This is Harley, my sweetest snuggliest baby girl. She's sitting in my lap for this shot, which is where she spends much of her time. This is also my first stab at mobile-blogging from my phone, which makes this pretty slick stuff.

Yeah I know, I suck.

Sorry for the long long long time getting back to this. I've been busy as all heck.

Mom and Steve sold the house at the end of May, which meant I had to beat feet and get my pad. I sorta kinda met somebody..in that...sorta kinda way. Hard to define really. He at least merits his own post, which I'll ask him nicely about later and if he says okay, then I'll go into details. Mom and Steve have met him, Shana's talked to him on the phone a couple of times. Dad knows he exists but hasn't met him.

Changed jobs. I'm settled in one of Montgomery's best-known Real Estate management corporations. Pretty happy. I like my boss, even when no one else seems to.

I have a Facebook! Yeah I know, It's no Emo-space. But, I'm trying. Maybe someday I'll sucker up for am Emo space and play Fado on it all day long. Maybe I won't.

Going through a crisis of faith. Moving back to Montgomery meant going back to the church I've always gone to. But things have changed so much, and I realize that a lot of the things I took for granted as a kid are not meshing well in my over-analytical mind.

Linked up Steve's blog there, not that people read this blog much, his is much prettier though and the stories are funnier..well except about Angel.

You know how I was talking about direction? I'm thinking maybe I'll just vent my religious rantings here as I study other faiths and kind of get an idea of which one is right for me. For the record, most Protestant faiths are right out. Some things are just too ingrained in me as a Catholic to give in to. And besides, my faith issues aren't so much about keeping my belief structure and just changing the way I go about it. That's just trading baseball teams. It doesn't mean I'll win. I'm going through my Bo Jackson/ Michael Jordan phase of religion...I'm looking at all sorts of different things to get some ideas of where my faith is and where I might best fit in.

And that about should catch you up. I'll try to get pictures put up soon.

Should I bother with Directions?

Someone suggested to me once that having a direction for my blogged thoughts.. that is, posting along a theme, would draw people who shared similar interests. So I have to ask myself a series of questions:

1) Why am I blogging? I’m not entirely sure really, I guess this is part of the whole exploration and trying to open myself back up to writing again. I used to be a prolific, if not profound writer. But, In light of some of the things I see that get published, I’m not exactly grocery store paperback quality either. I need to sort out my thoughts, talk in circles and generally put my head back in order. Am I doing it for a crowd? No. If people read it, then okay. If they don’t, (which is the more likely) that’s okay too.

2) Do I really want to draw a crowd? This is weird question. I like the idea of people reading my thoughts and telling me what they agree with or don’t or whatever. Do I ever want to see mention of my blog on CNN as something that peeved off somebody? Not particularly.

3) What the heck direction to take? I have a LOT of interests and hobbies. Reading, cooking, wine, travel, hunting, fishing, competition shooting, needlepoint, cross stitch, writing, playing with technogadgets… what the heck direction would I take if I took a direction?

So I ask my non-existent audience. Since your silence is the best feedback I could hope for. Do I schmutz this thing in an actual direction? Or do I continue to talk in circles?

Wewt! Get paid!

So I’m poking around at the math involved in my new paycheck. Which is looking pretty tidy. Even after the Feds and State and other people’s grandparents (Medicare) take their chunk, I’m still taking home a tidy bundle of change. So I’m evaluating my options here.

I have a couple of months of rent fee living ahead (though not expense free.) and am trying to figure out how best to use it. Do I sock away the excess money, buy nothing, live minimalist and have a tidy savings account to show for it when I move out?

Or do I take this chance to get a couple of things that I’ve been neglecting? Shoes, for example… Most of my shoes need to be replaced, badly. They either fit incorrectly and chew my heels up to the point where its painful to walk, or the ones that are comfortable are just not pretty to look at. A Cell phone. I need to get my own phone and own phone number. That.. and T-Mobile carries the D&G Moto RAZR, which is just pretty.

I have a lot of things that I do have to buy. New furniture for example. I picked out a lovely set at Rooms to Go. For the living room at least. A couch and ottoman in a tiffany box blue micro suede and espresso stained wood. Very boxy and modern but the blue suede softens things up a bit. I have a couple of wing chairs I’ll be getting reupholstered to compliment the new couch and then will probably just raid Target for the kitchen table set to match the two hutch cabinets that come with me when I move. (They are in a honey colored maple. And No, I’m not painting, changing or altering them. My Grandmother would hunt me down and haunt me) I can use the color change in the wood to help create the spatial distinction in the room between living and dining. I mean basically the whole couch/ottoman/chair thing is going to be focused on the giant TV and aside from my Thursday night “My Name is Earl” “The Office” and “Scrubs” fest… It’s basically really expensive cat furniture.

