Embrace The Suck

While driving to St. Augustine last week, my sweetie and I spied an incredible billboard. Although we read the words individually we commented in unison. "Wow! Did you see that?" It wasn't your typical Florida roadside message. It didn't advertise all nude dancing girls or the many wonderous sights of the Alligator Farm. It said nothing about surfing, or sleeping or eating. Stuck out in the middle of nowhere was a sign that simply said: "One lamp, many candles." Oh sure we had to keep driving because we were traveling a 70 miles an hour. But for a moment we stopped everything else so we could process the message. It bypassed your head and went straight to your heart. I've never had that happen before, have you? We continued on our way but made a point of searching for the sign on the way home. We wanted a closer - deeper look. When we found it, I got out of the car with my trusty Sony sidekick and tried to capture the essence in pixels. Strangely the po...

Sometimes I have trouble remembering what I did last week. Sometimes I forget that I bought milk and leave it in the back of the car to turn yellow in the Florida summertime heat. Should I even admit that I'm still trying to find the butter I'm pretty sure I took out of the freezer days ago but has not been seen since? I've looked for it in every new kitchen nook and cranny. I've checked the pantry, the linen closet and under the bathroom sink. I'm beginning to think the night I downed a few too many margaritas followed by a few too many Tequila shooters has come back to haunt me. Like the gas gauge on my car, I fear my supply of brain cells is nearing empty. But I can tell you where I was six years ago today. Surprisingly, I can also tell you where I was when John F. Kennedy was shot. But then why wouldn't I remember it? September 11, 2001, like December 7, 1941, is a day "which will live in infamy." My ostrich-style way of dealing with stress was not...

Once upon a time in the land of sunny days and humid afternoons, there was a house. It was a nice house, with a brand new kitchen. I live in the house. My job is to make it a comfortable place to live for both the people and the animals who share the space. My pets include two birds, two cats, one dog and an untold number of dust bunnies. [Photo L to R: Ewell and Hoppin' John] For no reason other than that's the way the chips fell, the four-legged animals are all black. The dog, Black Beauty, has a muzzle full of white hair and a blaze of white on her chest. However, in the wee hours of the morning, on the way to the bathroom, it's hard to see the little spots of white. In fact it's hard to tell that there is even an animal sleeping in the hall at all. Suffice it to say black is even blacker when one is half asleep. [Photo L: Him and Her] Like most of us who live in the house, Beauty is old, perhaps 70 in dog years. She has arthritis in her hind end so she moves kind of...

Now that the kitchen is done, I am faced with the challenge of cleaning up the things I've been neglecting for awhile. For a girl who really believed she had multi-tasking down pat, I've had a rude awakening of late. It seems I'm barely able to focus on one thing at a time. I chose a new kitchen over washing the car, pulling weeds, dusting, any king of exercise and going to the dentist, so you can imagine I've had a few things to tend to. Because I've been in a post-whirlwind funk for the last few days, my sweetie offered the suggestion that I'm "project oriented." He thinks I feel at loose ends because I have no project waiting in the wings. Project,of course, means something different to different people. Jack must must not consider dusting quite the same undertaking that I do. Anyway yesterday, out of the blue, I decided to clean both vans - inside and out. I admit my true motivator was the ghastly odor emanating from some unseen but not unsmellable...