at the Woodbridge Ecological (AKA The Phil and Marilyn Isenberg) Reserve, in Lodi, California. I know I am one of the few because not only have I been out watching, and listening for them, but I have been following along on multiple apps, to find out when they will make it home. This year they are in about a week late, so needless to say, I have been on pins and needles.But when I watched the pair I spotted take to the sky yesterday, I was in awe, and that is why I got such a bad shot. I was in the moment. Sometimes being in the moment is a lot better than getting the perfect shot. My heart is very happy. So the first to arrive were the Canada geese, followed by the Snow geese, next to come was the Greater White-fronted goose, and finally my lovely friends, the Sandhill crane. And it's all the more magical that they arrived on the Autumn Equinox!

“I’m still in love with you, I want to see you dance again. Because I’m still in love with you on this harvest moon.”

 

~Neil Young

 

More to come! 

 

 

Um... Yes... SIgn Right Here Please.

 

"Would you like to know your future?

If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator.So enjoy, endure and enjoy each moment as it comes to you in it's proper sequence... a surprise! 

 

~Vera Nazarian

The Perpetual Calendar Of Inspiration

 

 

Um... Yes... Sign Here Please.

 

Surprise! I photographed an Oak Titmouse! In my favorite park! In February! And it's in a tree, rather than on the ground where I usually photograph them! Lots of surprises happened in February... also... fuck me, we bought a house! Well, a condo, but still. I didn't think we had a snowball's chance in HELL, but somehow... we bought a condo. This condo. Everything closed on the 15th of February, and as of today it's been ours for nearly a whole month. And what a month it's been! We bought some new appliances, we bought some paint. We even have some new rugs on the floor to place, so it's coming right along. Some windows come next, but that won't be for a couple months or so. We had another surprise, a big financial deal, and it has set us back, but we will regain our footing. I am planning to say more at some point, but for now I would rather just move on from it. So, that's my big news. Before and after photos will come as I do the renovations, but for right now there is a peach pie in the oven, a storm brewing outside, and I am a little old lady who is home for the night.

 

 

Happiness In Autumn

 

"Seamlessly, like an autumn leaf change color,

 my will switched powerfully."

 

~Aspen Matis

Your Blue Is Not My Blue:A Missing Person Memoir

 

 The picture above is not the first I took that day, but of the two that apply to this post, it is my favorite. This gorgeous Snowy Egret had a series of rocks along the Clifton Court Forebay that were his, and his alone, full stop! I watched as he chased away little birds, big birds, other Snowy Egrets, and once even a grebe! He found a home and he was happy on his perch, on the pretty rocks. Who could ask for more?

 

~Me :)

 

 

19 Years And A 19th Nervous Breakdown (An Anniversary Post)

 

"Homesickness is not always a vague feeling, nostalgic almost beautiful emotion, although that is somehow the way we always seem to picture it in our mind. It can be a terrible keen blade, not just a sickness in a metaphor but in fact as well. It can change the way one looks at the world, the faces one sees in street look not just indifferent but ugly... perhaps even malignant. Homesickness is real sickness... the ache of the uprooted plant"

 

~Stephen King

 

First off, I should acknowledge that today is my 19th year of blogging, and oh my, the places I have went! From the Bush administration, to the big AOL Journals migration to Blogger, to the many wonderful photo challenges I have shared with friends, to my own migration from the big Bay Area out pricing of affordable housing, and the eventual purchase of our house, and of course, the eventual sale of our first house last year. Big stress stuff. And all that without mentioning surviving the Trump administration. A thing I didn't think possible. But keep in mind, that was an attitude I feel quite vindicated about, in light of his taking Top Secret nuclear program documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, after the asshole was voted out of office!

 

This year has been difficult. In some ways it has felt like the last 19 years has somehow rolled into past last year. The move from the house was a shitshow. I am still picking up the emotional pieces. I am tired. Heartsick. A little lost. And, well, scattered. The move was a huge part of it, but catching Covid-19 and a husband retiring didn't help. Neither did the murder of our Chevy Equinox, in a hit and run, in the wee hours of a chilly October morning. But I guess Covid-19 has had the most profound effect on my life. Little by little the Long-Covid seems to be healing itself, but it is a scary thing to think about a virus having such a deep effect on me almost 9 months later. It's an invisible monster, living inside your body, reminding you every day of your mortality.

