Unconscious Mutterings Week 145

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Mighty:: Mouse
   
2. Gotta find time to ....:: put up more bookshelves
   
3. Statistic:: correlation is not causation
   
4. Midnight::
   
   'Twas midnight on the ocean, not a streetcar was in sight.
   The sun was shining brightly for it rained all day that night.
   It was a summer's day in winter and the snow was raining fast
   as a barefoot boy with shoes on, stood sitting in the grass.
   (unknown author, something I read as a child)
   
   
5. Thaw:: a frozen heart...
   
6. Hips:: rose
   
7. Reader::word, thought, idea lover
   
8. Related:: associated
   
9. Brilliant:: shining with light
   
10. Posture:: shoulders back, head up

Join in, play along - weekly word list can be found at Unconscious Mutterings

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What color heart do you have?

file under silly things to do on a Saturday morning break:

Your Heart Is Purple

For you, love is about establishing and developing a deep connection. If it's true love, it brings you more wisdom and inner strength. Your flirting style: Sincere Your lucky first date: An afternoon at a tea house Your dream lover: Is both thoughtful and expressive What you bring to relationships: Understanding

What Color Heart Do You Have?

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Random notes

Random notes; maybe I'll have some photos later...

Slight Frowns:

When did so many places stop considering Veteran's day as a holiday? Soldiers don't make the decisions that take us to a war and their service ought to be honored.

Listening to Shrub speak makes me cringe (as I've mentioned repeatedly for different reasons at different times). He should shut up now about the things he is currently stumbling over to say, because re-spinning facts isn't going to change the light beginning to glow in the middle of the country.

One should be highly suspicious of a parent company who lets the health insurance premium payments for one of it's subsidiaries lapse while still deducting said premiums from the employee's paychecks.

In the same vein, thank goodness sometimes, for bureaucracy where one hand doesn't know what the other one is doing- as in an HMO accounting department sending out a letter saying they've cancelled insurance, but the computer still lists that person as a member so prescriptions could be picked up at the member price and she could still get a free flu shot. Here's to hoping that the wheels continue to turn that way if there is an emergency over the weekend or until this is sorted out.

Why don't leafblowers require sound mufflers? Better yet, why aren't they banned entirely in their gasoline powered form?

Why is there more and more junk snail mail that needs shredding? Remember the days when one could stand over a plain wastebasket and sort the incoming mail?

Smiles:

The sun is out today, with some cumulonimbus clouds hanging about growing taller, decorating the sky over the mountains (which are also visible- yipppie!!).

I'm grateful for a boss who writes glowing reports to my academic program advisor (and even tells me some of these things in person when he doesn't need to- it's a great motivator!). He won't see this, but I did thank him with a note.

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chasing self day

"Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow." ~Douglas Pagels

I do take more 'keep my sanity days' than I did in earlier years. None of those are possible for the next many weeks, at least not planned ones, but mini breaks are necessary to every day.

Some pieces from a tiny break on a very long Tuesday...



I pass this same rose bordered walkway every week heading into the home of two of my clients. The various blooms never fail to catch my eye. I suspect it might be due to being better at noticing things in the moment these days, even when I am stressed (then again, it might just be that I wish I had a few rose bushes to tend).

It rained lightly off and on Wednesday. I didn't leave the house - not even to look around in between showers. I did peek out the windows a few times and noticed the mountains were hidden. I wound up with a 'one thing leads to another, leads to another, leads to another, nothing gets completely done' sort of day.

One of the 'one thing' items was touching base with my boss... and heard the barest outline of a possible position that might be open for me to pursue in the Spring- around the time of my new degree or a little sooner... which led to some quick searches at O'net, comparing educational requirements and median salaries for various positions; not that money matters a lot (it matters, just not as the primary motivator), but if I am making a list of pros and cons for earning that dual master's, I ought to know what sort of impact it might make... turns out it is considerable- as in plus almost half again in salary at other employers who might make use of that part of the degree.

Another Tuesday pic:

I kept thinking the leaves seemed like scattered jewels in the grass... scattered jewels... leads to thinking about other important and scattered things.. which leads to ....

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storms of indecision

"All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last." ~Marcel Proust

I was taking a break, looked out the window Sunday evening and saw the clouds glowing with the end of the sunset light.

These look a bit like wings...

I could be finished with my master of science degree in counseling, rehabilitation option, by the end of spring (4 classes [16 units] plus some final internship hours [5 units] and the comprehensive exam), in May 06, or by summer's end, depending on when classes were offered ...

or I could apply for the MFCC program and take 8 additional classes (32 units), 6 units of family practice clinic time (240 hours over 20 weeks), and 15 additional units of internship (600 hours over 30 weeks) and an additional comp exam, which in total might require another year or year and a half beginning Fall 06.

