Time Like An Ever-Rolling Stream

...Seems to keep going on and leaving me behind, gasping on the shore.

I have survived Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and Ash Wednesday.  Again.  My birthday is fast approaching, (and I don't want to think about which one THIS is,) and my Birthday Vacation Week has been beset by freezing rain and sleet, and all manner of unpleasant weather.

On to the Journal.  Some of the entries are drawings or collages this year.  I will attempt to upload photos, but I make no promises on the quality thereof.

January 3. 2018

My words:  Even the mighty sun must give the cold its due.
Sun at last but still COLD!

Hearts see what eyes cannot

Rumi's words:
"Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes,
In the thought of looking,
 nearer to you than your self,
                                           or things that have happened to you.
                                         There is no need to go outside."


-Vincent and Catherine snuggled up together reading on their ledge in the chamber of the falls
_ Arthur rolled up in a ball sleeping in his corner of Mouse's "Mouse Hole"
- The many bright candles in Father's study, lighting reading, studying, listening, and sharing.
- Just a few BATB scenes that make me feel warm and cozy on a Winter's day.

Music is VERY necessary.  

I NEED to sing.

 

Pauses are important.  Especially in music.

There is no joy so transcendent as being fully engaged in singing or playing.  Music fills in the empty places-gives voice to the hidden things, observes with great diligence the silences.






January 4, 2018

-The idea was to write more.  Why the artwork all the sudden?
*The idea is to create, and writing is creative, and often requires little visual reminders or idea generators.
THAT is why the collages.

The days are so busy at work -
I guess everyone was resolved to use their library more this year!

The World is too much with us- too demanding of my attention.
Too busy to play with my art work -
Too busy to rest -
After I get done on the desk I have to set up for Zumba.  It's a busy night!



January 4, 2018

My words:  It means something when a film will not let you go...

From the film:  "Unable to perceive the Shape Of You,
I find you all around me.  Your presence fills my eyes with your love, It humbles my heart. For You are everywhere."












January 5, 2018

Minor inconveniences
But sometimes
The build up of them
Becomes an avalanche
Of awfulness.
Frustration.
Anxiety.
A feeling that
We cannot even
Handle the small
Business of life
So no wonder
The Whole world seems
So messed up.

That is why anything that makes us stop and really think is always so welcome.  Shape of Water is one of those things that arrests your ever-tumbling mind.
Makes you ponder
Makes you wonder
About the true nature of love
And about which things
Really matter.
Makes that mountain
Of annoyances
Back into just
A little bunch
Of annoying things
Reminds you
That we can do this
We can  make the world better
If we remember how to love.


January 6, 2018

His world: A secret place
Far Below the City streets
Safe from hate and harm


Her world:  Where the Wealthy and the Powerful rule...

I'm just a sucker for fairy tales...

A love like no other -

When a story is so well presented, characters so compelling and brought so skillfully to life,
It's no wonder 30 years later we still share the Dream.


The day is called Epiphany.
A discovery
When the Wise Men found the Christ Child
Christmas is officially over now.

So far this day
I have discovered that I don't know what I'm doing with the Paint program
And that this desk is very busy today
And I'm tired.


