violetismycolor

IF...rain...

The prompt this week was rain...appropriate if you live on the East Coast but not here in Oregon where we have been breaking records by having temperatures above 100 degrees in June!  The previous record was set in 1907 and it was 99 degrees.  This is the first time in recorded Oregon temperatures that it has passed 100 degrees.

But back to you Easterners...with all the rain and flooding, this is how I imagine you feel about it.

In other news, the Oregon State Beavers WON the College World Series!  This is my alma mater, so I am incredibly jazzed.

no longer a neo-pagan...

The subject of beliefs has come up in some of my conversations lately, not at all unusual for me I guess.  In those conversations, I have mentioned an on-line beliefs quiz, called Belief-o-matic.  About a year ago, I took the quiz and came up with Neo-Pagan as the belief system that most closely matched my beliefs.  Seems odd, since I consider myself far from a pagan, but...okay... 

I took the quiz again about a month later, and got the same result.  So, that was last year. 

I decided to take the quiz again, today, and here is the list of  belief systems that apparently match mine:

1.     Reform Judaism (100%)
2.     Unitarian Universalism (90%)
3.     Sikhism (88%)
4.     Liberal Quakers (82%)
5.     Neo-Pagan (82%)
6.     New Age (78%)
7.     Mahayana Buddhism (77%)
8.     New Thought (73%)
9.     Bahaii Faith (71%)
10.     Orthodox Judaism (71%)
11.     Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (69%)
12.     Scientology (66%)
13.     Jainism (63%)
14.     Theravada Buddhism (62%)
15.     Islam (61%)
16.     Hinduism (60%)
17.     Secular Humanism (51%)
18.     Taoism (50%)
19.     Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (48%)
20.     Orthodox Quaker (47%)
21.     Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (33%)
22.     Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (30%)
23.     Nontheist (26%)
24.     Eastern Orthodox (22%)
25.     Roman Catholic (22%)
26.     Seventh Day Adventist (22%)
27.     Jehovah's Witness (18%)

Note that I match Reform Judaism by 100%...this should make my parents flinch.  They are Catholics and I only have 22% of my beliefs in common with them.  This should surprise no one who knows me.

So this is how I amuse myself on a Saturday afternoon where it is 92 degrees outside and I have exhausted myself with a morning full of gardening.  Next up on my agenda:  vegging out in front of the TV, watching the College World Series and hoping my team (Oregon State) kicks butt...

baseball fever...

The College World Series is going on and I haven't enjoyed watching baseball so much in years. Oregon State (my alma mater) beat Rice tonight 2-0 and beat them yesterday 5-0.  They are now advancing to the finals, where they will play N. Carolina. 

I have to confess that I never pay much attention to baseball these days, but I have had some great times with the sport. 

My dad took me to some LA Dodger games when I was a kid, growing up in rural LA County.  I didn't really understand the game, but I loved spending time alone with my dad. 

When I was in high school in Visalia, CA, my sisters and friends and I used to go to Visalia Mets games.  It was a great place to meet boys from both the towns' high schools.  Oh yeah, and the games were interesting, too.

When I moved to Oregon in my junior year of high school, I volunteered to be a baseball scorekeeper for our high school team.  I got to go to all the games, both home and away, and sit in the dugout with the team.  I learned alot about the game, which makes watching it so much more interesting. 

During college, I dated a guy who played on the OSU team.  Went to a few games then, too.

Seems that my interest in baseball coincided with my interest in boys (or men, if you consider my dad) and maybe it started out that way.  But I also got attached to the teams that were playing.  I would still rather root for the Dodgers than any other professional team.  I do prefer the Mets to the Yankees because of the Visalia Mets affiliation.  I got very excited and nervous watching OSU play the past couple of days, because that was MY team in college.  And of course, Ross is going to OSU next year.

On Saturday at 4pm, I will be parked in front of my TV, nervously watching OSU play N. Carolina, loving the fact that I have a long association with baseball and that I understand the game.  It will help take my mind off some of the crappy things that have happened in my life in the past 2 weeks and isn't that part of what sport is about?  It is to me.

IF...dance...

I decided that a dancing doll would fit the prompt.  And to fit me, I decided to make her a weird cross between a ballet dancer and a wee folk (note the ridiculous hat!)

When I was little, my family called me Twinkletoes because I always walked around on my tiptoes and wanted to be a ballet dancer.  So, this image is in homage to that younger, dancier me...

IF...jungle...

*click on the illo to see a bigger view*

Just a quick and dirty illustration.  Not much time due to having to reload every program on my computer, having my shower try to kill me, etc.

When I heard the prompt, I thought of a zebra since my daughter, Bonnie, used to just love everything zebra, and has many lovely zebra objects in her room. 

glass-induced panic...

Well, despite surviving an attack by an angry bumblebee this past weekend, today I was again targeted by a crazy, bloodthirsty universe.  I was housecleaning and decided to clean my shower along with everything else...a break from my usual practice of cleaning my shower while I am in it (after the rest of the housecleaning, when I am dirty from that and need hairwashing, etc.).  I have NEVER, to my memory, cleaned my shower without being naked and showering at the same time.

