Food for Thought Deluxe: Never Stagnant (Never Stagnasty Either)

I’m living in a pretty interesting time of my life right now… Very interesting.

I can’t remember a day in the recent past, meaning, in the past few months to a year, where a day has not gone by where I haven’t had the opportunity to impart some wisdom or advice in the life of others… or where someone hasn’t imparted wisdom or advice into my own life.

Sometimes this happens multiple times per day. And when that happens? That’s what I call a good day.

That makes me feel very rich. Not in money, but in knowledge, wisdom, heart, love and power.

And it increases daily. I am getting to the point where I wake up with a sense of expectancy.

I tell you… What more can your friendly neighborhood Oldgirl ask for?

Because you know what? This Oldgirl needs all the wisdom and advice that she can handle. I’m like a bottomless pit when it comes to advice and wisdom. I soak it up like a sponge. I squeeze that sponge out into my mental databank somewhere… and come back and soak up some more.

Anyway, I was talking to someone last Saturday morning about some things. She’d said the night before that she’d cried herself to sleep. I told her that if she needed to talk, I was here.

I think she even woke up crying. What the world?

I feel her, though. Because Lord knows that I’ve cried myself to sleep many a time. And I’ve woke up crying. So I understand.

She is a little like me—keeps whatever bothers her close to her heart. I respect that.

I understand that too.

On Saturday morning, she text me about some of her issues. (Note: I asked permission to post this. She said I could. I could even use her name. Uh... she will remain unnamed).

I know I’m a good ten years older than her. So I understand some of her issues. I’d been through the same thoughts, feelings and emotions. I was able to offer her some extra special “food for thought”.

One issue she had, that I myself and many others have from time to time is this:

“I feel so stagnant.”

Sigh.

I felt for my homegirl.

I too have felt stagnant.

But when I get to feeling that way, I have to give myself a mental wedgie. I have to lace up my spiritual bootstraps. And be quick about it too.

Stagnant can turn into Stagnasty… real quick, you see.

(Yes. I did go make up a word. I sure did. I'll discuss that much later).

And you know me… I am not the most well read girl in the world, so I like to clearly define my words.

Stagnant – not moving or flowing; motionless; showing little or no sign of activity or advancement; not developing or progressing; inactivity.

Stagnant has several synonyms – stale, still, standing, quiet, sluggish, motionless, brackish, inactive, flat, slow, depressed, slow-moving.

Man… none of those words make my heart leap for joy. None.

There’s no wonder that when people cry “I am stagnant”, it is a fully loaded statement. It is drenched in tears. It’s covered in sheets of pain and sadness. It will have you so depressed that you will feel like you will never see the light at the end of the tunnel ever again.

And when you do see the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s not the end of the tunnel It's not the way to freedom. It’s a fast moving train coming straight at YOU.

Yes, feelings of stagnancy can get that bad for some folks.

I posed a question to her. It’s one that I pose to my ownself very often.

First of all, let me digress and explain something about myself. I am a scientist. I have a doctorate degree in organic chemistry. I am interdisciplinary, meaning I have done research and published papers in several scientific areas.

And I am spiritual. I don’t necessarily care for organized religion, but I go to church, pray, study my bible, etc. That is waaaay more important to me than my scientific training. Mind you, I’ve been embroiled in all things science since the age of 16, when I started college. I am 43 now. That’s a ton of science. I’m reading a book on quantum mechanics, string theory, and relativity right now (I have a minor in Physics, so I like to do a little, uh, casual reading in that area, in my spare time).

So, as you could imagine, I think of everthing from a spiritual AND a scientific standpoint. You may ask, how is that so, since the two are polar opposites? Well, I’m a scientist to the utmost degree. So my thinking tends to swirl around in that direction. At the same time, I am a spiritual person.

And I believe that everything is born out of the spiritual. Including the scientific.

I’ll let you go chew on that and debate amongst yourselves. That’s just my personal philosophy. Sorry, but that piece of paper you are writing on didn’t appear out of thin air. It came from a tree. That tree went through various processes to become paper. And somebody formed a thought in their head that maybe we can take this tree and make paper from it.

Everything starts with a mere seed of a thought.

And that tree came from a seed that had been sown in the ground.

And if you’ve been reading here for awhile, you know how I am about sowing seed.

