Life is weird

Isn't it? Don't you find? Yesterday, when I woke up, life seemed to be one way, and now, today when I wake up, it seems to be a completely different way. Yippee! Not for the different way in which I am finding life, but yippee for the fact that life is.

So, what to say and what not to say. I don't really want to air my laundry in public, but I also like to write about what is happening in my life. Hmm. Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away... :) Anywho, moving on. What the heck did I do yesterday. Oh, right! It was Bojangles/Saucer/Juggling day. Huzzah! What fun that was. Bojangles was yummy. Saucer was pleasant. And I threw up a lot at juggling. We did one of my favorite patterns which seemed to work really well with five people, though it can be done with a lot more. And I am sure there are variations. Then I dropped Daniel off at the house and headed out again. I spent the night at a hotel. Garg, they are expensive. Oh well. It had to be done. I needed a clear head and space in which to think. My poor mom is about to get a house guest! Yup, I am leaving the area until at least the end of June. I may pop back for a visit, but other than that, I am out of here for a while. Here, of course, being NC. I am not really excited about heading North since it is still winter up there, well, early spring at best. But it will be good not to be here.

Bridge night tonight, which means I will be getting a late start on the drive North. I do hope to make it past Washington, DC tonight. Good thing that I have gotten into a bit of a late night sort of schedule. I would blow off bridge, but since it will be the last time I am playing for the foreseeable future, it just didn't feel right.

The car is packed - just waiting for Cate to appear so we can chat.

Here is a picture from April 18, 2011:


Our food at Andy's. Yum!

Monday's Blog post

Here we are again. What the heck? Seems like we were just writing about Monday a week ago. Weird...I don't really have anything too exciting to say about Sunday. Or Monday. I mean, I did have lunch with my friend Mardia. We went to Andy's. That place has undergone a re-framing. It used to be a Cheesesteak place. Now it seems to be moving in the direction of a fifties burger joint. Mardia had hotdogs, I had a cheesesteak. I still think the one I made at the house was one of the best I have ever had. I am pretty sure I blogged about it...

Now I am safely at the Saucer, typing away on my computer. Having my three beers towards my 19th plate. I think after today I will have only 25 beers left to complete this one. Yippee!

And now, pictures from Sunday, April 17, 2011:


Despite the high winds, these tulips managed to continue to be happy!


One of the things I love about going to other people's plate parties, is meeting the new to me people. This time I met Brian and Heidi and had a really fun time chatting with them both. Oh, and Chris.


Relaxing post plate party!

For those who are interested, I will, eventually, post more pictures up on my Facebook page. Some of the pictures will go in my Saucer party album, some in other albums. Yay pictures!!

Sunday's Blog Monday

How exciting is that?! Wow! Aren't you all the luckiest people?

Welcome, James, number #19! Happy to have you aboard. I hope I don't disappoint. Not too much, at least.

So, where was I? Oh yes, sitting in the Flying Saucer catching up on my blog posts. Again. Not that far behind, but still.

Nice days, Sundays. Much better than when I was forced, as a child, to go to church. Ok, forced might be too strong a way of putting it. Truthfully, I did enjoy going most of the time. Not the getting up early, but the singing in the choir. I did so enjoy that. For most of two or three years. From the age of 10 till about 13 I think. Yay choir singing!

So, I didn't get up and go to church. Instead I woke up and read. And read some more. I am reading a few things. The Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card is one thing. I read most of Journeyman Alvin yesterday. And also more of Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons. That book is written by one of the founders of eHarmony and isn't the best relationship book that I have read. Interesting enough to finish, but not scintillating. I do have a thing about not finishing books. I just don't like to not finish books that I start. This does mean that I have read some really crappy things all the way through. Oh well. I did just return a collection of fantasy stories about wizards unfinished. It was very uneven. One story would be great, the next would be dreck. So I got about halfway and decided that I had too many books in my reading pile anyway.

Sadly, I didn't end up doing any blogging yesterday. At about 4 I headed out to run errands (library, dollar store and something else that escapes me just now) and then headed to the Saucer. 5 plate parties! Eeek! I had my three beers which was good. And not much more beer than that. As I was leaving, my housemate physically attacked me. And I will leave it at that for now. My head still hurts a bit. Anyway, I went and hung out at a friend's house after that. Life is like that sometimes, sadly.

