no place like Florida for the holidays

or at least for the Sunday after Christmas. the sun is due to peek thru the clouds here in Pensacola anytime. lunch today for the O'Bryants is at McGuire's so it'll be just like home...our old Irish home where none of us has visited. maybe we'll feel it on a cellular level!!

across the street

the neighbors really get into the holiday, don't they? kinda like the Griswolds of Halloween.

Hannah

Today i met my cousin Chuck's daughter's daughter. Heather has grown into a very special woman, caring and loving and filled with laughter. She's always smiling. So different from her father, who was guarded and wary, but yes, filled with love as well.

I remember meeting Heather again after I moved back to where the family lives. She was a little kid and wouldn't leave my side. I have this memory...of being in Aunt Laura and Uncle Carl's basement for a family get-together before Chuck died...of Heather sitting on my lap and looking into my eyes with a big grin on her beautiful face...of me wrapping my arms around her and never wanting to let her go. There's something very special about her that I find hard to describe.

And now she's a mom. At the hospital today, she was so grown up. Not a bit of nervousness or wariness at the prospect of being everything for this tiny baby and her life. Heather was completely in control. Scott, her fiancee, is totally in love. They will make great parents. I can't wait to see them learn and grow and be a family.

Chuck would have been so in love, and so proud. I can see him looking at what his daughter has done and being so in awe of Hannah. It makes me happy and it breaks my heart all at the same time.

between the wedding and reception...

Waiting for cousin Tim and Jenny's reception to start, Mom, Dad and I, along with Paula, Karl and Miranda took in the first half of ND-Michigan game at Malarkey's in Grand Rapids. it was a fun place, altho it doesn't look like it on either Karl's or Paula's faces!!

on the road...

waitin' for the train!!

i made a pie!!

beautiful gluten-free crust...gorgeous, just-picked raspberries from down the road.

i am cutting into it for breakfast! i LOVE summer!!

even tho we don't live in Canada...

the gooses go on parade...

i've finally found it!

the elusive, super secret receipe for S'mores!!

yes, on the cardboard packaging of the Hershey Chocolate BAr 6-pack, the Hershey people have so kindly revealed the secrets of the s'more.

i am laughing my butt off!!

another thing i'd never seen before

ahead of me, it was raining. but instead of the rain coming straight down or at an angle, it was coming straight down...for awhile...and as it got closder to the ground, the wind pulled it to the side. wild.

this was coming our way today

the weather chick on tv said it was a "shelf" cloud. that's one scary-looking shelf cloud.

what i'm reading

it's book one of the series on which TrueBlood on HBO is based. three days...about 8 hours...is all it took for me to blow right thru it. couldn't put it down.

manifesting

Wild sorta few days around here...

incident number one:

Friday morning...on my way to work, i'm thinking i need to go to the ATMto grab cash to repay Brenda for the tip money from Thursday's lunch (which was free thanks to Brian at Hooters!...another bit of manifestation!), when my phone rings. it's 5 minutes to 8am and the person on the other end of the phone is the GM/owner of the company. i hear:

A3:"where are you?"
me: "at the corner of Cleveland and 933"
A3: "are you gonna go by a McDonald's on your way in?" to which i begin to laugh...
me: "what do you need?"

i stop by the local Mickey D's to grab him some breakfast. i pay with my ATM card and he hands me a $10 bill when i get to the office. voila!! cash to pay Brenda!!

incident number two:

Friday morning around 11am. i'm thinking...you know, it's summer. i should really get a pedicure. you know, treat myself to something pamper-y and girl-y. at 2:30pm, my text message goes off. it's pam...the sales mgr at the chr station in the building, asking if i am returning to the office on Friday. i text her i should be back around 4pm or so...why? she has a last minute commercial for me to produce and that she will give me a $50 JaRoss gift certificate for my trouble. voila! there's my pedicure!!

incident number three:

