Steven's Feline Friday: The Saturday Edition

"You see, the telegraph is a kind of very, very long cat. You pull his tale in New York, and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way! You send signals here, they receive the there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

-Albert Einstein, explaining the telegraph



Time again for my favorite meme to go about the Internet, Steven's Feline Friday. This week, with the holiday, we have a special Saturday edition. It doesn't matter to me, any day is a good day to talk cats. :) Here is my entry for this week, Elvis looking all dapper for the holidays. He is one handsome kitty! :)

To play along with Feline Friday, just pay Steven a visit and leave your link. You can also tell your cat tale in the comments section of the Feline Friday entry. :)

-OndineMonet
"My Date"
Berkeley, California
November 25th, 2005
Evening

On The Square

"It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air."

-W.T. Ellis

Friday was one of our favorite days of the year, the day after Thanksgiving. It all started about 20 years ago, long before Alan and I were dating, when as friends, we would go and sit at the mall and watch all the shoppers go mad with Christmas shopping frenzy. If you just sit, and watch, you will see some of the most outlandish things. One year we watched as a lady went into a Bed, Bath and Beyond with about 15 shopping bags and her two teenaged daughters. They came out about 30 minutes later with a shower curtain rod, fully extended between her two daughters, and which was now holding all those bags. Good Idea. :)

We were lucky today, we found great parking everywhere we went. Had a nice lunch at the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo, then grabbed a Jamba Juice and drove up Hwy 1 along the coast. It was gorgeous by the Pacific today. It started out rainy and grey, but by early afternoon...it was bright and sunny. We stopped in Moss Beach, near the haunted, Moss Beach Distillery. You can feel the presence of the "Lady In Blue" no matter what day of the year you come by. I can understand why she is still haunting the beach and restaurant after more then 75 years.

Finally, we ended up in San Francisco for the shopping and tree lighting ceremony at Union Square. God I love it here, especially on the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone is happy and the energy is high. The adults carrying pretty, holiday decorated shopping bags, and the children enjoying the street performers, like the Robot Woman, and anticipating the lighting of the Macy's Union Square Christmas Tree. An 80 Ft, Douglas Fir, brought in from the base of Mt Shasta, decorated with traditional Christmas ornaments, and more than 140,000 bright lights...it is a true holiday treat.

I had some fun starting my Christmas shopping for this year, we visited Fendi, Macy's, World Market, Chanel, and Saks. I gazed into the windows of the fabulous art galleries, the Xanadu, which is housed in the only building in San Francisco that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Post Impressionist Gallery and the Caldwell-Snyder Gallery. Then to finish the day we drove past the marquees of the Theatre district. The Curran and the Golden Gate, just to name a couple. I love the theatre district in San Francisco. It has it's own energy. Sigh, I was too tired to stay for the tree lighting itself...sigh. I know that I will be really tired tomorrow, but I couldn't miss today,sometimes I love the feeling of being alone in a crowd.

-OndineMonet
"Union Square Tree"
San Francisco, California
November 25th, 2005
Late Afternoon

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #87: Musical Conundrums

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

-Red Auerbach













Weekend Assignment #87: Answer one or more of the following musical conundrums:

1. Who let the dogs out?
2. Why do fools fall in love?
3. If birds can fly over the rainbow, who oh why, can't I?
4. Do you hear what I hear?
5. How do you solve a problem like Maria?
6. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
7. Listen, do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?
8. How long has this been going on?
9. I want to know, have you ever seen the rain? (Alternately: Why does it always rain on me?)
10. Does anybody really know what time it is?

Extra credit: Pose your own musical question.

-John Scalzi

This is a fun assignment. I have pondered the answers to these muscle questions for a long time, and I think I may have the answers...to all of them. :)

1. A. I think the cats let the dogs out, so they could have all the kibbles and bits for themselves. Cats are smart that way! :)

2. A. I don't know why fools fall in love, but if you should find out could you let me know? I fall in love...way to easily. :)

3. A. Duh! We aren't birds! LOL.

4. A. Yes, I hear it too...it's the sound of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse...the time is near! :)

5.A. This one is a poser. How about you appoint her as FEMA Director. That's what happens to everyone else when someone doesn't know what to do with them. :)

