A Therapy Related lolcat Pic

The UPS Guy and Dick Clark

There are a few different regular UPS drivers who deliver to the office where I work.  One of them is a guy who used to be the regular UPS guy for the place I worked back in the mid-to-late-80’s.  I don’t think he remembers me from back then because I’m quite a bit older now, but I remember him because he hasn’t changed a bit.  Seriously.  Like the way Dick Clark didn’t change for so many years.  It’s almost creepy.

When he delivered a package yesterday, I got to thinking about just how many years ago it was that he used to deliver to the other office, and how much has changed.  Twenty years ago, in 1989, I was 25.

In 1989:

• My hair was still dark even without my dying it.
• I weighed (muffled, unintelligible word) pounds less than I do now.  I wasn’t “thin”, but I weighed a whole lot less.
• I had no arthritis and no symptoms of fibromyalgia (other than depression, which is related, but then again, is related to everything I deal with).
• I was able to sit with my foot under me in my chair at work.
• I still smoked.
• My migraines hadn’t started yet.
• I had a lot of sinus trouble.
• I wore aqua-colored contact lenses, which prompted a lot of compliments, but I always felt I was cheating, since the compliments weren’t for my real eye color, and I went back to clear lenses.
• I used to occasionally wear heels to work, but I never got the hang of walking in them, so I eventually blamed my height (I was about 5′11″ at the time) and quit trying to wear them.
• I wore makeup at least a few times a week then.
• I smoked pot.  A lot.
• I had been in love with my best friend for five years and finally admitted it.
• I came out.
• I still had my small, old, black and white TV from when I was a teenager, but it never bothered me that I couldn’t watch TV in color.  Even though it seemed to bother my friends.
• I was still years away from knowing what gluten was, let alone that I shouldn’t eat it.
• I ate a lot of Whoppers back then.
• Burger King Whoppers, not the malted milk balls, although those are also a no-no on a gluten free diet.
• I’d felt the loss of a pet, a year or so before that, when I had to have my beloved cat, Indigo, put to sleep.
• I didn’t know, yet, what it felt like to have a relationship, or a breakup.
• My parents were still young and the looming reality that I will have to say goodbye to them one day was not part of my daily ruminations yet.
• I had no idea that within a year, I would begin a relationship that would change the lives of everyone in my immediate family, in ways I would not have believed, had I been given a glimpse into the future.
• I’d been in counseling before (may have even been in counseling that year) but I’d never stuck around long enough to call it therapy, or to make the kind of progress I’ve made this last year.
• I did not know that I had Adult ADD.
• I thought I knew what fatigue was then.  I had no idea it could get so much worse.
• I thought I had a clutter problem then.  See second sentence of the point above.
• I’d heard of Microsoft Windows but had never seen a computer with it installed.
• My niece and nephews were all under seven.  They’re all grown up now, and have spouses or fiances; the boys both have either children or a child on the way.
• I didn’t know any of my three closest local friends yet.  I have been getting back in touch with some of my older friends on facebook lately, though, which is nice, but I’m not in touch with the two friends I was the closest with, back then.
• I thought I would never lose touch with many of the people who were in my life at the time.
• I had no idea that SS existed, or that my life wouldn’t begin to be lived with the depth of feeling that I’m seeing is possible until my hair turned silver.

Yes.  A lot has changed.

I should ask the UPS Guy how many things have changed in his life.

–

“I Want” Wednesday . . . I Want To Know

Today’s question for “I Want” Wednesday is “What Do You Want To Know?”

Oh boy.  I want to know so many things.  There are so many things I wonder about on a regular basis, but I’m not sure whether they fit into the “want to know” category or if they are more of the “sure would like to know” variety, such as why cats purr and dogs don’t, or why some people don’t wonder about things the way I do, or what is going through my cat’s mind when she bites me (only occasionally, thank goodness).  But there are also those burning questions or problems, things I really, really, want to know, among them:

I want to know . . .

1 . . . a foolproof way to pick winning lotto numbers.  Even if it only worked once.  Yeah, I know; lots of people want to know that.

2 . . . how to build a database driven web site.  I’ve bought so many books over the years, and tried online courses, trying to learn PHP and MySQL and various other languages, tried database software, tried building a FrontPage (I know; I’m still in the dark ages) web site with an Access database, and I keep running into brick walls and caving under the massive overwhelm that falls over me.  I have never been so intimidated by a learning project before in my life.

3 . . . just how many hours of sleep I require.  No matter how long I sleep, it never seems like enough.  I’m just saying.

4 . . . quantum physics type stuff.  I wish I knew somebody who could explain those concepts and theories to me in language I could really wrap my head around.

5 . . . what kind of shoes my therapist wears.  She only wears socks in her office.  I have asked her if I can see her shoes at my last session, whenever that will be.  She didn’t really answer.  She said, “Shoes?  What are shoes?”

6 . . . where all those rolls of electrical tape are that I remember buying over the last few years.

I also have several religious questions and questions about societal issues and such, but I don’t want to make this entry a very deep and heavy one.  I’m in a “keep it light” frame of mind right now, but that might be a great topic for a future post.

So that, I s’pose, is it, for now.

Anyone else want to know anything?

Maybe I’ll add more items in the comments if I think of them.

Boxing Kitty

This is cute, too!

I Know, It’s Not A Written Entry . . .

