Life on the Farm

Quiet day today. The Memorial Day plans for Alex's parents' house were canceled today because Paige got sick. Josh called late in the afternoon as he was on his way home from work and we chatted for a little bit. He was thinking about hanging out tonight but has to work from open to close tomorrow night and decided that it wasn't really the best night for it. 

The Farm in the blog title is an application in Facebook that Heather introduced me to, and I've been playing it since I started trying it this morning. It's a lot of fun. You start out with a plot of land and some coins and you plow your land and buy some seeds, wait for them to grow, then harvest them, sell them and do it again. The idea is to make your farm a working farm, keep it self sustaining, vary your crops, buy livestock (which make all the farm noises, which makes Ozzy do all the funny head-turning things), arrange them on your plot of land, etc. Eventually you can even buy more real estate, but that is way down the line. 

You can give gifts to your neighbors, and the idea is to be a social game, so you get more coins if you work on someone else's farm and have someone else harvest your crops. Heather and Lissa each gave me an animal and a tree, and you start out with a tree from the mayor. Since I didn't know what I was doing, I gave them each an animal back, thereby using up a bunch of my coins. Oops. But, I finished a harvest and got more coin, planted again and am waiting for that one (grapes) along with rice, potatoes, and strawberries. Oh, and fruit trees.

See how engrossing this game can be? The only thing is that you have to wait for time to actually pass for the crops to grow. Drat! Waiting - not my strong suit. I have the app set up for an email reminder for when my crops are ready but I beat it for my first crop - I was back there before it could tell me. I couldn't wait. I don't know how many times tonight I've been back there looking at it. Heather's farm just looks phenomenal. I don't know how she crams so many crops in one piece of land and makes it look so good. And all the animals you can have, roaming and fenced. And the buildings, crates, hay bales, ponds, silos, windmills, you name it, you can buy it.

So that's pretty much all I've done today. That and the treadmill. I've been pretty consistent that since I started this time. Every other day. I don't want to do every day because I don't want to overdo and sabotage it - I want to keep doing it for the long run at least up through Debbie's marathon in November.

I think I need to go look at phones tomorrow. I was going to do it all last week but I keep getting up too late. I'll keep trying to get up earlier and see what happens. But the Dash, which I'm using for the keyboard, has reminded me of the problems that made me put it away, besides just Josh not being able to understand me very well when I use it for calling him. It doesn't put all the calls through and the battery doesn't hold a charge well. At least with the iPod now I don't need a phone with all the bells and whistles. I have the iPod with me all the time so I don't need a phone that duplicates things that it does.

I hope you had a great Memorial Day, spent with friends and loved ones contemplating all the things the day was created for. I miss you Uncle 

Chuck.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is just two hours old as I write this, so it will hardly be an account of what I did. This weekend didn't start well as I was up close to twenty four hours before I could get to sleep. I started a migraine but didn't take the relpax. I don't remember what I did but the migraine went away and I ended up having a good day. Sad - I don't even know what I did. Oh yeah, I did my bedding. Yay Sheba. 

Alex texted me this evening and let me know that the rest of their photos are done now, so I went onto the website to check them out, and they are good. I kept "awww"-ing as I went through and sent Alex a text message with the numbers of the ones I liked the best, and I think it was every other one, and that's pretty much because every other one is in black and white so there is a wide variety. The photographer they picked is good at picking candid moments, so there are good shots of the both of them smiling and being very relaxed with each other, like I see when I'm with them. Really, I don't think any of the shots are bad. I'm so happy to get some photos of the two of them. The last one was from Josh's 21st birthday party. That was seven years ago.

They also finally made their honeymoon reservations so that's all final now. They are going to the Mayan Riviera, on the Yucatan Peninsula, in a resort town called Tulum. They will be there for six days. They did a lot of research for this trip and I think that will really pay off. They got a good deal, there will be fun stuff for them to do, and I think they will have a great time. It looks really beautiful, and the Mayan pyramids are there for them to explore. The best part is they leave the day after the wedding, but not at the crack of dawn. I would have loved to have had a honeymoon like this.

