What's for Dinner? RRgh!

I wake up from a nap.

Yes, I'm fortunate I can take a nap.

Where is Greg? His truck is parked. Good. I hear water running and I peer out the back door.

He is washing out Rubbermaid containers. Oh, dear.

He's churning.

Patience and Reaction

This popped up on my Facebook this Monday morning. It's a nice reminder for the upcoming week.

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"The practice of patience guards us against losing our presence of mind.

It enables us to remain undisturbed, even when the situation is really difficult.

It gives us a certain amount of inner peace, which allows us some self-control,

so that we can choose to respond to situations in an appropriate and

compassionate manner, rather than being driven by our disturbing emotions."

                                                                                                      ~ Dalai Lama

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Be patient, but do not compromise your boundaries. ~ Sidney

My Exciting Weekend

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Saturday night fifteen Southern California Lady Bloggers met at Olive's for cocktails and dinner and great conversation.

Image via Chris Lam

It was a wonderful time, seeing friends and making new ones, sharing blogging pointers, and simply enjoying a girls' night out!

I'd like to thank our sponsors:

Whitney Howard Designs for providing our first-time attendees with Inspire keys.

Image via AJ Feuerman

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Pauline's Handmade Brittle for fattening us up with her yummy peanut brittle. She's amazing. So is her PECAN brittle.

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There's another donor who shall remain a mystery, but we thank you.

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And Luke, Dennis, and Vicki at Olive's did a stellar job taking care of such a large group.

Oh, and I have some findings to share from the interwebs.
(All attribution can be traced back through links. Please go visit them.)
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Words Stick

Thirty-six hours ago, I was fussy. It happens.

You have a bad day at work.

The party at the next table is rubbing you the wrong way.

Bad hair day.

All three.

It happens to everyone of us. And sometimes when this happens, we are not that nice to be around.

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Thirty-six hours ago, I was fussy.  And this time, I was not that nice to be around.

Within the past thirty-six hours, I have heard the following:

Outside Noises

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I can't turn my brain off when I try to go to sleep, whether it's an afternoon nap or I'm beat like a rug at night.  Too many inside noises in my head.

Worrying about work, chores, family, blog posts, etc. Things I can control and things I can't.

It's difficult to resist the urge to merely get up and go handle these things to get them off my mind, but then I gain momentum and am up even later.

I tried reading in bed this week, but that just turned my mind ON and I had the worst night of sleep I'd had in a long while.

I've written about this before and you Dear Readers gave some excellent advice.

But I'm onto a new two-pronged approach: healing and outside noises.

****Of course if Mookie, the poltergeist, makes his presence known, I am wide awake with dread until he finishes his noisy high jinks.****

My Exciting Weekend

Never forget 4/19

Sunday night I went to a comedy club and saw Aisha Tyler and a few other very funny comedians. One person was an extreme stutterer and one had Tourrette Syndrome.

I still believe that things are easier and warmer if you can laugh at yourself.

I felt under the weather. Like "couldn't eat or keep water down" kinda under the weather. I cancelled all my social engagements, rolled into work when I could, and am feeling much better now!

But *sniff* I missed my Writers' Critique Group and attending the book signing for Jenny, The Bloggess, with my Southern California Lady Bloggers sisters. I'm glad to report a good time was had by all. Reports were giddy.

Greg went to San Diego this week, and I'm proud of him for getting some work done! Oh, and I have some findings to share from the interwebs.
(All attribution can be traced back through links. Please go visit them.)
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Progress!

Last recycling load. $20. Done w/ it.

Greg sent me a pic of his last recycling load for which he netted $20. Good job, Greg!

I'm sure there was more than this; we haven't been on the phone much during this trip, probably because he's working so hard on clearing out the hoard.

Every drop in the bucket is a drop.

Keep it up, Sweetie, and please send photos when it's convenient.

Update - Scrapping my Scrapbooks

I don't wanna hear it.

Well, I always want to hear from you, Dear Readers. But what I've done I'm sure is counter-intuitive to many of you.

Six months (?) ago, I took a whole bunch of my sentimental items from my parents.  Scrapbooks, notes from the fourth grade, and too many other things to list.

My plan was to scan or photograph everything, then dispose of it.

It was fun at first, but soon became overwhelming, and I developed clutter-blindness.

My Exciting Weekend

There were devastating tornandoes in Texas and Oklahoma.

I saw a parade in Burbank and my father completed my taxes.

Greg was with me in Burbank this week, and we had our ups and downs. Oh, and I have some findings to share from the interwebs.
(All attribution can be traced back through links. Please go visit them.)
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

All attribution goes to Wikipedia and their resources.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.[1]

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.^[2] Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, all of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans. Maslow use the terms Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization needs to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through.

Snippet from the COH Group Board

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"The personality disorder / manipulation is a result of the mental illness. With some other HPs [hoarding parents], it is merely happenstance. There are so many spectra... and of course the HPs would all collect them.  They might need that some day."

I spiffed it up a bit (I added the last line, changing "spectrums" to the proper plural.) And I won't share the context with you due to the group's confidentiality.

But that's hoarding in a nutshell.

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Can't 'Splain It

But I could not get to sleep, this crossed my mind, and got me out of bed.

It's not for everyone, but some people live and feel this way every day.
Empty inside, wandering about, going through the motions to make it through the day.





Rob and his girlfriend, Sheri, have been invited to my Imaginary Dinner Party since its inception.

I will now add this to my Hoarding Dance Party as well, since it's so fitting.

My Exciting Weekend

Saw American Idiot Saturday afternoon.  I need to get out more.

Lots of work, thank goodness. Made some progress and some errors. Brought my coworkers six bags of Good Friday / Pesach pecan brittle from Pauline's for all of their help. But darnit, I forgot to get some for myself!

The bear is a meme; Google it.

It was my father's birthday and my uncle sent an unintentionally funny email pic. Then an equally, intentional charming one.

Ma-ma, my dad, and my uncle

Greg was with me in Burbank most of this week, and we had our ups and downs. Oh, and I have some findings to share from the interwebs.
(All attribution can be traced back through links. Please go visit them.)
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International Caller - Finale

Adult content, but I HAD to. It's simply phonetics.

Yesterday, I went to Tallyrand. Try not to be shocked.

As I approached the entrance, I saw YF, or International Caller (*IC) in the parking lot on his cell phone.

IC: Look! I'm being a good sport talking outside!

Me: I am proud of you and appreciate your efforts. Good job.

I went inside to the counter, and except for the server, Jose, I was the only one there.  IC came in; I had no buffer from further conflict.

Tallyrand in the 1940's

Not really.

But I've loved Edward Hopper and this song for a long time.

And I met them separately.

My Exciting Weekend

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Greg was in Burbank all week. I stayed in a hotel on Monday, but not because of any conflict with Greg;  I haven't slept that well or that long in quite a while.

I had a FaceBook conflict with a high school friend, and a Tallyrand conflict with a new foe / friend. And I'm smarter and stronger for them both.

I also had a few professional successes. Only a few. I had more stumbles than wins.

Spent a bit of time at Hyaena with Bill and Brian, made a possible new net connection, and approached Pauline's Handmade Brittle, and a few other local businesses, for a sponsorship for SCLB.

I may have eaten a bit of brittle, too. But I shared with others!

Oh, and I have some findings to share from the interwebs.
(All attribution can be traced back through links. Please go visit them.)
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