. . . but these are too cute!

qui

Bliss List – Items 1, 2, and 3

I got this idea from Kate1975’s Blog, and I think it’s a great self-care idea, albeit not always easy.  I decided to create my own Bliss List that I can refer back to when I need to feel that rush of “happy” brain chemicals that comes from thinking of those things that bring bliss.

So, other than chocolate (which I am not denying causes bliss as I purposely leave it off my list anyway because a big part of my reason for creating this list right now is to use it as an alternative to using food for comfort) and my family and friends, with whom I always find comfort and healthy laughter, here are the first three items on my Bliss List, which is not in a specific order:

1.  My Emily

2.  That shade-family of blue that is a variation of turquoise, aqua, neon blue, and electric blue

3. Tulips

See other Bliss List entries

Cat Yodeling

Um.  I do the “semi-automatic kissing machine” thing with Emily, but it doesn’t seem to annoy her.

Trying NaBloPoMo Again . . . And A Headscratcher

I decided to give NaBloPoMo another try.  This time, I set my Google Calendar to email me with daily reminders so I won’t forget like I did that one day in April that was the beginning of blowing it, for me, for the month.

*   *   *

When I saw my stats today, my mouth fell open.  I checked my statcounter account because my WordPress stats didn’t really show anything to explain the huge jump in traffic.  My statcounter account, unfortunately, always says “No referring link” and won’t show search words.  It did, however, show that my blog was visited by computers at several schools or Department of Education offices in various US states, plus two locations in Canada and two in the UK.  The search words showing in my WordPress stats have been mostly about “funny” stuff, cartoons, and lolcats for two days straight.  I did use the word “education” as a tag for my “How Can You Say This Differently?” post on April 26th, but I’m not seeing that as a search word, and so far there is only one incoming link showing from the WordPress Dashboard, where someone may have followed the “education” tag.  And the school-related visits are all to my main Front Page, not to a specific entry.  

I’m scratching my head on this one.

So far today, in addition to many visits from other ISP’s, between 07:45:51 AM and 02:41:46 PM (not quite 7 hours), I have had visits from the following school- or state-related ISP’s:

Johnston County Schools, North Carolina (US)
Northeast Ohio Network For Education Technology, Ohio (US)
Sevier-school-district-3644, Tennessee (US)
Cumbria And Lancashire Education Online, Workington, Cumbria (UK)
Orange County Public Schools, Florida (US)
Durham Public School, North Carolina (US)
Toronto Catholic School Board, Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
Arkansas Public School Computer Network, Arkansas (US)
Sherburne-earlville-school, New York (US)
Liberty University, Virginia (US)
Racine-unified-school-district, Wisconsin (US)
Cumbria Lancashire Education Online, Poulton, Blackpool (UK)
State Of Nebraska / Office Of The Cio, Nebraska (US)
Broward County Public Schools, Florida (US)
Ohio Mid Eastern Regional Education Service Agency, Ohio (US)
Bolton Public Schools, Connecticut (US)
Amphitheater Public Schools, Arizona (US)
University Of Toronto, Ontatio (Canada)
Georgia Department Of Education, Georgia (US)
Northside Independent School District, Texas (US)
Widener University, Pennsylvania (US)
Education Service Center Region 12 , Texas (US)
San Diego County Office Of Education, California (US)
Albany Schoharie Schenectady Boces, New York (US)
Lee County Schools, Florida (US)
Clackamas Education Service District, Oregon (US)
Wv Department Of Education, West Virginia (US)
Union Public Schools, Oklahoma (US)
Washington School Information Processing Cooperation, Washington (US)
Erie 1 Boces, New York (US)
Boaz City Schools, Alabama (US)
Poultney High School, Vermont (US)
State Of Arkansas (US)
Utah Education Network, Utah (US)
Mobile County Public School System, Alabama (US)
Berryessa Union School District, California (US)
Indiana Department Of Education, Indiana (US)
New Milford Schools, New Jersey (US)
Wyoming Higher Education Computer Network, Wyoming (US)
Monroe #1 Boces, New York (US)
Heartland Area Education Agency 11, Iowa (US)
Contra Costa County Office Of Education, California (US)
City Of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)
Education Service Center, Texas (US)
U.s. Department Of State, Washington DC (US) – This visitor clicked my “Television” category

These are my search terms so far for today:

funny

funny pictures

funny pics

funny images

funny cats and dogs

awesome cats with funny writing

funny pic

lolcats love

funny many cats

funny dogs and cats

i can has cheezeburger cats

funny+cats+and+dogs

funny mothers day cats

funny photos

get out of my office kitten

funny shit

2009 funny

colors that go with brown pants

funny
funny pictures
funny pics
funny images
funny cats and dogs
awesome cats with funny writing
funny pic
lolcats love
funny many cats
funny dogs and cats
i can has cheezeburger cats
funny+cats+and+dogs
funny mothers day cats
funny photos
get out of my office kitten
funny shit
2009 funny
colors that go with brown pants

Is there a multi-school project today involving funny animal pictures?  I can’t imagine that many people are questioning their color-coordinating fashion skills.

Just because I am so curious now, if you have reached my blog from a school or a Department of Education office, can you please either comment or email me (lifeischangeblog [at] gmail [dot] com) and let me know how you found me?  Thanks!

Some more lolcats and a lolfox

I went back through some older lolcats for today’s entry.

The Difference

Here I go again, with another cop-out lolcat entry just so I can say I posted a new entry every day of April, but I am working on a serious and important entry that I hope to have finished and posted by tomorrow.

In the meantime, though, ya’ gotta’ admit, this is true of cats and dogs, isn’t it?