bears repeating

repetition compulsion



repetition compulsion



repetition compulsion



repetition compulsion



repetition compulsion



repetition compulsion



repetition compulsion



repetition compulsion

water water everywhere...

Went to a pool party last night where a dozen kids went completely nuts in the water. All ages, in around up down jump land dive slide splash--simultaneously. Three weeks ago, Jenna couldn't swim. Last night she did the diving board and slide for the first time and, big surprise, loved it. I tried to remain non-wreck-like as she dashed and splashed and slid and dove nearby and sometimes insanely close to 12 other children doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

It was choreographed by a force larger than the sum of everyone there. I think that's why no one got hurt. Somehow it was a joyous dance by children who had a lot they needed to release, and to my dismay, no one smashed heads or needed to be pulled off the bottom of the pool, although I saw so many close calls my heart hurt from jumping.

There was something cathartic in the children's free-for-all of energy release. The other parents sat non-plussed while I sauntered around the edge of the pool, not quite willing to leave Jenna to her own devices. She was the second youngest there, but among the most daring. Not surprising.

Three of the adults had brought their dogs, and two dogs were residents, so in all five dogs ran around and around the pool, two nearly taking a dip, but instead happy to lie next to the pool while the kids poured big red beer cups of water over them. I don't know how much pool water the dogs or the children drank, but when the sky had blackened, I noticed a lot less water in the pool.

The lab got the pound cake. Maggie the Old English Sheepdog got half a pizza. Soon all the cups were in the pool with the kids, none left for those of us parched enough to considering drinking diet coke right from the 1 liter bottle.

The dynamics, which I can't help be a student of, thank you blogging, were what interested me most. That and wishing my best friend had been there so I could say, "Did you see that?" "Check that out!" "You won't believe I heard her say..."

Alas. Back to the water again today, to our pool, which is usually a little bit calmer. My nerves and my soul will find repair there.

At the Kroger on Ponce a Miracle Was Witnessed

Wanna laugh?

that real world

Out in the real world today doing real world things with real world people having a real world life. I think because I was blogging so much, even I forgot that I have a life, and actually live it, in the parallel (though sometime less enchanting) universe known as the real world. Humans are marvelous. Empathy is marvelous. But the blog world is still my favorite.

Step One

Admit I was powerless over E-v-e-r-y-F-u-c-k-i-n-g-T-h-i-n-g.


Check.

Healing the Sicilian Within

It's really hard being half Sicilian. Especially when it's your dominant half.

{badabing}

It's just hard. It's just so hair-trigger. You've got the motherly sauce-n-hugs part, of course you do, but you have the hired gun part too. You can't help that. It's a good with the bad thing, and it's nothing to be guilty or ashamed of.

The problem is, your instinct is so sharp and pin-prick ready for a single venomous strike that it takes conscious deliberate effort, and lots of acceptance of that side of yourself, to tame, understand, and eventually heal the Sicilian Within.

I have learned that the best way to quiet her down is to pat her hand for a while and let her sit with reassurance. Shhhh. It's okay little killer self. Shhhh. Mama loves you. Be a good little hit-chick and rest your head on this pillow for a while... nuh uh, now sweet knuckles, no moving around, just relax. shhhhh. settle and rest... shhhh.

It's about loving that part of you that can dream up thousands of ways to express your Sicilian talent, and yet also has the wisdom not to.

Today, I will love my Sicilian Within.

Today, I will help another fellow man rather than ponder what kind of design tire treads would make on his back.

Today, I will offer my hand to a fellow woman rather than wondering if her wrist is thin enough to snap with a single well-placed swipe.

I am growing day by day, don't you think?

we could make a pact or something

so, when fall comes, you know, anyone who's a blogger just lets the leaves pile up in their yards, and then by October or something, except in Florida and some other hot states, well, okay, so this isn't going to be as easy as I thought.

What I was thinking was that if we all left our leaves in our yards this fall, and appartment/townhouse dwellers, bear with me now, you could have some leaves from multi-treed bloggers like myself, really, but anyway, no, I was thinking we could all just let our fall foliage pile up in our yards and then any house you ride by, see, you'd know a blogger lives there.

Either that or a lazy person.

So, I think it could work.

you know?

music not words loud not soft

Hello.*

*not work safe

fellow white people: do not be nervous.

President George Clinton, His Royal Magicstry of Funkadelia, is saying "Funkin," not "Fuckin."

He does, however, say "Shit" a lot.

