I did have a lovely quiet afternoon that restoreth-ed my soul (read with lisp). I went to a local park where Penn State University has a Horticulture extension that teaches Master Gardening and conservation planting. I took some pictures to give you a sense of it:
This was actually taken over the same reservoir where I took the double rainbow at the top of my sidebar. This is one peaceful Canada goose
The park has a garden full of pollen heavy flowing plants, as well as some educational plaques about the role pollenation plays in the food chain
Then a few shots of some of the beautiful plantings:
My favorite hosta...Frances Williams
I love this one because the whole in the tree looks like a little gnome home!
Suffice to say that being in nature, with only natural sounds and lots of beauty allowed the noise and irritability in my head and heart to settle and quiet. And my empty tank got at least a partial refill. Enough to get me through until bedtime.
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Another catch up - last week I posted about Karen's Boredom Busters Challenge . I picked 5 goals for the week long challenge that are listed here. I was supposed to have posted about my results on Monday the 10th, but forgot; so here they are:
1) Return clothes to Boscov's and Kohl's that have been on the dining room table for weeks - Done
2) Take changing table to Goodwill since the baby is 21 - Done. Several of you noted the possibility of grandchildren and keeping the table for them. Nah - I'll have a magical beautiful Grandchildren's Suite with a modern changing table! Mainly I had no idea where the changing attachment was so it was basically a crappy looking dresser.
3) Plant $60 worth of bedding and potting plants I bought - ooops - only about $20 worth. Still in process
4) Cultivate and mulch the front yard perennial bed - Done, with Mr. Leslie's help
5) Replace mirror in powder room to cover open gaping cavity left by last mirror's crashing demise - I looked at TJ MAX, Homegoods, Marshalls and Target for mirrors and couldn't find one I liked, so this isn't yet done, though much work was done on it. I'm going to hopefully collaborate with Karen via her Design blog for some ideas.
For any of you who've been around for my food related challenges, you see that my success rate is much higher here! It was good to have this challenge to nudge me toward completion of some overdue stuff and make progress on other stuff.
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Now the Whats????? Last week's theme was bests. Today's is worsts.
1) Most embarrassing moment? We were staying at my in-laws. I had bought a pack of awesome bakery cookies (not too many) and stashed them in our room for an occasional escape treat. (Hey, better than the vodka from many moons ago!) Anyway, hubby did not know of this, and one day came out holding up the pack of cookies saying, "Look what was in Leslie's suitcase!" He thought it was cute and funny and was in no way trying to embarrass me but rather poke fun. I was mortified, as the whole fan-damily was sitting around. They laughed, and not because I was fat and hiding food, but because of the way it was presented by the # 1 son. Still makes me cringe.
2) Worst movie in your recall - Hancock, with Will Smith who's one of my favorites. Just hated it because it started out good and turned terrible (in my humble opinion).
3) Most hated food? Milk. Makes me gag, though I can use a measly ounce on dry cereal just to moisten it and it doesn't bother me.
4) Worst job? Working at Mori Luggage in an Atlanta mall for a summer job after I was already a nurse. Had just found out I was pregnant, knew we were moving shortly and needed something to cool ICU nursing burnout. Got paid minimum wage (had been making 4X that) but didn't mind because I thought it would be "fun". WRONG. The luggage was fine, but the people who worked there were mean. They did not accept me and made no attempts to allow me to be one of the mix. The manager was great, the rest of them sucked, and I lasted all of 3 months. Maybe they knew that would happen and didn't want to get attached!
5) Worst travel experience - Flying into Reagan Int'l airport in DC before they added Reagan to the name. We were on our final approach, when suddenly the plane lurched almost straight upwards and banked quickly to the right. People gasped and screamed and stuff went flying. The pilot announced a few minutes later that the landing had been "aborted" by the tower. Very scary, but it never made me afraid to fly. I think it must have been one of those near misses we hear about on the news from time to time.
Bonus question - Worst experience with a platonic friend - being suddenly cut off by a gal in AA with whom I was very close for years. We were like sisters, got along great, finished each others' sentences. 6 years ago around Christmas, she stopped returning calls. I left messages asking if I'd done something and she said "It's not you, it's me" Tranlation: It's you. She dropped off the face of the earth for awhile, and cut everyone off, but everyone wasn't her very best and closest frient in the world. It was excrutiatingly painful at the time and for a few years. She resurfaced eventually at meetings, having stayed sober but very different and interacting with no one. Grapevine reports said she'd had a sort of breakdown which made me sadder, because I wouldn't have rejected her or thought differently of her because of that. I'm over it now, but it was very painful.
Feel free to answer none, one, some or all. Feels like this was a very LONG post. One of these days I'm gonna be brief. Honest!
That is horrible about your friend! It makes you think :( Love all the pictures!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are feeling better today. That Mother Nature can sure restoreth the soul!
ReplyDeleteLessee...