Boy, my eyes are stretched, trying to sow a seed. Sow a seed of cash, wisdom, kindness, help, advice… SOMETHING good. Yes sir. I figured all that out in my 20s, honey.

That is all… You needed to know that so that you could understand what I am about to relate to you.

Back to our subject matter.

Anyway, I offered her some advice.

Advice I give my own self when I get to feeling stagnant.

You’re never stagnant.

I’m never stagnant.

“Your hair and nails grew overnight. They are growing right now as we speak. But you can’t tell. Just because you can’t tell doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.”

She agreed with that.

And that is coming from someone like me, who has an alopecia component to her lupus. I haven’t cut my hair since June 2010. (I do some bootleg trimming with a rusted pair of scissors, but not a real hair cut). My hair grows at a really slow rate. So over the past year and a half, it has grown approximately an inch.

It has grown slower than your hair.

But understand this: no matter how slow my hair grows, it hasn’t been stagnant.

I asked her, “Did you get up this morning and piss?”

She responded yes. With a giggle.

I told her that while she was asleep, her body worked hard. It very precisely identified all the bad and dead cells, repaired damaged cells, and generated new ones. It even identified potentially cancerous cells. It ushered all those dead, badly, damaged and potentially cancerous cells to your blood stream, and directed it to the kidneys.

And when you got up this morning?

You pissed all that out… along with other contaminants… contaminants expertly and precisely identified by your body and targeted for elimination.

And you did all that without not even thinking about it. It was all an involuntary process.

When you are asleep, in your seemingly most still and “stagnant” state of being, your body was far from stagnant.

Very far.

“We’re never stagnant.”

Never.

Her response was “*gulps*. Yes ma’am.”

She may have been thinking… “That LadyLee… she know she is a bit out there. She think too hard about stuff. ”

Whatever, baby. Maybe I am. But I’m just offering you a different perspective. You can take it, toss it around, chew on it, use it or trash it if you want.

Do with it what you like.

Know this: In the time that it took me to write this post (a couple of hours), the earth has traveled approximately 135,000 miles on its path of revolution around the sun. The earth rotated on its axis some 2000 miles.

Yet we can’t even tell. Of course, if we pay attention to the position of the sun during the day, we can tell. But have you noticed that we don’t really care about all that? However, we DO pay attention to when it’s daytime and when it’s nighttime. The difference between the day and night is very apparent, very stark.

We pay more attention to stark changes than we do to subtle changes.

That translates over to life in general. We’re never stagnant. Something’s always happening. Always. We are more in tune with the rapid changes… and we don’t celebrate the subtle and quiet changes.

I don’t know about you, but that’s how I get to feeling sometimes. And I have to remind myself that it’s all important.

I penned a post a few years ago about the movement of the space shuttle from wherever they store it to the launching pad. It takes six hours to move it 2 miles. If that’s not “stagnant”, I don’t know what is.

Subtle slow speed… but progress was made. There was a starting point and there was a destination. If the shuttle was moved too fast, some of the expensive and delicate mechanical parts could get messed up, so it had to be moved SLOWLY. If not, something would break. And we can't have the shuttle busting up in space, can we? We've seen what happens already when stuff goes wrong with the shuttle! Hmm.

I’ll let you find the parallel to life in that one.

I didn’t fully realize this and appreciate it until I was about to turn 40, and I pondered my own life. I am not a rich woman. I am not a beautiful woman (well, I am beautiful to me, lol). I don’t have everything that everyone wants. I’m just me. Your friendly neighborhood Oldgirl, LadyLee.

But, I broke out crying several times as I thought of all that had gone on with me between the ages of 30 and 40. There were way too many times during that span of time that I complained of feeling stagnant. But I was far from such. Over 10 years- over 3,650 days, mind you- I’d had more joy, pain, triumphs, trials, tribulations, hurts, dreams, disappointments, learning experiences, fears, growth and achievements than I can count or even remember.

There was this wondrous mix of things going on. In 10 years. We not talking about all 43 years of my life. Just that 10. To think of what has gone on in the past 43 years would make me pass out.

Goodness gracious alive.

The point was… I was never stagnant.

At that moment, I realized that the only time you’re stagnant is when you die.

I’m not dead. That means I’m not stagnant.

The human body completely regenerates itself on a cellular level every seven years. That means no cell in my body is older than 7 years old. You know this has to be true on some level because whenever you shower, there is some dead skin that comes off and you gotta wash out your tub. You scratch up on your face right now and some dead skin comes off on your fingernails. And the body kicks in and creates new skin cells.

