The Birds

You know the movie. And if you don't, here it is in 1 minute and 40 seconds.

Well, appropriate for Halloween, on our way to see haunted caverns we saw scenes directly from the movie. The kids were oooing and awing. The first sight I wish the camera on the phone was ready faster as it was incredible. I wish I had gotten them all standing in the field but those birds.....well, it was like they were reading my mind and took off again! They were everywhere.

These are taken directly at the end of my road.

This one doesn't even cover a tiny bit of what was in the rest of the sky. In was insane. I mean I know they fly south together but this was way more birds today than I have ever seen at once.

Look how many are still in the sky, just in what you can see and there are ooooodles more on the ground and in the trees. Just wacky!

The kids loved it. I'm thinking I won't show them Al's movie just yet...

I really feel like a hamster. I hate loathe and detest when people mess with my things. I think a lot of it comes from just not being grounded maybe. A lack of trust in other people? Or maybe its because someone has controlled most aspects of my life for so long that when something like furniture that I consider to be home base changes I just get insanely unsettled.

That's my life at the moment. True that its only one aspect of life (well all are a big undefined I suppose) and one maybe I should care less about but, its one I carefully had set up and created a home in. One I could feel comfortable and safe in....one I could relax in and let the creative energy flow. One that should be a constant. Now its changing and for reasons I just have a really hard time understanding and ones that just don't hold up. but nonetheless things are changing. My stuff is living in in disarray and my creative space feels cold and empty. Its no longer warm and inviting.

Through all this I've found out a lot of things or had a lot of things solidified for me. So in addition to that I feel like a hamster whose cage has just gotten cleaned. Anyone who has ever had a hamster knows what I'm talking about. Everything is uprooted and I have no grounding. I'm buying bricks and I'm strapping them to my feet. To hopefully hold me to the Earth.

For safety.

The sticker on the back of that van says "For safety this vehicle does not exceed 65 mph"

OK, so you can't see it clearly as we were both in motion and the phone's shutter just isn't that fast, but I so wish you could. It would make this picture so much funnier. But you'll have to take my word for it :)

We gots no news!

I guess I should feel very happy that I live near and work in a place where we essentially have no news. None. Nothing. Well, except for those 5 pesky stabbings last weekend. So I saw a post fly by my twitter feed last night by @SCNewsDesk about the one story and I went what? That's news? Then I heard it on the radio this morning. I was listening to @majic99fm and Jerry read the news.... 6 arrested in fighting incident last weekend but they still don't have the stabbers yet. And......... a man peed his pants. YES. A 19 year old in a college town got drunk, passed out and peed his pants. Jerry then proceeded to wrinkle up that piece of news and toss it in the trash.

But... this is news.

Some kid not only drank waaaayyyyy too much but peed his pants too! OMG stop the presses!

I know that police reports are a great source of news (and laughter). But when the front page of the news site has nothing and this combined with a condom being found and liquor being stolen and OMG streaking??? Well there was the 16 year old Philipsburg bully who stole a girl's sunglasses and when she tried to get them back punched her (jerk.... what's the rule? Oh ya, "Keep hands, feet and objects to YOURSELF!") And don't forget a 19 year old kid peed his pants! Man we are an interesting town. I think there has to be good stuff we need to find and report on. True, everyone hears the bad stuff, but we need to find a better way to harness the good stuff and make it front and center. We need to push some more positive things in our lives.

But, on the other hand. The fact that we're reporting that a 19 year old streaked on a bet is just...something, and that the police got involved, wow.... and it made the paper! Because he had been drinking and he streaked, after losing a bet, at 3:22am. Really? Someone called the cops? Really? Why not just laugh. Quit being so uptight State College!

Boy could I tell you a story about a guy who streaked on a bet at St. Vincent, in January, when college was closed, for days, because of the insane coldness. Negative double digits. Security not only showed up, but stood to watch. The kid made a killing, the school was highly entertained. And the guy who did it was one of the ultra conservative types who you would NEVER peg to do anything like this. But he laughed and said later "what the heck, you only live once and its time I did". Even my little Catholic School could find humor and live on the light side.

