Who will buy my sweet red roses?
Two blooms for a penny.
Who will buy my sweet red roses?
Two blooms for a penny.

So I have a new favorite place. While I love coffee shopping and country store shopping, I have found yet another wonderful place to sit and talk. It is a quaint shop of flowers called Gertie Mae’s. It is set in “the curve” of Clarkesville. The whole shop has a hip, but antiqued look to it. The flowers are all fresh and sold by the stem. My girlfriend owns the place and it is tre sheik. I go there on Thursdays for lunch. No, no food is served, I just bring it with me around noon and sit and talk while she makes bouquets or wreaths or anything you can imagine for flowers. She sells flowers and jewelry, art and t-shirts, chairs and birdfeeders. This week my co-worker had fallen and busted her face pretty badly, so we (the office) got her flowers from there. I went to eat lunch as usual, and pick up the bouquet. It was so lovely. I almost didn’t want to give it to her. Isn’t that horrible? It was a lovely set of purple tulips, lavender gladiolas and an assortment of other hues of violet flowers. Thankfully, my girlfriend gave me three stems that she couldn’t sell. She gave me a broken purple tulip, two purple lilies that were missing two blooms on a four stemmed lily, and a too small yellow rose. They are on my desk in a tall, cone shaped, white coffee mug. It has a tiny bit of silver cruelled ribbon wrapped around the handle. It is such a delight to have them on my desk. I will take them home today to visit with my mums and peace lily. Flowers are so nice. They make everything more spruced. Anne decorated the parlor all the time with flowers from around Green Gables. I almost forgot why she did that until these precious imperfect stems came to be in my desperately corporate cubicle. I don’t think I will ever miss another Thursday lunch at Gertie Mae’s.

Money, money, money, money………………….MONEY!!!!

So I was so excited that a friend of mine came to visit me yesterday at the office. He is my insurance man, but he is also my friend. Noah is his name. In the course of inquiry in regards to my insurance, we rolled into my financial stability. I was telling him how my parents really want me to get away from them: using them as a crutch; how my student loan will never end and how I have no idea what it means to be financially stable. This has been an on-going chat that we have had over the course of about two months. He knows all about creditors, because he used to a) be in debt and b) work for a creditor and c) still has friends in the business. So we roll about money on a regular basis. I also am able to communicate about my fears, lack of courage and undisciplined behavior. He is such a person that I can hear in this department. There are some people that I can hear and others that I can’t, i.e. My Dad can tell me all about money all day long and how I need to…….. (well about anything all day long) and I can’t hear him; Michelle calls me a gypsy in regards to money and that I need to do……and I can’t hear her; John says if you want good things then………I quit listening; Noah speaks and I hear what he is saying! The visit yesterday was a good one. He came for clarification with other people in the office for their insurance and signing forms and whatever else is insurance oriented, but he brought me a tool. Over lunch we sat and talked about what is considered debt, needs and wants in both my perception and in the real world: i.e. going to the movies is a want not a need. He he, JK. Although, there are times that I do think this way. Sick, real sick. He brought me a tool that is produced by the Consumer Credit Services. Now, I have used these guys before because they are a non-profit designed to consolidate, teach and serve the not so hot debtor. They helped me about two or three years ago, however, I was so unruly then that I couldn’t even keep up with them. The booklet that Noah went over with me is a workbook of sorts with short/medium/long term goals, budgetary tips, what a bank looks at when considering me as a possible creditor for a loan or whatever and all sorts of other cool things. It’s really cool. It suggests that I put 5-10% of my net income a month into an emergency fund that would be 3-6 months of my “salary” so to catch me in a crunch. What a concept! The secretary/treasurer thing that I do calls this a prudent reserve: basic operation monies for a set amount of time, preferably three months. For me this is ten dollars a week. No, I don’t make much money, but luckily, I don’t need it either. I live in a low income area and only low income is needed to be well settled. I look forward to having lots of things that I want as I become more disciplined with my monies. Hopefully, this new tool will be a solution to the rebellion I have been suffering from in my financial world. We shall see. I am not much into this whole growing up scenario, but it has forced its self upon me with a vengeance here in the last couple of years. And while I understand I am not at a 27 year old level, rather more at a 22/23 year old level, I am doing better than ever and can feel a difference on the inside. I am grateful that I have found someone who I can hear, or maybe it is the willingness to take guidance in this area that I should be grateful. Which ever it may be, I am grateful for the willingness to grow.

