Marga-RITA is gone

First I want to say I wish I had Word back on my computer. I miss it. But since my hard drive was jacked (don't ask) and I have this unbelievably small hard drive now that I can't fit jack shit on it. I want a new computer. What else is new?

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Yes, as you can tell, everything is fine here. Ugly Rita went far, far away from us and didn't even hit Houston so my parents are ok also. We have had nothing but hot, sunny weather here. I am so relieved.
The house at the end of the street just caught fire and I have decided that I have had enough stress/excitement for the rest of the fucking year. No more freakin' hurricanes or scary shit is allowed to happen around me until at least January 31. (I want to get through my birthday, you see.) I would have taken a picture for your enjoyment but my digital camera is in the shop and my cell phone is crappy at best and wouldn't take anything we could see so far away.

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I evac'ed to San Antonio Wednesday night at midnight with the cats and dog. The traffic was light but I was so fucking exhausted from running around all day moving plants and patio furniture inside, packing memories in case I didn't have a home to come back to. It was so emotionally exhausting that by the time I was in my car driving I had a mondo headache and had to dance and sing in my seat just to say awake for the drive. Scharlene was a doll and I bunked with her in her tiny apartment on 10 acres on the other side of SA. The cats were a bit freaked but settled in quickly and Thelma got along famously with the 4 other dogs that live there. She even had a turkey, goats and exotic chickens to hang out with. I took a pic of Venus, the turkey. Check it out on the mobile log. We came back Friday morning to Port A, the ghost town. Everything but the liquor store was boarded up and closed. We got priorities here in my town and you can see what is the most important, huh? Pete and I went to the beach Friday afternoon and it was pretty wild. The surf at first looked like it was super far out so we took off our shoes and started walked toward the water. Then it started coming in. And in. And in some more. Within seconds the water was up to our waists. It was wild. Pete started body surfing and I stood near one of the beach poles that are up to keep cars off that section of the beach. I had my face toward the wind and my eyes shut. I was thinking about the awesome storm that was raging far enough away we couldn't see it but we could already feel her awesome power. Then I noticed the wind picking up rather dramatically. Then I could hear the water start rushing toward me again. I turned around toward the water and saw Pete flying toward the poles. Within seconds that water was again around my waist and Pete was next to me, still swimming. I have never seen the beach ebb and flow so dramatically. It was, well, awesome, for lack of a better word. (And no thesaurus to help me. Damn you small hard drive and lack of Word!)

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As always when I am wasting time on the computer I should be doing other things. I have a downstairs apartment very dark, and very full of very dry plants that need sunshine and water desperately. I am just not looking forward to moving them all back outside. What a bitch, huh? We missed an ugly hurricane and all I can do now is bitch about having to relocate all the shit I put inside so it wouldn't blow away.

I am so scared right now.

Is there a possibility this will just blow over like a puff of smoke?

I want to cry. I want to run far, far away. As Rita the ugly hurricane comes closer all I can do is walk around my house thinking that I will possibly never, ever see my stuff again. How do you pack to evacuate? Part of you wants to take everything and the practical part of you knows it won't fit in your little car after you pack the 5 cats and the dog. So I just sit here, thinking it's time to go yet I can't seem to want to leave. I am ready, well as ready as I can be. The car is almost packed except the animals but I am waiting to see what Pete and Ryan are going to do. I don't want to wait until tomorrow because I think everyone is going to go tomorrow and I don't want the headache of sitting in evacuation traffic. If I drive late tonight I should be alone-ish on the road. Just me, 5 cats and a big black dog. Don't fuck with me, Thelma will take your head off. As I sit here typing I am listening to the hammering of nails on my house. The windows and doors are being covered in scrap plywood pieces. All my beautiful plants are inside and will probably die without water through the weekend. The power and water will be turned off and all my lovely groceries will be lost to eating forever. Then, it dawns on me that there is a very good possibility that we will come back to NO house and that my dead plants and ruined food will be swept away also.
Usually I re read my entries as I continue to type but I don't think I can go back over what I wrote without crying so excuse any typo-grammar errors because I am holding on by a very thin thread right now.

