Song lyric prophesies...

I dare you to read these songs lyrics like you would a poem, and not feel like they were written about our national politics today:

Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you.


Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
And I'm wondering what it is I should do,
It's so hard to keep this smile from my face,
Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.


Well you started out with nothing,
And you're proud that you're a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please.... Please.....


Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
'Cause I don't think that I can take anymore
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.


Well you started out with nothing,
And you're proud that you're a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please.... Please.....

Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you,

Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
Stuck in the middle with you.

~ music and lyrics by Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty aka Stealer's Wheel band, 1972.

I'm now a Drug Trial Dropout

Yeah, so I'm a date late posting. Uh-gain. I promised to post Monday and now it's Tuesday @ 6:30. I run late in real life too, friends, so at least you know you're gettin the genuine article. lol

Anyone notice some capital letters being typed out? That's cuz my test appointment got moved up to yesterday (Monday). I got a call Saturday morning from the PA asking me if I could move up my appointment. They do that when they get cancellations around the Holidays. I think they're motivated into thinking if they get lucky, they can move up an entire week of appointments and close the office early or something. I'd think that way if that was my job.

But, oops, I digress. Back to yesterday. Yeah, so of course I went. You know how impatient I've been, just trying to make it until they did those tests. They took some blood first thing, then I went to do those cognitive tests, and that took 3 hours. I was a bit disappointed they didn't give me a Rorschach Test, but I think I had every other one I'd ever seen on TV. I had electrodes with cords stuck on me, blocks I had to manipulate while they timed me, memory tests at 2 different computers, and even some tread milling.

I got released for lunch, and Hubs and I went to a little nearby deli in the medical center somewhere. Then at our appt at 2, they gave me the news that I was officially kicked out of the study. LOL Ok, technically eliminated due to something about my blood levels and because of multiple side effects from the meds. I apologize for not paying enough attention to absorb the exact terminology, but frankly, by the time I had recovered from them having the blood test results back so quickly, my doctor had already gone over the specifics of the disqualification. (Here at my local doc, blood test results take at least one to two days, and well, I was really tired by then and my brain couldn't resist fixating on that boring tidbit.)

I have to admit that I was thrilled to get this news, even though I was in the study to improve my brain function. I just couldn't handle the side effects much longer. And I remain hopeful that those test results will show improvement, so that the whole thing was worth it. I'll find out for sure in about a week.

My last dose of trial meds was Sunday night (I was supposed to lay off the meds on testing day), and its effects have already left my system, thank heavens. I can tell ya though, my fingers are really sore from typing so much at once all on my own without Missy's help, even tho I cannot stop, lol, so I'll have to work my finger fitness back up in order to completely enjoy pain-free.

So, I was there all day and was so pooped out when I got home around 4 that I collapsed on the couch and began snoring loudly a few seconds later. No, literally. The Hubster saw it happen and never hesitates to keep me updated on those kinds of things. Thanks, Big Guy.

It must have been divine intervention that I awoke at exactly 10 to 8, with just enough time to go potty and get the channels on all 3 TV's in the family room, kitchen and my office by the time Heroes season finale started. Total immersion and it was thrilling. I must now try to live a Hero-less existence until the next season starts, bummer.

I was hoping that Claire would reconcile with West, and I was bummed-but-understanding about the allegory involved with Nathan getting bumped off (or did he? ie, NOAH; plus we all thought Peter bit the big one last year, remember?)

And I'm relieved that Noah isn't really dead, because I love seeing him give such a wonderful performance. Lord knows, he, Jack Coleman, the actor who plays Noah, deserves a meaty and prominent role. Poor guy, it wasn't helpful in the long run being the token gay Carrington on Dynasty, although he did a great job. I've missed him, so I love the episodes he's on as Noah.

My fave scene last was the "Hello, Claire-Bear" one, that entire scene with his family, and then leaving with Bob -- awesome! My second-favorite one was when Hiro took Adam into time warp with him and Adam lets go of the virus vial, but Peter runs in and grabs it just as it's fixing to break on the floor. Collective ahhhhs all the way around. Oh and just lovelove where Hiro left Adam, hahahahaha.

Hey, if you *heart* Heroes as I do, here's a great link that explains last night's finale step-by-step, almost like you were actually watching it, lol.

