crazy

There are a dozen birds fighting for position on my porch. There's only four perches on the bird feeder, but I think they must be taking turns. It's kinda hard to tell. They're house finches, I think, and the colored birds range from red to the same yellow-orange you find in a Crayola box. One of them looks like it flew into a bowl of orange sherbet and it stained. They make a huge old mess of seed shells and detritus underneath, but I enjoy watching them so I don't mind cleaning up after.

We just bought a hummingbird feeder, too, so that should be fun!

I'm finding that sometimes it's really just the little things that make life right. Crazy old birds. :)

smart!

The trouble with having someone you love pass away is that (after the shock wears off a bit) you start getting morbidly philosophical. I try to take a walk every day, just a bit of a break from the computer at work you know, and today I started thinking about my aunt, and how much I'm going to miss her, and how she was just so good and fun and smart, and what's the point of it all if you're just going to die anyway? I mean really?

So maybe I trend a bit pessimistic...

I'm not entirely over the morbid philosophicalness (is that even a word?) but since I'm not really a depressed sort of person, and since I really have been trying to focus on the positive lately, I have taken action instead. While I was in Oregon I got to see all sorts of wonderful, clever, fun, smart things that my aunt did. I plan to follow right in her footsteps! I bought a staple gun (Went in for a basic old T-50, came out with a Power Shot. It's an extra $4 and I've always found them easier, even if they ARE 'backwards.')

In a couple of weeks i am going to go back for a couple sheets of lauan and maybe some wallpaper. I have Plans. Great Plans! My poor sweetheart, he's in for such a mess and he doesn't even know it yet! But it'll make the apartment so much cozier! And more fun! And it's all because I've been inspired by my clever aunt. I'll post photos of my projects as they're completed... and I figure out how to post photos.

PS Yes I know that my grammar is somewhat creative. It's because I'm posting late at night and frankly, writing very stream of consciousness-y.

Mud bibs

Well, this Memorial Day weekend wasn't spent in the manner that I'd been hoping, that is to say sleeping in and maybe cleaning the kitchen. (Man I need to clean my kitchen, it's almost terrifyingly sloppy right now.) I didn't even get to sleep in, even. I was in Eugene Oregon, sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag next to my brother while my folks slept in the bed. the whole family was there, and I was waking up at something around 7 am, just naturally. Grief does that.

My aunt passed away very suddenly last week, you see, and we were all sort of in shock. I know it is usual to talk about the positive things of the deceased and to ignore and forget the bad things, but I honestly can't think of anything but the good stuff. She was always helping people, and thinking of others. She was silly in all the best ways, and in my memory she was smiling and laughing all the time. Even when I was in SO MUCH TROUBLE!

I keep thinking of this one memory. My brother and I were visiting from the DC area- we must have been around 7 or 8 or so, just kids- my cousins were still pretty little kids. We were all up in her bedroom watching TV and lounging on a beanbag chair while my aunt and my mom were in the backyard I think. Eventually my brother and I got curious: what exactly IS in a beanbag chair? It didn't seem likely that it was actually filled with beans... and hey! There's a zipper! When my aunt came upstairs a few minutes later there were little styrofoam beads everywhere- those things are worse than packing peanuts for static cling and cleanup. Oh was she mad, oh man were we in trouble. The two adults were so mad that I don't even remember what they said, just the looks on their faces. It was across between 'oh these dumb kids,' 'how the hell are we going to clean this up' and 'this is so ridiculous we have to laugh at it.' Oh man were we in trouble though.

It was pointed out that my aunt was just such a good person, such a sweet soul, that we all have to be extra good to make up for her loss. I can't say that I can argue with that. I also plan to do more gardening stuff and enjoy life more. From may aunt I definitely learned that fun is, well, more fun. And you know what? I think she'd have loved my kitchen worms. ;)

worm poop!

So I have to admit that I have just gotten about half an hour of way too much fun playing with a box full of worms. I've been doing worm composting for about a month(? two?) and was a tiny bit worried that the food I'd been putting in was rotting and not getting eaten.

I need not have feared.

Most of the bedding and what little food there still was went back on into the box and I got my first little batch of castings! I only have a few potted plants upon which to bestow my gardener's gold, but man am I super excited about it. I hope this helps my tomatoes and peppers grow up giant and tasty!

What can I say? sometimes I am a giant dork about stuff. I guess we can add playing with worms to the list of things I dork out about!

Assigned to a bank

So I walked past the TV at the office today, and since it is always tuned to the same station, I was treated to a brief (and thankfully muted) glimpse of Jim Cramer doing his Mad Money thing. While I don't necessarily agree with Cramer's methodology, I did start thinking about investing, and the market, and retirement (which for me is a good ways off yet, thankfully) and other such financially responsible things.

I remembered reading a book once about a group of women that started an investment club, and in turn that led me to thinking about the Motley Fool website and wondering if I could get an investment club together. At the very least I should start investing like a crazy person since if you're going to 'buy low, sell high' then buying when the market is down seems like a no-brainer.

Ah, what's a poor girl to do? I think I'll ponder the investment question while I break out some knitting. Nothing says Southern Californian Summer like a wool sweater!

First things first! Introductions!!

Welcome folks, or more likely folk, to my little blog. (Somehow "folk" still doesn't feel like it's referring to a single person. Oh well. Moving on.)

I am not entirely sure what I am going to be putting up in this space yet, and knowing myself I probably wont post super often, but I have been feeling a need to have somewhere to release all the stuff that floats around in my head, so here I am. It's sort of a wildlife-release site, but for thoughts instead of rehabilitated animals.

Anyway, here it is! My first post here at the new blog. It's really spacious right now, but I'll bet as soon as the sofa and the coffee table get here it'll be totally cozy.