Let This Chorus Girl Be A Star

My cousin Jo reminded me of this video ... which, coming from my musical background, I think is absotively hysterical. I don't think I've posted it before - but if I have, deal. I think at least some of my readers will get it.

Just under 4 minutes. Quite funny, especially if you like musical theater at all.

Enjoy.

Dream a little dream ...

I had a horrible dream last night. But not just horrible ... in some ways fascinating.

We had to go down to Southcenter. I don't know why ... work? We left in the early afternoon and wouldn't be home until late at night. We had to take the bus. This seemed to be a regular thing.

I'd done it before. I don't know why, but I'd made this trip often. Once we were there, someone told a young kid who was doing the same trip that he wouldn't be able to get a bus back home (to our neighborhood) until almost midnight.

You don't want to be riding a bus into our neighborhood at midnight.

When I got back, Scott wasn't with me. I don't know why. For some reason, he had to leave ahead of me. Everyone was packing to evacuate. A war going on? A terrorist attack? Some global natural disaster? I don't know, but we all knew we had to leave, and permanently. Not a crazy, hurried mass exodus, but everyone just knew they were leaving. No one was going to come back to their homes.

I had to go - alone - to our house (it was daylight now - huh?) and see what pets were alive so that I could take them with. There were no dogs around. The rest were gone, too.

I saw our neighbors, Tom and Cathy. All their family were around, and they were cheerfully packing everything they owned. They told me that after that day, there would be no electronic transactions allowed. I wouldn't get paid until Thursday, so I had to make do with what money I had. I then realized that my direct deposit wouldn't go through, so I would never get paid again. I ran across the street to take every penny of cash out of my account to survive. It was only $275.

I ran back across the street, and wanted to hug Cathy goodbye, but she smiled and disappeared into their house. I couldn't find any of our pets, and assumed they had already died. I couldn't find where I had parked my car on the street.


Then I woke up.


It was devastating ... but I wanted so desperately to go back to sleep and continue the dream. I wanted to know the rest - why was all this happening? I craved finding my car, having enough gas, getting somewhere, getting out of the car and having the dogs and cats run towards me and hug and lick me, standing up and having Scott hold me. It was a dream that I should be crying as I wake up from it, but I just wanted to know that it ended with something I could live with. Something that showed me that my life was still together.

I want to know how it ended. I woke up, groggily, at 4 a.m., and touched Scott to make sure he was really there, and touched Kali to make sure she was snoring between us, and actually got up and felt around for the other dogs to make sure they were safe. I never did fall back to sleep.


I had an absolutely horrible day at work ... but not because of this, unless it was some type of premonition. Does anyone know what this could mean? I'm scared to continue this dream tonight unless it has an incredible happy-movie ending.

MatterPics

Dinner at El Gallito. We almost never go out, so this was cool. Pretty good food ... kinda crappy service (slow, and I ordered a second Cadillac margarita when my dinner came, but the drink never showed up). Still, I didn't have to cook, Scott didn't have to do dishes, and we came home happy and full of carne asada.

(Okay, the sunflowers were at home).

Picture it ...

Goodbye, Estelle ... I've always had a soft spot for "The Golden Girls". This is sad news. At the risk of repeating every other blog tribute, thank you for being a friend.

(Video is 7' 52", but so worth it ... )

MatterPics

Weekend. Gorgeous. Flowers. Chores. Dog fight. Scott in the middle.

And what was there before that?

I heard an interesting question on NPR tonight as I was taking a long, hot shower ...

"In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth".

Where did God (or whomever we all believe in) come from?????

Any thoughts?? I have some, but I won't share until y'all do. :)


New on Sunday, July 20, 2008:

Okay, a brief update ... I did say I'd give my opinion.

I have more questions than opinions here. I'm beginning to realize that this is a big part of me - questioning everything. My little brain can't fathom the idea of something - anything - just "being". How can something just "be"? If god created everything, and created us in his own image, than why do we have a beginning and an end? Didn't god have a beginning? And if so, does he have an end?

I know that part of my problem is that, no matter what we're talking about, what was the starting point? What was here before there was anything? And how can "anything" exist without there being "anything" before it?

I know this is circular reasoning. There is no answer. Chicken, egg, chicken, egg ... you see where this is going.

But I guess my final answer is that maybe there was something before god, or whatever being is in residence in the big celestial oval office these days. Maybe there is a beginning, a middle, and an end to everything. Which, following my logic, means that there has always had to be SOMETHING to start it all. But what was it? I steadfastedly believe that there is a logical answer to everything, whether it shows itself or not. No one has ever been able to make me believe that something just is, and that I should just blindly believe it because it ... well, just is.

Maybe a more appropriate question for me to have started with is "What is the meaning of life?"



I know it has something to do with bacon cheeseburgers with pickles, BBQ sauce and ranch dressing. And potato salad. I'm feverishly working on researching that.

Paradise.

We have a volunteer intern at work - an exchange student from China. She's finished her high school work here, and is taking college courses here in Seattle. She's from a small island in China, speaks perfect English with no accent, has a perfect GPA, and goes by the name "Echo". She's pretty, and crazy stylish, and sweet and just wonderful to be around. Everyone adores her. I love having her help us out for a short time each week ... she reminds me what it's like to be that age, to have a huge life in front of her filled with whatever she wants, to be brilliant and full of possibilities.

