School Daizzey

My Daisy girl is off to school this week! In case you haven't seen one of my millions of other blogs...I am pre-adopting a greyhound named Daisy and she leaves for racing "school" this week. It seems like just yesterday that we were all huddled around our computers awaiting the birth of her litter (right in the middle of hurricane Bonnie last year!!) and now she's a big girl and going to school...and she's so beautiful. Enjoy.

From this...


To this...*swoon*


Be good in school, Daisy Girl...no cheating, pay attention, and learn to run like the wind!!!

A Suggestion for Lunch

Y'all...Let me share something wonderful I've discovered. One day Scott came home from the grocery with "Heluva Good" sharp cheddar cheese, presumably b/c he thought the name was amusing.

It was the best cheese I've ever had.

Today, for lunch, I'm having Heluva Good Bacon Horseradish dip with Fritos. Not terribly atkins but who cares. MAN is this stuff good. And the website, featured in the title above, has recipes for using their products in other stuff. I can't wait to make my own hummus using their dill dip!!

Try it. Lives up to the name.

Miranda, from "The Tempest", by JW Waterhouse

My wallpaper, starting today...I want to make a copy of this gown for the renn fest, but it's going to be a challenge since I can't see the front. I just love the blue and red...Waterhouse was a genius. Isn't Miranda beautiful? 

A Moment of Freedom

I got my new debit card yesterday.

To most that is a tiny thing, but to me it's HUGE. The name at the bottom of the card is Nancy E Allen.

Allen.

When the divorce is done, I'm taking my maiden name back, and it will take an act of bloody CONGRESS for me to change it again. To me, that represents who I am. The young woman that wants to be someone's mom. The young woman who kinda got lost for the past 7 years. But no more...she's coming back.

The debit card is the first step toward that freedom...freedom to be who I really am.

Nancy Elizabeth ALLEN.

A bit of sunshine

I'm currently in a holding pattern. My current employer is trying to match the offer I've gotten from the new job in Georgia...and honestly, I hope that he will be able to do so. The difference between moving up the road to Greenville where I know people and moving out of state to Georgia where I don't know anyone really but my sister and her husband is daunting. Not that I wouldn't want to live near Susan and Dave, but...I'm just becoming quickly overwhelmed by this whole process.

Not to mention Greenville would be closer to Jeany, who will be going to live with her Daddy, and closer to the Carolina Renn Fest which is an absolute passion of mine...

I talked with my mom on the phone yesterday...she's been the person I figured would have the most objection to me remaining in South Carolina...and she was okay with me making the decision that's best for me. Pretty darned pleased about that.

Now we wait to see what the offer is...

A little Alanis heals all wounds...

Boy...I've been up on 12 the past few days huh? Stressed out, letting people and things get to me...and then I remembered something I discovered a few weeks ago at the RID conference in San Antonio.

I was standing in Starbucks waiting for my chai latte and listening to the Oh-So-Hip tunage that they always have playing in that Oh-So-Hip type of establishment when I suddenly recognized some of the words. It was "Perfect" by Alanis Morissette...but it was a different version than I'd heard before.

"Jagged Little Pill Acoustic" is one of the coolest albums I've heard in awhile. JLP was an important album in my life anyway, because it came out the summer I was in Scunthorpe and I LOVED it. Every time I hear "You Oughta Know," I remember asking the man in the record shoppe for JLP because "I've been dying to get it for the longest time..." only to have him tell me it had only just come out in the UK. Ooops...

Anyway, I've been listening to it since I downloaded it and it's amazing how much more calm I feel. I know a lot of folks aren't Alanis fans...but I think she's pretty awesome.

More Dram-a

Some days, for me at least, the old addage is very true: "The more people I meet, the more I like my dogs."

I will freely admit that one of the driving forces in my life is to feel like I am needed. I am not a "loner." I am most unhappy when I am alone. The dogs make me happy because they need me. As much as I hate to admit it, I think that's why I chose the profession I am in currently. The two parties that don't share a common language need me to be there in order to communicate.

So why is it that I surround myself with friends that don't need me? Not all of them, mind you...but it seems that the ones that end up being the most important to me are the ones that could take me or leave me in their lives? Let me give you an example. I have a friendship that has developed via email based around a common interest. This friend means the world to me, but I never feel like I am enough to satisfy what this person needs. We argue about it, even...I am either trying too hard to "take care" of my friend (something that unfortuately for me comes so naturally I don't realize I'm doing it) or I don't care anymore about the person (in that person's perspective). Now in my humble-and-sometimes-wrong point of view, this friend of mine tends to push people away, comes out swinging and apologizes later sometimes, and generally is unwilling to let people in.