O_o.

The body is a wonderful specimen, constantly repairing and regenerating and making new cells.

Never stagnant. NEVER.

I know when I am feeling the most “stagnant”, a few flags start flying. Some red alerts, if you wanna call them that.

It is an alert to pause and think. And I ask myself a question (well, several questions): What is it that I am suppose to be learning at this very moment? Am I standing still because I need to grow in a particular area? Are some of my decisions I am making or have made causing this stagnancy? Are there any immediate steps I can take to break up this monotony? Can I identify someone who has gone through the same thing and get some advice?

I ask myself many more questions. I won’t list them. But that list above is a healthy start to breaking and busting up the fallow ground of personal stagnancy, isn’t it? I think it is. For me, at least.

And I know me. I have to get to work and ask myself the hard questions. And step out and take immediate action.

If not, I become stagnasty.

Yeah man. That’s the word I made up earlier in the post.

You know, stagnasty. Like water that’s been sitting around for too long.

You’ve seen standing water… water that’s just there, just stagnant, not flowing or moving.

If left along long enough and not treated or whatever, it starts to smell. Stuff starts growing in it. It gets slimy. It’s just nasty.

Stagnasty.

And you better not drink it! You better not! If you do, you’re gonna get sick, babes. Sick as a dog.

If we don’t address the roots of our stagnant feelings about ourselves, we may become stagnasty like that water.

I am pretty much convinced that people who are problematic… you know, people who cause emotional and mental carnage in the life of others around them, people who always got something to say about other peoples’ choices and lives… People who always at the center of a bunch of mess.

Yeah, those type of people.

I am convinced there is some area of stagnancy in their lives. An area that has been there for a long time, one that they haven’t dealt with. And they’re trying to deal with it in the wrong way.

Stagnancy is painful.

And people in pain tend to try to deal with their pain by hurting other people. People who can't control their emotions tend to try to control the emotions of others. That’s stagnasty right there. Your stagnancy gets to a point where it affects not only you, but it infects all the people around you.

And I’m sorry, but that’s just jacked up.

And I think our times of feeling “stagnant” are gonna get worse before they get better. I submit that we are living in a very interesting time. Very interesting. We are living at a time where information and all that we want is at our fingertips.

I was getting an iron infusion today, which took about 4 hours (geesh!). I had my smartphone, my kindle and my netbook all going. (I almost brought my touch notepad laptop, but uh… that woulda been too much, lol). I was listening to some music (O’Jays whooo hooo!), texting back and forth with a couple of folks, doing some writing, reading some blogs, and watching movies on my kindle… all at the same time.

You couldn’t do all that 10 years ago. Heck, you couldn’t do all that 5 years ago.

Technology and the information from it is fast. And you do realize they are about to come out with the computer eyeglasses. And the prototypes of contact lenses that let you text from your eye are already being tested (How on earth is THAT going to work?).

Yet there are things in life that still take time to do.

Like personal growth.

Finding your soulmate (permanent, not this fly by night foolishness).

Permanent weight loss (and I mean permanent).

Breaking addictions (just say no, ya’ll. It’s harder than that).

Forming new good habits (permanent ones, not this trendy stuff).

Coming back and working your way out of bad choices and bad decisions (that is painful for me).

And whatever else you can think of.

A blog sister is teaching me a LOT about the importance of our timing versus God’s timing and the specific order of the heart’s desires and much much more. In the midst of all this life- this fast life of ours- we may be having those feelings of time to time of stagnancy. I know she does. But she works through it. With the desired results running her down like a freight train. (Whoo. That sista preaching so good, I almost dropped her a 40 page email. But I’ma leave you alone, girl. You know who you are. I’m gonna leave you alone. Cuz I don’t want you to think I’m crazy. I’ll just sit here and watch and listen and learn and crochet very fast. Very fast.).

We’re not stagnant at all. We’re never stagnant.

It’s not only the journey that’s important. But it’s the thousands of little things we learn along the way that is most important of all. Check this out: we may have needed all of that so called stagnancy in order to properly take care of and handle those things we desired at the journey’s end. All the things you learned in the process may be critical to not only obtaining, but maintaining the desired goal.

Hmm… A food for thought, within a food for thought. Sigh.

