“Now I... I know we're not in Kansas!” ~ Dorothy (Wizard of Oz)

 

Right now it’s black outside, thunder rolling in, severe storm warnings all over the television, news, online, radio…

What a frightening sight… I feel so bad for those who have lost everything and their loved ones to these terrifying storms that are continuing to just sweep over our country.  I have never seen poverty such as I saw when I lived right where the red dot is at the South-end of the State of Illinois.  Our country’s “Heartland” is getting such a beating …and they say this is just the beginning…  

My tornado experiences:

The first time, I sat on a bridge in rush hour traffic, chatting on the phone with my brother, who at the time lived in Seattle.  I looked up and saw a short way away these ribbons coming from the sky into the water, really cool looking “water spouts”… harmless if they remain as water spouts… but they didn’t – they came over and hit land – turning into TORNADOES… they pulled up trees and damaged some homes, but thankfully I wasn’t in the middle of it – and nobody was killed… but I got to see it all happen sitting up high on that bridge.

The second tornado was when I was hurrying to pick up my son because his kindergarten was closing early due to the tornado warnings and bad weather warnings.  As I was flying down the street, everyone came to a huge halt, and I sat there and watched this “wall” go across the road a few feet from the car in front of me… I could not believe my eyes, I could not believe none of us were harmed and there was no damage as we watched a tornado cross the road… by the time I got to the school I was shaking and holding the tears back… and there was my little tow-headed boy jumping into the car all full of excitement because a tornado went through his teacher’s home!!!!!!  Little boys!!!!! Such sweet innocence…poor teacher.

The third tornado was when driving home from Disney World, we were in my little SUV about 10 yrs. ago, my friend, our kids, flying home down the Interstate when we hit some fierce looking storms, and we did not hear the sound of a freight train – instead we felt the air just suck up, out, very strange feeling, and behind us, pulling on my car, goes a tornado across the road… that was scary… I know my son still remembers waking up to wanting to know why we did not wake him up to see it all… he slept through it – how he slept through our screaming is unknown!!!

And, I hope that that is all I ever see or experience….

“Mais, jamais d'la vie!”……

 

The kid and I are invited in a little over a week to spend some time with my friend from Louisiana.  She and her family will be staying in a little ocean front condominium about 1 hours drive from my home.  They are Cajuns, she, my friend, more particularly being born and raised in the Acadiana section, what I call the Bayous…

On her first day of school, at the age of 5 or 6, her dad took her and her siblings (by boat) to the small one room school.  The teacher returned them back to their parents, and said “Until they have shoes and can speak English, they cannot go to school.”  That was a while ago, but NOT that long ago… and she and her family were true and true Cajuns, speaking the French dialect.  She’s tried to keep it alive with her own young-uns, passing down as much of the history, culture and language.  Her brother is a professor of music at one of Louisiana’s universities, and has traveled all over the World introducing Louisiana’s Cajun (historic) music… I feel that Cajuns have a certain “joie de vivre” that makes them so much fun to be around.

When I dated, not that long ago, a guy that works for the oil companies, who also lived in Louisiana, I got introduced to many “Cajuns”.  I found everyone I met to be warm and “jolly”… they loved their food and drink, very much!!!  They loved sitting down and eating, drinking and talking for hours… maybe it’s the closest I can come to how I feel about the Belgians, Dutch and the countryside of France… just this wholehearted enjoyment of the senses, warm personalities… just something that a lot of my country misses out on… 

I was very sad that the man I was dating did not find any enthusiasm in Zydeco or the dance halls/bars - - - and I never got to enjoy that part of the area when I’d go to visit him… but I did get to smell the sweet air of the countryside, the Mimosa trees were in bloom and so fragrant, to see the run down old “Estate” homes, like sad, sad “Taras” or “Monticellos” which once held wonderful soirees in their time… now surrounded by fallow fields, when my “boyfriend” at the time took me on long rides on his motorcycle… we’d ride for hours and hours – on long, pitted, bumpy country roads, stopping here and there in every Whistle Stop on our way to quench the thirst from being in the sun and hot winds… I loved it… I got to see a part of my country I had never seen before… I got to meet people that seemed so friendly and yet, foreign… That ride on the motorcycle was like riding on a time machine, into the 1950s – like the setting of “A Long, Hot Summer” with Paul Newman…

And, don’t let me start with how the men seemed so “appreciative” of the women.  Maybe there was some romance seeped into me because I was visiting a boyfriend, but it just seemed like the men there jumped at the chance to flirt, to hold a door open, to just be appreciative of the female species… I loved it… I just found myself beaming from ear to ear over the small little flirtations … It seems to me, a single woman should not be single very long when living in the Lafayette area – there were plenty of men, and lots of pretty big smiles and twinkling eyes, senses of humor, and my favorite, “joie de vivre”…

Maybe I should go stay with my friend in Louisiana the next time I feel an inkling to find some romance!!!!!!

“I am in a very unsettled condition, as the oyster said when they poured melted butter all over his back” ~ Edward Lear ‘literary nonsense’ (1812-1888)

 

Today is my birthday – and I feel 24 yrs. old…. I’m not… but I feel like it.  My day began with a scurrying to the driver’s license office, and renewed without any issue.  A trip to Starbucks for my free Birthday drink.  Off to work… and my Facebook page was inundated with Birthday wishes from strangers, friends, and family alike… I can’t keep up with all the birthday wishes; never have I had so many people wish me Happy Birthday!!!  Love it… it was a definite brightness to my day – that even a stranger, never meeting me in person, took that few seconds, that one moment, and wished me something positive.  It may seem corny or insignificant, but it isn’t really… a huge world, billions of people, and so far I’ve had over 100+ well wishes… from EVERY continent!!  It provides me hope and faith that there is more positive and goodness in humanity than not…

Good news:  My child is home for the next 3 months on Summer Break.  Last Friday I drove to Miami, after working all day and being sick, and packed him up, slept in the dorm with him, and then drove home the next day, unpacked, and still I am doing laundry.  No Complaints – I am thrilled to feel needed – even if it is just as a laundress.  I am so “co-dependent” and this makes my world go around…  I am planning on taking a nice summer vacation with him this year.  How I’ll afford it, I don’t know – but we’ll be creative and manage. 

Bad news:  My Habibi is (pardon my French) an Asshole/Bastard Cat… He IS… I get a text message the other day with a photo of his puddle on the clean carpet… It says “I regret to inform you, but the asshole peed on your clean carpet, AGAIN!”  He just finished a round of antibiotics – 2 weeks of fighting to shove two pills a day down that little Bastard Cat’s throat.  The only thing keeping him ALIVE, that adorable, smushy, sweet face and the fact that no matter how nasty he can be, he’s one of the loves of my life!!!!  MEN!!!!  {{Just Kidding}}  I’ll be taking him back to the vet this weekend for another urinalysis to see if we cleared up the infection – if it is clear – then he goes on Kitty Valium.

Work:  I had to stop with the overtime and killing myself with all the work and help… I wasn’t being compensated for it, refused compensation, and because of that… I quit putting in that much of my day and night, while other employees abuse and use their positions here – taking advantage every chance they get – the real killer was when I had the office bully slam something down on my desk and then follow it with some ugly offhanded comment – all completely unprovoked and unnecessary.  I’d already been advised of her attempts at alienating me from my co-workers with gossip and belittling me and my work and abilities.  Jealousy? I would say so….