He called me today, while he sat in traffic on his iPhone, to wish me a Happy Birthday. Said he felt bad that there hadn’t been cake; felt bad that he hadn’t called.
Anyway… he mentioned that he finally got himself on Facebook and that I should look for him.
I had to ask if there was a picture and if I’d recognize him.
“A bearded one,” he said.
“Your Osama Bin Laden pic?” I asked, referring to his profile pic here on Blogger.
“Not quite,” he said.
Of course not. This time it’s My Brother the Christian Crusader.
I’m wondering how many more uses he can dream up for that silly fake beard.
I was feeling pretty sorry for myself yesterday… it was my birthday and it poured rain all day and there was no cake and I had to work…
Can you hear that tiny little violin playing there in the background?
The day after, a couple hours in the sunshine, a walk on the beach, the neighborhood kingbird, and this little poem and all is right with the world again.
If you have time to chatter Read books If you have time to read Walk into mountain, desert and ocean If you have time to walk sing songs and dance If you have time to dance Sit quietly, you Happy Lucky Idiot
“There’s no place like home… there’s no place like home,” is my chuckled refrain at her throughout the workday whenever she wears them.
Despite my teasing, she knows I love those shoes and envy her the ability to carry them off.
It’s not so much the shoes that I love as much as what I imagine them to say about her.
My personal version of shoe therapy is a pair of black converse sneakers. I’ll wear them to work sometimes just to see people look at me sort of cross-eyed. That makes me a little more happy, somehow, like Linda’s red shoes.
Are shoes an unconscious signal to a particular mood for you, too? A hint, maybe, that you’re feeling sassy or fearless or… ?
I’ve no good excuse for going missing for nearly a week, other than an almost total lack of photographic evidence of what I’ve been up to.
😉
There’s this, though.
A six-spotted tiger beetle that amused me for a couple minutes along a sunny path at Allaire State Park the other day. I only ever see them there… not sure why, exactly. Very pretty, as beetles go.
I’d missed out on any trips to Allaire earlier this Spring because I was in W. Virginia with The Flock. Allaire is a great local spot for warblers in migration and has some nice breeders. Best find was a Prothonotary Warbler. Anyone know if they breed there? Patrick?
I was hoping for Pink Lady Slipper Orchids, but was either too late or too early or too distracted to find any. There were Canada Mayflowers blooming, but those are so tiny and hide out in the underbrush so my pics are especially awful.
I’ll be around to catch up with you all in the next couple days and may finally try to sort through all those pics from New River.
It seems the Octopus Lady has some new competition in the neighborhood. The Sea Princess is a work in progress… it’s especially fun watching her materialize from the blank face of an abandoned building a block or two in from Asbury’s boardwalk.
Just a couple things that tickled me from along the way…
And you all tease me about NJ and its toll roads?
The particular pleasure of watching your fat expertly glazed at Krispy Kreme… ack… too sweet! And what’s up with *waffle houses* and *biscuit houses*? And sweet tea? But absolutely no decent coffee anywhere within a 50 mile radius?
The mountain version of internet service, evocative of the days when two tin cans and a length of string constituted phone service… and the folly of hosting 17-some bloggers who were then forced to pirate a wi-fi signal wherever possible.
Rare red trilliums that are um… white? Or is it yellow? I have so many pictures of trilliums I’ve forgotten who’s who. W. Virginia is awash in trilliums. They should better protect their flowered hillsides, I think.
The whole Southern fascination with B-B-Q. I never got a look at the pit, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t made out of half an old oil barrel.
I think this could probably be an on-going list, as we all remember things…
This Saturday is World Series Day here in NJ when teams of birders set out to find as many species as possible in one day. I’ll be out there, for the 11th year in a row, with the Sandy Hook Century Run Team. My first year, it rained buckets all day and I’m afraid the weather is shaping up to be the same this Saturday.
Migration is at its peak in NJ during this, the second week in May, and all told World Series teams have raised more than 8 million dollars through the years for conservation causes.
Our team is birding in support of the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory where I volunteer and I’d love it if you’d toss some money our way! A fun way to pledge is an amount per species… we usually see between 120 – 130 species from dawn to dusk.
So far I have pledges for 37 1/2 cents per species… I’m hoping to get that to $2.00 per species. Leave me a comment if you’d like to pledge.
This whole packing thing just defeats me. I start out well, but end up tossing things in the bag with little rhyme or reason. An added challenge is that I’m taking only a carry-on bag in an effort to avoid any more airport hell than is absolutely necessary. Then consider that I have no real idea what the weather will be like and that I can’t decide which camera stuff I want with me most.
Anyway, I’d mostly given up and decided that I’d live without whatever it is that won’t fit in that silly little bag. Except I remembered that I’d forgotten the raincoat. And the couple gifts I want to bring along for The Flock. And the DVD that Heather sent ages ago for me to share with them. And…
You get the idea!
There’s no way the laptop will fit, so I’ve written a couple blog posts ahead so there’ll be something here to entertain you until I can convince someone to let me use their laptop to post. If you don’t see anything new for a while, it probably means that everyone left their laptops at home thinking they’d borrow someone else’s. Or that we’re so far in the mountains that there’s no internet service.
😉
It promises to be a great time. There’ll be stories and photos, eventually. Enjoy the waiting along with me.
Yesterday was Administrative Professional’s Day – were there flowers and chocolates for your staff?
We have a luncheon planned on Cinco de Mayo for our secretaries; once things have settled down and everyone is back from vacation.
Today was Bring Your Kid To Work Day. I wish I’d known ahead of time and could have brought my camera in to share pics of all the sweet little ones who were hanging around the office with us today. Sally’s daughter colored pictures for each of us that said, “Go! Go! Go! You’re doing a great job! Keep it up!”
😉
Sweet.
Tomorrow I’m recording my voicemail message that says that I’ll be out of the office until the fifth of May and to call poor sweet Rosie in the meantime with any emergencies. I hope my clients behave while I’m away or I’ll owe Rosie big time.
Glass art on display at Hot Sand on the boardwalk at Asbury Park
I often have to walk off the workday on Tuesday. Tuesdays feel something like setting up your desk for the day on a subway platform in Manhattan; at midday I tried a few laps around the building in an effort to get my head straight… it didn’t help much, unfortunately. The end of every month tends to be crunch-time for me anyway, but whisper the word vacation and any facade of controlled chaos just falls away.
It feels almost wrong to vent about it here, but the first round of *bumping* that I’d mentioned in this post will take effect on the first of May. Sadly, a social worker with 24 years experience in my unit will be bumped to a downgraded position in another agency. We’ll have to train the person that’s taking her job, and a couple of us are consoling ourselves with thoughts of how we might best do that.
*insert evil grin*
She’s a nice-enough lady, but it’s been decades since she’s been expected to have any real client contact. People in my profession get promoted so they won’t have to deal with clients anymore, sort of like school teachers becoming administrators so they won’t be expected to actually teach. I imagine she’ll adjust soon enough, or maybe just retire a bit sooner than anticipated, but picture someone straight out of a Little House on the Prairie episode walking the streets of the South Bronx. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you need thick skin to do this job well and you also need to project a bit of an edge when you’re out there with clients and I have a hard time seeing anyone doing that in a twin-set and pearls and kitten heels. It should be amusing to watch, at least.
I’m working late more often the last couple months and today’s rain had turned to sun and then back to thick fog and drizzle by the time I found myself walking the boardwalk early this evening. The bit of color on display there was a welcome distraction from an otherwise dreary sort of day.
Just me rambling about birds, books, bunnies, or whatever!
This from his Facebook profile.