You make me feel like a natural woman………..

So yesterday I was sort of bummed after work. My boss is out of town and I don’t perform as well when no one is watching me. This makes me sluggish and tired by the end of the day, because I have to be extra careful not to get off task. She is not here today either and I am slowly running out of things to do. Anyway……
I left work with the bummed, sluggish feeling, so I stopped by the coffee shop for a pick me up. Eric has devised this drink for me: a large English toffee steamer with a shot of espresso. It is so delicious. I love the aroma as much as the taste. BJK says that it doesn’t make any difference how you like your coffee, it is always better when someone else makes it for you because they add TLC. I know that is the truth. My coffee is always better when John or Eric and Anna make my coffee. So with my cup of TLC and my movie that was due, I headed to the movie store. I felt like I had been given a smile.

The movie store was loaded with things that I wanted to rent. It was frustrating to have to make a decision on which to rent. I started at the Z’s and didn’t even get past the L’s. That is a good thing, because it means that I will have something to watch for a while. There was a drought the last time I went, so I rented Practical Magic. I really should just buy that movie. I think I have had this thought already.

From there, I headed to Betty’s for food. Now, I know that I have said more than enough about Anna and Eric’s Sweetwater coffee, but I do believe that I have failed to mention Betty’s Country Store as a key part of my life. Mostly, I only go there when Helen is not so Helen. It is in prime time Helen, but has all the elements of Sautee. It carries fresh everything with prices to match at times. Most of the time, it is the grocery store that I imagine my Granddaddy went to over in Jasper. He went to one called Blue Star, but I pretend it looks like Betty’s and with the same atmosphere. Yes, the store has atmosphere. They serve breakfast and lunch daily. Everything is very rustic looking, like the inside of a log cabin. This woman named Darlene runs it. I think she inherited it. She has a very….influential family in White County. She is “very good people,” as they say round here. The pretty girls, who work the front registers, are all local and are at the high school. They smile and nod and ask how you are, because they know how everyone else is in the county so you can ask them about anyone, but come prepared with your questions because they come with teenage attitudes.

Back to the story, I picked up some fresh salad, chicken, pasta, cheese and milk and headed to the homestead. It has been a while since I cooked for myself. When I got home, I turned on my CD player, which I love to listen to when I cook, but this time I filled it with all woman power houses instead of all my classical, which I usually like. I put in Sarah McLaughlin, Tori Amos and the Dixie Chicks. I cranked it up and sang!! I went through the house and lit all my candles. There is nothing like cooking in the kitchen with Sarah comforting the soul at the top of her lungs in the back ground complimented by a candle lit atmosphere. It was so fulfilling to be in the apartment making dinner, cleaning and singing to my heart’s content. I have seen a lot of girl maturing into woman movies over the years, or where there is some great obstacle that the woman has to overcome, or where she grows into her own person scenario. Last night was a great scene in my movie. My insides exploded with emotion, esteem, and confidence. I felt like I could conquer the world. I talked to my girlfriend, Michelle, on the phone and then started the fire.

I put in Le Divorcee and prepped the stove. My soul was on fire, but my kindling was not. I couldn’t get that thing started for the life of me. Everything was still soaked from the ice. I thought that I had found some dry pieces and pine cones, but I was wrong. At least my wood was dry. It made that almighty woman feeling smolder. John called and as we were talking he went into cellular space, so I walked away from the fire to wash dishes and I here a car pull into the drive……John got the fire started. So I made him blueberry tea as a grand reward. I made myself mango passion fruit. Tea is soothing for the heart of fire.

