Me-Me-Me-Meme

Cathy tagged me to do a meme. I am supposed to tell seven things about myself, just seven things. This one does not say anything about telling little known stuff! I'm going to go with this stream of consciousness style and see where it leads. . .

1) I am a curious person who wonders about sometimes oddball things. Tonight as I walking with the dog and waiting for him to do his business, I wonder what the criteria is that makes the perfect spot to do his business. He scopes out two or three spots before he actually makes a choice and does any thing.

2) I have wondered for probably ten years, and have asked lots of people close to my age, about a cartoon I watched when I was young that had a donkey with a big sombrero as one of the characters. At the end of the show, there was a stage coach with a trunk on the back of it and the donkey would pop out of the trunk and say "'saw right". That is all I could remember of the show. A couple of weeks ago, I had dinner with a couple of old friends and I asked them about this as we sat on the porch of Cracker Barrel rocking and visiting. They through a few names out but none of them seemed right. One of them emailed me later and told me who it was. I even found a video of the closing on YouTube.

Here is the link if you care to watch it. For some reason I can't get the video embedded in the post. 3) I always loved watching the wheels on the stage coach adjust to the mountain curves on the ending credits to Quick Draw McGraw.

4) I have lived in the South and was raised on the smell of strong coffee brewing in the mornings. I love that smell but I only started drinking coffee in the last three weeks. The "gateway drug" that started it was those Mocha Java Chillers with an extra shot of Espresso from Sonic. I decided I could not keep on drinking those things and live a long life so I had to break my habit and now I drink real coffee!

5) I'm having trouble coming up with three more things. . .

6) I recently got a brand new washer and dryer from Fisher-Paykel. The dryer is a top load dryer. It has been so weird getting used to it. Plus it is a little deep and if something small gets left in it, I can't reach to the bottom of the dryer to get it. Other than that, I like it a lot. At the same time I was getting my set, Ayekah was also looking for a washer and dryer. She ended up getting the same brand, but not the same model. Hers has a computer screen that says "Your clothes have finished drying. Have a nice day."

7) That reminds me, I really don't like it when people tell me "have a good one". Have a good what? I know, I know, it is just something to say, and it may or may not be a sincere thought. Come to think of it, I also don't like it when people tell me to "have a blessed day". Does that make me a curmudgeon? I just don't like people telling me what kind of day to have!

8) I thought of something else, a bonus, but I forgot what it was. Oh well, y'all have a good and blessed one, ya hear?

(Feel free to play along and let me know so I can go see what I don't know about some of y'all.)

Here's How the First Week Went Down

My first week working for the state government, and the first time I did anything remotely resembling work was Friday (but don't tell anybody!). From what I understand, I will make up for it when the fall semester begins. I am told students will be lined up out the door to see me. I guess that means I will be the first line of defense for the professors??

Anyway, thus far, I love the new job. I did do a few necessary things during the week that qualify as work, I suppose--attended new hire orientation, received my ID (with a terrible picture!), bought a parking pass, learned about the insurance choices I have to make, and the retirement choices that are made for me (we don't participate in social security, we have a state retirement plan), got a key to the "magic kingdom"--the building and the office (but I still need to get my key to the more important "magic kingdom"--the faculty and staff washroom!), and got my email account set up so now it seems I will be good to go.

I cleaned out a cabinet to store office supplies on Friday and got to take home a few things to use for artsy-fartsy projects that were going to be tossed in the dumpster. I'll have to wait for inspiration to hit to see how I am going to use those things.

I also found out that after two years, I can attend classes for a fantastic discount price and I can even take one class and attend during my work day as long as I stay in a few lunch hours to make up the time. I am so excited about that and plan to take advantage of it just as soon as I possibly can! Maybe by the time I retire, I will have a degree! I think it is so great to have the opportunity to attend classes and learn more. I've always regretted that I did not have a better idea of what I wanted to do when I was younger, that I was not committed to getting higher education. Now I have the opportunity to try again. Tonight I am grateful, again, for second chances.

What Has Been Going On With Me?

Well, I'll tell ya...Tres Finis (or something like that!). It was a long time coming, but I finally spent my last day in the land where they know not what number goes with which month and needed to make reminders on my desk pad...

I was also inspired to clean out my artsy-fartsy room, my studio, my sanctuary, my eldest daughter's room, which had slowly become a junk room. It was in a little bit of an orderly state until this member of the family arrived unannounced and uninvited. She is a curious sort and I am banning her from my room from here on out (and if youngest daughter does not pay more attention to the litter box, I will be banning her--the cat, not the youngest daughter--from the house. Hubby already has two women at the office who will take her).

I have my magic wand from Mindy handy so that I can use it when needed. I will post better pics of the room eventually. All I have right now is my phone camera.

When I left my job Friday, Mama Boss (there were three bosses, Mama Boss, Papa Boss, and Son Boss) had put a moon pie in my purse. I learned from her (among other things, some of them not so pleasant) how delicious moon pies are when heated up in the microwave for about twenty seconds. However, if you watch the marshmallow filling jiggle as you bring it to the table, you might not want to eat very many of them, because you will have in your mind the image of your own body parts jiggling like marshmallow filling!

When I arrived home from my last day of work, there was a box on my doorstep with a little pot in it. What a fitting tribute to the end of my career at the paint and body shop! Thanks Cynthia, for the pot!

It feels good to look at this pot and know that I was finally able to "turn the knob" and make a choice to do what I needed to do for my own sanity.

The complete quote is "If it is dark, it really doesn't help to know that light is on the other side of the door. It is a blessed relief if just one person opens the door a crack for you. Turn the knob."

I just love that quote. Cynthia wrote in a prayer journal at her church. It says so much about hope and light. Sometimes that is all a person needs is just a little crack in the door to help them know they can move from their darkness toward hope and light.

And last, but not least, here is a small thing I did in my journal using one of my calendar doodles. I knew I had this but I did not find it until I did all my cleaning.

Sadly, there are a few other things I have not found yet. One is my "Bird by Bird" book by Anne Lamott. Hopefully it will turn up soon. I try to make good use of the library and keep the number of books I own to a minimum but if this book does not turn up, I will buy a replacement copy. The other thing I can't find is a group of old photos someone sent me as extra stuff in a swap several years back. There was one photo in there that reminded me of myself. I know I stuck those photos somewhere, but so far I have not found them.

This reminds me of another story I could tell of something (trivial) being lost (in my memory) and then being found, but since this seems to be a long post, I think I will save that for another day.

I am woefully behind on my blog reading and hope to catch up this weekend. Seems all my favorite bloggers have had lots to say!

(My apologies for the quality of the photos. My good camera is not here at the moment and these are all phone camera photos.)