ha a falling out with my cousin. She's been mad at me for years, so what else is new, I might say. Well she finally told me exactly how she's been feeling about me, dredged up shit that happened (and some stuff that did not happen) when we were teenagers. I hate to say it, but I think I'm done with it. I'm so tired of worrying about whether or not she's going to be friendly to me when I see her at family gatherings. When I asked her to be a maid of honor, apparently she was mad at me because I asked my other cousin to be another maid of honor. Well, the angry cousin never returned my phone calls, was obviously mad at me for half the year. So I asked my not-mad-at-me cousin to do more stuff. Well this made the angry cousin angrier and she filed the incident away in her why Parthenia is so petty, judgemental, and drawn to the negative. That's what she called me. I think it doesn't need to be pointed out just who is being petty, because I guess that would be petty and I'm not gonna go there. Anyway, I'm done for now. I had no quarrel with her, but give me a few minutes and I'm sure I can think of things. Not a good way to patch things up. I've handed this over to God.

The same weekend my cousin was getting more mad at me, I met my friend Heather for our 20 year date. On June 7 1983, when we were 12 and 13 we made a pact to meet each other in front of Bischoff's in Teaneck, NJ on June 7 2003. And we kept our date. It was so cool! Kind of surreal. It was wonderful to see her again. It had been 10 years since I'd seen her. More later on the way we got back in touch after a couple of years (no we didn't get mad at each other.) We then went to the Met. Museum of Art, and walked around with our husbands and LLL. Heather doesn't have kids yet. I looked for an Artemisia painting that I know the Museum has, but I didn't see it. Maybe it was in storage. Saw lots of reliqueries and medieval art, tho. Oh well. My friend Marni met us there, too. Maybe too many people. I'm going to try to go down to New York and spend a weekend with Marni and catch up more with her. Overall it was a really fun trip. We also went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, but they were having a service so I lit a candle, bought some prayer cards and a chaplet, and continued on. I promptly lost 2 of the cards (Joan of Arc and Raphael the Archangel). I hope someone out there (in the Port Authority) will benefit from them. I was going to keep the Nurses' Prayer card I managed to hold onto, but I'm thinking that the signs point to giving that one away, too. I'll keep the chaplet.

jesus radicals

Little Children Pray
So Lucky Little Lamb is learning about God and Jesus (and Muhammad, and the Buddha, and Vishnu, and Krishna....we're Christians and Unitarians, and I majored in Religion in college....) We rad some bible stories and talked about God. Who is God? What does God look like? Those kind of questions. Then we talked about praying. Talking to God. Asking God to show us how we can be better people. I tell her when she prays she can ask God to help her to be able to keep herself out of harm, or to watch over her friends and family, or to give a little peace to others who live in danger or sadness...And Lamb says, "I have an idea." But she has to whisper it. And what's her idea? "Maybe we could ask God to turn the light on."

We have a theologian in our midst.

So the Ram came down with SACOB--severe acute crafting obsession/compulsion. For Lamb's birthday party I decided to make a fish-shaped cake using 2 round cakes. First I struggled with the whole Betty Crocker vs. from scratch thing, and decided Betty was just fine for a gaggle of 2-4 year olds. I used the kind with the pink and blue swirls. I baked two 9" rounds. When they cooled I cut a 3 inch wedge out of one (for the mouth), cut a smaller wedge out of the other and then cut it in half. Then I was stumped. So Ram looked at it, did some more cutting and sculpting, and viola! We had a bulge-eyed goldfish cake with a fancy tail. I started icing it, and Ram asked, "can I do some?" In 5 minutes the project was out of my hands. Ram did the rest of the decorating, although he did let me put the fish shaped sprinkles. It came out wicked cute, and much more detailed than I had planned! My mother (Madame Ewe?) tooka digital photo of it, so I'll post pictures soon. We'll see how long SACOB lasts.

Pirates of the Caribbean I am so looking forward to this movie. Better yet, I'm looking forward to seeing it at local drive-in. The drive-in is a blessing. We can all go out together, and Little Lamb is usually asleep by the time the (usually more adult) second feature starts. There's a playground, really good drive-in food, more fun than you can shake a stick at!

I've passed the climax of post semester. I don't have any homework, or studying or preparation for something. I just don't know what to do with myself. I actually went to a cafe and had breakfast and read a book twice this week, and got to work on time. And all I'm doing at work is filing and checking files and alphabetizing, and organizing and registering and listening to music--what else? oh yeah--and socializing. I have so much work to do at work and it's easy and I can day dream while I do it, and still get stuff done. I've been quite productive. I feel like a little office squirrel. All for $13+/hour plus 403(b), generous benefits, paid vacation (4 weeks/year, plus 4 personal days, holidays, and more sick time than I can shake a stick at. I love my job, my co-workers are all nice, my supervisor is cool, folks order Japanese food for lunch on a weekly and we all chat and eat together on a weekly basis. And it's only 17.5 hours a week. I love my job.

I think this weekend I'm going to find some wood and cut circles to fit in the bull's horns. So project #1 will be Gemshorns! woo hoo!

So I'm driving home yesterday, up 5 & 10, which is a two lane road, and the [asshole] driver in a an 18 wheeler truck coming the other way, spits out the window, and his nasty phlegmball splats on my windshield, most of which I can't wash off because it falls below the reach of the wipers. I was so grossed out I started gagging. I thought I was going to throw up. Just thinking about it makes me gag. You know, I can wipe up the nastiest crap that comes out of anyone's orofice, as long as I'm in a clinical setting with gloves at my disposal. And I've cleaned up my fair share of poopy diapers--gloveless. But in any other circumstance, like driving down the road, I cannot deal with other people's body fluids--not even on my windshield. What a way to start the week, huh?

Lucky Little Lamb was feeling most unlucky today. She had a simple visit with her NP to look at her ears. She refused to let her look into her ears with the otoscope. She only consented to the tympanometer (a painless thing, too) if she could hold the probe in her ears herself. Then on the way to her exam room again we ran into Becka, and she fell apart because she wanted Becka's muffin. She has yet to warm up to the whole health care thing. This weekend she fell and scraped both her knees in two separate incidents. I was surprised she let me take them off today. I did it after she'd bathed and they were pretty much falling off anyway. She is not one to be tricked or bargained or bribed into doing something she doesn't want to do. Frustrating as it is at times, I love her independence and willfullness. It will serve her well one day.

He shaved!
I'm done with exams and classes til the fall!
I can read non-nursing books!
I can stay up late even when I don't have insomnia!
I can go to the gym! I'm taking aerobics two days a week!
I can make gemshorns, knit, sew, and find all kinds of useless but beautiful or functional and beautiful things to make!
We can all go to the drive-in!
Our gas bill will be negligible instead of astronomical!
I can go without socks for weeks on end!

Life is good!