An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life… He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil—he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.” They thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win, Grandfather?” The Elder simply replied, “The one you feed.”

I just read this on Older Mummy Still Yummy

The Best Day Of Fishing Ever!

I’ve heard of salmon jumping into boats, but never anything quite like this…
Tom Satre told the Sitka Gazette that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat.

(PHOTO CREDIT - UNKNOWN)

“Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat. In all my years fishing, I’ve never seen anything quite like it!
Once onboard [sic], they collapsed with exhaustion, shivering.”

(PHOTO CREDIT - UNKNOWN)

“This is a picture I took of the rescued bucks on the back of my boat, the Alaska Quest. We headed for Taku Harbour . Once we reached the dock, the first buck that we had been pulled from the water hopped onto the dock, looked back as if to say ‘thank you’ and disappeared into the forest. After a bit of prodding and assistance, two more followed, but the smallest deer needed a little more help.”

“This is me carrying the little guy.”

(PHOTO CREDIT - UNKNOWN)

(PHOTO CREDIT - UNKNOWN)

“My daughter, Anna, and son, Tim, helped the last buck to its feet. We didn’t know how long they had been in the icy waters or if there had been others who did not survive. My daughter later told me that the experience was something that she would never forget, and I suspect the deer felt the same way as well!”

What an awesome story!

It had me a bit confused, I kept thinking, wait I know that author, but he does not write manga, I have read a few of his books. So to put my mind at ease I looked up the book title and found that he had written a manga version of the novels in the Maximum Ride series. I read the descriptions of the books and decided that they sounded interesting enough to read.

So, with my debit card in hand, I made my way to the 5 dollar book store. Keeping in mind it is Christmas time and my funds are limited, I was only looking to buy one or two books. I was excited indeed to find not only the first in the series The Angel Experiment, but the second and fourth as well, School’s Out and The Final Warning. Sweet! Now I only have to get the third in the series, Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports . Of course there is books five, six and seven as well but we shall save those for another post.

I then went to find my thirteen year old son, who came with me and was still looking around, when he exclaimed, “Look!” and in his hand was Peter & Max a Fable novel. I just about lost it — you see every time we went to Border’s Books (R.I.P.) I always looked and the graphic novels Fables and Sandman with great melancholy, hoping against hope that the authors, Bill Willingham and Neil Gaiman (respectively) would publish the graphic novels in straight up novel form. Because, for what ever reason, I cannot read graphic novels or manga. I love the artwork, but just cannot read them — the book went right to the TBP (to be purchased) stack I was carrying.

As if that was not enough, as we passed the displays we saw Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien! Yep, you guessed it, added to the pile.

At that point I put my blinders on and headed straight for the checkout counter and a mere $14.14 later, I was the proud owner of all these!

When I arrived home, I unloaded my haul and was showing them off proudly to the rest of my kids when the post arrived with a package. The package contained the Goodreads Firstreads ARC (advanced readers copy) book I won, Conqueror: A novel of Kula Khan by Conn Iggulden!

A good day indeed!

Day 6: Pet Peeves:

People who cut in line drives me completely insane!

Couples who sit on the same side of the booth when there is no one on the other side.

Being asked my telephone number/account number AFTER I already entered in using the keypad on my phone; I thought I was supposed enter that info to “better assist me”.

People who walk their dogs and let them poop indiscriminately (like on someone’s lawn), and do not pick it up.

People who use text speak, U, UR, 2 for two, etc. in emails or place where there is not a character limit.

People who throw cigarette butts on the beach or anywhere for that matter.

The cost of the surgery to repair Admiral’s leg is $2,000. My son has tried applying for assistance to get the surgery completed, but has been denied. If you can help out, please take the time to donate via PayPal. Even $1 will help. My brother is only trying to raise enough money so that he can cover the down payment for the surgery, which is $1,200.

If you’re not able to donate, but know of an organization in southern California (Los Angeles/Ventura County areas) that may be able to help, please let me know!

Thanks so much!

Admiral the Puppy

Day 5: What song inspires you.

All music inspires me. I am a music junkie.  What inspires me depends on my mood that particular day.  I could post a ton of videos to show you all the music I listen to and how great a variety, but… instead I will tell you THE ONE SONG that inspires me the most.

Jimmy Eat World: The Middle… I swear they wrote this song just for me… the shy girl who worries what other say and think about her.

Day 4: Your parents.

First, before I can tell you about my parents, you need to know I am the third oldest of eleven kids… no twins or other multiples and yes, all the same father and mother.

Now, what can I tell you about my parents… My mother was born in New York and my father in Florida. When their families moved to California, they moved one house away from each other.  They were childhood sweethearts.  They married when my mom was seventeen and my dad twenty; my mother had her first child at age eighteen and her last at age thirty-six, eight girls and three boys.

