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I had one of those blonde moments today - well, actually I just realized I had been having a blonde moment since I moved in here. The carpenter that my cousin works with on bathroom remodels came by to take a look at the bathroom and he walked into the bathroom and punched the round dimmer switch and the overhead flood lamp came on. I've been thinking the entire time I've been here that that light was burned out and I would need to replace the bulb because I grew up in a house where you turned the dimmer switches to turn them on...it never occured me to push the dimmer switch. :)

I met Sue for coffee/dinner at 4pm tonight and we had an absolutely wonderful conversation about spirituality. She's going to arrange a time and place for the two of us to get together with her daughter and her other friend Donna so we can have another great spiritual discussion. Sue is as liberal a Christian as I am - maybe more. :) I can't wait to have our discussion time. I hope it becomes a regular occurence.

I get to go see Batman Begins tonight with Jason. I've been dying to see that movie. I'm not quite sure if this is a date or just two friends getting together to see a movie. Jason is well aware of all that is going on in my life right now and that I'm not up for anything serious - but I did meet him on Yahoo personals. In one of those strange it's a small, small greater Michigan area stories he happens to have dated one of my best friends from high school back in college - they went to the same college. So I have her word on it that he's a sweet guy and not a stalker. ;)
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I've learned who my REAL friends are. Like Kelly who fit me into her VERY busy schedule for dinner tonight at 6pm, and is more than happy to listen, empathize and be there for me. Sue who fit me into her schedule tomorrow evening when she's going to be babysitting her grandsons most of the day and no doubt she'll be tired, but she cares enough to make the time for me. Beth, who called me because she was concerned I was going to hurt myself or do something stupid and MADE me make a doctor's appointment about the whole not being able to eat thing. Adrienne who invited me to come hang out with her at her little sister's birthday party on Saturday over in Flushing. My brother who invited me to come with him to the parents house in Flushing this weekend. Jason, who I met online at Yahoo Personals and doesn't even know me, but is willing to listen to me talk about my divorce etc. anyway and is willing to be a friend. And all you guys who have offered kind words, prayers and good thoughts here on LJ. I really am NOT alone, I am actually very blessed.
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I've decided to make a list of all the good things that came out of Dave breaking up with me.
Read more... )
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I found this on the following website - http://www.tcpc.org/about/the_8_points_english.html - and I thought it did a fairly good job of summarizing where I'm finding my spirituality is moving towards - especially point #6.

The 8 Points
2003 Version

By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who…

1. Have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus;

2. Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God's realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us;

3. Understand the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus's name to be a representation of an ancient vision of God's feast for all peoples;

4. Invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to):

believers and agnostics,
conventional Christians and questioning skeptics,
women and men,
those of all sexual orientations and gender identities,
those of all races and cultures,
those of all classes and abilities,
those who hope for a better world and those who have lost hope;

5. Know that the way we behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what we believe;

6. Find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty - more value in questioning than in absolutes;

7. Form ourselves into communities dedicated to equipping one another for the work we feel called to do: striving for peace and justice among all people, protecting and restoring the integrity of all God's creation, and bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers; and

8. Recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege.
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You belong to the world of knowledge-seekers
You belong somewhere out in the world, exploring
and learning and spreading the knowledge that
you find. When you love, that love will join
you in your quest and believe as you do in a
world of spiritual energy that is stronger than
anything humanity could normally even conceive,
although you may be able to. Council those you
encounter, give them your wisdom, and stay true
to yourself.


Where do you belong?(ANIME IMAGES)
brought to you by Quizilla
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I now have a washer and dryer that I can actually use. Nothing was wrong with them, they came from the old house. Just an attachment hose was leaking and needed to be replaced on the washer and there was no gas hookup for the dryer - which since it's a gas dryer was a problem. Fortunately I have a cousin who's a plumber and Herb was here this morning to fix all of that and take a look at my bathroom that I want to remodel to work up an estimate for that. So now I have a stove to cook meals on and a washer and dryer to wash and dry my clothes in. Ah, modern day conveniences, you don't miss 'em until they're gone...and then you realize how lucky you are to have them, to be able to afford them etc.
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My cat thought outside the box this morning before I left for work. I didn't have time to deal with it then so I just poured some cat litter on top of it - fortunately it was in the kitchen on the linoleum. She thought outside the box in the bathroom too - the other room with linoleum. So at least she's considerate in regards to making it easier to clean up. I'm trying to cut her some slack - she's upset that I moved her to a new place. Poor baby.

