Learning

I just spent over an hour reading the first entries into Yankee Blogger's 100 Things, 100 Bloggers, 100 Days. I am suprised and rather pleased that I have a lot in common with many of these people. Kudos to Yankee for doing this. Not only do I feel like I know these people in some small way, but I also have found some great blogs to feed my blog reading fetish.

Space Shuttle Challenger

I have always been a very intuitive person. If I feel it down deep in my gut that something is wrong, it is. Ever since I was a child, I have dreamt about people and places, only to see them or recognize them the next day. No, I cannot tell the future, if I could, you could bet that I would have already won the lottery and retired away on my own private island.

The most precognitive dream I ever had was when I was 12, and this is the story which my mother inevitably still tells people at get-togethers.

During 7th grade, I was attending Matthew W. Gilbert 7th Grade Center in Jacksonville, Florida. Any of you who have ever visited Jacksonville, you know how huge in land size that city is. I lived on the extreme southern end, in Mandarin, and the school was on the other side of town in a very inner-city atmosphere. This was the result of desegregation even though the year was 1985-1986. The bus ride alone was more than an hour and fourty-five minutes either way.

Starting in early December 1985, I started having a recurring dream wherein I was standing outside of my home and I was looking up. There were two oriental gentlemen standing to my right in white lab coats (to this day, I am unable to pinpoint what that symbolism may have been). The weather was bitterly cold. I could see the chemtrail/contrail billowing out behind the shuttle and it was silent. Just as the shuttle was directly overhead, it exploded with a boom that I could literally feel the sound waves and it knocked me to the ground. That is where I would wake up everynight and run crying to my mother in a cold sweat.

My mother would comfort me and assure me that the astronauts were safe and that it was only a dream. Unfortunately, that was not enough to stop the dreams that invaded my sleep nightly.

I will never forget the morning of January 28, 1986. It was unusually cold the night before and the newscasters were announcing that motorists were to be cautious when driving over any of the massive bridges that span the St. John's River. My parents decided that rather than having me go over those bridges on a bus, that I could stay home. I was thrilled! I knew there was a launch and the sky was a brilliant blue. Sometimes, if the weather was right, I was able to see the contrail/chemtrail of the shuttle in the air after a launch. At that time, they were all televised as well. (We often went to Ponte Vedra Beach to watch the night launches. If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend seeing one. You will never be the same). My parents left for work and I sat by the television waiting for the launch. All went well and the countdown reached zero. I ran outside to see what I could from the top of the swimming pool slide. I did see something, but after a few minutes, the line in the sky ended in a round puff. Something was wrong, very wrong. My heart sank and it was at that moment, alone sitting on the slide shivering despite my sweater, I knew that my horrible dreams had come true.

I did not run back inside, I slowly climbed down the ladder and walked in a daze to the back door. I opened it and stood in horror watching the live coverage. That is when my emotions got the best of me and I became hysterical. I called my mother and told her what had happened. She immediately left work, because she knew that something like this would affect a child, and she knew about the dreams.

I felt terribly guilty. I know now that there would have been nothing I could have done. Who would have listened to a 12 year old's dream? Even worse, if they did listen, they probably would have investigated my family wondering what they had done.

I knew then that I have a gift, unfortunately I cannot control when or about what it happens. I do know that I never had that dream again after that day.

Friday Five

As seen at FridayFive.org

1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not? - I work in the telecommuncations industry. Marketing and Sales. Yay. Not what I wanted to be doing, but it pays the bills and I can tele-commute which gives me a lot of freedom. I always thought I would be in more of a professional position.

2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be? - Veterinarian. I am still thinking about going back to school and finishing with that, since it is where I originally started. Oh, and I would love to be a world famous blues singer. I have the voice but... Anyway, travelling the world, playing smoke filled lounges and feeling the music everynight would be a dream come true.

3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices? - No they did not influence my career choices. You can see what my father does here and my mother, here.

4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family? - Nope. No rugrats here yet, but my parents did a terrific job of balancing both so when it come time, I am positive that I will be able to rely upon their wonderful example and knowledge.

5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why? - Well, in my opinion, the easiest job is the job which you love. When it brings you fufillment and happiness, and it no longer feels like "a job". Conversely, the hardest would be the one you hate. The one that brings you to tears at the thought of even clocking in one more time.