Hurricane Rita-Go away!

I started another entry a couple days ago and haven't gotten a chance to get back to it and don't think I will today. We are all super concerned about Hurricane Rita today and I know I need to get off my ass this morning and get prepared. I have a feeling they will call for an evacuation of the island by tomorrow even though it looks like the storm is going to hit a bit above us. I always evacuate when they ask us to so I need to get prepared to go. The "where" part of going is what has me concerned. My plan has always been go to Houston since I have a free place to stay (with the parents or my sister) and I don't have to worry about bringing the animals with me. But it looks like Houston may not be a good option, and I don't really have any other options with the animals. I don't think many people would look forward to me descending upon them with 5 cats and a 100 pound lab. But, of course, they go where I go or I don't go. (There was a forceful period at the end of that sentence that you probably didn't get as you were reading it, but it was there.)
If I remember I will get back to the old entry about two movies I just watched after the threat is gone.

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Last night we went on the annual sunset cruise that the Garden Club puts on every year. (Yes, I am now a member of said club) It was a romantic cruise with my sweetie and 60 old people. We really did have fun. It was a gorgeous evening and the sunset was spectacular. I drank too much wine and have a headache today but the headache could also be because I am super stressed about this little storm brewing in the gulf. I don't really know.
I guess I had better stop procrastinating as I ALWAYS do and get going. Once I get everything together maybe I will feel a bit better as I will be more prepared.
Naaah. I will stress about this no matter how prepared I am.

oh, yeah...and my kitty is sick......should I go on?

What else?

Let's see....my air conditioner is broken and my living room ceiling has a huge water spot from the air conditioner leakage, my house has termites, I am not happy with my job and I don't want to go to work today, I get paid today but not nearly enough to cover all the bills due, (and let's not talk about what the air conditioner and ceiling are going to cost me) and my dad is here visiting. I love him to pieces but.....well, I think it's going to be a wonderful day.

Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional?

Wednesday, September 14, 2005 6:29 PM
Breaking News from KRISTV.COM


Breaking News

Federal judge declares Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was ruled unconstitutional Wednesday by a federal judge who granted legal standing to two families represented by an atheist who lost his previous battle before the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God." Karlton said he was bound by precedent of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2002 ruled in favor of Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)



What do you think of this?

was it a dream?

What a day and night. 3 hours of sleep and I spend 2 hours til 5 am looking for cats. Then I go to work for 12 hours. I'm so exhausted (and a v. bad day to boot) so I come home to sleep. Yeah. Ever been too exhausted to sleep? Then it was 10:30 pm and I decide I need a drink. Mandye doesn't answer so I head to 'Tunes by myself. I see George, Fred and Casper. George is a horney little man, I had no idea. I have a long convo with Fred. Weird little man, sort of feel sorry for him. He tries to convince me he has never said anything bad about Pete but Pete has said not nice things about him.....right. I decide the beach is my place of solace this eve and this will bring me the peace I am seeking so I can get some sleep. The beach was beautiful, an almost mystical place. I sit in the sand, listening to that waves crashing on the beach and think about how small and insignificant I am, just sitting there. Almost as if the earth would have lost it's gravity and turned upside down and I would just float off and away. I was thinking that I can't be everything to everybody and I can't keep everyone safe. (Including the cats....they have to do what they have to do) I think it's time to go home and head out but get stuck in the sand. Of course, the home phone is off the hook and Pete is sleeping and doesn't answer the cell. I almost start to cry. Do I just sleep in my car? (the bugs would eat me alive) Get out and walk home? (way to far to walk) Call the police? (I'm drunk, need I say more?) or walk over to a group of guys who have a fire going and ask for help? Well, you guess what I did. I almost regretted it when as I walked up the first two people I see are a girl giving a guy head next to car. whoops. I keep walking. Hello? Can anyone help me? No one answers. Everyone is busy getting blow jobs, getting high or talking. Finally I get about 8 guys to follow me back to my car and they have to lift it up in the back to get me out. Yeah! I head home and decide it was too much of a unique evening to not write about it before I go to bed and wake up tomorrow and think it was all a dream.

