I'll Be Back

Things have gotten a bit busy. I'll be back as quickly as I can.

Manic Monday #2-Spring

Spring! Ah sweet, beautiful Spring!

I've been trying out my new Canon camera I bought with a bonus from work. Unfortunately this picture isn't mine but my friend Rachel's. My pictures are either too fuzzy, too light or too dark so I used one of Rach's.

An Arizona Spring generally lasts from March 3rd 'til March 12th, then it's Summer from March 12th until roughly December 31st.

Yep, after the 12th most of the flowers begin to lose their beautiful blooms, bouyant bogainvilla become sagging, parched looking shrubs and the only vegetation in our yard are tumbleweeds. This year I'm going to do something different w/my yard. I'm thinking about lacing the tumbleweeds with ribbons or fake vines just so my neighbours will stop leaving complaints w/the city that our yard is threatening their property values.

When my father was alive the yard looked so cute. Green grass, trees, rose bushes, mesquites. Now it looks like a scene from a Mad Max movie. Anyway, to those of you up there where snow and ice continue to fall, I raise my glass of iced tea to you and hope your Spring will quickly arrive.

Horror Movie-Scene One, Take Two

It was a rainy and stormy evening, good for neither man nor beast. Just my kind of weather.

I absolutely LOVE the rain. Being born and reared in the desert has made me something of a strange 'un. I get no kicks from champagne. Pure alcohol doesn't thrill me at all, but I always get excited about weather changes! Just as some people can find orgasmic glory by eating chocolate, I can reach my peak just looking at three or more dark clouds.

So when my elderly neighbour called, asking me to run a few grocery errands for her tonight I didn't hesitate to go driving in the pouring rain. Unfortunately, all she wanted was a diet drink from the neighbourhood food mart but that didn't stop my zeal. I giddily zoomed off to the food mart with the window rolled down, feeling the cold air slap and sting my cheeks. I should have said cue scary music.

When I got to the store I thought it was closed because of the dark lighting. A dim neon lit blinked "Open" so I went to the door and pulled it open. And I felt it. A foreboding sense of trouble, of pain, of gastric excess. This store was something straight out of a poorly made horror movie. Even the clerk looked like he was auditioning for the part of "Clerk/Killer/Creature". This guy was tall, slim with a face made of marble. He stood and watched me, never blinking, like one of those pictures with the eyes that follow you.

The fact that there was no one else in the store didn't elude me. I couldn't find the soda I was looking for and after having checked several store cases I turned to call and ask him where the diet soda was and there he was, right behind me! I thought I was going to scream, faint or excuse me-fart but I didn't. I asked him where the diet 7-Up was and he reached up and pointed over my head to show me the other display case.

Unfortunately, when he moved like that, I thought he was reaching up to stab me and this time I did fart (sorry) and fell back causing a whole display of chicarrones (pork skins) to tip over. "Hey lady, you crazy or sumpin?" He spit out.

"'I'm sorry!" I stuttered "You scared me!". By this time someone else came into the store so Clerk/Weirdo/Killer kicked some of the bags away and went to help the new customer. I picked up a bag of chicarrones, got the 7-Up and paid. When I got to my car I looked into the store and saw him staring out the window at me. I swear his eyes were glowing red.

Wordless Wednesday #1

RIP-Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson

Manic Monday #1-Chip

The handsome guy in the picture, standing next to our cousin "Mila" is "Chip". His official name is Archip but we've always called him "Chip". We're a family of nick names.

Simply Successful Secrets

I was over lurking at Sani's site and found this meme: Compose a new blog post listing the top 5 to 10 things that you do almost every day that help you to be successful. They can be anything at all, but they have to be things that you do at least 4 or 5 times every week. Anything less than that may be a hobby that helps you out, but we are after the real day in and day out habits that help you to be successful.

1. Brush my teeth. Nothing ruins another person's day faster than having to deal w/me if I have yuck-mouth. To make sure people love being around me (like this is ever a problem) I brush.

2. Wear cologne/perfume. Like most of you, I wear different scents for different reasons. When I want to be taken seriously I wear Armani Code. When I want to feel powerful I wear Quel Ques Fleur. When I'm particularly upbeat I wear Romance by Ralph Lauren or Givenchy. If I want to speak softly but carry a big stick I wear Vera Wang's Sheer Veil. When I'm just being me around the house it's anything from Bath & Body Works.

