A Thousand Words

self explanatory I think.
All questions left in comment will be answered forthwith!

A Thousand Words

Dandelion in a jar edition

Winter hit and the water in the jar on our back porch froze.
Inside a star burst, firework, dandelion

Running Round In Circles and Then Into a Brick Wall

is what my mind has been doing.

So I'm trying to take deep breaths and grounding myself so I can put the brakes on my high speed wobble. And I have been on high speed wobble for the last week; thinking straight has been nearly impossible except for when I'm going about day to day routine things. So why the wobble? The husband decided last week to apply to school, it's a good move or him, he's taking a path that he's passionate about and he's been so unhappy at his current job that a change is pretty much an absolute necessity. Then came an epically bad day following his application and he decided, to give his notice.


If only for his own mental health this step was also a necessity and if his demeanor since he gave notice says anything it's that he couldn't have made a better decision for himself. I support him 100% however I'm also a pragmatist I know that we have bills coming due and that rent has to be paid and that we need to put food in our bellies and into the bellies of the Peanut and the Bean. I'm not saying that he's not thinking about those things too but I'm not feeling the euphoria of getting out of a bad situation that he is; so I'm on wobble.


The trick is to get out of the tangle that is the repeating "We need to get some income we need to get some income we need to get some income we need to get some income we need to get some income we need to get some income" and get to the problem solving action part of the equation.

I need to make it very clear that I support his decision. I can't say that I'd want things to be done in the exact same way if they were to be done all over again but I understand why and I know at the time it was the only option that would allow him to remain sane and because of that he has my support.

In the meantime I'm going to be getting back out into the workforce, perhaps a little sooner than I thought. And I've been looking at some opportunities that have crossed my path over the last week or so. I've got my fingers crossed, hoping for more to come my way as well as for the husband once he starts on the next phase of his path.

A Thousand Words

Birds on a wire

The "I'm getting excited about photography again!" edition

Books Books Books

I may have mentioned before that I'm a reader.

Wiki pageBooks, books and more books, magazines, blogs the back of a cereal box.... if it's there I'll read it. Last year a friend sent out a challenge to read as many of the Orange Prize long list as possible before the short list was announced. I took up the challenge and read some very beautiful and heart wrenching and gut gnashing books; many that will stay in my mind and whose stories will become a part of my personal mythology (Jamrach's Menagerie I'm looking at you) . I'm thinking I may just have to have a go at this year's long list when they announce it in March.

I'm a little embarrassed to say this but up until last year I'd become stuck in a little rut of reading. I'd found a circle of writers who I read and re-read and then maybe read again. Adding an author here or there and then including them to my rotation. Tolkien, Pratchett, Gaiman, Gibson, Lackey, Tepper, Ondaatje, Atwood and Coupland are all well worn and traveled worlds in my private library as well as in my local public library and I know that I'll take their paths many more times to come. Last year I read so many new and new to me authors that some of them have melded together into a melange of plots characters and landscapes. My circle of authors grew with the additions of Miéville, Wynne Jones and a few others who are escaping my still addled Mommy Brain.


So what am I getting at? Where am I going with this? Well, I just thought that I'd like to share a few of the books I've got in my diaper bag, on the bedside table and sitting on the edge of the couch right now.


Starting with one of my Good To Go To Authors; Douglas Coupland's All Families Are Psychotic  is in my diaper bag. I've been reading it when I wait for the Peanut to be done for school and the Bean has fallen asleep. It's a story about a very dysfunctional family who has come together to watch the daughter who is an astronaut be launched into space. So far it's told from the point of view of the Mother and the Eldest son who both suffer from AIDS. I find Coupland's books always make me think outside of the story. 


On my Bedside table is Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible a twist on the super hero comic book. It's a novel told from the point of view of the Super Villain Dr. Impossible and Fatale the newbie member of his defunct nemesis super hero group reformed after the disappearance of the worlds most powerful super hero Corefire. This is a re-read for me since I saw it on the shelf at the library and could remember reading it sometime in the last two years but couldn't remember anything about it other than I had enjoyed reading it.

Stacked on top of that is Heather B Armstrong, better known as Dooce' It Sucked and Then I Cried I'm laughing out loud and nearly peeing myself with this one. The episode in the first part of the book where she eats the Pizza to bring on labour springs to mind. I made the husband drop what he was doing and run to the bedroom to read it.

In addition I have books on deck to read including the Bio of GNR guitarist Slash (in between when the husband has it to read). What are you reading? What would you recommend? Want to read one that I'm currently in and compare thoughts when you're done?

Gonna cough a little, sneeze a little

even blow my nose.... OK OK OK I'll be truthful it's not a little it's a lot. I'm up most of the night either coughing myself or dealing with a coughing Bean. So I'm tired and my nose is tender from all the blowing and I think I pulled something when I had that last coughing fit.


I'm hoping that I'm not deluding myself into thinking that I'm getting better, I don't feel quite so bad as two days ago perhaps this flu hit when my white count was nice and up instead of at a lull. Some day's I wonder if I'd be better off banking a little blood when it's up and transfusing it when I get sick. Really I don't even know if that's something that can be done or not but wouldn't that be great? Instead of a month long cough fest I could get over a bug in the 7 to 10 days other folk do it. Any positive healing thoughts and prayers out there will be so much appreciated I can't even tell you.

On another tangent all together. I'd like to include a short list of what I'm thankful for, things that made me smile or laugh over the last few days:

The Bean's big wet sloppy baby kisses
The Peanut and the Bean giggling together on the way home from a shopping trip
Having a newly reorganized and cleaned Living room
All the crow's perching on the wires outside our window this afternoon

Anything make you smile today?