Thought for the day....

"A man without passion is only a latent force, only a possibility, like a stone waiting for the blow from the iron to give forth sparks." - Henri Amiel

Ch 1, Par 9 & 10

Lava walked through the grocery store, carrying her keys and her wallet as she always did. She walked down the isles slowly peering at each item carefully, considering and reconsidering what she would have for dinner. Nothing sounded good. It was never fun to cook for one. Country music spilled out over the intercom, and lava softly sang along…. “the bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight…..” Lava picked up a jar of spaghetti sauce and began reading the nutritional information on the back. She always did this when she was really just killing time. “Hi Lava” a voice rang out, it was the secretary from her Dentist’s office, Melanie. Melanie was a very nice, very kind, middle aged woman, who Lava had known for many years. “How’s Lance?” Melanie asked, which was always the first question from her lips whenever she saw Lava. Melanie loved Lance, Lava’s younger brother, and always said she considered him her own son. She loved Lava too, but Lance had spent a lot of time with her and her family over the years. “He’s good”, Lava replied with a smile, “How are you?”. Melanie smiled opened her arms, pulled Lava into an overwhelming embrace, and exclaimed with utter joy in her tone, “I’m wonderful, have you heard, I’m a grandmother!” Lava had heard, she saw the pictures in the paper, Melanie’s daughter had triplets the week before. “I heard, congratulations. I saw their picture in the paper.” Lava explained. Melanie asked about the rest of Lava’s family, to which, Lava delivered her usual speech, telling where each family member was, and how they were doing. This was not an unusual occurrence for Lava. Living in a small town meant knowing everyone, and everyone knowing you. After a somewhat lengthy conversation, Lava said “It was so nice to see you, I better get going” Not that Lava had anywhere in particular to go, she just wanted to finish her shopping.

“Well Hello there young lady” she heard a deep raspy voice from behind. She turned and saw Joe Taylor, the butcher. He worked in the back of the store, and normally waved and winked at Lava through the glass window as she passed by the meat department. It wasn’t often that Lava saw him out from behind the window, but when she did, she cringed. He grabbed her, and gave her a great big bear hug. Lava laughed nervously, and asked “How are you, Joe”. Joe replied, “I’m much better now, seeing you”. Lava smiled, and said “It’s nice to see you too Joe, sorry I can’t chat, I’m kind of in a hurry”. Lava bid him goodbye, and walked briskly down the isle, as if she had somewhere to go. On the way toward the front, she grabbed a frozen pizza, and a 20 oz Diet Dr. Pepper, forgetting all about trying to eat nutriciously. It was time to go. While in line she saw several people from around the city. She smiled, waived, said hello, asked how are you….all the while trying to look as though she was in a hurry and couldn’t talk. Lava loved people, but she hated the awkward grocery store meetings. Especially once she saw and spoke to the person, she hated running into them over and over throughout the store. It made her uncomfortable, and she never knew what to say.

Butter-Inner

I realized last night that I am way more opinionated than I ever thought I was. I stick my nose in other peoples business, and I don't know when to quit. I know all of you out there, are thinking.."no, not you", But it's true, I'm nosey, obnoxiously stubborn, and a big butter-inner. That's my own made up word. Hope you like it.

So, my new resolution, is to do my best to mind my own business. Think I can do it? I'm gonna try it, and see how it goes. I'll let you know.........If you see me being a butter-inner, please let me know. But, be sure to tell me nicely, cuz you don't want to hurt my feelings. Because I will tell the world, okay, I'll tell the 3 people that read my blog if you're mean to me. Ok, I won't really, just tell me............

What the World Needs.....

What the world needs now, is Love, Sweet Love.......come on you know the song, sing along.....

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No not just for some but for everyone
Lord we don't need another mountain
There are mountains and hillsides
Enough to climb
There are oceans and rivers
Enough to cross.
enough to last
'Till the end of time..............(you can keep singing if you want)

I've been thinking about it alot lately, and Love is a truly amazing thing.   Love is as much of an object as an obsession, everybody wants it, everybody seeks it, but few ever achieve it, those who do will cherish it,be lost in it, and among all, never...never forget it.   

 

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

I love you.

