October 31, 2019 - 48 - "Thank You Universe!"

Expressing Gratitude

     Michael and I say this phrase all the time:  "Thank You Universe!"  I feel like I need to explain this phrase, mainly because I want to use it in every other post.  

     We say it for everything from being able to buy an amazing home in Mexico, to finding a parking space.  We say it when good things happen.  We say it when we're happy.  We also say it when we're sad to remind us that there's always more positive than negative in the world.  It's our way of expressing appreciation for the goodness in our lives.

     I grew up saying God, or sometimes Lord, and occasionally Father, to mean the same thing as Universe means to me now.  Somehow it feels lighter; less fraught with guilty 'shoulds', and more infused with all-inclusive love.  It's more in line with what I really think God is...Divine Spirit, Earth Mother, whatever that force is that spins the planets around and ties us all together.  It's a bigger concept to me than the patriarchal figure/rule enforcer we sometimes make 'Him' out to be. 
(And I do tend to say He.  That's just habit, and laziness really.  Saying He/She/Mother/Father every time is just a pain to me, but I don't actually believe there's a gender involved here

       The good news is:  I don't think God minds what I call Him.  So long as I don't call Him late for dinner.  lol.  (I also think God appreciates my goofy sense of humor.)  "So I've got that goin' for me.", as Carl from "Caddyshack" would say.

October 30, 2019 - 47 - "What I Say vs. What I Mean"

Meaning What I Say

      Once Michael and I were visiting friends in Northern California.  We were walking along a beach.  I had my phone in the pocket of my cardigan.  

     We were barely in the water.  Like we were on the shore and as the waves came in the water would barely make it to us.  Just a thin layer of water would touch our feet, not even over our toes.  Then it would recede leaving the sand shiny wet.

---

     As I stopped to look at something, I bent over, and my phone fell out.  The wave was just coming in.  I reached for the phone but it was *poof!*...pulled out to sea. 

October 29, 2019 - 46 - "National Novel Writing Month"

Crazy Schemes

     October is feeling really strange this year.   For the last two years by now I would be working furiously on Prep-tober.  

     What the heck is that?

          Prep-tober is designed to get you ready for NaNoWriMo.

     And what the heck is that?

          NaNoWriMo is an acronym for National Novel Writing Month.  This is where people around the world attempt to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel in 30 days.

     Crazy scheme, huh?  Fifty thousand words works out to 1667 words per day, and you're supposed to pump those words out every single day of November.  

     The founder, of NaNoWriMo, Chris Baty, started in 1999 with a group of 21 friends.  They worked out the rules of the challenge; it must be an original work, no co-writing, and you have to get to 50,000 words by midnight on November 30. 

     In 2000 it was moved to November "to more fully take advantage of the miserable weather.", says Baty.

Crazy scheme?  Count me in!

October 28, 2019 - 45 - "The Journey"

Two Types of Travelers

     I talk to people all the time on flights about their travel experiences.  It seems there are two sorts of travelers:

     Type 1 Traveler-The Explorer:  

            This sort of traveler will tell you excitedly about where they went, what they saw, the interesting people they met, and the fabulous things they ate.  

             They will say things like:  "I can't wait to try this dish we had at home.  The chef at the restaurant gave us the recipe.  Isn't that nice?'  

              Or:  'We stayed at an Airbnb and our hosts were wonderful.  We're going to miss them.  Oh, and their dog would go for walks on their property with us."  

     

Type 2 Traveler-The Homebody:

October 27, 2019 - 44 - "Our Horse Ranch"

Meet Rodrigo

     We bought a horse a few years ago.  His name is Rodrigo and he is absolutely beautiful.

     Mind you, this is a lot like when Michael used to tell friends we owned a citrus orchard.

     It was, actually, just two trees.  Two trees in pots on our rooftop.  One lime tree.  One orange tree.  Very small and kind of sickly trees.  Almost more bushes than trees, truth be told.

