I’m telling you this is momentous.
Today, when the paper shredder jammed and I took the top off to investigate, I remembered to… (drumroll please)… UNPLUG the paper shredder! So, not only do I know why the paper shredder was jammed… I still have all my fingers.
Small miracles happen every day!
I have always loved the calendar and how a series of numbers lining up seems to make that day stand out more than others. When I was a kid, we got a kick out of our math teacher reminding us that 9/9/81, was special because 9×9=81.
Today is 07/07/07 and for some, seven is a lucky or perfect number. In Texas, 07/07/07 has been a great day whether or not luck or perfection is involved. Water stands all over the city and many other places throughout the region and the sun is straining to poke through the cloud cover. Mercifully, so far today, no rain has fallen. That makes 07/07/07 a good, “dry” day. It’s rained every day but 7 since June 1st and though June is Houston’s “wettest” month, it was much, much wetter than usual.
Also today the Live Earth concert is going on all over the world, calling attention to the plight of the Earth’s resources, and how to go “green,” and be good conservationists. Not only have I heard some incredible music, I have been encouraged at how they’ve simplified the Go Green message to make it accessible and “do-able” for everyone.
I’ve had some history with recycling and “green” thinking. When I was a kid, we recycled pop cans (excuse me, Easterners, “pop” is soda, and for your Texans, “pop” is coke). We would walk up and down country roads and collect a few garbage bags full and then take them to the can recycling collection center and get a few cents a can.
One winter, around the time of the coal strike in Indiana when electricity was scarce and we had to sit by the windows to have enough light to read at school, we had a solar heating panel made from a kit attached to the house (I don’t remember if we had it that winter or that winter of low energy inspired the solar heater, but we had one around that time). Unfortunately, this “kit” had no way to store any energy and Indiana winter days are too short to make a difference. Though the solar energy couldn’t combat the below zero winters, if you sat right next to the vent you could feel the warmth it generated for a little while, so it proved to me it could work. Though the solar heating panel disappeared after one winter, I had more experience with non-traditional energy sources and recycling than most kids I knew.
After college, when I worked for a rather sizeable newspaper, I learned a great deal more about recycling. The newspaper was very “green” and recycled nearly EVERYTHING. There was one large garbage can in our department for non-recyclables… like fountain pens, highlighters, or things your weren’t sure fit anywhere else. Otherwise, there was a bin for whatever you had to throw away. Even the waste basket under your desk was for paper items or wrappers that had touched food. It got recycled.
A huge bin in the middle of all our cublicles collected discarded newspapers. Another bin next to it was for typing/copy paper and the bin next to that was for all other paper (magazine type paper, color ad inserts, etc). Then there was the bottled water bin, the aluminum can bin, and all other colors of bottles bin.
In some communities, recycling is accessible and easy to participate in, and in others, recycling takes a real commitment. Yet, every little effort adds up to a significant amount when everybody starts taking those baby steps.
In my apartment we have energy-saving lightbulbs. It’s not much, but it’s a start. Instead of drinking so much bottled water (and discarding the bottles) I drink filtered tap water. Therefore I use less plastic (a petroleum based product).
While I was in San Francisco, they announced a plan to cut out bottled water in the city. It would cut down on the wasted bottles, the gas to bring the bottled water into the city, the emissions of the truck bringing the bottles into the city, etc. One idea snowballs into something big. A little inconvenient, maybe, but not really that big of an effort, right?
Yes, I still drink things out of plastic bottles, but not enough, at least at home, for a significant collection to recycle them. As I’ve watched some of the Live Earth concert, I realized that there are more small things I could do to save on resources, and that will give me something to ponder for a while.
The sun just poked through the clouds and is streaming across my living room floor. In fact, I peeked through the blinds and I see BLUE sky! Of course, rain is forecast for later, but I’ll enjoy this bit of sunshine while it lasts.
Enjoy your 07/07/07… There won’t be another in your lifetime, but we have other types of number assortments to look forward to like 3/03/09 because 3×3=9.
The following story was born because of a movie buff named Greg. He’s my friend Sharon’s uncle, and while we were at his house in Felton, he handed Sharon’s husband, Thomas, a DVD of The Magnificent Seven and told him he HAD to see it. In fact, he asked Thomas to write a report on it. Sharon, Thomas and I were discussing this proposed report and decided that Uncle Greg would get his report – but it wouldn’t be what he expected.
Thomas watched the movie while I was in San Francisco. When I got back, he and Sharon were discussing the proposed movie report/review and Sharon thought we should spin it a bit. In Thomas’ job, he experiences people who live in an alternate reality in their minds, so as we talked, The Magnificent Seven started to take on a whole new personality.
