Mountains of Crap!

Right now, I'm about as close to a breakdown as I can possibly be - I think.  I'm feeling pulled in 50 different directions and I have so much to do and not enough time to do it all.  And my house is suffering for it. 

I know I've said this before but I think I am going to seriously get a shovel and just start dumping stuff.  Necessary or not.  Gotta dig out from the drifts that are taking over my house. 

Some would call them piles of clutter or "hot spots".  I call them MOUNTAINS OF CRAP!  They make me feel crazier than I already do and are definitely not conducive to calm, rational thinking. 

Relaxation?  In my own home?  Forget it!

Ok - I'm done ranting now.

TTFN
JMS

friggatriskaidekaphobia

Today is Friday the 13th. Just thought I'd point that out.

Did you know that the fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia? Or paraskevidekatriaphobia?

Wikipedia states:

"The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning "fear"). The latter word was derived in 1911and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953."

Actually - that entire article is really about the superstition(s) behind Friday the 13th. Jason Voorhees only makes a brief appearance under the heading of "Planned events on Fridays the 13th"

Now don't you feel like you've learned something today?

TTFN
JMS

The Story of the Pregnant Cat and the Missing Kittens

Sweetie and 2 of her 5 kittens

Once upon a time there was an old woman who lived in a shoe...

Wait, wrong tale.

Once upon a time there lived a small, sweet, adorable and very pregnant black & white cat.  She was a homeless cat, but she adopted some people who fed her and took care of her as much as they could.  She was so sweet that her many adopted humans called her "Sweetie."

The day came when she arrived back from wherever she spent her nights, and lo - she was thin again!  Exhausted, and starving - but very happy to get petted and loved on by her humans.

Her humans exclaimed, "Oh!  Sweetie!  Where are your kittens?"  Her humans tried to get her to lead them to where she'd hidden her kittens.  She seemed disinterested, wandering this way and that and lying down whenever the mood struck her.

Her humans worried about the kittens and spent hours stomping through the trees, bushes and undergrowth.  Walking through backyards of unknown neighbors.  Hoping for some sign, some tiny mew.

To no avail.  Sweetie's kittens were missing.

Almost 6 weeks to the day later, one of her beloved humans noticed Sweetie and one, teeny tiny kitten, on the back porch.  An hour later - there were 2 kittens.  By the end of the evening all 5 kittens had relocated to the bushes in her human's back yard.

Moral:

Don't count your kittens before they hatch.

Uh...

Don't underestimate the power of cute.

Uh...

Never mind.  I'm done now.  Does anyone want a kitten?  Or a perfect in every way momma kitty?  Please?  They all need loving forever homes.

TTFN
JMS

...Barest Grace of Fingertips...

No matter how hard I try, my arms, stretched as wide as they can go, will not allow even the barest grace of fingertips against the walls in the hallway at my office.  This frustrates me to no end in an OCD kind of way and I can't do anything, anything, to change it!  It's got to be no more than about a half an inch difference, but I'm just not tall enough.

This strikes me as strange: A 37 year old woman getting frustrated that she can't touch both walls in the hallway at the same time.

It's Tuesday and I do believe it is going to be one of those days.

TTFN
JMS

Observations, An Article & A Question

In no particular order, these are some things I observed or heard on the way to work this morning:

1) An Observation: I think it's funny that NPR used the first 5 notes of Beck's "Loser" as Bumper Music.

2) An Article: Did Harsh Interrogations Tactics Lead to Bin Laden? (I heard this on NPR this morning.)

3) An Observation: I was driving past my beloved lake this morning (the one that has a long, paved walking trail) and saw a duck, a female mallard I do believe, walking along the trail.  Just her.  Just the duck.  Getting ready to cross the crosswalk by the boat ramp.  It's the stuff you see in movies and on TV - not in real life.  It made me smile.

