At Last!

     The classic first notes and and romantic drawl of Etta James' timeless song cannot be mistaken. It is because of this that the song has been overly used and abused by countless wedding ceremonies and of course Hollywood. Nevertheless, I believe that it is still a beautiful song about not just love but also happiness and life. As I sit here listening to this song for the sixth time in a row I realize that this song perfectly expresses my mood this evening. My oldies playlist is a regular around this household as it seems that my soul, or whatever is inside of me, is at least 40 years older than my mere 25 years of age.

     There is nothing like a little Frank, Dean, Ella, Louis, Etta and Tony to make the world sing after a long day at work. Actually I take that back, it has been an insane 6 weeks at work and I feel like I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Okay, it's not just the music, I also had a little caffeine at about 3:00 this afternoon and it seems to have done wonders to my mood and energy level. Enough energy to already have two loads of laundry done and dinner in the oven after being home for only two hours. Not bad if I do say so myself. Yes I am tooting my own horn. :)

     I can only assume that every decade of a person's life represents special challenges. The first ten years is officially the most blissful. Too bad you don't actually realize it when you are in that phase, you only realize it after you grow up and have responsibilities. Can't I just stay at home and play with my dollies all day? Geez.

     The second decade is decidedly the worst. Again, you don't realize this until you reach a later time in life and can look back and say 'Wow, that really WAS crappy wasn't it?'. Maybe it's also the worst because you go from the best phase to one that is only filled with change, uncertainty and a feeling that you are already a grown up but you really aren't, you just think you are. Again, you don't realize that you were a stupid idiot instead of the level headed responsible adult you thought you were until you are looking at your old self in the rear view mirror. It's terrible isn't it? We can never truly see ourselves and what is going on around us clearly until it's all over with.

     This brings us to the third decade in life; the one I am tackling as we speak. By tackling I mean sometimes it is kicking my butt and other times I have it in a choke hold. This is only my take on it now, as I know from what little experience I have, is that when I look back at this decade from the next one my perception we be entirely different. What I do know about this decade called the twenties is that it is freaking amazing and the most crappy time ever all rolled into one. It is like a fist fight between the first two decades of life and nobody is quite sure who is winning. Does that make sense? Well if you were 25 then you would totally understand.

     You are constantly battling with yourself. The self that is scared and unsure how to grow up and which way to go and how to get there; and the self that wants to grow up and go here or there and sees friends and family going down roads that they want to go down too. This is exacerbated in my own psyche more than most people as it seems that my generation seemed to condense their teens and twenties into a much shorter time than people like me. I can honestly say that I know more people I graduated with who are married and or have kids than those who don't. I haven't decided how I feel about this other than the fact that I am glad I am not one of them. I mean no offense to those who fall into that category because everyone is different, but I cannot image having to deal with all the changes and emotions that have taken place for me in the last six years on top of real adult things like having a family. I guess that is also why I know several people my age who have already gotten divorced and or have kids with multiple people. Okay, I have somehow gotten very off track because this post is nowhere close to what I had intended. Let me regain my thoughts...

     What I meant to say is that when you are in your twenties you spend most of your time wondering if you are where you should be and thinking about how where you are is not where you thought you would be. Thinking that your life isn't moving fast enough and that it is moving to fast at the same time. I can only hope that the third decade is easier. I hope this because for twenty years things are confusing and stupid and unpredictable and I can't possibly imaging doing this for another 10 years. Really, where am I going with this...

     See, this is what happens when you have a lot of energy and listen to your favorite songs and have no clear purpose for your blog post. You get WAY off track several times...

aci's birthday tricycle/mauling of kitties and other miscellaneous things also do not qualify for this post due to the fact they they are terrible pictures. So instead I will put up a couple random plant pictures from September and a picture from a friends wedding in...well I don't actually remember when it was but the photo booth was AMAZING!

 

Pineapple Sage...

Tuberous Begonia

Toad Lily. Okay, so me and my macro setting are still figuring each other out. See, I want it to focus on the thingy in the center and my camera really wanted to focus on the inside of the flower. I have about 10 pictures that are almost exactly the same of me trying to change the focal point with no real success. Moral of the story: these flowers are really cool and they don't look like an amphibian.

Yes, I took a picture of a picture and although the picture was low quality and grainy I love it nonetheless. If there is only one thing me and David have in common it is the fact that we don't really try to get our pictures taken. I am not sure why this is but the reality is that this is one of the only pictures I have of the two of us in the last almost 8 years. Kind of sad isn't it. The problem is that neither of us is photogenic so even if we did take pictures together I wouldn't publish the majority of them anyway. So that is why I like this picture. Also because we really can be ridiculous at times when I am not so consumed with grown up things and he can remind me to just be a kid sometimes and stop worrying so much.

