so many birthdays this month..

Allow me a Birthday shout out to

(e:lilho), (e:southernyankee), (e:tina), (e:terry)'s dad and....

(e:pyrcedgrrl) wo000000000000000!


[size=xl]Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/size]


hope I didn't miss anyone :)

So I have a few minutes before I must tackle some school readings and a paper. I came staight home from work instead of heading out to the park to run around as I normally would. Maybe later I will go for a brisk walk around town. I like the night..

Yesterday I took a bunch of pics. I am a big fan of wood. I am not sure what the fascination is, but I am drawn to it. I love my green space, water and woods. I do what I can with my digital camera and have thousands of pictures to sort through and print someday; and this number will continue to grow as my favorite time to photograph is in the fall. I will post some wood pics in a few days. I would love to get out to Letchworth.

Any advice on whether I should print them myself or take them somewhere? I have many of people, animals and nature, on disk and on the hard drive.

yesterdays fresh air... It is the most amazing smell.. fresh earth.. the scent of fall. I can't breath it in deep enough. Come out and view the scenery and smell the air..





Going down the staircase to my secret pier


coming back up..

snagged from a quiz in (e:ladycrofts) journal

• The keys to your heart**

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

• How you are in love**

You take a while to fall in love with someone. Trust takes time.

You tend to give more than take in relationships.

You tend to get very attached when you're with someone. You want to see your love all the time.

You love your partner unconditionally and don't try to make them change.

You stay in love for a long time, even if you aren't loved back. When you fall, you fall hard.

(e:pyrcedgrrl) assisted me this evening in impregnating my iPod with a plethora of music. She allowed me to violate her iTune files, and I gleefully did just that, and supplemented what I couldn't find in her files with plenty of stuff from Lime Wire.

I hope the 20 gigs is enough storage space :) I have two weeks to determine if I like it or not.. so I can always go for the 60 gig, hehe

There is so much more that I need.

I am up way past my bedtime in search of more and more music. I keep saying, "just one more download.."

Help feed my addiction!

the makings of madwomen: [inlink]pyrcedgrrl,8[/inlink]

I am working on the readings and assignments for my new class, Organizational
Ethics, Values and the Law. I have been intensely fascinated with all subject matter
to this point and I am sure that I will not be disappointed with this course. I
apply myself to my courses as though I were a blank slate. I don't want to apply
what I am learning to what I know already. My aim is to unlearn and relearn.. then
evaluate the information and apply or replace the new information. That is my
strategic plan..

I have a background in the law, but I have probably forgotten much of it. Not only
due to the amount of time that has passed since I had legal studies, but the time
frame in which it occurred. I had a work related back injury three and a half years
ago. It left me with my world turn upside down.

This pissed me off.

Daily physical therapy, painful injections into my back, financial ruin, exorbitant
weight gain, friends fading into the background, depression, meds that were
prescribed then later taken off the market, insomnia and future uncertainty made me
feel broken.

Broken yet pissed off. I would not stand (no pun) for the inability to take care of myself. I hated everything about this period of my life, and I had to do what I could and even more, to make it better. I mustered what little strength I had to work really hard, one day at a time to get better. It took almost a year, but I managed to get to the point where I could work again. Believe me, that was the worst part of all. I guess I base much of who I am on what I do. And my stubborn need totake care of myself. Everything I had learned in school and life felt fuzzy to me. I felt, “dumbed-down”. I found out later that this is common in painful injuries/life traumas. I have the horrors written out in both my paper journal and livejournal. I don’t know if I can revisit that “place” quite yet.

Skip to: I begin work (at my current place of employment). I could barely get through the day, but I managed. I would get home and sleep the rest of the evening and into the next morning. Each day I got stronger; physically and mentally.

Two and a half years after starting this job I am still going strong. I have not had any related issues in two years. I am still in a high risk for injury environment, but this is where I belong. I love the chaos, the physical nature of the job (still working on the last 35 lbs) and the ever changing nature of the job. I am also in school, which I love;I feel as though I am in my element.

Recently, in my interview (for internal position), when asked what my greatest accomplishment has been, I said it was the strength, courage and tenacity to overcome an injury and being able to see the growth that has occurred as a result of this period in my life.

Post injury me is a more compassionate/feeling individual. I take time to see and understand people and things around me. I respect and admire people who also respect and treat others with dignity. Mean spirited is weak. My tolerance of he said-she said games are done with; I speak up when people are generalizing stereo types regarding relationships and gender.

I get to know people on an individual basis, but that is how I have always operated.

Anyway, the post injury me is kicking ass and taking out the trash 

And soon to buy a coffee maker.
A bean grinder.
Beans.
Tupperware to house the beans.
Cross Country skiis.
And an updated cell phone. Here is a pic of my cell phone ;)