Story Idea:  It's very cold in NYC, in fact, a blizzard has blown up
So far, nothing is causing a problem for the world Below, but some of their helpers are suffering a bit.
Power outages have caused some to seek refuge Below - mostly the elderly.
Catherine is just getting over a bad cold,and has been reluctant to bring germs Below-
Vincent senses something wrong through the bond, but the weather  ( and time of day) make it impossible for him to go to her - so he recruits Peter, who takes Kanin with him (Just in case Catherine needs to be carried)
They get her to Vincent, who takes her to Father...
From this point a story of getting warm and sharing warmth, of many kinds, as only the Tunnel family can.
It was all still so new- this situation
...and saw the gold band on his finger...
That ring
The weight of it
 The promises it represented.
It's truth -
That he was hers and she his
The responsibility it represented
It was more than just his right, it was his duty to be with her in this, as in all things.
Not that long ago, he would have run from being this close to her, even though she needed his physical warmth like this - It was a glorious and also daunting thing to actually BE as responsible for her well-being as he had always felt himself to be.
That she felt responsible for his well being also went without saying.  She took every precaution to protect him,and this world.
If only she would see taking care of herself, her health, as part of taking care of him, because it was.
He knew she did many things above to protect both him and his world, but she still ran herself ragged, working too hard, doing too much, and not letting him and his family take care of her.
He sighed as he looked at her next to him.  So cold, so worn out, so determined not to be a burden, not to appear to be getting "special treatment."  Never mind that she was one of them, and also a Helper who did far more than most realized, she felt she couldn't "impose" on this world with her needs.
That would end.  He would see to it.  She would be made to understand that he and their family here WANTED to take care of her, NEEDED to give back at least a little to one who so unselfishly gave so much to them.  The physical closeness was no longer a source of fear to him, but a source of chagrin, sometimes.  He often felt, since they married, as though he couldn't keep his hands off of her.  She seemed equally unable to keep from touching him - whenever they were in the same room.  Well, they were still newlyweds, but all of his hard-won self control seemed to  have fled with the discovery that Catherine was right about their bond, that he simply COULDN'T hurt her, even when "lost" in passion because ALL of him loved her.
She had stopped shivering .  He held her close to him his sense of her conveying the rest and recuperation taking place.  Everything in both of them improved when they were close.
He reflected that there were things he knew about her now that he hadn't  before - The taste of the skin right where her neck sloped out toward her shoulders, the delicacy of her ears, and how his nibbling at them could send both fire and shivers through her, and make her moan with pleasure and reach back for him, if he snuck up behind her and "assaulted"  her earlobe.
He knew how completely icy her feet could be at night, and that she loved to place them on him - legs or back, in order to warm them - she now knew that he snarled when surprised like that.

He looked at her finally peaceful face - she was warm now.  Of course she was.  She was at last home.  Safe. In his arms.  In their bed.  In the heart of a community that loved them both.

(See the completed story "If We Had No Winter" at
  http://absentmindedwanderings.blogspot.com/2018/01/if-we-had-no-winter-post-for-winterfest.html )


January 7, 2018

Such a cold, dark, rainy, depressing day.
At least Discovery is back.
And Shape of Water only won Best Director and Best Original Score at the Golden Globes -

When do Oscar noms come out?

And tomorrow is Monday.
Oy...


January 9, 2018
Something feels "off"
Like maybe I have a sinus infection
My head is fuzzy and achy
I have muscle aches
I'm cold a lot
I have a headache that never completely goes away.

Bits of stories trickling out...
Finding their way onto these pages,  I'm hoping I find them all when I start actually writing...


Jamuary11, 2018

Star Trek:  My first obsession with a television show.

The first show that made me
dream, gave me hope -
A big part of my life, and our culture.












So many things have inspired me over the years, but only  Beauty and the Beast has allowed me to write decent fan fiction.
Maybe because it's  all about relationship and love,  and the world it exists in is so well know to all us fans, whereas Star Trek is very fluid in location, though is also primarily concerned with relationships and values.

Was very much wanting to be home curled up with a good book the day I made this.  I actually had time to do this while on the Circ Desk, it was that slow.  When I do things like this on the desk, customers are interested. They really liked it when we had the "adult coloring for stress reduction" program going, and I'd work on a coloring project on the desk, and hand out flyers about the program to any customer who asked about my coloring.

This was a day I wanted to remember how the light looked as I drove to my voice lesson.  A storm was moving in, and changing the direction and quality of the light.  It was surreal.
















January 18, 2018

Work has been joyful lately in spite of short- handed shifts and lots of challenges.
Being able to help people, even if just by finding a misplaced hold, has been very fulfilling lately.
I like being able to make someone's day better.

January 22, 2018

Such a strange time.
Government shutdowns -
Having to shop off- base
because the commissary will be short-stocked, if not closed altogether.
Feeling like I'm coming down with a cold - Matt, too, but hoping it doesn't end up being flu- he hasn't had a flu shot.

Fuzzy edges
On the world
On  my thoughts
My limbs leaden
Too heavy to move
Freezing and then roasting-
 Is it an illness, hormones, or allergies?
Who knows?
My head that
Alternates
Between feeling
Like a barely tethered
Helium balloon
And a concrete block

January 24, 2018

Still trying not to be
Snot: The Slimer of Worlds
Not entirely succeeding.