She and her classmates took a field trip last week down to Mount Rainier, and she e-mailed me this picture today. It's perfect. Absolutely perfect.

I love living here. Especially in the gorgeous summer. Y'all should visit.

July 12 of 12

Another month of the 12 of 12 phenomenon, thanks to Chad. Check it out. Join, if you're new to it.

These pictures were all taken Saturday, July 12, 2008, between Seattle and Index, Washington - and odd spots in between.

I got up way too early - around 5-ish. Probably an hour later, breakfast on the front porch:

Later on, Scott and I went for a mini-road trip. We headed out Route 2, towards Stevens Pass, but stayed on this side of the pass. Here we were passing by the Reptile Zoo/BBQ in Gold Bar, Washington. They're not related - or so we've been told:

Along the way up into the mountains, there are signs and pull-off areas where you have to put chains on your tires between November and April, due to the snow. No chains were required today ... but if they were, we would have stopped here:

We ended up in Index, along the North Fork of the Skykomish River. Lots of kayaking and rafting up here. We walked over the bridge and took pictures. (If you've read my last post, you'll know that getting out of the car and walking was a lot of work for me ... I cussed a lot, and Scott thankfully waited patiently for me). The river is all snowmelt, and incredibly clear:

The view from the bridge - it's beautiful up here:

Dueling cameras ...

We drove a little farther upriver ... amazingly this is all within less than 2 hours of Seattle:

Heading back towards the city ... "Salmon Jerky" does not sound at all appealing to me ...

There was a TINY little chapel at the side of the road ... with no facilities. I'm not sure what facilities are preferred for roadside worship, but apparently this is bare bones ...

Yes, we stopped at the Reptile Zoo on the way back (Scott has a thing for all things living and weird - which is probably why he's still kept me around). Here he's happy to be near a huge snake of some sort (an anaconda, I believe):

Getting back into the city later than we had expected, we stopped at Trader Joe's for a few things (like dinner):

I always love the fun names of the things we buy there:

So how's that for whittling down 154 pictures into a 12 of 12 post???

Now, c'mon ... share yours ...

Ow. Ow ow ow.

I threw my back out this morning.

I've done that before, but not for a while. Not this badly. I slept weird over the weekend and my neck and shoulder had been hurting, but last night my lower back was hurting too. This morning I got up from a sitting position and *WHAM*! My whole lower back went into spasms. I yelled - LOUDLY - fell to the floor, and it took me a good two or three minutes to get up. I could barely walk, but finally got into a chair. I was actually crying at this point.

I called into work, used the massage pillow that Scott gave me, and about an hour later was able to get into a very hot shower, which helped a little. And now I'm sitting here, my little pillow lovingly working my lower back with its heated hands, still in massive amounts of pain and actually wishing I could go to work. Or at least go work in the yard (it's about 70 degrees and gorgeous right now, and supposed to get up to around 80 this afternoon).

This is the view from my desk (and probably will be my only view all day):

Gah!! I can't do anything at all! Grrrr. Ow ow ow.

Other things Matterdays can't do:

Install a showerhead.

Put in a new porch light:

Thankfully, Scott can do these things. Otherwise, we'd have water spraying all over the bathroom and a very crispy Matterdays lying on the porch with a live wire still clutched in his fist.

Okay, I'm gonna try to go downstairs and find something to eat.

OWWWWW!!!!!! Ow ow ow ow ow. Dammit. *sniff*

MatterPics

Welcome to our 'hood.

UPDATE: This doesn't make me feel any better.

Crime has been WAAAAYY increasing in our neighborhood lately. I'm not quite sure what exactly went on here right in front of our house yesterday ... four squad cars, but the (yes I'm going to be judgemental here) obviously cracked-out woman they were speaking with tottered away on her four-inch cork heels without being hauled away.

There have been break-ins (some violent ones), assaults, shootings, and too many drug deals and "Hey baby you wan' a gooooood time?" items to mention. Right outside our front door. It's getting nasty ... we (our neighbors and us) have to now consciously sit outside and stare down everyone who walks down the street to make them know we see what's going on. I'm very uncomfortable doing that ... but I've started doing it, even for short periods of time, sitting on the bench on the front porch and trying to make it obvious that I'm watching what's going on, and praying someone doesn't pull a gun. Things had gotten so much better for quite a while after I moved in with Scott ten years ago, but the past year has gotten really bad.

There are a lot of discussions that could be started here - gentrification, the economy, racism, etc. etc. etc. And that's fine. But to be honest, I'm just plain nervous and a little scared to live here these days.

Independence Day

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,


When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

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

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is in the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the Present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let the Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People; unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislature.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond the Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule in these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Powers to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.


Signed by ORDER and
in BEHALF OF THE CONGRESS
JOHN HANCOCK,
PRESIDENT.

ATTEST.
CHARLES THOMSON,
SECRETARY.


PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED BY JOHN DUNLAP.

Holiday Poll

I'm stealing this from Chris and Kyle, just to post SOMETHING (since apparently some readers are getting irked by the length of time between postings). Play along, kids (everyone seems to adapt this one to their own tastes), and leave your answers in the comments:


Name:
Location:
Age:
How Long Have You Been Reading my blog?:
How Did You Get Here?:
What Can You See From Where You’re Sitting Right Now?
What one song (of any genre) could be your theme song?
What is the average flying speed of a swallow?


I'll do my damnedest to post something more substantial tomorrow ...