Since this was the most random post ever I am not really sure how to end it, so I will end with the words of another of my many favorite oldies songs. I have also decided to dedicate this post and song to my mom because she is one of the three or so people who read my blog and also because she is probably the best mom anyone could ask for. For all the times when life has kicked my but and threatened to send me over the edge. I can't tell you how much it means to have you there to tell me that everyone is crazy too and it's not just me. Also, for all the times to come because I am sure I have years before I outgrow all of my 'life crisis' situations.

Oh yeah and also because we are so much alike and that is the thing that I am most proud of.

Van Morrison

Days Like This 

When it's not always raining
there'll be days like this
When there's no one complaining
there'll be days like this
Everything falls into place
like the flick of a switch
Well my momma told me
there'll be days like this

When you don't need to worry
there'll be days like this
When no one's in a hurry
there'll be days like this
When you don't get betrayed
by that old Judas kiss
Oh my momma told me
there'll be days like this

When you don't need an answer
there'll be days like this
When you don't meet a chancer
there'll be days like this
When all the parts of the puzzle
start to look like they fit
Then I must remember
there'll be days like this

When everyone is upfront
and they're not playing tricks
When you don't have no freeloaders
out to get their kicks in
When it's nobody's business
the way that you wanna live
I just have to remember
there'll be days like this

When no one steps on my dreams
there'll be days like this
When people understand what I mean
there'll be days like this
When you bring out the changes
of how everything is
Well my momma told me
there'll be days like this

Oh my momma told me
there'll be days like this
Well my momma told me
there'll be days like this
Oh my momma told me
there'll be days like this
Oh my momma told me
there'll be days like this 



    

Old Friends

There are old friends that you see from time to time and although you may try to pick up where you once left off, what actually happens is an awkward and unpleasant thing: and then there are those old friends that you see from time to time and it is like no time has passed at all between you. Like nothing has changed and you are still both 10 or 16 or 20 or whatever and you just saw one another yesterday. It is the kind of friendship that is not often found for some, and for me this holds true. I have a history of many friends, none of which have yet to be the life long sort. From time to time I get invites to lunches or champagne brunches and I never go for the simple fact that these people create the kind of awkward/unpleasant events that I try to courteously avoid as if it were the plague. I find that I am more of a social chameleon who goes through phases quite quickly and then leaves them behind in the dust. It is not that I am an insincere person who lacks true character or identity, I am just one of those people who is incessantly attempting to move forward. To what? I do not know. Moral of the story: most people can't keep up with my nonsensical nonsense for very long.

Also, I like to sit in my own home and crochet and watch movies and read and wear overly large pants...things that are not very conducive to collecting new friends. Nobody sees another person in pants two sizes too big (some of which may have a hole or two in the behind area but are otherwise perfectly useful for sleeping and lounging in), who hasn't brushed their hair in at least 24 hours and says: "Yes! I want to be friends with that person!". Once I actually did leave my house in this very condition to pick up my paycheck on a Sunday evening, only I wasn't actually aware of what turned out to be several holes in the behindish area of my favorite pair of sweat pants...Lesson learned!

On another much more cheery and more in the direction I intended to go at first note, I have lots to share about what has been going on the last several months while I haven't been here.

This is what the folder on my memory card told me happened in May:

I had pretty fuschias that lasted only a short while before I figured out that me and fuschias don't get along. Plants are kind of like different dog breeds: some will work for your lifestyle and some simply don't. This plant is dead as well as it's white/pink cousin located in another hanging basket a few feet away and yes they are all dried up and dead and still hanging on my front porch. I know I should take them down but really I just keep forgetting.

Anyway, in May this also happened:

Before I filled my planter with beautiful flowers that managed to reach gargantuan sizes in a very short period and only six days before my sisters wedding, on May 15th, we had quite a freak hail storm. This is about as close to snow as we have seen in Oroville for some years and it was quite amazing.

All I can say is that I am glad that we don't get snow because really, the last thing I would ever want to do is have to shovel snow in the mornings before leaving for work. Yeah, no thanks. Instead, it all melted almost as fast as it had come and then I had my own personal river in front of my house.

That's right, I do know how to take horizontal pictures too, but the vertical ones just work so much better on my blog. See: another vertical!

Those people on my watering can don't seem to like the snow/hail either as looks as though they are running away from it. :) Come on, you know you were thinking the same thing. Or maybe this watering can is from Kansas and they were running from a tornado...those are WAY worse than even snow and daily shoveling.

That's all that happened in May. Lets see what is in my June folder...

We did a lot in June!

We built a fence in the front yard so I would yell at the neighborhood kids less:

I was so excited that I got my camera out of my car to take pictures and then left the door wide open. I was really excited. Especially since it was being done good, I mean with tape measures and leveling equipment...not just some janky fence. I love my fence. :)

Now at least I feel like I can plant in my own front yard without worrying about annoying kids/neighborhood dogs/disturbing plants already established by putting up a fence later. Now if only plants were free and I could just go dig them up and bring them home this whole landscaping thing would be a whole lot easier.

