Totally digging...

Colbie Caillat

I found her on Itunes, her song "Bubbly" was the free single of the week. I downloaded that, plus Realize and Magic. It took me maybe a day to download the rest of the album, and it has been on constant rotation since then.

Her music is summery and light and touching. It has the essence of the beach, with beautiful lyrics that you want to listen to over and over. Her music feels like love.

"Take time to realize, this all could pass you by. Didn't I tell you? But I can't spell it out for you. It's never going to be that simple."

A great song, says Colbie Caillat, should lift your heart, warm the soul and make you feel good. Taking her own sound advice, "Coco", the debut album by the 22 year-old Californian singer-songwriter is simply crammed full of them. -- From her Myspace page

Check her out. I think you will be glad you did.

Meeting Sam

Sam, his first day out and about in his new home










































Meet Sam, the newest addition to the family. He is a small black cat who purrs much louder than his small stature would indicate.

Myra loves her new brother. When she met him for the first time, her tail was wagging at triple speed.

He follows her around. She runs up to him, her whole body wagging and then will kiss/slurp his forehead. He will lick her and rub his head on her face and purr.

He is not a quick to love cat, he is still feeling us out, but we are slowly winning his approval. He joined us on the bed for a family nap, and for a very few minutes, the four of us were snuggled on the bed (we might need a bigger bed at some point). He runs off if you approach him too quickly, but if you sit down and let him come to you, he purrs contentedly at you. Just a few minutes ago, he was down below my desk chair, I invited him up. He didn't stay long but he did jump up into my lap.

I was worried about him not eating for almost two days, and then I was worried because he didn't seem to be eating much. But I am learning Sam does things at his pace, when he is ready. That's not a bad thing.

I am looking forward to getting to know him more, and seeing Myra with her new little brother. And oddly and nicely, bringing Sam home made me love Myra even more, because she is such a wonderful, sweet, happy dog.

Welcome to your new home, Sam

Eight, eight is great!

Me and Mik, one of my closest and bestest friends.
















A lot of bloggly ladies have been playing tag, and posting eight facts about themselves.

I haven't been tagged, but I wanted to play too, so I am :)

1. I have onion-phobia. I HATE onions. Smell, taste, raw, cooked. If there are onions in something, I have to pick them out before I can eat it, if there are too many onions, and it tastes oniony, I can't eat it at all. But I love garlic.

2. Since 2003, I have lived in eight different houses, in three different states (Mass, Oregon, NC). We've only been in our current house for two months, but I really like it, and feel at home for the first time in a long time.

3. I love journals and pens and stickers and stamps, but I dont' always journal as often as I should. I tend to go in spurts, sometimes journaling four times per day, sometimes nothing for weeks. I once wrote a journal entry, with my journal asking why I didn't play with it more often.

4. I had to start eating chicken after being strict vegetarian for nine years, because I found out I can't eat wheat or gluten, and my food options felt very limited. I actually like it much more than I thought I would, but I have to deliberately not think about what I'm eating. While I will never eat meat again, I do admit that burgers on the grill smell really good.

5. I was a certified scuba diver by the age of 13. I would live in the water if I could.

6. I don't like watching sports, but I love sports movies, like Invincible and Glory Road. I love rooting for the underdog.

7. I am an only child. When I was little, I planned to run away if my parents had another kid. Now I wish I had a brother or sister. I also have a very vivid, and weird, imagination. I used to pretend on road trips, that we were being followed, that my parents were actually kidnapping me, and planning how I would escape and get away.

8. I will often walk around a store, carrying something I like, then put it back when we leave. I like carrying it around, and admiring it, but I don't always want to spend the money to buy it.

This was fun!

yay books

I am a serial reader. I am always reading something, and very often, I have two books (or more) going on at the same time. I am currently reading Watership Down (in the bedroom) and Blood Red Horse (in the bathroom, yes, I am a bathroom reader...)

But since I hadn't been paid in a long time, I really hadn't bought new books in a while. I like to have at least three new books waiting for me, so that as soon as I finish, I can start reading another one or two, with one still in reserve. While I still have some existing books that I haven't read yet (see books currently reading,) they weren't new books, so I hadn't been excited to read them. And they aren't books that I've read before and love to reread, so I had been without books I couldn't wait to read for a while.