Hurray for a man who can read my mind! What a wonderful evening: food, song, tea, company and me.

The future is no place to place your better days……

First things first, most of my friends are a good deal older than me. There are not very many 27 year olds in the mountains who are 1) educated, 2) single and 3) with out children. Needless to say I think I might be in the one percentile in three counties, plus the whole not drinking thing leaves me with the less than one percentile category. The reason I give this information is to preface the next sentence: I have two friends who are in hospitals due to stroke and one due to misc. internal bleeding. This sounds strange if they were all late 20’s/early 30’s, but they are not: two 60’s and a mid 40. The thing that I don’t like is that I know on the inside that the right thing to do is to go and visit them. Obviously, not until they are out of ICU and can receive visitors; however, I just can’t find it on my insides to go. This is my ponderings today. I am mostly not in the mood to feel and would rather just deal with dailies. I don’t want to see people all confused and hooked up to machines and things of that nature. This is one of the primary reasons I didn’t go to see my Grandmother in her final days. I didn’t want to remember her in a hospital. I wanted to remember her as I do, which is happy, joyous and free in her own home with her family all gathered in celebration. The last time I saw her was for Papa’s 80th birthday. She was so tickled that we all stood around and sang, Ben played his trumpet outside and that we prayed and played. She was so proud that we were all there for the reunion. This is the woman I last remember. I don’t want these people to disappear on me, but I don’t want to have bad memories either. I don’t know what to do. Hopefully, all of them will recover and come home and I can go visit then. I don’t know. I just know that these people mean a lot to me and I know that they are in the hands of God who will guide them, love them and take them if that is what is best. I would rather that He not “take” them, but then again, I don’t know the plan man. I guess I will sit in limbo until I find some urgency to act otherwise. Not making a decision to act is a decision and an action. Hard lesson: learning to not act that is. Hard lessons…………..

oh now feel it comin' back again
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again
I can feel it

So it has been an interseting 24 hours. This time yesterday the roads were so bad that you couldn't get down the street to the stop sign with out sliding. Today, the roads are better, but they are refreezing and more precipitation is coming down. It is the misty rain except it is ice. This weekend was relaxing. Mostly, me and my girlfriend Angie hung out. I did the minutes for district and did my laundry and we talked about boys(well, I guess at my age you are supposed to call them men, but they sure were acting like boys). We had a good time. It was strange to go from wearing short sleeves to needing a four wheel drive and/or chains on your tires. The ice is so beautiful outside. Work didn't start until 9 ish this morn and then ended late. Because some people were locked into their driveway, I got to play copurier and delivered medicine all over Atlanta. That was fun to drive a company car (Jeep Grand Cherokee). The Jeep was nice, but I constantly felt like if I jerked the wheel the thing would tip. I wasn't used to it at all. I am kind of glad that my folks didn't purchase the Jeep after all. I really like my zip zip car. Although the height was nice. Well, off to find kindlin. the light is dieing fast due to the heavy cloud cover. Maybe movies, fire and hot chocolate will be the evenings agenda.

Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Can you take me with you?
For my hand is cold,
And needs warmth,
Where are you going?

