It's 9am and there's a cookie in my mouth.

I don't really know how I even began it, but somehow I'm enjoying coffee and the ginger molasses cookie I bought yesterday.  For breakfast.  :/  Whoops.  

In other news, sometimes I'm a crazy psychotic beezy.  Sorry about the strawberries Beau.  :/

Again, that face.  Yes.  The "shrug".  And now, back to my previously programmed 50 hour week.

[Miss me much, and these odd episodes?]

Random thought of the (yester)day:  Who first thought to make envelopes where we lick the edge with our tongue to seal them?  Seriously.  How'd that happen?  Hmmm.  Our tongues are damp... let's find a way to use them to seal these letters up. 

You can't keep a good dog down.

Since saying goodbye to my dog, I've been wanting to watch All Dogs Go to Heaven (yes, I own it).  But I'm not really sure that's a healthy response - and I'm really not sure I want anyone to walk in on me watching that with a box of Kleenex and a bag of Dove dark chocolates.  Me at twenty-five.  It's a fearsome sight ain't it? ;)

Today, my bottom-line thought in response to everything seems to be, "Well, You can't keep a good dog down."  Huh?  Dear God, please don't let that slip out of my mouth at my new job!  But, somehow, I get it.  This girl has seen All Dogs Go to Heaven, Milo & Otis and Turner & Hooch more times than you could count with a bag of skittles.  I guess all that had to be lodged someplace deep in my subconscious.  Apparently Charlie and Itchy are my go-to guys of optimism, courage, stubbornness and a bit of kindness.

What am I talking about?  I don't really know.  I'm bored out of my mind at work. 

I guess my only advice here is this: watch what you show your kids, it may become the basis of their value system. ;) 

Report:

With the specialized knowledge and private eye work of J.Cline, we've located the flat and will be contacting management today.   Apartment creeping currently concluded.

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I saw this on the counter this morning while getting ready. I wondered, did someone leave this here for me on purpose (knowing I'd like these pictures)?   Then I noticed the dainty framing of one picture in particular.   Thanks, Dad, I'm guessing?  :)   Love you, mean it.

I don't quite know why, but this picture just brought instant tears to my eyes!!! My sister was standing near me and can attest to the fact that the moment I saw it a deep, surprised sigh escaped my lips!

I had already begun writing this blog, but so far all it said was "Things I Love." I'd then travelled away from the page, with the intention of returning to list out a few of the little things I love. Well, elephants are one of the big things I love. Most of you know this. I've always loved them. I'm not sure what about them captured my heart from the start, but I think it has something to do with their bigness, their ancient skin, their tender eyes, and their quietness (most of the time). I'm not sure, they've just always enchanted me. I remember having some kind of an elephant mask that I loved as a kid (at our old house). I also remember being very small, in the basement of our house in Edmonds, and showing how I could 'be an elephant' by looping one arm around the other and forming a sort of trunk. Around the age of 4 we had our infamous family zoo outing. Granted, we've had many family zoo outings, and many very memorable ones. ;) But, this is the one that lives on, and lives to be told at far too many family dinners, as the epitome of my inner.... stubborness. I wanted to see the elephants. And my dad said if I mentioned the elephants one more time, we were going to go home. The day ended in some sort of a stare off between my dad and I on opposing curbs, and eventually the whole family being packed up early and driven home. My passion needed to be tamed. We didn't return to the zoo for several years it seems. I'm sorry sisters. Now, I visit the zoo with my buddy T, and we sit at the elephants for as long as we like. ;) But I also don't demand we see them first anymore. Turns out the 24 year-old me has a bit more tact than the 4-year old one. It's been months since I tossed over a book shelf of worked myself into a fevered frenzy. ;)

Some less big things I love:

• unexpected sunny(ish) mornings, like today. I love driving across the bridge on 1-5 into Seattle and looking across at the space needle, backlit by the morning sky. Last week, the woman next to me on the bus, tapped me on the shoulder and said "Oh my- look at that!" And I was glad this stranger did, for there was a glorious pink sunrise gripping the sky. I love the morning sky.
• coffee - good coffee.
• swim suits. I like to miss-match them. Which doesn't really matter since I rarely ever dare to take off the board shorts. :/ Regardless, I have more swimsuits than you want to know.
• a well-crafted sentence/ description.
• letters, writing and receiving them in the mail.
• a good black pen.
• a great coffee cup or tea cup.
• bold colors. A good green, burnt orange, yellow or blue especially.
• gray sweaters.
• a good book (obviously).
• finding a new favorite author or poet.
• good music
• having a restaurant/coffee shop that you feel is your own.
• taking long drives, when you don't really have to be where you're "headed."
• really productive days.
• a massage.
• time with friends & family.
• fires.
• playing nintendo with friends.
• a good picture.
• really any little thing done well.

I caught myself reciting Latin chants during my drive this morning. And the terrible OCD part of me kicked in and I couldn't make myself stop once I started, I wanted to see how many I could recall. At the same time I was annoying myself terribly and just wished I would quit. But, I don't quit well. It's like if I allow myself to count a light pole along the highway...I'll be counting until I get wherever I'm going. Or, sometimes, I'll do a little nod (that was common as a kid). Thankfully, as a youngest child, people don't often notice the little strange behaviors you have in the car. Or at least, I like to hope that's the case. I think my parents had me as a test expirament.

Now, I'm at work, and from out of nowhere, I found myself singing in my head "You can't keep a good dog down, no you can't keep a good dog down..." Not quite sure how it happened, but apparently Itchy & Charlie are characters in my day already. Oh the joys of when your favorite childhood movies never leave you.

What would you do if I wrote you a song...?

I am plagued by strange, random thoughts. The kind that just splash around in the pool in my head until I can finally give them a name, call them out, dry them off and send them on their way.

As of late, it's this, 'What happens to all the songs written for forgotten loves?'

I imagine this sad place of all the lovely songs written in love, passion, tenderness... never played for the adored and never meant for the unfeeling masses. Or perhaps, they are just left out in the air, ungrasped, unowned... let loose like a crow. Their sound only unwanted noise, heard over and over screeching through a closed window. Once written, always striving to be sung.

If I were a great Romantic poet, I'd liken it to some more powerful, desperately beautiful and forsaken bird. But today, I think it's a crow.