Life has gotten faster. So when such things and special areas of our lives that need specific attention and nurturing don’t move as fast, we become overwhelmed with feelings of stagnancy. Well, I know I do.

Life is getting faster and faster and faster. And time seems to be getting shorter and shorter. Not enough time to get things done. Mind you, there are the same amount of hours in this day as it was on the very day you were born.

I am old enough to remember when I had to go to the encyclopedia or card catalog for information. I remembering having to buy stamps so I can mail my bills. I remember seeing a payphone and jumping out to call someone. I remember sitting down and writing letters to friends and mailing them.

Fast forward to the present. Mess around and let that smartphone not be working fast enough. Let that laptop move a tad bit too slow. Mess around and let my movie on my Kindle stall out. I have a conniption fit.

It’s no wonder when things I want, growth-wise and lifewise in general, don't happen fast enough, I began to have feelings of stagnancy.

That is when I have to chin-check myself. And remind myself that I’m not stagnant. Things might not be happening fast enough, but you know what? They are happening.

I’m NEVER stagnant. Never.

I’m praying. I stretching my faith out there. I’m doing the personal self-examination. I’m identifying what I need to do. I am thinking about what I want to see happen. I’m writing down goals and plans. I’m using resources. I’m doing all kinds of things. Some of those areas are weak. I have a chance to shore up in those areas. Never stagnant.

And get this, and this is something I figured out years ago: I thank God in advance for the breakthrough that I’m looking for. Whether it’s breaking some ratchet habit, or believing for some need to be met, or something I desire, etc.

I have hollered many a time when something manifests, “This ain’t no surprise to me! I’ve been working on this! Been thanking God in advance. No surprise when it shows up!”

MANY a time.

Might as well. Better than sitting around crying about it. Hear me now, believe me later… I give myself time to whine and cry. But the older I get, the shorter that time gets. I have a long laundry list of accomplishments. I unroll that proverbial list and read it from time to time and remind myself that all things are possible.

Can’t cry too long though, babes. I don’t wanna morph into stagnastiness, now.

Because Faith is the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. Might as well get busy using it, stretching it, and testing that out. Give God a positive attitude to work with, man.

Don’t get me started on that. Time to wind this post down.

Just a LadyLee theory… and general observation about people around me.

And most importantly, an observation about myself, and the things I do to avoid being… stagnasty.

That’s the word of the day. Use it in a sentence, why don’t ya??

LOL!!

So I hope I was helpful to my friend. I think our text messaging lasted some 4.5 hours? And that is cool with me. I think I washed clothes, cleaned the kitchen, did some crocheting… all kinds of things in that time period.

All the while, working to be an asset to my friend.

I hope I was helpful to her.

And this was a long post. 3145 words. If you made it through all my pontifications and ebonics, you deserve an award! I shoulda put out a $100 gift card Stagnasty Sweekpstakes or something for comments, shouldn’t I have?

And the winner of that card woulda been ME. LadyLee.

LOL. That’s the ultimate in cheating.

I hope you found something helpful to you.

This was a “note”to myself. A long one, mind you.

And it was a note to my homegirl with whom I had that long text conversation with. I know it's hard for her to talk about her issues. We have that trait in common. I am glad she trusted me that day.

All scrawled high upon the washed white walls of The House of LadyLee.

I hope I built her heart and mind up that day. But she may need to come back and read this in the future whenever she becomes overwhelmed with feelings of stagnancy.

I know I will have to.

Really though.

Happy Monday Morning Freestyles

Happy Monday Morning to you!

I am feeling a little O_o. This time change, man. Bleeeeehhhhhh...

I think everybody is having problems. I drove into our parking garage at work and there were a lot of cars missing. It was only 2/3rds full. So I guess a lot of people took the day off to adjust.

I had a pretty good weekend. Quiet. I ended up coming to work for on Sunday for a couple of hours. That wasn't too bad. You would be proud of me... it was a favor to my coworker so he could finish up some things. I wasn't even surly about it. Glory! I am growing up!

LOL

Nothing much interesting going on. A lot of movies are shot around my job, and on the way to work this morning, I drove through a movie shoot. I don't think we get all excited about those things anymore. A couple of months ago, though, the condos next door were the setting for a movie with Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, and Michael Douglas. There were a lot of stunt trucks out front. Not sure what that was about. Now, I was stretching my neck trying to see what was going on. I wanted Morgan Freeman's autograph!