6.A. I can have my pudding because I will feed my meat to the cat/dog/ferret/rabbit/spider/groundhog/chimp/opossum or other form of domesticated animal which might be waiting under the table. Hey, dessert is important...you just never know what will happen, so it should always be eaten first. :)

7.A. Sure, I want to know a secret. I haven't shared a good piece of gossip in a long time. :) Oh, and yeah, I promise not to tell ;)

8.A. 3 years, 81 months, 481 hours, 72 minutes, and 2000 seconds. Give or take. ;)

9. A. Yes, I have seen the rain...I danced in it just a little while ago. :)

10.A. No, probably not exactly, but I can tell you what time it is by looking at the placement of the sun. With accuracy within 3 minutes. Freaks Alan out! :)

Extra Credit: Do you know where you're going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you? Where are you going to? Do you know?
(From...Theme From Mahogany)

-OndineMonet

"Never Enough Ballroom"
Reno, Nevada
October 24th, 2005
Late Afternoon

It's The Time Of The Season...

"It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes from it."

-Albert Einstein

Back in early September, just after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the gulf coast region, I added a link to the American Red Cross to my sidebar on my AOL Journal Ellipsis. It felt good that day to share with all those who come by to read my musings and to see my photography a little more about who I am and what I support. Charities have always been very important to me, I have supported a number of them over the years. The Red Cross has taken such a beating this past autumn, and it continues to need support. This holiday season, I urge you to give what you can...even if it is just a link in your sidebar and the good hopes in your heart. I will be adding more charities on the 24th of each month to my sidebar, and choosing one among the new ones I add to highlight through an entry. My next charities update will be Christmas Eve. I think that is a very good time to speak of the needs of mankind. Will you consider joining me, by posting an entry on Christmas Eve that brings awarensess to a charity you support? Be sure to send me a link, so I can come by and read what you write. We are all in this world together.

Always, Carly

1. Red Cross
2. Habitat For Humanity
3. United Cerebal Palsy
4. Christopher Reeve Foundation
5. International Women's Democracy Center
6. Ronald McDonald House Charities
7. Unicef
8. Toys For Tots
9. Reading Is Fundamental

Happy Thanksgiving

"I celebrated Thanksgiving in the old fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land."

-Jon Stewart

Ah...in less then 24 hours I will be sitting in front of my television, crying my eyes out at the sight of Santa at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I have NO idea why, but truly, it always makes me all sentimental. LOL. Alan gets his best laugh of the year, watching my burst into tears at the sight of Old Nick. Sigh. LOL. Actually I do see the humor in it, it is a silly thing to cause the weepys. I don't know, it's just one more of my personality quirks. :)

I was thinking last night, as I sat at the computer anticipating the holidays, about how much I will miss Ellipsis. I guess I always will. With each new entry here I feel a little more at home and I know in my heart that this is where I will stay. I know, I know...it was my decision to make, and I accept that, but what is so hard to accept is how much I miss about AOL Journal Land. I did some blog jogging last night , visiting old friends that I miss like Slomo (Amy). I read early comments left in her archives and saw how friendships grew. I saw some comments that had been left by Frank ...sigh...has it really been almost 2 years since he passed away?

The hardest thing for me in life, is losing a friend. Sometimes relationships go through ruptures and they are never able to recover from that, sometimes you get very lucky and time does it's magic and healing can take place. I have been able to do that recently with a couple people I care a lot about. Time is such a blessing. I don't know why Amy stopped journaling, she had some pressures in life that got big, and sometimes one simply can't find the words to explain how very bad it hurts. I expect that is what happened for her. Still...I just miss her.

It was a week ago that sent my "Goodbye" letter to my journal family, telling them of my intention to no longer write on AOL. It never once occurred to me while composing that letter, to ever give up on a single person I would be sending it to, that's why at the end of the letter I asked everyone who wanted to know where I ended up, to drop me an email so I could put them on my contact list. Sigh. I was so completely delighted to see so many of my Journal Land family, and even a couple new faces, come by to say, "I'm still here...I followed you." :) I feel a love here that I haven't felt anywhere else.

