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I spent the last few days on the beach in Florida with various members of my crazy family. It was a lovely break. Here a few photos from the trip, trying to catch up on the August Break.
Spending several days on the beach, makes me even more certain that I want to live closer to the ocean. The sound of the waves and the smell of the sea...I can't think of anything better.
I am heading to the beach for a few days of rest, relaxation and time with my family. I'll see you on the flip side...and I'm sure these will be in full bloom by then.
This little guy was just hanging on the garage door when I got to work. So beautiful!
I couldn't help taking more pictures of this lovely hummingbird. He showed up right after some pretty bad thunderstorms. I guess he was hungry.
It turns out I actually have 2 hummingbirds that visit. I do love watching them flit around, just beautiful.
Some days its just not worth making the bed.
I received this lovely surprise in the mail yesterday. This is a bowl that I created on my last visit to LA with the patient instruction from Linda of Peach Tree Pottery fame. Since it was 2 months ago that I created this, the size of the bowl has grown (my fish tale) in my mind anyway so I was surprised by the actual size. But I love it! And the surprise message inside from the lovely Swirly Girl, well that just made my day.
This little beauty was hanging out beside my car. I like to think she was waiting for me so I could take her picture. Although maybe she was just hanging in the shade. I'll never know.
I am a little late with today's post because I knew I wanted to take some photos at the Sheryl Crow & Colbie Caillat concert tonight. I wish I brought my giant zoom lens but my little Panasonic worked just find. It was a great concert. Music is such a big part of my life...not that I play anything (I used to play flute in HS) or sing but I can't imagine life without music. And I try to see as many concerts as I can. I had never seen Sheryl Crow and have always loved her music so thanks to Zoe and Bob for letting my tag along tonight!
Oh and the giant LOVE sign...I knew I had to get a picture of that for Jen! I might need to get one of those for my home...I'm thinking I would put it in the dining room...because we all need a sparkly spinning LOVE!
Some days I miss the solitude of the my house in the woods, but not too often. Usually I miss it when my neighbors slam their doors or kids run up and down the stairs shouting all the way. Most days I like having people around, even if their noises can annoy me and I'm not social with any of them. I guess it makes me feel less alone with people near by.
First thing this morning I found a small amount of quiet in my apartment complex. The sun hadn't made its presence known yet but the clouds were all too happy to keep her at bay for a little while.
My table of photos representing so much love. The Buddha belonged to my Grandmother as did the claw foot table they are sitting on. I love having these items in my home, as they constantly remind me of her.
Happy Friday!
Things are looking up!
The last 2 days I've posted photos of water. It is so very hot here in NC so I'm focused on staying cool which is really hard when the heat index is 100+.
In the process of cleaning out papers and shredding stuff I no longer need, I found some papers from my last job. There were stock option letters and performance reviews but the one I found most interesting was an assessment that was done in October, 2003. I honestly do not remember doing this but I have to say that the summary is quite interesting. It is one time when I'm glad I saved something that I normally would have tossed.
Melissa's task preferences are (in order of preference): doing something that helps others or society, teaching, building or making something, doing something artistic, fixing or repairing something, and working with her hands. She prefers to avoid the following tasks (listed according to greatest dislike first): driving a vehicle, working with computers, doing tasks that need to be done precisely, doing tasks that need to be done systematically, working with numbers and doing clerical work. She would be interested in work that involves travel, and writing/language. Melissa lacks interest in animals (not true), health/medicine, and electronics. She needs a work environment that involves lots of activity and sounds, and the opportunity to occasionally get up and move around.
Melissa is quite able to deal with stress when it occurs. She is extremely helpful and conscious of others' needs. This is reasonably balanced and will help her have positive interactions with others. She is quite self-accepting. Melissa enjoys trying to influence others. She is very empathetic and warm. Her warm-heartedness will enable her to influence others more successfully. There are some interpersonal areas in which she could improve. She may often have difficulty being frank or direct. She may tend to be a little self-sacrificing at times.