So why do I keep trying?

Because that same person can be a loving, compassionate, fun, caring person, and I keep trying in the hopes that I will settle on the right combination of actions/words that will bring back the friend that I enjoy spending time with...silly, isn't it? I'm sure that a lot of the problems in that friendship wouldn't even happen if it was a face to face relationship rather than via the internet...

Our world has gotten so much smaller due to the internet, but at the same time, some of us couldn't be further apart.

Maybe I just need coffee.

Changed my desktop...it is mid-week after all. This is one of my forays into digital artwork... Profile in Black and White... 

Late Night Grumblings

You know what makes me really mad? Things that are out of my control. I'm really not a control freak...I don't have to be in charge, I don't long to be the leader, nothing of the sort. But things that hurt me or upset me that I have no control over...situations where I have to just sit back and take the pain/hurt feelings/anger/whatever and I can't do a darned thing to fix it just drive me insane.

I play (am addicted to) an online game, and tonight was playing with a friend and everything just went south. It didn't matter what I did, it was wrong and ended badly...and my friend just up and left. That's been happening a lot lately (me not playing as well as I usually do, being distracted, etc), and I know it's because I just have too much on my mind.

But that's not the only gripe on the agenda tonight. I wish from time to time that I could see into the future...just a glimpse...because if I am ever faced with a decision I will inevitably make the wrong decision. For example, if I was faced with a decision to jump onto a raft with a virtual stranger and sail off to a new land where I knew no one but that stranger OR to stay where I am with people I know and I am safe and comfortable, I will think about the decision as I am jumping onto the raft and pushing out to sea. And equally as often I end up on the raft alone because the virtual stranger has left me.

Man am I in a foul mood tonight. I have a decision staring me in the face now. My job here in SC is working to match the offer I've gotten from the new job in GA. If they can, I am inclined to stay because it is the easier of the two paths. Is it better? No clue...my track record as illustrated by the raft above would tend to say no, that I should just head on back home to GA. The rational me says that one or two major life changes at a time are more than enough, and moving out of state is only going to stress me out more.

Then there's my family. I can't even mention the possibility of staying in SC to them without retaliation. But in the end it is my decision...and I find myself actually hoping that SC can match the offer just so I don't have to move far from where I am now.

It's another one of those nights that makes me want to crawl in the bed and just stay there. I need a doggie to snuggle with...

House Shopping, continued

House shopping officially sucks. That house was perfect. It was beyond perfect. The crown molding made me want to weep. The backyard is fenced. There is a deck. The picture window in the front was beyond gorgeous.

And someone else got to it first.

The folks renting it were more than nice, and I don't bear any ill will toward them. They have made that house exquisite. It's not their fault that I'm slow, or that the other folks got to it first.

My sister and her husband drove me around that neighborhood and we got some numbers for me to call tomorrow on some other houses for rent. I'm also going to check Craig's List and Creative Loafing now that I know where the neighborhoods are.

It's hard to fight the urge to give up though. I guess I jinxed it after all.

New Week, New Desktop Wallpaper... Jeany, preparing to devour us all!!! 

House Shopping

I'm off to see one of the properties today. I just hope I don't make a total fool of myself...I also hope that my sister and maybe her husband can go with me because I never can think of the right things to say/ask/etc. when I'm on the spot. I know I need to grow up and learn how, but it's just so awkward for me.

I also hope that this will work out because I need to have a plan here. Getting a divorce, moving to another state, changing jobs...it's all pretty overwhelming when done simultaneously. I look at my other friends who've gotten divorced and I know they had stress...heck, one friend moved out of the country!! I just feel like I'd like to crawl back into bed some days and just stay there.

Ah well...off to find the iron so I can at least look sort of presentable today. No going all hippied out this time. Gotta look like a grown-up...even if I am not sure I can act like one...

Another Addendum

Remember what I said about jinxing it?

The cheaper of the two prospects responded that they prefer tenants to only have 2 animals, and they have $150 non-refundable pet fee per animal. She then went on to ask how many I had, what size, and what breed. I'm sure that when she sees "greyhound" she'll think "horse" and 3 cats...well, needless to say I wrote her back, thanked her for her time, and said I didn't think I was a good match for that apartment.