4) An Observation: I saw a woman driving an older model, red, Isuzu Trooper.  Her windshield was so cracked from hail damage it's a wonder she was able to see to drive.  And she was on her cell phone.

And a question:

What do you put in a May Day Basket?  I keep seeing "Flowers and Sweets" but is that ALL?  Really?  Hm...seems rather boring, if you ask me.

Oh - and Happy Cinco de Mayo!

TTFN
JMS

Did you ever have one of *THOSE* days?

Yesterday was Tuesday.  A normal, average, everyday....Tuesday.  Except that it wasn't.  I was discombobulated from the start; I'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed - figuratively speaking.  Not that I was in a bad mood, really - but I wasn't feeling completely OK mentally and emotionally, either.

So work was slow, but actually not too bad.  I was able to get everything on my plate accomplished for a change, which was a nice feeling.  But the gray, windy, water-logged day that loomed outside my window kept me feeling very somber.

Quite honestly - I think I'm still struggling internally with several things that have happened over the last few days, both in the main-stream media and in my own little personal life.  Not the least of which is the Osama bin Laden situation.  I'm sticking with Proverbs 24:17-18 - it comforts me right now.  It makes me remember that there is a reason I feel the way I feel about the entire thing.

"Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him."

Of course there's also the death of my friend from church.  I'm still very reflective.  I'm trying to consider how best I can help the family he left behind - in my small way, and in my free time.  Which sounds sarcastic, but isn't.

Also, my car has been giving me trouble, which has me concerned because I have no idea how we're going to pay to have it fixed.  It stalled on me three times on the way home - in rush-hour traffic, of course - which caused me to call Our Favorite Mechanic to tell him I was headed over there and needed him to look at the car...right now.  I limped the car over to his shop, and after putting it up on the rack and staring at it for several minutes, Our Favorite Mechanic's Assistant announced, "Well, it ain't gonna be cheap," and then further explained the problem.  I don't recall the exact terms, except to say that something is leaking into something and it's corroding from the inside causing the thing (that's a technical term, you know) to short out, which is making the car stall.

After some fancy switching of cars, I finally arrived at my other job at church, an hour and a half later than I'd intended.

I then proceeded to smash my daughter in the face with the heavy front door of the church.  I'm still so upset about that I could cry every time I think about it.  I had my hands full of work stuff, and my purse and I was carrying all of our drive-through dinners.  I got my pinkie finger on my right hand around the front door handle and pulled, then stuck my right foot in the door and shoved it open with my foot.  Never dreaming that my daughter was behind the door!  I couldn't see her!  I thought she was behind me, but she was behind the door.  The door hit her square on the left side of her face and knocked her flat on her backside in the pouring rain.  Oh, did I mention it was pouring rain at that time, too?  Oh, did I feel awful!  She cried.  I dumped the food on the floor inside the church entrance and flew back out to get her, as she was still sitting in the rain puddles, crying.

Nothing is broken, thank goodness.  But she's going to have quite a bruise.  She had an ice pack almost immediately and then ate her food and played quietly with her brother until I got finished with my work.  Then we went home, I gave her some ibuprofen, and she fell asleep.

Several other things happened yesterday, too.  One of which is that I called my boss (for all intents and purposes) from the church and verbally vomited my frustrations on her.  Thankfully she is a very calm soul, and someone I trust completely, so she was able to calm me down and get me refocused on what I have on my enormous to-do list.

Suffice it to say, I am very glad yesterday is over.  Now I just have to get through today and I think I'll be OK for the rest of the week.

Thanks for letting me get all that out!  Phew.  OK.  Now moving forward...

TTFN
JMS

And then there's this one, too...

I was particularly upset by the first sentence of the last paragraph.

"Intelligence officials say that key tips on the bin Laden courier network came from detainees, some of whom were exposed to enhanced interrogation tactics."

NPR Article: Who Gets the 27 Million Reward Offered for bin Laden's Capture?

See? I'm not the only one questioning...