I wish this post was more filled with joy for having blogged all this time. I want to feel more positive, but I am finding it so hard to find joy, which is known as depression. I am working with a new therapist to try and breakthrough my sadness. I have hope, and hubby is carrying the weight. Because of him I do have a lot of moments of joy. We still have our movies, and the fur-babies. We have music and jaunts bird watching. I have a good life, I just need to find it again. One positive thing did happen recently to mix things up. Our landlord is letting us stay put for at least one more year. I can stop worrying about having to move again. I'm home.

Things feel like they are trying to transition from all the painful negativity to a safe and quiet existence. I have a lot to work on while I am in this condo... this home... like learning to let go of the life I left behind in our home. I try to not think of the house. I haven't grieved it yet, so, oh goody, THAT'S coming! Right now the thing I need to let go of is my life in the Bay Area. All the places I grew up around, all the memories and ghosts I was used to dealing with. I guess I grieved it wrong or something. Or if I am being honest, not at all.

 

 I'm still bargaining with the universe over it. I search the rentals for ANYTHING we can afford, ANYWHERE in the Bay Area, and of course it's always for nothing. Affordable housing in California is practically nonexistent, but the Bay Area recently surpassed NYC in lack of affordable housing. My old life is always there for visiting, but sometimes visiting, and then leaving, hurts so much I think all it does is set me back. Trump didn't successfully get San Francisco off the map, at least not yet, so I must learn how to balance love and sorrow. Who knows what the 2024 election will look like? He could get back into office, and then who knows what button he will push. 

Sorry... it was all the uprooting talking just then.

"Monsters are real, and ghosts are too.

 They live inside us, and sometimes, they win."

~Stephen King

 

~Me

August 23rd 2022

 

 

Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz...

 

"Life is a celebration.

Being alive on this earth is a celebration.

Learning new things everyday is a celebration.

Being kind and compassionate is a celebration.

Chasing our dreams and goals is a celebration. 

With the right attitude, every action becomes celebration.

Learn to celebrate each and every moment of life."

 

~Purvi Raniga

 

This is a good day, despite all the uncertainty about moving and other scary things left not spoke about. Today, those things don't exist. Today we celebrate being in our house exactly 6 years. We are celebrating the birthdays of all three of our babies. Dylan and Hendrix were born in 2008 and Joey in 2013. They get so big, so fast. And today also marks exactly 32 years of service for Alan where he works. That's a lot to be happy about, and proud of. We need to move, SOON, but I am a little happy that we can celebrate this day in our home. A lot happened in those six years.

 

For one, I was scared to death I would die in a pile of nuclear ash, under my desk! Those were the Trump years. If you go all the way back to the day when Alan began his job, and just look at that era, it would be called the US years, because he proposed marriage to me, just a month later. But if you just focus on the years beginning in 2008, you have a real look at one of those unconventional families you hear about. A childless couple, who couldn't love their fur baby children more if they tried. 

 

Now, bring them all together, and you find, a happy life that I wouldn't change for the world. It's the story of us, but it's unfinished. There are many more memories waiting to be made. A lot of happiness awaits. A lot of celebratory kisses and kitty snuggles. No matter how bad any particular day has gone, Trump or not, we have laughed at some point. We laugh every single day about something. M any time, our little fellas will be the source of our laughter, and for that I am grateful. 

 

But...

 

I am also grateful for the occasional Alka-Seltzer!

 

I have never had it on the rocks, as this ad I found in the August 1966 edition of Playboy suggests, but I don't see why it wouldn't be absolutely delicious! Perhaps a splash of green apple syrup or maybe even watermelon syrup. Just straight has always worked. All I know is, dad kept plenty Alka-Seltzer around, and if I close my eyes, I can see it in it's cool mid-century packaging. A long tube type bottle, with little tablets inside. Do you remember, that awesome little jingle...

 

"Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is."

 

And it was. And it is. And I celebrate that! 

 

~Me

Stockton, California

September 1st 2021

 

The Ethereal Past

"The ethereal past had blinded him, and the

 highest happiness he could dream was a return to it."