The house, however...

Once again, trying not to jinx it...but I have been invited to call for a time to go see it as it has not yet been spoken for!! I'm hoping to go Sunday, and take Amy (oldest and dearest friend) and maybe even Susan (my beautiful sister) and Dave (her husband) with me. It's sooooo cute, and so close to everything to which I need to be close. I'm very excited...but not too excited. Hear that, Karma? Not tooooo excited...

Is it Karma or just really good luck?

So I wander over to one of my favorite haunts on the internet, one of my greyhound message boards, and I find a post from one of the members about how she's selling some furniture via Craig's List and it's going well. I decided to look around the Atlanta version just to see what they had, and clicked on the real estate/apartments/etc. link.

I found two of the most fantastic properties for rent!!! Just gorgeous, both allow cats and dogs... Part of me is saying it's too good to be true, and part is saying that it's fate. I get a job back home in Georgia, making 10k more than I am now...and I find not one but two places that are close to where I need to be that allow me to keep my animals!! And they are rentals...so no yard work...even on the one that's a house, the owner does the yard work.

I just hope they email me back. I'm so afraid to be too happy and jinx it, but the absolute perfectness of these two places is just unbelievable. Someone up there seems to be looking out for this wayward child after all...

Me again

Yeah, so it's a bloggy kinda day. The A/C is acting up so it's hot in here, there's another of the typical afternoon thunderstorms we get this time of year threatening, and I just feel like a bump on a log.

I live in a relatively good neighborhood...or so I thought. Relatively safe, anyway...however...

Some time ago, Scott told me that our neighbors had told him that the sheriff's department was contacting folks here to warn them that someone was stealing checks out of mailboxes on our street. ON MY STREET! Why they were warning and not...I don't know...doing something about it I am not sure, but far be it from me to question the ways of law enforcement.

Well, the unthinkable has happened to us. Scott's old employer owed him some money, and sent us a check that we never got. We waited and waited and finally had to ask them to directly deposit the money. It was only after that was done that the company discovered that the check actually had arrived in our mailbox, only to be removed and cashed at a gas station here in Anderson.

Someone stole from us!!! I feel rather violated...not as bad as I did the time my tires got slashed in college because I knew the person that did the slashing. But to know that it was probably while I was working from the house is disturbing. It has been reported to the authorities, however, and we will be getting a post office box for the remainder of our time in this house.

Yeesh.

What's on my desktop wallpaper at the moment: "Mom, seriously, don't ruin the black bean chili with the guacamole doritos. I mean it." 

"Karaoke for the Deaf" video

Just because I can't seem to stop blogging today...

I was introduced to this vid by a colleague and good friend of mine, Katy. A few disclaimers...it is NOT real sign language, and anyone that gets upset over that fact or thinks that this is making fun of deaf people and/or interpreters should A. relax and B. don't click on the link. It is also on the PG-13 end of the spectrum, but is just one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I'm sharing it with everyone I know...and everytime I watch it, just as I was told I would, I see something that I didn't notice before.

This is one of the members of the Hollow Men, a Monty Python-esque comedy troupe that I think are just brilliant. Watch and enjoy.

"...what your heart is...FOUR."

Addendum

Gracious...once again, I am saddened by reports of attacks in London. I love the UK, and would move there if it would not require me to learn an entirely new language in order to continue to work. My prayers and thoughts are with my good friend liz and her family as well as all Londoners.

A link to good and up to date London information, courtesy of liz's blog.

I like electrons. Hello!

If you've read my dog blog, "Dog Days," then you know who I am already. If you haven't, let me introduce myself. I'm Nan, and this is my blog. I'm a 30-something sign language interpreter currently living in South Carolina but most likely moving back home to Georgia very soon. While I still plan to post to my dog blog, I needed some space from it after I lost my 15yr old greyhound Liz, whose beautiful face adorns the template for that blog. (Many thanks to my non greyhound friend liz dunne for the template!!)

"Isn't the lettuce brave?" comes from a workshop I recently attended at my national professional conference. The workshop's topic was American Sign Language Dysfluency in psychotic deaf patients...a fancy way to say that the language of a mentally ill deaf person is sometimes a bit wacky...but to me it's fascinating. Anyway, the lettuce quote was a response by a mentally ill person to a question posed by a clinician, and I just thought it was great!! The title of this post came from the same person, at the end of the lettuce paragraph.

So anyway...this is me, and this is my blog. Enjoy.