Marie’s Mindless Drabble

I always love an underdog and Kris Allen was indeed that!

I was a Danny Gokey fan, but when he finished third, I was torn between Kris and Adam. I really like both finalist and they both did deserve to win, but in the end, I really did like how Kris sang the last night.

I know it comes down to really who sang best the entire season and if that were the case, it should have been Danny and Adam in the finals but I feel confident that all three will have a fine job in the recording industry.

We had another wonderful birthday celebration at Bonanza Brand for Pernell Roberts. It was not over the top, but just had some nice features and our usual writing exercise as well as the birthday bingo. We don’t know who won yet, I am sure that Dodo is double and triple checking the words of the person that must have yelled BINGO to her in a PM, and she will let us know tomorrow.

Summer is upon us and the top on my car is down pretty much every day now. YEA!!!!! Even in the mornings, with the chilly temps in the 60’s, I have the top down and the windows up to help cut the wind, and I just love the crisp mornings.

My trip to Boston this year is going to include a trip to Rhode Island! I am so excited! I have never been to RI, and I am excited to go there. Last year, we went to Maine and NYC, so I am looking forward to RI this year. Of course Bean Town will be on the list of things to do as well! I want to bring the video camera this year to get the dancing waters on moving film.

My friend, Luisandra, came for a visit last month and we had such a great visit. She had been to south Texas to visit some friends before making her final stop here before returning back to Boston. We had a great time going to the Dallas Museum of Art and going to some places that I enjoy and talk about all the time. It was great to see Luisandra drool over the wonderful art that our great museum has to offer. One of which was some masks from Africa, I believe they were. She had studied them greatly in her inner cultural studies when she was studying for her masters degree, so when she saw them (not knowing they were at our museum) she about fainted. It was great! I was so excited for her.

One Mother’s Day, I took my mother to the museum and the Nasher Sculpture Center across the street. It was a wonderful place and I enjoyed the extensive collection of the Nasher’s and one that I loved was called “Climbing to the sky”. It was a large pole reaching about 100′ into the air and there were people climbing on the pole as well as others that were in line on the ground looking up as they were queing up to start their journey toward the sky. I would have loved to have taken a picture of me next to one of the statues on the ground as if I were waiting my turn, but my camera crapped out on me so I didn’t get to take it with me. I don’t know what happened to it, it had been working a few days before but it is not working anymore. I am going to get a new camera before I take my annual Boston trip this fall. I want to get a Nikon DSLR. I saw one at Costco that I fell in love with so now I have to save my pennies and get it.

Other than that, I am living a boring life. LOL It’s OK, that’s the way I like it. Work is busy as usual, but that is good! I just wished that we could hire some folks. We are getting incredibly thin personnel wise and it is getting harder and harder to schedule! Oh well, June starts a new fiscal year and a BONUS CHECK AGAIN! LOL

Today marks the 5th anniversary of my father’s passing.

My father passed away peacefully in his sleep early in the morning 5 years ago today. I received the call from my mother around 5am; she had just heard from the nursing home where my father was a resident in the Alzheimer’s unit; he had only been there a few days.

My father, like my grandmother before him, and my mother, sister, and brother in law, donated his body to the Southwestern Medical School. When I heard the news, I immediately got up and went to my mother’s house where I drove us over to the nursing home where he was. He was still in his bed, and he looked as if he was sleeping. It was hard to believe that he was gone.

I called the medical school, and the person on call that Sunday morning was paged and he called us about 20 mins later. He told us that he had to go to the office to find my father’s file, and then he would be over to retrieve his body.

My oldest sister and brother in law were now living near Austin, so they had a 3 hour drive ahead of them. My sister right above me came soon after my mother and I arrived. She was living at the time, about an hour away as well. My 2nd to the oldest sister lives in Colorado Springs, so obviously, she was not going to be able to be there that day.

