Serendipity and . . .

Serendipidty: –noun 1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job she applied for.

Other words to make their list include plenipotentiary, gobbledegook, poppycock, whimsy, spam, and kitsch (1-28-2010 Writer's Almanac). Personally, I think poppycock fun to say with a British American accent and some Marx Brothers glasses.

Also related to: it was bound to happen, kismet and fate, blah, blah, etc.

These are perfectly appropiate, non-emotional and polite synamyns for the next phase of my life which is formally titled and from this day forward be known as: "The Perfect Storm". Perhaps, seeing as how George Clooney has fallen off my list of favorite actors, I should use "Butterfly Effect".

Thirty years ago, I made a choice to deviate from my life and spend the next 30 years as a "couple". That "couple" reached its final destination cataclysmically this year. Oddly I find myelf back in the future, almost precisely where I wandered to and from.

Hurt by the disconnection of the "couple" leds me slightly weepy and stressed, but at the same time, a comfort and knowing has led me back to where I started. More mature, more jaded and cynical, but suprisingly with the same inner child wonder and hope. When all is doubtful and unsure I seem to find inner strength and grace that propels me down the rabbit hole.

For the moment, I hope to return to writting, knitting, art and laughter . . . wanders off to get some air freshener and ....

A turkey never voted for an early Christmas.

"Dear Lord, I've been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us... a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird... a social being... capable of actual affection... nuzzling its young with almost human-like compassion. Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it." ~ Berke Breathed, Bloom County

Another Turkey has been sacrificed for Gluttony today. Eating turkey promotes sloth. Zombies are sloth like gluttons.

See the connection?

Good, nothing else to say.

edit: Today's title is an 'ole Irish proverb

No Excues Allowed - VOTE

“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.”

Amazing Race: Early Voting 2008 - A Moment of History

As a child of the 60's, I grew up with a den television that was only shut off for bedtime. We only four channels way back then ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS.

Cable television was not even a concept as it never occurred to anyone we needed more than three channels. After all, you could only watch one channel at a time.

When Star Trek came on, you could watch them talk to each other with the first cell phone concept, but they called them tele-communicators.

You were well off if you had a color television instead of a black and white. High Definition television meant your rabbit ears were pulling in good reception or that you were you sitting 6 inches in front of the tv on the floor. But be sure to sit off to the side and not block your parents view. After all they put you into this world and could darn sure take you out!

In clear weather, you could stick the rabbit ears out the sliding glass door and get a very fuzzy picture from a far away Bowling Green station which carried "My Friend the Martian".

It was a very snowy, grainy picture, but I watched it anyway. Looking back on that now, I have no idea how I came about this tv programing knowledge as I had no relatives in Bowling Green. We only went to Bowling Green a couple of times in my entire childhood and that was just for camping. I can only guess that somehow this information was beamed down to me from a passing UFO.

Cartoons aired in the early morning which segwayed into a mid-morning movie. I thought the mid morning movie was kinda cool (even if the movie wasn't) as during commercial time, there was video of a cup of coffee and a danish. As the movie progressed, the coffee and the danish would be consumed. By the end of the movie, there was nothing but an empty cup and dirty plate.

At lunch time, the 'stories' began. We always watched the ABC ones: All my Children, General Hospital, etc. When my mom was in the hospital one week, my aunt babysat us and she watched One Life to Live and I was utterly shocked at the betrayal. Now, as an aging adult, I occasionally catch a glimpse of Erika Kane and think OMG! How in hell has she stuck with one role her whole life??

In the afternoon, we had some cheesy serials or game shows, I really like The Newlywed Game but hated The Dating Game. When I see Paris Hilton or Jessica Simpson, I am always reminded of The Dating Game.

At Dinner time, there were news of the Vietnam War, racial segregation and the always mystical dancing hippies. The war was too gruesome to view. Segregation was equally disturbing. The only good news was when you got to watch the mystical dancing hippies. Regardless of the story, you could tell the consensus was it was all bad, everything was bad.

Why adults would beat someone bloody for being a different color seemed a lot more retarded to me than being mad and bothered by dancing flower wearing hippies. These things educated me on the horrors of humanity.