 

Ch1, Par. 7 & 8

On the drive home, Lava thought about her first day. “Not bad” she thought. She had listened to a very controversial meeting regarding the City Budget, which included salaries for the city employees. The City employees had requested a 5% pay raise, and the Council was only willing to consider 3%. This would not effect Lava in anyway, since she only planned to be there temporarily. Lava drove down Main Street, crossed the bridge over the main highway and headed for home. When she reached Hillside Drive, she was reluctant to turn down her street, she shuttered at the thought of going home, to her empty house, again. Lava continued to drive, passed her street, and headed towards the grocery store. Lava found a parking place close to the front of the small town grocery store, whipped in, and turned off her engine. She sat for a moment, thinking about her evening, realizing it was one more she would spend alone, at home, and wondering what in the world she could do to make her life more interesting. After a few minutes, she stepped out of the car, closed the door behind her, pushed the “lock” button on her key chain, and headed inside. Lava always walked with a confident stride, held her head high, and smiled at everyone she passed by. It was her way of saying to the world “I will survive”…which was also her favorite song. Lava approached the door and was greeted by a tall gangly looking young man who smiled and said “Hi Lava, how are you?” Lava smiled, and replied “I’m good Stevie, how’s your mom?”

Stevie had worked a the local grocery store as long as Lava could remember, he had been there when she moved to Hebron, and, it seemed, he would always be there. He was a sacker, and was very proud of being emplyed at Douglas’ Grocery Store. He often explained to Lava tha the had worked there for 13 years, longer than any other employee and that he planned to work there another twenty years. Lava was always kind to Stevie, he was not your average guy, and some said he was “mentally challenged”, although they didn’t always use those words. Stevie was different, but he was kind, very gentle, a hard worker, and longed to be accepted in life.

Resignation

I have resigned myself to a lot of things.  I've resigned myself to being who I am (while hiding some things) - I guess tha'ts not a complete resignation to anything, is it?  I've resigned myself to working most of my life.  I've resigned myself to live in Sanger Texas for a while (if not forever).  I've resigned myself to never being a fly girl on "In living color".  I've resigned myself to never having dinner with Whoopi Goldberg. I'm sure there are more.....Speaking of resigning, today I resigned from my position at the City of Sanger.  It was horrible, the anticipation of it all, the gnawing in my stomach, the sweaty palms, the nervous laughter while I pretended to listen to others who were talking to me....Oh my, it was rough.  Then the time came to step forward, hand my boss the paper, and say the words.."I quit".  I didn't say those words exactly, I said "read my letter", because it was good, I thought.  I was impressed with it, and thought surely it would make it all okay.  It was nice, to the point, and stated everything worth saying.  Anyway, I don't think she actually read it.  Bummer.  Cuz it was good.  All she could say was "your quitting, I can't believe it".  We both cried a little.    We had a good talk, and she said she wanted the best for me and wanted me to be happy (I really wanted someone, anyone, to beg me to stay.  hee, hee).  It went really well as far as resignations go.  I have to say, that is always the hardest thing for me to do.  I don't know why.  I know I am replaceable , although I like to think I am not.  But, I've seen it time and again.  Whenever I leave, everything goes on just as though I was never there.  I don't like it much, isn't that selfish.  It's not like I want any company, business or city to fail, or struggle, or it to be difficult.  I have to say though, I do want to be missed.  It's this little bit of pride in me, okay there's a lot of it.  Anyway, I'm going to work for Allison Engineering in Denton.  I'm excited, but a little scared......so, say a prayer for me, and I'll say one for you!

Chapter 1 cont's (Par 4-6)

Lava  finished getting ready for her first day at her new job, she looked in the mirror and thought she looked quite smart in her new Anna Sui beaded sweater and blossom skirt.  She checked her make up one last time, grabbed her Burberry bag and was out the door.  Lava got into her Champagne color Maxima and headed out to her new job.  She had not been looking forward to this new position; however, she needed a job.  She had been working for a  small town restaurant that had closed down, and this position at City Hall was only temporary until she could figure out what she really wanted to do with her life.  Lava, at 23 years old, had only completed two semesters at the local junior college, and she was planning to go back to school and get a degree.   The only thing stopping her was the money at this point. 
 
