Ellipsis Christmas Movie Countdown #10

 

"When Love Feels Like Magic, It's Called Destiny.

 When Destiny Has A Sense Of Humor, It's Called Serendipity."

Serendipity

Movie Tagline

It's time for a little romance, right? Well, this movie definitely fits the bill! John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale are mesmerizing! Curl up with your favorite person, or pet, and just enjoy the love and chemistry between these two actors. This movie will make you believe in magic, and destiny!

 Oh, yeah also serendipity!

Serendipity

"It's hard to believe in coincidence, but its's even harder to believe in anything else."

~John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson

It's really cold tonight, so cold in fact that the local weather forecasters are predicting snow as low as 1,000 ft, which pretty much means, that Mt. Diablo, Mt. Hamilton and the Santa Cruz summit will definitely be getting a dusting of snow... and so will Grizzly Peak Blvd here in the Berkeley Hills. That probably won't be until Friday, but our little house guest, Foster, who I told you about in yesterday's post, had to come in tonight. I am not sure Dylan and Hendrix are ready to have company over, especially someone so wee, but ready or not, we are all going to have to make it work! 

Sometimes people come into our lives quite unexpectedly. Sometimes people leave our lives quite unexpectedly. We don't have much choice in these matters. All we can do is... our best! When I think about all the human friends I have lost, for one reason or another, I get so sad. I remember the day I drew a personal line in the sand and said... ENOUGH. When Mr. November, ran screaming from my life, I decided I would never put myself in that position ever again. NEVER. And then one day, you find yourself making a friend, and you forget why you decided to shut yourself off so completely? It's funny how some of the best things in life, are so rarely convenient. I still love Mr. November, but I don't think about him much anymore. A fact that occurred to me just the other day, when I was thinking about the fact that I rarely think about him anymore. LOL!

"Of course, that's how life is. A turn of events may seem very small at the time it's happening, but you never really know, do you? How can you."

~Tom Xavier, Dark Curses and Faerie Dreams

Although I do smile when I remember how he used to make me laugh! And how everything was okay when we were around each other, and in the last little bit of time he was around, before he moved away, we were... well... understanding each other a lot better. I know, what I am saying doesn't make much sense, but it does to me. It's all good. But I really don't think of it much anymore, time passes, and feelings fade, and light replaces sad feelings.

Right now I have a feline house guest who needs me. His name is Foster, and he is already my friend. He was put on the same path Alan and I are on, and maybe he will stay with us forever, or maybe one day he will move on to a new family, and it's what's meant to be. Life is sometimes not convenient. Sometimes it hurts like HELL. Sometimes it's the work we have to put into things, that pays off the most. Time moves us along to each new adventure, whether we want to go or not, but moving forward with an open heart, makes any adventure more exciting!

Serendipity: noun; the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable things not sought for; also: an instance of this.

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 80~ Berkeley And The Age Of Aquarius

 

 Aquarius { 5TH Dimension}

When the moon is in the seventh house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars


This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius, Aquarius
Aquarius

Harmony and understanding, 
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the minds true liberation


Aquarius. Aquarius

 When the moon is in the seventh house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius, Aquarius
Aquarius

 


The pictures posted in this entry aren't the best ones I have ever done, not by a long shot, but when I look at them I always smile. I always feel warm inside. It's not the pictures themselves, it's the circumstances around the photos, and the moment, or possibility hour, of perfect serendipity that allowed me to have this bit of luck. Or was it magic? Maybe it was just written in the stars.


One day, in April of 2007, I was in my therapists office, working on some monumentally painful things in my life. Things that now, in complete retrospect, shouldn't have been given nearly as much power and attention as I was giving them. It was long past time for my having moved on from people and situations I had no control over, but being the sentimental person that I was, I was finding it difficult. Moving on isn't easy for a sentimental person, which is not a legitimate excuse by the way, but I think in my particular case, I couldn't let myself move on because I think I was afraid on some level that if I did so, then I would also have to face the loss of the love that would accompany it.


Therapy is hard work. Heartbreak is devastating, and at times damn embarrassing. My main question was, how could something hurt, and embarrass me as much as this did, without actually killing me? Whose stupid system was this? Really? No shit... I wanted to know!


So, in the middle of a paid hour of self pity, with my eyes red and puffy and otherwise swollen shut from the effort to fix my problems, I glanced outside the window of my therapists office, to see what looked like an old record resting in the window of the apartment building next door. Those particular apartments sat just a couple blocks off the Cal Berkeley campus, and as such, there was always something wonderful and unusual that could be found nearby or in the neighborhood. It's just quirky that way.