But I am glad we're entertained by our news. Hopefully crappy news stays away and we continue to get the dumb stuff. I'd much rather that than something horrible.

Keep being interesting!

Those Crazy College Students!

So smiling is something that I just said everyone should do in my last post, this morning....didn't I? Make someone smile. DO IT. To perfect strangers. Even if you are being wacky. Even if you are a crazy college student or old fogey. DO IT. You could be brightening a day.

I was on my way back from an appointment for which I got not entirely unexpected yet not good news at. But I end up behind this truck. (Wish I had gotten the girl but I didn't want to seem crazy....and I didn't want to wreck the car as I made that left hand turn.)

Out of that window in the back of that pickup truck appeared a face with a pink sweatshirt. She hung out that window and waved. So.....I waved back. You should have seen how excited she was. Its like she totally didn't expect anyone to actually wave back. Rinse and repeat. It was funny. It was wacky. And playing along is fun.

So now we're both smiling. And I'm smiling despite my news. You go wacky college girl, you go! Beep beep!

See what I mean about smiles? :-)

We're #1 in the #2 Business.

This morning as I was on my way to work I had the sheer delightful experience of following the honey dipper on the way up Skytop and down through the 2 lane section until we hit the bypass. You can't read it very well, its a little blurry and far away, but the back of his truck says "We're #1 in the #2 business." What a great play on words there. At least he's confident and not ashamed of the fact that he hauls shit around all day. He goes in search of it, hoards it and makes a living off of......shit.

Huh.

Not really my idea of an ideal job but that slogan, ya, it so sums it up, doesn't it? I do shit for a living and I'm the best at it. Doesn't that just apply to so much.

Yesterday. Was Monday. Totally sucky Monday. But sucky doesn't really begin to describe how yesterday went down. It was by and large one of the worst days that I've had in some time very large time period. It seemed like every time I took a breath something else happened. I tried to hold my breath but I don't look very good as a blueberry. So I'd take a breath and it just kept coming. By the end of the night I was exhausted. I went from losing someone to kids and school problems, to work stuff, to more kids problems, to the inability to see a specialist that I need to see to hearing news about a friend and really scary stuff going on in her life (kills me I can't be there to help out), to actually finding out a 14 year old family member has died and no one really knows why yet. Just that he had no shoes and was in the backyard. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article) Add that to everything else that's normally wonky and crazy and hard to wrap my head around and I'm losing it. And I have to act normal and act like I have it all together. For work, for kids and because that's how we are supposed to be. Don't show emotion, don't react. Just keep going like that damn energizer bunny. But that's not me. I'm a person who can't hide much unless I really have to and even then not so much. If I try to hide the feelings that I can feel, it totally comes off wrong because I'm not so good at it. I either go withdrawn which people misinterpret as mad or I come off happy because I'll just smile, no matter what. Either way there's never a clear picture. Because we, as a society, have made it not OK to express oneself. Always be on the straight an' narrow. Don't yell, don't be quiet, don't talk too much or too little. Certainly never pay attention to yourself as that is just plain selfish.

Sometimes I just want to be in someone's presence. Sometimes I don't want to talk. Sometimes I just want to be not alone yet alone all at the same time. What is so wrong with that. And sometimes I just want to try to feel what I'm supposed to be actually feeling. But it comes out wrong.

So things were as they were. I put out a call. Tell me something funny, happy, your bright spot. I certainly needed a few (thousand). But I got much more than expected. I got to remember that when things are dark, others will share their light making things seem a little better than they were a minute ago.

Special thanks to those who listened privately as well as those on twitter and Facebook who took the time to post something that really touched me and made me smile. And even the ones who posted something that made me smile without realizing how much I needed it. Because every smile that you give someone is a smile that they'll pass on. Your kindness fills the world, one set of lips-curled-up at a time. And so I smiled, and that took a little off and brightened what really ended up being a dark day.

So that honey dipper was an Omen for the day. Not that my day shall be full of shit. No. But to take what life hands you, take all that shit, and make the best of it. Put the crap in a tank and get rid of it and keep what matters close to your heart. And you all, my friends, are close to my heart and I cherish each and every one of you. I hope I can make you smile when you do and even when you don't need it. Thank you.