I am sooooooo tired. I want the dual masters and to be eligible to take the state's marriage and family counseling board certification tests (which would require some additional hours of counseling practice, under supervision), but the thoughts of the additional year or so of driving at night, hours in classroom lectures and testing- keeps suggesting the words tedious and overwhelming.

And this health stuff is looming over my head- all the 'what if's'; I can't decide. The counselor with career counseling training, needs a counselor.

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weird weather

File under all things Indiana- my place of birth and home for most of the first 28 years of life...
It's a very weird time of year for tornadoes in Indiana, no matter what the weather people have said. My thoughts are with those folks in Indiana and Kentucky who were affected.

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Waiting

"So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late." ~Lee Iacocca

"Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen." ~Horace Mann

"The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready." ~Henry David Thoreau

The MRI went fine, was short compared to what I thought it might be (was in and out including registration and waiting time in an hour and a half) and was interesting in that there was a rhythm to the noise- five bangs followed by five and sometimes four different bangs in a lower tone. I don't know what mineral I was injected with at the last, but it is something I would like to know. I briefly saw the pics but not to actually study closely. There were fewer finished scans than I thought there would be. The report and pics will be sent to the neurologist and my own doc, so I will know something hopefully in about two weeks. ( and the inner me is saying- two weeks!!!!!!!! - eeegads, that's a horrible amount of time to wait). One more specialty doc and possibly 'in office tests' that need to be done before the next neuro appointment unless they find something more urgent, or so I hopefully presume.

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Unconscious Mutterings Week 144

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Deeper and deeper:: layers
   
2. Can’t help .... :: yes, anyone can
   
3. Devil’s advocate:: useful sometimes
   
4. Superpower:: without super leadership
   
5. Threatening:: don't believe am threatening, sometimes feel threatened
   
6. Played:: sometimes [shrug shoulders], it happens
   
7. War:: is not healthy for children and other living creatures!
   
8. Violate:: break
   
9. Invest:: time
   
10. Choke:: decrease air
    

Weekly word list at Unconscious Mutterings

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Tagged

Sherry tagged me and I said I'd play so here is...

20 random things about me:
(Twenty is too difficult; so here are 10:)
1. ...am handy with tools and have my own toolboxs full of them- auto, woodworking, electronic, and crafting
2. ...like figuring out how to make and repair things and how things work (but seldom have time for that pleasure these days)
3. ...miss romance
4. spending all day shopping in person belongs in the how to torture me column
5. ...once held an amateur radio licence, could send and comprehend code
6. ...need alone time in an amount slightly more or roughly equal to the amount of time spent with people
7. ...don't mind being and growing older, but DO mind losing abilities and sometimes mind looking older
8. ...like hard sciences, and never met an academic discipline whose basics couldn't be comprehended with some effort
9. ...like that people think I am competent, capable and strong
10. ...hate that people always think I am strong and don't need a shoulder to lean on or a little fussing over, now and then

7 Things to do before I die?
1. Travel and savor as many places as I can
2. Backpack very slowly up the California Coast Trail or as much of it as is completed (assuming they will have a "seniors" part of the trail???)
3. Find more missing pieces of my family history
4. Learn stonecutting and silver jewelry making techniques
5. Study more geology, seismology and physical geography, re-learn Latin
6. Learn to tango, salsa, etc.
7. Hold a grandchild in my arms

7 Things I cannot do:
(cannot do any longer or never could:)
1. summersaults
2. cartwheels
3. flips (never could)
4. backbends
5. lift 65 pounds (used to lift much more when I weighed less!! but I can carry almost that much in a backpack)
6. read teeeny tiny print
7. tolerate injustice in my presence

7 Things that attract me to the opposite sex
1. intelligence
2. empathy
3. confidence
4. intelligence
5. empathy
6. confidence
7. intelligence
;-)

7 things I say most often
1. How do you feel about that?
2. You can do it
3. Great job!
4. really [.?!]
5. good, and you?
6. Wonderful!
7. oh sh*t!

7 Celebrity crushes?
nah... my last celebrity crushes were George Harrison and Paul McCartney in 1968
These days I do find several of them physically attractive in a mild, easy on the eye, sort of way, but I wouldn't call it a crush.


Later edit: OOPS!! I was supposed to tag someone, I think. But instead, I will leave it open for anyone to pick up.

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pieces of the day

Part of living each day with a measure of joy requires being open to the delights that present themselves...

Some quick pics of a few of the moments that made me smile...





clouds and sunsets always give me smiles...










I was startled by Precious the parrotlet flying across the table to grab my pen; then a few minutes later I had a bird on my head.



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