Dreaming With Angels.

Early this morning I had the most interesting dream. As I look back on it, it’s odd to refer to it as a dream, because it seems to have been more of an experience. Whatever it was, the effects from it have lingered with me all day long.

Anyways, in the dream I was no longer living in my body. I was fully aware of who I was, I knew myself to be ‘me’. I could go anyplace I wished by just thinking about it. I could fly by just wishing to fly, not in a Superman sort of way as I definitely was not wearing red tights in this dream, but I could float to whereever I wanted to go and it felt like second nature. I flew over a very large valley with twinkling crystal-like lights and vibrant purples, blues, silvers and golds for as far as the eye could see. The sky was almost a rose color.

The colors in this dream were beyond brilliant. They were breathtaking. The color of anything and everything was more colorful than anything we have here in reality. It was as if the color itself had a life of its own.

So here I am, basically a ghost or spirit or soul just walking and flying about. I can see my loved ones; Earl, my sister, my mom and dad, but they can’t see me. I touch them and they seem to have an impression of me, but they can’t actually see or hear me. As I touch them, I know that they feel comfort. Contentment. They don’t seem particularly sad without my touch, its just the feeling my presence makes them feel even better. (Perhaps someone is telling me that I’m full of myself?)

Then all of a sudden, there is a bright, golden apparition appearing next to me. As the being appears, I realize it’s my cousin’s daughter Lindsey, who passed away nearly two years ago. As I look at her, she is absolutely breathtaking beautiful. Now Lindsey was a beautiful young woman when she passed, and here her beauty is, well, accelerated, by the inner golden glow that I see all around her. She is infinitely happy. She tells me to write in my blog that “it’s all good, the best is really yet to come.” She then vanishes with a flash of gold and the hint of a giggle, and literally jumps on to the wings of the wind.

I then woke up, feeling wonderful for the most part but with just a hint of sadness because I couldn’t fly anymore. I wish my writing ability could accurately convey how I felt during my dream and how I feel today.

But sometimes words just don’t do it justice.

12 December 2005 by Spiritual Stuff. 0

Practice Makes Perfect.




Piano.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Tonight I started getting ready for the holiday celebrations by practicing some Christmas carols. I’ve never had one-on-one piano lessons in my life; the closest I came to that was a very early morning piano class when I was a Music Education major at SUNY Fredonia. And that was a disaster because as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not an early morning person. And I didn’t really care for college. And I had no interest in learning how to play “God Save The Queen”. So I play by ear.

My grandmother’s piano, and in my heart it will always be my grandmother’s piano though I guess it’s ours now, sounds as wonderful as I remember. It’s amazing how each piano has it’s own unique sound, however subtle the difference may be. To play it requires a firm touch, whereas the piano my folks had when I was growing up accepted a softer touch. This piano also has a distinct smell that I thought was inherent to their house but I guess it was the piano that carried the scent all these years. Or perhaps the piano smells like my grandparents’ house. Nevertheless, walking into our newly dubbed “music room” is such a joy.

I don’t think the piano has been played very much in the past ten years since my grandmother passed away. There’s some keys that need work (you can see them in the picture), the middle pedal needs its spring replaced since it was robbed long, long ago the fix the right pedal. It needs tuning.

But the music is so sweet. I’m actually looking forward to playing “Silent Night” in my own unusual way on Christmas morning.

11 December 2005 by Flickr 0

Peameal Bacon Sandwich.

Earl and I, along with our friends Tim and Steve, headed over to St. Lawrence Market today in Toronto to do a little shopping among the natives. Tim and Steve introduced us to Peameal Bacon Sandwiches. W00t they are TASTY! Yummy, yummy, yummy.

St. Lawrence Market is much like Reading Terminal in Philadelphia in that it’s a huge building with various vendors (mostly food) selling their wares. People wander about, it’s got a “barely clean” feel to it, basically it’s controlled chaos. I love it.

After the peameal bacon sandwiches, we headed to a kitchen gadget place that sold the exact cookie cutters I’ve been looking for! These cookie cutters have a handle and serrated/ridged blade that my grandmother used for sugar cookies. I intend to do the same. I’ve held back on making sugar cookies until I could find these cookie cutters and now I’m good to go.

After St. Lawrence Market we headed over to the Distillery District and browsed through the galleries in these renovated old mills and factories. It was a typically chilly Toronto day in December, so we warmed up at a coffee shop with a little pastry, I had organic hot chocolate.

Then it was onto the Eaton Centre for some shopping. We were going to buy the last of our Christmas gifts but I ended up buying some clothes for myself. A couple of heavy, long sleeved shirts from the Timberland store. Just my style. I’ll model them for the blog during the week.

After we did our bit at the Eaton Centre, we headed back to the states. As we driving along the QEW in the bumper to bumper traffic, two cars in front of us came to a screeching halt, causing the car in between us to naturally stop as well. The driver of the car that initially stopped then got out of his car and walked to the car in front of us and started beating the driver! He opened the door, grabbed the guy, and started punching him! I guess he didn’t appreciate the tailgating. So then he slammed the door and started back to his car, where the ‘victim’ then bumped into the car in front of him! The guy came back and started opening the door again, but this time it was apparently locked. By then we were able to get the hell out of there. I must admit that was the worst case of road rage I had ever seen.

After we got back to the states (and breezed through customs, I made add), we headed to a local pub for supper – I had the traditional Buffalo Beef on Weck that was out of this world. Now we’re resting up a bit before heading to Bear Night here in Downtown Buffalo.