No longer! We went to Barnes & Noble on the day I got paid, and I happily dropped about $50 in new books, and that was restraining myself. So now I have waiting for me: Labyrinth, Hood, The Riddle, Pippi Longstocking, and Eat, Pray, Love. Now technically, Pippi Longstocking was bought a while ago, but since it was the last of my new books, I couldn't start it until I had more new books, because it would only take me a few hours to read it at most, and then I wouldn't have any new books at all, see my dilemma?

I feel complete now, like I had lost friends somewhere along the way, and I only just got them back. And yes, I know, this might be extreme to feel about books, but I really consider them friends.

Happy reading!

A weekend with Harry Potter

*No spoilers, I promise*

We went to our first (and last, sniff) Harry Potter release party Friday night, and had fun checking out all the costumes, and getting spells and such. T got a spell to make people's pants split at the seams, I got one to encourage positive energy....

We saw Dobby, Lucius and Draco Malfoy, Luna, Tonks, a Quidditch team, and obviously lots of Harrys and such. It was amazing to see the whole bookstore filled with people, and know that they were all there for the same book.

We didn't get home till around 1:30, I managed to stay up till 3:30 reading (quite a feat for me!). The next day was spent almost exclusively reading, minus a visit to meet a kitty, and playing with Myrapup. T finished Sat. night, I didn't finish till Sun. afternoon. For those of you who know me and know how I read books....I didn't read the end at all!!!! This is another big accomplishment, although with this book I really wasn't tempted. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't ask questions to T, and there were a lot of times where he would say he wouldn't tell me, but he did confirm that my theories I was completely certain of, were in fact true.

I cried. I laughed. I cried more. I was completely and utterly enthralled in that world. It reminded me of how much I loved her books in the first place (been sort of disenchanted the past two books). I was cheering, I was shouting "I KNEW it" at different points. It was a fabulous end to an amazing series, and of course the fact that it was the end of the series was really sad. I don't know when another series will come along that captures me so much, or that becomes a common thread that you can talk about with people of all types and ages.

Well done JK Rowling. And Thank you.

NEED to tone my reaction a bit...

I've realized I tend to react rather strongly to the "Do you have kids" question.

My response is either "God, no" or an emphatic shaking of my head.

Might be something I want to tone down a bit...

real push-ups, bay-bee

I can do a lot of girly (on my knees) push ups, but I used to not be strong enough to do real push ups, or at least not do more than one or two. So, I kept doing my girly push ups.

But I know I'm stronger now, thanks to weight training, so I decided to try some real push ups last night, and was able to do 15 comfortably. Cool! After that I finished up with 30 more girly push ups.

What can you do that you think you can't? What were you unable to do once or twice and have stopped trying? And if you can't do it now...what can you do to make it a reality? Doing stuff you thought you couldn't is a great feeling.

I hold my dreams lightly

This was something I said in a dream, and I said it trying to describe how my dreams are always so close to the surface, and very real. Have you ever Charles De Lint? In his books, his characters can go into this dream world that is every much as real as theirs. They have full lives there, dreaming is just the way that some of them get in.

I feel this way about my dreams. Sometimes I feel as though I am watching a movie (these tend to be my really violent dreams), other times, I am living and breathing in this dream world, and it feels just as real as the waking one. I will wake up and want to hold on to dreams that captivated me only to find them slipping away when I return to full consciousness.

But this phrase stuck with me, and I really like it. Do you hold your dreams, whether your dreams when you are sleeping, or your dreams of what you want your life to be and where you want to go, lightly? Are they readily accessible? Are they intangible, or do they feel real to you? Are you separate from your dreams? Have you ever thought that the dream world really is real, and that you are the director? Do you ever think that if you learn how to control the illusions in the dream world, that you will better be able to control the illusions in the waking world? If you haven't ever read Illusions by Richard Bach, it gives you a lot to think about along these lines. It is one of my favorite books.

"If you persist in your efforts, you will achieve dream control" -- Queensryche, Silent Lucidity, one of the songs that I will stop everything and just listen whenever it comes on.

Some morning ramblings for you to ponder on.

Kitten love

I might have found my kitten. Actually, I'm pretty sure she chose me as much as I chose her.

Her name right now is Dandelion, I don't know if I would keep that as her name if we keep her (the foster mom wants to adopt her with one of her kitten siblings, because kittens really shouldn't be adopted by themselves). I am going to try and convince my landlord to let us get two kittens, but I don't know if she will let us. This little girl, Dandelion, does love dogs though, so the foster mom might consider it.