I bought a new stove today - well, new to me - we have this great used appliance place in town that does really good work reconditioning used appliances and then stands behind their work with a 1 year warranty. I knew that I wanted to replace the stove before I bought the place but when I realized that even when the oven was turned off it was still warm/on then I realized what I had was a) a safety hazzard and b) a detriment to my attempts to air condition the place. They delivered the stove this evening and I am cooking my first meal in the new place as I type this. And when this stove is off, it's off - what a concept! :)

I love my new place. It's only 580 square feet which is small, but just the right size for me and Moira. And not too much for me to take care of on my own. It's odd, but in just the few days I've been here this place has already become more of a home to me than the house I lived in for 4 1/2 years with Rick. I love the neighborhood, lots of mature trees, gorgeous. I love to sit outside and just watch the trees and the sky. Today it's blue as can be with lots of fluffy white clouds. Life is good.
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Apparently nothing was wrong with me that a piece of BoonZaaijer's (a local bakery that makes stuff that is to die for) cake and a mimosa couldn't fix. I feel much better - okay the cake and the mimosa helped, but the truly helpful thing was realizing that I absolutely DO NOT need a man in my life to be happy. It's been a while since I've been alone, there is bound to be some difficulties transitioning. But I was happy before as a single and I can and will be happy again.

Things are SLOWLY progressing towards some semblance of order in the new place. Still lots of boxes to unpack, but I found my silverware this morning! ...and there was much rejoicing!!
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Argh, I can't move one foot without bumping into something. I'm slowly but surely making progress. My TV is now hooked up, albeit sitting on the floor...at least I have a little noise to keep me company. Also got invited to a party today at Eric's place - don't know who Eric is other than part of my brother's gaming group. But it's a more the merrier type of gathering so my brother invited me. My brother is great - he probably realized I could use to get out of this messy place and enjoy myself for a few hours - it's nice to be thought of. Hopefully my brother will call back with more specific directions than the party is somewhere on Sprinkle Rd. :) Those are all the directions he has right now apparently - more directions should be coming his way and then mine soon. In the meantime I really need to find a towel in all this mess so I can take a shower.
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Well, mostly. And my computer is set up - that's the important thing, right? Of course it took me 2 trips to the store to replace pieces of the computer that somehow didn't survive the moving process. Not too surprised on the monitor end of things since it was 5 years old, didn't display colors properly anymore anyway and I was going to get a new one when I got around to it. So I got a round to it tonight because I wanted to check my e-mail damn it! Then I discovered the mouse didn't work anymore either - not sure what happened there. So now I have a nifty flat panel monitor and a nifty wireless mouse - I figured as long as I needed new ones I might as well get something nice. I have a little extra money right now because I got my mortgage for the new house for a few thousand dollars more than the house cost since I knew it needed a few repairs. Plus I knew I would need a new stove since this one is on it's last leg - course now that I just dropped over $200 on a monitor the stove may have to make due for a while if I want to be able to afford to remodel the bath like I want to.

Today was stressful - VERY stressful. I was overwhelmed, panicky, and irritable all day. I get that way when I am WAY stressed out and have too much to deal with. Last time that happened (when Rick moved out and I was trying to get ready for an open house at the same time) Dave was there to keep me sane. It was much more unpleasant this time without him around. For one thing I had to spend the majority of the day with Rick. Now, Rick and I HAVE remained friends - but we don't work well together, never have - always leads to both of us becoming very annoyed and testy - one of the many reasons we're divorcing and I'm quite certain at this point, even though being "alone" is scary, that I'm doing the right thing with this divorce. Somehow it will all work out.