There are things I need to keep in mind.  Some of the favorites I have saved off of calendars, etc.
"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln

"Snap out of it!"  - Mary Engelbreit

"Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength." - a long time favorite from Mary Engelbreit, not sure where the quote came from.

"Don't confuse your path with your destination.

Just because it's stormy now, doesn't mean that your aren't headed for sunshine.  - from a calendar I had last year.

"If you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud."

And an old favorite, "Bloom where you are planted."


February 1, 2018

I don't know why this one is upside down, nor am I sure how to fix it just now.  (And I've had a margarita already tonight, so no, I'm not going to try that right now.)
My notes say:

(pointing to the Dove sentiment "Go where your heart takes you")  Sounds like a paraphrase of Vincent - "Follow your heart."

Birthdays celebrate the gift of time.
We celebrate the gift of you.
-from a card I got years ago.  It's such a lovely sentiment.

Ah, February- Hearts and flowers and Valentine's Day; and my birthday later on!

Still cool, but no snow.  Sun is warm, though.

"...and even though it's snowing,
Violets are growing.  I know why and so do you..."

"I have phrases and whole pages memorized, but nothing can be told of love." - Rumi

"We are, as a species, addicted to story.
Even when the body goes to sleep,
the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories." - Jonathan Gottshall

I have told some stories.  Now to see if others enjoy them.  One of them came from notes in this journal.



February 3, 2018
Still winter.
As the edge on the wind
and the pale quality of the
sunlight
remind us.
Yet a bird's territorial song
And a Chickadee's scold,
Along with swelling buds
On the trees
Say
Spring is not far away.
Would that our hearts
Could know such a
Renewal
For these days are cold
And hard emotionally.
So many things
 Want my attention
Yet my butterfly mind
Refuses to settle
On any  one thing.


 February 7, 2018

One again with the short bits -
Wednesdays are busy at our library.
The water is out at the library again - probably for just one hour - we HOPE

I look at the piled up annoyances in my life,, and I say no WONDER my blood pressure is up.
Have to plan a wardrobe for two weeks in NYC.  Don't have budget to buy much - don't need much other than comfortable slip- ons I can walk in.
Tis the time of year for the library's least favorite question: "Do you have tax forms?"


February 14, 2018

Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday, all in ONE!
Get your chocolate early, get your ashes later...

New sorter has arrived at the library. We are in the process of installation.
  Very nice young man is our tech.
About 45 minutes left to work today.
Then it's home and a LONG walk.  I was lazy this morning;  I need to make up for it.

THEN, we have Ash Wednesday evening service instead of choir rehearsal.



That's the last of the journal  entries.  Life has kind of been either too busy or too "meh" for me to write much the last eight days or so.
I am on my annual "birthday vacation week" this week, so the weather closings have not affected me, except to make me stir crazy!  It's been a pretty crappy vacation, stuck in the house except for Tuesday when I went to the Commissary, and incidentally, spent WAY LESS MONEY for my groceries and paper goods than I did last month when I had to shop off base because of Cheeto Head and his shutdown.
The commissary is a major benefit.

One reason this blog has been so neglected is that I have been actually writing something besides journal posts and poetry for a change.  I have written some fan fiction stories, and most of them can be found on my new blog,
https://absentmindedwanderings.blogspot.com/

All of my fan fiction is about the 1987- 90 TV series Beauty and the Beast, and I write "classic" BATB fiction, which means the third season didn't happen, Catherine is still alive and well.

Tallulah, Darling! And Other Adventures This Week Has Brought

I have finally gotten over the sniffles I've had for the last week.  One side effect that I often have with a cold is that I start to sound exactly like Tallulah Bankhead.  I never realized it until I was in my early 20s and my Mom said, "You sound just like Tallulah Bankhead!"  She was right. I've recently watched Lifeboat again, and oh, my, yes, when I have a cold, I sound like her.  Darling, bear with me, I've had one martini already.

Over the years I've had a bit of fun, but also frustration, with sounding like Tallulah.  I don't like it when she shows up near a time I have to sing.  I can't sing bass, Darling, I'm a SOPRANO!
I have fun when I answer the phone at the library.  People always pause, like they wonder if they've dialed a VERY wrong number! Well, "Tallulah voice" is rather sexy and suggestive... Not on purpose, though.


