Kadeeae’s Neighborhood

I just love this footage of Christopher Walken dancing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMZwZiU0kKs

Sorry, no embed code!

Another of Norm's good 'uns; Praise You, guarantedd to get me dancing every time

I seem to have run over a milestone.  I think I felt something jarring under my tires, but it's really hard to say when you're doing donuts, hanging out the window, singing at the top of your lungs to the song on the radio.  I'm pretty sure I ran over something though... several times.  heh

I've had a lot to think about this week, well I always do, but things have been falling so nicely into place for a change.  I'm just about a month from my 38th birthday celebration, and I think I've finally grown up ...just a *wee* bit.

What does it feel like?  Hmm.  More stable, really.  I'm not as easily baited, not as tempted to get riled up when I know having a fit won't change things, not as willing to let myself be swept along by crazy mood swings.  I'm so much more content keeping to myself.  I don't feel like I have *ANYTHING* to prove to *ANYONE*, and yet I finally can feel a genuine need for self-improvement that comes only from within, only for my own benefit, not for some stupid dog and pony show or silly competition with the Joneses, whoever the hell they are.  I like who I am, a lot.

I've been working through these things in fits and starts for years, but very recently it's all kind of arranged itself into place and anchored itself down.

Don't get me wrong!  I'm still going to eat too much candy, occasionally drink too much, have dessert before dinner when the urge strikes, play in the rain, dance and sing like a fool, still doing donuts while squealing like a banshee, ..., etc.  Being a grown up comes with so much responsibility, and membership MUST have its privileges!  I'm just feeling more in control; I'm not dead inside.

I'm thinking about rearranging my online presence.  I may delete my LJ.  Facebook may go too.  I'll probably keep my VOX, and MySpace serves as a nice little calling-card for any old friends that might want to look me up.  ...Well, that's my current thinking anyhow.  I'll mull it over for a while.  There's so much to do in the world, and I've been very undisciplined when it comes to letting the internet take precedence over my real world presence.

Speaking of real world, I have work to do.  I had some priorities rearranged at work yesterday, and that means I'll probably spend a few weekends working to adjust to the new deadline.  It's all good though.  I'll pay up a few weekends if that's the price for having this longterm albatross around my neck wrapped up and pushed away all the sooner. 

Fortunately, it's muggy as hell today - a good day for spending the whole day sitting in front of an air conditioner.

Phil came round yesterday afternoon, very upset - a friend of ours, who lives in The States has been killed - Ryan was out on his motorbike (think sensible rider, not hooligan) when he was mown down by a drink driver - a re-run of how my cousin was killed. It's so sad - Ryan was a real bright light amid all the crap in this world - he was a psychologist, working with disadvantaged children in San Fran. We were there at his wedding to Anouk. I shall have a dig around for the CD with their wedding photos on and post one here.

Ryan&Anouk

Ryan&Anouk2

It's all so senseless and such a waste - he was so young and vibrant and a talented artist too - Ryan painted a beautiful mural on Anouk's folk's wall; they must feel so sad looking at it now. Drink drivers really make me sooo mad!!!!!

On a happier note - this one reminds me of Phil's method of getting down to work!

Procrastination...

Rosie and I have just been round to see Mrs A - her arthritis is really quite bad now and she had to go to the Docs for an injection into each hip yesterdaty. It must have done some good as she's able to move today and has been gardening. Her gardener has been away having an operation, so Phil has offered to go round and do her lawn for her. I told her not to drag herself round to the quack when she's in such pain - she's to call one of us to take her or ask for a home visit. Bless her, she doesn't like to bother anyone!

Been chatting to Kerry over the garden fence today - her baby was due yesterday and she's starting to feel the strain. They were chilling out in the garden and she was lapping up the sun in her bikini - best make the most of it - storms due for the weekend :-(  I can't wait for a newborn baby to cuddle.

Talking of babies - here's the latest addition to Mel and Paul's family.... Pip

Pip

I've just been sat outside on the front wall chatting to two of my neighbours; Steve rang the doorbell to return a carton I'd given him some eggs in, and Hannah was out with the baby in her arms, putting out her wheelie bin. So we sat there in the sultry warmth and nattered; the mugginess has cleared a bit and the sky is more blue now, less like the threatening thunder thing we've had all day. They are practicing bell ringing down at the church and we can hear that outside. The house martins are screeling and swooping after the bugs too.

More like murder at midnight in the back garden though... *roll* just went out to bring the washing in and Biscuit is out there entertaining himself with a toad. I removed poor Mr Toad to the safety of the shrubbery, but I don't think he moved fast enough as Fat Boy waded in there and started to play again. I just hope that Biscuit doesn't bring it in for dismembering on the kitchen floor - he doesn't usually catch toads as they exude a bitter coating and he doesn't like it.

Rosie's last day at school today - the leavers in the year above all rang the old school bell as they left and there were tears. They celebrated with a picnic on the school field, and being off sick, it was nice to be able to go for once (although getting up off the grass wasn't very elegant - I could have done with a block and tackle); I have to say that I was astonished at the total crap in some of their lunch boxes though - one child's consisted totally of chocolate!!!! I wonder if she has trouble concentrating in class??

Rosie is doing two courses this summer at the sports centre - rookie lifeguard training and sub-aqua. She loves swimming, so I expect that she will do well.

I'm still getting really tired, although it should be easier now that Rosie is off school and I don't need to get up to take her to school - I have been walking her the quarter of a mile to school, then coming home and lying down for a rest. The tummy ache is less now and I'm cutting down on the painkillers. I found the old support belt that I used to wear in the latter stages of pregnancy (Rosie was such a big baby), it's more like an elastic cummerbund really which holds everything in and takes the strain off the muscles. Because they use clamps to part the abdominal muscles when they do the op, it takes a while for them to snap backa nd heal, so it all aches a lot by the end of the day. This belt just helps to support it all and stops some of the aching.

Biscuit has just been in - gulped down some more supper, belched then crawled upstairs to flop down on the bed. Georgie is taking a more ladylike apporach, nibbling daintily at her food and tiptoeing around.

How to peel a hard boiled egg without peeling it...

.....For Izzy's purple party
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Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

    Love of beauty is Taste .
    The creation of beauty is Art.
        - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just beyond the sunset, Someone waits for me, Just beyond the sunset, Lies my destiny.
    - David Harris

The heat of the spring sun, warms  blades of grass, woven by breaths of wind...above, endless blue sky, reminiscent of azure seas sweeping a white sand beach - a cove, scattered with scarred pieces of driftwood, each furrow a story of a thousand tales.

Bright splashes of colour, dappled by the lazy sunlight, draw detail to the eye.  Purples in riot, vivid oranges and yellows...all the colours of the kaleidescope in every variety and hue...

Blossoms fall from above, sunlit, scattering on the earth like flakes of snow, grace from heaven, inherent with evanescent beauty... falling like motes of dust suspended in a ray of light.

White petals drench the earth, windswept, cast adrift by dictatorial threads of fate.  The earth reaches and claims its own, a vast, subterranean wisdom older than the ages, older than thought, transcendent; grounding.

A petal becomes a blossom, thousands spread as an ethereal carpet, becomes a moment, a thousand such moments...an eternity of pattern and repetition.  The only constancy finding itself in the vastness of that earth.

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
The firefly wakens: waken thou with me.
Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.
Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.
Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.
Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake:
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.

   - Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal