Adventures, ponderings and day-to-day of Cheryl!
My sister, Stacy, came into town from Florida for a week. I picked her up from the airport and headed to the mall to find a dress for the opera on Thursday. While there, we also bought some clothes for our dinner tonight with Karl and his friends, Jeff and Sky.
I went roller blading last night. I had not planned on it, but I was feeling like I needed to get some of my energy out. Well, I roller bladed and just kept going. I was gone for two and a half hours. When I got home, I drove the route that I took and it turns out it was 13 miles!!!! I never roller bladed that much before. It was great. I feel better today mentally.
Thursday night, Karl and I went camping in Northern Arizona at Locket Meadow. We left work a little early and took Friday off.
During the drive up, the sky looked really cool with all the clouds. There is actually a rainbow in these two pics, but it is hard to see.
We got in late and set up camp and created a fire and ate some food and drank some seagrams and 7-up and relaxed. It was nice. Next morning, here I am eating oatmeal
While eating, I took a couple pictures of the view straight above my head
Straight above my head again, this time clear blue sky
And I had to get a picture of my shadow showing off the braids in my hair like Pippie Longstocking
This tree is really close to falling. In the wind, we heard it creak. Getting a better look revealed a pretty good crack down the center of it.
It started to rain and we hung out in the tent and read some books and took a nap
Scenery on the drive home was nice to look at
A bunch of us from work went river rafting in Moab, Utah. It was absolutely beautiful up there and it was so great to get away. Check out the photos
Last year, I used my television as my alarm clock and awoke on this day to see airplanes crashing into buildings. On my way to work, I listened to talk of terrorists. When I arrived to work we all watched up to the minute accounts of it all on the big screen. We all left work to be with family, friends or alone to deal with things in our own ways. The day was full of many emotions. Over the next days, weeks and months, I saw vehicles painted with American flags and other patriotic artistic representations. I heard talk of a nation united. As the sadness and fear of this country turned to hatred and anger, I realized that it was a nation united and a planet divided. Prejudism was rampant and we were all afraid. This morning I awoke and I thought of it all and I felt the tears forming in my eyes. These terrible acts of hatred that happened one year ago have jaded so many of us and chiseled away a large part of our belief in fairy tales and happy endings. Buildings were turned to dust and rubble and we each constructed our own tall, thick, solid walls around ourselves. We all say how strong we are as a nation and how united we have become and how we have learned to love our neighbors… we just do not trust them all. We are all human beings living on the same planet and unlike the terrorists, we hold life sacred, and when we stop doing that , we become like the terrorists. Someday, I hope that our planet will be as united as our nation.
This morning at work, we replaced our old flag with a new flag and all said the pledge of allegiance after a moment of silence. I have a hug for you. Even if you are far away, I hugged someone today that hugged someone that hugged you. And always hold on to the fairy tale fantasies of your childhood as tightly and intently as you possibly can.
This song reminds me of a time in my life
i woke up in new york city
from my sleep behind the wheel
caught a train to Poughkeepsie
and time stood still
she wrote me a letter from san diego
to qualify her luck
these flights connect through arizona
but i think i’ll stay stuck
so here i am
here i am
well i woke up in a car
i traced away the fog
so i could see the mississippi on her knees
i’ve never been so lost
i’ve never felt so much at home
please write my folks and throw away my keys
i woke up in a car
i woke up in a car
i met a girl who kept tattoos for homes
that she had loved
if i were her i’d paint my body
until all my skin was gone
she wrote me a letter as we passed through rockford
she said she won’t forget
maybe i do maybe i don’t
but i know i haven’t yet
so here i am
here i am
well i woke up in a car
i traced away the fog
so i could see the mississippi on her knees
i’ve never been so lost
i’ve never felt so much at home
please write my folks and throw away my keys
i woke up in a car
i woke up in a car
and maybe i could live forever
if not ever i had known
that you’d be waiting here whenever i am all alone
but here i am
well i woke up in a car
i traced away the fog
so i could see the mississippi on her knees
i’ve never been so lost
i’ve never felt so much at home
please write my folks and throw away my keys
well i woke up in a car
i traced away the fog
so i could see the mississippi on her knees
i’ve never been so lost
i’ve never felt so much at home
please write my folks and throw away my keys
i woke up in a car
i woke up in a car
i woke up in a car
Today is Thursday!!! Woo Hoo! Not sure why, but this is always the day of the week that I feel great. Tuesdays are good too. Weird, huh? I went out last night with a friend (Glenn). This is the first time I have gone out with anyone for a couple weeks since I have been keeping to myself quite a bit and going out alone. Well, it was nice. We had dinner and drinks and good conversation. He and I do not have a whole lot in common, but it was pleasant nonetheless and another good distraction.
Tonight was my first belly dancing lesson. I must say that this is awesome. I have been wanting to do this for a few years and I finally did it. Now that I have, I am ready to take it on. The class is going to be every Tuesday evening and I am extremely jazzed about this.
This morning, on National Public Radio, I heard a news story about an abandoned infant found in a recycling yard in Iowa. The infant had been put through a shredder and it was difficult to even determine what sex the child was. Turns out it was a boy who was a full-term newborn. In addition, it is undetermined who the mother is. So, the D.A.s office decides to check with Planned Parenthood and requests all records of women who had a positive pregnancy test about the time that this child should have been conceived. Planned Parenthood, of course, refuses because of confidentiality of these 100s of women. So now there is this huge debate and the president of the Iowa Planned Parenthood may be jailed.
So, my thoughts on this are, what is the likelihood that this girl even went to Planned Parenthood? Are we going to risk the confidentiality of hundreds of women for the possibility that this girl, who abandoned her baby, actually went to planned parenthood to get tested? In my opinion, the more likely scenario is that the girl probably did a home pregnancy test. In fact, it is possible that this pregnancy was a complete secret from everyone. Maybe this was a teen girl who was scared and kept it a secret from everyone. Then, hundreds of women are going to have their records investigated and their privacy invaded.
It would be different if they had something to go on, but they are basicly searching for a needle in a haystack. What are they going to do once they have all these records? Go door to door and find out if there is a live baby to match the positive pregnancy test? Interogate anyone who cannot present a live baby?
News Flash: This site is being renovated. I am finally putting aside some time to do the conversion to PHP/MySQL that I have been talking about for over a year. Then I will be moving the site to my Redhat server in San Diego. I am doing a complete renovation on this site and we all know that it needs it badly. There is going to be new content, new stuff to look at, and some surprises. If there is anything that you really think I need, let me know. The first phase of the conversion is underway.