--dedicated to shelley who's a helluva friend.

getting off

I can't be here right now. In my blog. I have to and I can't. Too much to look at. I'm running away here. Or from here. I'm not sure, but I'm going to go for a time. Out of my own head. One day at a time.

you can't help it

You can't help it when you're pushing the race-car cart through Publix with Jenna in the front seat driving and bopping her head and you can't help it when it starts because you can't help that you can't stop your ears from hearing and you can't numb your heart to the music because you have never been able to; you can't help that they decide to play Stevie Wonder and you can't help that it isn't the musak version but instead it's the original version; you can't help but wonder who decided to play the original, and you can't help that you're under the speaker and you make a sharp turn down the bread isle because maybe you won't hear it there, but it's too late and you heard it and you thought you'd make it through the grocery store, I mean people can usually get through the grocery store, but not today.

Just as time knew to move on since the beginning
And the seasons know exactly when to change
Just as kindness knows no shame
Know through all your joy and pain
That I'll be loving you always.

-from "As" - Stevie Wonder

sorry, but that tree was majorly depressing.

changed the photo at the left. i couldn't take those naked branches and grey skies any longer.

that little mermaid!

Jenna "graudated" from her swimming class today.


--click photo to watch jenna dive and swim!--

Two weeks ago she didn't know how to swim. Look at her go now!



Swim, baby, swim!

For my part, my hair has never been so light, my skin has never been so brown, and my heart has never been so bruised.



Being in and of the water and watching Jenna soak up good health and fresh air and friends is my solace. No asthma since swimming started. It has done wonders for her lung capacity. She can hold her breath for what seems like forever!

Two days ago she swam down to 7 feet and touched the bottom. "WOW!" she came up saying. "This is just like the ocean!"

This is what life is right now. Thinking, growing, understanding, loving, momming, sunning.... and waiting.

Victim People--Fearless, Tough, Eager, and Bendable!

We could make it mandatory, maybe. Everyone must own at least one victim person on whom (which?) to take out their anger, aggression, and general ill mental health.



What's great about this idea is that realworld (meatspace for those who can stand the term) people could then leave Non Victim People (like you and me) safe and unharmed. And at the same time, when that nasty boss holds back the promotion you were deserving, you can take out your aggression in a truly healthy and spiritual way, as indicated in the Victim People's functionality listing:

-Shoot me
-Drive Over Me
-Hit Me with a Shovel
-Stab me with a knife
-Drop me from a plane
-Bend every toe and finger

"You dream it up and our fearless victim people are eager and ready to perform. "

Drop me from a plane. Hmmm. I hadn't thought of that. Excuse me, I must go now and have my first cup of coffee while I ponder the possibilities.

oh yes.

I can't get enough of this site tonight.

mmmm. tastey!

And you mean for just $60, I can look like this?



Hot damn! Wherez my credit card?!

Note, the price was reduced from $60 to $65 recently. Math is not important to him. I think some of his brains leaked out.

Pool of Life

That's the thing. Voices happening all around us, too many to parse, so I consciously shut down sometimes. Today, no. Been wide open all ears. Something sharp, glazed edges of cotton clouds. It was just after a storm, today, a nasty Tennessee drop-down storm that bent the trees horizontal left, then horizontal right. In these parts, that means hit the cellar. Some limbs down, enough leaves to sing autumn songs in July.

After, I took Jenna and her friend to the pool. Why not. Storm passes, you move, huh? We were alone there for an hour. Me saying, "Hey, pretend this is our mansion! This pool is all ours--you two are movie stars!" And they strut around in their racing-back Speedos, the kind Jenna says means "I'm a professional now."

A young man and his son come, something I wouldn't have noticed, but this 20-something-year-old was so loud, so animated with his boy that I had to notice. Still, I'm not one to say more than "Hey" to folks generally--asking the open ended questions too easily results in me being stung by the human condition.

So I watch the father jubilant with the boy, throwing him around the pool, running, breaking just about every rule written on the "What's Expected" rule sheet I received when I joined. He lets the little boy jump into the deep end while he's under water and the boy just about hits the wall when he jumps in. But he doesn't hit the wall. He's okay. My heart slows down. And they come up laughing and splashing and just sucking life right into their lungs.

By now I'm in the pool. Here we are, two parents, 20 years age difference, three kids playing some version of swim tag, looking like United Nations child embassadors, Jenna and her very-peach, light-haired friend, and their new Hispanic three-year-old friend, whose name, the Dad tells us, is Ramon. Like his. Two Ramon's.

Then I don't close down. I open instead, say, "He's a cutie. I remember him. He comes here sometimes?"

I remember I'd seen the boy at the pool the previous week with another family, and I remember the woman who brought him saying she was watching the boy because his mother was sick.