That summer we watched the 1968 US Presidential Elections and I got edu-mu-cated on the whole process of campaigning, how the electoral college works, that you can get assassinated for running for president and that sometimes you get the crap beat out of you for excising your right of free speech.

For being so attentive, I got a Spiro Agnew wrist watch (they are going for $50 on Ebay, I really thought they would be worth more money). It went really well with my Flying Nun Habit.

That summer I saw the first commercial for a Volkswagen Beetle. These two events were the first goals I ever had in life. I knew that as soon as I grew up, I could be eligible to vote and I would also buy that Beetle and drive to the polls in it.

I got my first voter's registration card in 1978.

Jimmy Carter was already the president, but Diane Feinstein became the world's first female mayor, and the Iran Hostage Crisis had started.

I had to wait till 1980 for my first presidential election, Reagen/Carter tickets. Not so exciting as 1968, but the thrill of pulling that big lever for the first time ever made up for the lackluster Election.

In 1981 I bought a 1973 Volkswagon Beetle. Driving that car for the next five years was just as fun as I dreamed as a child.

But, I missed the thrill of politics.

The law of Nature dictates that things cycle in and out. With the 1968 election, there had been a party realignment that the probable outcome of the Elected President would be a Republican.

Nixon started it with an the Southern Strategy, an evil tactic designed to exploit racism in the south among white voters. Each election year, it grew stronger and became more offensive to me.

As with most sickness, the Democratic Party caught that virus and now elections became just non-truths and maps of Red and Blue States. Bad Democrats. Bad Republicans. Bad Americans for allowing it to become a parasite and kill the host.

As the Election years, ticked by, I searched vigilantly for that feeling of excitement that I thought voting would be. It was not living up to my expectation. Was an eight year old really that naive??

This Election year has been many things. It has been tense to say the least. At times, it has been downright ridiculous.

Politics and Religion are very combustible topics of conversation. Out in public, I prefer to zip it, if you think Bush and Nancy Grace are great role models, then "How Nice for you". I am sure there is a place already reserved for you in hell. Why should I add misery to your penance?

In the privacy of my own home, I swear and curse, yell at the tv media and just really let it rip. There are days when I fell that America is dead and has been replaced by some zombie Disney Animatron robot. I mean seriously, on CNN the other day, the stupid journalist was pointing to that big 'ole shape of North Carolina on the US map that was labeled VIRGINIA on it by mistake! He even said it was Virginia, and I was like WTF? Since when?!?

We decided to do the absentee voting in order to vote Election 2008 - as we have one car with two different job schedules on Tuesday and intuitions of long voting lines on Election Day.

I was thinking like an hour or two wait on Election Day, so I thought Absentee Vote would be a breeze.

We were not prepared for this. . .



This is the view of the line in front of me when I took my place at the end of the line.


From the the far right side of the above photo, the line continued . . .



See, that little tiny people in the far right of that photo . . .

there was another 200 - 300 people that wrapped around in the entrance gate and yard and inside the Election Commission where they had us do serpentine lines 10 rows deep.

Estimates were there 2000+ voting here in North Charleston, SC on Saturday. The poll workers said it was like this every day so far. The polls were scheduled to be open in Charleston at 9am, but could not as the streets were so littered with people and cars, that the poll workers could not get in. The police were dispatched to direct traffic flow.

During the 4.5 hours it took us to vote, we stood in line and felt blessed to be in this experience, in this now, in this here, in this moment of time, when I could say that I was there. I was moved.

And like good mannered Southern people we talked with our neighbors as we waited. And in talking we discovered they had been feeling the same longing and yearning, and despair and tiredness, and now they feel hope. Like I felt the the naive summer of 1968.

For 2000+ plus a day to stand in line for that long means things you can not express in the human language.

I had a dream and someday, maybe this Tuesday that become a reality.

November Banner

The turkeys just delivered this . .