ReplyDelete1. Engaged to (soon to be) Husband, eating dinner at in-laws. Mom-in-law to be mentions, oh, we should have tea with Mrs. X, she's one of my best friends. I tried to sort of brush the comment off, as Mrs. X was a substitute teacher where I went to school in 3rd grade, and was as pleasant as having someone smack you one with a sunburn.) I kept politely demurring and dancing around going out with she and Mrs. X, when Husband pipes up, Oh, She doesn't like Mrs. X, she had her in grade school, and calls her Titanic Tits. After feeling my heart hit the floor and bounce a few times, I tried frantically to get Husband's attention to SHUT UP by kicking him under the table. He then lifts the tablecloth, looks under at my feet, and says, "Hon, is everything alright, you just kicked me three times..."
Thank G*D my Mother-in-law had a sense of humor.
2. I have seen a lot of clinkers... Solarbabies is probably the worst. I thought it might go SOMEWHERE before the end. Not.
3. Liver. Love the smell when it's cooking, especially with onions in the mix, but I want to ralph my inners out if I have to eat it.
4. The Golden Arches Supper Club, not because of the job, but my boss was a gal that hated my guts from school, (yes, I live in a small town, why do you ask?), and made my life a living h*** while I worked there. Let's just say I learned a LOT about scutwork...
5. I suppose, by plane, would be when we were all stuck when Regan was shot. I didn't understand what was going on (they hadn't announced that Regan had been shot yet), a stewardess talked to a man in a jacket two rows ahead of us, then the man moved his jacket slightly and I realized he had a gun, Mom explained he was an Air Marshall, and then I was worried the whole time that OUR flight had something wrong, which wasn't helped by all the people around musing on what was happening, including one chipper idiot that said it was probably a fire that was in a part of the plane we couldn't see. Finally, they announced the president being shot, and then people started collapsing in tears. I was still confused, because I figured we could at least get off the plane, so we could find out what happened on tv. I can't remember how long we were on board, but I know we were given a lot of scrutiny by the Air Marshall, plus a few other air folks as we deplaned... Quite a bit for a 14 year old to digest.
Don't really know about the friend question. Have had friends come and go, and some have stayed. Sort of like adopting stray cats, you don't know what you'll end up with, a love ball, or ringworm...
I love your photos, and I am enjoying the questions, too. And so what if your blog isn't brief? I like reading it!
Cat
Your story about your friend makes me sad. Because I had to do that to two good friends around the time of my psychosis. But I'm on the other side of it, so I sympathize with you and understand her.
ReplyDeleteWorst travel? I won't bore you, but I HATE VOLCANOS.
Most embarrassing moment - I've had many but this one comes to mind: sitting at my boyfriend's (now the Mr.) mother's kitchen table and my 7 year old daughter pipes up for no apparent reason: "Mommy is wearing new panties today, they're pink." Why me was all I could think.
ReplyDelete2. So many bad ones. Usually because the Mr. asks me to put something on the Netflix cue. Recent: Ninja Assasin, Pineapple Express, Black Dynamite to name a few.
3. Liver, hands down. Lima beans are a close second.
4. Worst job was a tie between being a chamber maid at a motel in the late 1970s (gross best describes it) and working as the secretary for the VP of a family owned business. He was part of the family and very sexist and racist. One day he walked out to the secretarial pool and announced: "If I hear anymore g-ddamn talk about babies and pregnancy, I am going to crush birth control pills and put them in the water here. None of you should be reproducing." I didn't last long there.
5. Traveling back to Zambia with my 18 month old daughter. Had a connection in Paris but didn't know that I had to change airports as well. Took me almost two jetlagged hours to find someone who could speak fluent English and French and help me get straightened out. The airport personnel were the rudest I've ever met. To top it off, we finally board the flight to Zambia and I am stuck in the window seat with my baby on my lap. The flight was completely full. Neither person next to me speaks English. I can't put my tray down to eat the food. To top it all off, I got sick. I tried to make it to the bathroom but this was a huge jumbo jet. I got in the aisle and the flight attendants were blocking it with the duty free cart! The head steward knew though. He took one look at me, grabbed an airsickness bag and threw it at me all the while screaming, "Le bebe, le bebe" at the stewardess who grabbed my girl out of my arms. I hit the deck and proceeded to be very air sick right in the middle of the aisle, with hundreds looking on.
Your pictures tell me you had a wondeful, peace-filled little retreat. :) So glad you found the "glade."
ReplyDeleteThanks your your comments on my blog. You're a good egg. :D
Deb
P.S. I have a question. Re: your blog. On the setup part, do you have it checked to allow your blog to be crawled by the internet? I'm not sure how it's worded, but it's two yes or no questions about allowing access from cyber space. Mine are NO! I'm still kind of leary of internet search things. I just wondered, tho, if you did and how that has gone for you.
I didn't make a list - but did take care of somethings which were BOTHERING me after I read your original post. It was a really helpful suggestion - 'bothering' being the key part.
ReplyDeleteHi Leslie. Well done on tackling your list .
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about your friend feeling she had to distance herself - but sadly I've done the same thing for the same reasons myself. It's because after a breakdown you feel like you are a different person and you think everyone who knew you before would instantly spot the difference and that is very painful. Also of course, the shame. It doesn't matter if you know the other person is totally non-judgemental etc etc. The person who has the breakdown is the most judgemental of themselves that anyone could be.
Bearfriend xx