     So, ya know, the term orchard may have been a slight overstatement of the facts.

     Still, it was thrilling to us.  How cool is it to be able to grab a lime right off your own tree and squeeze it into a beverage or a bowl of guacamole?

     But it wasn't what most people would characterize as an orchard.

---

     So, meanwhile back at the ranch...

     Rodrigo may not be quite what comes to mind when you think of equine beauty...

     He's a colorful character.

October 26, 2019 - 43 - "Does She...or Doesn't She?"

 Feeling Bad For Cher    

     I was at a gathering years ago and Cher came on the television.  A woman in the group absolutely went off on her.

     This woman had a problem with all of the plastic surgery Cher had, and with the way she'd done her hair for the event, oh and with her clothes, and with Cher's makeup...

     "I wonder what she really looks like.", the woman summed up scathingly.

     Okay, sure, Cher is definitely an extreme example of messing with your own appearance, but heck, don't we all?

October 25, 2019 - 42 - "Textovers & Postovers"

Textovers

      You know how you get those fragments of thoughts and words at the end of texts?  Like, you've written one thing, but then change it, without deleting everything you wrote before.  You add a phrase, or switch out a word, but below your cursor is all the 'didn't make the cut, but didn't get deleted' stuff.  

     So (hopefully) you delete all that mess before you actually hit 'send'.  'cause, for sure, sometimes that stuff can be  embarrassing.   If only that it illustrates the incredible messiness of your mind.  (But that's no secret with me.  I should probably just make a practice of leaving it alllll in.)

     Anyway, I call these sentence fragments and edited-out stuff:  Textovers.     It's like leftovers...but for unconsumed messages.

October 24, 2019 - 41 - “More Mind Messages”

The Day the World Fell Apart

     The other day I wrote about how our subconscious minds send messages in funny ways.  That reminded me of  another example of my subconscious sending me messages through song:

     On September 11, 2001 it felt like the whole world went off the rails and might never come back to any sort of normality.

     That morning our country was under attack and thousands of people were murdered, including my own coworkers.  Around midday Michael and I got word that his brother had cancer and needed surgery immediately.  Sometime during the day we heard that Michael was getting a special work assignment.  It required him to move to Hamburg, Germany...for six months.

     Needless to say mine, and everyone's, conscious mind had plenty to think of.  Listening to any subtleties the subconscious might want to share wasn't on anyone's to do list.

     But that's not a problem.  If you need to hear something, your subconscious will just keep telling you.  It will use all sorts of tricks, from random nudges of thoughts to full-scale illness, to get it's message across.

October 23, 2019 - 40 - Mexican Casa Renovation-2: "Special Delivery"

Moving Mountains

     Having a house in Mexico has given us a real appreciation of how easy it is to do things in the U.S.  Not just because our Spanish is not good, but because the geography and culture of the city of San Miguel create some unusual challenges.

     This is especially true when it comes to getting things delivered and installed.

    We bought most of the upholstered furniture, for the house in Mexico, in the U.S.  There's a California moving company (Golden Bear Movers-they're amazing!) that runs regularly between the Southwestern U.S. states and the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

     Moving furniture from Fort Worth, Texas to San Miguel de Allende kind of illustrates how you have to approach things in the different locations.

     In Fort Worth the movers arrived with a really big moving truck.

     They backed it down our driveway right to the garage, where we'd been collecting our house loot.  The movers took their time loading everything to maximize space usage and minimize damage.

      But once they got it all through customs and into Mexico the rules changed fast.

October 22, 2019 - 39 - "The Mind Moves in Mysterious Ways"

Hints from Your Subconscious Mind

      It's so weird how the brain works.  

     You may consciously think: "I want to eat clean, nutrient dense, healthful foods!"   But your subconscious mind may send you endless dreams of eating massive coconut cream pies.  

     (Or is that just me?)

The Language of the Subconscious

     The tricky thing about the subconscious is that it's kind of passive aggressive.  It may want to tell you something, but it rarely just spits it out.  It gets real sneaky about it.

