• 07:52 off to work #

• 19:23 wierd, it was dark and gloomy all day & now it's nearly 7:30 and the sun is out and the temp is going up! #

I'm watching Mary Poppins on TV!  I love all things Julie Andrews!  I just saw one of my favorite lines in which after the earth quake and the piano slides across the room and lands right in front of George Banks (the father of the children who works at the bank). He plunks a few notes and they are horribly out of tune. And here is the exchange that I love:

George Banks: I suggest you have this piano repaired. When I sit down to an instrument, I like to have it in tune.
Mrs. Banks: But, George, you don't play.
George Banks: Madam, that is entirely beside the point!

Plus I love how the servants always refer to Mr. Banks as “the Master” and Mrs. Banks is so incredibly submissive albeit a bit stupid and dimwitted (to say the least!).

• 09:39 Didn't get to sleep as late as I wanted. Cats had me up at 7; went back to bed; dog wanted out at 9. I may not get dressed until 11 though. #
• 12:13 ok - i am being lazy as i just took a one hour nap. Guess I'll get showered & dressed, finally. #
• 13:25 Finally showered and dressed. This is what holidays are all about! Going to run out on a couple of errands. #
• 15:11 back home - a big storm is on its way! #
• 15:54 the storm is here - big downpour, thunder & lightening. dog is afraid. i'm going to curl up on the couch w/ my book and blanket. #
• 18:42 trying to decide what to make for supper #
• 18:58 beef w/ broccoli and onions it is! #
• 22:02 watched last night's "Harper's Island" upon the recommendation of my mom & i may be hooked. Time now to go to bed. #
• 22:04 David & I suspended our day today together due to heavy storms. Should be better tomorrow so we'll go wildflower hunting &4 loving time too! #

• 07:02 Looking forward to tomorrow's holiday of sleeping in and time with David #
• 17:27 home for work - man, we got a ton done today! #
• 18:28 eating dinner from last night's leftovers = YUM #
• 20:34 back home after attending maundy thursday service at church. i always cry and leave with a melancholy feeling #
• 22:13 Just watched last night's Hell's Kitchen #
• 22:30 Can't wait to watch my heart throb, Yul Brynner Saturday night in "The Ten Commandments!" So hot! Mmmmmmmm Is that oh so very wrong? #
• 22:33 time to start getting ready for bed and a nice lazy morning for sleeping in! I'm soooo very excited! DON'T CALL ME until after 11am! #

• 07:03 I'm looking forward to sleeping in Friday - it can't get here soon enough! #
• 22:05 Had a wonderful brief & incredibly satisfying visit with David tonight! Even though our plans didn't match up due to some mis-communication #
• 22:16 getting ready for bed #

• 07:14 Got to get motivated, shower & off to work. I'm running behind schedule this morning. Good thing I can be a little flexible on work times. #
• 13:37 had to race home after a call that the door to my house was open & my animals were having a great time running around outside. All is ok #
• 16:58 Home after a really different day at work. Strange in some ways #
• 17:03 Note 2self-don't make a cynical comment in an email to the secretary of someone much higher in the food chain than myself! <eating crow> #
• 17:17 YAY the sun is coming out! #
• 17:26 Going to Kroger. After a day like today - I must have beef and wine! #
• 19:03 Mmmmm, enjoying a small portion of a big steak, green beans and a nice Cabernet! #
• 19:43 Watching last night's "Grace" I love this show! #
• 21:42 Giving up and going to bed. Night night! #

• 16:53 brrrr, oh man, it's cold outside. My office was freezing cold all day today! #
• 18:45 Had to run out and buy cat food. It's so chilly I would have rather just stayed on the couch in my jammies with a blanket! #
• 19:27 Dinner tonight was fish, broccoli and onions (of course onions). It was nummey! #
• 20:47 Relaxing this evening with a glass or two of wine warming me from the inside out. Plus still in the bliss of my Sunday with David - yum! #
• 21:23 getting ready for bed. i'm tired! #

• 09:22 getting ready to head out to church #
• 12:23 David is on his way to my place! I'm getting excited about some quality time with him! #
• 21:22 I had a wonderful day today with David! #

• 09:22 getting ready to head out to church #
• 12:23 David is on his way to my place! I'm getting excited about some quality time with him! #

phoenixprime

The BBC allegedly believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here:

How do your reading habits stack up? [bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish] 

I guess I did better than average - I do love to read!

I did not have a clue until today how I was going to come up with the additional $2,000 that I needed for my unexpected cancer-related medical expenses. 

I received a $100.00 check in the mail today. You see, last Spring,  with the money from Bush’s little tax rebate as a down payment, I took out a “12 months same as cash” loan to buy a new couch, love seat, 2 end tables and a coffee table. (Because Skip kept all my good furniture and left me with junk). I’ve been paying a bit more than what it would have been for 12 months (way more than the minimum payment) at $100 per month. I just set it up as an auto payment and hadn’t thought that much about it as it comes out automatically. 

Today after I picked up my car with its new brakes and 2 new tires (paid with well more than ½ of my tax rebate) I stopped to get my mail and to my surprise (as I thought I had another month or two) I not only had my note back with the “paid in full” stamp, I also had a $100 check from this month’s auto-payment that had been made.

This is a very good thing. I am a good $2,000.00 short of my medical bills already this year. My maximum out of pocket (which I have already met) is $4,000.00. I have the $2,000 with my H.S.A. plus money that I have already put in for this year, but am still $2000 short. I was really beginning to worry where I would get the rest of the money. With paying off my furniture quickly, this finance company is offering me a good low interest loan for $2,000 that I can pay off for the same $100 per month that I have been paying already. Yes, it will take a while longer to pay off, but will avoid late and collection fees.  I won't be able to do this one on the "12 months same as cash" as I'm not buying anything.  Well, according to them I'm not.  To me, I'm buying the rest of my life!

Of course I was hoping to purchase a children’s bedroom suite with two twin beds this year in hopes of fostering and then adopting (and fulfilling my lifelong dream of motherhood) 2 little girls who needed a home and a mom. I’ll just have to put that off due to this unexpected cancer. Instead, I’ll take out the additional loan to meet my max out of pocket. It’s really amazing that I have already met it even before receiving the radioactive iodine that I’ll get on Tuesday. I guess in a way I should count my blessings. Three years ago, I became a state employee and am making a good 1/3 today than I did 6 years ago working in the big corporate world as a VP. But yet, I am much happier as my job makes a difference in the lives of others instead of making a former US President’s son even richer!

Due to fighting cancer this year, my dream that I have had since being a little girl, of being a mom is being put off for another year or two (God help me I am now 43!). I have no other option. I have to pay these medical bills.  I couldn’t be a good mom with debt collectors knocking at my door.

Thank God for today’s mail!

It was hard for me to reflect on today and yesterday. (with everything else going on) But yet, I felt the joy, the reverence, the history and the significance of this very special day.

Yesterday was Dr. King’s Birthday. He was a man that held me as a baby and called my daddy, his friend. My Dad walked directly behind Dr. King in Selma, Alabama, in the march in Washington and in his last march in the city of my birth, Memphis, TN., among others. My mother still has the signs that she and my father held in the garbage workers strike in Memphis which read, “I AM A MAN!” 

I wish that my Daddy was here today to see the first black President. I wondered today if he thought that his daughter would see this historical event in her lifetime. I think that he believed that we could, that he would have been the ring leader shouting, “YES WE CAN!” 

OH Daddy – I am so proud of you! How I wish you were alive today to see this and to see the tears on your daughter’s faces knowing that today your dream came true!