When the gentleman from the medical school arrived, he had us fill out some other paperwork and he took care of the nursing home staff. Apparently, they were wanting him to take the body so that the gentleman that my father shared a room with could come back in, but he told them that we had family coming from Austin, and he was not going anywhere until they arrived and we could have our last moments with him. We didn’t know any of this until after we had all said our goodbyes.

I remembered my father saying how wonderful they were with my grandmother when she died, and they were the same with him when he died. So respectful, so full of honor for the person who gave such a wonderful gift. I also remember my father saying how “easy” it was with my grandmother too. I remember he saying, we called them, they came, and they took care of the rest. Nothing had changed with my father. It was all so easy! The primary reason my grandmother, father, mother, sister, and brother in law, have all willed their bodies to the medical school. As they say, I don’t need it anymore, and the medical students need bodies to practice on.

The medical students…They are so respectful too. They call the cadavers that they work on by their names. Like I am sure they called my father, Mr. McClure, and my grandmother, Mrs. Des Rochers. Everytime I see a medical student, I tell them about my grandmother and father, and they just stand in awe. They always say what a wonderful unselfish gift they made and how appreciative they are for the gift. Of course the representative that came that morning also again thanked us.

It was very hard to let go, to say goodbye, but it is a part of this imperfect world we live in, unfortunately. I look forward to the day when God calls all of the followers of his son, Jesus, from our graves and we all can live again the way we were originally made to live. It will be wonderful to see my father and Peter again. To hug them and give them a kiss. Until then, they both live in my heart and their love never had and never will die.

About a year later, the school called and said that they had finished with my father’s body and he had been cremated and would we like the cremains. Since my father had served in the Navy during WWII, we wanted to bury his cremains in the DFW National Cemetary. It was a nice and simple service, and Taps was played as well as the folding and presenting of the flag to my mother from a Naval Petty Officer. My mother has the flag still and when she passes, my sister will hang the flag in her home in a special box next to her father in law’s. We have all decided when she passes, the flag will be given back to the cemetary so that it can be flown with great pride on days like Memorial Day, Independence Day, and of course, Veteran’s Day.

I have been on vacation all week and for the most part, the weather has been glorious. Today, it was in the low 70’s and sunshine galore. I couldn’t help myself, I had to get out and go places -with the top down on my car of course-

I figured that the stores would be starting to put out their spring clothes now so I went to one of my favorite clothing stores and they did have a little bit out but not much. I didn’t buy anything at the first store I went but the second, I did find a few skirts that I liked, so I bought them. I am Catholic and on feast days, when the vesments are red, such as Passion Sunday (also known as Palm Sunday), we are reminded the week before to wear red, so one of the skirts I bought today was red and white, and will be perfect for Passion Sunday. I wasn’t sure about buying the skirts because I couldn’t find a blouse to go with either of them. Well, that is not quite true, the other skirt, which was black and white, I had a blouse in mind for it, it was the red one that was of concern. When I got home, however, the wonder was put to rest because in a tub soaking was my answer; a linen twin set that I had bought last year! A perfect solution! I think for Easter Sunday, I will wear my favorite outfit which is a robin’s egg blue linen skirt and a matching robin’s egg blue linen twin set that I have by Bob Mackie. It is a killer outfit and will be perfect for Easter!

