Boy, time sure flies when you're having fun, or getting used to a change in your medication (which might be the same thing in certain circumstances ...). For the previous two weeks, give or take a day, I'd been having problems with one of my medications. I was constantly tired and almost constantly asleep. At first I blamed the work I had done with/for Mom during her move. Unfortunately, that excuse can only last for three days before there is no longer a biological explanation. After that, I tried the ol' PMS excuse. Again, that one has a time limit and nature can't be fooled *that* much (not to mention Darling Adorable was starting to get tired of me being tired ...).
   So, lucky me, the first doc I get to see is my psychiatrist. I explain the problem, we chat about life and the pursuit of happiness and the Hippocratic Oath, and he explains that the new medication I was recently switched to needs some ‘tweaking'. So we are in the middle of the ‘tweaking' phase of this new medication which is supposed to be better for me than my old medication and do more for the Fibromyalgia that I've been diagnosed with. Fine. But in the meantime, to make things easier, he's giving me a little something to help me stay awake. So - with my metabolism, the new new medication is hitting like a triple pot of espresso and I am vibrating my way through the day. At least the basic chores are getting done and I'm catching up on everything except the computer work. Sigh. And Life is so close to being perfect.
   Hopefully I'll be able to come off the ‘helper' medication as soon as ‘tweaking' is over. Otherwise I may spend a lot of time building apartments and refinishing the furniture. At 9 am. With a toothbrush and a roll of toilet paper.
   I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hope to be back on a daily basis by the end of the week and keeping my regular schedule again. Things should have evened out by then. And maybe I won't be flying low, but be a balanced and contributing member of society. (I guess there's a first time for everything!)

   Best thoughts during this odd and interesting time,

    I must be a Luddite or maybe just old-fashioned. I don't think that we, as a society, need to be electronically attached to each other to the point where there is no longer any privacy. Cell phones have become fashion accessories, semi-permanently attached to ears with ‘New Blue-Tooth Technology', slung at hips and on belts or hidden in the depths of handbags and backpacks to become a chorus of chirping, whistling, screeching noise. And the people who walk around with these bits of electric and computerized semi-body parts, talking to themselves as though they were recently released sufferers of a psychotic break without their medication, seem to think themselves more important than the rest of us Poor Mortals without such contraptions.
    I have never owned a cell phone. I have never owned a beeper. (When exactly did beepers fall from grace? For all their faults, at least we never talked to the dratted things! Cursed them, turned them off, threw them into toilets perhaps, but never talked *to* them.) I do not ever intend to own a cell phone or ‘PDA' unless some major change takes place in my life. ( As major changes have happened before, I admit the possibility, but stand firm in my resolve. It must be a Major Change.) I have no need of either one of the electronic leashes that the majority of society seems to be determined to adorn themselves.
    Unlike computers, of which I have known many versions and varieties, cell phones and PDAs have no true use in our society. Landlines are just as useful, though they may require planning and strategy to manage, if you are used to the impromptu-ness and lack-of-mindfulness that come with extended use of cell phones and PDAs. And I haven't found a PDA that can do as much as a well-managed desktop computer and a notebook with pen or pencil.
     I am reading a rather self-absorbed book about a rather self-absorbed young woman who, over the course of a year, gives up one fixation each month to pick it back up again in the following month. Call it her personal experiment in a reduction of convenience. If this is the generation following me, this whining, petulant woman-child, then I want no more of it. She can't manage a social life without booze, she can't manage any kind of life without her cell phone which even has a nick-name, and she treats going without spending $500 on clothing she does not wear as a religious conversion. Argh! Please tell me that the X-Gens are better than this, stronger than this, definitely more intelligent than this!
     Yes, I live a simpler life by choice. And yes, it has occasionally caused confusion and problems for other people but this is my choice. I will live without having to wonder if I still have ‘minutes' or if someone is ‘in my calling zone/plan'. I won't have to wonder if the tower can reach me. I can still be talked at 24/7 thanks to an answering machine and my trusty computer (just the latest in a long line of trusty machines), neither of which I feel any urge to wear or carry about. I do not disturb others with odd noises coming from strange electronics secreted about my person. I feel no need to share the latest of my personal activities with anyone within the sound of my voice. (That's what blogging's for!)
     My dream world would be to carry about a cell phone free zone. I would travel in my own quiet world where both sides of a conversation, if heard, would be heard; where people would not chat with others over the toilet; where, if someone were talking in a car you had an idea if they were talking to a friend or back to the radio.
     Come. Join me. Become part of the bigger world and focus on one thing at a time - talking to a friend *or* driving your car - and see the wonders of a sunset, a flying hawk, or the guy who just pulled in front of you in traffic. And you can save so much money doing so!!