Last year, Tyler Perry was filming on our block. I think it was the new Marriage Counselor movie coming out soon.  Blogger Mzinspiredmind wanted me to take a picture.

I found it in my phone.

That's as good as it gets, honey! I didn't see anybody we would know. There were 2 people fussing hard in that scene. I wanted to run up and holler "Stop all this here fightin'! Stop it, I say! Family shouldn't be fighing like this!"

LOL.  Cops would've thrown me to the ground quick!

Flowers. I bought some flowers for the coffee table this weekend. Whole Foods had tulips on sale for 3 bucks.

They look a little shy here.

But morning arrived and they began to open a little.

Later in the day, they were open wide!

How beautiful!

I hope they have another sale. Maybe I'll buy flowers for easter!

Video of the week. Outkast's "Liberation"




I LOVE Outkast. Love, love, love them. And we are all from that College Park/East Point area... That makes it even better.

Funny story how I first found out about them. The ex-hubby, who was my boyfriend at the time, came home from his security job down on Peachtree Street somewhere, and threw a cassette tape on the table.

"These young boys were walking down the street giving out tapes. They asked if I wanted one, and I told them no, but my girl listens to gangsta rap, so I'll take it to her."

I remember staring at the tape. "You always bringing home some ol' bootleg tape. I'll listen to it, though. Might be a good song on there that I can dub to a blank tape."

I listened to Outkast's SouthernPlayalisticCadillacMusik a few days later... and was blown away!

They have come along just fine over the years and really evolved since the early 90s!

Anyway, I love the "Liberation" song. I definitely keep it in my playlist.

Well, a new week is upon us. Easter will be here before you know it. I hope everyone has their easter dresses and suits together!

I'm going to have a good productive week... On purpose!

You do the same!

Friday Freestyles

Happy Friday To YOU!

I am glad it's Friday. It's not even payday. And that's alright. It is Friday.

You know, I woke up before the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning. I gathered the down comforter to my chin and said "I'm so glad it's Saturday. I don't have to get out of this bed."

LOL! Man! What kind of craziness is that? Ohhhhh how disappointed I was when I realized it was only Tuesday. Wow!

Alas,I will be able to say that tomorrow. Even though I do have to get up and get a few things done early in the morning. At least I don't have to be at work.

But I have work on Sunday. O_o.

I don't even want to talk about that right now. Humph.

Anyway, it has been a good week. Interestingly, I've been very productive at home. I have put myself on a plan to clean up daily instead of waiting around for the weekend. So this weekend I have less to do. If I can stick with this plan, I will be able to do some deeper cleaning and reorganizing and throwing out. That's the ultimate goal.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. Not with my regular doctor, but with a hematologist. I was a bit pissed about that, because I really didn't need to go. But my immunologist is a stickler about checking everything. So I begrudgingly went.

I'm glad I did. The hematologist was a sister, and she was really cool. She understood lupus pretty well. I have some strange blood numbers (that have been that way for years, mind you), and she's gonna try to bring them back under correction. I don't have any iron stored (again, been that way for years, mind you), and so she wants to work on that.

I haven't had anemia problems in a long time. For some strange reason it went away when I moved towards vegetarianism. But I had a test come back in January that was slightly out of order (I took that test after my cycle ended. Ladies, you know we can't even give blood at the blood bank after a cycle. Iron is low, mind you. Not sure why my doctor is all O_O. My iron was only 1/2 a point out of range. Sigh).

We were looking at my January blood work and it turns out my kidneys are excellent! So much for the kidney disease. That looks to be under control. No signs of it.

GLORY. *church shouts*

I am making an effort this year not to be all cantankerous... I really want to just work on doing what the doctor tells me to do. And to be expedient about it. We've been talking about physical therapists for a good two years now. I need one, so I am still looking for that. I don't care for that process. But I need a little help with some excerises.

I am thankful that after 10 years after diagnosis that I am functional. No hospital stays since 2002. No wheelchairs, canes or walkers. The lupus is active, but it isn't severe. It is in the light range.

And I am thanful I am still here. I am thankful for every day.

I feel just fine. And I will contiune to feel fine. That is all.

AMEN.

Other than that, all is well. Work has been slow, but productive!

Fruit of the Week. I bought a honeydew melon last weekend. So I've been trying to eat on that.

