13: It’s all UP from here
1. Me on the phone with my son Dylan, father of 6 month old Bryce: “After a couple of weeks I can’t stop thinking about Bryce, and I need to see him.” Dylan: “I know. That happens to me everyday at work.”
2. Me to Joe: “Is it pathetic that the highlight of my day is my walk to the mailbox? But maybe if Lao Tzu or the Dali Lama were here it would be their favorite part of the day too,” I reason.
3. Later that same day, Joe and I laid out on a blanket in the yard in the middle of an unseasonably warm day and watched squirrels jump from tree to tree and the sun go down behind the house. “I just got a new highlight of my day,” I told him.
4. Wow! My Asheville Potter son Josh and his claymates from ClaySpace are on the front page of Asheville’s Arts and Events newspaper, Mountain XPress (pictured below). Read the article HERE. Josh’s pots also recently showed up HERE.
5. I can be wiping off the kitchen counter, sorting through papers on my desk, or driving in my car to the grocery store when I find myself suddenly saying out loud for no other reason than to hear how it sounds, “President Obama.”
6. This first time we’ve had a president that I actually care so much about that I wake up and in the morning and think, I wonder how Barack is doing today.
7. My friend Pearl speaks my language. She recently said: “I still haven’t blogged yesterday and here it is almost tomorrow again.”
8. My blog is part journal, part photo album, and part filing cabinet.
9. I’ve been excited about Obama winning since it happened, but it took almost a week for me to thaw from the numbness of the last 8 years enough to shed tears of relief. I was listening to NPR news on the ride to Roanoke to baby-sit Bryce when it happened. After a newscaster announced Obama’s plan to quickly close Guantanamo and to renew the Justice Department, which has been reduced to shambles by politicization, I just broke down.
10. My friend Amy was over helping me format a duplex printed booklet of my teapoet poems. At one point she was at the computer hitting print and I was holding sheets of 5×7 white paper, feeding them one at time to the printer so it wouldn’t jam, when I said to her, “I feel like a girl again with my Nana giving me a perm.” You’d have to have grown up in the 50’s and 60’s to remember holding those small white sheets of tissue paper and handing them to the hairdresser or your grandmother who would use them to wrap a perm roller that would then be doused with ammonia and other chemicals. Amy understood. “It had to be a Toni,” she laughed and said, adding, “At least we don’t have to put up with the smell.”
11. At another point, we used a ruler to measure the booklet. I handed it to her and said, “Gee, I just love the low tech nature of a ruler. It’s nothing but a stick, but we still need it.”
12. Amy is a multi-talented entrepreneur with a great sense of humor, whose business, New Vision, provides innovative ideas and other services to help other small businesses grow. She recently started a new business selling gay greeting cards. I especially like the Christmas one. See HERE.
13. When I was in town today, someone asked, “How are you?” and I answered, “As good as can be expected from someone who woke at the crack of dawn by squirrels jumping on the roof of my house and tossing nuts down on my car.”
Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13’s are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here. #159
November 13th, 2008 12:23 am
This was a very nice and relaxing read. Thanks. I enjoyed your TT!
My TT is up 13 Things to Consider before Hiring
November 13th, 2008 1:06 am
Just wait till President Obama really gets going, after he takes the oath of office!
November 13th, 2008 6:21 am
Nice to read your relaxing day I wished I had squirrels around here ! The only thing which jumps on my car are all cats from the neighborhood including mine ! I have a selection of paw prints !
November 13th, 2008 6:37 am
4. Wonderful article about Josh’s co-op…nice publicity!
6. I know…I feel the same way about him. He’s got so so much to work through. I wonder what HE thinks about being able to fix things.
10. I’m old enough and I do remember!
November 13th, 2008 7:18 am
I get my hopes all up when I get the mail, too, and then it’s all bills. Ha!
November 13th, 2008 7:23 am
i love thursdays at colleen’s!
i am dreaming about obama now. recently i was workintg hard to help him pick out a puppy. other times we have had amazing dinners and outside adventures!
i want Josh’s big pot on the right! Besides it being very expensive (I am sure), the shipping and handling would kill me – so would worrying that it would break en route! I need to find a link so I can look at his smaller pieces which might be better suited to shipping and to my purse! I will Google to see if I can find a gallery of his current pottery.
Glad you are having Bryce withdrawal symptoms – that means we might be getting photos more often! He is a real doll.