     It has lots of ways of hinting at what it wants us to understand.  Like it'll use small things in our lives to telegraph clues.  

     Mine has two main message-delivery mechanisms:  dreams, and songs.  

October 21, 2019 - 38 - "The Sound of Sunshine(*)"

     I went to Noisili this morning to set up my usual 'Virtual Writing Cafe'.  (September 23, 2019 - 10 - "Where I Write".) . This, of course, involves the sound of rain, thunder, and coffee house chatter.

     For once, it didn't feel quite right.  Probably because it rained last night.  I woke up several times in the night to lightning flooding the room, and the sounds of thunder and of rain hitting the house.  Kind of gave storm sounds a 'been there/done' that feeling.

    I thought I'd rather find a 'sunny-morning-after-a-storm cafe' to write in, instead of my usual 'rainy-afternoon-cafe'. 

October 20, 2019 - 37 - "Go Susan go!"

     This is one of those stories I have to preface with:  "Stop me if I've told you this before..."  I wrote a post a few years ago about 'The Stories We Tell' about the stories we repeat over and over again.  

     This is one of those.  I just love it so much that I'd hate to think anyone's missed out on hearing it.  (Plus, obviously, I enjoy telling it.)

     So, this starts out as 'a friend of a friend of a friend' kind of story.  I flew with a flight attendant, who flew with a flight attendant, who was...a little bit crazy.  

     As it was told to me...

October 19, 2019 - 36 - "Random Brain Wanderings-1: Googling Goodness"

This was a sign at a donut shop in Portland Airport.

      Okay - I'm seeing some patterns here.  I thought I'd end up doing something theme-ish with this blog.  Like Fitness Friday, Travel Tuesday...or, ya know, something alliterative like that.

     So far, however, I just seem to be posting by mood.  Or by whatever looks  closest to being ready to share that day.

     This week there are suddenly some possibilities for repeated themes.  Yesterday I wrote "Mexican Casa Renovation-1".  And here it is just a day later and  I'm going to start my "Random Brain Wanderings" series!

      You may be asking yourself:  "What the hell is that?"  

     I'm glad you asked.  This is where I open one of my eighty gagillion notebooks, or computer and phone files, and pick an arbitrary note to inflict on you.  

     What?  You think that sounds like a way for me to be lazy and not write that day?  

     Well, you are absolutely correct!!!  

     As a reward for your brilliant deductive powers I will share with you the first from this riveting (okay-I'll let you be the judge of that) new series.  

     Check out the super-pro graphic!*  (Though I wish this was a video montage where each word would come at you like the text at the beginning of Star Wars...complete with orchestral accompaniment.)  
   ...raNDOM! 
      ...b r A I N ! 
         ...wwwaaaaAAANNNDER.......
   
     You get the idea.  

      *Now I'm wishing I'd created a graphic for my house renovation post yesterday.  Gotta go back and do that.  Wait.  This is all interfering my lazy day plan.  Bummer.

     Anyway, here ya go:

October 18, 2019 - 35 - "Mexican Casa Renovation-1: Star Light Star Bright"

'Before' - Cool, but with stained tile, crumbling
walls and overgrown plants

     I keep meaning to post about how our house renovation is going in Mexico, but then it keeps not happening.   

     In my mind these posts should be the easiest.  There's no real writing or creating.  All's I need to do is throw a few pictures up.  Right?  

     Turns out there's a reason I've been putting them off.  It takes forever.  

     Narrowing down a subject, as usual, is a challenge for me.  But, also finding photos that illustrate a project, then editing and explaining them is tough.  I have a whole new appreciation for all the home improvement-organization-lifestyle-type bloggers I follow.  These 'easy' posts take some real doing.


     Anyway, here we go...the first Mexican casa renovation post...

October 17, 2019 - 34 - "Sleep Deprivation, Head Trauma, or Just Not Too Bright?"