I forgot how much I love being around cats, but man oh man, my allergies went on full-out attack mode. I used to be allergic to cats, and then once I got used to living with them, they went away, but I haven't lived with a cat for more than two years now. Getting a kitten (or two!) will mean living on allergy meds for a while but it is totally worth it.

Picture pages, picture pages

Some photos from the birthday cookout/gathering/party








Me and Mikki












Mikki and T











RM, me and Mik










RM, me, Tracy, Mik






















Me, as a silly dancing queen











The homeboys

30, Flirty and Thriving

Me, at my beach after my 30th birthday party

I had so much fun turning 30, it was really perfect in just about every way. The flight home was easy-peasy (an hour and a half, how cool is that?!). It was so short we didn't feel like we had been traveling at all.

Friday night, my parents gave me the best present they have ever given me -- they made me a scrapbook with pictures from the time I was a baby on up. This is huge. My mother is not someone who does creative projects. And she is not someone who makes homemade gifts, or generally appreciates them. She made a scrapbook for my aunt that came out excellent, and I just raved about how thoughtful it was, so she listened and made me one.

I can't describe how much I love it, how much I love that they put in all this time and effort, choosing the right pictures, the right layouts, the right accent decorations. I will treasure it always.

Saturday was the party, or cookout, or gathering, as I started calling it. I hate things where I am the center of attention, and I haven't had anything for my birthday, other than just my parents, since I was 16. But this was a lot of fun. Some of my closest friends were there. My parents and some longtime family friends, family on my mom's side.

While I obviously didn't get to spend as much time with everyone as I would have liked, it was great to see everyone all in one place. Seeing my friends again only served to remind me how much I miss them, but now I can get back to see most of them on a more regular basis.

Sunday was my actual birthday, and I spent it in such a perfectly me way. We went to my beach, I got to play in the water for a long time since it was really nice and comfortable. Tim even came in with me for a while. After the beach, I went up to the scuba shop to see my second family, the family I babysat for growing up, and then stopped in at another store to say hi to Bailey, their daughter.

It was fun and special and I will now always have great memories of turning 30. Can't wait to see what this new decade will bring!

Traveling!

We will be back in Mass tomorrow night, for the first time since Christmas, and we are both more than ready. One of the many cool parts: we only have a two hour flight to get there!!

Other cool parts: My parents are flying us up

We're having a cookout at my parents on Saturday, and I will get to see almost everyone I really care about all in one place.

I get to go to my beach, one of my favorite places in the world.

And oh yeah, I turn 30 on Sunday. That's not too bad either.

What do I have to do

to look in the mirror and not see a fat girl looking back?

What do I have to do to like how I look in clothes?

What do I have to do to like what I see in the mirror, and not see flaws and bumps and bulges and mom arms and a thick middle, no matter how much Tim says I have nice arms or I look great.

What do I have to do to not feel frumpy and fat in work clothes? I feel like no matter what I try for clothes, I never find tops that fit me well. Blouses always gap, but if I go big enough that they don't gap, they look ridiculous on me. If they are short, they make my short torso even shorter, enhancing my short, frumpy mom look.

I tried on outfits for tomorrow and hated how I looked in everything.

So, what do I have to do to like the girl I see in the mirror?

Sometimes...

My horoscope just really nails it, and rings completely true for me:

If you have already felt the desire to do something as a writer, Kelly, now is the time to do so. You certainly don't lack the imagination! The problem you have may be that you have more difficulties taking your prose seriously. Don't think so seriously about being a "writer". Just write! And above all, don't hesitate to let people read what you write. A writer's group would be a great way for you to come out of hiding...

the lucky cat....

I was driving back from a trail run this morning, on a fairly quiet, country-ish road. All of a sudden, I saw a cat, a beautiful brown cat with black stripes step out on the road. She was pretty much just in front of my wheels, I had no time to react. I just saw her face. And then I didn't see her.

I kept staring in the rear view mirror, to see if I could see her. I didn't see her.

I stopped the car, turned back around, parked on the side of the road, looked in the grass, looked under the car. I didn't see her.

I got back in the car, driving really slowly, looking on both sides of the road. I never saw her, never saw any blood, and when I had seen her and she disappeared, I never felt a bump or anything.

So I think she is one lucky cat. I don't know what I would have done if I had hit her. I hope she is home now, and safe, and not playing near a road.