After I got back from vacay and my brain had time to rest, the following is what I came up with for Uncle Greg’s report/review. Keep in mind I’ve still yet to see the film in its entirety, and any similarities to the actual movie are not really… all that intentional.
The Magnificent Seven, the real story.
Backstory:
Chris Adams has a problem. His life as a bicycle cop in Monterey has him bored to tears. So, on the advice of his boss, Chief Calvera, Chris decides to go on vacation to spice up his life a little. While relaxing in a little village in Mexico, Chris goes into a coma after he goes horseback riding and gets bucked off his horse.
Plot:
Our story begins when Chris wakes up in a tiny village in old Mexico… the old Mexico full of cheesy costumes, bad Spanish accents and classic cowboy lines like, “We deal in lead, my friend.” The villagers insist that the infamous bandit Calvera, who has continually raided their village of peasant means, will be back to finish the job and they beg Chris to help them.
Chris, a big hearted, bald, chain-smoking bicycle cop, now hidden beneath black Old West clothing and a tough as nails demeanor, believes he is dreaming, back in the sanitarium, or at worst, in purgatory, but he decides to help the villagers. Chris walks the town in search of help from the villagers, but he soon realizes he is in a town full of pacifists and will have to call on some old friends to help him defeat Calvera.
Chris, now off his schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder medication since he is in old Mexico where those medications haven’t been invented yet, calls upon the voices in his head for help, voices he hasn’t heard in years.
“We need a Personality Posse,” Chris muses.
The first personality to resurface is Chico, who apparently likes math and is from Chris’ left brain. “This is the kind of arithmetic I like,” Chico has been known to say. Chris could never really trust Chico, so he sends him on his way. Chico, however, is persistent, and lurks in Chris’ mind just out of his consciousness, until Chris finally decides to activate him and allow him to join in the plans to defeat Calvera. Chico also represents Chris’ libido, as he is constantly distracted by a peasant woman named Petra.
Next, Chris’ bff personality Harry Luck resurfaces. Harry’s Achilles heel is greed, and he believes Chris is going to get rich off this venture, so he’s all in.
After Harry starts dreaming of counting his pesos, Vin pops back into Chris’ consciousness. Vin, who looks remarkably like a badly made Steve McQueen clone, represents Chris’ addictive personality, as he has just gone bankrupt from his gambling addiction. Since Harry believes he’s going to get some money taking down Calvera, Vin can’t help but tag along.
Chris searches his mind for the worst of his deeply hidden, splintered personalities. He chooses Bernardo O’Reilly, who needs money as much as Harry and Vin do, but in O’Reilly’s own mind, he’s just an eccentric millionaire who likes to chop wood and he takes the job for kicks.
Chris also calls on Britt, who is lightning quick and likes shiny things, particularly switchblades. Britt also has an affinity for Schlitz beer. Finally, Chris allows Lee to join the posse. Lee has a pretty face, but is on the run from the law because, as he proudly boasts, he has no living enemies.
Chris believes that seven is a good number of voices to listen to, and seven isn’t necessarily a crowd, so he and his newly formed Personality Posse ride to the next village and buy some guns and ammo from the great great grandfather of a future arms dealer. They return to the village to make good on Chris’ promise to help.
Chris, and alternately, the Personality Posse, train the villagers in early era peasant guerilla warfare. Chico keeps getting distracted by Petra, and the villagers don’t seem to notice or care that Chris talks to himself quite often.
Calvera returns to the village and gets in quite a snit over the villagers hiring Chris to train them in early era peasant guerilla warfare. Calvera leaves the village, but Chico wanders off and discovers that Calvera has plans to teach the peasant villagers a lesson.
Chris and the Personality Posse debate over whether they should leave the village and chalk the failure up to lessons learned. Vin isn’t sure they should honor their contract, but Chris and a majority of the Personality Posse overrule him, reasoning that since they’ve gotten the villagers all riled up with a heightened sense of self esteem and a desire to lay down their lives for freedom, they should stay and fight.
An anonymous member of the Personality Posse decides to make a preemptive strike on Calvera’s camp and off they go. Unfortunately, they have a “d’oh!” moment because Calvera isn’t there. He has already made it back to the tiny town and conquered the villagers, who cannot carry out early era peasant guerilla warfare on their own.
Chris and the Personality Posse return to the village and stare down Calvera, but Chris blinks. Calvera, feeling slightly intimidated by the crazy American who argues with himself, takes Chris’ guns and banishes him from the village.