I love weekends like this.

10 December 2005 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Toronto.

Earl and I are spending the night in Toronto with our friends Tim and Steve. We just got back from dinner in Chinatown. I have no idea what I had for dinner. I looked for familiar ingredients and pointed at the menu. When the server appeared to ask if we enjoyed our meal I rubbed my stomach, smacked my lips and said “yummy” in a very loud voice.

Of course I’m kidding about that. It is true that I have no idea what I ate though. It was quite tasty for what it’s worth.

If you’re up to the minute with my blog entries, you probably saw some cell phones pictures on here for a little while. I took a look at them after checking in the hotel and found that the quality absolutely sucked so I deleted them. Photo quality is important to me. Apparently I’ve dropped my cell phone too many times and screwed up the built in camera. Oh well. Good thing I brought the real camera along!

Tonight we’re going to enjoy a little bit of the nightlife here in Toronto. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been up here and it’s a welcomed change of pace.

One of the things that I really enjoy about Toronto is the particular dialect of English spoken up here. It sounds so refined. So distinguished. A number of years ago I did some diction work to improve my speaking voice (and de-emphasize my nasal Central New York accent) on the radio and I used a couple of Canadian personalities as examples to mimic. That practice kicks into high gear whenever we’re up here.

I’m looking forward to going out tonight. It should be a good time. Steve and Tim are always fun to play around with.

9 December 2005 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Conversation.

One of the most challenging things I find about your typical work week is the need to fall asleep when I’m not really that tired. I’m proud to proclaim that I am a “night owl”. I burn the midnight oil. I could work all night on an any given adventure, while others are in bed dreaming of their next adventure. On my ideal schedule, I’m awake until 3:30 a.m. or so and then sleep ’til noon. It just the way I’m wired.

Tomorrow is a vacation day, so normally I would indulge myself in my natural sleeping habits, but I need to head up to my grandparents’ house early in the morning to meet the movers to move my grandparents’ piano down to our house.

I just tried to force myself to sleep with no such luck. Usually I can lie in bed and sort of imagine myself someplace else; another city, another time, another outfit, and then I’ll eventually fall asleep with my recent imagination segueing into my dreams.

Tonight I had the urge to shake Earl awake and discuss a myriad of topics with him. I didn’t do that of course, as he was snoring loud enough to make the cattle in the barns two towns over restless. (“Elsie, what the hell is that noise? Is your milker clogged up again?” “No, it’s Earl snoring again.”) Normally Earl’s sounds of slumber are like music to my ears. Well, at least the noise masks the constant ringing in my ears that I have from too many ears wearing headphones as a DJ.

It’s not easy to carry on a conversation with someone that snores.

“We should talk about the Christmas shopping we have left.”

“honk honk gurgle gurgle honk honk [sound of sucking up pillow off the bed].”

I love him with all my heart but what kind of conversation is that?

So I’ll try to tire myself by surfing the internet and working on my little road geek projects and what not. Thank the Universe everything in the computer room is bolted down.

8 December 2005 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Tickle The Ivories.

There is something so invigorating of knowing a three-day weekend lies ahead. Today is my “Friday” as I have taken tomorrow as a vacation day. Tomorrow I’m having my grandparents’ piano moved into its new home in our front room.

My excitement is a little bittersweet, though. I’m really pumped about having a piano in the house again since it’s been over two years since Earl and I have had a piano. I’m anxious to start plunking out tunes. I might even take piano lessons again, because after all, I don’t have enough going on in my life.

But I’m a little sad because it’s my grandparents’ piano. When I hear or see this piano, I’ll remember the happy times I had as a kid listening to my grandmother play or trying to figure out tunes on my own. This piano predates the house its currently in, which was built in the mid 1950s. It hasn’t really moved since being put in its spot nearly 50 years ago. It’s a family heirloom that I’m going to treasure forever.

I’m sure that after the movers leave and I play the piano tomorrow I’ll have tears in my eyes. But that’s o.k. There’ll be a song in my heart.

8 December 2005 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Important Paperwork.

There’s nothing more important, actually more satisfying, then getting through the stack of paperwork on your desk and finding the bottom of the frivolity. Of course I’m referring to the stacks of rebate submission forms and lottery tickets stacked next to my computer.

I go crazy over rebates. I don’t know why. I find they’re more satisfying than coupons because you get something back several weeks after the purchase. Often you completely forget the arrival of your rebate check so it’s like a little bonus on a dreary day. So you had to buy an overpriced laser printer that was completely out of your budget. Big deal. You’re getting a free toner cartridge in the mail simply because you took the time to make a photocopy of your receipt, circle the item you are referencing, cut the UPC code out of the bottom of the box (complete with packing staple that was in your scissoring path), recorded the serial number of the actual printer, completed the form in impossibly legible, yet tiny letters across the thermally printed form that is no larger than 2 3/4-inches across and stuffed all that fun into a business sized envelope with made out to a business address that contains seven lines and a just a few words short of a novel.

After all the fun with the rebates, I came across the lottery tickets that haven’t been checked. Why, Earl and I could be millionaires right now and paying someone union wages to fill out our rebate forms! So off to the New York Lottery website we go, comparing and cross checking our lottery numbers with the numbers listed on the tickets. No luck though, we’re still your average bears.

Better increase our wealth with more rebates.

7 December 2005 by Ponderings and Musings 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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