My beloved dog, Missy, who has been gone for just over 7 years, will be laid to rest soon. She passed away about a day and a half after suffering a seizure about an hour after undergoing back surgery. She was a beautiful and loving black/tan dachshund. I loved her so much and after suffering a blown disk when she jumped off the couch to follow me into the other room, she had lost all function in her lower body, so I had three choices; surgery, wheels for her hind legs (kind of like a wheelchair) or putting her to sleep. Well, of course I wanted the best for my baby, so after a consultation with a neurologist, and she saying Missy was a candidate for surgery, I agreed to the surgery and the expense of it all. Everything went well and I got the call that she was doing fine and would be the in the hospital for about a week. An hour later,  that all changed after the seizure; she was in ICU and they were not sure she would live. She did live through the night and they told me that I could come and see her. I had read somewhere that bringing old clothes or blankets with your sniffs would help a dog feel comfort because they would have you there with them. I bought an old Euro Disney sweat shirt that I had been wearing earlier in the week that was in my dirty clothes. I wanted Missy to have Mommy with her during her stay in the hospital. While on my way to see her, she had another seizure and was back on life support. When I went in to see her, I just held her in my arms and cried and put my sweat shirt under her sweet head. The doctors told me that I would have to make a choice on what to do. They didn’t hold out any hope of her surviving. I told them that I needed to talk with my family to see what they thought. I never thought I could make a decision like that, but seeing Missy suffer was almost too much to bear too! While I was waiting for my sister and niece to arrive, Missy all of the sudden started making good progress again! She was off life support, but still not breathing well, so she was still in ICU in an oxygen cage. I was allowed to see her and she was happy to see her mommy, but I could tell she was not good. The doctors said I didn’t have to make a decision that day and we would see what the next day would bring. I cried as I talked to her through her oxygen cage. I told her how much I loved her and that I would understand if she couldn’t hang on. She had my sweatshirt in the cage with her, so I am sure she was comfortable knowing she had my sniffs with her. I feel that is what brought her back and off life support the second time. The doctors were amazed and said she was a real fighter. I said it was because she loved me so much and she didn’t want to leave me. Before I left the surgery center that night, I assured her that I would be sad and I would miss her very much, but that I loved her and I would understand if she needed to rest and go be in Heaven; she passed away around 2am. I got the call and I was deeply saddened. I cried and cried. I was at my sister’s house and she cried with me as she was still awake when I got the call. The next morning, we went to the surgery center so that I could say my last goodbye to her and I held her for about an hour and told her how much I loved her and how I would miss her and how sorry I was for putting her through all of that. I know she wanted to hang on, but I know she just couldn’t anymore. I still miss her to this day and she will always be uniquly special because she was my first dog that was mine alone. Along with my mother’s two babies that have passed away, we are going to bury the three of them in the pet cemetary that we have on our church grounds. You see, our church is ran by Franciscan’s, and St. Frances is the patron saint of animals, so it is natural that we would have a section of our church dedicated to our fur family members. We have asked our dear friend and associate pastor to do the dedication for us. I have never opened the box of cremains that I have of Missy. I want to remember her the way she was when she was my baby. I now have Mandy and Callie, who are my girls. I love them so much and I can’t imagine my life without either of them. It took me several months before I was ready for another dog, but I knew when the time was right, God would let me know and believe me, he did! Mandy was the first one to come along followed by Callie about six months later. They have been a true blessing in my life. It will be hard to let Missy go, but it is time and it is right. I have my pictures to always remember her by. Besides, she will have St. Francis looking after her and I can’t imagine a better person! I know we will be reunited one day when I cross the rainbow bridge.

Tomorrow will be a glorious day too. I am trying to think where I can go so that I can get in the car and go somewhere. I don’t know…Maybe I will just drive to drive…Enjoy the music on my iPod (which, btw, shouldn’t it only sync the songs you have checked? Mine does not…I guess I need to call Apple about that, or better yet, maybe take a drive to the Apple Store to have them help me with it!)

My company has a special deal with Adobe, and I was able to get a full version of Adobe for basically free. Nothing like getting a suite that would normally cost almost $1,000.00 for free! Now that Adobe has a new upgraded suite, we haven’t been able to get keys for the Adobe C4 yet, but we can still get keys for the C3 suite but you have to know someone that has the C3 suite, which I do. One of my team members has the suite and gave me a copy of it. I put in my key that my company assigned to me and I was able to download the full suite. It has Illustrator, In Design, Photo Shop, as well as the full Adobe writer and reader.

I use many of the Adobe products at work, but rarely do I actually design anything with such wonderful products as Illustrator  and In Design, so I have a lot of training to do on these two products which I should be able to do on our knowledge network online. One of my peers at work is fluent in Illustrator and Photo Shop and they have helped me a lot in figuring how how to do basic things in Illustrator such as business card set up as well as collages in Photo Shop.

