If Only......

I've been working tonight - 7 hours just circling numbers in the phone book...
Everyone went to bed and my MP3 player has played through 2 batteries, so here I sit, alone in the silence circling....
At times like this, I give my imagination license to run free and unfettered - and my dears, tonight it ran completely amok.

This is where my thoughts led me tonight....

If only....I were a writer - I would begin by re-writing every fairy tale, and start liberating princesses!
Cinderella would no longer be held hostage by unattractive and evil tempered step-persons. She would make her escape by dark of night, and wander the kingdom until she was taken in by a kindly retired school marm. She would exchange cooking and light housekeeping for an education. After which, she would win a scholarship and attend the university where she would study by day, entertain at the karaoke hut by night, and volunteer at the local orphan's day camp on the weekends.
When Prince Charming strolls in and tries to pick her up - she will tell him to take his sorry Royal butt back to his throne and park it!
Cindy prefers the not-so-charming but much more sincere abacus nerd.
She will marry him, and when the Prince's kingdom is invaded by Huns and overthrown, she will be snug and secure in her million dollar compound with her doting mate and their slightly clumsy but genius children. (Heck, maybe she will even mastermind the overthrow and instate a democracy!) She will hold seminars during the summer empowering young maidens to take charge of their own happiness because as everyone knows, Princes are overrated anyway - they are big-eared mommas boys who cheat on their wives! Ha ha!

If only.....I were a painter - I would find a way to infuse music into my paints. Music is pure emotion pesonified - so when you looked at my work, you would not only be enthralled by my use of color and light, you would also be profoundly moved by it's rhythm, passion and love. You would leave my gallery emotionally spent, but ever so much the better person for it.

If only.....I were a dancer -
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I'm sorry - I've been hunched over my desk for 7 straight hours, my muscles are tense, cramped and aching - there's no way I can even imagine this one - this division of the arts that will have to do without me!

If only......I could do any other job besides circling phone books!

Good night - it's time to put my imagination to bed.

How to Deal....

I left this as a comment on someone else's blog a while back, but I dredged it up today, because I'm feeling the need to take my own advice. Life has been a bit of a struggle lately. So, here's some advice to me - apply it to yourself as you will...

Here are a few of the solutions that I apply, depending on where I'm at in life...
1. Wallow. Sometimes I just allow myself to feel dang stinking BAD! I cry, I stay in bed all day, I watch stupid stuff on tv...you get the drill. It purges all that yucky karma out of me, so that I can just get over it and move on. *NOTE, The moving on part is very important here, as people do not enjoy being around people who choose only to wallow - all the time. It's very annoying. (That is why wallowing is best done alone - it is not a group activity!)
2. Laugh. Sometimes, bad things happen, then more bad things happen, and on and on until it just begins to feel so ridiculous, that there is nothing else to do but laugh about it. Laughter then produces more laughter, which scientists have proven produces hormones which actually make you feel better, which then makes the problem seem smaller - after all, how can bad things happen to happy people?
3. Escape. Removing my self completely from an unhappy reality is often the only way I can cope. Read a book, re-arrange a room, take a weekend vacation...do something positive to change your situation (or at least your outlook!)
4.Talk. Talk to a trusted good friend, who knows you well enough to take what you say for what it's worth, feel your pain, comfort you, and then tuck your "secrets" deep inside and hold them there forever.
5.If all else fails, as the song says: "Search, Ponder, and Pray."
(I've had to use this one a lot over the last few years...maybe that's why my knees are so bad!?!)

Love is in the air....

It's been a slow weekend, and not much blogworthy to report, the highlight of our weekend was going to see the movie "27 Dresses" (cute movie!)... so I thought as it's the week of Valentine's, I would like to share some Valentine ideas/recipes/etc. this week.
The first one is this yummy looking "Baked Hot Chocolate" that I saw on "Good Things Utah" (a local morning show) I haven't tried it yet, but the lady who sampled it on the show said it tasted like liquid brownies! Mmmmmm!



Baked Hot Chocolate
Ingredients:

9 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 ounces butter
4 whole eggs
1/4 cup sugar

Combine chocolate and butter in a mixing bowl and melt over a double boiler; combine eggs and sugar in a separate mixing bowl and warm over double boiler until warm to the touch; transfer egg mixture to mixer and whip until fluffy; fold whipped eggs into melted chocolate; divide evenly into 4 bake proof dishes and bake at 350 degrees for 17 to 20 minutes.

Chef: Kevin Donovan
Executive Chef - Log Haven
Original Recipe credited to Heidi Friedlander

For more information on Log Haven Nature, Nurture, Nourishment
Visit: www.log-haven.com

Puppy Ponderings...

What makes dogs think they are people?
Seriously.
If say, you brought a goat into the house and fed it and cared for it, would it jump up and wag it's tail whenever you came in the door? Would it protect and defend your home as if it were his own? Would he grovel at your feet and roll over for a belly rub?
I think not.
So then, what is it about dogs that make them think this is proper behavior?
The canine pictured above is our resident "pup" who goes by the name of Anthony.
After our last dog.....left home.....I made a decree that there would never be another dog in this house. I was tired of the mess and the smell, and the animal hair in the carpet, and all other things associated with having a pet, and I was done.
(This doggie had to be taken away because he did not do well around small children - and there were a lot in the neighborhood. He was always biting them, then the police would come - not good.)
The kids went over my head and brought this one home anyway. (Typical!)
For that reason and that reason alone, Anthony and I can never be friends.
(At least not while anyone is looking!)
He does however, think he's one of us, and as I am matriarch of the family, he tries to appease me.
There have been times that I've been "lonely" and "bored" enough to pay him a little attention. (wink wink) .....I do take him on walks with me, you know just for - "utilitarian purposes" - no one else will go with me, and a woman does need a little protection in this world after all...
Sometimes I like to "mess with his head" and play little "psych" games with him, (you know, like "who's there Anthony? - go get 'em!) ...but this only confuses him and he doesn't even get what I'm trying to get him to do (he's a lot like my husband in this way...) The dog I had as a kid would play this game with me - proving that not all dogs have the same mental capacity - but I digress....
I did manage to teach him several tricks (thanks to The Animal Planet) which he does very well - but he's not great at obedience otherwise...
One day, I was feeling unusually magnanimous, and I sat down on the floor next to him and patted my lap for him to come and sit with me.
He was stunned.
He looked around as if to say; "Who, me?...really?....are you sure?" Hilarious.
I did finally convince him that I was sincere, and he did come and sit on my lap for a bit, but he didn't stay long, and he went directly downstairs to his bed - possibly to wake up from such a bizarre dream!
One year, hubby decided we needed a new family picture, so he invited his niece to come over and do some for us. Anthony sat back and watched as we arranged everybody on the couch, and once everyone was in place, he trotted right up to the center of the group, turned around and smiled for the picture!
Cracked. me. up.
I could go on and on about his little quirks, like how he paces the floor and lets the kids know it's time to go to bed, or how he loves to go camping so much that he completely freaks out whenever hubby goes out and moves the trailer, and will even charge down the stairs and ram his head into the front door, but I don't want to be a bore...
E.B. White said that

"A really companionable dog is an accident of nature. You can't get it by breeding for it, and you can't buy it with money, it just happens along."

For whatever reason, this dog has chosen us and made us his.
Period.

(I tease the kids that I would never waste my scrapbook supplies on him, but I never said I wouldn't blog...ha ha!)