Danielle Blog

Quick update

I wanted to tell you where things stand currently.

My presentation was more or less done on Sunday night, just in time for me to take a break to listen to Chris Rock’s opening monologue of the Oscar’s. I actually liked the opening film remembrance part better. But that is beside the point.

I knew I wouldn’t have time to work on it today. Today, I really only had 10 minutes here or 20 minutes there to print out any of the information that I want to review in order to ease the spilling-of-the-factoids-out-of-my-brain. You know, for airplane reading… and waiting area reading (Do I know how to have a good time, or what? I say there is nothing like a handful of file folders of really dense material to make the flight just whiz on by, eh?)

I have tomorrow off work Thank goodness because we are getting a lot of snow, as I write this at oh, (checking clock) 9:39 p.m.

If I had to pack tonight, dig my car out in the morning, go into Boston for half a day and then get to Providence before flying out, I think I’d have a stroke.

Anyway, I’m babbling. Sorry.

So, I’ll spend tomorrow practicing my talk a couple of times (I might tweak it if I need prompting here or there), shoveling snow, packing, and reviewing info.

Oh, and petting the Girlie lots, cause she is going to miss me ya know. (no worries, we have someone coming in to check on her, but it isn’t the same for her, of course)

And then … and then, I’m trying to take it all one step at a time and not envision Wednesday, cause it makes my stomach a ball of nerves.

I hope to kidnap HB’s computer on Wed night long enough to tell you how my presentation went in a post.

But you know, I feel pretty good about it, all in all.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the well wishes.

I’ve got a helper

How can I be stressed while working on my presentation when I’ve got such a good little helper?

I’ve got a helper

How can I be stressed while working on my presentation when I’ve got such a good little helper?

Full blown freak-out mode – and not the good kind

When I sat here to pick a category, I almost created a new one that says “I’m going CRAAAAAAAAAAAZY”. ‘Cause that’s about how I feel right now.

Well, that and really, really tired.

Part of my way of dealing with stress is to sleep. This would NOT be one of the best combinations, stress caused by lots of work and an overwhelming desire to sleep, nope.

“Why so stressed, Danie?”

Well, since you asked so nicely, and called me by my nickname and all…

I fly out Tuesday for Minnesnowta, or Closet Metro-land, as some of you probably think of Minneapolis, not to see Closet Metro, but to interview for a couple of potential jobs.

“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. And don’t you get to see HB while you are there? and won’t that make it nice?”

Well, yes, it will be nice to see HB and to visit the land of ginormous snowfall for the first time. That and I hear we have plans to go to a German restaurant with good sausage and a guy who plays the accordian (I’m hoping people polka, cause man, I’ll need to cut loose by the time Friday rolls around, and the chicken dance, well, it is good for an appetizer, but not for an entree).

We are also going to celebrate HB’s b-day and scope out potential homes in some sort of home show deal…. but FIRST I have to give an oral presentation about my work to everyone and look smart while doing it. Oh, and I can’t just look smart, I have to actually BE smart, and think on my feet, and have ooodles of little factoids just flow out of my neurons and down to my mouth and float around in the air like… well, like something wonderful…. bubbles? no, bubbles burst. damnit, something must float around in the air all pretty to gaze at and be inspired by… Well, you’ll think of something to make this analogy work, I’m sure.

Right now, my brain is tired and my creative-generator is broken.

And I’m in panic mode.

So, if you see me at your blog, it is because I’m currently eating. And if you don’t, well, it is because I stopped blogging while eating and am working and working and working while eating.

And I don’t think I’m going to post much here either. But I’ll put up a flower picture on Friday. And by then, well, it will all be over, for better or for worse.

Did I mention that if neither of these 2 positions work out that I’m not really sure what I’m going to do?
Well, I didn’t want to freak out my family who also reads this blog, or HB, but well, I said I’d try to be honest, right?

okay. Maybe that is a little tooooo much honesty.

Well, perhaps this would be a good moment to say a little prayer (or if you aren’t into prayer, just send me some good vibes) that God has a plan. And that plan means my GETTING A GOOD JOB.

please?

amen.