Saturday morning. i'm driving thru the fruit belt county on my way to hair appointmentm, when i see signs announcing the arrival of homegrown, juicy strawberries. i resolve to stop at one of the roadside stands on my return trip to experience the first strawberries of the season. on my way home, it's raining. not just raining, but pouring. no strawberries for me, or so i think. my phone rings at 4pm. it's dad, who has just bought me a quart of gorgeous, scrumptious strawberries. voila! strawberries to top the gf vanilla pound cake i baked Friday night!

incident number four:

Sunday afternoon. i'm at mom and dad's for lunch, thinking i'll make a run to Target to grab a few of the neccessities after lunch. Mom says, hey Mike...why don't you follow Shell home so you can get the dressers and secretary out of her guest rooms? i tell her that's cool, but i was going to make a run to Target today to get coffee. she says...there are three cans of Maxwell House downstairs in the pantry. you can have one of them if you want. voila! potential Monday-morning crisis averted!!

conclusion. i'm manifesting like a wild woman! thank you thank you thank you for the blessings!!

Wolverine!

the new Entertainment Weekly has Hugh Jackman on the cover.

the first line of the article is:
"Imagine you're in Hugh Jackman's bedroom at four in the morning. ok...lemme close my eyes...

ohhhhh Hugh!!!

:o)

the official start of vacation

Friday night, on Hair Nation Sirius 23, Def Leppard started singin Pour Some Sugar On Me...
and the vacation officially began
=)

the 1st round

we are at the women's NCAA basketball tourney...the 1st round...at the Joyce. the fist game is between Evansville and Texas A&M. u wanna see us? look to the left of the Evansville band...they're the ones in the purple. a few rows up and you'll see us !

in Nappannee

at lunchtime. a quick potty break at Mickey D's and a gander at the buggy parking in the adjacent supermarket parking lot. this is truly one of the cool things about living in this area. a number of different cultures coexist almost seamlessly.

a completely different space

this office has become a completely different space with a completely different feeling since Wednesday. see, Wednesday afternoon, the Director of Sales here at Artistic Media Partners was told his services were no longer needed.

and the black cloud lifted.

this morning's sales meeting with the president of the company was upbeat, helpful and got our heads in the right place for the week to come. it was the polar opposite of the past 7 months of Mondays.

i am grateful!!

another great one from Roy

courtesy of Roy H Williams "The Wizard of Ads":

Fear Is Contagious

I am reminded of what Michel Eyquem De Montaigne said with tongue in cheek during the French Renaissance 450 years ago, “My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.”

But a frightened person frightens other people. And these newly frightened people will frighten still more people until finally no one is spending any money.

Fear is the fuel of recession. I understand perfectly what’s happening in the world. I simply choose not to be afraid. You can choose, too. We are worth more than many sparrows.

Warren Buffett agrees with this outlook.“Fear is very contagious. You can get fearful in 5 minutes, but you don’t get confident in 5 minutes.” - Warren Buffett on CNBC, Monday, March 9, 2009

CNBC: “We’ve been getting thousands and thousands of emails from our viewers. Warren, we’d like to start with one that echoes a theme we heard again and again. This one comes from Terry in San Antonio, Texas, who asks, ‘Will everything be all right?’”
BUFFETT: “Everything will be all right. We do have the greatest economic machine that man has ever created. We started with 4 million people back in 1790 and look where we’ve come. And it wasn’t because we were smarter than other people. It wasn’t because our land was more fertile or we had more minerals or our climate was more favorable. We had a system that worked. It unleashed the human potential. It didn’t work every year. We had 6 ‘panics’ in the 19th century. In the 20th century we had the Great Depression, World Wars, all kinds of things. But we have a system – largely free market, rule of law, equality of opportunity – all of those things that cause the potential of humans to get unleashed. And we’re far from done. Your kids will live better than mine. Your grandchildren will live better than your kids. There’s no question about that. But the machine gets gummed up from time to time. If you take the bulk of those centuries, probably 15 years were bad years. But we go forward.”

Did you notice the quote the twitchy news people of America lifted from Buffett’s very upbeat, 3-hour interview? They filtered out all kinds of affirming, positive statements (such as the one above) to create the headline, “Warren Buffett Says ‘The Economy Fell Off a Cliff.”