 It is good and it is sweet and flavorable. But I had to balance it out with some strawberries and mangoes. Talk about something good, good, good!

Vegetable of the Week. That should read strange vegetable of the week.

Those are tindora cucumbers. I threw my sharpie in with them to show how small they are. I never heard of cucumbers that small. Is that what the gherkin sweet pickles are made from? I'm not sure. And what are a couple of them turning red??

Quote of the week. From Power Thoughts: 12 strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind by Joyce Meyer

"Modern societies are full of messages that say to us, "Something is wrong with you because you are not like I am. Something is wrong with you because you can't do this as well as I can." So we repeatedly hear the message, "what's wrong with me?" "What's wrong with me?" "What's wrong with me?" After hearing it long enough, we get convinced something is desperately wrong with us and we become disabled emotionally. The wrong thinking negatively affects all relationships and everything we try to do."

That is the best thing I've read all week.

The truest thing I've read all week.

Really though.

I'm reading that book with one of my favorite readers. Lots of interesting tail-kicking self examination questions throughout the chapters. It is helping me a lot.

Pictures of the Week. This restaurant is located next to my favorite Thai spot on the southside.

Can you read the words under the name of the restaurant? It says African American Cuisine.

What is "African Amerian Cuisine"? Yeah, I know all about soul food. I suppose that is considered African American Cuisine. So if it is soul food, then whey not cal it that? I don't think it is. They have the american flag and the African continent on the sign. Hmm. Maybe I will run up in there and be nosy the next time I'm over that way.

Whenever someone comes to the desk with a bunch of craziness, I show them my screen saver.

"You see that cat? You see how Oscar-Tyrone is looking?" I ask. "That's how you making me feel right now. You're irking me right about now."

LOL.

Song of the Week. Oldie but Goodie. You have to be over 35 to remember this song from 1985!



Man... Morris Day was so narcissitic. I wonder if he's still that way all these years later.

Whelp! I am looking forward to the weekend! I'm going to make it a good one...

You have a good one too... on purpose!

The Excellent Boss!

So...

I have an interesting routine most mornings. Most times, I get up and spend a bit of time praying and crocheting. Then I get ready for work.

I'm not the type of chick that just wakes up and be out of the house 30 minutes later. That's not going to happen. I need a full 1.5 to 2 hours to be ready to leave for work.

No, I'm not doing my hair or putting on makeup. I'm not that type of gal. I have to wake up, pray, read, watch the news, make my lunch, read some more, feed and water Oscar-Tyrone, blog, write... all kinds of stuff.

So I have settled into a schedule... of sorts.

I need to be at work around 10. So around 8:30, I like to have my clothes on and hair comb, and I like to be piddling around the kitchen around that time.

Around that time, Joyce Meyer comes on. I like watching her in the mornings. Nothing like a good sermonette to get me thinking.

Anyway, she said something interesting. She was talking about letting people know that you appreciate them versus always finding fault with people. Let's face it, one is much easier than the other.

And she asked an interesting question. She asked when was the last time you told your boss that you appreciated them, and that they did a good job?

I believe I was juicing at the time. I, along with the audience she was preaching too, got real quiet.

What kind of question was that? Didn't she know that Management was the absolute devil, hell bent on making an employee's life absolutely miserable?

"She talking crazy," I murmured. I threw another small apple into the juicer. "I might have to turn this off."

But she went on to make her case. (She had to, since everybody was looking at her like she was an odd bird that had just flew into the room). She said that they have to deal with much that we don't have to deal with. And we should tell them that we appreciate the job they are doing.

A bit far-fetched. But it made a little sense to me.

A little.

Enough for me to think about it long after the program ended and I headed off to work.

So... I swooped into my boss' office.

"Hey!"

She looked at me like I was crazy. Which is usually the case .

"I just want you to know I was watching Joyce Meyer this morning, and she asked when was the last time you told your boss you appreciate them and how good of a job they were doing. I thought I would come in here and just tell you that."

She said nothing. Just stared at me.

"I want you to know that you are excellent! And you do an excellent job!"

She stared for a moment. "Uh, ok."

And with that, I was gone.

That was back in late October. I decided then that I would stay on that for the rest of the year.

Everytime she came to my desk or I ran up on her, she had the pleasure of hearing me holler "You are EXCELLENT! You do such a good job! You sure do!"

I'm not sure this was all that pleasurable for her, as everyone absolutely HATES management. HATES with a passion.

