For a brief fleeting second...

I'm at lunch with a little time left before I need to clock back in. For this split second....as I wondered what I can do with myself for the next 10 minutes, I thought I would call my mom! How weird is that? She's been gone for 2.5 years and still...I thought of calling her. Oh, I guess that's normal...I don't know. You can see us here: Me and Mom

It's what they don't say...

It amazes me how people can communicate so much without saying a word. Or how just the way they say something can speak volumes as to how a person feels about you. Yes, it is a matter of interpetation...but often you'd have to be a totally oblivious moron to not know what someone is not saying. It's that whiney voice on the phone that is just two or three octavies louder than normal. It usually comes when you are the one on a fact finding mission; when you need to know how something works and the person you ask has the answers and knows he/she has the answers. Mostly what it is, is hard to explain.

I'll take "Unproductive" for $1000, Alex

Seriously! I have done nothing this weekend. Oh, I have thought about doing stuff. Thought about taking all the furniture out of the extra bedroom and preparing to paint the walls. Thought about cleaning out the garage. Thought about mopping the kitchen floor. Thought about sitting down and learning Photoshop or Indesign or even Word 2007. Thought about getting out that short story I've been working on and that novel I started in 2002. Yeah....what is it they say about paving with good intentions? If only. I have done some serious sleeping. Really. I'm sure I have been asleep more than I've been awake.

I know, I know...blah blah blah. Hey, it's my blog, I can bellyache about whatever I want. How's that for taking control?

Phil has a cold or allergies...he's not sure which but he's coughing up a lung every five minutes. So, can I blame my unproductivity on him? Well, maybe....a little.

I did watch some great football...Bills won!!! Yes. I did empty out the dishwasher and refill it. I did go pick up chinese food. And now, I did blog. So there.

Okay...I'm going to write something

I need to write....how about some ramblings going on inside my head?

Did you know every year I get published? It's true. Yep! I'm in the phonebook! Yes....in black and off-white.

Today I asked my co-worker Sheila, "If you had been borne a boy, would your parents had named you 'Heila?'" To which she responded, "Gawd, I hope not."

Is it acceptable to write emails to your boss that convey the point of the email while trying to make him/her laugh? If he/she doesn't respond to the hilarity of the email, should you stop?

When Christians tell you you need to be born-again, is it disrespectful to tell them you got it right the first time?

If you accidentally touch someone, say in a crowd, and you say to that person, "Oh sorry," to which he/she replies, "that's okay" is that an invitation for you to do it again?

Good Health

It is the most important thing. Each cookie I eat or soda I drink; each time I forfeit the salad for a cheeseburger I have to make myself think that this is wrong....I shouldn't be putting into my body that which I know is bad for me. Why do I do it? I know the risks...the risks of too much cholesterol; too much fat; too much sugar; too many chemicals like those in diet Coke...but I still eat or drink it.

I suppose it's like a smoker - you can't NOT know it's bad - you'd have to be living on the moon to know that it's not good for you, but you still do it. Fortunately I gave that habit up a few years ago.

I am getting a wake up call recently. My dad is really sick. Bladder cancer is very often caused by smoking..., no doubt, is the product of the 60 years of smoking he did. The bladder has to come out. Right now he's sitting in his living room watching TV on his new 37" HDTV. He says he feels pretty good considering. Considering he has a catheter attached to him that fills up with crimson urine. It's crimson because the tumors in his bladder are making him bleed. He was released from the hospital this way. Sounds a little hard to believe that they would release him but they can't do anything more for him there.

Tomorrow my brother takes him to Buffalo General. Hopefully they will see the merit of keeping him and the bladder will be removed. Waiting is not going to make this better. We just have to pray it will happen and that he will make it through the surgery.

Yesterday we got word that a friend of ours died on Thursday. His name is Greg Heim. He lives back home. He's been fighting cancer for a long time. He was barely 50 years old. I so hope he's at peace. It is way too sad for me to even want to fathom. Phil used to bowl with Greg. Greg would call Phil, "Firing Phil" because of how Phil would fire the ball down the lane and usually with great accuracy. Greg had the cutest smile. I didn't see him much after moving to OK but I will always remember him.

Phil's cousin's daughter is sick too. She had a brain tumor and the trials of removing it have taken a tole on her and her family. Her name is Beth Hayes. She lives in Western NY too. You can see her story at: http://friendsofbethhayes.com/. If you'd be so kind, please donate.

Life is so frail. I makes all the stupid petty quarrels and misunderstands...so impossibility stupid. Yeah...I'm waking up now. I have to!