~E. M. Forester

Maurice

It's Monday. The first Monday in January, and the first Monday of the new year, and I feel like I have already lived a month of Monday's just since New Year's day, last Wednesday. History will document the events of this past week, in great detail, but I will touch lightly on it a bit, just for clarity, you see, we are probably standing on the precipice of World War III, and yes, it was indeed caused by, you guessed it, Donald John Trump! As if that comes as a surprise. The thing is, I don't know why I am not more scared than I am. Yes, low energy. No real desire to do anything. Not putting any planning into anything, including getting out of bed, or out with the camera, but mostly, I don't feel any particular need to cling to Alan, or sit in a corner and cry. I just feel like missiles could be flying over at any moment, and really, I don't particularly care if they are, or if it kills me!

I don't know if the anti-depressants are finally kicking in, I have only been taking them since the day James Comey was fired, back in 2017, or if I have finally matured in the fact that I can't do a single thing about my death, whether it happens in 50 years, or Thursday of this week, at 11:21PM. It's out of my hands if it comes by a nuclear missile hitting my pool, or I am attacked in my driveway by a band of rabid dogs. I can't control how, or when, I will die. But the thought that it might be Trump that causes it, still remains so insulting to me. Death, is a part of life. Period. But you also know that there are better ways than others to leave this world. Take, for example, that I have come to believe that one day, some beautiful autumn October afternoon, I will be standing in a big pile of beautiful leaves, and will be bitten by a gorgeous, highly poisonous spider, and die right on the spot. But if I did, at least I was enjoying beautiful autumn, the season that makes me feel most alive, when it happened. And oh the irony!

LOL.

But I don't want to go at the hand of that ignorant, stupid asshole. If I have to murdered, couldn't it be by someone with as much charm as Ted Bundy? Or the someone with the mildly attractive looks of Scott Peterson? Sigh. Nah, they aren't great choices either. Maybe if one is going to be murdered, it should be by the hand of a stranger. Yes. That does seem more interesting and exotic. Murdered by a stranger, and that's not even a bad title for a book either! Maybe I should write a book, or at least a short story to get my mind off things? Maybe if I stop thinking about nuclear annihilation, I can get back to crying over stupid shit, like Trump's presidency in general. Or maybe I can just let the feelings come, as they find their way to the front of my consciousnesses. Good plan!

Also, I am beginning a new category in my photography... "Mid-Century Style". I am beginning with the photograph above. I took it in November of 2019, near a cemetery I was doing some late autumn photos in. Our house was built in 1962, and has a really lovely mid-century style and vibe to it! Things from that era have been catching my eye for a long time, and so now that we live in the Central Valley, with all these lovely old buildings, it seems that this is the right time to take advantage of my location. And it's a good way to not give up on photography completely, while I struggle will the lack of will to enjoy what life I have left.

Do you remember the ethereal musician? I miss him. He would play his sax, and my mood would improve 100%! It was fine that I never found out who he was, he remains a magical mystery to this very day, but I sure do miss him... and his music. There were days when I was so sad that I didn't think I would ever smile again, and then suddenly, through the back door, in the middle of the day, came his music, and I would feel happy again. I am so nostalgic for those times. Me and Elvis and the ethereal musician, all sharing music and the little things that make life worth holding on to.  If I close my eyes, I can almost hear "You're a Friend Of Mine" being played on the saxophone, and feel Elvis's fuzzy paw pressing on my cheek, waking me up from our afternoon nap. He loved the music too. This memory has me so nostalgic for that peace of mind, if I close my eyes, I can almost touch it.

Sigh. I guess there is something to be said for living in the moment.

 

Happy Thanksgiving 2019

"Thankfulness creates gratitude, 

which generates contentment, that causes peace."

