"State" of Affairs

The states in red are the states I have visited over the years. I've driven through or flown over other states, but these are the ones I have actually visited. Now I want to visit all the yellow ones!!

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/map.php

Joy Journal: Air Conditioning on this hot summer day.

Like, You Know..

Do you ever get really, really tired of hearing "You know"? My hubby and I were watching a series of interviews of sports "personalities" the other day during a rain delay in the ball game (yes, I watch the Braves games, sad isn't it). And I could not believe how the entire conversations consisted of a few words followed by "you know" followed by a few words followed by "you know"!!

Well, you know, we just haven't, you know, been playing all that well, you know, and we can't, you know, expect to win if we don't, you know, start picking up our game. I was telling the other guys, like, you know, that it isn't that the other, you know, team is playing all that, you know, great....

Whatever happened to good ole' "uh".

Joy Journal: A hot cup of coffee waiting for me when I walked in the door after work.

My Birthday Flowers

Just a quick post to show you my beautiful flowers my husband sent me for my birthday.

Joy Journal: A friend gave me a Cranberry Nut Muffin as a "Day After Your Birthday" present! How fun!

Kre8ive

This morning I stopped by my favorite little local coffee shop on my way to work and as my latte was being prepared, the manager stuck his head out the drive-thru window and asked me if my car tag, "Kre8ive," really meant "creative." I said yes and then he asked why I had chosen that for my tag. I found myself at a loss for words. I didn't have the courage to say, "Well, it's because I'm an artist." Because I don't really think I am. But I do think of myself as creative. I know that I like to make things. I finally ended up telling him it was because I like to create things with my hands, things like jewelry and paintings, etc. He was satisfied with the answer - but I'm not sure I am.

Right now I'm going through a really dry spell creatively, and I understand why. The stress of my mother's situation doesn't leave much emotion for anything else. And being creative is emotional for me. But if I were truly creative, wouldn't I need to create something to help relieve some of the stress? Instead, I find myself wanting to curl up and go to sleep. I don't think I've taken more than 3 or 4 pictures during this entire time except for last weekend in Chattanooga when I took over 150. And of those 150, there are maybe three or four that I like, that I think are something other than just snapshots. I look at my little sketch journal and it feels as though it belongs to someone else. I decided the other night that I needed a pair of earrings to match a blouse - but when I sat down to make them, it just wasn't working. And it wasn't from a shortage of beads, either. I could open a bead store and have plenty of stock.

Regardless, I'm keeping my Kre8ive car tag. And hoping that some day before too long I'll have the time, energy and desire to once again create something.

Joy Journal: Today is my birthday. And as my boss said, "Birthdays are good for you - the more you have, the longer you live."

Had FUN!

Joy Journal: Had fun playing with my camera on a carefree day.

Chattanooga

What a fun day! We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Chattanooga. We drove up Friday night and got to "Bungalow 319" around 9:30 PM - A really neat little house/cottage/bungalow that we rented for the weekend. And it is in walking distance to all the major attractions of downtown! Saturday around 9 AM, we walked from our bungalow over the Tennessee River via the Walnut Bluff pedestrian bridge to downtown Chattanooga. We located Rembrandt's Coffee House (what a treasure of a place!) and had a wonderful latte and a piece of Tiramisu. We rode the free electric shuttle to the Chattanooga Choo Choo then back to the Tennessee Aquarium. We saw the IMAX movie, Whales and Dolphins, had lunch at the Big River Grille (where the food was outstanding!!), visited the aquarium (with 87,000 of our new closest friends - talk about crowded), and just generally enjoyed walking around. Life was good. We came back to the bungalow around 5, took a short 45-minute nap and then walked back to downtown and ate dinner at Sticky Fingers Ribs (food here not quite so outstanding). We walked back to the bungalow via the Market Street Bridge and got home around 10:30 PM. Left Chattanooga this morning around 10 and, after a stop at Cracker Barrel in Dalton for breakfast, made it home at 1 pm. Had a wonderful, wonderful time. I'm so glad we did this!

Joy Journal: Coffee at Rembrandt's and lunch at River Grille. Good, good, good.

Thank You

Thank you to each of you who faithfully checked my blog, who left encouraging comments and who remembered me, my mother and my family in your prayers and your thoughts. You will never know how much it really and truly has helped.

My mother is making good progress now. I was able to come back to work part time two weeks ago and next week will be working full time. I will still be going to my mother's every weekend to stay with her but she is becoming more and more independent and able to care for herself everyday. She is still afraid, and I can totally understand, I would be afraid too. But now her fears are based more on a lack of self-confidence than on reality. Her periods of mental confusion are now almost non-existent and when they occur are very short. [Edited to add: "almost non-existent" seems to have been wishful thinking. But we keep praying]. Her vision has not improved, but neither has it gotten worse and this afternoon she is seeing her eye doctor about a referral to a low-vision specialist.

I'm actually going on a mini-vacation this weekend. My brother will stay with my mother full time so that St. Gene and I can go to Chattanooga to relax, play tourist and get to know each other again! I also plan to get reacquainted with my camera and maybe I'll have some pictures to post when I return Sunday!

Joy Journal: Seeing my mother cook pancakes for breakfast.