My bed’s a twin… one of the many joys of being newly Single… I can use my bedroom’s floor space better, and I don’t wiggle much in my sleep anyways, so I’m an ideal twin-bed sleeper. But it will need sheets and quilts and other linens. I have to buy towels. I have to buy all my kitchen gizmos. My plan, by the way is to budget so much each month that can be spent on Household accoutrements and prioritize and buy them in stages. Also.. get things delivered whenever I can. Ebay is good for a lot of that. I just have to figure out if I pay more buying locally with sales tax, or buying over the net with shipping.

So.. chunky savings account, or designer cell phone?

Oh yeah! There’s People Out There!

I think there’s always a degree of culture shock that comes with an extended stay in one country or another, even if that other country is Canada. And on some level especially if that other country is Canada.

Okay so I didn’t exactly have to go out and buy new appliances or special adapters for my hair dryer. I could read the road signs, they drive on the right side of the road, and the cars all look exactly like ours. But it’s the sneaky subtle differences that creep into your brain. And it’s those sneaky subtle differences that leave you quaking in the bathroom because you suddenly realize you can’t read the French label on the toothpaste.

So I padded back for a couple of months to let the culture shock sink in and pass. Taking it easy can be really hard work by the way. Well, at least it is when you have my mother. Not that I argued at all with what she wanted done.

So the point of all of this rambling is to point out that my culture shock quasi-catatonic phase is done, and I am back in an office. Have to get dressed and go into an office and like talk to people and stuff. Very creepy. People are nice. I had forgotten the little things, like people who hold doors open for you or who hold the elevator for you. While I definitely did that in Toronto, I learned real fast it wouldn’t be done for me.

People say good morning to me, and ask me how I’m doing. Tiny little social interactions I didn’t realize I missed so much.

So here you go.. a very verbose way of posting “People talked to me today. Felt weird.”

OMG! WTF?

http://www.kget.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=145c9bde-d9ec-4012-9b4f-012b8b1083d9

I can't even comment on it.. except to say I saw the press conference.. and.. well... yeah.

Things I'm in love with

I think I may have travelled too much. I've been really fortunate in that I've gotten to see so many places in world on both sides of the Ocean. It's sort of an overdose because of my nomadic personality, a general sense of being unsettled. Even worse during this time in my life. I mean really, what's stopping me from just packing up the cat and backpacking all over Europe?

So I can literally fill one of those Italian charm bracelets with my name and a flag from every country I've ever seen.

My last trip, aside from Canada was to Portugal with the guy I was dating. If you've never been.. go. Look up flights to Lisbon and get out there. Less of a touristy feel than most of the Mediteranean places, the whole place is nooks and crannies of some truly amazing things. Add on the absolutley amaziong food, amazing wine, and general ability of this country to have fun and really taste and enjoy what's around them, and I was totally in heaven. A country that enjoys being sad as much as it does being happy, the home of port.. and still THE best producer of port in the world (Australian and South African vineyards don't get it), and I swear they have ten million different ways to prepare and serve codfish.

The wines from Portugal are desperately underrated. Most of what we see here is Matteus.. which, as you know, is a nice table water, but doesn't speak well to the breezy complexity of the Alentejo region. The combination of sun and sea and soil that makes bright wines with a bubbly complexity. The Literature equally so, Eca de Quieros, Pessoa, Camoes are all epic names within the country, but virtually unheard of beyond. Brilliant nostaligic pieces that investigate the sorrow, joy, passion.. typical of a country that prides itself on a past of pushing the world' s boundaries.

But things I'm in love with. Fado. I have become an incredible fado junkie. THE voice in modern Fado is http://www.mariza.com/ . Fado is a style of music typical to Portugal, laden with that same breezy sadness that just sort of sucks me right in. It gets even bnetter when you understand the actual words. http://www.madredeus.com/entrada.asp Madredeus, while not technically fado, seriously has deep fado roots. Fado is typically sung and accompanied by a viola (what we call a guitar) and a Guitar (A 12 stringed incredibly complex sounding mandolin-like thing). Fadistas, or Fadistos MUST have an epicly strong voice, and every song has these incredibly deep feelings. National pride, sorrow, loss and that untranslatable Saudade all have to come out in this voice that should be able to almost knock down the walls. Talk about once more.. with feeling.

Give it a listen, or don't. Just one of the many things I'm in love with.