Now, I don't know what possessed me to do something so out of character, but I did.  I cleaned one side of the shower floor, moved that door and then started to slide the other door, when the door came off it's hooks and broke into about a million pieces.  I was barefoot and I realized immediately what was happening and jumped (sideways) out of the bathroom.  Glass had flown out of the shower stall, too, but I didn't manage to cut myself at all.  Practically a miracle right there.  If I had been in that shower, naked, alone in the house, I would have been cut up terribly and would have had to walk over all sorts of glass just to get out. No one would have been there to help me.  I shiver at the mere thought.

I have to hand it to my angels, they are really looking out for me.

In less exciting news:  my bumblebee sting is still red, angry, and about 5 inches across in every direction.  Hope that will calm down soon.

We saw the Al Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth.  It was very worth seeing.  And it has been very well attended here in Portland.  Of course, this IS Portland, land of the tree-huggers...

Ross is doing well, so far, in his volunteer summer job at the Senior Center.  All the little old ladies think he is very cute.  Now, if only that would stop pinching those cute little cheeks...

what the spirit does...

This week has been such a mournful one for me.  Again, I have observed the pain that death inflicts on all of us on this Earth.  I saw this wonderful family deal with the suffering of losing a child.  I saw their bravery, their ability to say "It is what it is, and now we go on."  And I think that they will do that.  Go on.  The father, the mother, the two teen-aged daughters all rest their pain on each other and know that they will have each other (and many others) to rely on when they think they will no longer be able to bear it.  They all have an incredible faith, in God, in an afterlife. 

I have seen this before, when my nephew died a few years ago.  I marveled, then, at my sister, her husband, and her daughter, at their generosity of spirit, at their ability to accept the gifts of togetherness and love that everyone brought to them from their community and their family and their friends.  They bore it all with such grace.  They were an inspiration to me, just as this other family is. 

Of course, I have seen how the death of a child has destroyed families, too.  We had a French exchange student, years ago, who died shortly after her time with us.  Her parents fell apart in their grief, unable to cope with the pain of losing their daughter.  Their family is a empty shell of the rich thing that it had been before. 

And last year, we went to the funeral of a child who drowned at age one year and felt that mother's pain, as she lay on the floor, weeping, while the tiny casket of her child rolled down the aisle.  She is still struggling, unable to accept the horrible thing that has happened to her, and I wonder if she will let her life become an empty shell, too.  Too soon to tell, I suppose, but the direction it is taking is not good. 

I see all this, and I wonder which tack I would take.  I like to believe that I would be the strong one, who would be able to see all the other wonderful things that God has given me and seek consolation in that, but I wonder... You never know till it happens to you and I pray that it never, ever does.  I don't want my life challenged in that way.  I am afraid I would fail, and that depresses me. 

I guess I will just keep praying for all of these families, and hope that no more tragedy comes their way, or comes mine.

IF...portrait...

*click to make the illo a little larger*

I thought that I would use the base of last weeks illo and build my portait around it.  I changed her clothes, her eye color, then 'painted' a background for her.  Finished off with the artists signature, and voila!

Then, made my banner a little bit more complicated, with someone viewing the portait.  This was a fun exercise.

tragedy rears its ugly head...

This weekend, there was a terrible tragedy for a couple in our neighborhood, in our circle of friends.  They lost their 11-year-old son in an accident while he was on a Boy Scout outing.  And his father was there at the time.  The boys were playing on some logs and this boy either fell off the log or the log turned and caused him to fall, not sure which...and got a fatal head injury.

How does one come to grips with this sort of tragedy?  There is no way to comfort these people, besides with a thoughtful note and with your presence but that is so little.  I look at my life and I am so thankful that now, in this moment, I have my kids and my husband and we are all safe and together. 

mom's duties...

Adam was flu-ish today.  He was supposed to be going to a luncheon with his dad with Howard Dean as the keynote speaker but he had to beg off due to said bad stomach.  What's a mother to do?  Well, mother him, of course.  That's Adam, not Howard Dean.

I went to the store and gathered things together and made Adam my homemade Chicken Soup, guaranteed to cure you of just about anything.  My secret?  Using pre-made chicken stock (my favorite being Knorr's), and one of those store-roasted chickens.  I separate the meat from the bones and skin.  I cover the bones/skin in a stockpot and cover it with chicken stock, bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for at least an hour.  Then I throw out the bones/skin, add chopped green onion, potato, carrots, and green beans and cook till the vegetables are tender.  Add the chicken meat, warm through, and voila...really wonderful, rich chicken soup.   Not like Campbell's, that's for certain. 

Adam is feeling better, hopefully now well-enough to start his drive to Montana tomorrow.  We'll see in the morning.  Mom-1, Flu-0. 

My mom never made chicken soup, but she was always very nurturing, especially when we were ill.  I have many memories of her sitting next to my bed, holding my hand and stroking my head.  She made me toast and bananas for a bad tummy.  She had this odd regimen for a sore throat, wrapping a warm cloth loosely around my neck, then covering that with a wool scarf.  That was the one 'cure' that I really hated.  I had the feeling of being strangled, even though the cloth was never too tight.  I just hated having something around my neck. 

Funny, Adam is almost 22 and I still want to 'mother' him.  And the really lovely thing was how he thanked me for my efforts.  All worth it...really!