I have a flaw, one that sometimes I would just give anything if I could change, I have one of those hearts that once I give a piece of it to someone, it's theirs forever. I have never been able to take the piece back, no matter how bad they treat me. It is always theirs, and if I love them, the love never dies. That can be painful when faced with the knowledge that sometimes love ends. Maybe, as I begin to fix Thanksgiving dinner, and work on getting the decorations up, I am remembering all of you...and not taking a single one of you for granted. Frank was a lesson about how soon we can lose someone, we never really got to know...and how bad it can hurt. One time, a couple years ago, I considered making a change to Blogspot. I had a couple friends who sent me an email telling me that they would follow me anywhere. :) I thought they were just being nice...now I know...they meant it. Thank you for still being here, a week after the exodus. I am thankful for you!

PS: The night of the VIVI Awards, I made a bet with my date for the night, and good friend Sam. Well, I won my bet, and what I won was amazing. Sam had to write an entry about autumn, that also featured a recent photo of him. He did post a recent photo of himself, but he also posted some of the most beautiful sunset photos I have seen this year. His friendship has meant a lot to me this past year, and I am so glad I won my bet, because we all get to see the creative side of a fine man and friend. Go check out his entry. Thanks again Sam, for being such a wonderful escort to the awards.

Dock Lines "The Fall Of 1967"

Love, Carly
"Happy Thanksgiving"
Berkeley, California
November 14th, 2005
Afternoon

Note: About the photograph. I was driving through Tilden Park last week and go figure, I came across some wild turkeys. LOL. God I love digital photography!

So The Doctor Said "Carly..."

"MY illness is due to my doctor's insistence that I drink milk, a whitish fluid they force down the helpless babies."

-W.C. Fields

So the doctor said to me, "Carly, you have Fibromyalgia." After months and months of feeling so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open, forgetting things that were a part of my regular routines, having my legs ache so bad every night , that at times crying was really the only thing making it feel better, and the sudden and frequent onset of those pesky stomach spasms, I had a name to put to the affliction. The worst part of all these symptoms was thinking that it might have been "all in my head." After I was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr in 1995 and then losing my mind in 2000, my doctor would put all the things occurring to my body down to those two maladies. Uggg. Great, all the pain I was having was because I was insane. Really, really nice.

So today, when my new doctor looked at me as said "you have Fibromyalgia," I hated hearing the words, but at least I knew that I could actually listen to my own body and trust what it was saying, and it was saying, "Help me." The bouts of insomnia, the sleepwalking last year, the 26 week headache, my knack for spelling the word (nad) instead of (and) my extreme forgetfulness, the pain in my legs and the worst symptom of all, the stomach spasms, now have not only a reason for being in my life, but now I can fix them.

It's unclear what exacerbated what. It could be one of my setbacks with my Epstein-Barr that set off the Fibromyalgia or it may have been some of the extreme stress of a few years back, either way it is here, and it will be sticking around. It is a chronic condition, but far from the worst thing that could ever happen to me. I simply have to do some things in order to remain the cute, charming, talented writer /photograher I am. LOL. Like get rest when my body says so, not when I think I can do it all then make up the sleep difference later.

I have a huge supply of new medications to help with the pain and fatigue I have been enduring, plus some others for those infections that refused to heal, and I have a whole lot of research to do to help myself from the inside out, like a better diet and some vitamin supplements. The doctor did say that she would now begin to watch for...YIKES... Lupus. That is a frightening prospect, but I know me, I will forget that word in a couple days and I will focus on the plans I have already made. Starting with listening to my body and never letting a doctor treat me like I am an intrusion into their day. I am the patient, they are there to help me stay healthy. Period. I will keep my end of the bargain if they will.

Also today to my delight, I saw a butterfly. A butterfly in autumn. Regardless of whatever else happened today... seeing it made the simple act of getting up worth while. :) I am so glad I took my camera to the doctor's office, I got some good photos there, and I got the picture of the beautiful butterfly while I was on my way home. All in all...it was a very good day. :)

-OndineMonet
"Autumn Visitor"
Hayward, California
November 21st, 2005
12:20 PM

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Message

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live them."

-John F. Kennedy













Thanksgiving is just a few days away. My back yard is covered with red , yellow and gold leaves. Here and there are dry brown leaves...it's all so peaceful and warm. Alan and I have decided to eat our Thanksgiving dinner in the back yard, the sun here in the Bay Area has been incredible lately. It will be a warm 78 degrees, but there is always a gentle breeze flowing up from the bay, so while the sun may have plans to be warm and bright...the air will be cool. Mmmmmm.