   
     I was working the third flight of our day and was really tired.  It was a long day, and I hadn't slept well the night before.  I still had some adrenalyn going and thought I was fairly functional.

     A passenger asked about  his connection.  He was worried that he'd miss his next flight.

     I double-checked the departure time of his connecting flight.  We were getting in on time and he had almost two hours to make his flight.  He still seemed nervous. 

     I checked the gate we were arriving into and the gate his connection was leaving from.  They weren't far apart.  He was still worried.

October 16, 2019 - 33 - "Adult Light-y Up Shoes"

          

     

    

  Remember in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" when George is going on and on to Mary about lassoing the moon and the beams coming out of her fingertips...  

     An old man observing the scene from his porch says: 
          "Why don't you go ahead and kiss her instead of talking her to death?"  
    
    George keeps hemming and hawing and the man ends up going in his house in disgust.  His parting line is: 
           "Oh, youth is wasted on the wrong people."
---

October 15, 2019 - 32 - "A Fine Vintage Post"

---

"We will sell no wine before its time."  

-Paul Masson

---

     Well, that's where I differ with Monsieur Masson.   A post would surely improve with age (and editing).  A little more 'time in the barrel' might soften the edges and improve the flavor, but I regularly post way before its time.

      The main reason for this is that all of my post ideas are absolutely hilarious and beautifully written...in my head. And until I actually hit 'Publish' they remain perfect.   It's only when the words mix with fresh air that they go sour.  When someone else is able to see them, then I can see all the flaws too.  Suddenly I notice I've written one long string of misspelled, badly punctuated, half-baked thoughts, using the same words over and over again...leading nowhere.

October 14, 2019 - 31 - "Post-iversary!"

      First off, I need to take a break from typing for a second... ......................

     Okay, I'm back.  Sorry 'bout that but my arm was busy patting myself on the back.
 
     Woohoo!  Go me!  31 days of posts in a row!  This new "post-every-day" plan is really working!!!!   ("One should never use exclamation points in writing.  It is like laughing at your own joke." -Mark Twain) 

        Sorry, Mark, you know I love you more than my multi-colored highlighter pens, but Go Me!!!

October 13, 2019 - 30 - "Car Sweet Car"

This is my faithful car.  But this is not where I park.  We don't have covered parking. 
This is me 'princess parking' my car, which means I was running late and
had to pay for parking at the terminal.  But this is the only parked car picture I have.

    After collecting everyone's cootie-cups and kleenex for two or three days straight.  After being yelled at for the weather.  After being berated for not making the bins on the planes larger.  After going to bed late and getting up early a time or two.   After retrieving the last left belongings for the last passengers...

     I finally get my own belongings  together, walk through the frenetic DFW airport, ride the employee bus to the parking lot, (listening to coworkers debriefing whatever crazy thing happened in their days), collect my bags one last time, drag them and myself across the parking lot, wedge my big luggage into my small car, get behind the wheel and...

    Breathe.

October 12, 2019 - 29 - "Memory"

     Memory is a funny thing.  There are subjects where my memory is near-photographic....and others I can hardly remember a thing.  

     There should be some correlation  between how important something is and my ability to remember it, but that's not always the case.  For me, the areas with the biggest lapses of memory are often the most important.  And the things I remember perfectly are pretty useless; and frequently not good for my overall health and happiness.  

     I have, for example, an almost encyclopedic memory of what Michael has said and when he said it.  It's very useful for winning arguments, but pretty counterproductive for just trying to be happy.   

October 11, 2019 – 28 – “Grumpy Guru”

     I’m interested in spiritual practice.  Meditating.  Gratitude journaling. Prayer.  Walking in nature... 

     I'll try most anything to raise my vibe, deal with life in a more positive and calm way, and feel more connected to the Universe.

    Often I feel like I’m really growing.  Something stressful or frustrating will happen and there I am being all chill and calm.   In those moments I think:  “Damn!  I’ve got this!”