Oh, while at the Saucer, I met two very nice young women - Kate and Paige. They even gave me one of their rocket tots! How cool is that? I took their picture with the proviso that I wouldn't post it here or on Facebook. I mostly took the picture for my own memory banks. If I don't take a picture of someone that I meet, I am more likely to forget them.

Just a few more words about Saturday. Apparently, there were 65 tornadoes sighted in the Raleigh area on Saturday. There sure was a bunch of damage: trees down, power lines down, houses and businesses messed up to varying degrees. I didn't even realize how bad things had been. True, I did see a car spin-out for no apparent reason while driving on Route 40. And there were lots of traffic lights out with some of them manned by police. Still, the scope of the damage didn't make itself apparent to me. Sometimes, I can be oblivious.

Ok, pictures from Saturday, April 16:


This police presence was my first clue that things went worse for Raleigh than they did for us down in Clayton. I sat there for about 5 minutes before I just started across the intersection 'cause the officer hadn't even glanced my way. Poop head.


I had been wondering what to do about food. Since I had to take an alternate way to the Saucer, I went right past Baja Burrito, always a fine food option in my book. In the same strip mall, I saw these two places - an Ethiopian Restaurant and a Hookah bar! Definitely need to add them to my list of places to experience. Well, experience again for the Ethiopian place...


Tim was having his fourth plate party. Probably his last here, since he and Andi and Mitch and Nate (their kids) are moving to Nashville later in the year. I wasn't invited to the plate party. :( I did, though take a good picture of their whole group!

Three blogs, three beers

See how that works out! One beer per blog post. I was going to try and read some of my book, but that didn't happen much. I was graced with the presence of Mr. Chris Telesca for a large part of the afternoon. And my Saucer friend Tim and his family were here for his fourth plate party. They are moving to Nashville, so I might have a place to stay when I go there in the future. Maybe not. In any case, I haven't had as much time to myself as I would like. Ah, the pressures of notoriety.

Keith Schlabs did get the copy of the book that I sent him. That is a good thing. Now if only he loves it and they buy 100,000 copies, that would be great. Maybe they will at least let me sell copies at the various Saucers. I know that life is uncertain. That sucks a good bit, though. I would like things to be as certain as they could be. Closure, or definition are good. Sadly, despite my self actualized status, I do, at times, need a little reassurance. Especially where relationships are concerned. I did the languages of love quiz again recently, and was surprised to find that words of love was not overwhelmingly the first of my ways of feeling loved. Oh well.

Not too exciting a day, all things considered. Very pleasant, so far, which is always a great thing. I spent most of the day reading. Then drove through the icky weather up to the Saucer. And here I am as I type this. Yippee! Soon, though, I am leaving here and heading someplace else.

Pictures from April 15, 2011:


Maybe I should have rotated this picture. Anyway, I just thought it was cool.


This woman loved her dogs. And they were great - very sweet and gentle. Great pyrenees.


Our Indian dinner. The yummiest was the vegetable dish - I will, one day perhaps, look up what it was called. We were both surprised at how delicious it was! Yay Indian food!

Friday, Friday, Friday

Friday dawned a beautiful day. I was feeling much better than I had the night before. On Thursday, my sore throat had moved up to my nose so I was sneezing and snuffly. Not fun for anyone. And I must admit to having a bit of an issue where tissues are concerned. I tend to leave half used ones all over the place. And new and fresh ones. Just in case I might need them. But it can get a tad overwhelming at times.

So Friday arrived and I was feeling much better - about 90%. Yippee! It was an errands day. ATT store, grocery shopping and dinner. At the ATT store I found out that I was eligible for a new phone. And with the Apple 3GS for only $50, I am sorely tempted. Still tempted. We shall see. It would cost me about $20 a month more than I am paying, so I guess I kinda have to wait to see what happens with income. Sigh. Money. Poop. Moving on.

Dinner ended up being Indian, which was good. A place in Mini-city in North Raleigh. This was after we had explored Lafayette Village on Falls of the Neuse past the Raleighwood mall. Lots of cool places, but pricey! The spice shop was really cool. And at the Market they had popped things - can't think what they are called off hand - but I know that I like them a lot!!