I have been missing the art and history journal that I kept on AOL. I used that journal to release some of my passions. My love of music and how it stirs my soul, with memories of past loves. Sometimes I would post short scenes of dialog from favorite movies, and of course the love letters. I am a hopeless romantic at heart. I loved looking at the brief glimpses into the passions of famous people such as Mozart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Franz Kafka. Not all the letters I put into the journal were of a romantic nature, sometimes I came across extraordinary letters that dealt with other types of love, such as love for our fellow man, and the true meaning of what thanks should be in the human heart.

A Letter Of Thanksgiving
(from the collection of Lincoln's papers in the Library of America series)

The year that is drawing towards it's close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so consistently enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and aggression, peace has been preserved sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron, and coals the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield.

the country rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who ,while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and promise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverance and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fevently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

-OndineMonet
"Little Church"
Virginia City, Nevada
October 25th, 2005
Afternoon

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Your Collection

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it french; sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon makes it Greek; soy makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good."

-Alice May Brock






Your Monday Photo Shoot: Let us see your collection of whatever it is you collect.Thimbles, NASCAR collectables, Star trek figurines...what it is, let's see those tchotchkes!

-John Scalzi

Here it is, finally, my collection of restaurant menus. When we first moved into the cottage we are in now, I was really feeling really sad. I was feeling about as creative as a plain baked potato. I was experiencing a strong case of Anhedonia and the thought of all the unpacking and decorating of a new place was overwhelming. Well, the first few days in the new place we long ones, it was May of 2001, and the hot weather was beginning to kick in. I was alone for about 18 out of 24 hours and I began to get a little anxious about getting the place into shape. One night I was looking through a box and I found a Denny's menu. That is really how it all began.

June and I had stopped in at Denny's for lunch one afternoon about 3 years earlier. We were discussing all kinds of important things about family and upcoming projects we would be doing and there were papers and folders all over the table were we sat to have lunch. When we got up to leave, June accidentally picked up her menu along with all the papers. We didn't realize until we got back to her house that she had made that mistake. We had such a good laugh. She was so embarrassed about having lifted the menu, she couldn't bring herself to take it back. I offered to take it back for her, but that didn't feel right either. I offered to take it home and maybe in a week or so we could go together and return it the next time we went there to grab a bite.

Oddly enough I couldn't get her to go back. LOL. June was getting on in years and she simply couldn't face such a silly mistake. I forgot about the menu , and had apparently placed it in a box of other kitchen items because when I opened the box in 2001, I found some pot holders she had made me and some other little items I had collected like a hamburger press and a Godzilla egg timer. LOL. And there was the menu...looking all shiny and yummy. I thought it might be a hoot to see it on the cabinet door in the kitchen. When Alan came home and saw it...he smiled. It was the first remotely creative thing I had done in months. Now I have a different menu on each of the cabinets. Johnny Rocket's, Chilli's, Bancheros, Doug's Place, TGI Friday's, The Olive Garden, IHOP, LOL. All looking yummy as they inspire me to make my culinary creations. I like collecting menus, they aren't likely to be stolen if some demented circus people (like my family) should break into my home looking for prized possessions, yet those menus mean a lot to this collector. :)

NOTE: Just so you know, I don't steal menus, all I have to do is ask the manager for one, and they usually provide one for free or for a nominal charge. :)

-OndineMonet
Berkeley, California
My Kitchen
November 21st, 2005
Afternoon

After The Exodus...A Five Part Series On Grief Management

"I just learned that there's going to be a lot of painful times in life, so I better learn to deal with it right away."

-Trey Parker & Matt Stone
South Park












The events of the past week have been devastating. For those of us who now consider ourselves refugees of AOL Journal Land, we have faced finding an entirely new home for our inner most thoughts and feelings. We are faced with learning a brand new way to journal and we are still looking back on the routines we knew so well with longing. It was a comfort, especially when we were hurting, to log onto our journals and take for granted how easy it would be to let the pain out. We could put our deepest feelings down in words, and soon someone would come by to help us through it.