I had an interesting week this week.  First FULL week of Summer Reading, and we managed to stay caught up with the checkins!  I also survived a committee meeting, and catching up with the  ILLs.  Found out that a coworker is leaving. and nobody told me.  Guess I was out of town when it was decided.  Will miss her! She's been a stalwart worker and a fellow Whovian!

I have also dealt with my fountain pens this week.  I wrote a post about them, and have ordered and already received new cartridges for the Cross pens and the Waterman pens.  (Waterman cartridges will fit the pens Matt made for me as well.)

Last week I sent another story off to the folks who may publish it online.  Haven't heard if or when yet.  Getting a little antsy, but I can wait.


I had good news this week.  The lump I found under a bruise on my left breast was indeed caused by the bruise.  By the time I got in for the mammogram, I could no longer find the lump, and the mammogram confirmed that nothing is there, and indeed nothing new has shown up in either breast.  Good news at my age.  I lost a colleague and friend a few years ago to breast cancer.  Not taking ANY chances with that stuff.  Ladies, always have your checkups, and if you've had  cancer ALWAYS GO FOR YOUR FOLLOW UPS!!    Please take every irregularity seriously and get it checked out!!  Most times, like mine, it's really nothing, but it is far better to be safe than sorry!

CONTINUED ON  SUNDAY NIGHT>>>

Just finished watching the Tony Awards.  Always a great show, like a little Broadway sampler plate to whet your appetite for when the touring companies come to town.

Was very happy to be back at St. Paul's this morning.  We've missed two Sundays in a row, one for the convention in Houston, and last week because we were both afflicted with that sinus cold.   That church is a truly comforting place, so full of love, and so full of loving people.  Going there always makes me feel better.

I made some more buttons today, mostly just for fun.  I now have one that says "Strait Outta Compton Yup. I left in 1974"  and an Opus using the "mental floss" - figured that one would be very necessary during the campaign season.  Now to find a place to put them on the library lanyard...

Dear God, please take the hot flashes away.  I am getting very weary of suddenly feeling as though I am going to turn into a puddle of sweat.  Feels like I am burning up from the inside out.  I haven't been sleeping so well lately because of them.

Some day SOON I have to clean up this office again.  Things are piling up on me.  It's a matter of lack of organization and storage space.  (Also, too much stuff that really should be thrown away...)

So very saddened by the events in Orlando yesterday.  Sad for the Islamic community that their holy month of Ramadan has been disrupted by this one idiot's act of violence, very sad for the LGBT community that now has even more fear and stress to deal with.  As I posted on my Facebook page: To all my LGBT friends, you are loved.  I love you for who you are, and I always will.  You are supported in your struggles.  Don't lose hope.

Saw a very good tweet re ISIS yesterday.  ISIS is to Islam as Torquemada and the Inquisition were to Christianity.  
Basically a bunch of nutcases on a violent witch hunt.Only ISIS isn't really sanctioned by any governing body of Islam.  Alas, Torquemada was sanctioned by Rome.

Time to tie this one up, folks.
Remember that we are all of us related to one another on this planet.  Can't avoid it, we all came from the same raw materials, we share some genetics with every other human on this ball of mud.  As Captain Kirk once said on Star Trek, the only thing in the whole universe that's really ours is the rest of humanity.  Please, let's learn to love each other before it's too late.

A Feeling of Accomplishment!

This was written on Tuesday, January 14, 2014


Today I finished this round of Nerdy Dozen training for my job. It's a chance to investigate various web 2.0 applications and see how they might be  useful to us in our jobs, or to recommend to customers. We have to blog about each topic on the training website, and it has taken me longer to do so this time around than it did the first time out.  I was one of the first to complete the first round of Nerdy Dozen.  That's when I actually did something with my Twitter account, and boy, that has certainly snowballed.  (As has my continued use of Facebook, Pinterest, and my fitness sites.)

I felt like I got a lot done at work, as I finished the last two Nerdy Dozen posts from work for once.  I usually have to complete them at home because there's too much actual work to do at work. ( I find myself writing in comments on people's posts who DO have off-desk time "What is this "off-desk time" you speak of?  I do not know of it.")

