I'm too excited to sleep!

Ohmygosh -- We're leaving for Italy TOMORROW! I'm so giddy I can hardly sit still. I was only able to sleep a couple of hours last night. It's... it's... it's... ohmygosh! Excuse me, I have to go run around the building a few times.

Whew! OK, much better. So. We are spending two weeks visiting Florence, Cinque Terre, Milan, Monza, Modena, and Rome. Monza is the site of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where we will be watching the Formula One Italian Grand Prix. All right, I'm not a huge motorsport fan, but seeing the race in real life and helping the Tifosi cheer on Ferrari is going to be amazing.

We're really looking forward to seeing the Cinque Terre villages, too. You know all those travel photos you see of little villages on the Italian Riviera? Yeah, those. A friend at work once stayed in the village of Vernazza. I hope our experience is similar to hers. I can imagine climbing off the train and being greeted by little old Italian grandmothers offering available rooms. I'm counting on it, in fact, and daringly not arranging accomodation ahead of time. We'll book ahead for the bigger cities... though so far we only have reservations in Florence. That at least gives us a destination once we land in Italy. The rest will fall into place.

window raccoon

is at ur window, scarin ur kittehs

Lunar eclipse

I stood outside in the cold for quite a while the other day, trying to capture a decent image of the lunar eclipse. I'm going to blame the camera. Shh! The camera! They're not very clear, but I got a few neat pics.

What the...?

Ugh. I just imported my blog into my "notes" on Facebook. I didn't think it would import ALL of the entries. And in reverse order no less! Yay. Now everyone can look at my oldest insane ramblings and lose interest before they ever get to my newest insane ramblings. That's really the purpose of this post. To add something newer to distract you from my shame.

Oh Facebook, you wonderful useless mess.

Chair.

I decided to put a recent watercolor sketch on some products and sell 'em at Cafe Press. Check it out: http://www.cafepress.com/justachair

Just don't ask me to explain it.

Affirmation of the day: I am a creative genius.

Here's to being on boats

ROS: We might as well be dead. Do you think death could possibly be a boat?

GUIL: No, no, no...Death is...not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat.

ROS: I've frequently not been on boats.

GUIL: No, no, no---what you've been is not on boats.

-Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

A funny feeling

Do you ever have a strange feeling, something you can't quite put your finger on, that makes it seem as though something is...off? I was home sick from work today and spent the morning sleeping. In the afternoon, I worked on my photography assignment for a while, which consisted of standing out in the yard, taking photos of a vacuum cleaner on the lawn (don't ask). By early evening, my headache was worsening, so I took a nap before photography class. When I got up about 45 minutes later, it was more like a pounding migraine. I called my photography prof and asked if I could turn in the assignment another day. He was totally fine with that, said I could turn it in on Monday. After I hung up, I realized Monday is actually a holiday, but whatever, we'll figure it out at some point.

Anyway, I went back to bed. Doug went off to the chiropractor a little while ago, so I was left taking my little nap. I don't know if it's because we changed the clocks back just a few days ago, or because I was supposed to be somewhere else -- in class right then, and at work earlier in the day -- or whether it's something to do with feeling ill, but I started having a weird feeling. It was dark out, but didn't feel like night yet. It was quiet outside and in the house, but somehow not nighttime quiet. It was only around 6:00 PM after all. I felt as though I might go outside in the morning and find that everything has disappeared. Like Seattle would just be a crater or something when I drove out there for work. Or maybe everything was still there, but my house had silently been whisked away by an imperceptible cyclone. In the morning, would I find myself to be Dorothy the meek, or the powerful Wizard? Would I be just a blade of grass along the yellow brick road? Would morning come at all? Was it really even nighttime now? Very strange, very strange. The time is out of joint.

Does this ever happen to you? I wonder how long things will feel off kilter. I think I'll go back to bed now.

Affirmation of the day: My mind is now free.

Laughter is the best medicine

Last night's Toastmasters meeting was hi-larious. It was a backwards meeting, so speech evaluations came before the speeches, best-of-meeting awards were given at the beginning of the meeting, and there was much confusion and laughter throughout. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. If you haven't gone to a Toastmasters meeting, I highly recommend you visit one. They're usually not so silly as last night's, but they're still a lot of fun.

Speaking of laughter, as I was listening to various self improvement CDs and podcasts, I discovered Michael White's free hypnosis podcast. OMG, he cracks me up. I finally listened to "Believe in yourself, dumbass," yesterday morning and just kept giggling as I got ready for work. Still didn't help me get to work on time, but I think I got ready more enthusiastically after a good giggle. He seems to be a trained hypnotist, but he approaches self improvement with a... shall we say, unique? attitude. Take a listen sometime, but you might want to use headphones so people don't think you're insane. I recommend the afore mentioned "Believe in yourself, dumbass," as well as "Good morning, rock star," and "You are awesome." I still haven't listened to all of the podcasts he has posted, but so far I like them all. I can't imagine listening to them and not feeling a whole lot better than you did before you started. Check out Michael White at KnowMoreTrances.com.

Affirmation of the day: I will be awesome today.

Wait, wait, wait!

Hold everything! I'm officially starting up this blog again. It was an interesting journey, focusing on decluttering and being a packrat. Now I'm moving into a new phase, focusing on creativity and positive thinking. It can all apply to decluttering, but it takes in everything else in my life as well. On the creativity front, I've started taking a beginning photography class at a local community college. I've been doing a teeny bit of scrapbooking -- much more buying of materials than actual cutting, pasting, and journaling, but you've got to start somewhere, right? Beyond that, I'm working on reprogramming my brain to think in positive and constructive ways. More on all of this later. I'm glad to be back!

Affirmation of the day: I can do whatever I set my mind to do.