There is one day that is ours.
There is one day when all we Americans
who are not self-made go back to the old home
to eat saleratus biscuits and
marvel how much nearer to the porch
the old pump looks than it used to.
Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.
~O. Henry

Exterminate

The countdown to Halloween terror has begun:

Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble

Slacker Sunday and my current frame of mind moves me to contribute to Patrick's Six thingie doo this week. Call it a moment of synchronization.

1. When was the last time you donated money to a charity, and which cause was it?
Last week, we donated money to our local community Cherokee/Chicora Place Neighborhood Council Association. Maybe that ain't the real name, but something like that. (Today is our two month move to Charleston anniversary. I still got unpacked boxes, how can I remember everything?) It is a urban development focus group with a take back the Neighborhood Gansta feel with a side agenda of community development.

2. Think of the last time you were specifically asked for a handout from someone who approached you on the street: did you give him or her anything?
Yes, I always give money or whatever asked, even if it is the last change in my wallet.

3. What led to that decision?
For the grace of God that could be me.

4. Take the quiz: How Good Are You?
Pass, I don't know a quiz to inflate my ego.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

5. Which kind of charity/organization of the following list are you least likely to donate money to: a church, a people-oriented charity, a children-oriented charity, an animal-oriented charity, a college, or a food bank?
I would be least likely to give to a college and most likely to donate to a food bank. And don't criticize me for that choice. I am a firm believer in education (god knows I hate stupidity), but people need to have their basic needs met first. How can one learn when starving?

6. If you could permanently block a single, specific charity from ever contacting you again, which would you block and why?
It would probably be the Policeman's Ball, they sure can be pushy when calling you at home. The last one told me I was a bad person for not donating. WTF? You don't even know me. I am just a flipping phone number you bought from the cable company!?

---------------------

An interesting tidbit is that working class people contribute more to charity than higher income bracket.

And another one, here is a link to validate charities in general.

After all Tomorrow is Another Day, The Aftermath

Morning light revealed this . .



This is the daylight version of last night's photo.

Last night, a co-worker dropped me off at the end of my street (the top portion of the picture) and I walked thru that lake to get home. It came up above my waist.

Okay, I realize I am a gnome, being only 5 feet 2 inches, but just saying.

Last night, I kept flash backing to some sci-fi B rate movie expecting to be sucked underwater by an electric eel or something. I never want to do that again.

(note to self, in that mammoth purse of yours, please include a inflatable raft, thank you)





Per the occupant, that peach-ish house was flooded inside 2-3 inches last night as I walked, swamed, floated by. An elderly man lives there and I am worried about him. We checked on him again today and as expected, he insists he is fine and refuses any offers of assistance. How in the heck he will clean up the mess properly really worries me. I live in Chicora Place, North Charleston SC and my hood/peeps are not the kind to have proper insurance/savings to fall back on.








Darhling assistated the foolish young couple whose white car you see in the middle of my street. She has no insurance and is probably now single and available, as it was her boyfriend who refused to listen to her and drove thru the water. The car is a total loss and she just had the transmission rebuilt. Her insurance company has already denied any coverage protection.



One street over from my home street.

The city really needs to work on the drainage system round these parts.

I always wanted to live by the Lake

They said it was gonna rain today.

I knew it was bad outside from view from the teeny tiny windows in the control room at work.

I knew it was bad from all the weather twits were twitting on my phone. Even though it pissed off the boss, Thanks Jared!

I really knew it was bad when every flipping security alarm system in SC went crazy all at the same time and even the local law enforcers were telling me 'we will dispatch when the weather clears up'.

Do you know how (insert sarcastic tone)audio security can be doing thunderstorms and power pops?

You have no idea!

I felt like Grinch, the noise, the noise, the noise.

Dang. And then Darhling called in and advised that that our street was flooded and she was not able to get out to get me.

I thought right....

and furthermore, a neighbor stated he had not seen it flood like this in 40 years and in the media we 'supposedly' got over 7 inches of rain.

right . . .

So, a co-worker with an SUV offered to take me home, and darhling said

you probably can't get all the way in . . .

right . .

Wow. The farthest we could go was to the end of my street, where this had materialized. The water was up to my waist.

It was kinda freaky to walk thru that much water at 11pm.