I have a friend that has started up his own company and I have designed his business cards and now I am working on his letter head and envelopes. I have had a blast working with Illustrator and I look forward to learning a lot more of what Illustrator can do for me! The sky is the limit with these wonderful programs.

I will be soon working on the collages for the 2009 Bonanza calendars that I make for my friends each year. My friend Deborah was gracious enough to make the collages for me last year and I then put together the calendars with the collages for the 2008 calendars. I think for my Adam/Pernell friends, I might put some Trapper John, M.D. collages in there this year. I don’t know, I will have to wait and see if they want those or if they just want Bonanza episodes for each month. One of my team members who is a Photo Shop wizzard has some ideas to make them very special this year so I am anxious to pick his brain to see what ideas he has. We have some very cool western style calendar templates this year so I am planning to use it to give the calendar that all around western theme. They will make great gifts for Christmas! All the while, I will be learning more and more about my wonderful Adobe suite that I am so blessed to have!

I am so excited to know all of these design things and truly blessed to know people that are really talented with these programs that can create these items. What cool items I can add to my resume!

We have been having quite a warm spell lately. This past Monday we finally had some rain but it was more like a springtime storm than a late fall rain. Today has been extremely windy and a cold front has moved through and tomorrow’s weather is going to be more like fall with the high only being in the high 50’s. It will be short lived because we are back to the 70’s next week. I guess I shouldn’t complain. When January is here and it is cold and wet, I will be yearning for these mild spring like days again.

My mother usually makes my lunch each night for the next day at work. With her being out of town visiting my new great-niece (her new great grand-daughter), I have had to make my own lunch. I was wondering if I would be able to make the chicken/apple/almond salad sandwich as good as she makes it, but I have found it is easier to make than I thought. I always have the same lunch everyday; chicken salad sandwich, grapes, Special K snack bar, chips (the only thing that changes when I finish a bag), Diet Dr. Pepper, and water. I guess you could say I am a creature of habit. 

The final plans are coming together on our new Bonanza ezine. We are running a contest now to name the ezine that will be out in early 2009. I am looking forward to seeing what names people come up with. I have received some great names already! 

The Dan Blocker celebration is coming together as well. Some great badges for the associated features affiliated with the celebration are quite clever and fun. It is really great to work with a group of ladies that are very talented and innovative.

When I purchased my new 2008 SAAB, it came equipped with XM radio as part of my radio line-up. I have several XM stations saved in my preset channels and I often listen to X155 which has a variety of talk radio shows. Today, I got into my car to come home from work and I changed from my local talk radio station and clicked on X155 and there was some radio announcements about other XM/Sirius channels. I didn’t think much of it because with it being at the top of the hour, the show that I listen to is also on free air channels that have news and weather at the top of the hour so when this happens, XM just plays other neat things on X155. I stopped to get gas (which I paid $1.78!) and when I got back into the car, there was still XM/Sirius commercials on. I found this strange as it was 7 minutes after the hour, that is when I noticed that the marquee on my radio said, “channel off air”. I changed to X7 which is all 70’s music and listened awhile and then changed to X8 which is all 80’s. I noticed the old MTV VJ’s are now the hosts on X8. They used to host on Sirius radio, so I figured that the two satilite radio companies were now one.

When I got home, I was checking my email and saw that I had a email from XM with a new channel line-up. XM and Sirius had indeed now merged. I was checking the new line up and I didn’t see X155 on my new line-up! I was so sad! I did find some of my other favorite talk shows on XM now so I was happy about that but I wanted my X155 back! I called XM and they said X155 was still on the line-up and she was looking at it online. I told her that I was looking online and I didn’t see it, so she told me where she was looking. I went there and found it! She said that it had been renamed and she didn’t know why it was saying channel off air. I found out that I could actually listen to it online now which was great. Sometimes I like to listen to the show once I get home but I couldn’t before today because it was not one of the channels that you could listen online.