I know the feeling of being loved through a time of grieving. My good friend Frank passed away in December of 2003, just a few months after we met through our journals on AOL. Frank was a very good listener, and a very good man. His loss still pulses through the community, he is still missed so much that he was recently nominated for a VIVI Award, which is a peer to peer recognition. It was hard to know that suddenly Frank wouldn't be there anymore to share in my life. To make me laugh, to help me feel a little less scared and unsure about my writing on my journal, to encourage me to keep picking up the camera and looking for beauty. We all felt the shock of him suddenly being taken from us, and the feelings we all had, though individually, brought us together because we were sharing a common loss and the common occurrence after any loss...grief.

Grief is it's own entity. It will manifest whether we want it to or not. It is the sudden anger we feel when there is no particular reason to feel upset. It is the sadness we feel when it seems like there is no way to ever feel better, it is the begging we do with ourselves or others to just please "make it right" so we can stop feeling so completely lost. It is the feeling like it must not really be happening. The loss somehow isn't real..."it just can't be." I know one or two things about these feelings, I felt them when Frank passed away and all over again less the two weeks later I found out my own mother had passed away and no one had told me.

What we have all just gone through together and yet,individually, is a loss. A huge one. Sometimes I think anger is the easiest of all the five stages of grief to understand and deal with. Anger can make you proactive. It can make it very clear what you are thinking and feeling and why. When I have faced the death of someone I have loved, it was anger that always manifested itself first. But if it isn't kept in check a lot of damage can take place, sometimes damage we regret terribly later on after we have finished the stages of grief we inevitably arrive at and endure.

I want to help this time of transition go a little less painful for this community. Whether you have joined me here on Blogspot or if you have chosen to remain at AOL Journals, you are still my friends and my community neighbors. I don't care any less for you because we have faced some bad decisions on the part of AOL. Nothing has to change if down deep we really don't want it to. So, at the request of a few of my journal land friends and neighbors I will be running a five part series on grief management beginning next Monday, November 28th, and running through Friday, December 2nd. My goal is to have members from both AOL Journals and members here on Blogspot come by to share how they are feeling and how we try to bridge this gap together.

Loss will happen in life. I have come to know this so intimately that sometimes it feels like it is the only thing that really happens passionately and completely, but I really know that while it's presence is certainly invasive, and at times way to hard to take, I know it has to be done to reach the peace that will be the final acceptance of the loss. Yes, acceptance...that is the warm hug that allows you to move forward...and believe me it does. If I had never experienced loss I would say tell me I don't know about what I am talking about, but trust me...I do know what grief is.

Please encourage as many people as you can think of to join us. If they have vowed to never read a journal written by a Blogspot journalist...ok...it is perfectly ok to be a lurker, no one has to know they were here. If you know someone who is having a hard time learning to adjust to their new home here and all the new things we have to learn about Blogspot...well...have them come by and let them see they aren't all the things we tend to tell ourselves we are when we are frustrated. You know...stupid, slow, dumb bunny. Those are just my personal adjectives for myself...but from here on out I need to take my own advice and realize I am grieving the loss of all the work and love I put into Ellipsis. Over 2 years worth of my personal history. Of course it hurts.But hey, a little grief anger yesterday allowed me to teach myself how to add links to my sidebar. I did it myself. That is the good side of grief anger...feeling proactive.

Please leave all comments and questions you would like to see addressed in this upcoming series in the comment thread of this entry only. If you leave a question or comment in a different comment section there is a good chance it could be overlooked. It is a goal for me to make this as indepth and helpful as possible so that we can all find that common ground that brought us together as neighbors and friends anyway...the ability and need to reach out and share ourselves through community spirit and light.

-OndineMonet

I Got It Bad For David Duchovny

"Better never to have met you in my dream, then to reach for you and know you were never there."

-Unknown













It crossed my mind the other day, how OH how, will David Duchovny find the new home of Ellipsis? Sigh. When I bravely began to share my well kept secret love for the former fictional G-Man, I started out slow, knowing there would be no way that he would ever, ever, see my words of love. No, they would go forever unnoticed, unrequited, but there was a small chance that if a star should fall and we both saw the same star at the same time, maybe the universe would somehow lead him to me. So, I blogged and I blogged, and I blogged my little brains out. I even launched the SS Duchovny this past summer in my swimming pool and it was a mighty ship. It made it almost to the deep end of the pool, before sinking slowly to the bottom where it remains to this day. :(

Well, I vow with all the passion in me to keep trying to reach him through my words that are forever archived in GOOGLE. Somehow, someway, someday...He will find me. I just know it! Oh DAVIIIIIIDDDD!!!!! I'm on Blogspot now!!!!