Slippery Wall-Streeters triggered this recession but the twitchy news media seems committed to making sure it progresses.

And now for a final thought: Fear is contagious. Don’t spread it. And if you meet any twitchy, fear mongering news weasels, slap them and say, “Stop it. Stop it right now.”

EXACTLY!! stop it!! don't buy into the fear, don't let others get you worked up into buying into the fear. are you not worth many sparrows??

on the way to Milwaukee

with a busload of listeners. Nickelback, Seether, and Saving Abel are playing the Bradley Center tonight (where Marquette plays basketball!) and we will be in the house!

the tower

must be Chicago!

there's a lagoon at the end of my driveway!

out the sunroof

love it!

the work week

started out in a realitively good place, ended with frustration and discomfort. the weekend feels like a big warm hug.

speaking of hugs, i got one from a CLIENT yesterday. it was an unexpected moment, but i get it. i am affecting those i work with and they appreciate me. so i guess the week didn't end with as much discomfort as i thought.

just outside the window

this shrub was all green yesterday :o)

the sun came out today!

after two days of not just snow, but lake effect snow, the sun burst thru the clouds for awhile this morning! there was a dusting of snow yesterday morning. this morning? 4 inches of powdery lake effect, with drifts up to a foot.

yeah, its still winter in Indiana.

Roy's gonna tell you a story...

From Roy H. Williams "Monday Morning Memo" this morning:

Let Me Tell You a Story...
Magic Words to Penetrate the Filter,Erase Suspicion and Lower the Guard

It was exactly 10 years ago. I was on the telephone with an 87 year-old man I had been hunting for several weeks. I needed this man’s permission to publish a private letter he had written to America’s Chief of Naval Operations back in 1963. The man’s name was William Lederer.

“Where you calling from young man?”
“Austin, Texas.”
“I was there recently. Nice town.”
“What brought you to Austin sir?”
“I was there to bury my best friend Jim.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“You would have liked Jim. Everyone did. He once gave me some advice that changed my life.”
“What was it?”
“William,” he said, “the public is more willing to believe fiction than non-fiction.”

Mr. Lederer now had my full attention.

Our bodies contain approximately 100 million sensory receptors that allow us to see, hear, taste, touch and smell physical reality. But the brain contains 10 thousand billion synapses. This means we’re roughly 100,000 times better equipped to experience a world that does not exist, than a world that does.

The first step in persuasion is to entice your target to imagine doing the thing you want them to do.

Four and a half years ago in the summer of 2004, a screenwriter named Eli Attie began creating a persona for a new fictional character that would appear on The West Wing. Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) would be a young congressman, new to Washington, a working-class member of an ethnic minority. Prior to running for public office, our fictional character Santos had been a community organizer in a major city (Houston.) Screenwriter Eli Attie admitted to The Guardian, a British newspaper, that he was inspired in 2004 by a young Illinois politician – not yet even a US senator – by the name of Barack Obama, a community organizer from Chicago. As a result of Attie’s attraction to Obama, the 2006 television season showed us a glittering, fictional candidate for the presidency, a happily married, young minority male with 2 children who would run against a moderate Republican opponent from a western state. The imaginary Republican senator, Arnie Vinick (played by Alan Alda,) was unpopular with his conservative base due to his moderate views. His principal opponent in the fictional Republican primary was the Rev. Don Butler, a Christian preacher. Keep in mind these West Wing episodes aired 18 months before America ever heard of Mike Huckabee.

But wait, it gets weirder.

Ten years ago, Aaron Sorkin admitted that he based The West Wing’s Josh Lyman on Rahm Emanuel, who served in Bill Clinton’s White House. Both Lyman and Emanuel are Jewish. Both are brilliant. Both mail dead fish to opponents who make them angry.

In the 2006 season of The West Wing, seasoned White House staffer Josh Lyman serves as campaign manager for the long-shot, minority candidate. When his candidate wins, Lyman is named Chief of Staff.