Also in June/the very first few days of July we removed our old roof and got a brand spanking new one. By we I mean David and his friends/family that were crazy enough to work on top of our roof in the 100 plus degree heat while I came home on my lunch breaks and offered them glasses of water and some encouragement.

Oh yeah, and new roofing also meant new awning off the back porch since it was completely rotted and leaked like a sieve when it rained. Now I could actually go sit outside in the freezing rain on my back porch and not get wet if I felt like it.

Look: No roof...

ROOF!!!

It's like magic isn't it. :)

Man, I need to seriously address my porch lighting, that is really terrible. Please don't look at my lights.

Also at the exact same time as my house was a complete disaster zone from roof remodeling my Lilies decided to bloom. This was my first attempt with bulbs and I had been long awaiting for them to show their beautiful little faces.

They were especially pretty in the early morning sunlight. This was the first one to open. All twenty something plants opened at least two flowers each with days of one another. It would have been easier to enjoy them without all the other ruckus going on around the house but I tried to nevertheless.

And then within another week or two I realized that me and Lily bulbs do not understand each other. They all turned yellow and proceeded to loose all their leaves shortly before shriveling and dyeing. That's right, they all died and I have no idea why. I tried to save them. I tried to water them more, then I tried to water them less then eventually I gave up and cut down the dry stocks they had left behind and I have since decided that I need something else to lead people to my front door. It just didn't work out and it makes me a little sad, especially now remembering how pretty they were and how long I had been waiting and anticipating their loveliness only to be sorely disappointed by their untimely demise.

As you can see, June was a very busy month. I am not sure I have the energy to go through another 4 months even though there will be much less to share because I did absolutely nothing compared to June. I must have used up all my ambition and energy in June, I'm still recovering in my very large pajama pants with no holes. :)

I remember now how this whole thing started. This blog is much like that friend with which time passes unnoticed. I feel at home here even though much time has passed since we last spoke. There is no awkwardness or unpleasant feelings. There is no disappointment or expectations, it's just like that old friend that we all need. A blog is like a special part of the author separate from their other self. A piece that we may forget from time to time but we will always go back to it and it will feel like going home again no matter how long it has been.  

I hate coming up with titles.

So I won't come up with one. :)

After spending only a half hour outside I accomplished very little but obtained at least a dozen or so mosquito bites. Apparently I need to invest in some bug spray...very soon so that I can get back to my outside work. But in the meantime I took some pictures while I was out there, so here they are.

Oh wait, OMG! I forgot to tell you! I checked on my ladybug friend today since he was still hanging out in the same spot. I was afraid he was dying or something, but apparently he is just fine.

HE IS METAMORPHOSING!!!

See: ladybug friend two days ago.

I can't wait to see him tomorrow. It is so strange that they just do this out in the open. No cocoon or secret hiding place. Out in the open on my climbing hydrangea. It will be sad when he is gone: one morning I will go out to water and he will just be gone. Hopefully he will stick around and eat some of the aphids that plague me every year.

Anyway, on to less exciting things. I have acquired two kinds of spirea, one of which has the cutest little white flowers on it as do a lot of them, but I am not sure of the actual variety. Me and my camera aren't agreeing on how to focus on small objects so things are not working out like I would prefer but we are going to have a little chat and figure this whole thing out soon.

And I have 24 moon vines that I am not sure what to do with but I am thinking that dressing up Riley's ugly cyclone fence kennel may be an option even though it may be short lived. And yes, they bloom at night. Hence the name: which I think is pretty awesome since they also smell like vanilla (so i've read) which sounds amazing for those warm summer evening BBQ's....

OMG, super exciting thing number two: I got an amazing Laceleaf Japanese Maple for a corner in my backyard. Bad news: totally didn't take a picture because I have lost my mind. I will show you soon I promise. :) You are going to LOVE it just as much as I do.

Um, lets see what else I took pictures of.

Oh yeah, I replanted my hanging basket on my front porch. The dried sticks remaining from last year weren't making much of a statement.

Me and my mom were just talking today about how Fuscias always remind me of my grandma's house in San Jose. She always had the most beautiful Fuscias hanging on her front porch.

And yesterday at the Plant Barn (my favorite plant place to visit) I got a new daylily. It's just too bad that each bloom only lasts one day.

Like I said, me and my focus aren't getting along right now and it didn't quite get the spot I wanted but I just need to work on it. I also need to work on choosing better backgrounds because I usually have stupid things behind my subject that I don't even realize are there.

And I think that concludes my adventures for the night...yep, that's it.