Beautification Project

I thought my blog was looking pretty boring without any pretty pictures!

Circus Circus

It's the perfect fall day today and I'm off to walk in the country with my sister. Then it's all about watching the grand-puppy and our niece's baby. Ang and Riley are off trail-mapping and camping somewhere in the depths of southeast Oklahoma (leaving grandpuppy with us) and the niece is headed to Stillwater to hang out with Tessa (leaving Rylin with us). Might be a circus in our household today! Two senior citizens, two middle-agers, two dogs and a baby. Throw in some trick-or-treaters ringing the doorbell and it's a recipe for total chaos. Fun chaos of course.

I need something to take the edge off of the seriousness of life and this just might be the thing. Wish me luck. I'm wishing you a blessed day.

One thing at a time

I worked without stopping for anything but sleep pretty much all last week. So I took today off. Yay me. My list of things I would loooovvve to do is oh so long. Does anyone else have that problem? I could spend my days creating things, thinking, reading, and of course, napping. So today I am using unusual discipline and sticking to one thing. Nesting.

We've lived in the new house now for (checking calendar) about ten weeks. And although things are pretty much in place, there are still random boxes to unpack, artwork to hang and decorative items to arrange. And rearrange. And arrange again. It takes me a while to get things settled where I want to leave them for a good long time. Plus I'm trying to integrate our decorative stuff with the in-laws decorative stuff, attempting to avoid the "theirs and ours" school of decorating.

Mark is working from home a lot these days, and I need a home work space too, so I'm thinking of putting together a home office. We've never really had one - we usually just have a room that collects all the furniture that doesn't work for any other room. So part of my nesting day is to pull together a workable and pleasant space for officing.

I'm the master of multi-tasking, but I'm thinking it's not really working so well for me lately. I'm experimenting with being a little more focused, more single-minded. This day of nesting is part of that experiment. I'll let you know how it goes. And I will NOT read that web design magazine I bought yesterday, or try a few new tricks on Photoshop, or answer work emails, or go to Hulu to watch the episode I missed of Modern Family. Today is all about nesting.

Too Much Information

You know it's been too long since you've visited your gynecologist when one day you need her, have to scroll through the doctors listed on yellowpages dot com to remember her name, call her office feeling all self-righteous that you plan to finally agree to another mammogram and get a recording that she has retired. It's very deflating. I hate trying to find another OBGYN. I certainly don't need the OB part of the doctor's repertoire. That ship has sailed, taking with it all of the necessary parts for baby-making. Well, not all the parts, but the bun-in-the-oven parts. What I enjoyed about my gynecologist was her experience and her understanding of the needs of a more, shall we say, mature woman. And also that she wore these little matching pastel velor sweat pants and jackets and that you had to reach around the cat lounging on the counter in order to hand over your co-pay.

Now I have to go find another doctor. Ugh. She will probably be like my primary care physician - young enough to be my offspring. I have now reached that age where more than fifty percent of the population is younger than me. I have no idea if that is a scientifically proven fact, but it feels more like eighty percent. Unless I'm in Walgreens. Then I usually feel quite young and spry. The fact that I just used the word spry in a sentence also proves my original theory.

When searching for a primary care physician after moving to OKC, I visited one doctor who matter-of-factly instructed me to eat a low sugar, low fat diet and get more exercise. Um, as if that thought wasn't the first thing I think every day and the last thing I regret every night. I'm all, thanks doc! I honestly had never thought of that. Just having you recommend it makes all the difference. I'll get right on it. Yeah. If only it were that easy...

I'll just add finding a new gynecologist to the long list of things I should do. Right behind all the things I must do but don't want to, things I want to do but never have the time for, and shaving. I really hate shaving.

General Manager of the Universe and other tall tales

If you read my last post about online advertisements following me around, and you didn't read the comments, I thought I'd share as a public service announcement. My computer whiz little brother had the following to say. Seems like very sound advice to me!

My $.02: It's all about the cookies. Make sure your browser is set to not accept 3rd-party cookies (I mean, they'd be totally stale by the third party anyway!). I also use three browsers - Firefox for the important stuff like online banking, Chrome for social stuff like Facebook or Blogger, and Safari for general anonymous browsing, news, research, etc. And, never let anything save your password(s) and if it asks you to turn on "auto-complete", remember Nancy Reagan and just say no. :-)

He's always been smart like that. Genius shows up in random blossoms on our family tree. Come to think of it, maybe I'm the outlier. Hmm.

My genius seems to be for organizing. I want to organize all the planets and galaxies of my universe. OK everyone, sort yourselves out and line up accordingly. Inefficiency drives me crazy. I schedule my trips to the bathroom around when I have something to drop in the office mail box, papers to put in the recycling bin, and a check request to drop off in the office one over from mine. Does anyone else do that? Seriously, one day I'm going to pee myself waiting to get everything organized for that trip down the hall. It would be so inefficient to stop midway through a draft of our quarterly newsletter just to answer the call of nature.

