Succumbed to the ol' critter call to bed!
Sleep tight, Rae!
(grin)
Rae's Lacey story brought back an old smile of mine: I was trying to post to Abuzz, but every time I typed something it would disappear as soon as I stopped. It took me a moment to realise that although Murray was ASLEEP on the desk he was still interfering. You see, Murray's what I call a "chin rester;" he has to rest his chin on something when he sleeps. That particular evening he chose my escape key.
The good fortune of a friend made me smile today. She's moving to the midwest, leaving Friday, into a small basement apartment that she'll be sharing with her boyfriend for the next six months. Anyhow, she wasn't going to be able to take her cat. I told her I'd take the cat in. My friend and I decided that if I took the cat I'd have to keep her rather than put her through the stress of being uprooted a second time once my friend is settled into a house. (Getting a five year old cat to integrate into a home with two others already living there is tough enough on all three animals, but separating them later could be just as bad.) She finally wore her parents down. They have no pets and they've agreed to take Azreal in until my friend can take her. She'll also be only two hours away instead of twelve.
Truth be told, I think the separation would have been tougher on my friend than on the cat.
Received a E-mail from my son who lives in Europe and his wife who is expecting any day told me that they visited the hospital where she is to give birth. The smile is because I never expected my confirmed bachelor son to get married much less to become a father.
My first (planned) and second (unplanned) 'wet exits' from a kayak.
The sun came out today. First time that it has come out and stayed out for any length of time since April.
One of my employees got married yesterday. It was planned to be outside for a long time and, given the bad weather lately, we were pessimistic about Saturday afternoon. Especially after the deluge we had on Friday evening.
Saturday started out partly sunny. Clouds came in around noon, bringing some wind and drizzle. But by the time we had all gathered at the wedding site, an old inn, it was partly sunny or partly cloudy.
Perhaps this isn't the right site...but here goes anyway:
We don't get invited to very many weddings anymore. People our age have seen our children and our friends' children get married.
The next generation seem to get married somewhere else.
There was a couple who conducted the wedding. They belong to a deeply religious group (some might call it a commune) but they are adept at performing a non-denominational ceremony.
Some quick thoughts:
--there was no mention of Jesus or of God. There were references to a "Supreme Being;"
--at some point in the ceremony, an usher passed around the rings that the couple would exchange. Each guest could touch them and
wish the best for our friends;
--after the vows were exchanged, the couple running the ceremony spoke to the young couple who had just been married, sharing some advice from there own forty years together. They mentioned that they wouldn't be "preaching" but if anyone from the audience wanted to listen in, they could;
--and, finally, before the photographer started moving everyone around, before the reception line etc etc that wouldn't end until midnight, it was suggested that the couple spend a few minutes together to reflect upon what had just happened.
(What really made me smile, though was this: There were folks from age 5 to 85; there were some guys who are policemen; an Air-Force pilot; the lead singer from a Goth band; and a whole bunch of other people with wierd piecings in their ears, noses, eyelids. Is this a great country or what)
RJB
Sounds like quite a scene
interesting marriage, rjb. so it can be done that way, too - sounds cool.
i like marriages that are done in a special way. a girl from one of the students' flats i lived in got married with great ritual - kinda like the opposite of what you describe, cause it was very traditional, very catholic - but thats a rare sight nowadays, and i thought it was really interesting. she was very active in the national catholic youth, or something, and an actual bishop came to speak at her wedding and bless them! it was a huge church full of people ... only other marriages i've seen were either civil (i.e., city clerk does his regular 10-minute speech, photos are taken, and out you file again), or, the one, pentacostalist, which was surprisingly low-key and sobre. pity.
what made me smile today: i decided to go on a ride on my bicycle, and cycled down through the springbuurt, a picturesque downtown neighbourhood. i've seen pictures of it from the 70s, though, and at the time it was dilapitated! and i was just picturing what this, that street must have been like, and how, in a way, it was also kinda pity how it'd been sanitized, in a way. and then i turned a corner into one of the "seven alleyways", and looked straight up into the scene that i'd been imagining. everyone outside, sitting on the chairs they dragged out into the street to enjoy the evening sun, they got a fire going in a metal grill-thing that they put smack in the middle of the street, got their can of beer, joking to each other in this fat local accent, and being all at ease in owning their own little sidestreet. had to manoeuvre my bicycle through the scene, and was smiling.