Many of my neighbors houses do have water inside, but luckily the water lake stops at the lot beside my house.

If it is this bad in my neighborhood, I really hate to see what our town looks like in the morning.

Crazy.

Halloween Deaths

get yours here

I interupt this blog for Sick days.

The end of last week left me busy sitting outside and enjoying fall days.

By Sunday morning, a change of seasons or germs from two sick co-workers last week arrived in my body capacity and forced me to collapse within the confines of Puffs tissues, and the sheets.

I will return as soon as this Echinacea, Nyquil, Recuse Remedy and whatever else returns my body to normal homeostasis. Getting thru an 8 hour shift at work this week is my prime directive.

Have a good day and stay germ free.

Good Morning

Now that last's week Monsoon week is over. We have been having a wonderful fall here in Charleston. Just a little cool in the morning and the evening, but glorious. We all have been having wonderful porch time without humidity and flies.

Hailey enjoys her favorite seat (besides my lap) and hates to come in.

I started 2nd shift at the new job this week. According to company folklore, this translate to I have been approved as being smart enough to be on minimal supervision. Which is great, because that means less contact with someone at work, (the identity withheld as this blog is stupidly non-anon) that drives me insane from her mood swings.

Having been proven semi-competant on the digital board. I am now being trained on the audio board. The digital board is monitoring a program that sends pops-up when someone's alarm system has been compromised. It could be actual burgerly or fire, notifications of low battries, communication errors or false alarms. The audio board is the same procedure but rather than handling one pop up at a time, there is a sidebar that registers all activity. Audio alarms are more expensive alarms systems and are generally large commercial or high risk business's like Check into Cash, etc. It supposedly is easier, but looks highly complicated to me.

Monitoring alarms is challenging at times and amusing at times. People actually seem pissed off when you call them to tell them their alarm is going off. WTF? A little ole' lady last night was very annoyed (probably more embarrsed over possible interpretation of her senility) when I called the Mt. Pleasant police. Why would I do that, she asked.

Duh?

Because you pay for a contract where WE monitor your safety and security.

Another lady was extremely pleasant when notified. She was out of town and naturally worried. I tried to assure it that since none of the door/window alarms went off, only an inside motion detector that it most likely was nothing, but the police had been dispatched to check it.

She was as puzzled as I was about inside motion and suggested that it could be a cockroach, maybe??

I bit my tounge.

Working the audio board is equally amusing. One lady was overheard screaming at her her alarm panel that it was a "piece o shit" alarm. I wanted to yell back, no we are not, but I decided it would be best not to. How hard can it be to punch in 4 numbers to turn it on??

Yesterday morning started off as Monday, which in itself was doomed.

In the first 30 minutes of prying open my eyelands, and getting my coffee, I:

knocked over the entire travel mug in the office on the new light brown carpet
spent 30 minutes blotting and sponging up it
to come into the living room
where the front door was still open
and find several paths of muddy doggie footprints running either and thither
on the same new light brown carpet
complete with
mud splatter on the walls
and the coffee table
and the dogs looked completely innocent
so I spent another hour cleaning the living room
on my hands and knees
cursing
and decided fuck it
and cleaned the whole house
so by the time I got to work
I was grateful to sit the hell down
and rest.

Good Eats - Harvest Cake

In feeling more normal, I have been dabbling in the science/art of cooking.

Yesterday, I tried a raisin scone recipe which is great despite the burnt bottoms. I am still getting used to a stove that actually cooks.

I dug out an old family recipe that I love for the fall.

Shirley's Harvest Cake

Take 4 cups of diced apples (about 6-7 apples) and stir in 2 cups sugar in a bowl and let set for an hour.

Sift together
3 cup self rising flour
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

Add
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 t vanilla
and mix well

Fold in the apple/sugar stuff and add 1 cup chopped nuts

Pour into a bundt pan

Bake 325* for 50-60 minutes.

Enjoy and watch the days of autumn turn gold.

Feeling Normal

I rarely like to really talk about my inner feelings.

Instead, I would rather be the class clown and make everyone believe that I am the most together-est person in the world.