     Best thoughts for a simple life,

   I've found a friend! It isn't as odd and sad as it sounds. I have lots of acquaintances, but I was recently contacted by someone with whom I have a shared history. We were able to get together over lunch and talk about the ways and shapes our lives have taken since we last saw each other.
   No, we couldn't remember when it was that we had last seen each other just that it had been during college. The last time I had heard from her was a birth notice of her eldest child while I was still, marginally, in college. We have both changed. Not the deep down soul changes that can take place in people, but the minor superficial changes that people notice the most.
   I felt that her soul, her deepest sense of self, was still the same as it had been when she gave me the ugliest piece of Mexican pottery I think I have ever seen. (It was two dogs, with their legs joined together. I think I still have it in a box in the reading room.) She also gave me an empty bottle of beer that I also kept. We really seem to understand each other in odd ways.
   She works with a group doing things that will make a huge difference in the world, and has probably done so already. For the past 12 or so years, she has worked for the betterment of Mankind. I've collected odd animals and expanded my sense of social injustice without doing much of anything. Such is the way of Life.
   She gave me a few gifts, much in the manner of one who knows me as well as any could. The first, a gorgeous blue and pink Guatemalan floral stitchery panel hangs on my wall where I can see it be just raising my eyes. It reminds me of the vibrancy of Spring and the colors are a delightful counterpoint to the rest of the room - My Sewing Space and Business - it makes me smile. The second is a book of illuminations. Gorgeous pictures with bits of poetry on the opposite page. It also makes me smile.
   I hope to see her again, and meet her family. It would be fun to introduce the most important people in her life to Darling Adorable. She's met him way back when, so she knows what sparks could fly!

   May your own friends find you in their own ways.
   Best thoughts,

   Yesterday I was buzzed by a female hummingbird. There is a large wild rabbit that has taken up residence under the house. There is a large Western Hognose snake that is living in my backyard. By careful mowing and judicious ‘leaving alone' of certain areas of the lawn, we have managed to expand the small population of Native Iris and Blue-eyed Grass, not to mention the Indian Paintbrush and Obedient Plant populations. Even the few plants I have yet to identify have greatly expanded their previous borders.
   The war against the Marauding Groundcover continues. I have cleared an area previously occupied by the groundcover and am preparing it to be planted with a variegated ginger, yellow butterfly bush, datura (sp), and possibly a dwarf Mexican Petunia. As these are all plants that enjoy partial shade, they should enjoy the spot I've selected and they are right next to the front steps, for a wonderful display.
   The fig is no more. For better than three years we have coddled it along, easing it into Spring and waiting for the first sign of life. This year, it finally gave up. It was the last frost that did it, I think. Well, maybe an Alba fig was too tender to be out in the middle of the yard.
   I put one of our hummingbird feeders out by the honeysuckle yesterday. After being buzzed by the hummingbird, it seemed the prudent thing to do. With the jasmine in full bloom and blowing a gorgeous scent in every window, and the honeysuckle blooming for the first time in three years, and the roses blooming non-stop, it's a spring I won't forget. And the assorted wildlife seem to be determined to remember it as well. Well, we wanted to make a home here that was as blessed for us as it was for them. I suppose its working.
    Best thoughts to you and your wild surroundings,

   Family. What does it mean? Generally, we use the term to refer to the immediate family that surrounds day in and day out, the nuclear family. Sometimes we'll refer to a larger sense of family, the cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, those people that are related to us through, to use a vernacular term, ‘blood and marriage'.
   But are these people truly family? I count my mother and my brother as the last surviving remnants of my childhood nuclear family. My father died seven years ago and there were only the four of us. In my extended family, there are those that try to stay somewhat involved in my life and those that seem to hold me at a distance. In both cases, the main connection is through blood - that of one of my parents - but there is no other reason for me to call these people ‘family'.
   Since leaving home, my nuclear family, I have joined with Darling Adorable. This was in expectation of starting our own branch of both of our families - a new nuclear family with attachments to two family trees with two different styles and histories - unfortunately, our nuclear family seems to have taken Hydrogen as its frame (one proton, one electron) and there doesn't seem to be any sign of growing into a larger nucleus. But, in part that is our choice and the choice forced upon us my medical measures. But what does it say about our family?
   I have said before that Family is what you are given at birth, but Friends are the Family you choose for yourself. I don't know how true that is, anymore. Some of my related family members have become friends, while some of my friends have become as dear to me as family. And some people will ask about my attachment to the critters that share the house, the Cat (Minh Chou) and the two dogs (Vesta and Thalia). Are they ‘family'?
   I probably wouldn't put the critters on my ‘Emergency Call List', but I tend to talk to them and try to answer to their needs without as much hassle as I give those with two legs and voices. Ok. Maybe I do hassle the budgies a bit much, but humans can see to themselves without too much trouble.
   What is a family? I guess I've talked around the answer enough I can give my opinion - In my, not so humble, opinion, A family is a group of people bonded together out of love and responsibility, desire and commitment to a common goal, that works toward surviving as a united whole. Sometimes you may like each other, sometimes you may not be able to stand each other, always (Always!) there is the background of love. There needn't be a shared ‘blood' or marriage connection, there need only be a shared commitment to a common goal and a desire to sacrifice to reach that goal, whatever it may be.
   Yeah. That feels like the right sort of definition on a modern day family. A Group of people brought together through blood, marriage or meeting, with a common goal that they would willingly sacrifice something for, the goal being larger than what any of them could accomplish alone.

   Best thoughts for you and your family,