Ramon tells me how his wife was pregnant and had a siezure at 30 weeks, how the doctors had to deliver his little girl very prematurely, how his baby girl weighed just 3 pounds 10 ounces, how they brought her home from the hospital yesterday, how proud he is, how well the baby is doing, now 4 pounds 11 ounces. Today he brought little Ramon to the pool so he could give him some attention. It's been so hectic at their house.

You see, when his 24-year-old wife had the siezure that led to the premature delivery of their baby, the doctors did an MRI and found that the siezure had been caused by a brain tumor. At 24 she went from unconsciousness to a c-section to brain surgery.

"They got 90 percent of the tumor, they said, so we're really hoping, we're really gonna beat this thing, you know?"

"Man. Man. You've got the energy, the attitude. I can tell."

And I wasn't just saying that.

We talked for a while. Long enough for him to tell me that the reason he and his boy had shaved their heads was because they wanted to be a team with mommy who was losing her hair to chemo. Long enough for him to tell me he had stopped drinking when this happened--that he hadn't been drinking a lot, but that he knew with stress of these events the temptation to drink hard would have been impossible to resist. So he had to quit, and did a month ago.

"I bought a punching bag and hung it in the basement. That's my place to go."

"Wow. wow. hey. Wshew. That is smart, way smart. I hear you."

I tell him that if he and his wife need little Ramon looked after, I'll watch the boy at the pool some weekdays. With the lifeguard and I both there, I'm sure he'll be safe, I say. He thanks me and tells me how kind people have been, and he holds the boy tighter.

"I appreciate it. I'll think about it. I've been so worried about him since all of this started up. I worry about every little thing that happens to him."

"I know, I would too, but you are doing so great, you two have such fun--I noticed that right away."

He smiles and throws Ramon about six feet in the air, and Ramon hangs for an instant in the sky and then splashes down hard. Soon the girls are there, "Throw me! Throw me!"

And suddenly kids are flying through the sky, one after the other, and as I lean my head back to watch them soar, I notice the edges of the clouds again.

I need a get rich quick scheme...

Anyone got a good one? Really--let me know. The furnace/AC man is coming tomorrow to begin the replacement--well the finance part of it--of the whole kit-and-kaboodle (which I thought until I was 34 was "kitten kaboodle." Apparently I wasn't alone).

What I need is a scheme, or a meme, or something.

Pork bellies? Magnets? Soybeans? Make-Up? What? Something's out there. It has to be.

I like my new headlines.

they really make a statement.

Skinning a blog is fucking weird.

I've always had my blog set as my IE homepage, so when I open explorer, I go to my own blog. Used to be, when I jumped around more, and still is sometimes, that I'd hop from my blog to my favorite blogs off my own blogroll. But for the last long while my blog got so complex-looking that it began to resemble my mind, and, well, that's not a good thing. All jumbled and columnified. I couldn't keep track of what was going on anywhere but in the middle.

This is my first time with a two-column blog I think. Or at least in a long time. It's strange. When I open it, the words I see don't look like my words at all. Different font, different point-size. Different background. We really are branding ourselves--if only to ourselves--out here.

So, rebranded and newly landed, allied 2.0 begins.

It's funny

well, not funny ha-ha, but funny odd. I took some pics of the sundrenched me today--the first time I've taken pics in a while. You know, haven't kept a secret of the fact that I've been trying to get healthier, fitter, more relaxed despite some large looming life stress. So all of that isn't the funny part. The funny part, actually (again, not funny ha-ha) is as the new me blossoms, as these burdens I've been carrying--literally--a good part of my life transform into something different (not better or worse, but different), I actually am feeling better, doing better, and I don't really recognize my new face.

The face I see looks, well, a lot like my mother's, my mother whom I haven't talked to except accidentally for a year now, have seen just a couple of times. Not just like my mother's--my father is there oh for sure, and my Aunt Penny, yes, Hi Auntie--I see you in my face too! But, wshew, how do I say this, well: I don't recognize myself. My goodness. Let me introduce myself: Jeneane, meet Jeneane.

I wrote some time ago about not having permission to be beautiful growing up. That's the thing. I don't know if she meant it, and no, not consciously she didn't, I don't think--bear with me... I'm thinking this through as I go--but when I see me now without the influence of so much that has burdened me, I say, no wonder:

It was the her in me she had to cover up. It wasn't that I looked like him.

It was the her in me.

If she could know that she is lovable, or if she could have known that, I wonder how it would have been, well, different. Again, not better or worse, but different.

My mother, she used to always say, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Yesterday I came up with a new version of that old saying. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, but thank goodness it can roll a ways."

You are. You know? You are lovable. You are worthy of love and health and happiness. You are beautiful. No matter what.

We all are.

So much learning, so much to learn. Fear not. I'm on the case.

blog skinning in progress

shedding my skin. new look coming soon.