Holiday is but a Memory

I got back to the office yesterday and my counselors were lined up outside of my door. Well, not all day, but at some times. And I had two disgruntled phone calls that will require meetings and one confused walk in. I'm going to print some of my pictures to add to the gallery on my office walls to remind me that there are other places. I love my job, it makes me think and I can help people. I do work for the government so there is lots of policy and procedure and I am a bureaucrat (as I was called yesterday-Ouch)-can't be helped but I try to be a gentle one. Is that an oxymoron.
I'll just have to remember sunset at Herring Cove and the biggest Hollyhocks I ever did see.

Leaving Provincetown

We're packing our things and getting ready to leave this otherworld. The beaches and sand, the glacier ponds (warm for swimming) where we saw a big snapping turtle yesterday and may have made a connection for next years rental. The legions of same sex couples walking hand in hand. Our landlord is starring in a play about gay marriage and preaching at the UU Church! The delicious fresh fish and seafood. The kitschy souveniers we are taking back. All of it will I miss untill the next visit. I'm taking back a pocketful of e-mail address' and phone numbers to keep in touch.

Friday Five Stress Busting Edition

1. First, and before we start busting stress, what causes you the most stress, is it big things or the small stuff ?
a) Work, like now when we're at the end of our fiscal year-and I'm a counselor? Home. stuff with my beloveds work and health.

2. Exercise or chocolate for stress busting ( or maybe something else) ?
b) CHOCOLATE! But I do swim at a health club at a secluded spot on 42nd St.

3.What is your favourite music to chill out to?
c) No music, but I do like to watch Judge Judy who says all the things I would like to say, but don't/

4. Where do you go to chill?
d) I go to bed or to an AA meeting.

5. Extrovert or introvert, do you relax at a party, or do you prefer a solitary walk?
e) Definitely an introvert so I go into my shell and slam the door closed for awhile till I chill. (see snail)

Great questions this week!

Moving Day

When we made our reservations, late, our favorite room was booked. But today it's free and we are moving. So, packing once again-I never really unpacked. It's a little suite with it's own kitchen, living area and fireplace. It also has it's own entrance and NO STAIRS which is a big plus for me since I walk with a cane and walking up and down has been challenging, particularly with a cup of coffee! I'll miss the kneeler and the picture of St. Joseph holding Jesus-did they know I was coming? I took a picture, but I forgot the cable that downloads the pictures so, use your imagination and believe me, I don't make these things up!

20th Anniversary

It was yesterday. I have come a long way in those 20 years. New career, new beloved, new life. Life, that I may not have had. I'll be attending the 7:00 pm AA meeting at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Provincetown, MA where I am vacationing and where I will be picking up a 20 year coin-if I'm lucky and they have one. I feel blessed.

Phobia du Jour

I've never really been a bug person. Once when I was a kid, after playing outside a bug flew in my ear and after an hour or so of hearing it bang around in there and "you're imangining things" type conversation, my mother placed a flashlight against my ear and the bug found it's way out. Recently, while doing supervision with one of the counselors in my unit, she started talking about bedbugs. Apparently she has a family member who is an exterminator. Well...
This courtesy of MSNBS :
"Bed bugs had been shown the “no vacancy” sign in the U.S. for nearly 50 years— they've been virtually eradicated. But now that’s all changed. They’re back. And they’re in expensive hotels and biting the best of people.
It’s a national problem, agrees entomologist Dini Miller, Ph.D. The Orkin Pest Control company says that after 50 years more or less without them, it’s now treated bed bugs in all but three states. And according to the National Pest Management Association, bed bug complaints have increased 50-fold over the last five years. They’ve popped up in apartments, mansions or dormitories in nearly every corner of the country.
Just a few weeks ago, bed bugs nibbled on the traveling cast of a Broadway musical at a Ramada Plaza in San Francisco. Last summer, a young family vacationing at a five-star Westin resort in Hollywood, Florida had the same complaint."
My beloved and I arrived at the Providence, RI Marriot last night, a very reputable chain, on our way to Cape Cod. We were tired after traveling, and shopping, all day. The room was nice and big. The bed was huge.The sheets pristine. I circled warily, afraid to settle.I put my bag on a hard surface. Finaly I took a shower. The beloved was flopped on the bed happily. Well why not. Lovely night, no bites!

Friday Five-I Have Been on a Pilgimage- kind of

1. Have you ever been on a pilgrimage? -Well, I didn't call it that at the time, but I was "searching for meaning" (as Victor Frankel would say)-so it does fit some of the requirements. It was in the mid 80's and it was a meeting of Catholic Lesbians and was held in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the late spring in a camp. Quite beautiful, all the poppies in bloom- and everything else. Lots of created liturgy and ceremonies. I found some of what I needed at the time.

2. Share a place you've always wanted to visit on pilgrimage. I would love to go to the the pilgrimage led by Sister Jeannine Grammick of New Ways Ministry, to Southern Italy, the country of my heritage, this coming spring 2008. http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze43yrc/pilgrimage.html

3. What would you make sure to pack in your suitcase or backpack to make the pilgrimage more meaningful? My camera as I tend to be a very visual person.

4. If you could make a pilgrimage with someone (living, dead or fictional) as your guide, who would it be? The narrator in Jane Rule's "This is Not For You"

5. Eventually the pilgrim must return home, but can you suggest any strategies for keeping that deep "mountaintop" perspective in the midst of everyday life? I've found that keeping in touch with the people that I shared the experience with and looking at photos (I didn't take photos that time.)

What Book are You

Thanks To "Suffer Well" for this...

You're Siddhartha!

by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try
anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent
some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in.
This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's
time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in
ferries.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

This seems to describe my present state pretty well. Although Buddah sat under the Bodhi Tree so maybe I should do that. Fancy that!

Five Days to Provincetown!

We're going to Provincetown, MA for vacation. We were thinking of another place, but we went last year and I was sick, so I couldn't enjoy the beach, the walks, the natural beauty, the seafood, our friends. Mostly I enjoyed the inside of our-very nice-room. Sigh. So, we're going back and I'm staying far away from anyone with a hint of anything slightly contagious at the office, Although that's kind of difficult as I'm meeting new people every day.
I love Provincetown because for a few days the demographics are reversed and we are living in a world where it is normal to see woman walking hand in hand with other women and men walking hand in hand with other men. No one stares. On a little spit of sand in the Atlantic we have found a home.

Would I Survive a Zombie Invasion?

Is there no rest In NYC?
32%

Mingle² -