So last night I painted. I have started a shrine type looking thing. Actually, I wouldn’t call it a shrine per se. I would call it a meditation device that allows me time with God and the ability to be me. Anyway, I obviously don’t know how to explain it. AH ha! In the days of Robin of the Hood, the nobles had their own chapels to pray in, where they gathered all different personal items to better commune with God: ie someone’s hair that had passed or was at war, paintings of the Mother Mary, candles, etc. These havens allowed them to pray with out disturbance (and for the church to make a buck or two). This is what I have created in my home: a miniature personal prayer chapel (but I don’t have to give the Pope jack). My point is that I added some new paintings and pictures to it last night while watching, but not watching, Practical Magic. I really should quit renting that and buy it. I built a beautiful fire too. Dinner was tuna and there was good phone time with Michelle. I am doing some uncovering, discovering and discarding through answering a whole bunch of questions in this therapy-type book. It is supposed to increase my emotional balance and my sanity in general. Right now, I think I am in DT’s. They aren’t easy questions to answer and then to discuss that with another person is hard. Once I am done though, I know that I will be better. I am hoping that I will be more……….. not so insane about people, when I am done. I have a tendency to obsess on others and not leave it up to God. The process of the book is to untie those worries and allow my faith in God to do the work. Weirdness happened after that though. I said my prayers and read a chapter in the Bible (Lot’s wife now season’s food) and snuggled into my down comforter wrapped in a flannel duvet. I awoke in the middle of the night to total lack of use of my arms from the elbows down. My arms were tucked up into my arm pits and I couldn’t do anything with them. Between being half asleep and having total loss of control of my arms, I was totally confused. Needless to say I was totally awake for about what felt half an hour trying to get my hand back to normal. It was those tingles that get me. I think it is due to the amount of data entry I have been doing for the past several days. My hands went on strike. Didn’t work though: I am on the s’s.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
And if I die before I wake…………………..uh but I’d rather not die just yet God

So yesterday was the data entry. I did the walking at lunch and had almost made my mind up to go running on my beauty path when some how, my head hit the pillow and I was out like a light. I don’t know how it happened….think deep back into the day…..Let’s see…I got home. Gathered kindling for the fire. I began to start a movie to watch while beginning the fire. Started dinner. Cleaned here and there while trying not to look at the fire (it won’t start if you watch it: similar to the watched pot theory). I ate dinner and I remember looking at the clock just after I put in a second movie, Rounders, and it said 8:15 pm. That’s it, there is nothing else there.

JK: I pulled a Carter last night. The old fall asleep on the couch in front of the TV trick. I rumbled about 10 at the end of the movie to stir the fire, read another chapter in the Bible (Sarah laughed at God, which God didn’t care for that all that much, then he/they turned their sites on Sodom (I think that Sodom is gonna get it)and made a deal with Abraham not to wipe it out if there were ten righteous men in it) and turned the lights down. Out like a light until 6:30 this morning. I guess I really needed all that sleep. Now I feel great. Good thing, I am only on the J’s!!!

Three blind mice,
Three blind mice,
See how they run,
See how they run…

Data entry makes me go blind. There has got to be a better way to transfer information. I am creating a database that holds all of the pediatricians in the state. This is the biggest state ever. I am grateful that I don’t live in Texas though. Still it is very overwhelming. From the info that I pulled off the internet there are 1265 docs. The kicker is that the zip codes to the addresses are on a separate page. Whoever designed the website must have had the same problems that I am having now: complete mind numbing boredom due to pointless information. Is there a condition for data entry boredom? For lunch today, one of the other women in the office wanted desperately for me to go walking today with her. I brought my shoes and clothes and went with her. We went in circles around a walking track at the top a gym. It gave me the same feeling as the data entry only then my whole body was doing it. I think I am going to run tonight just for a break in the trend. When I run, I follow the creek and then cross over to Skylake Rd and then back down to the creek, turn around and come back. It has some of the most spectacular mountain views on that route. Well, until then, I can only daydream since I am going to loose my sight anyhow. I am in the C’s and I have 23 and a half more letters to get through with at least 25 docs per letter. Ugh………….

Well, at least if I die of boredom, my brother gets enough money to bury me since I have life insurance now. He he he. If they kill me they’ll have to pay for it now!!