...This bit is being added on Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Monday, the plumbers finally got the go ahead from the service line insurance company to do the water leak repair.  My next water bill ought to be considerably lower!  It had been leaking for AWHILE, they said.  I feel like I accomplished something there by being smart enough to buy the coverage when the city informed us that such was available, and for remembering I had when this happened! 

Today has been behaving an awful lot like a Monday even though it is, in fact, Wednesday.  First off, I have a stuffy head, I know not whether it's the insane cedar pollen count, or a cold, but the sinuses are unhappy.  So far (knocking on wood) my voice is not effected,  but that could change if it IS a cold, and a cough develops. 
So, this morning, I was a bit sluggish, and it was hard to get moving.  I DID get my walk done, and I got to the store to pick up some things we needed.  Good thing I decided to go to work a bit early to drop off some stuff I bought for the staff snack stash.  It turns out I was supposed to be in Norman by 1 pm for a training on using our fancy new catalog to its fullest, and I had completely forgotten.  I got there only a few minutes late.  (This is what happens when my schedule does not make it to my phone.  Chaos.)  I got back to work by 3:30, and had to go straight out to the Customer Service Desk.  I hadn't eaten breakfast, or lunch, so I scarfed a granola bar and drank some water before I actually went to the desk.  Everything at work went well, but I felt rushed all day. 
By the way, you should check out our enhanced library catalog.  It's great.  You can choose your search variables, you can even get "read alikes" or "similar authors" for any book by clicking on the "Novel list content" bar at the bottom of each item entry.
Our library catalog is Here. Just type your search term in the box and go.

You will then get a page of results which you can further refine with the choices along the left-hand side of the page.  Really cool.  MUCH better than the old catalog for general use.

We made it to choir rehearsal, where I was once again the lone first soprano.  Only a couple of notes all to myself, but a challenge to find them on pieces we were sight-reading.  Hard to counter the years of habit that say "Follow Lou".   Sunday's anthem was fairly easy to stay with my own note, because it was a very familiar piece.

 On Monday, I was also able to get my voice to work better at higher pitches than it has in the past, leading Karen to believe that it is undergoing some stretching and deepening up there.  (As it should, if I keep practicing.)  I hope that the sinus issues do not turn into a cold, because that will set my vocal work back quite a bit.  It is VERY hard to come back from things like that.

I am about to go and give myself another accomplishment.  I'm going to do an elliptical workout.  Because I need to start doing that every day again.  Because my weight is still not all the way back down to what it was before Thanksgiving and Christmas with all their food showed up.

Why Are You Haunting Me, Tallulah?

Every time I get a sinus cold, I eventually sound like Tallulah Bankhead.  I always knew this to be so, my own mother told me when I was a teen that I sounded EXACTLY like Tallulah Bankhead when I had a cold.  After watching Lifeboat and a couple of other things she was in, I came to agree with my mother. 
Tallulah Bankhead was from Alabama, as was my mother.  Ms. Bankhead was from an entirely different part of the social strata than my mother, however.  My grandfather was a school teacher during the Depression, which means he was unemployed a lot.  Her grandfather was a U.S. Senator. 
When I was younger, and didn't have so many singing commitments, sounding like Tallulah was funny, and could be fun, sometimes.  Tallulah does not sing first soprano.  I do.  This is a problem.
These days, I sing in two different choirs, and I have voice lessons once a week.  I do not like to let people down, and when Tallulah hangs around, as she has been, I can't sing very well, and I feel like I'm letting my directors and my voice coach down. 
The other problem is Tallulah's personality.  She can be quite sarcastic.  She is a lot funnier than I am.
If I let her loose, I am afraid I will make many problems for myself.  Here are some of the challenges Tallulah brings with her:

  I answer the phone at work with my voice like this, and people pause a LONG time before they ask "Is this the library?" ("No, Darling.  It's the city morgue.  Who are you looking for?")

The older gentlemen who come to the desk do a double take when I speak.  They know I don't normally sound like that. ("They're old enough to remember Tallulah, Darling." )

I develop the unfortunate tendency to call everyone "Darling."

