April 2006

Formal Blogging.

Earl is off buying lottery tickets. Tom is cruising up and down the back of the couch, looking for a landing spot near my PowerBook. He has the “urge to nudge” in his eye. I’m sitting on the couch, pecking away at my computer. I’m in the front room, or as it’s labeled on the electrical panel and heating pipes in the cellar, I’m sitting in the “parlor”.

We don’t use this room as much as I’d like. There’s no entertainment system in here, save for my grandmother’s piano. We’ve had the piano almost six months, and I can still smell it’s unique scent. I still haven’t determined if it’s the smell of the actual piano, or the smell of my grandparents’ house linger within the instrument.

I have a couple of beautiful plants in here that seem to be holding their own, despite minimal attention from me. There’s a chess game in progress on the coffee table. This room has a formal, yet somewhat cozy feeling to it.

Perhaps we need to spend more time in here. It’s peaceful. A perfect way to end the work week and kick off the weekend.

Happy Holidays?

As I was working out last night, watching whatever was flashing on the bank of televisions in front of me, I noticed a local grocery store commercial flash on the screen obviously promoting the joyousness of Easter dinner. I didn’t have my headphones tuned to that channel, but at the end of the commercial a simple message was displayed: “Happy Holidays”.

At first the radio program director in me kicked in and said “whoops, they ran the wrong spot!”, thinking they had run a Christmastime spot in error. But then I realized that the ad was in pastel colors and just had this look of spring about it. So why did they end the spot with a graphic stating “Happy Holidays.”?

Because they’re being ultra PC.

I hate that.

I’ve mentioned before that while I am a very spiritual person, I’m really not a religious person. Personally I don’t feel that religion really embraces all that is spiritual. I believe that the concept of “God” goes way beyond mere human comprehension. God is a He. God is a She. God is all around us. Religion is too “human”. That being said, I am not offended at all when someone says to me “Happy Easter”.

Living in a mostly Christian nation, for the most part it’s innocently assumed that those around you are Christian as well. I believe that if someone wishes you a “Happy Easter”, that it should be taken in the spirit in which it was intended. In December, many, many people wish me a “Merry Christmas”, even though it would be more inline with my beliefs to say “Happy Solstice.” I don’t slap them across the face and say “Idiot! I’m celebrating the solstice!”. That would be rude.

So I guess I find the message of “Happy Holidays” on last night’s Easter themed commercial to be rather silly. Oh, I appreciate the spirit of the message and accept it as such, but it just seems so hollow to use a generic “Happy Holidays” at any time of the year.

Enjoy your weekend, no matter the celebration or observance.

Decade.

earl-disney.jpg

It was ten years ago today that my life changed forever. On April 13, 1996, the path that lie before me became clear, my heart sang a song of love it had never known before and the searching I had done for all my life came to a completion.

It was ten years ago today that Earl and I had our first date.

Where does the time go? The old saying “time flies when you’re having fun” couldn’t be more precise. It seems like it was just yesterday that Earl and I were meeting up in Albany with a bunch of mutual friends for a night out on the town. It was a decade ago that Earl and I dumped those same friends in favor of jumping in my car and driving up through the mountains of Vermont. It seems like it was just moments ago that he put his hand on my knee for the very first time as we drove in my little Hyundai Excel, exploring the small New England towns, enjoying the beauty of it all and just talking, getting to know each other. Effortlessly. All the pieces came together, like a huge giant puzzle with no picture on the box to follow.

Everything clicked.

I will never forget that first weekend together. For it was that weekend that I found my best friend, my lover, my kindred spirit.

WAAAAAY Ahead Of My Time.

So I was catching up on blog reading and came across Jimbo.Info (one of my favorites) and read about a new dance track is shooting up the charts in Europe and is hitting the trendy clubs here in the States. It’s by Global Deejays and it’s called “Stars On 45”.

Oh. My. God.

Stars On 45, also known as just “Stars On”, made all those medleys that were big in the early 1980s. There were two Beatles medleys, a smattering of Abba hits, “Stars On Stevie” and many more. I was a Stars On 45 fanatic in my early teens and still have all three of their albums, appropriately named “Stars On Long Play” (and II and III).

I taught myself to beatmix by lining up the hand claps on the 2nd and 4th beat of every Stars On 45 record. I made my own medleys. My interest in radio and recorded music was spawned by Stars On 45.