Confusion never stops
Closing walls and ticking clocks
Gonna come back and take you home
I could not stop that you now know singing

So there are some character defects that don’t ever seem to go away. Yesterday, I had my 90 day evaluation so that I could apply for benefits when the insurance guy gets here today. The one thing that I got a low score on (scale was 1-6, six was the best) was (2) works well with others. I got a 3 in talking in class. But things have improved in following directions. Everything else was on the high side (imagine that). So today I get super benefits and I don’t even have to pay for them. Everywhere else I have had my benefits come out of my check. I actually made less at my last job as a result of having them come out of my check. I can here Mom now saying “well Rachel it is just something that you have to have, that’s all.” Yes I understand that benefits are a necessity, but it’s really nice when necessities are free. The other thing I was listed with was the singing at my desk, not necessarily my singing, but my radio’s singing. I had already changed that so I wasn’t worried, but my boss said that it had to be noted. So be it.

Ai………

I watched this movie last night called Uptown Girls. It was a delightful story about a young woman learning to be an adult through the experience of being a nanny for a little girl who was 8 going on thirty. Much of what was said is what I am processing in my own life right now. It was a sweet movie with a good ending and had bits of humor here and there that kept me interested. I am not a huge fan of Brittany Murphy, other than her role in Clueless, and can see why others may have turned this script down, but she did a fine job. It required a taste for slapstick humor and not many actresses can pull that off very well. The whole movie seemed like it had been written for the next Lucille Ball. I enjoyed it. It was worth the rental price.

Happy Days is 30 today!! Happy Birthday, Happy Days!!!

Life is not measured by the number of breathes we take, but by the moments that take our breathe away.

Yesterday I was driving home and then to take my trash down and I realized that I probably need to take pictures of where I live so that others can experience the essence of the land where I live. I am going to Macon tomorrow for some service work and already I am missing my Saturday here in my mountains. Sometimes, I think that I want to move to North Carolina to be closer to these mountains, but I realize that to execute that behavior right now would be destructive. I think that I should stay put for a while. This morning on the way to work, I was listening to the fish on the radio and this woman said that it would be cloudy today with a high in the lower fifties. I looked up at the sky, as I have a tendency to do, and the clouds looked like pulled cotton candy. The sky was so blue behind them and the clouds were so white with sunlight pouring across them. It was amazing. The horizon was all mountains underneath them highlighting the truth that man didn’t make this.

I let my fire burn out last night instead of getting up in the middle of the night to stir it with the thought that it wasn’t going to be all that cold over night. This morning when I jumped for the alarm and out of my super warm down comforter with a flannel duvet to whack it, I realized I had made a mistake. It was colder than I expected. Being half awake I went ahead and hit my knees to say my morning prayers and by the end of them, I was a popsicle. Thank goodness for steamy hot showers and those funny little heaters that are built into the wall for de-steaming the mirrors……..and coffee, thank goodness for coffee.

I'm just a going over Jordan
I'm only going over home

My lazy work day is over and boy am I glad. I was excited to hear that the folks were going to get a raise from the govenor, but sadly, it put my office into mass chaos because medicaid/medicare got cut. Needless to say, between that news and having two key people out today, there was not a moment of peace. I, luckily, had low stess, time consuming activities to do that were graciously set up by my boss: I surfed the net to find promotional items for our marketing department and finished a report. Ho hum. The best part about it was that, although I could feel the tension, I didn't have to be a part of it. Tomorrow I get to inventory supplies. Hurray.

I am tickled that tomorrow I will be hosting an overnight guest prior to going to Macon for the weekend for a conference. Tonight I am going to put some finishing cleaning touches on the home front, do some reading and get some sleep. I haven't had any one to the apt in quite some time so I am really looking forward to cooking a meal and all. Unfortunately, instead of it being a girls night, it will be an early night due to the fact that we have to leave for Macon by 7 am. At least I don't have to worry about weekend plans, because they are already made. Tonight will be a comfy night by the fire with a book. What's the phrase?: calm before the storm.

