In the Meantime...

Wordless Wednesday ~ It's Ours!

Part of Wordless Wednesday.

Breathe, Girl. Breathe...

We just got back from our pre-closing walk-through of the house. Boy, oh boy do you see the house with different eyes when it's yours!

The sellers had the house cleaned, including the carpet. But five years, two kids, and several animals will do a number on carpet that no cleaning company can undo. It will be fine for now because it's good quality carpet, but I have a feeling that new flooring will be our first big expenditure.

They left random crap around that we will need to pick up and throw away. Anyone need a leopard print shower curtain? No? How about bullets? Yes. They left bullets. What the hell do we do with those?

The kids' rooms need major attention. We knew that we would paint the walls, but we noticed writing and stickers on the doors. Do we paint the doors or get new ones? Probably paint, right?

Now that all the furniture is out of the house, we really noticed how much touch-up painting needs to be done. So, do we touch it up or just re-do it little by little? And won't that be a bear once all of our furniture is in?

Lots of little things: loose door knobs, bent vent covers, showers that need to be de-molded and re-caulked, weeding and mulching of the landscaping, sod or seed the spot where the playset was...

I've had about 17 mini anxiety attacks in the past hour and a half. Add to that the fact that the moving to do list playing through my head didn't let me go back to sleep after I woke up at 3 AM, and you have an idea of the pleasant person Jon is living with right now.

But he is so calm. And excited. And that helps me look at all the good stuff.

We get to move out of our crummy plastic duplex with no basement and bedrooms on the second floor (in the middle of tornado country).

We get to leave this crummy back yard that doesn't have anything but weeds and dirt in it, is enclosed by a chain-link fence that we have to rent, and has a 10' square patio that fits nothing except a grill.

We get to leave a neighborhood in which 75% of our neighbors and the people who drive by (at 5:30 AM and 11:30 PM) have jazzed up cars with super loud mufflers and radios. How old do I sound right now? Wait. don't answer that.

We get to leave this kitchen. Too many things wrong there to list...

And what are we getting?

We're getting a solidly constructed home with lovely landscaping, a sprinkler system, a wood deck, and a privacy fence in the back yard.

Pella widows. Wood blinds in the bedrooms.

A dining room.

Room for guests - lots of guests - in the beautifully finished basement.

Bright and cheerful eat-in kitchen with ample cabinet space that opens up to a living room.

A pretty little park across the street.

And much, much more.

Maybe I should print this post out for reference when I'm freaking out this next week during the move. It might serve to calm me.

And for that Jon would be ever so grateful.

Blah, blah, blah and Macro Monday

I haven't been very regular at posting lately. There's not much going on in my life right now except house hunting and my avoidance of triathlon training - neither of which is the least bit interesting.

I'm kind of out of words these days. I have a post rattling about in my head, but can't quite get it organized. I've enlisted the help of three of my best friends, so sometime this week I hope to be able to get my thoughts together.

In the meantime (Huh huh. See how I worked the name of my blog in there? Ain't I clever?), I'll play Lisa's Macro Monday.

 
Pine Needles

Dreams of Our Future in Paradise.

Today's post on Shutter Sisters prompts readers to show "a photo that's a tease of what you want the most."

I have written before and posted a few photos about Jon's and my love of the Pacific Northwest.
We dream about living there after Jon is finished with the Air Force.
We dream of being able to simply climb into the van with the dogs and some lunch and, after a short drive, spend the day playing at the ocean.
We dream of the greenness of the place.
We dream of greeting the mountains daily.
(Hopefully it's not a dream that we will be able to afford a house there!)
Somedays, it feels as if we will never get there.
In reality, it may be as little as four and a half years away.

Until then, I have photos to keep the memories fresh in my mind.

Peace through Music.

Did you know that today is Bob Marley's birthday?

The video is from Playing for Change, "a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. I think Bob would have approved of them using his song, don't you?