I realized, as Rick managed to make me annoyed within the first 5 minutes that he was there today that I've only ever been annoyed by Dave's behavior once. Normally he has a very calming, soothing effect on me and we seem to work together very well. It's a shame that things didn't work out between us because I think we were really good for each other. But life is just a little too crazy for both of us right now. He says that all he can offer me right now is friendship but he doesn't know what the future may hold. Or something to that effect. I guess that gives me a little hope for the future, but I'm not sitting at home just waiting for him to come back around. I am sitting at home, but that's just because I have about a zillion boxes to unpack before I can move around this house without bumping into things. :) I actually got on Yahoo personals - never done the online dating thing, but why the heck not. Not looking for anything serious, but don't like to sit home all alone ALL the time - a little companionship might be nice on occasion.

Spoons...

Jun. 29th, 2005 01:03 pm
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I know I've posted this before but it's just a reminder to myself and everyone else that even though I don't look sick I have a disability and I need to cut myself some slack in dealing with it. I can only do so much, I need to learn to pace myself. I've been giving Dave too many of my spoons and not having enough left over to do daily chores and other things that need to get done. Spending as much time with him as I did was fine when I wasn't working, but it had become too much for me now that I am working and rather than deal with that and spend less time with him I tried to stretch myself too thin and came to resent Dave for it on some level which totally didn't help things. The article was written by someone with Lupus but as she states at the end it is helpful for understanding anyone with a disability. I, and many others, have found it is VERY applicable to those of us who have fibromyalgia. I've been under loads of stress with a new job, the divorce, selling the house and buying a new one etc. etc - more stress = more fatigue = less spoons and I've been trying to do too much. This will all make sense when you read the following article:

http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/spoons.htm

Edit - I want to make it very clear that Dave did nothing to make me feel obligated to spend as much time with him as I was. Partially I just wanted to spend that much time with him to begin with and then I think that after a while I started to put a sense of obligation to keep it up on myself.
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Not only do I love the people I work with and am even rather fond of what I'm doing, but the physical location kicks ass too. There's a city park out behind us - a park on a lake with a beach. Across the street there is a plaza with a branch of my bank, a pharmacy, a hallmark, Little Caesar's, Subway, and several local eateries including Treat Street where they have great sandwiches and ice cream to die for. There's a gas station next door, a hair salon on the other side and a grocery store down on the corner. An animal hospital across the side street from the plaza where I'm thinking I'll transfer Moira's records to. I don't see how this location could be any more convenient. I love it! And I'm closing on a little house about 6 blocks from here tomorrow. Yay!
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Some realtor from Grand Rapids called my realtor wanting to show the house today between 1:30 and 2:30. Since she's from GR she doesn't have a key to the lockboxes that all the Kalamazoo realtors have access to. So since I have the day off I say I'll just wait around for her to show up and let her and her client in and then she can lock up when she leaves. The house was a bit on the messy side so I was up until about 2am last night cleaning up, then I got up this morning to finish tidying up. After all that and waiting around forever she's a no show. I'm sorry, is it too hard to call and say you're not coming for whatever reason when you know someone is waiting around for you? I had things I wanted to get done today but I spent a good portion of the afternoon just waiting around for this bitch to show up. What a waste of my time.

/rant
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My cat spawned a tribble this morning:

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Believe it or not that is all from just one brushing!

A bird built a nest in one of my hanging baskets of flowers and I've been carefully watering around the nest for weeks now. Today I noticed that the eggs have hatched and there are tiny little baby birds in the nest. How cute! I'm so glad - I was afraid I was disturbing the mother bird too much and she would abandon the eggs.
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The sad thing is that I'm not doing any writing. Just lots of house stuff - and that work thing, surprising how much time that takes up. I'm holding down the fort today as the legal secretary flew to Texas to take care of her daughter's dogs (yes, she flew from Michigan to Texas to dog sit - but her daughter works for an airline so I guess she flies for cheap.) The attorney is out because he's responsible for watching his two young boys while his wife and daughter are off doing something with Miss Michigan on the organizational end of things it sounds like. So it's just me today, answering the phone and *attempting* to help people - really I'm just taking a heck of a lot of messages and slowly digging my way out from all this paperwork.
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Dang a lot has been going on and it's been a while since I updated. Rick closed on his new place last Friday and moved into it on Saturday. We had our first open house on our place the following day on Sunday. Dave and I were up until 3:30 cleaning to get the place in shape for the open house and then I got up at 9am the next morning to finish things up. It still wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be, but it served. We had 5 couples come through that day and two more (or possibly some from Sunday returning with their realtors to look again) come through on Monday. Two more people viewed the house on Thursday and another one is viewing it tomorrow. Lots of traffic hopefully = quick sale. I have had my offer on the place I decided on accepted and will close by the end of June. It's little - but big enough for one.