"Thank you for your help! You do such an excellent job!"

"Whatever, man," she has mumbled a number of times... followed by the hard eyeroll.

"I like saying that," I told my cubicle mate, Cowgirl Cre. "It makes me feel good inside! It really does."

She only nodded.

"Maybe you should let your boss know he is excellent, too!"

*Cowgirl Cre's eyes widen big as hoola-hoops*

Her boss... sigh. That dude is special. I'm sure he is excellent. But he is special, first and foremost.

There are people around me who I make sure that they think that I'm just a bit... touched. Just so they won't bother and harrass me. You know, make sure that they think I just a bit off and unpredictable. It saves me a lot of trouble, I tell you.

Yeah, he's one of those types.

And I notice that when Cowgirl Cre needs supervisory assistance, she calls my supervisor. And my supervisor comes over and helps her, and all is well.

Well I don't like this. That is MY boss. MINE.

She was helping Cowgirl Cre one day, and when she finished I had to tell her "Look, don't help her no more. You not her boss. You my boss. She needs to call her own boss. Get that joker to help her."

"I don't care," Cowgirl Cre said with a note of arrogance. "I call her and she comes right over and she knows what to do."

"That's because she's excellent! Call your own boss!"

"I don't care, blah blah blah..." Cowgirl Cre continued.

My boss backed out of our cubicle slowly... but not before kicking the hard eyeroll.

Earlier this week, she was helping the Cowgirl Cre with some word game. I think it was Words with Friends. And it had me seething.

"Look here, man... don't be helping her with spell words. She need to go ask her own boss to help her spell. Cut that out!"

They both looked at me and then went at her smart phone.

HUMPH.

I really do think my boss is excellent. Close to a couple of years ago, we had a management regime shake-up. The evil empire was shook up, and I ended up with a good boss. My old boss is our director, and that's alright. She doesn't make my life miserable and that is cool.

I asked my boss the other day, "Do you lay up in bed at night and try to come up with ways to mess with people and hurt people?"

"No," she said.

Well that makes you excellent in my book!"

Because we had so much of that going on. And it is always odd that management likes to mess with the unstable folks, putting all our lives in danger. It is bad to have that on your mind, but shoot... I will never understand that.

But I understand the gist of Joyce Meyer's message that morning. After a few months of doing that, I understand how far it goes to squeeze out the negative. VERY far. And it takes power away from the negative.

And that is a good thing.

I was in the other building adjoining my own on my job, and I saw some folks in a lab. I wanted to congratulate them on getting some extra workers, as a couple of people had left or retired. Well, they were in there going off hard about what was going on in the building. And you know me, I don't deal much with all the negativity anymore. Well they got into going hard on management.

"My boss is excellent. She actually has a clue. She actually thinks about the problems. And if she don't know the answer, she go get it. And she asks questions. She don't mind learning. And she ain't trying to come up with ways to destroy people!"

"Yeah, you right," they said. "She is good."

Yes. I broke up the negative monotony. Then I got on out of the lab and went back to my own.

From time to time, the Cowgirl Cre will remind me, just when the boss is walking out of the cubicle area... "You forgot to tell her. Remember you gotta tell her."

"Oh yeah," I said. "Hey man!!" I holler. "You are excellent!"

Say it with me. "I am excellent."

"I am excellent," she mumbles... not before kicking the hard eyeroll.

Not all that enthusiastic, she's not. But oh well. But that's alright.

I'm going to stay on it! Yes I am.

She is excellent.

She likes really sad songs. I mean... sad, sad, sad. "I like the songs that make you drink the brown liquor," she said.

She has had me listen to songs she like in the past. They have me like "Dang, man. That's pretty sad right there."

She likes the crying-in your drink in the back booth of the club type of songs. And when I hear one, I let her know. And of course she likes it.

Here's one by Kelly Price. The title is "Tired"




The last part of that song... Lots of agony in those wails!

The boss will find that to be quite... excellent!

That Original Oldcat Oscar-Tyrone... Still Hanging in There

It's been awhile since I gave an update on the The Original Oldcat, Oscar-Tyrone.

Way back in October, that Original Oldcat Oscar-Tyrone fell ill.

He has never been sick. And I hate to admit it, but he hadn't been to the doctor since 1999. And the only reason he went then because he and my other cat, Jeremy Girard, had a bad case of worms.

That was nasty.