Speaking of Bob, the actor who plays him is named Stephen Tobolowsky. He was a boyhood friend of Hubs and my favorite guitarist, the late great Stevie Ray Vaughn, and he was the lead singer in Vaughn's first rock group, as well as the original first choice to play Al on Home Improvement, but turned it down. IMDB is my friend.....

Anyway, then I had to watch October Road and, you know it, I'm hooked on it again. I have this enormous need now to stick with it til she tells him the kid is his....

Let's see, oh what else. Yup, I have nothing ready to show you. I really need to accept that I should quit promising stuff when I know dang well that something's usually gonna mess those plans up for me. I was a total craft slacker all weekend, mainly due to illness and being exhausted, as well as being a total photo upload skank. I do have photos. Good ones, actually. But they will have to wait until next time, okay? I am seriously woozy still. I got halfway sick this weekend with a stopped up right ear and ridiculously pouring sinuses (I'm either in the throws of a weird cold, or reacting to all the weather changes we've had lately. I think.) I already overdid it all last week staying hyper-determined to do my AEDM's and those cards. (With my arthritis, that was over-doing it. Believe it or not.)

Then, Hubs forced me to go out clubbing with him Saturday night (my arm still hurts from being twisted, lol) and meet up with some friends of ours, and that further wiped me out, especially standing for about 3 hours straight. Had a great time, though and totally glad I went. OK, I'll show a couple of photos of us wild n crazy old-farts at this rock n roll club in Houston:





There are a lot more, but I'll save those for 2008 layouts.

Well, I'm not really in the habit of all this typing with caps, so that's enough for today. I probably should have kept on typing lower case, but oh well. I need to get back into the every day blogging thing again, but it may take me a week to get that frequent. I suspect there will be another post from me by Friday for sure, if not sooner, and this weekend I hope to go visit your blogs and be able to post a comment! Baby steps, but at least I'm able to type again, yay!

It's In The Mail

Hey. How are you? I'm good. Late and Pissed, but good.


Before I get into my vent as to why I'm pissed, here is my Art-Every-Day for today, 11/5. Another box for another niece (I have 4 of them, just to warn you.)

Okay, for the vent: I just got through placing an order with an online scrapping site (who shall remain nameless for 24 hours, as I give them a chance to right this wrong before dissing them to the world). They put out a free shipping promo and their shopping cart was unable to account for it.

Why do store owner people do that? Don't they realize the blood pressure levels that rise? What ever happened to "a happy customer is a return customer" or "the customer comes first"?

Thing is, this was my first order with this site. I first tried to check out Saturday when the cart kept adding ten bucks of shipping in. I was able to save my cart, and I promptly emailed them to explain and ask for assistance.

Heard from them late today. They sent instructs on what to do to coax the cart to comply. (Say, what?) Oh, brother. Well, I wanted some of that stuff bad, so I did what they said.

I even went the extra mile, deleting cookies, restarting the computer, the whole nine yards. I was beginning to get a migraine and that's not good! Every time I went in Checkout, there was that shipping charge added in.

Finally, I think I just snapped, because I thought, well, I'll just pay with paypal and they can issue me a paypal credit. I was also beginning to get nervous that maybe some of the stuff would be out of stock if I waited. So, I checked out.

Now, I'm waiting to see if they will do the honorable thing and issue me the credit, or if that email promo was a scam, or if all they will do is issue me a store credit. The reason I chose to use paypal is that I'll at least have that avenue to complain to if I'm not compensated fairly. And I did save the promo email.

The site looks normal. Like it's been there a while, and their folder in my email prog has a welcome email from them from March which is when I must have signed up for their newsletter.

I probably should be less irritated about it, but it's really just fear on my part that I'm going to get ripped off. And that might be over-reacting, but honestly, it's also a great example of what goes through a customer's mind and why stores don't get return business when everything else was good to go. I'm hoping it's just stupid programming and techno-clueless ownership. Still, don't force the customer to have to suffer because of either of those. All I'm sayin.....

Now, as to why I'm real late posting this: I actually spent the entire day as if I did not have a blog. Weird, huh? I worked on stuff I needed to do all day long. In the very very back of my mind, the word "blog" did sit, waiting a little too patiently for me to get to her. (Yes, if my thoughts had a gender, they'd be female.)