Lava walked in the back door at the Hebron City Hall, and approached her new boss’s office apprehensively.  She knocked lightly on the open door and said “Good Morning”.   “Good Morning Lava”  Juanita replied. 

 Juanita Perez was a short hispanic woman that was had worked for the City of Hebron for over 25 years.  She worked her way up from the counter clerk taking the utility payments to the position of Assistant City Manager.  She hired Lava to fill in while she looked for a replacement secretary for herself.  Lava would start by transcribing the minutes from the City Council meetings.  Junaita stood and walked around her desk, and asked Lava to follow her back to the main office.  Lava did so.  Junita showed her a desk in the middle of a large offce with other desks and other workers.  On the desk was a tape player, head phones, yellow legal pads, cassette tapes, and a computer.  Juanita asked Lava to listen to the tapes and write down all that was said onto the legal pads.  “Easy enough” Lava said with a smile, and she sat down to begin the task.  

Chapter 1 continued (paragraph 3)

The drive to Hebron was quiet in the rear seat of the station wagon.  Mr. Locust talked to Mrs. Locust the whole way to Hebron about his ideas, and why he wanted to move out of the City.  He planned to purchase a new mobile home, they would have two acres of land, and he would transfer to a restaurant closer to the area.  Lava, Laura and Lance listened miserably as the long ride continued.  They finally arrived at the two acre site.  Lava and her siblings got out of the car moaning and grumbling as they looked out at the large parcel of land covered in five foot tall brush, shrubbery and weeds.   Mr. Locust was excited about having a project to start off with, he figured they could come here in their free time and begin clearing the property.  Mrs. Locust agreed to this, and this became the family outing for the next few months.  Lava thought about these times as she continued getting ready for the day ahead.

Pool Completed

The pool is finished!! YEA! I'm so excited. We can't get in it until tomorrow but it is absolutely beautiful. The waterfall is amazing, and the whole thing looks so crystal clear and fresh. I can't wait to jump in!!!

Chapter 1 (Paragraph 2)

Lava Locust lived in a small city called Hebron. It was a nice town in Texas. She moved there with her parents, her brother and her sister when she was 12 years old. Her family moved from a larger city near Dallas, and the change was very drastic. They had lived in a modest, but nice 3 bedroom home in a middle class neighborhood. Her parents both worked hard and had decent paying jobs. Both of them were restaurant managers, and they both worked long hours. One day, Mr. Locust came home and called a “family meeting”. He was notorious for having these so called “family meetings”. In fact, a “family meeting” normally included Mr. Locust lecturing one family member in front of the other three, with Mrs. Locust nodding her head occasionaly in agreement or interrupting to express her disagreements. These meetings were normally held in the living room, with Mrs. Locust sitting on the loveseat on one side of the room and Mr. Locust standing next to her, while both were facing the three Locust children, who were sitting on the sofa across the room. This particular meeting was a little different. Mr. Locust was excited about the new decision he had made to move to the country. Mrs. Locust didn’t seem to sure about the prospect. The “family meeting” was immediately moved to the car, a 1986 Chevrolet Cavalier Station Wagon, that Mr. Locust had just purchased, and was very proud of. Mr. Locust had decided to take the family to the land he intended to purchase in the small city of Hebron, Texas. The drive was long. Lava, her sister Laura, and her brother Lance were not at all impressed with the idea of leaving their home in the city.


Paragraph 3 coming soon...this is fun!!

My New Book

I always wanted to write a book. I've never actually gotten started though, so I thought I might write it throughout my blog and see how well I do. I'm just doing this off the top of my head, I don't even have a plot yet. So here goes the first paragraph. Let's see how far I get......

Chapter 1 (paragraph 1)

The room was silent with the exception of the soft whir of the ceiling fan. Lava felt the soft breeze on her bare shoulders as she lied in the silkiness of her soft pink satin sheets. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a high pitched pulsating sound. Lava, shocked, sat straight up in her bed, looking around frantically, when her eyes landed on the flashing red numbers on her alarm clock. 5:30 was flashing on time with the pulsating sounds that were pounding through the air. Lava reached out and and pushed the button on top of the clock, causing the room to go silent once again. Lava stretched, stood up, and stretched again, then began walking lazily toward her bathroom. She looked in the mirror and smiled as she noticed her hair standing up awkwardly on one side. "I look like crap" she said out loud to no one. She grabbed her toothbrush and as she began her morning rituals she started thinking about the day ahead. Today was the day she would start her new job at City Hall.