~Todd Stocker 

 #67 Leaf Of The Day

November 28th 2019

Nevada City, California

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me   :)

The Horror Master, Stephen King, Understands Me

"The three types of terror: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something a green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel it's breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there... "

~Stephen King

What is terror? Terror is being awakened from a deep sleep, by the sound of your home security system, alerting you that an intruder has attempted entry! That happened to me yesterday, at 7:23 AM. My phone was lit up red. My alarm system was lit up red. Both were screaming, loudly, both saying someone had tried to come in through the back door, off the living room. I couldn't function. I am not sure if it was because the sound of the alarms terrified me, or if it was because I was barely dressed. Or if it was because I had no idea what the intruder wanted. Was it an attempted robbery? An attempted rape? Someone itching to commit murder? What did they want?

I will never know the answer to that question. By the time I could function, about 3 or 4 minutes, they were gone. I never got a chance to see who they were. A man? A woman? A wacky child? A ghost? A vampire? I have no idea, which makes the whole thing a lot worse, because I will play the "whatif's" the rest of my life. Or, more realistically, at least for the rest of the time I spend in this house! What if we had never installed an alarm system? What if the back door hadn't been locked? What if I had seen them? What if the fur babies had been hurt? What if? What if? What if?

It's terrifying not knowing if they spent time watching the house, waiting for Alan to leave. It's a terrifying thought that I will have to spend Thursday and Friday of this week, alone in the house. Do I sleep? Can I sleep? How do I face this fear? I guess I have no real choice. I will face Thursday and Friday, and every other day, going forward, alone. Alan can't do the work on the fear for me. That's mine. I suppose I will be okay. Alan is going to run a couple errands in the middle of the day tomorrow, which will give me a chance to be in the house alone. That will be a healthy thing for me, I think. I hope. If only I could shake the feeling from this morning...

"... It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel it's breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there... ".

 What if the "nothing there" terror comes back?

Autumn Leaf Of The Day

#10 Leaf Of The Day

October 2nd 2019

Stockton, California

Nikon

~Mood: Scared

~Me

 

Dance Of Depression Plum Fairies

"THE HOLIDAYS ARE RUINED!

This book is one page long and just contains that one sentence."

~Amy Poehler

Okay, whether I like it or not, I have to face Christmas! But I am not in the mood... I am just not. It has been such an odd year, everything has seemed upside down, and it feels like every day might begin, but end before it naturally should. Trump can't stop running his mouth, North Korea has a missile pointed at us, and... .

I could give the long list about everything he does that scares the ever loving SHIT out of me, but why?

Bitching won't make my depression magically disappear. It won't make it 2016, on the night of the election, when Hillary Clinton won. It won't make any of it make any sense at all. Bitching, at most, will relieve a little bit of the tension, I feel in my mind and my body. Reality, is reality. Hey, at least the last few days have had some bright moments to them. Omarosa has been fired from her "job" as "White House Liaison for African American Outreach". That's been an amusing tale, and I am sure it was quite the political and holiday spectacle, but that's one Christmas party I am happy to have missed! Anyway, it made me smile, so there's that.

Over all, I'm tired, that's all, I am just really tired, but I am hanging in there, waiting for someone to ride in and save the country, like a shining knight saves the damsels at the end of most animated movies and children's books. I wished I really believed that would happen. Deep down. But every day there are rumors of Trump, firing the one person who could actually save us, Robert Mueller. If that happens, there would be an immediate Constitutional crisis, throwing us further into chaos, and making us even more vulnerable to hostile foreign nations. And then there are our other problems, which again, we don't have a lot of control over, but hopefully, some of this will be straightened out, when the clock strikes midnight and 2017 becomes, 2018. 

There are a couple more weeks left in 2017, and I am going to try to get through them, with a smile on my face, and a little bit of joy, here and there. We are putting up a few decorations later today, and tomorrow we plan on visiting the Christmas Carousel in Tilden Park, and then perhaps we will visit either San Francisco, or Sacramento, on Sunday, to see what kind of festive decorations they have going on there! I think that leaving the house, and jumping into some seasonal bliss my help the cloud I am in. We'll see. Wish me luck, okay? I am really going to try to put a happy face on all this, and who knows, maybe it will stick!

#15 Leaf Of The Day

December 15th 2017

Stockton, California

Mood: Tired

~Me

My Desk... 2017 Edition

"My ideas usually come not at my desk writing,

but in the midst of living."