The Personality Posse is outraged and forces Chris to return to the village the next morning to show Calvera who’s boss… all, except Harry, who is counting his pesos and decides to sit this one out.
During the heat of battle, Harry feels a little bit like a git for leaving Chris and the rest of the Personality Posse in the lurch, so he goes back to help out and ends up getting killed. Of course, an extra personality, when it is killed in the mind, can never resurface in reality.
O’Reilly, who earlier had given a rousing speech to some villager children of how brave their parents really are, dies saving the urchins. Lee and Britt also die in the battle, proving that lightning speed isn’t always quick enough and that living enemies can really be annoying.
The villagers are inspired by the bravery and sacrifice shown by the Personality Posse and suddenly they have a total recall of their early era peasant guerilla warfare training and start throwing chairs, rocks, axes, sticks, and whatever they can find at Calvera and his men.
Chris finally shoots Calvera. Calvera wonders, as he lay dying, why an American who mumbles to himself would help a bunch of Mexican peasant villagers, but dies before he can have the epiphany.
After the dust settles in the village, all that remains of the Personality Posse are Chico and Vin. Chris is feeling rather lonely as only two voices are heard in his head and he isn’t used to the echo. Unfortunately for Chris, Chico, who has long been distracted by Petra, decides to stay behind with her in the village and start a family. Chico retreats to the far recesses of Chris’ brain, and is never heard from again. Now, Chris is left with Vin.
Chris and Vin ride out to the cemetery to pay tribute to the rest of the Personality Posse. Chris stares at the graves stoically, knowing he will never hear from them again.
Chris says to himselves, “Only the farmers won. We lost. We always lose.” Vin, thinking that defeating Calvera was definitely a win decides that Chris is too pessimistic for his own good, and decides banishment to Chris’ grey matter is a better option than listening to Chris’ negativity, so he disappears into the recesses of Chris’ mind and renders himself mute.
Chris finds himself alone again… without the aid of medication. This notion frightens him so much, he awakens abruptly from his coma. He decides to leave the hospital and enjoys the rest of his vacation on the beach at Cabo, watching local children make sand castles with their imaginary friends.
THE END.
Today was a “down” day, a “do nothing” day. After arriving back from California on Monday, Tuesday morning I was back at work and I hit the ground running. Thursday and Friday the store was immersed in year-end inventory, and by Friday night, I was worn out.
So I woke up about 9 this morning with the intention of not doing a whole heck of a lot. My intentions went downhill quickly.
My allergies have been bad since I came back to Houston, so I decided to try to clean my room and “de-dust” it.
I took down the curtains from my “wall” that hides my shelving units in my room to wash. Then I washed my sheets, rugs from the bathroom, and my regular laundry. I vacuumed the entire apartment and used my “shark” vac to hit the lamp shades, blinds, sheers, and other dust target areas. I also cleaned my bathroom and worked on a “movie” of my vacation.
Not bad for doing “nothing.” ha ha
And of course, since one of my nicknames is GRACE and I didn’t have any weird accidents during my vacation, today I totally made up for it. At some point during the cleaning frenzy, I managed to turn a burner on in the kitchen. We have a gas stove and I’ve been uber paranoid about it since we moved in, so normally, I find myself checking the dials whenever I’m near it. I don’t know when I turned it on, but I was vacuuming down the hall and smelled gas. I thought it was the dryer, but as I rounded the corner I saw the back burner aflame (and not just a little aflame, either). I still don’t know when I bumped the dial on the stove, but I’ll definitely be more careful as I vacuum the kitchen next time.
Also, since I’ve been back, it’s rained EVERY day, and it rained every day while I was gone. It’s incredibly humid and green here. Such a drastic change from my vacay.
Speaking of vacay, besides working on the movie, I scanned all my brochures and my fortunes from all the fortune cookies I had while I was gone. I laughed, as most of these were apropos for my trip. For example:
When I got this one, I laughed. Now that I’m through with inventory at work and have time to reflect on this trip, I know this one will play itself out. It may be all in my mind, but I feel different and I look forward to the next phase of my great transformation.
More on that later…
I have my new phone… trouble is I haven’t figured out how to connect to a call. lol I know it’s just a matter of finding the right setting.
The good thing is, they transferred all my numbers over so I don’t have to. YAY!
One more day of work… and then…
I’m so excited, it really it hard to contain myself…really.
UPDATE: Apparently the people at Sprint were supposed to tell me not to use the phone for an hour after activation. lol
Foolishly, I thought I could beat the storm home.