Okay - that's paragraph 1, check back tomorrow for paragraph 2!!!

Rogaine

So - you know my hair is really thin, and I've been using Rogaine on it. It seems to be working miraculously. Anyway - it says on the back that it could cause weight gain. Since I'm trying to lose weight, I decided to stop using it. Today is the first day without it and my hair doesn't look so great. It's not fair...I can have weight loss and hair loss together or weight gain and hair gain, hmmmm...that's a hard choice. Well, if I'm bald next time you see me, hopefully I'll be really skinny. We'll see.

The Pool

The building of the pool has not been anything like I thought it would be. But Finally, it is supposed to be completed tomorrow. I hope they are telling the truth. The decking is complete and it is really starting to look like a pool. Yesterday they came and did something called "mastic". It is a very sticky substance they put between the deck and the tile and between the deck and the house. It really makes it looks a lot nicer. The final steps are clean up and plaster. supposedly they will do the clean up today and the plaster tomorrow. amd someone will come train us on Saturday. Keep your fingers crossed.

Wednesday...

Today is Wednesday. I'm not feeling so great from my surgery. I have lost 17 pounds however. That kinda makes up for the pain. I've been eating lots and lots of soup. All kinds of soup. Potato soup, tomato basil soup, Indian Summer Soup, Tortilla soup, broccoli cheese soup, soup, soup, soup....I'm getting used to it though. I've never been a huge soup eater, but I've found that I really like it. Maybe I could have just went on a soup diet instead of having surgery....Just Kidding. I know me, I wouldn't stick to it if I didn't have to. I better run...Have a good day.

OUCH!!

I had surgery on Tuesday...OUCHIE, OUCH OUCH...my sister lied. She said it just felt like she did too many sit - ups, yeah right 489,898,999,898,875 too many. That's all. I have lost 12 pounds already though - so that's nice. So - here's the update for the whole week since I have written in a while:

Monday: Regular day - worked, went to eat, went home...yadi, yadi, yadi

Tuesday: Surgery Day - got to the hospital promptly at 11:00 a.m. as I was told, was very quickly taken back to the little room where I had to put on the gown with the split down the back. Waited an entire month for them to come get me - okay not a month but it felt like it. Surgery was supposed to be at 1:00 p.m. but there wan no operating room available. I waited in the bed with the thin little gown on while my family and friends took turns coming in to visit. It was actually quite fun being the center of attention, you know how I am, I like the world to revolve around me. Me! Me! Me!

Anyway, they put in an I.V. and gave me some medice, I was sleepy, but still visiting...kinda. So they came and got me at around 3:00 p.m. took me to the operating room, gave me a little oxyg......I woke up in recovery.

Recovery: Interesting, I woke up and couldn't see anything clearly, I don't remember feeling pain, I think there were three nurses at my bedside, and I heard all kinds of discussions. People talking about eating and movies, and all kinds of stuff. It was weird. I never thought of recovery like this. There were lots of patients with lots of nurses all in one big room; however, it was like they didn't want me to know this so as soon as I became aware they shot something in my I.V. and I was out again. Next I remember being wheeled down the hall, the lights were bright, and suddenly I hear "Is she awake?" and I see the smiling face of my brother-in-law. I remember thinking how happy and jolly he looked. I was wheeled in my room, and my best friend was there. Then suddenly so was everyone else. People staring at me. I remember feeling relieved, because I heard someone tell the nurses to take me to room 557, and as I got closer I heard discussion about the room number being 553, which in my mind was worng. It was 557. I didn't say anything, but kept thinking, what if they wheel me into a room that belongs to someone else. It's weird how unreasonable my thoughts were, I kept picturing myself being in this room with different sick people and their families and that my family was in room 557 waiting for me, and I couldn't talk and tell anyone for some reason. Weird huh.

Anyway, I was relieved that my family figured out it was 553 and not 557. I guess there was never any question for them which room it was, actually I don't know, I never asked.