I had made it a regular part of my visits to my therapist, to bring along my camera, for those times when I would reach a wall/ If that happened I would take the camera out and snap something. A shadow on the wall. A bird that would sometimes come and rest on the small ledge outside the window. Whatever caught my eye, and could serve as a momentary break from the pain I was in. It always worked to help me focus, and then resume the dialog with the therapist.


I was intrigued by the sight on an old fashioned record in the window. What could it be? Was it something magnificently meaningful, like an album of Jack Kerouc poetry? Maybe it was a full album of The Mupputs singing the best of AC/DC. Or perhaps it was William Shatner singing Rocket Man, by Elton John. I sat the rest of the hour, in a lot less pain, because I was more interested in what the record was, then wallowing another second more in my own useless whining. So, when the hour was up, I snapped off a few photos of the window next door, and the record, so I could find out when I got home, what had saved me from myself that day.


 


The record was Side 2 of the soundtrack to the movie Hair. LOL. How cool is that? Here I was, in downtown Berkeley, Hippie East Bay, and that record could have been anything, but it wasn't, it was Hair. You know...the play about the counterculture of the 1960's which overall message was one of anti-war, but also about how one should stop taking life so hard, and embrace it. Life is for the living. Sigh, Messages I really needed that day. Things I really needed to deal with.


I won't go into anymore detail about what specifically was hurting me that day, I will just share that it felt very much like the universe was telling me that yes, it was time to move on. And yes, it was ok to do so.


Sometimes, the universe sends you all you need to know... you just have to be willing to listen.




 And now, a little music... enjoy!


  The Original Motion Picture, Hair, "Age Of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine"



5TH Dimension...  "Age Of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine"





~Me :)

A Day Spent In The Surreal

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living."

-Dr. Seuss

Ever have one of those days when nothing seems quite right? Kind of like you are living in the same world as everyone else, and yet you are half a step behind the natural flow of things? It's during those times that coincidences tend to occur. When you experience deja vu, over and over again. It's when you might just glimpse a specter out of the corner of your eye, or a funny light in the sky, that could just be someone from some far off community in space about to pay you, specifically, a visit.. You trip over invisible objects, and misplace your keys, only to find them later in a place you looked a dozen times. On days like the one I am describing, you just know you are moving through time and space, and for all practical purposes, it's completely out of your control as to who, or what, might cross your path.

I was having that kind of day a while back. I was running into walls, and forgetting to shut doors. Twice I picked up the phone to call someone, only to hear them saying "Hello, Hello," into the receiver. I had picked up the phone, before it even rang! I found a box of old love letters, quite by accident, written to me by an old flame, who I had dreamed about the night before. I called and asked Alan what he wanted for dinner that night, and without saying a word to him about what I was hungry for, he said "Yankee Pot Roast." The very thing I had been hungry for all day. It seemed that during all this missteps, there was something serendipitous also occurring. I was experiencing a phenomena of sorts. I was in both the right place, and the wrong place at the same time.

I got through the day with only a few silly bruises to remind me of the day, and as twilight was approaching I was glad that the day was nearly through. Most of the day I had felt so uncomfortable, and out of place, that it had made me feel weary. It was all quite spooky, and at one point I realized that more then anything else, I had felt as if I wasn't gliding through time, so much as time was stuttering, and I was the only one who noticed it. That's not exactly something you want to say to the person next to you in line at the grocery store. "Excuse me stranger, do you feel like maybe we are hurling through time out of control, and by the way, did you just feel that stutter? I had a chance to ask the person behind me in line at Lucky's just that question, but I had been distracted by the fact that the total for my groceries came up to $106.90.

I was ready to be home after that. I was done with that day. So, in an effort to shake off the wiggins, I put on some nice music on my care stereo. I am tired of the mixed CD I made a while back, so instead opted for the KFRC (106.9) instead. Classic hits from the 60's, 70's and 80's. As I started to leave the parking lot of the store, Huey Lewis and the News began to play, "The Power Of Love." That was the favorite song of the boyfriend who had wrote me the love letters I had found earlier that day, and who I had dreamed about the previous night. I hadn't thought of him in years, and now he was solidly in my thoughts. It wasn't really love between us, but it was a solid infatuation to be sure. He took me to see the movie, "Back To The Future" which of course is the movie in which this song is featured.

About half way through the song, and about five miles from home, I saw a silver car pull out from a side street, and move in front of me, and it was... you guessed it... a DELOREAN! I had to smile. Neat! How weird had this day had been! Wonderfully quirky, with the exception of the running into walls, but now, this bit of fantasy, things seemed to going full circle. Hmmm... given all the coincidences, could it maybehaps be Marty McFly in that car? Is Doc Brown somewhere nearby? Maybe it was Doc Brown in the car! Or maybe it was simply a case of being in the right place, at the right time to see one of the only 6,500 Delorean's that are believed to still exist!