The truth is that the last 7 years were total hell and the worst I have ever lived thru. Privacy keeps me from the whole sordid story as it is simply too depressing to rehash.

It began with a major judgment gaffe on my part. A ripple travels far and on so many levels I was betrayed by others along with myself. Once the circle starts, it has to turn full circle. I know this and in the darkest nights, it was my only comfort.

In addition to catastrophe's on a personal level, I started a decline of health. Days of feeling bad turned into months and then a year and then another one.

This time last year, when a doctor finally acknowledged that something physical was going on with me, besides her oft repeated phrase 'you're depressed', I began to see a light at the end of extremely long tunnel.

For work/budget purposes, I waited till after Christmas to schedule the surgery. I had it on February 14. Iconically, it was the best love me gift I could have given myself.

Immediately, upon recovering from complete and total surgery coma, I felt better. If I had been a cartoon character, you would have seen bluebirds dancing around my head and flowers blooming in Technicolor Disney-ana happiness. You could almost hear Elton John singing in the background.

Gosh darn it.

To complete the transformation, we felt a change of GPS location was necessary, which prompted us to move back to Charleston.

Now, that the move is over, mostly all of the boxes have been unpacked, and I have a job that I can tolerate without slitting my wrists, I woke up this morning and felt

normal

finally.

Well as normal as this gansta nerd, menopausal, resident smart ass can be.

Seven years is a very, very long time.

Pumpkin Massacre

Halloween is my favorite holiday.

Absolute.

When I was a kid, we bought one pumpkin that we carved. In addition, you got to dress up with a dime store costume, if you were rich. If not so much, your ma dressed you up in her makeup and out the door you went happily.

When my brother was born, I think we finally bought some of those die-cut cardboard Halloween decorations and put them in the big picture window and on the sliding glass door.

Holidays in general have gotten very commercialized. I see it as in indication of the corrupt greed and excess of today's society.

The need to have a Dremel dedicated to pumpking carving is a little overkill.

Martha Stewart is a Cannibal

I do not like Martha Stewart, Sam I am. Being a diy guru, I tried to like her in the beginning. Such class and grace in a less than civil society. The day that she admonished home makers to create a 'one of a kind' thanksgiving tablecloth that included hand painting oak leaves on it left me concerned. She called it a quickie project, but it looked that one of those things you start in the summer of one year and finish about two years later. A few weeks later for Christmas, she advised buying silk material (about $45 USD a yard) to wrap Christmas presents in. At that point, my brain exploded and she went straight to my 'Dead to Me' board.

In all fairness, I find her Halloween issues great and I did feel she got a bum rap on her stock market behavior.

While she was in prison, she must have totally lost her mind.

EDIT: THE embed YOUTUBE LINK NOW LONGER WORKS, click here to see the vid

77 Days to Christmas and it has Begun, Man your Battle Stations

According to this source, Christmas has officially arrived with the edition of the 2008 Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog.

Here is what I would NOT like for Christmas. - - - >

Those are the His and Hers Lego sculptures pictures above designed by Lego artist Nathan Sawaya. The sculptures cost $60,000 each.

If you really like me enough to give me a 60,000 dollar Christmas gift, please refrain and donate it to your local Battered Women's Shelter.

Thank you.

I can hardly wait to see the 2008 bra from Victoria Secret.

I am What I Am.

It is rare that I find on internet poll/quiz interesting enough to attempt it. I certainly do not lose sleep at night, if I do not know what type of vegetable I am - But, this looked mildly curious. And I am a sucker for the Ta'rot. Which I started studying at 12 years old. The few meme's that I have done have turned out to be shockingly accurate though . .

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I feel like I am getting a bad cold. So this is all you get today.

Transfiguration Tin

My favorite Yahoo Group, Harry Potter Crafts, does a craft swap every other month. Whatever the theme of the swap is, it has to be infused with Harry Potter-verse.

The theme this month was Transfiguration. Everyone took a Altoid type tin and created something with it.

I had been wanting to do a Harry Potter Cookbook, so what better thing to hide it in from prying Muggle eyes.

Inside are the recipes for Butterbeer, Treacle Tart and Pumpkin Juice.