The rest of Tuesday was good, I was pretty much out of it till it was time to go to sleep. By bed time I was wide awake. There was absolutely nothing on T.V. my parents spent the night in the room and my mom was snoring like a log cutter. I don't really know if log cutters snore, but it was all I could think of. The nurse came in like every 3.5 minutes to either check my blood pressure, temperature, and pulse, or give me a shot, or make me go to the bathroom, or make me run laps around the nurses station. It's crazy - All day long they leave you pretty much alone, and then at night they attack!!

Wednesday: I woke up in the morning, ready to go home, I wasn't in too much pain, I wanted a shower. The doctor came in, checked things out and said I could go. Nurses came in and unhooked me from machines. The Dietician came in and told me what to eat, then I had to sign some papers and we were out of there...almost..we had to wait for the wheelchair person to come get me. Why? Why do they make you get up and walk aroud in the middle of the night when your half asleep and hooked up to machines, but when you've been released they have to wheel you out? Anyway, the little girl with the wheel chair comes and immediately apologizes because the chair is like loveseat size, It's huge!! And she was this little bitty girl whose arms were spread as wide as she was tall in order for her to be able to reach the handles. Then it was motorized and she didn't know how to work it. When we got downstairs, she said "can you walk form here, cuz I don't know if I can get this thing through the revolving door?" I was like sure,cuz I was very glad to get out of the badly driven loveseat.

Mom and Dad took me home, mom came to the door, dropped my bag in the chair, dad stayed in the car, mom ran back to the car and they sped off....hmmmmm, bet they were hungry. I don't know what was up with that, but it was nice to be home. My roomate came home a little later, went and filled my prescription, and got me lots of fun liquidy drinks/foods. I can only have liquids for the next 5-6 weeks. So far it's not too bad. All in all, Wednesday wasn't bad, felt okay, a little sore...but fairly good.

Thursday: Got up early, had the house to myself, showered, felt sick, sat down a while, let the dog out, went out to check the mail, walked down the sidewalk about 20 feet, felt really sick, and went to lie down, woke up about an hour later and rushed to the bathroom and began vomiting....Oh My Gosh!! I was in pain after that. My chest hurt really bad. I sat down for a little while, the pain would not go away, I called my doctor, they said go to the emergency room, I called my friend Karen, and she took me to Denton Regional. I was there half the day it felt like.... My roommate and my mom came. They stayed with me. Oh my goodness, I believe it was training day in the emergency room that day. When they came in to take blood five people entered the room - four of which had student patches from NCTC on their arms, one of the students came toward me, I cringed, she took my blood and it was okay, she did pretty well. Second, the I.V., a different student, Oh crap, she missed the vien, the nurse said, try going to the left, OUCH, she missed agin, the nurse said "go deeper" I wriggled and cringed and made faces, then cried and they gave up on that hand. So, they decided to go to the other hand, it was the nurse this time, and she was trying to prove something to these students, she jammed that needle in so hard, I thought it went through my bone, it was horrid, the most horrible I.V. ever. She got it in, but it hurt like ##@*&*^!!@@. Then they did X-Rays, and crawling from the bed to the table and back was quite painful with these inciscions in my stomach, but I managed. It was weird, the doctor's had never heard of the procedure I had or seen "anything like it" The doctor in charge asked me to explain it to him "for his education". Pretty weird. I wasn't feeling too confident about them at this point, finally they talked to my doctor and let me go home, gave me medicine for nausea, and a prescription and I was off. Back at home, I didn't feel too good, my phone rang off the hook, I counted, and I received 26 phone calls that day. I think that's a record for me.

Friday: Lot better day. Felt pretty good, watched some movies, no drama. A good day.

Saturday: That is today, I feel great, a little sore, but I can live with that. I got up at 7:00 a.m., showered, put on make-up, got on the scale - I've lots 12 pounds, I opened my Mary Kay shipment, and found all the pretty nail polishes I ordered for myself along with the other stuff, but the stuff I got fro me was most fun. I started to clean a little, then decided to check my e-mail. Now I'm doing this, writing in my blog. I think I will go paint a picture.....I've been wanting to paint.