In any case, it was fun to follow that car, and maybe daydream for a bit that I could be caught in the wake of it's possible trip through time, even for just a moment or two. After all, I had been traveling through time all day! Alas, as the car pulled onto HWY 13, and out of my sight. I was back to the present again, and almost immediately, everything, including time, seemed to correct itself. For the rest of the evening, everything seemed back to normal, it seems my day of the surreal had ended. As weary as the day had left me, I would have experienced it all again for that little bit of fantastic distraction. Hmmm... I wonder if the old flame had thought about me too that day? I don't really want to know the answer to that question, it's much more fun to wonder. That's what fantasies are for... right?

-OndineMonet
"Back To The Future Of The Past"
Berkeley, California
Sometime In The Past

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment # 196: Plans For 2008

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

First the important news: This is the last Weekend Assignment I'll be doing here at By The Way. Next week is the last full week of me doing By The Way, and also we'll be in the thick of the holiday madness, so I think it's best to wrap up this very long-running feature here and now. It's been lots of fun, though, and I hope you've all enjoyed playing along as much as I have.

But I don't want to spend too much time with the past here, because the future is so much more interesting to me at the moment. With that in mind, here is the topic for this week's Weekend Assignment;

Weekend Assignment #196: What are your hopes or plans for 2008? Any big projects for the year? Anything you hope to accomplish or change? Or will you just relax? Because, you know, that's okay, too.

Extra Credit: How was your 2007?

-John Scalzi (By The Way)

Well, I will get to John's question in a moment, but first I want to once again tell John how much I will miss him and the Weekend Assignments, in 2008! Somehow, I wish there were just a few more weeks in 2007, so we could make it to an even 200 Weekend Assignments. LOL. Can you believe I just said that? The lady who began praying for New Year's Eve, just a couple weeks into 2007? LOL. Oh goodness, this was a bumpy year for me personally. I don't want to look back right now, because that is not the focus of this assignment. The point of this assignment is to look into the future. And when I do that, I get excited at the possibilities. :) So when I look into my future, through my crystal ball, here is what I see...

**I am going to take some additional classes on meditation and yoga, in an effort to improve my overall well-being. I need to cut some stress, as that is my number one trigger to my diabetes. Stress is even more dangerous to me then sugar. Don't get me wrong. My numbers are fantastic, my doctor is thrilled with what I have accomplished since July, and on this course, I will be officially diabetes free as of July, but I need more than one good A1C test before I get the full ALL CLEAR.

**I am planning to take a ceramics class. I want to learn something new, and hopefully make some new pals. It's time to climb out of my shell a little. I like people, and I like life, and hopefully they wont hate me on sight. Right? I remember our Blogfather once said, Internet friendships are wonderful, but nothing beats the relationships we have in real life.I am paraphrasing of course, but you get the idea. It sounded like sound advice to me. I have spent too much time in my own little world. I am so done with the past! I am over it!

**I want to volunteer for a political campaign. I have always wanted to do that, and I think it would be a great experience. It's something new, that I have never tried, and I can kind of choose how much time I want to devote to it. This is an important election coming up. Something has to not just change, it has to change for the better! If I am going to put myself out in the world, I want to help make a positive change, even if all I do is stuff envelopes. You know? It's time to do my part for the future.

**In terms of creativity, there is nothing more important to me then my photography. I need to really work on it, not just stick with the same old comfortable subjects, but rather really push myself to go to the edge with it. There are some photography classes available at the community colleges in my area, so why not expand my horizons a bit? :) I took a class online, in Portrait Photography, earlier this year, and I found it very enjoyable. :)

**Overall, I want to just experience life. That's all. My priorities have changed, since I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I am so lucky that I wasn't told it was cancer, or heart disease or any one of the other things that tend to punch us down for no apparent reason. Since I began blogging in 2003, I have lost 2 good blogging/journaling buddies, Frank and Pam, to those things. I still miss them terribly, and they remind me of how short life is. It's too short to be afraid of the future. So, here I am, thrilled about 2008, and all it has waiting for me, good or bad! Maybe I will do all the things I have listed, maybe I will do none of them, maybe I will do other things that I can't even conceive of. Who knows? Isn't it exciting? Stay tuned, because you just never know with me!

Extra Credit: How was your 2008? ROFLMAO! Well, at first I thought it sucked! Then things kind of tapered off, and now, well, I can look back and see, life has a way of working itself out. All in all... it wasn't the worst year I have ever had. :)

"You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest, that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present."

-Jan Glidewell

-OndineMonet
"Believe"
Merry-Go-Round
Christmas Fantasy In The Woods
Tilden Park
Berkeley, California
November 29, 2007
Evening