***Weather Alert on the news right now: Dropping temps tonight! Jacket needed tomorrow....HERE! 39 in Amarillo right now.***

Today (though not in this order), I cooked King Ranch Chicken (recipe tomorrow with photos, ok?), I created stuff, I cleaned in the breakfast nook part of our kitchen (the nook where the table is), paid some bills, did some accounting work-work, and then I did some organizing on my Google Reader subscriptions (I about gasped when I noticed I have close 1,000 of them -- eegads, huh?).

Something else I did was keep the radio on all day instead of the TV, and I have to say that I get lost in what I'm doing more with muzak in the background. This is good and bad. Good, meaning more enjoyable. Bad, meaning less control on time management. When I did turn on the TV to watch Heroes and Journeyman as is my usual schedule, the sound sort of assaulted my ears. Whoa. It was refreshing to not have that TV on all the time.

And now I'm sleepy and still need to shower, so I'll close with something that happened this morning. My friend Vanny, who works by day as an office manager (she's actually a VP but I never call her that lest her head grow to the size of a watermelon, LOL -- you hear that, Vanny?), calls me this morning from her office. She does this a few times a week, but today she was really agitated. She starts in with "Can you believe?" A new girl who works for her called in to take a sick day because she had gotten a "beaver wax" (you can figure out what that is, right?) Saturday morning and it was already stubbly! OMG, I LMAO'd just to think someone would tell their boss that so nonchalantly. Yeah, she did, and said it would just be too painful to get out of bed, so...

Well, you really have to know Vanny, but she was quick to trot on this and told the girl (she's newly hired, remember) she was sympathetic but she would have to connect her to the big boss cuz he had to approve it because everyone was needed at work due to some kind of company files problem. So, the girl was weirded out, but Vanny cut her off and transferred her, telling her boss to just play along. A few minutes later he walks into her office and tells her the girl told him she was sick with a rash and couldn't come in, and then was like, come on, fess up, why in hell did you give her to me? (They're good friends and have worked together for over 20 years.) Vanny gave him the 411, and they were both like, what an idiot we hired. And Vanny asked Jim what would he have done if the girl had repeated the 'real' story to him? Yep, she proceeded to rib him good, and he in turn kept answering that he'd have fired both their butts. She pops back that she just wants to know, is that a legitimate excuse in the company manual for a work absence or not, because she doesn't hunt beaver so she doesn't know? Back and forth. Back and forth. That one will get tease-worthy action for months. I've have margaritas with both of them before, so I could just visualize the conversation perfectly.

I'm tellin' ya, Vanny does not let go once she has sunk her teeth in, but I love her. She's about the closest to a sister I have, outside of my closest and oldest friend Cindy.

Well, let me get off of here while it's still November 5th. Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

We Be Cool

Good morning and happy Tuesday! Guess what?

63 more days until you-know-what!

Guess what else?

Aside from buying a few materials, I have not yet started my gift-making. At all.

How about you?

Don't hate me for bringing it up! I don't want to upset anyone or make your blood pressure rise, just puttin' it out there, LOL, for myself as much as for anyone else. We have time still.

I order most of my purchases online, have for almost 5 years now. And as far as scrapbooking supplies, one store I've bought from every year, Scrappy Dreams, recently announced they are going out of business, effective 12/31/07 (Loraine, the owner, is going back to school).

Since she's closing down, Loraine's having a 50% off sale, and I placed what I guess is my final order first thing this morning. I know that I am on a no-buy Dollar Diet, but that's a working rule. As with my diet, I stray from time to time and the rule keeps me from going wacko. I can tell you, the order I just placed was one smart deal.

Let's see, I spent $25 (plus $5 shipping), and among the goodies I got are: Scenic Route Rockland papers and Capitol Hill chipboard alphas; some black Doodlebug pp's and cardstock and some yummy striped pp's; 2 Stazon inks I don't have; some Junkitz long bradz, a few Chatterbox papers I didn't have; some 7G's Brompton pp (the last of it, I think); and some Modern Textures Specialty Paper in Purple Fizz.