I got in my car while I had the girl on the phone and tried to access the channel again but was still getting the same “channel off air” message on my radio. She didn’t really have any reason why but told me to check back in a few hours. I decided to manually try the channel by dialing it with my tuner knob and wha-la, I was able to re-dial X155! I re-saved it and it now works. I guess when they changed the name of the channel from “Take Five X155″ to “Sirius XM Stars”, I had to re-save the channel. Sattelite radio. Got to love it, but it has its issues to.

I watch Y&R each day for 30 minutes while I have my lunch at work. I also watch it on Soap Net at night when I get home. I haven’t been able to catch up this week, but today, I found out that Catherine Chancellor, a long time character on Y&R has died in a car wreck. I am just shocked! I was wondering if maybe she had finally decided to retire. I saw that her death is going to bring many of the old characters back to Y&R, I guess for Catherine’s funeral. It is very sad. I loved Catherine’s character. I especially loved her and Jill’s sparring. I feel bad for Nikki, Cat’s best friend too. She has been through so much this year and has had her share of loss and guilt. The coming weeks should be interesting!

I have learned over time who I can count on and who I can’t. I don’t have a lot of people in my life that I really can call “friend”. People that say they have a load of friends are either kidding themselves, or pretty much spread themselves so thin, they are not a true friend to all of their “friends”. 

When I call someone my friend, they are someone extremly special to me. Someone that I can call in the middle of the night and cry on their shoulder and I know they will listen. A friend is also someone that I know I can share my most wonderful news with and they will celebrate with me as well.

I have found that most “internet friends” are really just acquaintances that you enjoy talking to but probably in real life, wouldn’t have to much to do with. While they are fun to chat with online and talk to via email, how many do you really have a close relationship with? I am lucky to have found one very special friend just like that and I thank God each day for this wonderful person. Sometimes meeting someone in person will change your attitude toward them for the good or worst. Sometimes it is not anything you say or do during your time together, sometimes it can be something physical about you that turns them off about you as well. This has happened to me before and it hurts. 

I have found that discussion boards are pretty much the same amount of shallowness. No matter what discussion board I belong to, I have found this to be true on all of them. There are those in the “in” crowd that if you post something, you will get a lot of responses, but then you see some that will post something and while a lot of people might view it, not one person will post anything to it. Why is that? Is it because that person is not part of the “in” crowd and just like in high school if you were one of the popular pretty people and you showed any interest to someone that was considered a “freak” or maybe one of the less pretty people, your friends looked down on you and pressured you stop being a friend to them? People post things on discussion boards because they find them interesting and want to share them with their fellow members. It makes them happy or smile and think it might make their fellow members smile as well. I have had many members tell me that they get frustrated at this act and I tell them, don’t worry about it. Do it for yourself and while they might not post, it doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy it, but I do in a way understand their frustration. Usually a lot of time and thought goes into a feature or thread that is started but because they are not so popular, it goes looked upon blind eyes. 

On the flip side, sometimes I think that people kiss butt because they are intimidated by someone that is very charismatic and they are afraid of rocking the boat. People lose themselves when they allow themselves to get to that point. We live in a free country and we should be able to agree to disagree without having fear of being ridiculed, banned, or shunned by the masses. I think that if people were mavericks and learn about people based on their own views and not the views of others, they might find the person that they have judged are not the person that they were led to believe by others.

I have tried really hard to let go of biases that I have had against some people over time. Some have spoken pretty ill about me to others but if those that were made to hear the forked tongue about me and judged me based on that information, then so be it. I can’t force someone to see the real me. I am not going to pretend to be someone I am not. I am not going to smile to your face and then speak ill of you. Life is too short and besides, I am a horrible liar. Like one member of Bonanza Brand told me one time when we talked about this very issue, if you can’t say something nice, its better to not say anything at all.