(there, I feel better already, and please, please don’t tell me that those last few lines were blasphemy, I am trying to be humorous and God likes humor, I think. hope. How could he not like humor? We have baboons with red butts and hippos with big hips and ant-eaters with crazy noses and well, have you seen Michael Jackson lately? oh wait, some of that is man-made – oops. low blow. sorry MJ… Well, you get my drift right?)

Flowers for Friday – purple succulent

I took this photo in Texas (along with the purple iris that I showed you last week) with my usual camera, the Sony Cyber-shot.

Happy Birthday, Seestor!

My seeeeeeeeeestor, a.k.a. Texas Sister, has her birthday today.

One of the moments we shared together this past year, that really stands out for me, was on a very special vacation to St. Croix. I’ll tell you all about it one of these times, probably in March when winter really starts to get to me, and I’ll roll out more pics of our trip last year. But for now, lets focus on the sisterly-bonding moments.

One of the advantages of the hotel where we stayed was that you could use the hotel’s snorkeling gear to go out and explore the reef anytime you felt like it. In the pic below, you might be able to see some colored ring/floats beyond the rocks (I put white arrowheads pointing to them). They mark the reef.

Well, I learned to snorkel in gym class in middle-school, and I’ve always been relatively comfortable in water, but it is a whooooooooooole different matter to snorkel in the ocean.

But my seestor helped me get started and led me out there. She also knew my eyes were not going to be so great without my glasses, so she’d spot the cool fish, take my hand to get my attention, and point them out to me.

And it was amazing. I have always loved going to aquariums and seeing all the aquatic life, but snorkeling brought it right up within arms reach. I couldn’t believe I was right there, swimming with them.

I got to see my first sea turtle with her. It was the most incredible creature. It swam with such quiet grace.

And on another trip out, she showed me the sea fans. They would sway with the waves, back and forth, back and forth, like being rocked to sleep. It was so peaceful.

She also helped me find the school of blue tang that would munch on the reef. I’d been hearing them munch and nibble, but they can be kind of elusive to find the first time.

What I remember most about our first trip out, is that I was so excited, I was ignoring that I was getting tired. And then when I finally realized that I was so tired, I panicked and got a little scared about getting back. But being the good big-sister, she recognized my anxiety and calmed me down. She tucked my hand under her arm and reassured me that we could get back okay.

She ended up doing a lot of the kicking to get us back (almost all of it, really). It was in that moment, that the feeling of having a big sister who looks out for me, came back to me. It felt just like when we were little kids, and she looked out for me. Whether it was riding bikes, swimming, or moving to a new neighborhood and meeting the neighborhood kids, she was there, keeping an eye out for me.

But then there was that time when I was very little and she convinced me to sit in a plastic bucket as if it were a car. Lord knows why I did it; she must have made it sound like fun. And for some unknown reason, I had on a winter coat inside the house while riding around in the bucket, and it didn’t take long until I got stuck and hot and turned red…
… but well, big sisters can’t be angels all of the time, right?

grin

Happy Birthday, Seestor!

Note: above water pics taken with the usual Sony Cyber-shot, underwater pics were taken by Texas Sister with a disposable underwater camera.

Warm spot

You’d think I was keeping the house 20 degrees below a comfortable level the way I keep losing my laptop the minute I set it on the floor. And doesn’t she look like she is trying to figure out if there is a way to lie on both of them?

Geesh.

And before you think it is too weird that I have 2 laptops side-by-side, let me explain that I get these as hand-me-downs from HB. He upgrades, I get his old on. And at this point, I haven’t moved all of my pics to my ‘newest’ hand-me-down, so I occasionally work with both of them.

Of course, doesn’t everyone like new toys? She definitely does.

Just another weekend

Or is it?

There is a sense of urgency for HB and I this weekend. Without expressing it in so many words, I think we are both feeling like we have to soak it all in really fast to hold us over for the upcoming dry spell.

hmmm… a water and drought analogy?

But it seems oddly fitting.

Last night, he suggested we go out for breakfast this morning since it was a special weekend. I almost asked him what he meant by special. But I knew what he meant. I didn’t have to ask, I just smiled, and hugged him and kissed him.

