Barking Mad

Wordless Wednesday: Only in Maine . . .

...can you have your lobster and actually see it, too! 

That's right, that is in fact, a lobster pound and optician.

Oh the hell with the "wordless" part.  Yeah like you really thought that was ever going to happen.  

We just came back from spending 5 days in Maine, tying up some loose ends and perhaps creating some new ties, and in the midst of trying to find one of the local IPAs, we got sort of intentionally accidentally lost if that makes sense.    We've never been to the Camp Ellis part of Saco before (imagine that!) and while we first found ourselves hopelessly, and luckily lost (our GPS even threw up her hands and said, "Folks, I can't make it any plainer.  I'm pretty sure you two would get hopelessly lost trying to find your way out of a paper sack.  You're on your own!") in Biddeford Pool (how have I never known this little gem existed?  Maine, you're holding out on me!), after spending  the better part of an hour driving around the beautiful oceanfront area of Biddeford, we eventually meandered into coastal Saco and down to the Camp Ellis area.    

As we were driving around I noticed the sign in the picture above and nearly gave Gareth a heart attack after I shouted,  "Stop the car!  I need to get a picture of that!"   I giggled for a few minutes, snapped a few photos and then we were once again on our way. 

We never ever did make it to that IPA, so until we go back to Maine, I won't know if the blueberry ale I wanted to sample is as good as folks we know have told us it is. 

And yes m'dears, the "Optician" is indeed a real optician who also happens to be a lobster fisherman (or should that be "lobsterer"?), too!   That's a pretty nifty professional combination if you ask me! 

**********

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, head over to Lisa's place and either link up, or enjoy great posts from others!

Naughty Kitty Is . . .

As of the writing of this post, the score sits at: 

Naughty Kitty - 0 

Itty Bitty Christmas Tree - 1  

In other words, the tree is still standing.   For now.    

Buzz Lightyear Would be So Proud!

Gaby has this (mostly) cool little habit of trying to prettify (don't hate me because I can make up words on the fly!) normally mundane objects she finds around the house.   These aren't things like appliances or furniture - although I'm the first to admit that some of our stuff could use a little "prettifying" . . . nope it's stuff like the gallon of milk in the fridge on which she's occasionally drawn pictures of happy pink and white,  or blue and yellow spotted cows munching on bright green grass,  or left the occasional tag-line on the huge gallon bottle of vinegar that I use for household cleaning; right underneath the word "Vinegar" she wrote, "SMELLS REALLY YUCKY!"  

So when I come across her handiwork, I shake my head and giggle.   

Today while I was in the loo, sitting there - well you know, taking care of business, I happened to notice that Gaby's creativity has reached new heights. 

This is what one normally sees when perched upon the potty: (well OK, this is the view when certain monthly regularities visit me) 

I've had that little white pedestal box forever.  Painted it when I was big into blue and white bathrooms festooned with seashells and seahorses.  One of these days I'll paint it to match Gaby's much-desired pink and brown bathroom.   

Anyhow as I was sitting there looking at the box of Always feminine doodads and admiring Gaby's liberal use of sticky glitter-flowers, I noticed that she added a tagline to the name of the Always Infinity brand of pads.  Here is a closer look at the wit of my almost 7-year-old daughter: 

Something tells me Buzz Lightyear never saw his famous exclamation used in quite this manner!  

Gareth is probably going to read this and breath a sigh of relief that the bathroom in our house that he frequents doesn't lend itself to Gaby's creativity, and an even deeper sense of relief that thanks to the fact that when Gaby was born, I had my tubes tied, negating the need for certain other means of birth control, that when discovered by a precocious little girl, would lend itself to whatever popped into her head!   It's bad enough that she recently got bored when using the loo and happened to spy a box of tampons in the vanity under the sink and decided to read the instruction sheet.    She came out of the bathroom after washing her hands, with a look of what can only be described as sheer incredulity mixed with terror, and said to me, 

"You seriously have to put these things up there?" 

I can't wait to see if she decides to get creative with my box of Tampax Pearl tampons. 

Elfish Shenanigans

In tonight's episode of "Where on Earth is Chris?"  (our Elf on the Shelf), Chris finds himself in a bit of a predicament while foraging for a late night snack . . . 

Something tells me that Chris should have stuck with trying to pick up chicks like Venus McFlytrap, from the Monster High Fearleading Squad!   At least he wasn't being chased by a gorilla, snake, tiger and um, a dinosaur!  

When I originally posted the above image to Facebook on Tuesday night, a couple of people pointed out how what was on the TV directly behind Chris and Venus totally made the whole scene!  Talk about amusing ironies!  

Monday night Chris got himself into a lot of trouble.  Well, he and his fluffy accomplice got themselves into a lot of trouble! 

Sunday night he decided to try and endear himself to us by getting a jump on Monday morning's breakfast!   Had I known the shenanigans he was going to get up to on Monday night, I might have seen right through this little rouse of his! 

Saturday night when he first arrived in from the North Pole, he decided to hang out with a bunch of metal . . . pots and pans!  

It's anyone's guess what sort of mischief he gets up to until his boss drops in on December 25th to make a delivery and then take Chris back home to the North Pole, but rest assured, I'll probably come out here and gossip about his whereabouts.   

**********

Not that I have more than one or two readers left, but I thought I'd just put it out there that I'm finally starting to feel a little better.      I won't lie . . . things were scary for a little while and I've pretty much lost interest in just about everything.   I've been seriously considering selling all of my camera equipment and giving up on every writing gig I have going, including the blog.    

Anyhow, more on that later.  The point is, I'm hanging on.   I have a lot to be grateful for.   I have the most amazing husband and between him and my children, I'm using them as life preservers and holding onto them with everything I have.     I also have an older sister - one that I've never ever met (she is from a prior marriage my biological father had before he met my mother), but have always known about and lost touch with about ten years ago.   We reconnected late last spring and she's been one of the biggest blessings in my life lately.   Hopefully right after the start of the new year we'll be traveling to Virginia to meet her, finally!   I wanted to go down there sooner, but my knee prevented travel any further than Maine, and even lately that's been too much of a drive for me to sit through.  

The point is, I have a lot to live for and I need to take an active part of being mindful of that each and every day.    The journey towards me getting better - towards really becoming well means that I have to be an active participant.  

My doctor put me back on the Wellbutrin but we are having problems trying to get me completely off the Effexor which was contributing hugely to a lot of what was going on.    While I wasn't at the very scary edge of self-harm that I've been at before, I was close.     My knee rapidly got worse, surgery was mentioned, and I pretty much became a sleeping, weeping, stone of a woman who barely moved other than to do what she absolutely needed to do.    Medication will help, but the fact of the matter is, I can't just want to get better, I have to take action and contribute to my own mental and physical well being.    That starts with being grateful for each and every single thing in my life, no matter how insignificant it might seem.  

Right now I'm just grateful to still be here.   To be able to find the words to express what I'm going through and cognizant enough to see that each day I move forward and towards happiness is another day I move further away from the all-encompassing darkness.  

Oh, and I'm also grateful for this attention-whore of a cat!    Nope, he's not shy at all about letting me know that he needs some love.  However, he's also not the least bit shy about giving all that love back in spades.   

 

 

Tragically Boooootiful

Wishing you all a Happily Haunted Halloween and a complete lack of sugar induced nightmares!

P.S. Gaby's costume, "Tragedy Ann", can be found at Chasing Fireflies.