Saturday Night Special: Saturday Seven... Thoughts:

I said I would post everyday. And that I will...

Seven things I'm thinking about on this Saturday night...

1. I have been in a funk all week. I think it's the weather, as it's been overcast all week.

2. I stayed in the bed until 5 pm today. Wait, no I didn't. I actually got up to hit the bathroom whenever necessary, and to make some juice, as I had NO appetite today. I had lettuce-apple-parsely juice for breakfast and tomato-carrot juice around 3. Nothing for dinner.

Somehow I think I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night, jump in the car and go a searching for a bowl of chitlins. Sigh.

3. I went to church tonight. In and out in an hour flat. I got a couple of good pages of notes. Most important thing I heard. Most interesting thing I wrote down:

"Wisdom is the ability to skillfully apply what you know."

I realize I know much, but I need to be consistent with the application of the knowledge. Go figure.

Me and my consistency problems.

4. I washed and folded 3 loads of clothes today. And I washed dishes. So maybe I did get out of the bed today for more than bathroom breaks and freshly juiced juice.

5. I had an hour long conversation with my sister Kentucky this morning. She wanted to know how to sautee kale. I broke down my usual version (even though I've been juicing it lately... hope I told her right). She's working hard on eating right, and getting lined up with the church fast.  I'm happy for her. Her big sister LadyLee is sitting over here going rogue.

6. There has been an interesting highlight of my so-so week. One of our security guards read my story Watch and he talked my ear off about it. I've never seen someone's eyes light up like that. I think I would've been late for work if CowgirlCre wasn't coming in at the same time and uh, highly suggested that I walk away.

We discussed the story in detail later on.

He said, "Man oh man, I am so glad and so honored to have met someone like you."

No, it wasn't a pick up line. But I've heard that before. And it shocks me. Because i'm just your friendly neighborhood Oldgirl, LadyLee. And I've heard it in the vein of me being such an incredibly unique individual. It is rare to meet someone with such a mind and heart and accomplishment level such as mine. And then I go off in some other direction and craft up stories... hmmm...

I feel that way about a few folks in my life. They are like points of light that waft through the darkness... and I'm increased and enlightened by them passing along my path, if only for a moment.
That just all made me think of that... and be thankful for that.

7. This song has been on my mind lately...



Here's the link to the video on youtube if you can't see it.

That doggone Pandora. Sitting in lab, crunching data, minding my own business, and this song made me pause.

Usually when this happens I'm thinking... hmm, that would add the layer I need to a particular story. But that's not really the case here.  Why?  Because I think this has been every woman's story at some time in her life. Not sure why, but it is so...

"Why does my body ignore what my mind says... I try to keep it intact but I'm up in this bed."

Hmm... You may be all perfect. But I ain't. And I'm not afraid to admit to it.

Been THERE. Done THAT. Numerous times.

It reminds me of a bit of advice I gave to my sister Kentucky at one time, and to a couple of other young ladies caught up off in some ratchetness with a man...

We all go through mess. But there is a time when you find that you get brutally honest with yourself and admit to yourself that you are caught up in some mess.... then, and only then (after you get over the embarrasment of what you going through with that fool... or maybe you're the fool in the situation) can you start the process of separating yourself from that which is not good for you and going on with your life.

That latter part is what's critical...

Getting your heart and mind back together... and getting YOU back...

And moving on.

That's what's critical..

We still talk about that. It's amazing how she remembers and holds on to advice I give her.  Getting my thoughts and opinion on anything is like pulling teeth and she has that knack of staying in my face until she gets my thoughts...

It's interesting the thoughts that some songs can trigger... and that wasn't even Jill's premise for the song. Hmm...

Those are my Saturday Seven Thoughts for this Saturday evening... didn't expect them to be THAT long.

I guess I'm thinking about much today...

Saturday Night Special

I am posting at night... on purpose.

Because honestly, I didn't know how my day was going to go, or what I was going to do. It was going to very much be a "Freestyle Saturday".

But I woke up to craziness. and commotion.. sounded like a plane was about to land on my house.

I looked at the clock. It was 8:00. 8:05 to be exact.

"What the world?" I said, as I tried to get my barrings.

Someone was next door cutting the 8 foot tall grass.

It was tall because my neighbors walked off from the house last June.





It is a beautiful house. Simply gorgeous. And they'd tricked it out inside. Dark cherry hardwood floors, crown molding, hot tub out back. They even installed a new bathroom.

And the balcony upstairs off the master bedroom with the french doors? It was to die for.

Just nice.

I'd been over several times, over the past 5 years. I have to admit that I wished in my heart that I could afford it. I'd wished that I wasn't alone, living on one salary. I love my house, and it in itself is too big for me (I am learning just now after 6 years here to live upstairs and downstairs. Didn't realize my house was THAT roomy).

But my neighbor lost his job. His partner was in school. And well... they were casualties of this economy.

It could happen to any of us. I would love to have a couple of years of savings stockpiled, but that's not the case. Things can change.

We can just hope they change for the best... and in the direction of increase.

I lay in bed this morning listening to all the ruckus... the attempts to tame a wild yard that had been so immaculate in the past.

There had been early morning ruckus earlier in the week. There was some work going on inside the house. I myself had to get out there earlier in the week and work on a piece of ivy vine on the fence that runs along the property line of our yards that had gotten out of control. One of the boards had come loose too.