-OndineMonet

Boobies

"Stress is when you wake up screaming, and you realize you haven't fallen asleep."

-Unknown

Tee Hee. Remember the show WKRP In Cincinnati? In it's pilot episode it introduced a number of characters who all worked at a struggling radio station in Ohio. Among them was a displaced, washed-up DJ named Johnny "Dr. Johnny Fever" Caravello. Johnny had lost a great gig as the rock & roll DJ for a hip radio station in Las Angeles until he lost his job for saying a certain word that the FCC frowned upon in the 1070's that word was "BOOGER." LOL. Now by today's standards that wouldn't even raise the eyebrow of an FCC censor, but back then it didn't take a lot to give the general public the "vapors." Johnny had a wonderful moment a little later in the episode when the new station manager, Andy Travis, gave Johnny back his rock & roll music and he gave him permission to say the word Johnny had longed to say..."Booger."

While blogging on AOL I was very happy. I got to share my weird sense of humor and I made a few friends in doing so. That felt really good, considering how many people I have chased off with that very same sense of humor. Believe me, the humor I show here and what I am liable to do in person could be two very different things. I can be...outrageous at times. I have learned to reel it in somewhat, but every once in a while it would come out and have it's way. I only got a couple complaints over the two years I was with AOL, and I took them with a grain of salt and was actually happy to try and write so that I didn't offend anyone, and still let my humor have it's place. I learned a lot from that creative criticism...instead of taking the attitude of..."it's my blog and I will post what I want," I chose to see what a little hard work in the humor department could do for me. It was worth the effort. I took the criticism and grew as a writer.

Still, one thing I always wanted to do was post a photograph of a "Pet Chesticle." What is a "Pet Chesticle you ask?" Well, see, it happened like this. One day my husband, Alan, was on his way home from work when he got a flat tire. He pulled off the freeway and began to change the tire. As he stopped for a minute to catch his breath, he noticed a brown carton sitting in some bushes a few feet away. Curiosity got the better of him, and he peeked inside the lost box to find it full with fake boobs. Yep, and entire box of different size fake boobs. When he called me to tell me what he had found, he asked me if "he could keep them?" I said, "sure." I had NO idea what would become of them...but why not keep them? There was no address or even and invoice in the box.

One night Alan was raising the roof with his snoring. Jeepers can that man snore. It is one of the reasons I began cleaning the house, writing, and editing photos between the hours of 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM. There is no way to fall asleep until after he leaves for work. I don't watch daytime TV anyway, so it was a good solution for us. One such night, when he was hitting an ungodly pitch, I got up, went into my office, got out the glue gun, and started making a little person out of the fake boobies he had found. I think they came out kinda cute. I named the first one Naomi. After that I offered them as a prize for the monthly game of MADLIBS that I played on my AOL journal Ellipsis. I also offered an original photograph by me or some other nifty prize, but only one person in all that time ever chose a "Pet Chesticle" as a prize.

I always wondered if I had been able to have posted a photo of the little cutie if that would have made folks request one of them, but I was always worried it would be some sort of TOS violation, and GOD knows it would just be wrong to send the AOL Granny running from the room with a case of the vapors, the way she did when Mara quoted Chris Rock one time or like when Granny pulled the plug on Armand due to some misinformation that somehow supposedly violated her laws of decency. Anyway, here for the first time is a picture of the very first "Pet Chesticle" ever made, Naomi. She still sits on the back of my desk, and she smiles and tells me it will all be "ok."

I will learn Blogspot's curious, mysterious ways, I will learn to do coding, I will not be alone in the world of blogging, I will rebuild, my friends are still only an email away...but most of all she just makes me laugh. I mean she is kinda goofy...a little bit naughty...and quite perky. A girl after my own heart. I can be all those things, and after this week I feel a little like I was boxed up and left by the side of the road. Not just because of how ugly things got on AOL, but with the cold I am fighting, and the friends I am missing, who have been lost to me. Thanksgiving makes me think of my mother. Sigh. I never know if I am supposed to miss her in November (when she died) or in December (when I found out she died). She hated humor. Shrug. This will be our first Thanksgiving without some member of my "circus folk" family being a part of our lives. Sigh of Relief!