November 13th, 2008 8:32 am
Now I want to see the booklet of your teapot poems. We went to a tea shop on Tuesday and took quite a long time browsing and deciding on a couple of interesting blends. I’ll think of your poems the next time I make a cup.
November 13th, 2008 9:18 am
The mind remembers what is different or unusual. Even if you have a joyous wonderful day – walking to the mailbox will be different from the rest of it, thus the highlight!
November 13th, 2008 10:05 am
This was an awesome read, thank you.
I can definitely relate with this: 7. My friend Pearl speaks my language. She recently said: “I still haven’t blogged yesterday and here it is almost tomorrow again.
Happy TT 🙂
November 13th, 2008 10:41 am
If I hadn’t been concerned with cleanliness I would’ve gotten down on my knees and kissed the ground when I woke to the news of Obama as president. I tried to wake all through the night to check. I watched his speech as I woke as my husband was going to bed…it was so moving. I haven’t been that happy in a long time.
November 13th, 2008 11:00 am
LOL I loved #5 🙂
November 13th, 2008 11:22 am
You must be soooo proud of Josh. Congrats to him and his co-op. I hope you get to see little Bryce more often, too.
Happy TT!
November 13th, 2008 12:49 pm
Lol @ #13. Nice list!
November 13th, 2008 1:03 pm
Great TT as always Colleen….I know hoe you feel about Barack….I keep sighing with relief and smiling with expectation, and crying with happiness at the goodness of people. (Except for the fact that Prop 8 and those other two states that had these kinds of Propositions all passed…..No “goodness” there, I’m afraid…..)
I am going to pass that Web Site on to some friends—What a great idea! Gay Cards!
November 13th, 2008 1:16 pm
Thanks for visiting Andy’s list of beers – he had fun thinking about them all. Made me thirsty typing them out. Our friends’ son is named Bryce also – after the beautiful canyon, which we have yet to visit ourselves.
November 13th, 2008 1:47 pm
I spent an interesting an fun time reading your T13, as always 🙂
Josh’s pots are wonderful, I really mean it. Refreshing is the word I was looking for. Yes, they’re are.
I love the greeting cards too. It shows, her humor I mean. Very creative, playful.
…but my favorite are #13.
November 13th, 2008 3:54 pm
Thanks for the callout to my words. Your 10, 11 and 13 all made me chuckle some. I remember those thin sheets for perm. I think my mom used them still in the 70s.
2. I think it’s not pathetic. Small, kind pleasures never are. 🙂
November 13th, 2008 5:42 pm
#6, I think I was the only one to do that….LOL
November 13th, 2008 5:46 pm
I do like your 13 this week!
I too am finding myself thinking about Barack Obama – and thankful that he will be our president.
Oh, I posted a really neat quote on my blog today – it’s on the V is for post…
November 13th, 2008 8:27 pm
Love your list and your sense of humor regarding #13…happy TT.
http://www.apooobooks.com/thursday-thirteen-world-kindness-day/
November 13th, 2008 8:42 pm
I’ll trade your squirrels for my vultures! I wake up on Saturday mornings to 20 or so black and turkey vultures having a hoe-down on my roof. They are part of almost 300 that have decided, for the third year in a row, to roost in my woods. Since they are migratory, I can’t do anything to them. I tried scaring them by making loud noises, but they retaliated by pooping on my truck! I’ll take nuts over poop any day!!
November 14th, 2008 8:23 am
I love that Josh is getting more and more famous from his skill that he so much loves.
I forgot to check this yesterday, probably because I went back to work. Another great TT!! xo
November 14th, 2008 8:25 am
PS I almost forgot…….I sure do remember the permanents from Nana.
November 14th, 2008 8:45 am
Congrats to Josh! That is great publicity.
I love the new thread of hope that I feel in the world now.
November 14th, 2008 9:10 pm
I have fallen in love with President-elect Obama.
Seriously, you know what I really like about you Colleen? I like how you are so in touch with the simple things and you remind me of how lovely they are. Nuts falling on a car for example.
http://www.GreenerPastures–ACityGirlGoesCountry.blogspot.com
November 15th, 2008 3:44 am
I’m totally with you on the Obama sentiment.
But I’m the opposite – I’m now nervous and anxious that someone is going to try to do something to him. I hope he has good security. There are a lot of crazies in this country who are unhappy he got elected – and for the most part, those people seem to have a lot of guns!
November 15th, 2008 10:39 pm
With you on No. 5, my friend! Oh yes. Hope, hope, hope. And a hearty amen.
God bless that new baby in your family. It’s heart-warming to hear how loved the child is!