Anyway, he had a bad case of pancreatitis and hepatitis. And some -itis with his gall bladder. He was running around acting like he was having hallucinations, and he was hurling and had a case of the runs plus constipation. Trust me, it was an odd site to see.

He had to stay in the hospital. Because of him, I won't be going on vacation this year. *gives Oscar the side-eye*. It cost around two grand to straighten him out. Sigh.

Anyway, he had his last doctor visit back in early December. He gained a little weight (1/2 pound), and his liver numbers were going in the right direction (whatever that means).

"Do we need to schedule another meeting?" I asked the veternarian.

She was a sister. I think she could see in my eyes that I didn't want to spend another dime on him.

"No, I think he's good. It takes as much as 6 to 8 weeks to recover from this."

I nodded.

"But I want to keep him on the bland diet," she added.

The bland diet. The bland diet of duck and peas. A case of can food was 61 dollars. And a bag of dried food was 56 dollars.

Sigh.

I nodded. Again.

"He seems to be alright," I said. "He's eating and eliminating on the regular now. I'll know he's back to his normal self when he jumps out and plays on the beams that run over my living room."

She shook her head, and rubbed Oscar-Tyrone's back. "I don't know if that's gonna ever happen again. He's an old cat. The beams may be too much for him."

The beams.

He has always loved the beams. He would sit quietly up there and watch me walk back and forth, especially when I was looking for him.

He likes the beams.

I suppose the vet had a point, though. He is 15 years old. No more beams. I packed him in his carrier and we headed on home. He seems to understand the riding in the car ordeal. He knows if he doesn't want to be flying all over the car, he needs to sit still.

And he seems to understand... don't scratch the Lucy the Lexus' leather. Just be still.

That month he would stare up at the beams. It was if he was... pondering. Pondering whether to test his strength and agility.

He would walk upstairs, and walk back down. You see, for awhile, he'd been working on jumping up on the back of the couch or the big easy chair. And he wasn't negotiating it right. He would jump up... then fall off the back.

It was quite funny. All I could do is holler, as he ambles out from behind wherever he fell, "Dude, you took a big spill there... Are you alright?"

I knew if he couldn't figure out how to lay on the back of the furniture... Then he had no business fooling around with the beams.

Then one day last month...

I was laying on the sofa watching television, half dozing off. Oscar-Tyrone ran top speed up the stairs and jumped out on the beams.

The noise caught my attention. First of all, he hadn't ran that fast in awhile. I had to make sure he wasn't running for something. If he was, I was going to be running right along with him, lol.

And there he was... out on the beams.

"The dead has arisen," I said.

He not only jumped out on the beams, but he got all acrobatic with it. It was like he thought he was a Olympic gymnast or something.

He was doing what he use to do when we first moved into the house: jumping out on the beams and pretending he was going to jump or worse... fall down.

My sister and I would holler "Oscar! Oscar! Don't fall!"

And we would brace ourselves to catch him.

It turned out to be a dirty trick he liked to play on us.

He tried that again and I didn't fall for it. There is a ceiling fan connected to one of the beams, and he was running out on that beam, too. That would have been a disaster if he fell into that fan. But he didn't.

Someone asked how he gets up on the beams. I took a couple of pictures.

He jumps up on the rail next to the laundry here.

And then he jumps out on the beam. the beam is 9 feet above the living room.

So if he falls, that's a big drop. (He or the other cat has fallen before. There is a long scratch on the side. Wish I could've seen that!) And I'm not taking him back to the doctor. I would just have to go outside and break off a branch or stick from the bushes and use it a stint for his leg. I'm sure I have a little duct or electrical tape to hold it all in place.

I guess he is getting back to his old self. That's a good thing. I figure he has a couple more years to live.

He has a cold right now. That whole sneezing thing... he knows that is a good way to get me to head in another direction real fast. I think his teeth may be bothering him. I grind up his hard food and mix it with the canned food and add a little water to it all. That seems to be working out well for him.

And he has hairball issues. Ick. YUCK.

His food bill looks as if it will be running $70 a month. That's on the level of a utility bill or something. I'm not happy about that. But cheap food would probably blow his liver and pancreas up. For now, it is duck and peas.

So that's the update on The Original Oldcat. I am doing what I can to keep him stable.

And now that he is back to his beam gymnastics? I think he might just be coming along just fine.

Just fine indeed.