    Then there are those other times when it becomes painfully clear:  “Uh...I don’t got this.”

October 10, 2019 - 27 - "Indefensible Behavior"

True confessions:  

      I eat the skin of pigs. 

     I feel bad about it.  I can't defend it.  It is truly gross if you think about it too much.  Even Michael, who is amazingly tolerant of all my aberrant behaviors, is eeked-out watching me eat pork rinds.

     Pork rinds.  The name alone is an admission of guilt.  The manufacturers know that eating skin sounds waaaayyy too Jeffrey Dahmer for most of us to stomach.  So they just forego that altogether and, instead, use the cop-out euphemism of ‘rinds’. 

    But we all know it’s not a rind.  We’re not talking about a watermelon here.  

October 9, 2019 - 26 - "Fanboys in High Places"

Readers this past week, by country.

Reader Stats

    Sometimes, when I'm struggling with a post, I’ll take a break from writing and look at my blog stats.  It’s a cool way to procrastinate, I mean get little insights into my readership.

    And when I say readership, I mean Michael and Cynthia.  (Thanks hon’!  Thanks Cynthia!)

     The Blogger Stats section has all sorts of fascinating information about website hits.  There are graphs about the times of day when most people read.  (Depends a lot on when I actually post something.)  I can really skew these numbers by posting late in the day.  This forces people to check back multiple times.  

    I can tell what browsers visitors are using.  (Primarily Chrome.)   And the stats show  what countries readers are in.  This is the most interesting information to me.  

October 8, 2019 - 25 - “Two Left Feet"

     Years ago Michael bought a pair of Margaritaville flip flops, not knowing how much entertainment- value they contained.

     In the beginning it was just the  small references about stepping on pop-tops.  The discussions of how these extra-nice flip flops were blow-out resistant.  That sort of thing. 

     But their quality sold Michael on them.  He found them to be extremely comfortable and durable.  When he realized he'd left his beloved flip flops in San Miguel, he missed them so much that he bought another pair to keep North of the Border.

     The next time we went to Mexico, forgetting he had a pair there, he threw in the newer pair.

     So then he had two pairs of  'South of the Border' sandals...and none for back in Texas.  First world problem, for sure, but this is where the story gets good...

October 7, 2019 - 24 - "I Scream For Ice Cream"

     I had a couple of layovers (overnight stays for work) in  Columbus, Ohio this summer.  On the first of two in July one of the pilots said there was an ice cream place just behind the hotel.  She said:  "It's called Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, and for $6 you can get a 'flight' of ice cream with three small scoops, and the flavors are all incredible."

     I said I was going to check them out the second they opened in the morning.  Another crew member said:  "Nope.  Tomorrow's Sunday and they're closed."

     "Oh.  Guess I'll have to go on my next layover."  I looked at my schedule.  "Oh wait, that's also on a Sunday.  Dang it!  Okay, well, I'll go the next time I'm here."

     At the beginning of September I found myself back in Columbus and was determined to check out this fabulous ice cream.  Around lunchtime I looked at their website to double check that they were open that day.  Yes, they were.  Awesome!  

     I figured I'd just exercise, clean up, then have an afternoon walk and get ice cream before our pick-up time that evening.  Sweet!

     I meandered around downtown making my way to Columbus Commons.  There stood an adorable ice cream stand in the middle of a pretty park beside a precious carousel.  What an idyllic setting to enjoy my ice cream!  I walked up to the stand, and that's when I saw a sign that read:  Closed.  

     Dang it!

     The hours were:  10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  My watch said:  4:04 p.m.  

     As Wayne Campbell, from "Wayne's World", would say:  Denied!!!

October 6, 2019 - 23 -"Mad at a Machine"

     I know that bickering with my sweet and adorable husband is silly and counterproductive.  This doesn't mean I never do it.

     Arguing with an Artificial Intelligence device is downright deranged.  Again, this doesn't mean I never do it.