I left work about 4:45 as the sky grew dark. I had checked the radar before I left and it appeared I had time. About a mile from work, a gentle rain began to fall. A half mile later, the gentle rain gave way to a violent, driving rain that made it nearly impossible to see.
I managed to make it home, but not without driving through some deep puddles and the lake under the overpass at I-10. My biggest decision on the way home was, “stop and get the mail or not?”
I did. I took off my shoes and ran in and got the mail. I was very wet by the time I pulled up to the curb at the house. I got out of the car, shielding the door with my umbrella. My umbrella got caught in the door and my head was exposed to the rain.
Thump. Something small and hard hit my head.
Ouch! What was that?
Tink. Something small and hard hit the car. Tink. Tink.
Thump. Thump.
Hail. Perfect.
Ouch!
The good news is that Wynne Dory (the car) was not dented, and apparently, neither was my head. A half hour later, the heavenly faucet tapered off and birds are chirping happily now.
The best part of all this is…
IT’S FOURTEEN DAYS UNTIL MY VACATION!! Still having trouble getting excited…not!
I am home with no salsa and it’s Cinco de Mayo. Hmm… something is horribly wrong with that. Of course, every Mexican restaurant will be packed today… maybe I’ll run over to Fiesta or Kroger… or not.
It’s just shaping up to be that kind of day. ha ha
I read a story today about caffeinated soap. Yes, that’s right, it’s soap that will perk you up while cleaning you up. Made by the folks at thinkgeek.com, this soap is designed to give you a buzz within five minutes.
As someone who isn’t on friendly terms with mornings, this sounds promising, but one might wonder if the soap would be necessary if I could get a good night’s sleep.
Sleep is something I’ve always struggled with. Years ago, I had horrible insomnia. It plagued me. No matter what I did, even with pills to help me sleep, I couldn’t get a restful sleep. Because of what I was wrestling with internally, at such a deep level I couldn’t understand, and from the insomnia, I felt like an insane person most of the time. (where was the caffeinated soap then? ha ha)
About six years ago, when I entered counseling, something amazing happened. I started sleeping – at least four consecutive hours a night – enough for REM sleep. As I dealt with what was going on inside me and started sleeping, dealing with what was going on inside me got easier. Finally, after several months of counseling and many a good night’s sleep, I stopped feeling like I was on the brink of insanity.
I still have sleepless nights, nights of fitful sleep, nights where I toss and turn, and nights when I wake up often. For the most part, though, those nights are few and far between. By dealing with what was bothering me on the inside, the insanity doesn’t rob me of sleep anymore.
I tend to get adequate sleep now, and though I’m still a non-morning person, I don’t know if I really would want some caffeinated soap, but I know some college students (who never sleep) who might buy it by the case.
I know this is really random. Maybe I’m just tired.
May the zzzz’s be with you, but if not, buy some caffeinated soap.
1. A dilapidated, drafty, cold attic can be a warm, inviting palace if you use your imagination… and have a rich neighbor who will buy you whatever your heart desires and delivers it when you’re asleep.
2. The Good Ship Lollipop is indeed a sweet trip, and the calories don’t count when you eat the candy on an airplane.
3. Rich benefactors love little girls with 50-56 golden curls bouncing on their sweet little heads who can sing, dance, and make even the most cold hearted, callous heart melt with her smile.
4. The Queen of England gets whatever she wants.
5. Miss Minchin needs some hormone treatments after the surgery to install her heart.
6. When life gives you lemons, sing about lemonade.
7. The adoptive parent patch is only a song and dance away.
8. Everybody smokes, and it’s okay, it’s just a movie. They’re not really inhaling.
9. Men will turn their whole bachelor world upside down for curls and dimples.
10. Cute little girls on airplanes don’t need to wear safety equipment, especially after they stow away and are flying during the worst storm of 1934.
11. All butlers and maids can sing and dance.
12. You Gotta S-M-I-L-E to be H-A-Double-P-Y.
13. If you eat animal crackers before bed… you’ll walk around like Noah’s ark.
14. You can dance around with the greatest of ease in little wooden shoes. Sounds painful to me.
15. When I grow up… I just might be an artist, or an author writing a famous book … When I grow up.
THE END (AND IT’S A HAPPY ONE)
I don’t even think it’s technically allergy season yet, but for the past three weeks, I’ve been miserable. Last week went by in an allergy/allergy med fog, and I’m hoping to avoid that this week. I stayed in today and rested, and though at the moment I still feel pretty blah, I know if I hadn’t rested and taken care of myself, tomorrow would be much worse.
If anyone knows of a pill that will make all this go away, call me.
Sassy Dreams Awake 