Then, a brief stop at the Saucer for one beer and to say hi to the people who were there for the two plate parties. When I got there, there was only $35 left on the combined tab, so I had a beer and left the rest for whoever else still needed more beer.

All in all, a very nice day.

Yippee!

Pictures from April 14:


I finally got around to open the cool present from my brother Ernst. 50 eggs filled with boodle! Or is that booty? Anyway...


The contents, arranged as they lay - hardware, a couple of unidentified things, a 100 piece puzzle, some toy soldiers, some lightbulbs (?), balloons, gummy bears, a map of something that I have yet to figure out, ping pong balls, some shot glass like things, some weird little critters reminiscent of erasers, and the numbers 5 and 0. What a cool gift and idea!


One of the Azalea bushes looking pretty.

Still holding at 18 followers. I have faith that 25 followers by the end of the year is doable! Power to the followers! :)

The day before yesterday

Hi there, blog readers! I hope your day has been a pleasant one. I have had a couple of very nice days. And now it is time to catch up again. Sigh, Life seems to be that way - either catching up or just keeping up. There is so much to do and time just keeps on drifting onward. Kind of inexorably. Yippee?

So, where was I when I was so rudely interrupted? Right, trying to catch up again. Wait a second. Am I three days behind? Shoot, how does this happen? Glarg even. Oh well. There's nothing for it, but to continue on.

Thursday, frikkin' Thursday. What happened on Thursday? Hmm. I am sure it was fun and exciting. Oh, ok, part of my trouble is that I have kinda lost track of time. Not working, as I am doing, does tend to help that along. Thursday. I know I got up. I know I puttered around. I know that I went up to Raleigh. Oh right, I spent time with a friend just hanging out. She did her stuff, while I say around and did my stuff. Like reading. I read a lot of a book that I got from the library. The Necromancer - fourth in a series of young adult fantasy books. They are pretty action filled and tie in a lot of mythology which to me is always interesting. The Percy Jackson books were also cool. Anyway, we eventually had dinner. And that was about it. Yippee! One day down.

And now for pictures from April 13:


This is the outdoor view of the clinic. A friend asked me why I had written about the STD thing. My response was that I just thought and think that it is important to think and talk about STDs now and again...



I love this little mug. I got it from a beer club I joined in Greenville, NC.

Trash Day

I am so excited. I collected a huge pile of cardboard and the trash people are coming to recycle it tomorrow. That means tonight or tomorrow I get to put out the cardboard and get my garage-let back. For those who don't know, the two car garage of this house was converted to a playroom. That is one of the major reasons I bought this place. Room enough for my pool table. The people who had the conversion done, left one of the roll-up doors functional and left a small, 8x8 maybe, space that I call the garage. The other space is the basement. Though sometimes I get confused and call whichever one whichever one. Oh well. In any case, that is where we keep all of the gardening equipment - including the mowers. And that means that Daniel, Cate's son, will get to mow soon! I can tell that he is just chomping at the bit to get to it! Maybe not.

So, I sent off the draft and revisions to Heather on Monday. Yippee! She says she will look at it this weekend, because she has been really busy with her real job. I am very excited. I think this next draft will be another great leap forward. I also sent a hard copy to the home office and asked for feedback. I hope I get something. I gave them a deadline of April 22. Ha. It is probably below their notice and I probably won't hear anything. In which case, I don't know what I will do.

I really don't know what I am going to do after Saturday. If I even get a last payment from this week. Unemployment payment that is. Sigh. I did toy with the idea of going back to school to get my doctorate in psychological counseling. We shall see. I haven't called the Argosy University people back yet, though they have called me several times - and haven't bothered to leave a message.

Feeling a little under the weather. My throat is sore. I haven't been sick in years - I think it might have been going to the clinic. Maybe it is something else. Hopefully it won't last long in any case.

Remember, the goal is 25 followers by the end of the year!

Here are the pictures from yesterday, April 12, 2011:


The building in which Clinc A was found!


Jeanie buying her ticket to India! Well, she didn't actually do it at that point but has done so subsequently.