Do NOT mistake my genius for organizing for an ability to be neat and tidy. Planning/organizing are not the same as being tidy. Those of us with this type of genius often operate in a cluttered environment. It's hard to be tidy when one is managing the universe.

Six Degrees of Creepy

Is anyone else creeped out by how things follow you around on the Internet? It seems like every page I go to pops up with an Overstock.com ad displaying the exact items I looked at on my last visit to their site. That's creepy.

"Hi Cari. How can I help you? Do you still want to buy that blue chair?" (clicking to another page) "Do you want the blue chair or the chocolate brown chair? I have both in stock right now and shipping is free." (frowning while closing the window and clicking onto a new site) "What about these drapes? They'll go great in your bedroom" (resisting the urge to scream hysterically).

Going online has become like a trip to Mathis Bros Furniture. You can't get two feet in the door without being accosted be a salesperson who will NOT leave you alone to celebrate your anniversary by trying out couches and picking out dining sets you'll never buy. Not that we would ever celebrate an anniversary like that. But if we did, at least it's better than my friends who celebrated their anniversary by going to SAMS Club and trying all the sample foods.

I used to believe the Internet was a place where you could be anonymous - a nameless face in the crowd. That's the old Internet, the old paradigm - a place to find information. Today's reality is that it's more like Kevin Bacon's six degrees of separation. It only takes a few searches or clicks to be connected in unexpected ways. The Web 2.0 paradigm is interactive, collaborative and personal.

I think that's cool...until I'm being stocked by advertisements. That's just weird.

While you're busy running from freaky advertisements, take some time to check out these blog posts from some of the blogs I creep...

• A contributor to Midlife Bloggers shared some interesting thoughts on the reality of losing a job...
• The Numbers Man, aka my husband, has something to say about starting your own business...
• Some nice writing from a newby MD...

What the Fungi?!

Half the time I don't write on this blog for fear of over-sharing. I could sit down here every day and pour out my thoughts, because, let me tell you, there's plenty going on. But like pretty much everyone else in the universe, I live amongst people and people have feelings. And I have feelings. And boundaries. So I'm never quite sure where the line is between being honest and open versus crossing some boundary line.

I took the photo of these mushrooms while lying on my belly in my backyard. I'm in a LOT of pain with my back lately, so that was no small effort. I hope you appreciate it! These 'shrooms are a symbol of life to me. They represent the unplanned, unexpected things that just pop up to mar the landscape. You think you've gotten your life like your lawn - all green and healthy and free of weeds and debris. Then you turn around and there's fungi. WTF! I didn't see that coming.

So anyway, here's an edited list of my life, because I haven't done a list in a very long time, and you all know how much I love a good list.

1. My back is "out" whatever that means, and I can't seem to get any relief. Finally went to the doc yesterday and got pain meds, muscle relaxers and steroids. Trouble is, when I take any of these things I'm down for the count. I pretty much do a face plant in my pillow and don't move, which seems like a total waste of these beautiful fall days.
2. While visiting the doctor yesterday, I ran into a familiar face. My husband - who was in the next exam room with my father-in-law. The FiL had fallen down some stairs and hurt his shoulder. Fortunately nothing is broken or torn - just very painful. He's on the same meds I am. Yay. Mark is now in search of some of that non-skid, glow-in-the-dark tape to put on the offending stairs to keep that from happening in the future. And the good doc is leaving on a trip to Cancun tomorrow, funded in large part by my family! The man is now treating three generations of accident prone Ogdens.
3. Mark lost his job last week. Yay. That's an odd phrase, don't you think? I mean, he knows where his job was/is. But it's not like if he looks long enough, or tries to remember where he put it, he will get it back. So yeah. What the Fungi!
4. I've been arguing with my boss all week. Seriously. Is he just that stupid or am I just in that much pain. (see #1)
5. The Aunties are coming. This is a very good thing. But it has caused a great deal of confusion with the precious mother-in-law, who can't remember what week or day her sisters are coming, and can't get up the stairs to see that the extra bedrooms are prepared, thus prompting much worry and fussing. What I really want to do is set up a video camera and let it roll while the sisters reminisce about the dust bowl days. I love to hear the stories and I'm afraid they will be lost soon. Haven't I seen public service announcements looking for people who lived through the dust bowl? Anyone know?

So yep, a small sampling of the stuff that's popped up in my lawn/life. What you don't see here is the emotion, the anger, frustration, pain, joy, laughter that comes with life's fungi. I'm trying to stay well back from the over-sharing boundary line. Which makes for some pretty boring reading, I suppose. Not to mention we all have fungi, so who wants to read about mine.