After hearing me on the phone, one of my friends suggested I try working for the phone sex lines.  ("Oh, please, Darling.  I'd die of boredom.")

When it's time to do closing announcements, I must fight the temptation to say "Listen kids, it's been fun, but we have to close the place down now.  Sorry to be a wet blanket, Darlings, but go home!"

Our choir director gets such a kick out of hearing me like this, he actually talks to me on purpose so I'll answer.  ("You can't blame the man for having good taste, Darling.")

Tallulah overcame a lot in her life.  I have read her autobiography, and I recommend it.  It is an interesting read.  I don't mind as much having her stop by for a visit anymore.  It just gets frustrating when she won't give me back my singing voice.  That she could get through the things she had to deal with and still be so funny, well, she was really a class act.  Even if she had a bad reputation in some circles.  Alabama is still proud of her, and that should tell you something.  (Of course, Southerners are very tolerant of eccentric relatives, so maybe they view her that way...)

She and I have one thing in common.  She was Episcopalian, when she attended church, that is.  Seems her father sent her to the Episcopal church because her mother had been Episcopalian.  I married into it.  I love it, though, the tradition, the music, the very real love and faith of the people at our church.  Episcopalians are not averse to having fun.

Since we almost never have bourbon in the house, she'll have to settle for a little of the Jameson's tonight.  Sorry Tallulah, Darling, but this Celtic girl likes her Irish and her single malt Scotch better than bourbon.  (Not often, but once in a wee while.)
Here is a picture of Tallulah.  She was indeed beautiful. 

On Being Detached From Reality

Since I was a snot factory this morning, I didn't feel like going to church and making everyone else just as uncomfortable as I am.  I stayed home.  (Actually, I went to the grocery store on the corner for a few minutes to restock my La Croix water and my Coke Zero.)  That accomplished, I spent most of the day reading or knitting while watching some TV shows on the computer.
Yup.  When I don't feel good, my life is EXTRA boring.
This whole weekend has felt like it was spent in another dimension or something.  The only normal thing that happened was that laundry got done.  (And I still have one load to fold and put away.)
The rest of the country was watching the Superbowl, I was reading tweets about it.  (Some of them extremely entertaining.)  Just my luck, the one year the game is decent, and I didn't watch.  Oh, well.  I wasn't able to focus on anything for that long at a time anyway.
Strange how dependent we become on our little routines.  Let something disrupt them, especially several of them, and we tend to come a bit unglued.  At least, people like me do.  Some of us like order in life, and when things get too chaotic, it becomes very difficult to function.  Then it takes awhile to get back into the routines again.  Or to establish new ones.
Right now, I'd just like to be able to re-establish the routine of breathing through my nose.  
Not looking like Rudolph would be a plus, too.  At least I don't sound like Tallulah.  But I still can't sing.  That is what really makes me mad.  I HATE not being able to sing.  (Especially when I have a lot of music to learn!)
The worst part of being ill is the fact that you can't always trust your brain.  Sometimes, it comes up with stuff that you just KNOW isn't right.  Like how I was pretty sure the Ravens would win the Super Bowl because I had Poe's poem stuck in my head for the last couple of weeks.  (And so the raven remains in my room.  No matter how much I implore.  No words can soothe him, no prayer remove him, so I must hear forever more.......Quoth the raven: "Nevermore")  Why would that poem make any difference?  It wouldn't.  My brain is not trustworthy today.
Add to that the fact that my brain wanders off without telling me that it's going or WHERE it's going.  I've been staring at the screen here for quite awhile, and my brain just now ambled back with an "Oh, sorry about that.  Guess I kind of left you hanging there...." That's one reason I could never memorize piano pieces.  My brain just gets bored and wanders off, leaving my fingers to make something up.  I can memorize something to sing, but the long arias are a real challenge.  I can't blame middle age (joke, only middle aged if I plan to live to be 106, and I don't) for this because it's been happening since I was a kid.  First piano recital when I was 7, and my teacher figured out that my brain just wasn't trustworthy with memorized piano music.
Here's hoping normal brain function and breathing return tomorrow.  I have to take the cat to the vet, and Tuesday, thanks be to God, I get my hair cut and colored.  It's been driving me NUTS.  I am hoping to feel almost human by then.  Off now to try and convince my nose that horizontal will work as an orientation in space.  Vertical isn't doing so hot, so maybe horizontal will work better.  Further hoping that I will be able to write something of some actual substance again soon.
The source of being indisposed
Is this stuffy, but drippy, awful nose.
To make it even worse, my dears.
The congestion has also plugged my ears.
Throat is scratchy, there's a little cough
It itches on the roof of my mouth/
My lips are chapped, my nose is sore
Thus quoth the raven: "Forevermore."