I have to say that my tin looks like slacker tin sitting next to the other projects. Someone did a sewing kit, a potion book, a Hermonines' Beaded Bag, a monster book (complete with fake fur and teeth, and a Knight bus with clay hot chocolate, hot water bottle and toothbrush.

Amazing talent that seems to over look me this time

Cast off = 557 Days Later

Maria, sit down before you view the following, and get your smelling salts . . .

I started these on Feb 20, 2007!

I am finally finished.

I am so over them, I can not even find the words to tell you.

New Artwork, New Blog Header

I am so glad that my life is returning to a more normal and creative routine.

Be Sure to Register and Vote Against the Talibanana

Yesterday was like the day that would never end. Errands before work exhausted me so much, that I was glad to clock in and sit down. After work was more of the same as before work. When I finally fell into bed at 12:30, I started snoring before my head had nested in the pillow.

At my babysitting job last night, I did manage to watch the VP debate. Technically, it was not a debate as if I remember correctly from high school - a debate is a formal and ritualized process of argument.

Winking does not fall into debate behavior.

Ignoring the question is not debate behavior either.

Repeating the words Maverick, John McCain, voted to increase taxes 94 times, and energy producing state, over and over are annoying. So are those damn strands of bang that seem to be in Palin's eye. Can we not cut those like 1/4 of an inch? Anyone?

But, when Palin called the Taliban, the Taliba-nana, we fell off the couch in hysterics. All I could think of what the Nat King Cole song, Bananna Boat Song. . .

Come
Missa Tally man
tally me Banana.
Day
dah light break me
wanna go home

New Additions and Deletions to the Household

Long time readers know that I love, love, love dogs. I was a dog in a past life. I have had dogs all my life.

I had three chihuahuas and a boxer mix for 5 years. I never meant it to go that far. First, I got a male chihuahua for my foster Dad as a companion. I fell in love with the breed. Being dog less at the time I got my own chihuahua, Hailey. When Hailey had her 2nd heat, I allowed her and my dad's chi to mate and that is how we got the twins, Darhma and Buddha. So, that was three chi's and don't they just count as one? Sure they do.

Our vet called us one day with an offer to take in some rescue pups, and out of that litter, we ended up with Stormy, the boxer mix. She has no idea that she is not a chi. So, night after night, we all piled up in the bed. Being so sick and reclusive the last few years, ended up making the twins neurotic. I really could have used a Dog Whisperer intervention.

So, after weeks of researching people, I allowed the twins to be adopted together to a woman who has elderly parents at home. After all, chi's are nothing but lap dogs. Perfect companions for the stay at home people.

I have been in contact over the past three weeks with the new mama and all is well. It is a win win for all of us, and to see her elderly mom with those dogs, she is like a child at Christmas with the love they generate.

With that resolved, I knew that I needed to get a normal non-neurotic dog to play with Stormy. She is overly attached to me and seems to think I should toss ball with her 24/7.

Now, this might sound retarded, get rid of two dogs and then get a dog. I know that it does.

This is Ziva.

We adopted her this weekend.

She is a pit bull also known as a Staffordshire Terrier. She is a rare blue color.

She is also adorable and already spoiled by us.

I have even made her some toys as her previous owner was a slacker mama who 'forgot' all her belongings and has not bothered to return with them or even call us back.

Bad mama.

But she has good mama's now.

And she follows me around everywhere just like Stormy. Sigh. I have checked out some dog training classes. Darhling says the dogs are great when I am at work, that I need the dog training classes.

As soon as I snapped this picture, she walked away. I guess that was her way of telling me she was done with the photo shoot.

Today was a Great FIRST day!

Okay, today was a great first day at my job. Awesome. Everyone was so nice and the job is gonna be interesting and relatively easy once learned.

Best of all, no idiot customers calling in with idiotic questions.

I will be monitoring residential and commercial security systems i.e. fire, burglary, etc. The system pops up when someone's security is breached and based on the type of alert, we take action up to calling for emergency services. There were two actual burglary's, the others were incorrect entries or testing issues. We did have one alarm for a local restaurant that showed the walk in cooler temp alarm was activating. When we called the premise, the managers were like 'oh yeah, we are spraying out the cooler, no problem and thanks'.