She has a great assortment of specialty papers, which come in real handy in certain styles of cardmaking and altering. I would have doubled my order amount buying it all up if I didn't already have most of it. Okay, I have mostly scraps left and probably should have just ordewred it all over again at these discounts, but I was trying to be good! And I wanted to buy up every Junkitz Ringz she has, but with my arthritic hands they are sometimes hard to open. I'd decided a while back to switch to the 7Gypsies ones I can get at Joann's, but the Junkitz ones are so cutely colored! {pout}

Anyway, if you enjoy shopping somewhere trustworthy, and that's kinda picked over so you really don't know what you'll find til you look, check out Loraine's store. She may carry the one thing you've been looking all over for. I'm really sad to see her close, but I totally understand, she needs to move on to the next chapter.

Well, temperatures here are nice! Our cool front moved in yesterday and we got both rain and wind bustin' down from the north. Gusts even in the middle of the night! I sleep under a window and was actually woke up once from the noise of the shrubs lashing against the pane. And, a couple of times, my house frame creaked from the gusts. Since it's a very sturdy brick house, that's a forceful gust. In fact, it's still blowing. My wind chimes are singing nonstop, LOL.


Even so, we are sorely lacking down here for seasonal color. The leaves have begun falling off our oak tree in the front yard, so there is plenty of brown to mix in with the green lawn. But I took a photo under the tree looking up, and there is only one little forlorn reddish leaf in the entire canopy! Do you see it? Is that sad or what?

Sad for me, it is. The challenge this week at Funky Photo Friday is to photog our local seasonal changes. Well, that's my one leaf! Pitiful. Guess I won't be able to play in this one.

Well, all good things must end, and I have had nothing but annoying problems since installing my music player on my blog. So, gonna have to take the player off. I'm glad I tried it out. Learned to do something new. But, for me, choosing the songs took forever and they get old real quick, playing over and over again. The perfect player would be one that chooses congs from certain styles and always shuffles them so that I don't keep hearing the sames ones. Actually, the perfect player is one that operates as a standalone and does not suck my computer resources dry, who am I kidding? Time for me to get my Creative Zen player out and just listen to that. I have never had good luck with all-in-one devices or setups of any kind.

Which brings up a good question for those of you who download songs to an mp3 player that is not an Apple iPod: where do you get your songs? Please email me or leave a comment and tell me. I need to find some new tunes.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

The scenery changes....

I received this awesome fall photo in a forwarded email. I do not know who took it to credit them, but isn't it gorgeous? Living where I do, I can only dream of having scenery like this...

Thankfully, there are different kinds of scenery. The scenery in my mind, for instance. The scenery of our situations and our outlooks.

Wow, just reflecting on how crappy I felt this weekend at times, and how energized and ready to face a week full of "stuff" I feel at this moment.

Got a full night's sleep last night and woke up at 5 a.m. with Hubs. Might have helped a bit. hehe

I was in a funk and letting outside influences get me down. Also letting my aches and pains and sleeping problems dictate my happiness.

Understandable, yes. Preferable, N-O. Weathering through takes time, but when we trust and hang in there, tiny everyday miracles can change the scenery for the better.

Another way to say it is "when one door closes, another opens". I always try to remember that. Sure enough, I had some door activity in my life, LOL.

I was feeling down, feeling disconnected, anonymous, unimportant. Just because of random life. If you've been a reader here for awhile, you may know that I have a tendency to withdraw sometimes. I felt the urge to, but I remembered all that therapy advice. I chose to reach out, to blog, to post , to make a couple of phone calls and emails to nonline (there's online and there's nonline, hehe) friends, not to even mention my plight but just to interact. Helped me get away from those feelings. And I'm so thankful for those people (who don't even know what the heck I'm talking about, but that's ok).

Then, Missy decides to land from her collegiate whirlwind life and a plethoria of emails arrive in my inbox. She had no idea what I was feeling, yet there she was to the rescue, too. Urging me to create a MySpace page and to check out her new photos. So, I did both. Yup, me. I created a MySpace page, very rudimentary but it works. I'm still very confused at how to pimp it out, so maybe I won't just yet. A worthy endeavor for a later date.