I haven't checked the RSVPs lately, but they have been coming in pretty regularly. I'm getting excited and can't believe how fast the time is starting to pass. I'm trying to stay busy enough be used to being busy without wearing myself out before the wedding. I don't want to have the wedding be here and suddenly have to be busy out of the blue. I've been trying to be careful cause I don't want to have any kind of physical backlash or boomerang creep up on me. The stress will start increasing if I'm not careful, and aware of it, just because of the timeline. I keep suggesting that Alex make lists - I think I need to do the same.

I'll try to do better with the blogging. I got out of the habit and it's harder than I thought to get back into it. With the iPod being so easy to pick up, I tend not to pick up the computer as much. I don't know why I don't have the compulsion to write, tho. Maybe Facebook is affecting that. It's not exactly anything of depth but it is reaching out and touching people. I've been having the best time with my friends from high school. That's been the greatest gift this year and has just turned my year around.

Sorry its been so long

I looked at the date and I can't believe that I let it get so long since I posted the last time. Well, that's the reason why I changed to this blog. 

First of all, look at these great pictures! Josh and Alex had them taken as "engagement photos." They're not for announcements or anything, just for themselves, friends and family. The same woman who took them is going to take the photographs at the wedding also. I think they turned out great. I especially like the close-up of the two of them.

 

It's getting very close to the wedding now and of course they're both getting brain weary of all the plans. Alex is putting this together pretty much by herself, although Josh has been in on some of the decisions. Alex has been finding the venders and arranging the taste testing, photo arrays, etc, for him to do so, of course.

We have had 16 of the last 17 days that have had rain. Kind of like the year that I moved here. There was an article in the paper that said the radar at the NOAAA headquarters in Norman was registering a huge blob on their screen that covered a good deal 

of the state. It turned out the 90+ percent of

 humidity had caused the radar to bounce back down  and cloud up.

Anyway, Spring is definitely here and everything

is so green. All the rain has really helped the plants and yards, but its been too wet to mow (a good and a bad thing, mostly good).

So that's pretty much it, just waiting for June 14 to get here.

Can't wait to see all of you that will be here and will miss all of you that can't make it.

Saturday

Just said goodbye to Alex in the driveway and almost got blown away. We had to shut the door to the car to keep anyone from getting hurt by it being blown shut while we talked standing in the driveway, and she finally had to get in the car because the wind was actually cold. Colder than my house even! Poor thing always is so cold when she comes over here. I have to admit that I'm having some trouble trying to regulate the temp in my house this past week between the heat outside and me being so hard to figure out.

The wind stirred up the allergies which in turn stirred up the headache, for Alex, too. But she came over and we talked about wedding stuff. She took a look at my wedding outfit and gave it the thumbs up, so I just need to iron it. She's on her way home to cook now so I need to get sustenance now, my own self. Once again I don't believe I have eaten anything all day except for the occasional snack and the cold brewed coffee we both sampled that I had made this week.

I don't know why, except for the headache, but I'm still tired. Headache hangover I guess. I think I'll get some dinner, finish my laundry and go to bed. I have found out that letting Sheba sleep too long on my bed makes my allergies worse so I am trying to wash the covers way more often than usual to keep her insidious fur to a minimum. I didn't think I was allergic to her fur but I have noticed that after I do the bedding I can breathe better for days. 

Another thing I noticed in the past day or so: Ozzy has developed a wave in his ear that matches the wave I have developed in my hair. I thought his throwing up the last bad migraine I had, while I was throwing up, was funny, but this is getting to be the "look like your master" kinda sympatico. As long as my nose isn't black and wet. And I don't have a black mustache. 

got dressed

Yes, that is the sum total of my accomplishments for today. I got dressed. I did go outside to get the mail while it was daylight, so that's something. Ozzy was very happy. My neighbor across the street, who moved here from Florida to get work, has a new puppy, a Lab. All legs and big feet. He had him out in the front yard on a leash but I didn't feel like going over to say hi.