The manager is really nice, she actually is very hands on and really works - not just sit in the office barking orders. She has been there 7 years and admitted to having 400 pairs of shoes. I found that information hard to wrap my mind around. Most of the workers have been there like a long time. They just have had the usual turnover that most companies have.

I entertained them with stories of last week's job. When I said the name of the company, they rolled their eyes knowing I was telling the truth.

I will have to work a mid-day shift for about a week to train and then be assigned to work 2nd shift for a bit. One lady is going to retire in December (I sinned in my heart with jealousy) and then I can be moved to an early morning 1st shift. It will be Monday - Friday work regardless of the shift, so that is good. I can be off Sat and Sunday, but I will have to work holidays.

So, that chapter has been closed and I can settle in a little bit more and be more contented.

Now, it will just take some time to get my finances back in the good graces of the bank, and the light company, the cable company, the gas statio . . .

well, you know what I mean.

One Month Anniversay and Current Events

We have now been in Charleston, SC for one month.

It is my one month anniversary, (looking on mp3 player for appropriate playlist).

Haah, how sentimental. Can someone send me flowers?

In review, moving here was the best thing I could have done to re-motivate my life. I have yet to secure a job that I like, I start the 2nd new one tomorrow, so we will see. The first one here was at the most un-professional call center I have ever worked at. I told the HR manager is was like a ghetto call center. You could tell that I offended her, but I am sure she will get over it. Allowing agents to mute the call and trash the customer on the phone is mind boggling, not to mention the alleged business casual clothes, and the daily fist fights actually either on the call center floor or the break room.

So, money remains tight and non-existent, but I am used to that after being sick for three years. Everyone is having a hard time, I am not being singled out by God's wrath. I still believe in Tinkerbelle and Santa Claus, so surely it will get better.

I am thankful to have all the boxes I can - unpacked. I need two bookcases for the books, I am looking for a dining room set with a china cupboard for the china, and I need to lay some plywood down in the attic to store the seasonal stuff. At this moment, all that is neatly stacked in the spare bedroom. I can't believe I have three bedrooms! Yeah! We have yet to put the bed frame back together as one of the wood posts was discovered splitting into. I actually would like a new mattress set. Also, I need to finish hanging the pictures on the wall to make it look homey-ER.

I have made a few acquaintances and a couples' friend to hang with. (Is that grammatically correct, I think not?)

I managed to get a tan and a jump start on a new shell collection.

I found the Publix and fell on the threshold and kissed the ground. So long Ingles!

I located all the thrift stores in the area.

I started knitting again and have some sewing projects lined up.

We became active in our local neighborhood association and signed up for volunteer work.

We survived Hurricane Hanna known locally as the non-event Hanna.

In a bigger picture, I find Election 2008 to be amusing and shocking in that carnival Haunted House sort of way. I find myself watching Palin in horror and anticipating what Colbert and Stewart have to say about her. It is a train wreck. Tina Fey on SNL has been an absolute genius. She should get some sort of Emmy, Grammy or Tony Award - hell give her all of them.

Not saying that any of the others are any better, McCain has to talk for Palin and refuses to look at Obama in case he gets cooties. Biden is making idiotic Al Gore type statements that show nobody has any brains. Did the zombies get to them?

This whole bank/looming depression is slightly confusing. Why should someone who worked for a company for 18 days receive any severance pay - much less 6.5 MILLION severance package ??. I am not the smartest person in the world, but I fail to understand this buyout thingie. Who are we bailing out exactly? Certainly, not the working class.

Elisabeth Hasslebeck is being rumored to be leaving "The View" as she feels she is being picked on. After 2 years, she feels this way? Not very connected to reality, is she?

Once again, China shows that Greed supersedes humanity by generating more death products.

Some things never change.

Don't Faint, I actually cast on for . .

The Knackful Knitter, my knister partner in crime, talked me into joining a Holiday Mystery KAL. I think she did it because she thinks I forgot how to knit.