It feels good to be over here, I kind wish I would have moved sooner. It is a fresh start for me, one I had been needing for a very long time. I got more then one fresh start this week. I am taking all things slow, so they never go wrong again because life is too short to loose people you really love, and life is too short to waste it on people who never loved you anyway, and life is too damn short to not stop and hear the laughter, as well as sometimes cause the laughter. So for the AOL GRANNY and all the sad sacks like my family BOOOOOOOOOGERRRRRRR!

Always, OndineMonet

"Naomi"
Berkeley, California
Spring 2004

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #86: Thankfully Remembered

"Forever on Thanksgiving Day, the heart will find a pathway home."

-Wilbur Nesbit

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #86: Who are you thankful for? This is a chance to tell us about the people you care about who will be far away from you this holiday, or who have passed on but remain in your heart.

Extra Credit: Pumpkin pie vs. Pecan pie...which do you choose for Thanksgiving dinner?

-John Scalzi

I am most thankful this Thanksgiving season for the amazing friendships I have made in the time I have been blogging on the Internet, and in particular when I was on AOL. So many amazing , and talented people came my way. I have made friendships that I know will stand the test of time. Vivian, Annalisa, Robbie, Andrea, Natalie, Sam, Judi, Kat, Phinney, Pam and of course my two rocks, the two people I know I can depend on the most to be there when I need them, Steven & Karen.

I don't live close to my dear journal friends, and I have never met them face to face, but somehow I think if I were walking in a crowd of strangers, I would be still be able to recognize them. My friend's have souls that are so full of light that I feel certain I would recognize them anywhere. That's another thing about getting to know someone by reading their journal...you get to meet them from the inside out. All the superficial nonsense is put aside.

I am also very thankful for these Weekend Assignments John Scalzi prepares for us to participate in. I have learned a lot from them...I enjoy them very much. That was something I wasn't willing to give up when I made the decision to leave AOL. John puts a lot of work into these assignments, and I get a lot from them. It is truly a symbiotic endeavor. I email John to ask if I can still participate in them and he sent back a very kind email letting me know that these assignments are open to everyone, AOL member or not. If you haven't tried one of his Weekend Assignments or the Monday Photo Shoot...Consider doing them. All are welcome and besides...They are FUN!

Extra Credit: LOL. It's funny because this Thanksgiving we are having a very special Pumpkin Pecan pie that can only be found here in the Bay Area! :) So I guess to answer the question asked...BOTH! :)

-OndineMonet
"The Soul Of A Pie"
Half Moon Bay, California
October 23rd, 2005
Afternoon

Steven's Feline Friday

I originally posted this photograph on my AOl journal Ellipsis on 11/11/05











"Everything I know I learned from my cat; When you are hungry eat. When you are tired, nap in a sunbeam. When you go to the vet's, pee on your owner's shoe.

-Gary Smith

Last week I was having a blue moment, so I decided to buy a treat for Elvis and me. A stuffed black and white cat for Elvis, and a stuffed monkey for me. Elvis loves stuffed animals...and yes so do I. Elvis is amazing with his toys. He grooms them. He picks them up and puts them away in his toy box, and he never harms them. So, I gave the stuffed cat to him and placed the monkey on my pillow...for later. When I went into the bedroom to go to bed that night, I found Elvis had dragged, "Mr. Baffles" the monkey, down to the end of the bed where he sleeps and propped him up against his purple, "Happy Face" pillow. He has slept holding Mr. Baffles every night this past week. They have bonded. :)

"A Monkey & His Boy"
Berkely, California
November 9th, 2005
4:25 AM

Smiles Everyone Smiles

Hi Everyone

And welcome to the new home of Ellipsis. I decided to change the name of my journal because I wanted to honor the memories I had of the journal I kept on AOL. That journal was and is important to me, so since I have found myself suddenly in a new home, I thought a new name might make this new start a little nicer. Over the next week or so I will become more and more familiar with the Blogspot software, so just bear with me while I find my way. Please scroll down and read my previsou entries, and let me know if you have come by for a visit. Please leave me your new journal address ifyou are an AOL refugee. I want to keep in contact. Thanks for coming by.