And now Global Deejays has mixed their “Stars On 45” jingle tags into a house track. Here’s a sample you can listen to.

Outside.

Yesterday in a spasm of productivity I went ahead and put the patio set up on the deck. The table is out, the umbrella is in place and the chairs are lined up accordingly. Now I just need to hose the whole ensemble down and make it a comfortable landing place for visitors.

I did find one chair devoid of crap on the seat and made myself comfortable to enjoy the weather during lunch. There’s buds on the trees, birds are singing, and there’s a purring cat sitting in my lap, routinely smelling my beard for leftover food (apparently he knows I store it there).

It’s nice to be getting into the swing of spring again. There’s talk of a thunderstorm tonight and while I would usually welcome that with open arms, it’s on-call week which makes thunderstorms a little less enjoyable. (Lightning + phone lines = busy J.P.). Thankfully, the forecast shows the rain passing through to be brief.

I remarked on Monday how I had that good ol’ “unglued” feeling at work but then I calmed down when I got home. I’m feeling great today, and Earl made it a little better by joining me at home for lunch again.

Life is good.

Snack Of Choice.

Today I discovered my new snack of choice: Nature Valley’s Sweet and Salty Granola Bar.

Oh my GOD!

This thing is totally awesome, with the crunchy goodness of almonds and a little bit of yogurt on the bottom. It’s probably not the healthiest snack for me but it’s not as bad as all that. These things totally rock.

Freshly Squeezed.

This week I’ve got this citrus thing going on again. More specifically, orange. I can’t get enough orange. Orange flavored gum, orange flavored toothpaste, orange flavored Vitamin-C drops, orange juice, orange scented incense, the list goes on and on.

I love the color orange. I’ve always loved the color orange. And I just love the scent and taste of orange. Orange, orange, orange. While I was chomping away at some orange flavored gum on Sunday, Earl even had the nerve to call me Anita Bryant. I almost through a pie in his face but I didn’t have one nearby.

Now I’m in the mood for some diet orange soda. I don’t think I’ve ever had diet orange soda before. Maybe a midnight snack is in order.

Hmmm IM.

Today I had a typical IM conversation with someone I often converse with:

Them: What are your plans for Easter?
Me: Earl and I are doing our traditional Easter picnic close to home, probably at the Town Park, because I’m on call.
Them: What?
Me: (cut and paste) Earl and I are doing our traditional Easter picnic close to home, probably at the Town Park, because I’m on call.
Them: I can’t hear you.
Me: What?
Them: They’re running a floor sander over my desk.
Me: What?
Them: I have to watch for blinking lights.
Me: I have no idea what you are talking about.
Them: Good-bye.

Nooner.

Earl surprised me this afternoon by being home when I took my lunch hour. He has an dinner appointment tonight, so he’s taking some time out of his busy schedule to get ready for this little shin-dig.

Nothing gets the blood moving like having your beloved home at lunch time.

Let’s Try Again.

So this morning I was all happy when I awoke. I had slept well, I’m working the later shift this week so I can get some extra treasured sleep after Earl leaves for work and I can get to work at the reasonable 9 a.m. Bordering on giddy with this arrangement, I decided to fold a load of laundry before taking a shower, started a new load of laundry and picked up the house a little bit. I’ve even had time to sit down, meditate on what I want to accomplish this week and enjoy the scent of a little sandalwood incense.

All in all, I felt good when I walked into work at 9 a.m.

By 11 a.m. I was a raving lunatic.

I don’t know what happened to my mood. It seemed like things were just going awry all over the place. It was a bright, sunny, calm day. But phone lines were crapping out, internet connections were dropping all over the place and customers were calling with what I would frankly call stupid questions. “My answering machine cuts off after exactly 39 seconds. I think I need a new phone line.”

After returning to work after my lunch fiasco involving a service call with the local cable company, I calmed down a little bit and just did what I had to do. By 5 p.m., I found myself calming down considerably and thinking rationally again.

Perhaps I need start drinking lunch.

As Earl mentioned on his blog tonight, I’m on call. I was getting ready to abandon my gym visits during on-call week but I decided that I’d give it a try. So off to the gym I went, where I jumped onto an empty spazzmaster and did a power workout, worried that the pager was going to go off. I cut my workout time in half but did three quarters of my usual burned calories. All was not lost.

I’m hoping that I got this fit of hysteria I had today out of my system and just attributed my behavior to a bad Monday. I’m ready for a quiet and productive rest of the week.