3. Pray. Like the song says, "How you gone pay your rent? All your money's spent. Little bit to buy some food. Baby need a pair of shoes. Look, you got a light bill due. And you got a gas bill too. Telephone disconnect. Waiting on the next paycheck. Tell you what you ought to do..." I have to pray to thank Him for being so good and kind. To tell Him I love and need Him. And to ask for His help.

4. Speak to my mother. Nothing's worse (in my opinion) than a mother and daughter not getting along. I know there are legitimate causes, I'm not stupid, but it's still sad. I love my mommy and yes, most of her grown children still call her Mommy-leave me alone Dragon. My mother's pretty good and unique and I try all I can to spoil her rotten. We're only going to have each other for a season so I want my season w/her to be filled w/sweet days.

5. Do unto others. I allow others to get in the grocery line in front of me if they only have a few things and I have two baskets. I'm a courteous driver. I smile and speak to strangers in elevators or on their blogs. The Scripture says, "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap" so I'm expecting people to be courteous to me because that's what I'm sowing.

6. Shower. Yep, wearing all that cologne won't mask a stanking, sweaty, filthy body so it gets washed.

There you have it. I'm tagging

Maria
Lizza
Jeni

Something Cool-Check It Out

Found this over at Maria's and Stefano's. It's fun!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Thursday Thirteen #15

THIRTEEN QUOTES FROM WILL ROGERS

Someone sent this to me in an email and I love it. I'm sharing it w/you to smile and agree with.

1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman...neither works.

4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

5. Always drink upstream from the herd.

6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

7. There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

8. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

9. If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

10. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.

11. Long ago when men cursed and beat the groundwith sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it'scalled golf.

12. If you don't learn to laugh attrouble, you won't have anything to laugh at whenyou are old.

13. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

Thursday Thirteen #14

THIRTEEN RANDOM THOUGHTS IN MY HEAD RIGHT NOW

1. After having been dressed by a Vogue columnist (Andre Talley) and being ridiculed and placed on the worst dressed list for the Oscars, do you think either Jennifer Hudson or anyone in Hollywood will trust that magazine again? I wouldn't trust them to dress my dog in a mud wrestling competition.

2. Why do you think the phone rep advised me of my minimum payment due when I had already told her the amount I was paying? Are credit card companies trying to persuade us NOT to pay them off each month by making their reps push the minimum amount due?

3. Where do they find these people for the judge shows and the other talk shows? Do they have secret websites that determine eligibility by the number of missing teeth, how bright your blonde weave is (black girls only) and the number of broken down vehicles in your yard? Seriously, do these shows send people out to certain neighbourhoods scouting out these people?

4. At what point do you realize "Hey, I must suck!" after being declined position after position? I work w/this stupid little man who has interviewed for about 16 jobs and he keeps getting turned down. He always says, the feedback given was weak and not to the point. How about this feedback, "You suck and we're not going to hire you!"

5. Why do people get angry when you ignore their child? If people are sitting next to me and they're holding a baby, I'll ignore the baby, depending on my mood. Sometimes when I do this, the parent will throw mean glances at me. Why? Not everyone wants to coo all over your drooling baby.

6. If people say they're getting divorced are we supposed to be sympathetic or happy? Sometimes I'll say, "I'm sorry" and they'll respond "Don't be, it's a good thing." Or if I say "Hey, had enough of that crap, huh?" They'll respond, "The kids are taking it hard though." What should I do?

7. Can anyone tell me the reason spandex was created? Other than making fat women's legs look like shaking vessels of cottage cheese, what's the real purpose for spandex?

8. Which came first, the Easter bunny or Easter egg? Why isn't there an Easter turkey, hot dog or steak?

9. Why do dentists and their assitants ask open-ended questions while drilling in your mouth? Do they really think we can answer?

10. The same for gynecologists. Do they actually think we want to talk about the weather or our busy schedules when they're pushing instruments into our bodies?