-OndineMonet

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown To Run AOL Journals

"Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable and remove yourself from the unacceptable."
-Denis Waitley





Wouldn't that be strange? Can you imagine it? Here's what is on my mind...

Right now there is a furious outcry going on over at AOL in the journals community. It seems this past week AOL made a decision to begin running large advertising banners across the top of all journals published on the AOL service. The AOL Journals community has had other controversies arise over the 2 years that AOL has offered blogging to it's members. Incidents of censorship on the part of AOL, and in one case, a bloggers entire journal was deleted because of misinformation and unclear TOS information. This time it seems it all went too far.

What blog authors write in their blogs in Intellectual Property. It is at times highly personal and at times simply meant as a way of sharing one's life. The good. The bad. With very few exceptions who would want to sell that? Or worse have it sold for you? Now the idea of running ads on a blog isn't so bad, provided you approve of the companies or organizations who want to buy the space. I am a married woman, would I want to run an ad for a dating service on my journal. Don't know...but probably not. I don't bank at Bank of America, so why would I imply that I support their service when I don't do business with them? I wouldn't.

So imagine how it felt to see that a decision had been made for me, in the middle of the night, with NO prior word that it was even a consideration. That's what happened on Tuesday, when opened my journal Ellipsis to find I was now running ads for, among others, Bank Of America, a company I will never do business with again based on past experiences. It was clear I had a decision to make, stay with AOL and hope they would change their mind based on their customer's feedback, or leave letting this to be the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." I chose to shut down my journal, an endeavor I had worked on for over two years, and move to a different blog service provider. So here I sit.

So many questions still loom. Can I still participate in the Weekend Assignments offered on AOL by author/blogger John Scalzi? Will he still link to me if he likes the assignment I turned in if I am not an AOL blogger? Will my fellow AOL journalists think I am a traitor if I do the assignments? Is it all for nothing anyway. I chose to leave, and short of those banner ads coming down there in nothing that will make me return. My decision. But don't think I am unaware of what I have just left behind. I leave a solid community of supportive, creative, giving individuals who have helped me grown as a person and a writer over the last couple years. I think of them as both family and friends.

Coming over here to Blogspot is scary. I don't know anyone here yet. There doesn't seem to be the same network of community like on AOL. It feels like I am all alone, once again. Truth is, when I began my original journal I had no idea that I would ever be seen or heard, but I was and I grew an audience from it, and in turn I found some people who are extraordinary. I became part of their audience. I hope it can happen here. Bottom lining things, I want to be a writer someday, I want to share my photography and maybe leave some people better off then when I found them. That's it...that's the goal. Same as it always was. I just don't know right now.

I feel like I need to keep going, but I feel lost. I don't think I could be anymore lost. It feels like I had just had to endure a hurricane with Michael "Brownie" Brown at the helm of AOL Journals Community doing a fine job. Heck, no one can pick out a new casual shirt like "Brownie" and no one can tell a lie like AOL. Don't believe a word of it when you hear Julia Roberts voice telling you that AOL "listens to it's customers."

The Curtains Have Arrived

The curtains are now up on the windows and the unpacking has begun. I guess I am really home now. I will miss my old journal home with a deep ache...But not for long. Starting over is scary. Will my old and dear friends still come around? What if I lose all ability to be interesting? What if I find that the neighborhood doesn't like me? Then what? Nah... ;) That is just that old oaf "self-doubt" being mean to me. I know better then that!

I am going to hold an open house this weekend...a party really. Hope to see you there!

Just Carly

Autumn Flowers & Apples

Coming In For A Landing

Hello Blogsphere...

Remember that show "Suddenly Susan?" The basic premise was that this slightly ditzy girl suddenly finds herself all on her own in the world...and suddenly it all opens up with a lot of previously unforeseen opportunities. Well, after the "Black Tuesday" that AOL just gave the entire of Journal Land, I "suddenly" find myself here. I have a new home. Right now the walls are bare, I haven't met my neighbors, and my furniture hasn't arrived, but it's home. And it's got a great view of the future!

Always, Carly