 

~Anais Nin

 

 My ideas come to me under many different circumstances. My artistic ideas happen, oddly enough, when I already have a camera in my hand. Some of my best creative ideas, happen on the spur of the moment. I can't even count the number of times that I have planned, down to the very last detail, a particular photo jaunt, only to find multiple other ideas and sparks of inspiration either along the way, or while photographing the original people, places or things that brought me to that destination.

 

My desk is where all the serious stuff occurs. I pay bills. I edit photos. I read the New York Times, Huffington Post, Time, The Hill, CNN, National Geographic. You get the idea. I Tweet sometimes from my desk, but most of the time I Tweet from my phone while on the go. My desk is also where I tend to fret. I fret about Trump. I fret about bills. I fret about owning a home. I never realized how stressful a mortgage is! Yes, I do some fretting there, but I also play some Wordbird there, and I enjoy my office as my girl cave, so all isn't lost.

 

Although as I look around my office, I wonder why in the world my office isn't finished yet! I have been here almost 18 months, and it still isn't finished. I haven't chosen a color for the walls, I haven't gotten my chair for reading. I always wanted a cozy chair for the corner of the room, to curl up in with Dylan and a book. I love his snuggles, and right now the couch does nicely, but one day I would like a chair for the office. All things in their time I guess.

 

It's hard owning a home. You worry about the roof. You worry about the mortgage payment. You worry about the jerk up the street who loves to turn the corner going like 80 miles per hour. I just know one day he will run through the front bedroom! You worry about aphids. You worry about buying earthquake insurance. YOU WORRY!

 

Buts it's nice to know, when you have a cold, and a fever of 103.3, that you are sick in your own home. Your bedroom is yours. Especially when you have bonded with the four walls and the roof like we have. Once you bond with a house it leads to worrying about all the responsibilities, but it's a little easier to take because it's home. A refuge from the angry, sad world. LOL. It's a lot, and I don't know that we will always be here, but Alan and I decided a long time ago, that if we couldn't make a go of it here, we would be adults and sell, and I am okay with that.

 

Mostly.

 

But for now we are making it all work. That man and I are unstoppable. He really is THE ONE. And with the fur babies, we are a family. And then there is Elvis, gone but never forgotten. He is in Alan's office, on his desk, in the perfect little box. Elvis always sat next his daddy when he was alive, so I know he would be happy to be next to Alan now. When all is said and done, we are a family, and we are at home no matter where we put a key in the door.

 

 But truly... I need to get my office finished!

 

 

Mood: Greatful

 

~Me :)

Now I am Home!

"A gift can never be cheap or insignificant because of the heart and love it carries."

~Munia Khan

Alan and I and the boys moved into our house, officially, on September 2nd 2015. It's never easy to move, and when you add moving your cats to the stress, the stress becomes at least twice as bad, because now you aren't just moving lamps and beds and computers, you are moving living, breathing, thinking, and sometimes plotting, individuals that if you are lucky may be open to some negotiation about their stress level, but who will always, always come out ahead of any begging, pleading or simple request made of them from their humans. It was a back breaking, migraine inducing, fear-fest getting my 3 boys into their kennels, for the ride to Turlock. It was something I would never want to relive... ever... but from the first day in Turlock, I knew that we would eventually have to relive the drama, because Turlock was merely the waiting room of our new home.

Thank goodness the boys never found out that the place we were originally moving to was a stupid scam! It was bad enough that they felt our stress, let alone feel it and fully understand it in human terms! But when Alan and I picked ourselves back up, and finally found our house, we knew that it wasn't going to be fun to move the boys from the hotel, but when it was over we would finally be home. In our forever place. Fortunately, we had a much easier time getting them pack in their kennels, when we left the hotel, because we did something different... we tricked them! We did it on the spur of the moment, with NO time for them to pick up on our stress! A laser pointer, some treats, and some new catnip mice proved to be the best friend of this stressed out fur-baby mommy!

We left the hotel in Turlock at 11:30 PM. The drive to Stockton took about an hour. When we got to the house, we immediately took them out of their kennels, poured them some food, filled their water fountain, and put some toys out from them to play. Hendrix did well! He is my brave boy. Dylan came around in about a week. Joey... not so much! He got acquainted with the house very slowly, room by room was conquered, with the exception of the master bedroom. No amount of playing, begging, manipulating, crying or begging some more could get him to go into the bedroom! He would stand in the hallway, and cry for me, but wouldn't step foot over that threshold. Nope. There was NO discussing it! It was hard to hear him cry, and want to be next to me, and not be able to make help him come in the room.