11. Do you ever wonder about the world we're going to leave our children and grand children?

12. I'm glad Jake Plummer's gone from the Broncos. I've never liked that snarky, creeping crawling excuse for a guy. He should fall right in line with Jon "Chucky" Gruden, another snarky, cave-dwelling ignoramus.

13. My family and I were getting professional portraits done and the group behind us, a bunch of sorority girls, was waiting to use the dressing room area. One of the girls rudely shouted at us to hurry up, causing the photographer and his assistants to try and calm her down. I rudely retorted, "Go eat a cheeseburger and by the time you're done throwing it up we should be done!" That shut her skinny mouth and I could see the photographer grinning as he adjusted his camera. He even gave me a complimentary head shot:-)

Family Friday #5

I don't have any new pictures of the family to post, or none you can't view on my Flickr badge so here are some of my niece "Butterfly" over the months. Have I bragged about her intelligence yet? Yeah she's smart. Next week she's gonna learn how to blog.

To Thine Ownself Be True

Okay, I'm in a dilemma. Well, it's really not a dilemma in the true sense of the word. I mean it's not a life and death type of situation. It's more about loyalties. Particularly my political loyalties.

I believe in the judicial process. As a matter of fact, my father drilled it in us kids to go out and vote every time the polls opened. My father was a voting zealot due in large part to the fact that he was given his first chance to vote at age 42. He wanted to make sure none of his children took for granted the precious rights we have in this country.

I'm struggling, for the first time of which candidate I'm going to vote for.

Should I vote for Barack Obama because he's Black and I'm supposed to support the Black candidate? Should I vote for Hillary because she's female? I don't know!

Senator John McCain has always excited me politically and I've actually worked on his previous campaigns so I guess you can say we have 'history'.

If I work for Hillary's campaign my family and some friends will think I'm not supporting the Brother. If I work for Barack's campaign some will feel I'm just following the black herd. If I work on the McCain campaign I'm not only a Clarence Thomas (read: sellout) but I'm confused and may have my Sistercard revoked.

Barack has made some good points but he's so new and we really don't know how he will perform as a Senator. Hillary's got the experience but some of her actions/votes have really turned me off. Mr. McCain is a Republican, and in my family that's synonymous with slave trader/cheat/Strom Thurmond/1950's America.

In true Debo Blue fashion I'll do whatever feels right to me. I can't please everyone and I can't live my life according to everyone else's rules so I may as well be true to myself.

Would You Ever Change Things?

I've been so busy this week. Each time I got a few moments of rest it was immediately followed by having something else to do. Finally I've some time to myself. Well, at least two more hours before I join the girls for our monthly dinner and catch up session.

While rushing to another meeting yesterday and being the first to arrive I started leafing through my daytimer looking at my remaining tasks and started thinking, "What if I hadn't taken this job seven years ago? Where would I be or what would I be doing?"

That stuck in my head for sometime, and even this morning I'm thinking, "How would life be if I had made different decisions or some of the major events in my life had happened?

So I made a game of it and here's my little "What If?" list that I'm sure most of us have made at some point in our lives.

What if I didn't wake up this morning? Who would be the first to discover my body? Would my mother have called me after walking into my room and touching my cold body? Who would she call first, the parametics or my family?

What if I had quit my job or had been laid off? Would I be working or still looking for a job?

What if I had moved to California when I had the opportunity 20 years ago? Would I still be there? Would I have a better job?

What if I had had the WLS in '91. Would I have been able to keep the weight off? Would I have married and had children? Would I still be so conservative if I were thin?

What if I hadn't graduated college? Would I have ever gone back and finished my degree?

What if I had married my ex-fiancee at 19? Would I have children? Would I be a grandmother by now?

What if that man had caught me walking home from high school? Would he have killed me?

What if that car had hit me while crossing the street? Would I have been killed or crippled?

What if, after drinking all that bleach I had died? Would my mother have carried that guilt w/her all of her life?

What if I had not been born?

Thursday Thirteen #14

THIRTEEN THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE!

1. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight-savings time.

2. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

3. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

4. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background,is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.

5. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

7. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

8. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

9. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.

10. You should not confuse your career with your life.

11. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

12. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

13. Your friends love you, anyway.

from Dave Barry