NO

I came across this post about our nation's current catastrophe at livejournal, and almost started crying:

"What if this was a terrorist attack? Where are all the resources that the Office of Homeland Security was supposed to be pulling together for the last four years? With this we had a full day of warning. With an attack we get none and thousands more displaced and dead. And what then?" - christastrophe, 2005-09-01 14:52 [Read the entire post here.]

I don't even know where to start with all that has been going on. Like everyone else I am sick to my stomach to think about how this disaster as been handled. What the fuck happened?

How fast can YOU type?

Here I sit. It's 2 am in the morning, again. I'm in a restless, kind of funky mood, and not able to sleep. My back has been hurting on and off all day and even though I actually have some relief from the pain right now I can't, well, I actually don't want to lay down to try and get some sleep. Last night Pete couldn't sleep and he tried to wake me up around 1 am to go to the beach. I didn't want to wake up. Now I am here trying to wake him up to go to the beach and he won't. I'll pay for this tomorrow when he gets up at 5 am and wants me to get up with him.
I think I have too much on my mind right now. I am actually contemplating another career change and it scares the hell out of me. Somehow I should have realized that I wasn't going to stay in veterinary medicine for too long this time. There are so many things I love about it but so many disadvantages also. The pay is the worst part of it. I'm thinking about a job that I will have to stay at home and spend all my time in front of the computer. I am afraid I will be spending all the time I am supposed to be working actually playing on the computer instead. As we all know I have NO PROBLEM finding things on the computer to keep me occupied for hours and hours.(can you say web page and journal?)
My mind seems to be racing along and I can't control my thoughts long enough to get some order to it so I can get to sleep. I will close my eyes and think. think. think.
I wonder how fast I can actually type?

Mac the knife

Macaroni is in so many ways a clone of Blaze it's scary. Not only does he look a lot like Blaze but many times I find myself almost shocked as I turn around and realize that its not Blaze standing or laying there but Macaroni. He loves to open and hide in cabinets just like Blaze did. That kind of freaked me out one day. I was in the bathroom and Mac sauntered in as he does when doors open for him. He noticed that the top cabinet door to the dirty laundry cabinet was opened and he decided he needed to see what was behind that open door. He just couldn't figure out how to reach that door since it was too high up for him to climb in to. As he was hanging from the bottom door trying to get up into the upper door he realized that the bottom door was opening for him as he was swinging from it. So he does this dance/hop step backwards and as he realizes the door is opening he continues that difficult hanging on the top of the cabinet with both paws dancing/hopping backwards pulling the cabinet door open. He then sits down for a half second, I guess to catch his breath, then gets up and saunters into the now open cabinet to lay on the dirty clothes. He gives me one little chirp after settling into the clothes as if to tell me, "Yeah, what's so difficult about that?" He has that laid back, I could give a rats fat ass about anything that is happening around me, life is here just to please me, I am king of the house kind of attitude. He chirps as he finds things that interest him and lets you know that life it just one big laid back world of fun if you have a great imagination. He carries just about anything around in his mouth....his play mice, other cats collars, screws, pens and pencils, just about anything he can get his mouth around. He is too much fun to play with when he is sleeping as you can do almost anything to him and he doesn't get upset. I like to gently tug and pull on his tail, trying to stop him from wagging it. His tail almost never stops wagging.

changes

The person you have become is not the person you started out with. You can look at someone and somehow not like what you see but you need to realize that they were not always that person you see. Things happened in their life that grew and changed them, a lot of things that may not have been good.

Reading: "Little Altars Everywhere" by Rebecca Wells