NPR Article: Is it Wrong to Celebrate bin Laden's Death?

I'll probably stick my foot in my mouth...

I got in the car this morning, and turned on News Talk like I always do.  (It's either that or NPR, depending on my mood.  Sometimes I prefer silence - so the radio stays off and I can then focus on the rattles of my car; or my brain.)  Almost immediately after turning the radio on, I heard the fill-in voice behind the microphone tell me that Osama bin Laden is dead.  Cause for celebration.  People gathering all over the country to say "Yay, America!"  Still others gathered to protest, of course, because what would we be if we weren't allowed to speak our minds, right?

I don't know much about anything - but I'm getting ready to speak my mind.  I don't expect anyone to agree with me.  What follows is not the product of a highly-educated brain, nor one that follows politics closely, and is often guilty of being woefully behind-the-times on current World events.  I'll probably stick my foot in my mouth quite often, and quite well.  But maybe not well enough to shut me up.

So back to Osama bin Laden.  A Seal Team went in to an area and raided a bunker, executing bin Laden while they were at it.  I don't know if there was anyone else there, but I'd be willing to bet more than bin Laden's life was lost during that raid.  Then there were documents and other things that need to be sifted through and maybe brought back for analysis by keen military minds to determine if who, if anyone, needs to follow bin Laden to wherever his black soul went.  I think I even heard "them" say that "they" brought bin Laden's body with them as they exited, stage-left.

Now that you have my very uneducated and unprofessional synopsis of this major World event...

Why is it cause to celebrate someone's death - even someone like bin Laden?  Yes.  OK.  Yay!  They got him.  Woo!  The War on Terror actually accomplished something and all of our military men and women are not and have not sacrificed themselves for our country for nothing.  Isn't that what this has been all about?

I'm not military.  But I understand what sacrifice is.  People sacrifice themselves for the greater good - whatever that "good" may be - on a daily basis.  Mother's make sacrifices for their children and their families.  I can attest to this on a first-hand basis.  Father's make sacrifices so their families can have a roof over their heads and food on the table.  And it's not gender-specific anymore - but you get the picture.  Many extraordinary men and women of this country - YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN - sacrifice themselves for this country you live in every single day.  God sacrificed his only son for us!

And still, within all that, we celebrate death?  These people who sacrifice themselves are celebrating a death?  I'll say it again - I'm not that smart about these things.  It makes me think of a line from Forrest Gump: "I'm not a smart man, Jenny - but I know what love is."  So I am not a smart woman, folks, but I know how I feel when I hear about a celebration when someone dies.  Even a bad someone like bin Laden.  And for that matter, who am I to judge?

I attended a memorial service this weekend for a friend.  A good man.  A young man.  A father of 3 beautiful little girls; 10 years old and 5 year old twins.  It was a sudden, and unfortunate death and his family is going to have a lot of pieces to pick up.  A lot of healing to do.  And, I'm sure, may questions to ask.  I haven't electively gone to a funeral - ever.  I have been to too many out of obligation, or familial relations.  Entirely too many.  More than I ever would want to count.  And some that I SHOULD have gone to I couldn't due to distance or some other obligation.  The plain truth is I really dislike funerals.  I want to remember the person whose LIFE we're celebrating or memorializing the way I want to remember that person.

I guess my point is that, though bin Laden's life was not necessarily one to celebrate, neither do I think that his death should be celebrated.  Yes - we've made some progress and this may be exactly what we need to be able to move forward, end this war, and get out of Dodge...  But still, bin Laden was one of God's creatures.  He's got a lot of explaining to do, don't you think?

****

I'm sorry - I've read back over this and I know it's disjointed and probably doesn't really make any sense - but I'm not going to change it.  Think of it as Jen's Train of Thought.  It's probably not a good idea to try to make any sense out of what comes out of my head anyway - it will just confuse you.  But thanks for reading it.  And thanks for not raking me over the coals.

TTFN
JMS