So, while it is almost just another weekend. It isn’t really.

And what did I eat at this special breakfast, you might be wondering?

grin

My Favorite, of course!

3 blueberry pancakes and 2 chocolate chip, with a side of sausage, and tea.

I almost took the camera with us, didn’t, and then wished I had, ’cause the pancakes were beautiful when they arrived…

… and they tasted even better.

Flowers for Friday – purple iris

I have a bunch of flower pictures that I really like, and some that I’d forgotten that I’d taken. This has always been one of my favorites. I took it with my usual camera (Sony Cyber-shot) at a botanical gardens in Austin, Texas. The cool thing is that while I was looking for it on my older computer, I found a picture that I’d completely forgotten about. I can’t wait to show you that one! (all in good time, patience is a virtue)

As I was walking to the train station the other day, and thinking about Flowers on Friday, I happened to think that the liturgical color for Lent is purple… I’m not sure if I have enough purple flower pictures to cover all of the Fridays of Lent, but we’ll see. Or rather, you’ll see, right?

———

New topic

On my train ride home, I had a real breakthrough. I was so excited, I wanted to call HB, but I knew he was having this business dinner with some muckity-mucks. So, I instantly thought how I could tell you instead. But it is regarding work, so I’ll have to be a bit vague.

Here goes.

Right now, I have a big task ahead of me at work. At times, lately, it has felt like there is this huge, scary mountain in front of me, that is so large… that I start wondering if I’m ever going to be able to climb it.

If you’ve seen the Return of the King in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is this scene where Frodo and Sam are utterly exhausted,
and worn out
and tired,
and they look across the nasty ugly, rocky land (it might’ve been Minas Morgul?) and it looks like they will never get to Mount Doom. When I see that scene, Mount Doom looks so far away, and the obstacles ahead of them are so great, and I think to myself that they will never reach it in time.

And I’ve felt that way at times lately. Big mountain. Not enough time. And even in the midst of my joy this evening, I started thinking about how I’d tell this story, and I envisioned the mountain, and I got all teary over it. I get all teary thinking about it, right now.

So, here I am, facing this mountain and feeling
tired
and burnt out,
and my Sam will not be with me the whole time for my journey…
… and something good fell in my lap today.

Was it my guardian angel looking out for me? or Providence? (as they’d say in Anne of Green Gables)

The thing that fell into my lap showed me that some things ARE possible! Something that we’ve tried, and couldn’t get to work has now been done by someone else. And they give a decent description of how to get it to work. And if I can get it to work, I can get three times the information that I was going to be able to get if I couldn’t get it to work.

This Good Thing makes the mountain looks a little less big. and maybe not so insurmountable.

And the other exciting part is that I have something that I need to be able to explain, and this thing that fell into my lap today also helps me explain some of what I am dealing with.

Which is very, very happy.

(I’m sorry this is so vague)

So, maybe I’m actually moving up that mountain a little better than I realized.

And I think that each of you, are my Sam, at different times.

Self Portrait Day – week 1

Due to a certain photo that Amanda B. took of herself, the idea of self-portrait day was born in her comments. Big kudos to Mihow for setting it all up on a special site (which actually won’t be up until next week, but that’s okay, right?). In the meantime, she is hosting 20 pictures on her site. (click on her name if you want to see them)

The questions, with my answers are as follows:

1. What is your first name?

Danielle

2. Where do you live?

In a lovely home with my hubby and cat, halfway between Boston, MA and Providence, RI.

3. Where were you when you first discovered the Internet and how old were you at the time?

In a computer lab at my high school; I was 17.

4. What is your favorite sandwich?

I have so many that I love, but I guess my favorite is a spicy sausage with yellow mustard (Hot Links by Johnsonville).

5. On a Sunday evening you can be found ___________.

sitting on my corner of the couch (see photo) watching 60 Minutes and American Dreams looking at blogs during the muted commercials.

This photo was taken with a Sony Cyber-shot.

I am holding a cup of All Day Breakfast Tea.

Now, do you feel edge-a-ma-kate-ed about me?

Yup, I thought so.

grin