Roses

The rose bushes outside my house are still blooming as they have been all summer. Very fragrant and beautiful! The ones in the backyard are pink, but these red ones are just amazing. I keep cutting and seem to have a bouquet in the house at all times. I am not looking forward to winter. The gentleman that we are renting from said that the rose bush had been there since he bought the place in the 1970's. I love little bits of history like that.

Invisibility

Found this on the Art Bell site.

Hold up left index finger with nail facing you.

Grab left index finger with right hand.

Pinch the index nail with right hand thumb nail.
(to locate pulse)

Breathe in for 4 heart beats

Breathe OUT for 2 heart beats

Repeat breathing cycle 3 times

Poof you are invisible!..

That's it, just that simple

Stalker

I am no movie star, but somewhere along this odd journey through NYTE, I have acquired a stalker. He is an IRC guy, and does not seem to understand that calling me a dirty slut and cunt basically set his chances on participating in our channel discussions somewhere between slim and none. No, I take that back. More like zilch. Zilch works. So here I am trying to keep peace and this guy (who I picture being terribly greasy and turning red with anger while trying to enter the channel with no luck. Small glistening spots of spittle forming at the corners of his mouth) trys every way possible to get in.

The Best Chick

There is this woman, who I consider to be my best friend. The thing you may find odd is that I have never met her. We talk via phone and email, but she has been there for me during some of the darkest and most trying times in my life. We have even had arguments where our friendship was strained almost to its limits but with mutual love and respect, we patched it up.

Kathy lives in Massachusetts and she has the best damned accent... wait, let me correct that, she is not the one with the accent, the rest of the world is! She is straightforward, honest, quickwitted and very intelligent. Did I mention she can sing beautifully too?? No matter what the situation, she always puts on a brave face only to reveal her inner thoughts and fears to her closest friends. She has a real best friend who lives next door and this is not about me being her best friend, she is mine. Never before have I been able to trust and confide a friend like I do her. No matter where I am or what has happened, she is always there for me.

Selfless, that is the word for her. I cannot count how many times I have called her to cry on her shoulder and never once has she ever turned her back. Never once has she even told me about her problems when I had mine. I know I have tried to do the same thing for her, but she has just been the most amazing person in my life. When I was weak, she held me up, when I was scared, she gave me courage, when I was ready to give up, she helped me find strength. Kathy is one of those people that I do not believe ever know how much they mean to another person. A hero. Plain and simple. If there were medals for being a friend, she would be first in line to be a recipient.

Someday we will meet and I will be able to give her the great big hug that I have wanted to so many times. If everyone had a Kathy, the world would be a much better place.

100 Things, About 100 Bloggers, In 100 Days

Ok people, got an assignment for ya! First visit The Yankee Blogger, one of my favorite (if not favorite) blogs to read. He is asking for everyone to post 100 things about themselves on their blogs, then email him and let him know that it is up. It is amazing how much you can learn about eachother as well as yourselves by doing this. I posted mine last week and was fun to do. Oh, and even if you don't want to do this, at least sign his guestmap while you are there and hey, sign mine before you leave. You will not be disappointed!

Listen for ET to Phone Earth!

Join the Seti@home Team Art Bell. Contibute to the largest distributed computing project in history, and help us find ET!! It's easy!!
If you used to be a member, start crunching again!!!

http://seti-teamartbell.com/
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/index.html

Grrrr!

After all my stressing and all my cleaning, my company has decided that it was too late in the day to come over. I think I am going to dive under my covers for about 8 hours and crawl out and work on this site in the dark hours of the night. I will continue to growl and grumble for a few minutes prior to hibernation, though.

The Night Before

Okay, I am stressing here. Brenda, the lovely woman who gave birth to Chris, is coming to spend the night. I always feel such pressure to have everything perfect when she is here. I know that I can relax around her, but for some reason I can't.

So, the stove is scrubbed and the stainless steel is shining. The cupboards are all arranged. You could eat off the floors. Seriously, you could. Arrgh!

She is bringing Sahara, the Golden Retriever. Sweetest dog, but she eats all of Clancy and Eddie's food. Boy, I will be glad when this is over.

My Weekend

I know, I know. I have been a complete slacker on my site this weekend. Well, hold on to your booties! I am home and have some big things planned.

Before I start re-coding my site, I am going to be adding many pictures from my weekend here. On Friday, Chris and I took a nice drive over to his mother's new home. Very nice! On the way home, the sunset was amazing. Sure wished I had been at the lake in time to take a few good shots of that. I have several stories and such to write, but no time right now. I am preparing for family to be descending upon our house. Our house is usually immaculate, but now it needs to be super immaculate.