     I'm talking about the 1st Generation Amazon Echo, called Alexa, that lives in our house, and is sometimes entirely too sassy for 'her'  little 9 1/4" stature.

      There was a honeymoon period when she first came to live with us.  We'd ask about trivia, the weather forecast, or who won a football game.  She'd tell us.  It was great.  She was so helpful.  So knowledgeable!

     Then she got more entwined in our lives. 

October 5, 2019 - 22 - "Kitty Tyranny "

     When in the course of human events, it becomes obvious our oppressors are not going to go and get us coffee and it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the purring bands which have connected them with said kitty-cat and to assume among the powers of the earth, the beverage to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of our felines requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

     We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all living beings are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Caffeine.

October 4, 2019 - 21 - "Name That House"

  

Las Nomadas by Juan Diaz Duran

   So we need a house name. 

     It feels very Jane Austen-novel-ish to need to name your house.  Pretty much in America we just say:  home.  If you're really fancy and have two places you might say:  'the cabin', or 'the lake house'.

     In Mexico lots of houses have names.  They have little painted plaques outside.  Noticing these is one of the many fun diversions when walking the streets around town.

     Casa Bougainvillea, Casa Agave, Casa Cumpleanos..., they all seem so pretty and romantic.  One of my favorites is: Casa Macarena.  (Though I can't imagine using that as it gives you an instantaneous, and tough to dislodge, earworm.  Not to mention a strong desire to dance badly.)

    We called our first place in Mexico:  Casa Mikkasuki.  Big mistake.

October 3, 2019 - 20 - "I know! Let's Sponge-paint EVERYTHING!"

    

     A lot of homeownership involves wondering what the heck the previous owners were thinking.

     In the case of the house we're renovating in Mexico, I'm referring to the owners before the previous owners.  The couple we bought it from lived in the house while building their current masterpiece.  Almost all of the design choices were made by the owners they bought it from.  But, then again, I can't really blame them either.

     It was the 80's.

     The 80's, as we all know in hindsight, was an era of epically bad choices.  There were strange rules that had to be followed when it came to decor:  Hollywood lighting had to surround vanity mirrors, mauve and/or floral explosions must ooze across bedspreads, geese-in-bonnets must preside over kitchens, and cutouts of wolves must howl on patios.

October 2, 2019 - 19 - "I've Got Mail!: Fan Mail!"

Inspiring and beautiful art, by the inspiring and beautiful, Cynthia Stroo

My day yesterday:
     It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  Wait, I think that's been said before.

Anyway, the best of times part:
          -I woke up with Michael (Oh so lucky for this, a fact I am infinitely grateful for every single time it happens.)
          -Michael brought me coffee.  In bed!  (Ditto on the daily gratitude score.)
          -Progress was happening on our casa.  (Really, really, good as we're having a big family shindig there not too far in the future.)
 
The worst of times part:
          -Had to leave the project, the house, the magical city of San Miguel, and Michael.  😢
          -Long journey home, with standard-issue, and a few outside-the-norm travel hassles.  (I am eternally grateful also for our flight benefits, but it makes us do dumb things.  Like back-up fun trips and work trips with little time in between.)

     So, I get home.  Road weary, missing Michael, stressed about getting myself (my uniforms, my bags,...) unpacked and repacked to go back to work

     I'm simultaneously thrilled to see Ella...and already sorry I won't have more time with her.  And I'm vaguely thinking that I commit to too darn much stuff.  Like crazy writing schedules I need to fit in between everything else.  Wah, wah, wah...

---

     And then! ...

October 1, 2019 - 18 - "Habits Make Our Lives"

Daily Habit Tracker

     The title of this post is a premise I've been working with and thinking about a lot for the last few years.  And when I say the last few years I really mean, once again, my entire life.  

     I love how the book Bridget Jones' Diary starts with her tracking her alcohol, calorie, and cigarette consumption.  

     I completely relate to this.