Two years later Rahm Emanuel, the real Josh Lyman, will become Barack Obama's Chief of Staff.

Was it all a plot? Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just an example of how we tend to act out the things we’ve seen in our mind.

By the way, here’s the end of the Lederer story:

“How did Jim’s advice change your life Mr. Lederer?”
“Well, I had written a few books but none of them sold very well. So in 1958 I showed Jim the manuscript for my newest book and he told me to go back and fictionalize the name of the country, the characters, everything. ‘The public is more willing to believe fiction than non-fiction.’”
“How did it turn out for you?”
“Well, that book, The Ugly American, stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 78 straight weeks and sold more than 3 million copies in its first year. Marlon Brando starred in the movie. But of course that’s nothing compared to what Jim did.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jim wrote more than 40 books, sold more than 100 million copies and won the Pulitzer Prize.”

There was an awkward silence.

“I’m sorry sir, but I can’t think of what Jim you might mean.”
“I’m sorry, son. You probably knew him as James. James Michener.”

Roy H. Williams

really??? it turns out there is a REAL-LIFE person attached to my never-ending assertion that Josh Lymon is the perfect man...and it's Rahm Emmanel. what do i do with THAT????

is there anything more yummy-looking

than these gorgeous gf chocolate cupcakes topped with dark chocolate ganache?

ps-they are delicious!

sun! glorious sun!

the sun has been shining for two whole days...in a row! the entire weekend, when i have stepped out the door, it has been coatless :-D it is such a blessing and i am in a state of appreciation.

the sun is allowing me to recharge my necklaces. they should be raring to go in the morning! (it is my hope that i will be too)

shelley<>

already this morning

i have moved dressers, hung photos in the living room, mirror in the entry way, started tonight's dinner on the stove and transferred it t the crockpot to slowly cook all day, made a yummy breakfast of eggs and avocadoes. i am working on my bedroom closet today! and, i am determined to get the other two ridiculous mirrors over the gorgeously- deep bathtub off the wall.

yay hooray it's Saturday!
shelley<>

day 1

wow oh wow i learned alot last night in regards to eating to help my body work at its peak. an hour of information at Ray of Light Holistic Health turned the light on the fuel i put in my body and how it effects the way it works. alkaline vs. acidic. 75 percent fruits & veggies 25 percent meats grains and dairy.

hmmmmm.

i know i am looking at my fuel differently today. i also know i don't have to do this all at once. being gentle and making subtle changes one at a time will help this way of thinking and eating sink in and become habit, and not turn this bit of info into New Year's Resolution Syndrome. just add one helping of veggies or fruits per day or meal and it should stick!

Spinach and Avocadoes: alkaline
Eggs and Cheese and GF Muffins: acid

but i gotta say, there are two servings of veggies that wouldn't have been there before.

its day one!
shelley<>

i am loving my living room! 'specially on a sunny Sunday afternoon. it makes me happy :)

shelley<>

the kids next door

the temperture hit 35 degrees today! last night's weather stat said 36 degrees or lower thruout all of January. eek.
yesterday morning we started out at 6, so an almost 30 degree warmup makes it feel like Florida outside. coat? i don't need no stinking coat!

the balmy weather had the neighbor kids out playing in the snow. they started out playing snowball catch. when that got boring it progressed to snow-boulder catch :)

then, as i was standig at the kitchen sink doing dishes, i spy their dad creeping around the corner of the house, packing a few snowballs. he sees me and waves before lobbing the snowballs towards the kids.

fun stuff!

shelley<>

i was wondering when i would see this...

MacGyver makes an appearance in MacGruber!
shelley<>

top chef: Carla wins the challenge!

i am loving this cheftestant. she looks like Jar Jar Binks and has the best lines in interview. she won this Super Bowl challenge, cooking a New Orleans gumbo in 20 minutes. Carla has been proficient this season with desserts, but i have heard her say more than once that she wasn't happy with what she put on the plate. i don't believe she will win the Top Chef title...there are better chefs in the kitchen...but she has to be the fan favorite.