This, That, and The Other Thing

So.  It appears I DO have a cold.  I have been keeping away from the kitchen as Matt is making goodies to take to church tomorrow.  I have only been in there to have a soda handed to me.
It is surreal how my head feels right now.  There seems to be an ocean in there, and the tide goes in and out on a whim.  I hear it, and feel the pressure in my head.  Also, just as soon as I am convinced that the medicines I took have kicked in, the nose will start trying to drip, I will sneeze repeatedly, and the roof of my mouth AND the insides of my ears will itch.  (I guess it still could be allergies, but I really doubt it)  It sometimes feels like I am going back and forth between two dimensions...
Guess I won't be auditioning for any solos on Tuesday night.  If the ears don't clear, there is NO WAY I'm going to be able to sing.  Tallulah hasn't shown up, but her evil henchmen have.  (Congestion plays havoc with resonance and the musculature used in singing.  Also, ear congestion can get painful when you try to sing, and the sense of pitch is adversely affected.)
There is an online Beauty and the Beast "convention" going on right now.  It's called Winterfest Online, and it is a great deal of fun.  I have read stories, played games, chatted with other fans, looked at art work, watched fan made videos, there are even round robin stories you can add to if you want.  (I can't write fiction worth beans, so I'm not even going to try, but I want to read the finished stories!)
There are some extremely talented people in this fandom.  They are really nice, too.  More nurturing of newbies than most Star Trek fan groups are.
It's February already.  How the heck did THAT happen?  Did somebody mess with the TARDIS and speed this timeline up or something?  Or is it just that time escapes more quickly because I am older now?  I remember when I was a kid, it seemed like FOREVER between Christmas and my birthday.  Now, it zooms past in the blink of an eye.  (Ooh.  Said blink.  Don't blink, not if you're a Whovian and there are Angels nearby!) (I've had several antihistamines today.  Can you tell?)
Oh, yeah.  I think I have laundry going, too.  Guess I should go check on it...
OK, I'm back.  Dryer still needs a few minutes.
I have a couple of books going at the moment.  One is the latest of one of the series I follow, but I haven't been able to get into it much yet.  The other is Dave Barry's new book Insane City.  It is really funny.  It also has some sad parts.  Amazingly enough, there is more to it than a series of jokes.  I seem to remember that quality in his last novel.  It has been a LOONG time since I read that one.  And I read so much.  Between the fan fiction, the non-fiction and the series mysteries, I am surprised I can keep  anything straight in my brain anymore.  But Insane City is turning out to be strangely compelling.  Not riveting, not so that I can't stop reading and must continue no matter what, but I must go back and read some more, mull that over, perhaps laugh out loud a few times, read some more and wonder when it stopped being all about the gags.  Good job, Mr. Barry.  If I can follow your writing and enjoy it, and find myself thinking about it when I am on THIS much antihistamine, you have really done a good job.
The other books I am currently reading are Phillip DePoy's December's Thorn, which I am sure is a good book, just not one I have had the chance to spend a lot of time with yet.  I am also reading The Mole People about the homeless in New York's subway tunnels.  (Sound familiar to any BATB fans out there? Well, this is a serious look at a real tunnel society, or societies, and none of them as nurturing as the tunnel society WE love.)  The author is Jennifer Toth, and it was published in1993.  I am also reading, in bits and pieces, Anna Quindlen's Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake.  There are also all of the Lord Peter/Harriet Vane mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers on my Nook waiting for me to re- read them.  It;s been awhile.

So, that's about all for me today.  Nothing very organized, I'm afraid.  I blame the antihistamines and the germs having a party in my head.  Gotta go check on that dryer again.  Something more coherent in a day or two, I hope.