Does This Blog Make Me Look Fat?

I know I've been a little lax lately in my posting - taking the easy way out posting other people's photos. I've just been so busy, and the 50 hour work week doesn't give me much time to sit down and be creative.

Take yesterday, for instance. Do you ever have those days where your real world and dream world collide? And have you ever had one of those dreams where you are in a group of people and you find out you're in your underwear or, worse yet, no clothes at all? Usually you're the only one who notices in the dream.

Yesterday I was walking to the cafeteria for lunch and I kept feeling like I was having one of those dreams! I even had to keep looking down to make sure I had my pants on. Seriously, it was the most surreal feeling I ever had.

Oh, well - only two more days until the weekend!

66 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. This is why I suffer through the 110 degree summers. Sluggo is still here guarding his feeder. I wonder if he's decided to hang out for the winter?

I used to work with a couple of really great guys named Terry and Dave. I worked in the office of a manufacturing company. They were the owners of the manufacturing company. Notice I said I worked with them not for them because that's how they made you feel. They were never arrogant, always a lot of fun and never treated anyone from the lowest on the totem pole on up as if they were any different. I learned a lot from them about working with people and making what you do be what you loved . Terry and Dave started out as production and shipping managers and worked their way up until they owned the company one day. In the corner of their office sat a golf club. It was left there by the previous owner so Terry and Dave kept it there for good luck as they prospered and the company continued to grow and achieve success under their leadership.

Last summer when I went home to visit family, I was given a penny. I put it in my shoe for luck. Once I returned home, I told Rena, who had given me the penny, that life was so good I was going to keep it in my shoe. It's still in there.

You're probably wondering what my point is by now and I think this is it: Eventually, the manufacturing company went out of business. Lack of sales and increased competition forced them to close their doors. Friday, I got a job after a year of being unemployed and then lost it in a matter of minutes. I read a quote the other day that went like this: "The future is not what is coming at us, but what we are headed for."

Luck will come and luck will go. It may be bad or it may be good. There are thousands of stories about people who have squandered good fortune and equally as many stories about people who have been able to rise above misfortune. It's not that good or bad luck comes your way (because it always will), but what you do with it.

I’ve tried to explain it to people. We here in the desert Southwest are a bit climatically dyslexic. Your Spring is our Fall. Your Fall is our Spring. Your Winter is our Summer, and your Summer is our Winter. While the rest of you are anticipating the winter and snowfall, we’re all running out of the house like crazy people so we can enjoy the cooler weather, plant flowers, and are anticipating lower electric bills (hooray!).

Last night we dined on the patio and followed that with the ceremonial first lighting of the chimenea. The rest of the evening was spent by the fire and the pool listening to jazz music and enjoying the wine.


Life is what you make it, and I can vouch that life in the fall in the desert Southwest is good. Today I planted flowers with hummingbirds buzzing above my head.

"I used to have this great therapist. She asked me to name the core beliefs, principles, feelings that I was totally, without a doubt, completely committed to, that meant the most to me, that I was certain of. As sessions went on, she would, fairly frequently, point out when my words, thoughts or actions seemed to be at odds with my commitment to those things. Indeed, some of these things, it turned out, I routinely equivocated about, betrayed, doubted. My point, and I do have one, should be fairly obvious: sooner or later, it doesn't really matter what you say, it's what you do, how you are in the world, that shows your true commitment.

And the truth will always come out. It will be especially obvious to those who have a stake in what you say you care about."

I just reviewed mine, and the only thing I've manged to do is finish that bag of peanut butter cups. :-(

And I think it gets scarier as we get older. As we age, we know what's worth being scared about. When we're younger, we still have the grown ups to protect us.