Carla's best line this week...a tie between a falsetto-performed "pressure"& "this is the ultimate day for me...buh-dow buh-dow!"

love you Carla!

shelley<>

I LOVE LOST!

"your name is Widmore? Charles Widmore?"

grin. HUGE grin...

the tower, the one that's been there all along, holding an atom bomb!! Desmond, coming back to Penny, telling her Daniel's mother had died cuz he wanted to keep his promise to her that this whole thing would be done in one day (my heart swelled)...and Penny, knowing Des needed to do what he needed to do, telling him she and CHARLIE(they named their son CHARLIE!!) would be with him on the way. Richard, he of the eyeliner obsession, jumping all over time and looking spectacular!!

i just LOVE LOST :)

i am getting really tired

of the cold.

starting out each day at zero or in the single digits with only a ten degree warm-up is getting really old.

having to bundle up before walking out a door is getting really old.

shivering if you wanna wear something cute, fashion-wise, is getting really old.

i want to spend the day in front of the fireplace or under an afghan. either that, or be somewhere warm.

ahhhh. maybe next winter?

shelley<>

David lost ... again

last year, he wins the Golden Globe for his work in "Californication", but there's no award show due to the writer's strike.

this year, he loses to Alec Baldwin. twice.

granted, i love love LOVE Alec on 30 Rock. 30 Rock is my fave comedy and has been for at least two years or so.

it'd just be nice to see David win. but holy cow, it's nice to see him on the red carpet. *purr*

spontaneous-ness

never been really good at it. last night, i was...and it was fun.

thanks to you for asking and yeeha (!!) to me for allowing. it's not like me to just say yes, but i am oh-so happy i did.

:)

gluten hangover

i did a dumb thing yesterday...

i ate about 15 batter-dipped french fries at lunch. this morning wasn't the greatest, but this afternoon i am really feeling it.

i am freezing and flushed. indigestion. metallic taste in my mouth. no matter what i eat upsets my stomach. and i am ready to crawl into bed. can't stop yawning. alka-seltzer is my friend.

it may be an early night tonight. sleepy sleep sleep.

only made it to 10:05

last night with Lost...i only made it theu the first hour.

trying to catch up some this morning before work
shelley<>

THIS is why i love LOST

there have been three commercial breaks. before each breaks begins:
"woah" or some semblance of woah is uttered.

unbelieveable.

shelley<>

but before LOST

i watched Fringe from last night...

Olivia kidnapped by a guy she works with and spinal fluid was drawn from her body. single-cell cold virus two-feet long. Walter dosing tomato bugs with LSD. coolness.

it's back with a vengence...

LOST is back!

tonight...in seconds...it begins again!

i was on the radio yesterday

talking to my former morning guy, John Jay, on his talk show on WSJM. he was talking about hanging out at the casino over the weekend, playing slots, and how he longed to play blackjack. i just had to pick up the phone to relate the story of watching him at the tables in Las Vegas on our various radio station trips. which, by the way, ROCKED!!

it was funny to hear him talk about me after i hung up. he let everyone in on the fact that we were cohorts at IRX, that we did some WILD things over there. it was sweet to talk to him.

here we go!

the 44th president of these United States.

the challenges we face are real...but know this America...they will be met.
on this day ... all are equal, all are free.
starting today we must pick ourselves up dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America.

we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

what is required of us is an new era of responsibility.

this is the price of our citizenship.

shelley<>

rock on Joe!

swearing in the veep...

shelley<>

sing it woman!

let freedom ring!

shelley<>

they are in the white house

i am choked up. the president and mrs. bush just met the obamas on the steps of the white house. michelle brought mrs. bush a gift! and, as they turned to walk into the building after the photo op, the president (current one g.w.) took michelle's hand and led her thru the door.

i am so choked up.

this moment is, yes,
momentous.

riveting.

shelley<>

today is the day

can you feel it?

