There’s Fungus Amoung-us July 30, 2006

Took a little stroll today.  Aren’t Racoons cute?  No, no they are not.  As I left my home for my before mentioned stroll, I was encountered with the mess the racoons left me after rumaging through my garbage.  After cleaning that up and washing my hands, Sylus and I headed out.  We walked awhile until we came to Lake Cheston.  By this time, Sylus was panting so hard and I had forgotten a hair band as the sweat dripped.  We walked around the lake.  Sylus drank some.  Then we headed back.  I got to pet a horse in a field on our way and then a beautiful tree was waiting for us to sit underneath it at a fork in the road.  Sylus immeidately laid down and closed his eyes as the breeze passed.  I sat down and looked out onto the green pastures.  However, something caught my eye.  At first I thought it was fungus on the trunk of the tree. Then I decided it looked more like carrots and then I realized that it was arms and legs of barbies nailed to the tree trunk.  It looked like we had all the ethnicities covered but no torso or hair was present. I even checked the branches incase someone had decided to hang the heads from limbs.  After a minute it started to creep me out so Sylus and I left the shade for the return trip home. 

What I have seen brings me to this question:  why?  Who says, “I think I will pull the arms and legs off Barbie and African American Barbie and go nail them to nature.”   The contrast is breath-taking.  I think I heard the tree crying.  Speaking of Barbie, anyone see the commercial for the new “Blig, Bling” Barbie. Very disturbing.  Needs to be more like:  “Ho- Bag Barbie”   Atleast if her arms and legs getted nailed to the tree, she’ll probably have had her nails did and she might even be wearing fishnets. I’ll try to take a picture next time if it won’t leave me with nightmares.

Dedicated to Christy July 30, 2006

                             

Thinking of the past.  I remember enchantment.  Flowing dreams. Cleansing wind. The things I am that I quickly forget.  It is so easy to lose who I am and what I want to be.  Light a candle.  Dedicate it to a kindred spirit.  Be thankful for my blessings.  Make a wish.  Blow it out and watch the smoke rise and disappear.  We believe what we want to believe.  We are as beautiful as we think we are.  Take time to work on the soul.  Wear flowing dresses.  Soak my skin in petals.  All I want to be is here before me.  Envision peace and light and it will shine.  Thinking of the future.

Honk if you’re…….going to hurt someone July 28, 2006

Wil and I have been spending a lot of time together.  Neither of us are currently careering it and we’ve had all hours of the day to be up each others bums.  So today, we decided to travel to Chattanooga (affectionately called “The Noog”) to go to the nearest Target.  The trip, according to Mapquest, would take an hour and we chose Target because of the wicked sweet gift cards we recieved before we moved.  We decided to take Wil’s jeep since we may be purchasing large items.  We hit the road with windows down, radio on, and (here’s the sucky part) NO air conditioning.  We are about 20 minutes into our trip when traffic slows down and eventually stops.  At first, not a big deal but then I started to sweat and sweat.  The first 30 minutes of traffic wasn’t too bad, I managed to wipe away most of the sweat with a napkin I found and I had lots to think about.  Then weird thoughts started to creep into my head like: they have heat like this in Africa with no air conditioning, Opera would endure this for starving children, it would be cool to make money to donate to starving African children while stuck in traffic, maybe there’s a wreck ahead, I don’t want anyone to be hurt but if this is construction ,I may have to hurt someone.  Then I laughed a bit, cried a bit, looked over at Wil who was cleaning the earwax from his ears with a sharp object, watched the guy behind me go into the woods then emerge after only 5 seconds (guys are lucky when it comes to peeing in the woods), tried to communicate with traffic passing the other way then ended back at laughter.  Then, after 34 more minutes of standstill, the cars started moving again. Traffic starting to move and I began to bask in the cool breeze drying the sweat on my back.  For miles, I looked for the source of the traffic when I saw a “Right Lane Ends” sign and then a few feet further, I saw a truck with orange cones stacked on the back and some dudes discussing something that had better have been important.  I couldn’t believe it.  The one sign had caused all that and the road was not actually blocked off.  Later Wil admited that he had blacked out at some point and then regained conscience and was glad to see we were moving again.  Next time, he’s driving.

Tennessee Mountain Home July 26, 2006

Greetings from Sewanee Tennessee, my new home on the hill.  We’ve had quite an adventure moving in.  Let me start from the beginning.  The night before we moved, a friend of mine had a little going away thing for me which was so sweet.  We were all chillin around her pool when her grandaughter fell in.  It took a few seconds for someone to notice and then we saw the 1 year old under the water.  No one really did anthing at first (disbelief I guess) but then another friend of mine ran for the pool and jumped in with all her clothes on to save the baby. It was hardcore and it all seemed slow mo.  So, that smoothed over eventually and my friend Debbie and I went to my house to recoop.  We got there to find my man and his best bud hanging out so we joined. Our house was totally empty, everything was on the moving truck.  We ended up getting really drunk and having to sleep on the floor..the hardwood floor.  I got, maybe 4 hours of sleep.  Then we woke bright and early and hit the trail to our new home.  An hour into the trip, Wil’s radiator explodes and I end up leaving him and his mom waiting for a tow truck since the rest of my family was in Knoxville by this point.  After the five hour drive, I make it to my new house.  I gotta say, it is awesome and clean.  There were other school people there to unload the cars and trucks which was so great.  I barely had to do anything!  Finally, at 9pm, Wil makes it to our new home too and tells me that his car cost $700!  Meanwhile, my face had been breaking out in red dots.  I knew it was itchy and burning but I thought it would just go away.  Well, it didn’t and by Sunday, the itchy burny dots were making there way to my eyes.  So, without insurance, I went to urgent care and learned I had posion ivy and got a shot and have to take steroids.  Awesome.  Then, yesterday, we got home to find our water heater in our driveway.  They had put in a new one since there was really no hot water up until that point but alas, it does not work so right now they are rippin the kitchen up trying to get it to work.  Yesterday we spent two hours in the DMV getting our new drivers license and I already have a job, being a sub for a science and social studies teacher that is on maternity leave.  I know nothing of science or SS and didn’t I say I didn’t want to teach?!  Well, that’s my story and I’m stickin to it.