As I went down to the River to pray,
Studying about the good ole way….

Good Lord, show me the way…

Well, I am still reading my Bible every night. It turns out that Noah was a drunk. Or at least he was for one evening. He embarrassed his sons and cursed one of them for talking about it to the others. Sounds like even the holiest of holies sometimes try to play games and dance around big pink elephants in the middle of the room that no one will look at or discuss. The only difference with the holies is that they have the ability to curse and get away with it. When I curse, my Mama gets quiet and just looks at me. Noah had quite a life though. I didn’t realize how narrow the boat must have been that he was on with all those animals. Sometimes I wonder how much of the Bible is true and how much is myth. Other religions, I am sure, look at Christianity the way I look at Greek Mythology. All though the Bible seems to have a lot more weight to it than the mythologies. It is so open-ended. For example, I didn’t realize that God said take more of this type of animal and the other type. It doesn’t specifically give an account of what was “clean” and what was “unclean.” I have heard that Jews cannot eat “unclean” meat, but it is not yet defined as what qualifies. Maybe I need to keep reading. I think it is cool that the seraphim used to roam the earth (well, cool until they started messing with the human women and God got mad). Enlightening the Bible is. I hope that it gets even more interesting. Although, learning that even God’s chosen make mistakes seems comforting in a way. It’s also rather humorous. I would have to say I didn’t learn that Noah embarrassed himself in Sunday school, that is for sure.

To be weakened like achilles
With you always at my heels

Yeah, so I am trying the whole Atkins type diet deal thing. I called a friend of mine and asked him how he lost all of his weight. He said that he ate an apple for breakfast, a grilled chicken salad for lunch, maybe a sandwich for dinner, tried to stay with in 30 carbs a day and didn’t eat after eight o’clock. This seemed simple enough to me. Oh, and by the way, take a multi-vitamin too, he says. He also said that he ran everyday. Yeah, I can do that too. So yesterday was my third day on this crazy diet. Now, I have never been on a diet before. I tried to once when I was fourteen and my Dad sat me down and we had a long talk about anorexia and bulimia and that I wasn’t allowed to diet until after I was out of his house. Seemed fine to me; I just would only eat the things that were on my diet. I ended up being at the dinner table forever until I finally gave in, got hungry and ate. I have never bothered to try a diet since. Well, now I am twenty seven….. I am twenty seven…… and I am “pushing” thirty which is when my metabolism slows down. I hopped on the scales at Mama’s house and decided I didn’t like the number I saw. I decided to that it was time, time for the diet. I also wanted to get back into exercising any way because I have been out of it since Christmas due to the membership being up. So I tried this prescription that had worked so well for my friend.

I almost lost it…..literally my little bit of lunch that I had in my system. It turns out that when going through the process of dropping your carbohydrates, you have to a) drink lots of water and b) be prepared for sugar withdrawals. Now, I have been through several different types of withdrawals, but all under the pretense that I knew they were setting in on me. He didn’t tell me about a or b and I thought I was losing my mind. Finally, I gave in (after I was so dizzy that I reached a state of nausea) and ate a bag of chips. Someone told me I should have just stuck a piece of chocolate in my mouth and it would have been quicker, but my head was screaming not on your life. So instead of having 30 carbs yesterday, I had 50. Today I am back to 30 and I also understand why the water is so important. The water does two things: makes you feel full; flushes the acid out of your system that holds the fat from being broken down into the sugars that your body needs in order to process since I am not eating them anymore. My girlfriend, the nurse, said it was called Ketosis a.k.a. starvation mode in body language. She also said that women’s bodies are different from men’s and that really, 30 is too low for a long term, but for short term it was okay. She said that her husband actually only starts the low carb on the weekends because of the third day hit. She says that it always hits on the third day. Blthhhhppt.