Joey, and I cuddled at night in our old place, and we cuddled together at the hotel. It was one of the things that made this whole nightmare tolerable. But it wasn't happening here, and I didn't know what the problem was! Then one day I noticed he was eyeing the LARGE ceiling fan that hangs over our bed! We didn't have one of those at the cottage, and there wasn't one at the hotel. I think, when Joey saw it moving around and around, he thought it was a bird, of which he is terrified! So, I stopped using it, and just let it sit still. He didn't make any progress after a month, but the cold weather had moved in, so it remained off. I didn't think he would ever come around, then on Christmas Eve something amazing happened!

I woke up from a fever induced nap to see his little body sitting in the window sill, The night before I had mentioned to Alan that all I really wanted for Christmas was for my boy to cuddle with me in the bed, and the next day he did! You can't buy that feeling folks! My Joey had finally come back. My silly, funny, considerate, kind child found his inner lion, just in time for Christmas! It was, and always will be, one of the best holiday gifts ever! Any day he came back to me would have been special, but the fact that it happened on Christmas means even more! I love that child! And now, when I go to sleep, I have this warm little pillow right next to me again, and Alan doesn't even mind that he sometimes cuddles between us! 

He is our Joey. He is the little brother. 

Happiness!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The "Off Market" Anniversary

"Real love stores never have endings"

~Richard Bach

Love Story

Today is a big day for me. It is the anniversary of my blogging on Ellipsis... yep... it was 13 years ago today that I began sharing my life on the World Wide Web! Well, on AOL at first, then on Blogger. It's been a wild ride, and if you asked me back then if I thought I would be buying a house in Stockton, California one day, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. 13 years ago today I had just come in from a swim, and Elvis was tickling my knees as I toyed with the idea of blogging. Would I have enough interesting things to say? Would I enjoy sharing my thoughts with total strangers? How would my photography fit in? LOL. The answer to all the questions seemed to be positive, so off I went... into the big pond of AOL blogging. And here we are today! Now, not only do I blog, I mircoblog on Twitter, and share my photography on Flickr and Pintrest and I have made some amazingly supportive friends on Twitter and even flirted... OUT LOUD... with Dylan McDermott, before Maggie Q of course! I know, I know... the flirting was minor and I wasn't keeping Dylan McDermott awake at night, but it still feels creepy to flirt with another girl's fella... right? Didn't Alan mind me flirting with Dylan McDermott? You ask.Well, no, he found it amusing, especially when I would blush with each little alert that beeped on my phone that told me he had just favorited something stupid I had just said. LOL. I don't know who enjoyed my flirting with Dylan McDermott more, me or Alan! I would like to think I at least made #Mcdillet smile a little too!

But like I said, that was before Maggie Q.

Sigh.

But here we are. I will be explaining what happened this summer soon. Probably this Autumn when I get back to blogging daily, but for now here is a look at our new home. We get the keys either late this week or early next week. Until then we are still in Turlock, or as I like to call it...

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT! 

Home

Yeah, I know, I have a "Mad Men" styled kitchen, complete with a PINK oven. LOL. But that's just temporary. We need to get moved in and all the utilities put into place, and some painting done, then we are going to renovate this fall. Probably in October. You'll see... it's going to look amazing. I am going for a Tuscan theme, so give it some time. You'll see! But until then, how completely cool is a PINK oven? I am tempted to leave it for nostalgia sake, but I miss my stove and oven Alan bought me a few years ago. Shrug. Still... it's kinda cool to have Barbie's Dream Kitchen!

In Real Estate terms the words "Off Market" are AWESOME!

So much has happened in the last 13 years!

Thank you so much for supporting me, and coming along with me for the ride! I love you, my friends!

"There is no mystery... that's the beauty of it. We are entirely explicable to each other, and yet we stay. What a miracle that is!"

~Kamila Shamsie.

Broken Verses

Mood: Happy

~Me :)