I should be seriously trying on my outfit for the wedding to give it the serious eye, but I don't feel so inclined. There's always tomorrow. I dozed off and on today, which to me say that I kind of needed it, which is dumb cause I really didn't do anything. I got dressed today, which, I mentioned before, so I could at least make an impact.

Oh, no, I guess I did do something last night. Ozzy and I went over to Alex's parent's house for a wedding cake taste testing. The books with the photos were pretty cool. I'm excited about the wedding. Ozzy was excited about getting out of the house.

So that's about it. I need to pick up Ozzy's toys, vacuum, and do dishes. Instead I'm on the computer and watching wrestling. Ooo, Divas match. Later.

being in the moment... not so much

As hard as I have been trying to "get my brain back" and working on paying attention to the moment I'm in, it hasn't worked so well the past few days.

Coming home from J&A's house last night, enjoying driving my car and how well the car shifted, I turned onto 34th St at about 11 pm. That is a side street and not well lit with a short drive to a railroad. Instead of having to drive mindlessly and slowing down to take the hellacious bump at the railroad track, they've fixed the track now and you can take it at a higher speed than 20 mph. I was totally into shifting, I don't know why. I was just fixated on how the car was responding. Then I noticed a set of headlights turn on from the side of the road to the left of me. Oh crap. I knew right away what that meant. I almost pulled over right there and then but I slowed down and went over the tracks. As soon as he went over the tracks the flashing lights came on. Crap!

I rolled my window down and Ozzy popped his head out the window to see what was going on. The officer walked up and carefully approached Ozzy to see if he was going to be a biter. He asked something, I don't remember what, then asked if he was a good watchdog and I laughed and said no. I handed him my license and insurance info as we chatted about where I lived and where I was coming from. He was very nice and polite. He ended up giving me a warning. I should have known better because it wasn't that long ago that there was a squad car parked just outside my neighborhood and I saw the lights flashing from someone else getting a ticket (I assume) as I came home from Josh's, so I know they're patrolling.

That was incident number one. Today I was at Target and, when I finished shopping, came back out to the parking lot. There were two maroon cars parked next to each other. I walked past the first car to the second car, stood in front of the trunk and looked at the back of the car. There was a sticker on the back from Hudiberg. I didn't buy mine from Hudiberg. That's weird. I bought it from Bob Moore. I looked at the license plate. The first letter was a "D." Was it a "D"? I got my keys and clicked on the unlock button and heard the car next to me unlock. Duh. I was standing in front of the wrong car. I looked at the car again. It was a Nissan, but it was a Sentra, not a Versa like I have. I saw a car at Wal Mart by my house that looks just like mine last time I was there. Weird. I wonder if it was the same car I had just tried to own. Feeling like a bit of a dork, I loaded my groceries and went home, glad the owners hadn't followed me out of Target.

boredom and a new cyber home

I couldn't figure out why I have been off my computer so much. I lived for blogging on Gravity Wins Again for such a long time and suddenly I had nothing to say. It disturbed me, when I stopped to think about it. Today it finally occurred to me that Gravity was no longer relevant to me. I had nothing more to say there. 

Hence, the new blog. I was reaching for things to find to talk about, to try to be interesting. In reality, my life just isn't that interesting. I live a life that not a lot of people can relate to. I spend the majority of my time in my house, with my dog, not seeing or speaking to another human being for days on end. I spend days without seeing the light of day. I have lupus and not being in daylight is better for me, so that had evolved into not going out into daytime by habit, tho I am trying to break that.  I was doing shopping at midnight and sleeping all day but I'm gradually turning that around.

But, still, since I came to Oklahoma, leaving my friends behind in Phoenix, I go out of the house once or twice a week. Now that the busy time of the year is past, Josh has made a point of calling me on his days off and inviting me over, which I love and appreciate and means I get out and around people at least once a week. Kathy and Michele used to do this for me in Tempe. Unless I go shopping, that's probably the only time I will go out unless I get really motivated. Maybe this blog will change that.