Lady Margaret sat at the end of her bed,
Combing her long yellow hair,
When who did she spy but sweet William and his bride,
Nearing the church yard here,
Well the night came on,
And the darkness fell,
And most of the men were asleep,
When lady Margaret appeared all dress in white at Williams bed feet,
She said how do you like your bed,
And how do you like your sheep,
And how do you like your fair young bride,
Sitting in your arms asleep?
Sweet William said, Very well do I like my bed,
And better do I like my sheep,
But most of all I like that fair young girl,
Standing at my bed feet,
Once he kissed her lily white hand,
And twice he kissed her cheek,
Three times he kissed her cold corpsy lips,
And fell into her arms asleep.

So last night I decided to have a fire since it was 10 degrees outside. Actually, the ten degrees has nothing to do with it. Mostly, I think that it is time for a fire if it is 50 degrees outside. I am just not an individual that likes to be cold. I am a summer baby who believes in the summer heat that comes from the hot summer sunshine. Oh, but winter brings on some of the most unusual things. For instance, no one is here as a tourist. There is hardly any traffic no matter which city you are headed towards. The town of Helen has all but rolled up their carpets and gone home. The shops in Sautee have signs on them that say: Gone home for winter, Will reopen in the spring. Thank goodness the coffee shop is open though. I don’t think I could make it without my coffee shop. The other thing that you see is everyone’s house. During the rest of the year the trees cover everything up and now that there are no leaves on the trees, you can see folks walking around in their underwear inside their homes. JK, but it seems that way. I do hope that it snows soon. That is the coolest. The animals get all freaked out by the snow and sit down. That is how you can really tell that winter is here is, strangely enough, that the cows lay on the ground. It’s because their bellies get cold and it is warmer on the ground. Deer in the snow is always cool. I am going to pet sit tonight for my girlfriend who has a house in Batesville, which is north of me, towards Lake Burton, and I get to stay at her house, which just happens to be gorgeous. It is a three story cabin. It’s three because the basement is built into the mountain and gives the appearance that there are 3 floors from the road. It has two fireplaces and a big screen TV with satellite. Yeah, Thursday night NBC here I come. I haven’t seen that since I was in college so I hope that it is still that good. I feel like a true mountain woman when it snows. It is fun to get trapped in the house for a few days and have a cozy fire with no power and candles. Makes it feel like……..makes me feel real and alive. Sometimes I forget what that feels like because there is so much in the way of electronics in my life. But when the technology goes, peace sets into the countryside and alarm clocks don’t go off or lights come on and things like old books who were once friends, come off the shelves and decks of cards get put back into use, people congregate at the warmest home and ………….I remember the snow in VA when I was little and I remember we had an homemade ice-cream churn from which the snow turned into vanilla ice-cream. I remember Joe and Midge being there and black chairs with a wobbly table. It was cold. Lots of snow. Winter is so winter.

Influenza, or flu, is a respiratory infection caused by a variety of flu viruses. The most familiar aspect of the flu is the way it can “knock you off your feet” as it sweeps through entire communities. The flu differs in several ways from the common cold, a respiratory infection also caused by viruses. For example, people with colds rarely get fevers or headaches or suffer from the extreme exhaustion that flu viruses cause.
--NIH Dec 03

Yeah so I have been exposed over and over to the flu in the past several weeks. I got it. Or at least I think I did. I definitely have a respiratory something combined with headaches from almighty that cut right through 550mg Naproxen and body achage that makes me tired. Mostly, I just want to sleep. However, luckily, after my Novocain wore off from the dentist, I came to the conclusion that something was definitely wrong and I needed help. Now, I work in a pharmacy, but it is a pharmacy that does injections only. I don’t do injections. So I went to see an apothecary and he hooked me up with antibiotics, decongestants and a pain blocker. I still want to sleep. I get periods of the “oh I feel better” and then I go do something only to find that “oh I don’t feel so much better” followed by the “I want to sleep” again. I was hoping for a cure all, but my girlfriend who is an RN says no such luck. She says that I will just have to feel bad until I feel better. Ugh.