Boob Tube July 15, 2006

Nasty, nasty confession to make:  I am addicted to television.  The tube is turned on at our house around 6pm and doesn’t really get turned off until bedtime.  In my defense, I never cancel plans or say no to doin things because of TV but when I have no place to go or no projects around the house, TV is where I am.  I think about how many things I could’ve achieved with the hours of time I chewed up and spit out watching mindless TV.  I could have knitted a scarf, worked on my cross-stitching, cleaned something, found my life passion, and the list goes on.

With our move looming over our heads, I have toyed with the idea of not getting TV hook-up.  Then I think, “How would I watch LOST and Family Guy when I have no TV?”  (Side note, Wil just did the most hilarious imitation of Aaron Neville.)  I am really strugglling with this.  TV is relaxing and I do learn something every once in awhile like tonight on 20/20, I learned about breast feeding vs. Formula and the governments involvment.  (Side note, my friend calls Breast feeding “takin the boob”) And during the school- year, sometimes LOST is what got me through hump day. 

My question:  Is hours of TV a day normal or am I a couch potato?  (which is ironic since right now, we don’t even have a couch)

Break me or make me people……..

There’s always room for a fortune cookie. July 8, 2006

                                                                                                                                  

As people start to say goodbye to us, I realize how soon we will be leaving Black Mountain.  This evening, Wil’s coworker Sonia and her cute husband took us to an asian buffet.  They are both Philipino so a conversation takes a lot of concentration.  We talked about this and that while we ate and ate.  I thought I would pop.  At one point of the meal, I saw her husband, Dr. B, put a BBQ rib under the table. Some time passed, and then another.  Sonia ended up with ribs in her purse to take home to the dogs. I had never actually seen anyone do that before but for some reason, it was totally adorable coming from these two characters.  Sonia also had to rub all the statues in the place for good luck.  My fortune:  After the storm lies tranquility.  Wil’s fortune:  A kiss can beautiful the soul. 

We left the restaurant and I realized how blessed we’ve been with friendships while we’ve been in Black Mountain.  Our coworkers have been so awesome and these adults have really loved Wil and I and been there for us.  Sonia’s generosity has not been taken for granted.  Our real fortune is found within our friends.

And so I end the evening with the mystery of Asian food:  only an hour ago, I was ready to unbutton my pants but now, I could go back for fourths!  Gross! 

La Isla Bonita July 6, 2006

Countdown to TN migration 2006 officially begins. 

Wil and I had a nice beach trip to Topsail Island together.  The trip had its interesting moments.  We went with one of Wil’s old college buddies and two of his friends.  Already, you can see the odds are stacked against me.  The minute we walked in the door, I looked out on the ocean and heard the sound of a beer being popped open.  The beer drinking never ended the whole 4 days we were there except to slumber.  The boys went through cases and cases actually quoting, “I have gotten to a point where 24 beers just really doesn’t do anything to me anymore.”  Ahhh, yeah (except ages you, damages your liver, makes you fat, kills brain cells….)

Where there’s beer, there’s sometimes hilarious shenanigans.  I wasn’t around for many of the actual events but enjoyed hearing about them secondhand.  How about the security guard catching one of the guys in the pool after hours or one of them passing out on the beach, the others trying to borrow a flashlight so that they could find a crab to put on the passed out but ended up with the people running away from them screaming and the HUGE husband giving them deaththreats. Or how bout the restaurant incident where they almost got in a fight over seating or putt putt where it clearly says, “stay off rocks” and sure enough, some of us went rock climbing.  One morning I went out to the beach to find one of our beach chairs and a bunch of beer cans strewn about.  Not cool people. All this with hours and hours of ESPN playing in the background. Wil and I kinda did our own thing the whole trip making it relaxing and just what I needed before our big move.  I do want to thank our host for the free and beautiful place to stay.  Ain’t nothin wrong with free.

  CRABS + BEER  =  Shenanigans!

I have been realizing some stuff about my spirtuality lately.  On the trip I read a book called “Joshua” and it is about a man that lived his life like Jesus.  The way he lives his life so simply and how he gives so much just appeals to me.  I sometimes know I have lost touch with a part of myself that values simplicity.  A month ago, I went and bought groceries for a little old lady that can’t leave her home.  At the time, I was doing it for the money but now I know I needed to see her for other reasons.  She was married and now widowed.  Her home smelt funny and she had a mustache and a house coat on constantly but I still saw her beauty.  I get so concerned with my appearance sometimes that I have actually lost  some of that inner beauty.  I really want to work on that.  I also realized that I have mixed feelings about organized religion.  In some ways I think it divides us and in other ways it reminds us. 

Check our my new photos of the beach trip and good luck on your own spiritual journey.