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The other day, I was thinking how much I’m enjoying spending time with my wonderful dog, Sprocket. And then it occurred to me that being between jobs has its perks. The past month I’ve been able to really enjoy my dog’s company and spend quality time with her.

We go for three, sometimes long, walks every day.

I spend about an hour a day grooming her.

I spend time just watching her exist.

I even snap photos of her in her various poses. Here are just a few.

Oh! And I write songs about her, too. My latest goes to the tune of The Pussycat Dolls’ song, Don’t Cha:

Don’t cha wish your doggie was a cute as mine? Don’t cha?

Happy May!

Back in my December 16, 2006, post, I mentioned that there were wild parrots here in SoCal. Well, this morning, as I took my dog for a walk to the post office to mail some letters, I was finally rewarded with the opportunity to take close ups of these guys. Here’s the photo gallery I made of the four shots I took. I hope you enjoy them.

In The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), Sinbad says at some point, “Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel!” I’ve always liked that quote. It’s kind of a snarky way to say, “God helps those who help themselves.”

I bring this up because I’m going to have to trust in God again, while I frantically try to tie up my camel. I lost my job Monday in a layoff and I only have about two months worth of funds to float us by.

I’m both calm and anxious.

I’m calm because I know I have a strong skill set and that I am in an area that has a great need for my services. (So if you know anyone in the greater Los Angeles/Orange County area who needs an award-winning editor with more than 15 years experience in marketing communications, publications management, public relations writing and web content development, send them my way!)

On the outside, I’m my typical chipper self, although maybe a little bit more so than usual.

On the inside is another story.

I knew this was coming in advance. The night I found out, I dreamt that I was outside of my body watching someone perform surgery on me. He had this huge, oversized, plastic wrench that he was using to move around my large intestine. At some point in the dream, he invited me over to feel my intestines. It was really weird. I could feel the muscles moving the stuff inside along. I woke up with a horrible pain in my side.

I’d say the stress is getting to me. But there is a bright side.

For the past four weeks I’ve been coming into work and it has been torture. There hasn’t been much to do because I was in employee communications and we weren’t communicating more than once a week. The little work I did was to organize the employee questions coming in to the CEO via a Web form (90% we love you and we’re in this with you and 10% explicatives and vitriol) and to gather the news clips (the company is going down the tubes, etc.). Gee, that was fun.

So, as I said, I’m trusting in Allah/God/The Great Spirit/The All There Is/the Universe that something will come my way swiftly and we’ll be O.K.

But, on the other hand, I’m tying up my camel and setting up interviews with potential freelance work to help us get by while I play the job search game. Would you believe that within a hour of posting my resume on Craig’s List I received a call for a freelance job? Gotta love Craig’s List.

Anyway, I guess I just felt I had to get all this yuck off my chest without depressing my husband. Thanks for being there, oh anonymous blog reader.

I’ve really been noticing birds lately. Maybe its because they’re singing their little hearts out.

Photo taken by Robert Royse. www.roysephotos.com

The last several weeks, I’ve been watching woodpeckers in my neighborhood. They flit from palm tree to deciduous tree and back, occasionally pecking at the wood, but most of the time singing.

I didn’t know that woodpeckers had such a pretty song.

These guys are about the size of a bluejay and are all black except for some white and red on their heads. They are precious.
And speaking of precious, the other day I was sitting in my Explorer interviewing Damian Kindler (a writer on Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis, and now working on his own creation, Sanctuary) when a little brown bird with a reddish head landed on the railing in front of my car and started singing.

I almost wanted to stop Damian from talking, but figured that would be rather unprofessional.

Anyway, the little guy sang for about a minute before the person in the car parked next to me opened the door and scared him away.

But it was a special moment while it lasted.

I don’t know what it is about Spring, but I always feel a sense of joy spread through me at this time of the year. I think it is the birds singing. They sound so happy that the joy spills over onto me and fills me up.

What a funny adjective to use to describe me. I don’t really think I “rock.” I’m much too ordinary for that. I’m a geek, a dork and sometimes even a fuddy duddy. So it always amuses me when someone tells me that I “rock.” I know its just a compliment, but it seems so out of place.

Now, don’t get me wrong, and go around thinking I don’t like myself or anything. I embrace my inner dorkiness, heck I almost rejoice in it. I have my talents and I’m really good at what I’m really good at. I’m just saying I think that as far as adjectives go, “rock” just does’t suite me.

I think “nice” suites me very well. So well, it makes me want to barf. I just can’t help myself. I’m a nice person, I’m polite almost to a fault, and I often don’t ask for what I want because I don’t want to bother the other person.

Whatcha gonna do?

So, if you had to pick one adjective that really described you, what would it be and why?