I have started to read the Bible. I have always heard of people reading it from cover to cover, but I have never actually done it myself. I am in Genesis, obviously, just finishing chapter 4. So far I have come to find that originally, Adam and Eve were not human, but God made them human to pay for their disobedience. I have discovered that if they had eaten another piece they would have acquired all the abilities and knowledge of God and to prevent that, God ousted them, and many other interesting tidbits that make the Bible more biblical. I guess I just assumed that it was a bunch of stories conglomerated to say love God, but there seems to be more. There has got to be more. Anyway, I am reading a chapter a night. I figure that I will get all the way through in five years or so. I am also reading Anne of Avonlea on the side. She is so cool. My boss had some Anne dolls brought back from Nova Scotia and gives them to her girls for Christmas when they are old enough to take care of them. An Anne doll? Who’d guess? Anne is already my friend though; I don’t need a physical representation when she is in my heart. The nice thing about being ill is that you get so tired you don’t want to get out of bed, but you are so achy that you can’t sleep, which provides for a good deal of reading time. My evening consisted of reading until I got tired of the subject and moving on to the next book. So really, I have my head in five books right now. Who would ever know that I would grow up and be a reader, but my Mom is a reader so maybe that is where I get it or maybe the reading bug is a virus like the flu and is a temporary visitor until I feel better.

“True friendship is a very helpful thing indeed,” said Mrs. Allan, “and we should have a very high ideal of it, and never sully it by any failure in truth and sincerity. I fear they name of friendship is often degraded to a kind of intimacy that has nothing of real friendship in it.”

“Yes,…..like Gertie Pye’s and Julia Bell’s…….If we have friends, we should look only for the best in them and give them the best that is in us, don’t you think? Then friendship would be the most beautiful thing in the world.”

Well, it’s official: I have had a friend for twenty years. The most interesting thing is that it is the most beautiful thing that I have. I just happened to stop by my PO Box on Friday and had a Christmas card in there from my long time friend, Lea Anne Scott. She left in the note that she would be in Georgia until 1/05. So I made arrangements and called on her and her family on Saturday. Wow, she looks exactly the same as she has since high school. Her brother on the other hand, has serious facial hair growth. He had a tremendous beard. It was strange to see her because it was as though no time had passed. We picked up just like we had gone to the mall the day before or a mission trip the weekend prior to the visit. Once all the hello’s and “how’s-the-family’s” were over with, we fell right into step of being Lea Anne and Rachel. I felt like spending the night and talking until the wee hours of the morning, watching her turn pillows on her feet and sneaking in the dark and making a soda or tea or ice-cream. The only thing that was out of place was the drive. The drive to Silver Hill used to be twenty minutes. Now it is two hours to Rome. Wow. But it was worth it. What a wonderful afternoon we had together. We walked to a restaurant and had lunch and then to a cute shop called “All dressed up” and went shopping. Then we headed back to the house for football and basketball. Tech won, Tech lost. It was so comforting being there.

Sunday I had a business meeting to attend to that swallowed up my whole afternoon. The morning was taken by brunch with the boys at Alice’s Restaurant. John and I have brunch with his boys and whoever they bring with them, on Sunday mornings. My whole day was taken up by other people, so I took up the evening with me. I did a little cleaning and putting away of new things. I went to get movies and shampoo. I should have just gotten all my groceries, but I couldn’t find my checkbook anywhere (it turns out the car ate it and it was under the seat). So I went home and relaxed. The other thing I did was to run down to Commerce and shop for a couple new pairs of pants (one pair of gap jeans, one pair of gap black velveteen pants = $20.00: gotta love the outlets). The other weird thing that happened last night is that my Mom interviewed me for her Master’s class. Weird.

All in all it was a good weekend. I am really glad that it is over and I think that I am going to clean and sleep tonight. Ahh…….