Looks scary, especially at night... I underestimated the creepiness factor.

But I spent 10 minutes with my hedge clippers yanking and chopping away at it. I nailed the board back up.

I got it down to something reasonable.



... And headed on in the house.

But I lay there thinking about it this morning.

It is eerily similar to what my character Chandra in my story Watch was experiencing: excruciating noise, as seen in this excerpt.

Saws buzzing.
Trees Falling.
Rocks Cracking?

For an entire week, Chandra heard sounds she'd never heard before. The most unusual debilitating sounds permeated what were once quiet evenings. At one time, she heard the sound of what has to be a mighty giant grinding his teeth in the middle of a very bad dream.

Yes. I've written out the exact scenario... a couple of years ago.

Interesting.

I thought about all of this as I lay in bed this morning.

It was all over in an hour. The people had packed up their lawn equipment and were gone. Just that quick.

My master bedroom is downstairs, closest to the house. I stood on the bed and peaked out one of my long transom windows. The backyard was free of brush and debris. The big tree that had fallen back there was gone.

I'm not sure if anyone is moving in or not. I think it's the property management that the state requires from the banks on foreclosed houses. Whoever gets that house, gets a great house.

But that's how my day started. I got up, did a little reading and did 3 loads of laundry. I did a thorough cleaning of the laundry room, including scrubbing out the laundry sink and scrubbing the floors. (My goodness, I felt like my name was Celie). I did more reading, and went outside and cut the hedges of the bushes in front of my front porch.

And that's about it. I didn't even leave. I ran most errands during the week after work so I could have more time at home this weekend. So I was happy for that.

I had a big bowl of purple cabbage for breakfast. Spaghetti for dinner. YUM!

Saturday started off noisy, but it is ending peacefully.

And I am glad of that.

Saturday Love

Yes...

That picture above... that is me on a Saturday morning.

I am an interesting character. Friday night I lay in bed and think of all the things I'm going to get done on the weekend. And here it is, a Saturday morning, and I am laid out like that dog.

Don't get me wrong. It is well past noon, and I have managed to get a few things done. I've already washing and drying clothes. I've cleaned the kitchen a little. I didn't have breakfast, but I did have lunch (braised purple cabbage and stewed okra). And I have said my morning prayers. And I finished up a crochet project.

Soooo... when you look at it closely, it has been a productive morning.

This morning, I'm reflecting on my week. Well, the last couple of weeks, really. Rumors are rampant at work. Lab closing, my group being moved to a different state, all kinds of rumors like that. There has been a flurry of talkative activity going on.

Always amazing to me how people like to drop proverbial matches in very dry brush. A few words set off blazing infernos. Just a few words cause a lot of mental damage.

One thing I know: I don't build these huge technicolor pictures in mind based on what someone puts out there. I make it my business not to practice such. Because we as humans tend to build these images in our head. And what's sad is that it is all based on rumors... Words.

Words have power.

You don't believe me.

Look at this word:

Green

Look at it again, with an extra word added.

Go GREEN

You just thought about all KINDS of stuff, didn't you? You just built all kinds of pictures in your mind, hunh? And what's interesting is that we all held up a different set of images, based on our values, beliefs, fears, needs, etc...

I know I did.

Words, man. They are something else.

And these days, if your words are NOT helping me, being a blessing to me, or challenging me to think, or challenging me to be a better person... well, I do my best not to pay attention to them.

And that's what I think of all the rumors. Really, I think we as a society like anything juicy and salacious. As I get older, I make it a point to steer away from such. I don't want my mind trained to move toward or meditate on that type of thing.

Instead I have to make sure I have an understanding of what's real and what's not. What's the truth, and what's not. Be critically aware of who I am and what I believe.

And know from where my help comes, and Who takes care of me.

That's what I focus on.

And it has never failed.

What came out of my morning prayers this morning was:

I don't have to look to the left or look to the right to guage who I am. I can focus on my own lane and my own path and be thankful for it, and be thankful that I am exactly where I am suppose to be at this moment and time, and I am who I am and that's who I am glad to be.

Might not mean much to you, but it does to me.

I never judge who I am by what someone else is doing. The older I get, the more sense that makes.

Well that's enough of my thoughts for this Saturday morning.

Just stopping in to show you some Saturday Love.

Make it a great Saturday... on purpose.

Hello Saturday!

You know, I love Saturdays.

And the only thing I don't like about them is that they are over much too soon. Saturdays need to be 100 hours long or something like that. LOL

Anyway, I am STILL in bed.

Shame on ME.

Not really. I am BONE TIRED.

We worked very hard yesterday. I work from 10-7 pm, and around 5:30, I started hollering all over the place:

"Ya'll done got down! Ya'll done worked a broad to death, man!"

Yes. I was just that tired. I had lollipop dreams yesterday morning of going to church last night. I would still be laid out sleep in a pew right now, lol. That was not going down. I went to the grocery store and came on home and immediately got in the bed.

I didn't sleep all night. I had 150 pages left in my book to read, and I read myself asleep... Woke up early, and kept reading. I actually finished it. Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult was a VERY good book. Waaaaay too long, but good indeed.

I have no huge plans for the weekend. I only want to figure out how to get up to the northside for this book club meeting without rolling through too much rain. Right now it's overcast. I NEEDS for it to stay that way.

And if I can get some writing done and more rest... Then I'm all good.

Really.