AMC had Ghost on again. The song Unchained Melody has a special significance to me. I sing karaoke and that is my "signature" song. When you sing regularly with other singers they know it's your song and won't sing it just so you will the only one that night to do it. Perhaps because of the music I find it to be more special than I normally would. Don't laugh but I get a little teary during it. The last time I sang it there was a couple just about to leave and stayed when they heard that was to be the song. When I started singing the man walked over and sang it with me. Some singers might be offended by something like that but not me. I'm happy he did.
Reading the political threads and seeing all the left wing A2K liberals with their stomachs all in a knot over the Bush administration has me ROTFL!
cjhsa wrote:Reading the political threads and seeing all the left wing A2K liberals with their stomachs all in a knot over the Bush administration has me ROTFL!
Sounds like a joyless existence if that's how you get smiles.
May you be visited with......
REAL happiness.
I just finished reading one of Shakespeare's plays, & the last 3 acts made me smile.
Hi Dux,
Welcome to A2K.
There are lots of very nice and very bright people here from all over the U.S. and the globe.
I hope you like it.
http://home.wanadoo.nl/annekebroenink/maukie2.swf
Rae -- here's a cyberkitty for you. It reminded me of the kitty in your avatar. Move the pointer around (don't click, just move it around) and her head & eyes will follow it. Rub her tummy and she purrs, scratch her forehead and she meows. She doesn't like it when you rub her ears, though (just like real kitties.) If you run the pointer past her front paws or over her head, she will bat at it. Enjoy!
bobsmyth...Unchained Melody? I'm struggling to remember that (and am too stupid to do some kind of internet search). If memory serves that might have been the Righteous Brothers and we called it Blue-eyed soul. That meant that some white guys had successfully crossed into the "black" genre of music at the same time that non-white musicians made a big impact with white audiences.
Can you give me a few lines from Unchained Melody? Thanks.
rjb:
Oooooh myyyy looove
My darling
I hunger for your touch
(that's all I can remember, but it's the one you're thinking of)
Oh, my love, my darling, I've hungered for your touch a long, lonely time.
Time goes by so slowly and time can do so much, Are You Still Mine?
I need your love, I need your love, God speed your love to me!
Lonely rivers flow to the sea, to the sea, To the open arms of the sea.
Lonely rivers sigh, "Wait for me, wait for me!" I'll be coming home, wait for me!
Oh, my love, my darling, I've hungered for your touch a long, lonely time
Time goes by so slowly and time can do so much, Are You Still Mine?
I need your love, I need your love, God speed your love to me!
Lonely mountains gaze at the stars, at the stars, Waiting for the dawn of the day.
All alone, I gaze at the stars, at the stars, Dreaming of my love for away.
Oh, my love, my darling, I've hungered for your touch a long, lonely time.
Time goes by so slowly and time can do so much, Are You Still Mine?
I need your love, I need your love, God speed your love to me!
---------
The vocal olympics may make the words harder to recognise.
"The Song" on Ghost.
---------
I smiled at my nineteen year old son, all 6'4" of him, in the floor playing with our dog.
What made me smile today? My guests have gone home, they have been here for almost 4 weeks, they are 18 years old, and I'm happy I no longer have to think how an 18 year old thinks!
I look forward to cleaning my house, and getting back to normal, whatever that is!
I smiled and was in shock, when I was able to log onto A2K today, after being uable to do so, for about one month.