During the open house I went to a family thing out at my Aunt's place - a gathering for my grandma's birthday even though she doesn't want to celebrate her birthday anymore. It was interesting. I also dropped the news, informally and in private conversations (I didn't make a big announcement or anything) that I'm getting divorced. It was not quite as awkward and painful as I had thought it might be.

My job is going really well. They seem really pleased with me and feel that I'm working out great - they can't believe how quickly I'm picking up things like their billing software (considering I've got no billing experience in my past work experience) - I pick things up quickly, always have. I really like Bill (the attorney whose office it is) - he's an honest to gosh good person. He specializes in estate planning, probate and real estate law and has a great sense of humor. I wasn't sure about his legal secretary at first because she wasn't initially very friendly to me but I think she was just too busy to be very friendly because Barb seems to have really warmed up to me as well. So hopefully everything will work out there and I will go full time at some point - hopefully sooner rather than later.

This weekend Dave and I are heading down to Ohio for my friend Jenna's wedding. She's getting married at the Columbus Zoo where she works. Should be interesting. We'll be crashing and Julie and Dustin's place near Bowling Green and it will be great to see them and their little boy Xander as well as his brand new twin sisters that just arrived last month.

I'm living in a constant state of...well, not quite stress, not sure what to call it. I just can't relax very well in my own home right now because it has to be clean and neat at all times (or not too far away from being able to be made so) in case someone wants to see it. I'm spending a lot of time at Dave's place not just because I can relax here but also because they have central air and it's been HOT here lately. Scorching. Hope you all have good weekends. I'll catch you around.
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Your Career as a Deadly Assassin (LJ) by maxgallagher
Username
Gender
You first killed at age23
Your victim wasA police officer
ReasonJustice
Your trademark weaponSwitchblade
Your reputationSuspicious and cautious
You work withjesterstear
You kill forReligious reasons
In the end, you are defeated byfacetiae
Your deathGruesome decapitation
Your career body-count708
Quiz created with MemeGen!
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Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been busy lately. I continue to sort through stuff and try to get this house in shape for the open house next weekend. This weekend was jam packed full of other events due to the holiday as well. Saturday a bonfire at Lisa from the gaming group's place, Sunday a graduation party for Eric from the gaming group, Tonight a bonfire at Seth's place - yup, another from the gaming group. And earlier this afternoon Beth and her son Jason, Edward and his roommate Grace, and Dave came to help Rick and I get a handle on the gardens here so the place can look nice outside too while we're trying to sell it. Whew, I'm tired, and a little sore from all the weed pulling. And I have to work tomorrow. Yes, that's right I have a job. It's through one of the temp agencies I'm registered with and it's only part-time to start because this office would like to see if I'm going to fit with them first. But if things go well it will become full time and permanent. It's clerical work in a law office a few blocks away from the house I've been thinking that I would like to buy. How potentially convenient. Well, that's the brief update on what's going on in my life. Hope everyone else had a great memorial day weekend too.

My CDs

May. 27th, 2005 12:47 pm
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This is really more for my own records than anything but if you're interested in what CDs I have I won't stop you from reading it.

Read more... )
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You scored as Sci-Fi/Fantasy. You scored Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Depending on the movie this might not deserve a "Congratulations", but you're interested in the future and imaginary worlds far from your own. You probably wish you could be somebody else, or live in one of the worlds from your favourite movies. Check out: Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Star Wars, The Matrix.

</td>

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

85%

Mindfuck

70%

Mindless Action Flick

65%

Sadistic Humour

55%

Romantic Comedy

55%

Drama/Suspense

35%

Artistic

25%

Movie Recommendation.
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