there's change in the air, hope and excitement and exhilaration. i have never felt this way on any other inauguration day, not even when Bill Clinton was sworn in (the first president i had voted for that had actually WON the election.) never felt as though i needed to be in front of the television watching a president's oath of office.

today feels entirely different, and it has nothing to do with race.

yes, historically, this moment is hugely significant. the first african-american president. the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream (which gives me goosebumps upon goosebumps).

today feels like hope. plain and simple. hope and determination. we can do it. we can make our lives better. we can make the world better.

can you feel it?

another day and night at my house!

there's been a 40 degree hike in temperature from yesterday to today. 24 above today feels like a heatwave!

i packed some stuff into the car and am hanging at the house. painting the bedroom was the number one priority, but i have also connected a new dryer exhaust hose, organized the pantry items, and moved the black area rug from the bedroom to the dining room. it looks pretty good under the dining table. i will eventually replace it with a more contemporary design...when i find one that i like.

as i rummage thru boxes, i am finding more things that remind me of my former life. i have so much stuff that i don't need. i can't wait to whittle it all down and release it!

the photo is what u see when u walk in the front door...taken from my favorite chair. :) it makes me happy.

C-O-L-D

current air temperature: 19 below zero
current wind chill:
33 below zero

semi-trucks are disabled all along the toll road, their fuel gelling in the engines.

this is just plain silly...

brisk

current temperature: -8
wind chill: -29

that's friggin' cold.

hit list

number 2 on EW's hit list this week:

Jon Bon Jovi will perform to help pay down Hillary Clinton's campaign debt...in return, she's promised to end the long-running investigation into who actually gave love a bad name...

funny stuff

shelley<>

the women of ND

are ranked number 4 in the nation. after watching them take on an extremely physical Hoya team, i can see why. these girls are not afraid to mix it up.

quite frankly they kicked ass.
wow...

a sad sight

poor snow-covered grill!

best viewed thru the family room window

yesterday, the flat surfaces of the deck were clear. there was a thin layer of snow on the ground yesterday morning.

and the snow continues to fall...

the best way to spend a snowy Saturday

best line EV-VER

on Chelsea Lately last night...while talking about Paris Hilton's quote from Glamour magazine that she isn't as promiscuous as people think, and that mostly all she does is "just kiss":

"Paris Hilton has slept with so many guys she doesn't have the clap, she has the applause"
-Whitney Cummings

that's good stuff...

bars

a fascinating study in human societal behavior. alcohol plus karaoke equals bizarrity. (i know, i know. not a word. but it IS a state of human behavior).

we had been at this particular bar for about two hours...giving listeners a chance at Metallica tickets. as time went on, the karaoke kept getting more and more aggressive. Metallica songs, yes, but also louder, more aggro songs that incite tribal behavior among young, drunk men.

ten pm was when we had set for ticket-drawing time. and it was time for me to exit the place...fast.

while there, i met a guy who hit on me in the strangest way...by telling me he was divorced and horny and really needed to get laid. *giggle* didn't work, by the way...

this is how u know u live in Northern IN

u get off the freeway in the middle of winter and see a herd of 15 deer munching on the cornfield leftovers thru the snow...

shelley<>

this morning

i was told if i decide i don't want to, all i need to do is say so. no matter what time it is.

thanks for letting me know. i was freezing last night and my head needed to be where i wanted to be and not where i didn't.

maybe tonight i will feel different, i don't know. it's good to know i have the option.

yay!

why?

why would i wanna eat something that's angry?

shelley<>

huh

weird couple a days. yesterday felt so great...like a corner had been turned. there was "new" energy out there (the first "real" workday of the new year maybe?) then, today, i got hit in the face with another's energy. negative. really crappy stuff. ick. big time assholeness.

and now i feel like...ick.

i don't wanna do this anymore. better yet, i know what i want to do. just where is it gonna come from?

that's why they call it "faith" :)

okay...

you've shown me the solution. i get it :)

now, i am asking you for help...

thank you for showing me the way. i am truly grateful :)

it's here!

cue the fireworks!

shelley<>