Melissa is highly motivated by a chance to have decision-making authority, an opportunity to do something worthwhile for society, receiving recognition, and an opportunity to be in a leadership position. She is demotivated by goals unrelated to her own.
Melissa is comfortable in a decision-making role. She has a good balance between accepting responsibility for decisions and collaborating with others. She is somewhat conservative with regard to taking risks. When making decisions, Melissa is willing to try a new approach to a situation. She does not have much interest in planning. She is very interested in being in a leadership position.
How many signs from the universe do I need I wonder?
We always focus on the beauty of the flowers but what about the stems?
This weekend I finally tackled THE closet. I took several bags to Goodwill, a few bags to recycling and one big bag of packing peanuts to UPS. And I'm not done yet! Here are a few things that I'm ready to send to a new home. If this was a gift from you, please do not take offense as I have enjoyed these for a very long time but its time for them to move on.
If you are interested in any of these, please leave a comment or send me an email and I'll send it off to you. If you want to see different views let me know and I'll send you additional photos. Ok...now I must go continue to sort and organize.
This is what I do on Saturday mornings...drink my coffee and read the paper. Its a small paper so it doesn't take long but its my Saturday, and Sunday for that matter, morning ritual. When I'm done, I can begin the tasks for the day.
Enjoy your weekend!
We have been having some wicked thunderstorms this week. I was awakened yesterday morning at 1:20am by loud thunder, blinding lightening and blowing rain. Instead of rolling over and trying to go back to sleep, I hoped out of bed and grabbed my camera. Um, why would I do such a thing? I was trying to get a good picture of the lightening strikes but with all the rain, I couldn't capture it. With more thunderstorms predicted this weekend, maybe I'll be able to get some good ones. I just hope I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night to do it.
In last Sunday's paper, there was an article about finding your dream job, "To Find My Dream Job, I Didn't Just Dream." It was really interesting and it got me thinking. I don't think I've ever had a 'dream' job!
When I was little, I wanted to be a ballerina (what little girl didn't?). Other than that, I never had a clear dream of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I'm sure at some point I wanted to be a wife and mother (because you know that's just what you did) but never had that aha moment of THIS is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I've kind of fallen into jobs over the years. When I was in high school and then summers in college, I worked in various jobs for the same company as my mother. I was a receptionist, a bookkeeper, and a credit analyst. In college, I got my degree in psychology and thought I would go on to get my master's and maybe PHD so I could be a therapist. Then a week after graduation, I was sidetracked due to the death of my brother. I went back to work for the same company as my mother and ended up in Human Resources, although it was called Personnel back in those days. I kind of fell into it but I managed to make a career in HR for over 10 years. I did pretty well, made my way to a Director level position in Corporate America, made a good salary and then as the company grew, it got more and more corporate. I wasn't enjoying it anymore and I didn't feel like I could make a difference. So one day I had a conversation with my father, who was also disillusioned with the corporate world, about starting his own business and he asked if I'd want to join him, I decided why not? I grew up around the building business so why not give new home construction a try. We have a small family business and initially I thought this would be my career for the rest of my life...I'd take over the business one day.
It has been almost 5 years since I got into the construction business and I got in right at the end of the housing boom. We've been lucky as a small business and have survived through the ups and downs. I have learned a lot about construction, marketing and running a business. But I have realized that this is not my Dream job nor is it my passion.
So now I am once again exploring what I want to do when I grow up. And during this period of exploration, I have realized that there isn't just ONE thing that I want to do. There isn't one label I can put on myself so when people ask what do you do for a living, I won't have an easy answer. I'm ok with that, but I'm not sure how everyone else will view it. What label will they put on me? Why do we have to put a label on everyone? And who says we only have to do one thing for our whole lives? Who made these rules? I really do envy those people who have always known what they wanted to do/be and are doing it. That's just not me...and I am learning to accept that.
There is so much more I want to write on this topic of labels and judgements but I don't have all of my thoughts together yet. I definitely want to explore this further...so I'll be back with more on this soon. And maybe I'll have it all figured out...HA!