Been Gone Too Long

I've been getting organized for school and for fall...fall means the Holidays, so my favorite time of year!

Here are some treasures I scouted out Friday night.  Enjoy and I will get my posts together this week!

"Save Me, San Francisco"...she sings!

"I used to love the Tenderloin
Till I made some tender coin
Then I met some ladies from Marin
We took the highway to the One
Up the coast to catch some sun
They left me with this blisters on my skin.

Don't know what I was on, but I think it grows in Oregon
So I kept on going, going, gone, right through
I drove into Seattle rain, fell in love then missed the train
That could a took me right back home to you

I been high
I been low
I been yes, and I been oh hell no
I been rock 'n roll and disco
Won't you save me San Francisco

Ooo ooo ooo, oh oh

Every day's so caffeinated
I wish they were Golden Gated
Fillmore couldn't feel more miles away
So, wrap me up return to sender
Let's forget this 5 year bender
Take me to my city by the Bay

I never knew all that I had
Now Alcatraz don't sound so bad
At least they'd have a hella fine merlot
If I could wish upon a star
I would hitch a cable car
To the one place that I'll always call my home

I been high
I been low
I been yes, and I been oh hell no
I been rock 'n roll and disco
Won't you save me San Francisco
I been up
I been down
I been so damn lost since you're not around
I been reggae and calypso
Won't you save me San Francisco

To tell you the truth
I miss everything...everything
It's a wild, wide, beautiful world
But there's a wide-eyed girl back there
And she means everything...everything

I been stop
I been go
I been yes and I been oh hell no
I been rock 'n roll and disco
Won't you save me San Francisco
I been up
I been down
I been so damn lost since you're not around
I been reggae and calypso
Won't you save me San Francisco

Oo oo oo...oh oh
Won't you save me San Francisco
Oo oo oo...oh oh
Won't you save me San Francisco"

I LOVE this song by Train and I LOVE San Francisco and I LOVE my former home! This has me thinking on a lot of old memories, on several new plans....write more later! 

It's People Like These...

The guy above on the right is a coworker of mine.  The lady is his wife and the guy in the middle is their son...their "recently" adopted son, not that they make that differentiation.  I make it in order to tell you this story.

For a number of years now I have heard stories about this son - we'll call him R - from the proud dad - we'll call him J.  J & his wife have served as a foster home to several teenaged boys.  They have struggled through those boys' complicated and unfair baggage to try and provide the stability and healthy relationships the boys have missed out on up till then.  As another coworker of mine said just the other day, there is a gold star, huge & shining already, in Heaven for J & his wife.  They have been so selfless and dedicated in this endeavor that two years ago they were named the Foster Family of the Year by our local foster agency.  Not too shabby an honor and definately not an easy feat.

Back to the picture...J & his wife legally adopted R when he was a teenager.  At that time R chose to take on the family's last name by adding it to his own last name.  That says that he really thought the world of J and his family.  The picture above is the proud parents with their new Army Private.  You would never know that they've only been a family for several short years and not for a whole lifetime.  Funny, I would say I even see a family resemblance!

Anyway, people like these....pictures like this...make me keep the faith in humanity.  Today I will hear news clips of fussing politicians, missing children, men killed, businesses robbed...really it's an endless gloom report if you sit down for 30 minutes to watch the news.  It's the stories like the one above that need to be glorified and reported.  Someone was giving of themselves and made life better...is that not news?

I could harp forever on our news these days, but that is not the nugget of insight I want to take from the awesome pic.  As I am making this a quick post today I will get to my point.  I appreciate the work and the sacrifice J & his family has made, is making.  I appreciate the service and sacrifice R is taking on  and now repaying Karma by helping others himself.  Good begets good, folks.  Also, your family is not always born directly into your family - sometimes you have to go find & claim them!

School Days, School Dazed

So, school....yep, I did it....last night I went and rgistered for grad school.  Going back after 20 years is going to be fun interesting intense an experience.  Honestly though, now that I have made the decision, I really am excited to get started.

I am looking forward to meeting new people, learning new things and just going through the whole experience itself.  It's too bad that college is not sequenced naturally into our older lives because learning is so different when you are more mature and truly interested in what you are paying all that money for each semester. :)

Yeah, I know that right now I still have the romantic view of school and, when the assignments and exams start adding up on the calendar, I will quickly adopt the realist's view of "what did I sign up for - I'm too old for this mess?!?!"

I have just been looking for that next step in my life.  I have fought two things for many years.

  1. All the women in my family have been teachers.
  2. I'm not going back to school.

Now, after all these years I really would like to consider teaching English on some level...not just English, but Literature.  Looking at educational paths towards this I have made the decision to complete my master's and then push for a PhD. 

Up to now I have been reluctant, no scared, to think very far ahead.  I have Lupus and I have spent the last 5 years+  allowing Lupus to drape my future in gloom.  I have played into it, rather than fight it.  I have accepted it, rather than relegate it to the backburner of my life. 

I have taken each crisis and disappointment in the last 5 years and colored them in Lupus Grey.  "Oh, if I didn't have Lupus this wouldn't have happened," or some version of that statement/excuse/cop-out.  Thanks to progressing through my therapy, from the effects of it and forward into regjoining Life, I can see that darkness for what it was.  The real joy is seeing the dawning of sunlight on my future.

Who knows if I will follow through all the way with my PhD?  For me, right now, it is not the accomplishment I crave, but rather the reality of it as a possibility.  To have the clouds lift and feel the warmth of potentiality is my accomplishment for now.  So, off to school I go!

For I, methinks, till I grow old,
As fair before me shall behold,
As I do now, the Cabin small,
The Lake, the Bay, the Waterfall;
And Thee, the Spirit of them all!

-from Wordsworth's 'To a Highland Girl'

SIMPLY BE

"Be yourself, everyone else is taken."

~ Oscar Wilde

My Thanks

(From 7/2/2010)

Hot dogs, fire works, lemonade, grass, pool, picnic cloths red checked, grills going, family, friends, freedom, flags flying high, sparklers, heat, chips, potato salad, home made ice-cream, playing Marco Polo, music, neighbors, ol' skool music with country & gospel, ceiling fans, citronella, kool-aid, sweet tea, yelling & laughing, dogs barking, kids running, frisbees flying, golf played, fish frying, cars waxed, 4 wheelers revving, sea-doos scooting, splashing & diving, suntan lotion smells, rafts blown up, tropical patio cushions, flip flops flopping, mustard, ketchup, pickles, relish, hot sauce, stringed patio lights, tree climbing, dirt digging and earthworm finds, sand pails & shovels, "who wants hamburgers and who wants hot dogs?" "medium, well or rare?" "dry, wet or muddy?"

For all of this, I thank the men and women who have served in our armed forces throughout the history of our great country! There is no better land nor people!