I have been away for awhile because life was busy and I couldn’t figure out how to get in to my own blog! LOL I had the emails from Word Press, yet, when I would use the info they sent me, it wouldn’t work! Thank goodness that Jo keeps this information and she sent me the user name and password so here I am!

I got back from vacation recently and had a wonderful time. My mother went with me this year and we had a nice time on our visit to MA, NYC, and a cruise of New England and Canada. The weather was a bit chilly for this southern girl, but it was sunny most days. We returned back to Boston on my birthday and stayed at the Westin Copely Place and had dinner at Top of the Hub that evening. After dinner, we stopped off at the 50th floor and had a spectacular view of Boston at night. It was breathtaking. If I can figure out how to post pictures, I will.

Upon returning from vacation, I got sick. Since I was gone for two weeks, we drove down to Austin where we left my two girls with my sister. We flew out of Austin to Boston and then back to Austin. Upon our return, I had told my mother that we would pretty much need to scoop up the girls and head home since it was a 3.5 hour drive and I had to be at work at 6:30 the next morning. Well, best laid plans. LOL The weather was so lovely, we sat out on my sister’s deck for about 3 hours eating lunch and talking about the trip among other things. By the time we were about an hour from home, I started to get a scratchy throat. I didn’t think much of it, I figured I was just tired, after all, I had been awake since 2:00 in the morning Texas time. I went to bed about 9:00 that evening and still had the scratchy throat. By the time I left work at 2:30 Monday afternoon, I was feeling really bad. At 9:00pm, I sent a text message to my boss saying I was really getting sick and wouldn’t be in the next day. I woke up with a terrible sore throat, eyes watering and nose itching. Allergies were in full swing. I took my Zirtec and started the Zycam, but nothing was working. I drug myself into work on Wednesday and Thursday, but when I woke up at 2am on Friday morning and feeling really bad, I sent another text to my boss saying there was just no way I could make it and made an appointment with the doctor on Friday afternoon. Sure enough, it was just a bad case of allergies. He gave me a big steroid shot and gave me some Singulaire and sent me on my way. I felt remarkably better by Sunday and even though I was still coughing, I went to work on Monday. The coughing was getting so bad by Monday, however, my throat started hurting again. So, I found my codeine from my gall bladder surgery back in the spring and took it when I got home from work and again when I went to bed. Between the two, it would quiet my cough throughout the night and pretty much most of the day. I had to do this for about a week and now I am feeling so much better. I am still having issues with headaches, but no more blowing nose and no more coughing. 

With the cold and flu season upon us, I hope that everyone stays healthy.

I would like to start by thanking Jo for giving me this little place on her site to house my blog. I left Bravenet because I was constantly getting spammed on my Bravenet blog, so I decided to make one here when Jo allowed me to come here.

This coming weekend is Pernell Roberts 80th birthday! Bonanza Brand is going to have a lot of great surprises in store so I hope that you will all come by and celebrate with us. A special badge will be available to all that join in on the chat Friday night! If you haven’t already put your haiku in the Virginia City Literary Society, be sure you do to get a bonsai tree badge! This badge as well as the special one for the Friday night chat are going to be history after Friday and Sunday, so if you want one of these limited edition badges, be sure that you participate! That is the only way to get the badges!

For those that don’t know, I am working the 3rd shift now at work. I love it too! We don’t have a lot of customers, but we have been more busy lately than normal with customers late at night. I guess they think  because they come late at night, they can get big jobs done while they wait. WRONG! What they don’t realize is that we have other customers that have brought their jobs or sent their jobs to us earlier, and they take priority. I usually can get the jobs done for them by the morning, but just because you come at 3am and have 1,000 color copies, 100 tabs, and 10 binds that need to be done ASAP doesn’t mean that you can bump other jobs and sit there at my counter looking down my throat while I work on your job. The same rules apply at 3am that apply at 3pm.  We are not open 24 hours sitting waiting for you to come in and bring in your job. We are there to run big jobs at night that can’t be done when we have a store full of customers! But I forget….The customer’s procrastination is MY problem! NOT!!!!!! LOL