One love! one heart!
Lets get together and feel all right.
Hear the children cryin (one love!);
Hear the children cryin (one heart!),
Sayin: give thanks and praise to the lord and I will feel all right;
Sayin: lets get together and feel all right. wo wo-wo wo-wo!

Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (one love!);
There is one question Id really love to ask (one heart!):
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner,
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?

One love! what about the one heart? one heart!
What about - ? lets get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning (one love!);
So shall it be in the end (one heart!),
All right!
Give thanks and praise to the lord and I will feel all right;
Lets get together and feel all right.
One more thing!

Lets get together to fight this holy armagiddyon (one love!),
So when the man comes there will be no, no doom (one song!).
Have pity on those whose chances grows tinner;
There aint no hiding place from the father of creation.

Sayin: one love! what about the one heart? (one heart!)
What about the - ? lets get together and feel all right.
Im pleadin to mankind! (one love!);
Oh, lord! (one heart) wo-ooh!

Give thanks and praise to the lord and I will feel all right;
Lets get together and feel all right.
Give thanks and praise to the lord and I will feel all right;
Lets get together and feel all right.

 

Art Appreciation.

Edgar Degas PETITE DANSEUSE DE QUATORZE ANS is up for auction at Sotheby's today.

I lived many years in a city a short distance from St. Louis. My friends and I used to spend a lot of time in Forest Park, because we were constantly short on cash and we could go to the art museum and the zoo for free. FREE. I don't know of too many art museums or zoos that are free.

On Fridays, the museum stays open late, so it was a good, inexpensive date destination - dinner at one of many affordable restaurants in the city, and then free admission to the museum. We would wander for hours.

I didn't know, first time I went to the museum, that they had in their collection a brass casting of the original. The first time I saw her, I couldn't believe it. I had seen pictures of the original, of course, but never expected to see a cast of it in person.

Hang on! HUGE aside ahead!
I love moments like that in art museums.

Like the first time I saw A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte at the Art Institute of Chicago. I walked around a corner into another room and there it was.

Huge and glorious. I was mesmerized.

Or the first time I saw this at The Louvre.

 

It took my breath away.
(I wanted to do the Audrey Hepburn thing from Funny Face. You know...

but I didn't think I could pull it off.)
(Yes, I am a dork.)

Anyway, I was enchanted by little Marie, the ballerina. I walked around her, looking at every detail and falling in love. I was fascinated by the combination of brass, with her cotton skirt and fabric hair ribbon. The angle of her chin, the position of her feet, her little hands clasped behind her back. I visited her every time I went to the museum. She was beautiful. 

I rarely wish that I was disgustingly, fabulously, unimaginably rich. But, if I had an extra $17 million, I'd be bidding on her. I wouldn't even ask Jon.

Well, maybe I would ask Jon.

I wonder if the person who buys her will love her. If they will put her in a place where they could see and appreciate her every day.

Maybe they will loan her to a museum, so ordinary people can see her and fall in love.

That's what I would do.

All images from Google.

Wake up.
Feeling dark.
Cold.
Hollow.
Sad.
Angry.
Helpless.

Nothing lifts the clouds.
Not hot, sweet, creamy tea.
Not silly pups.
Not gentle husband.
Not sun.

So
Sleep.
Sleep the day away.
Hide from the clouds.

Then,
Smile and laugh for strangers.

Back home.
Growl and snap at those who love.
Why? No answers.

More sleep.
Hours and hours.
Dream after dream.

Sunday.
New day.
Better day.
Clouds lifted.
Sun.

Sorry for Saturday, Sweetie. Thanks for giving me space.
I'm better now.

Inauguration Day.

Hope – Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.
Barack Obama

Amen, Bishop Robinson!

Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson's invocation during the pre-inauguration events:

"O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears -- tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger -- anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.

Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.

And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.

Give him stirring words; We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand, that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity, and peace. Amen."

The Power of a Dream

Have you ever listened to or read the whole thing ? Pretty damn powerful speech.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!