Then, I decided this was the time to quit putting off compiling some tunes to listen to, so I did that. Which is why I have a playlist and music going on this blog now. It never ceases to amaze me how much music can change my mood for the better, and as I have gotten older, how much I forget to include it in my daily life. Sure hope I have learned the lesson now.

Then, I cooked a couple of good dinners for Hubs and me this weekend. Put off going to the grocery store and used what we had. Gotta love that. Dentist appointment tomorrow and I'll go Krogering afterwards, so Tuesday's my Outside Day.

My scenery tide was starting to turn, yet good things kept on happening.

I made enormous progress on getting my work papers in order. Still a ways to go, may take the rest of this whole week, but I'm on my game with it. Can't stop me now. And just as I was wondering what to do about a client who owes me money, I got a call from him. Sending me a check today. Wow, mental telepathy doesn't work that well, even.

Oh, and last night, the local weatherman gave me another great gift: a real, live cool front is hitting us this afternoon, with temps dropping to the high 40's by tonight. Do you know how great that is for us here? Yes, the front of the front has a rainy day in store, but Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are going to be clear, gorgeous and cool. Really fall, not Indian summer. For some precious hours, at least.

So, feeling relaxed for the first time in a while, when my narcolepsic drowsiness hit me about 11 p.m. last night, I succumbed immediately. Hence, the full night's sleep and eager-beaver wake up today. No, my day has not gone exactly picture-perfect according to plan, but I am happy, confident, optimistic, as is my normal tendency to be since the day I was born. So refreshing! So precious.

Here's Where I Explain

Still on the Line, Still Doin' Fine
So, anyway, I found a You Tube video of Glen Campbell performing "Witchita Lineman" on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour back in 1967 or so, and I proudly offer it for your enjoyment. Think back to a more innocent and simpler time with less expectation, and you'll be fine. I love to listen to it.

I was watching Nightline last night and Annie Lennox was on there talking about her playlist (a segment where they asked famous musicians what's on their playlist of all time). Interesting choices, I thought. Aretha of course, the Beatles, Bob Marley, Joni Mitchell. All so worthy. The songs of theirs that she chose I thought to be a bit different (her Beatles tune for instance was "I am the Walrus", not ever on my list.).

But she floored me with her choice of Glen Campbell for "Wichita Lineman". O My God. Could she have been any closer to my memories of growing up than if she lived with us? You see, my parents and I are all Arkansas-born as is Glen, so when he hit the scene as a main act (having spent many years pickin' for recording greats prior to his big solo break) with that song and with "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", well, let's just say he made a huge stir. He was such a presence and a great guitar player and such a smooth voice. And polite and cute.

Uh, this was the mid-60's, people. Didn't take much for an image back then.

Anyway, Annie starts singing it a capella and gorgeously, so I had to google it myself. My mom had a crush on Glen like nobody's biz, although not one as intense as her crush on Elvis back when he first came out in the 50's (she was not a fan of the bloated and sequined Elvis). Frankly, I think she a crush on the pelvis, but I'll never know cuz she's not confessing.

Anyway, Glen's album and that song played on our stereo for hours each day. I knew "Lineman" like the back of my hand. And I took a liking to him, too, especially since we got to see him so much on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (one of my passions).

But, as all things go, the dark ugliness of ravaging time needs an ear, too. Sad to say, this next video is Glen many moons and many more fifths of whiskey later, with the Stone Temple Pilots. He manages to pull it off, but it ain't quite the same, is it?



And that brings me to how the Different Drummer (that's moi) can beat her own beat and support the Music (that's you out there who are my online friends who do choose to pursue publication and design team spots).

I'm very proud and happy for my friends when they achieve accomplishments of that sort. Rachael blogged this week about seeing her layout in Scrapbooks Etc. Magazine, and I'm thoroughly thrilled for her, posted as much on her blog. Kim has been selected for the Memory Purses team for the holidays (and why not permanently, is what I think, frankly). I also posted congrats. Noelia had her art cards lifted for the Member Inspiration at 2peas by a Garden Girl! How awesome! And I left her some praise, too.

Just wanted to put that out there, to avoid any misunderstanding. What I wrote yesterday was about me only, and why I can't march to that beat. Your mileage may vary, though, and viva la difference!