Here is proof:

Slacker-ness is a virtue

This week was an awful week.

First I got really sick with sinus stuff, and then on Friday I decided that I totally and without hesitation hate my new job.

I really, really tried to like it, I really did - all through training class. But, in the end I gave up and accepted reality. Who wants to work customer service in which the customer is trying to either forestall or has had their electricity cut off?

Not me.

People with that issue tend to scream alot (righfully so), and I don't want to be yelled for 40 hours a week with mandatory overtime for a penance salary with bad health insurance.

So when I played phone tag all day Friday, I was very happy to be offered a position with a burgler alarm company that starts on Wednesday. Same pitiful salary, so lets hope the insurance is better and the position actually matches the job description.

In other news, Palin really can be as stupid as she appears to be??

Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted

“Come, child, Zeus the loud-thunderer,
the one who sees far and wide, is summoning you
to come to the company of that special group of gods.
And he promised tîmai that he would give you,
which you could receive in the company of the immortal gods.

He [Zeus] assented that your daughter,
every time the season comes round,
would spend a third portion of the year
in the realms of dark mist underneath,
and the other two thirds in your company
and that of the other immortals.

He has assented to all this with the nod of his head.
So come, my child! Obey!
Do not be too stubborn in your anger
at the dark-clouded son of Kronos.

Straightaway make the harvest grow, that life-bringer for humans.”
So she spoke, and Demeter,
she with the beautiful garlands in her hair,
did not disobey.

Straightaway she sent up the harvest
from the land with its rich clods of earth.
And all the wide earth with leaves and blossoms was laden.

~from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Translated by Gregory Nagy

According to the agricultural calendar, it is now officially Fall.

Happy Mabon to you all. It is the turning of the wheel that changes the seasons and our lives.

Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are

I noticed this morning that in the montage of Middle Plantation photos, that that Flickr mosaic tool chopped off the head of the garden statue. Here is a better photo.

She is titled the Wood Nymph and is one of the two original remaining garden statues from the formal garden layout. The first owner of Middleton Plantation was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His son and grandson followed his rebellious nature and signed the South Carolina Session from the Union papers. Needless to say, the Union took great delight in ravaging the place when Charleston became occupied. Legend is that it had been buried somewhere to keep her intact.

The many great gardens of the world,
of literature and poetry,
painting and music,
of religion and architecture,
all make the point as clear as possible:
The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden.
If you don't want paradise, you are not human;
and if you are not human, you don't have a soul.
- Thomas Moore

Slacker Sunday and Slackiness

We had an incredibly busy weekend and I am exhausted. Friday night we did our first stint with the CPAD. Basically, we meet at a local community center and for several hours canvass the neighborhood. We took note of areas of interest, such as overgrown lots, suspicious houses, etc and talked with whomever was sitting outside. It was a lovely night for being outside and I felt useful.

Saturday morning brought with it, the same cloudy and coolish day. If this was not the tropical South, I would swear it felt like Fall. We went to the Middleton Plantation, where we have signed up to be volunteers. It is the only way I can afford to be a part of all the special botanical events. With gas back up to $4, and milk today was $4, who can afford to leave the house? I forgot to bring my camera (it never occurred to me), but I did manage to get a few camera phone shots.

1. Ravenal View, 2. Famous Wood Nymph Statue, 3. Live Oak and Spanish Moss, 4. Male Peacock, 5. Heron in Rice Field Well, 6. Bird by the Butterfly Lake, 7. Grazing Sheep, 8. Ram

I found the sheep grazing the lawn amazing. Apparently, back before modern lawn mowers, sheep grazing was the way to achieve a cut lawn. Who knew? It is certainly not something I ever contemplated, like it never kept me up nights, you know. Next time I go, I certainly will not be a dumb arse, I will take the digital camera.

Darhling only wants to play with the horses and carriages. I declared that I would like to be a role interrupter or do the Garden tours. The Camilla's will be blooming in October and I can't wait to see them. Some of the Camilla trees are 200 years old.

Today was slacking with some yard work thrown in. Exhausted now, going to bed. Yawn!