Lonesome Dove

I had every plan in the world to go on a road trip yesterday. Friday I printed out my little maps and itinerary, gassed up the car, and then stopped in at the bookstore to pick up a newly released business book. I can never buy just ONE book, but have to buy at least TWO. If I'm going in to get a non-fiction book, I have to pick out one fiction that is on my list and vice versa. Don't want to get unbalanced in my reading...

My list of fiction comes from various list that are compiled, mostly by Random House; 100 top books of the American 20th century is my favorite. The have been five on my list that keep getting bumped, either because I desperately wanted to read something else, or the bookstore didn't have it in stock.

Lonesome Dove has been one of those five. It has been bumped several times mostly because it's a Western and I'm a girl. So, on Friday, having picked up the new business book I specifically went to get, and having just watched the dusty, but sexy cattle driver of Hugh Jackman in Australia, I was hankerin' for Western and Lonesome Dove jumped off my list and into my hands.

It's been an engrossing read. Enough so that I started thinking late Friday night, maybe I should take one of my accrued vacation days and stay home and read tomorrow...and I did. It's a big book, almost as big as Les Mis. I'm on page 146 and I'm not sure that I've gotten to the "Pulitzer prize winning" guts of the book, but it's good.

One thing that I think is odd is how much he talks about peeing. There's not a chapter that goes by that he doesn't talk about one of the cowboys peeing. (or pissing to be exact) Do guys like to read about cowboys peeing??

Well, I'll see ya' again in about another 799 pages.

Thanksgiving

We didn't celebrate holidays in my family when I was a child. When I moved out at a young age I used to fantasize about what my future holidays would be like: a large warm house full of family and friends talking, playing games, reading books, watching football or Hallmark movies, bread baking, and pies cooling on the counter, dogs curled up by the fire, etc. You get the picture.

Many, many years later, this fantasy hasn't come even close to being true. Well, I do have little animals curled up fast asleep but they're cats, not dogs. I love the meaning of being thankful and doing for others, though I try to do this everyday. but I'm kind of over celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas the way others do. Mostly it's turned out that it's a day spent with a hodge-podge of strangers that you'll never see again and eating LARGE amounts of food (which I'm not sure how that differs from just going out to a restaurant) Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not really all that into eating, and definitely not into spending lots of time with strangers.

However, in my anti-Thanksgiving celebration, there are a few things that I wish to express thanksgiving for this season:

I'm grateful for having a good job and a savings account
I'm grateful for having well stocked cupboards with healthy food
I'm grateful for a healthy and strong body
I'm grateful for my faith in Christ
I'm grateful for being able to choose my own religion, vote, and other liberties
I'm grateful for my two cats and animals in general
I'm grateful for technology, education, books and knowledge
And I'm grateful for the sunshine when it is out, and I'm grateful for the rain when it rains. (I don't know how to express how much I love weather, but almost every journal entry and every prayer starts out with my gratitude for whatever it was for the day. )

Don't worry, it's not a policital thing

If you check up on me once a week or so for updates, I am sad to report that I've got nothing for you.

The most exciting thing I've got to report today is that I had a dream last night that I married Obama, and I'm not sure I would classify that as 'exciting'. Just very bizarre. And I'm not sure why him; I'm sure he'll be a fine President, but I'm not into politicians, or men with super-huge egos (and I believe if you want to be President, you've GOT to have a huge ego) and I don't really find him attractive, and, he's got a wife and kids and everything, so why him? I've got a long list of celebrity crushes that I'd much rather walk down the aisle with!

Yep. That's about it. I wasn't even cool enough to go to Bond this weekend. (Yeah, James Bond! I'd rather marry him than Obama.)

Time Change

This is the hardest part of the year for me; the time between the time change and the winter solistice, Dec 21. I need sunshine! Even in the coldest of February I can be content to know that each day is getting longer.

On my ride home Friday night, I noticed an oak tree had suddenly changed it's color. The contrast along the evergreens and weeping willows was striking. Every day I think about bringing my camera to work to capture the monuments by sunrise or sunset, but having been caught in the rain several times, I always decide to keep my camera home. Knowing that I'll now be riding home in the dark, I resigned myself to capturing the tree in my minds camera and call it good.

Luckily for my camera (and my spirits) dear Mother Nature gave us one last fantastically beautiful Saturday. I went for a three hour ride and soaked up as much sunshine as I could hoping it'll keep me for the next few months. (I rode enough that I actually had a little motion sickness when I went to bed last night. Like after you go boating.)

I am no great photographer, but below is the tunnel of trees with the glowing orange oak. (double click on the photo and I think you'll get a larger image.) And a little photo of me under the tree.

Below that is a little turle on a log that I snapped. Isn't he so cute?

A New Toy

When I first moved out on my own at the young age of 16, my first dad gave me a few hundred dollars as a Christmas/Birthday/Goodluck gift. Hmmmm....what to buy...I was torn between two tempations: a xylophone or a motorcylce. With help from my second dad I opted for a 250cc Honda Twinstar Motorcycle. It was, in this case, the more practical decision.

At work we have various competitions with different tiers of award points. With these points you can 'purchase' goods from a special website. Kinda like Wheel-of-Fortune. I've never been too interested in the competitions because it seems that what most people buy are clothes, jewelery, tv's and electronic gizmo's and other such normal fares. However...

A few weeks ago I was on the site trying to figure out what I can order. I was thinking maybe I should get some winter gear to bike to work in. And then...I saw a musical instrument tab...hehehe...with 9 hard-earned points I got a keyboard. It's nothing out of this world, but for living in a tiny little apartment, and not having had a piano for so long, I am in heaven!

And now, I love these competitions. If we win our next one, I'm going to get a flute! I am on my way to owning my very own orchestra.

Sadly, they don't have any xylophones...

007

Only in DC....

Yesterday I had to go to the Judiciary Building in Downtown DC to begin the process of getting my notary. (for work.) The people conducting the orientation were going through a list of documents we can, or cannot notarize, and the appropriate forms of identifaction we can accept.

With a completly straight face, they went through the list of ID we can accept for secret agents.

emesis

At least once a year I will get the three day flu. The first day will start with a fever and chills; intense sweating, joint and muscle aches, delirium. On the second day the fever continues and then comes stomach pain. It's that second day that I dread so much; I know that I'm going to vomit eventually, and I know from years of experience that I will feel better, but with each stomach pain I twist and squirm and try to hold things down. Then comes the event, (use your imagination) and then subsiding relief until the next build-up. On the third day I am tired and drained but feel so much better. I can manage to watch a TV show or even read a book. Toast and soup sit comfortably in my belly.

I kind of feel like my move to DC has been a drawn out second day of the flu. For the past two years a pain had been building in me. I squirmed and twisted and tried to avoid what needed to come out. But moving here was like drinking a glass of epsom salt and all has come rushing out of me. It's as yucky as I remember these sorts of things being, but I know that soon the pain will no longer be a part of me.

I only wish that you could take a flu shot for life.