We lived in a three bedroom, two bathroom house… all thirteen of us! We were everywhere at night.  Two of my brother’s shared one room.  The third was the baby so he slept in the crib in my parent’s room, which used to be the den. I don’t know how my older sister and I were so lucky to have a room to ourselves but we did.  The rest were scattered… some slept on a CaliKing mattress on the floor in the last room, some on the couches in the living room and baby number ten in the playpen.

You might think we were miserable living in such close quarters, but we weren’t. I think I had one of the best childhoods ever and I cannot imagine how boring it must be to have no siblings.

My mom is something else… growing up I had no clue that houses got dirty, ours never was, yet I never saw her clean. She must have done it all while we were in school. Sounds easy, but remember this is a woman who always had at least two or three babies/toddlers under her feet.  She vacuumed at night, this I remember; I believe that is why I need white noise to fall asleep. She liked to sew and made little outfits for the younger kids when she had the chance.  And when our love of horse sprang forth, this woman did everything possible to make it happen for us.  She helped my sister buy her first horse by matching her savings.  She located a co-op ranch and eventually became the manager of said ranch.  She chauffeured us to horse shows and cheered us on.  She is still an awesome lady.  She is 72 and will baby sit the grandkids at a moment’s notice. She is beautiful inside and out.

My dad… my father, may he rest in peace.  I lost my father on February 12, 1999; he was only sixty-three.  He had heart disease and was in the hospital recovering from surgery.  I remember my sister said on the might he died, before she left, he told her he was afraid. I miss my dad dearly and my biggest regret in life is that my kids never got to know him, because my ex did not allow me to visit my family… but I digress and that is a story for another post.

My dad… he was a funny man, he would constantly tell us stories or ask us riddles that we would have to solve.  In the case of riddles, he would never allow us to give up; it could be days before we figured out the answers.  Have you ever heard the one: As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives?  Yeah, that one; I remember sitting there with paper and pencil asking him to slow down so I could do the math. Until finally he put so much emphasis on the word “I”, I finally got it.

One thing he liked to do was to toss a rag on the floor and tell us to try and pick it up.  We’d bend down, pick it up and hand it to him, but he would just throw it back on the floor and say, “No, I said ‘try’ to pick it up.”  We’d go round on this a couple of times before he would tell us, “You either do something or you don’t… there is no ‘trying’.”  That’s right…my dad was the first Yoda!

What’s more, he liked to see how gullible we were.  For instance, he used to tell us that hot dogs were tube steak and that if we ate the ends of our hot dog buns, they’d go down to our toes and make us trip.  For a long time we kids left the bun ends on our plates.

There are so many more stories I could tell you, but I will leave you with this one: for most of my life I thought I had Native American blood, Seminole to be exact, running through my veins.  You see, when I was a little girl my father told me a story of how our ancestors were privy to a sacred ritual performed by Florida’s Seminole Indians and as a result were brought into and made part of the clan. As a result of all my dad’s stories, I have always joked about writing a book and titling it, “Lies My Father Told Me”.

And there you have it, a little but about my parents… now go hug yours.

Unseen to the world

The empty seat

[Lives] taken from us

Leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.

 Committed to killing

Our blood reaffirmed our ties to each other.

And around the globe

across the world

We disrupt, dismantle, and defeat

To run this thread to ground.

Hiding

Deep inside

Determined that we had enough

[We’re] harmed.

Casualties

Plot attacks against

Our friends.

The death of…

Us

Photo credit:Michael Tykel: D’s Photo Stream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shrednfly/

(Source: newstatesman.com)

My first “love” I can remember was in kindergarten. I do not remember his name, but I remember when we would say the flag salute I would hold both my hands on my heart, look over at him and heave a heavy sigh… ahhh young love.

The next boy I remember “loving” was Andy Flumm, yes his real name. I would chase him around the playground endlessly. I never caught him though.

I guess my first real love, or what I thought was real love, hit me at age 13. We had a horse ranch and a group of boys would always hang around. I fell hard for one of them, Alan. As he was 16, my mother told me I had to stay away from him. I was so innocent back then… I remember the first time he kissed me and he stuck his tongue in my mouth. I pushed him away saying, “Ewww don’t French!” There were older girls at the ranch that I looked up to, and one in particular Kathy, was there on the day that Alan called on the phone, telling me that he wanted to make love to me. I had to ask Kathy what he meant.

The ranch and Alan soon became a memory. But I never really forgot him… and one day when I was 16, Alan showed back up in my life. We went out a couple times and it was to him I lost my virginity.

All through high school I had boyfriends on and off… it was never really a priority of mine to be dating.

I would have to honestly say that I have never really loved anyone… not even the husband I had for 21 years. I only got married because I wanted children and I thought that was what I was supposed to do.

So…. I am still looking for my First Love….