'Fessing up!

Okay, I 'fessed... if you missed it, you're better off! On to next subject. Stay tuned!

Skirts and Scares

This one's a case of an interesting chain reaction - are you ready?

Okay, here goes:

Yesterday, at work, I got the CD of all the pics they took at the intercultural training seminar. I once mentioned here how interesting the whole intercultural issue is to me, and since it's also become an area that's being explored where I work, I've naturally gotten involved. So yesterday, I saw the CD full of pictures, and I realized that they had taken lots of pictures of me, and what I noticed - what I always notice sooner or later if I study myself in pictures - is that I am very very BASIC. There's no elegance to me. I'm sort of primitive, compared to other people, who look modern and sophisticated. I wished there weren't so many pictures of me on that CD. But at the same time, I kinda liked what I saw about myself. Maybe I'm primitive, but I'm really REAL. Maybe I'm not elegant, but I'm expressive. Car said that there's an energy that radiates from me! WHOA!

Anyway, I forgot about it and went to bed. But during sleep, it all came out. I dreamt I was at the school, and one of the coordinators came up to me and said, "You know, in all these years, I've never seen you in a skirt. Don't you have even one skirt you could wear to work sometime?" And I answered, "Well, of course I have some skirts. I'll wear one tomorrow."

But then, as often happens in dreams, the scene cut abruptly to a dire situation, where I was standing on the outside ledge of a very high building. I must have been on the 20th floor at least. The wind was whipping around with stinging urgency, and I was really cold and of course scared to death of falling... plus, the ledge was this wooden beam that was cracked right down the middle. So I started pounding on a window, and a man came to the window, and I called out, "Please, please open the window and let me in! I'm going to fall!" So he opened the window, and the beam started to split, but I grabbed onto the window sill and managed to haul myself over it and inside to safety.

Then my alarm went off and I woke up.

So I was thinking about the dream all morning, wondering what it meant, knowing full well that the only one who can interpret one's dream is the dreamer him/herself. It didn't take me long to put it all together. Can you see the sequence?

First, the CD and my realization about my drab attire... and then in the dream, feeling pressured to dress more elegantly, and then the zigzag to the opposite side, where I was in a situation where I needed more protection than a flimsy skirt and dainty shoes (although, come to think of it, I'm still not sure what I was wearing in that scene in the dream, pants or a skirt!). I realized once and for all that the reason I dress the way I do is so that I will always be ready for disaster! If anything happened where I needed to get dirty, or climb buildings, or whatever, I wouldn't be able to do it in a skirt, no matter what you see in the movies where women exert themselves in all sorts of dangerous, difficult, physically challenging kind of situations in a mini-skirt! I wouldn't be able to run in high heels, or take a fall or make my way through an insect-filled jungle in a skirt, the way I can in my trusty jeans or slacks and good walking shoes and socks. No, I need to be prepared! I need to know that if disaster strikes, if the world starts to come to an end, I'll be able to face whatever I have to do to survive, and not be hampered by discomfort. That's right! I need to be wearing my drab but totally wearable, durable, comfortable clothes and strong dependable shoes!


Aren't dreams amazing?

Oklahoma! and Darwin

Cryptic title, I must admit. But it's a glorious day. The wind is rushing around, with exotic sound effects that only the wind can make when it blows across a silent hillside making the trees dance in the sunlight under a blue and white sky. Made me think of the movie Oklahoma! and the title song - "Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains..."

The morning was so exhilarating, I decided to do my outside chores first thing, belting out the entry song of the same movie -

"Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day...

I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way!"

Perfect song for the perfect morning it was! And in the course of singing and working, I went to check on the tomatoes, and there I ran right up against Darwin - yes, Darwin! You know, the guy who made us all aware of the law of survival of the fittest? Which I've always thought was perfectly logical until I saw what was going on with my tomatoes. Because how do you explain that the cast-off plants are the proliferating ones?

Cast-offs? What cast-offs, you ask... well, a couple of months after I started seeing little tomato plants poking their heads up, I realized that there were way too many... still, I let them grow, until I had a small jungle in the green room. All the while, Car was telling me to thin out my garden. So finally, when they were already pretty big, I started pulling out the scraggliest looking ones to give the hardier ones more room to grow. I left the cast-offs lying on the ground with their poor roots exposed, but then at the last moment, out of a sense of guilt, and because there happened to be a big tub of soil in the corner, I hastily replanted those poor things any which way in the tub. It made me feel better, but Car said it was ridiculous; they were limper than spaghetti, and I secretly agreed that they'd never grow... but lo and behold, they started to climb the wire meshing I put around the tub! I have to admit, I babied them a bit the first few weeks, giving them extra water and making sure they had something to climb. I wanted to prove Car wrong! Maybe they were so grateful at getting a second chance, they responded with all they had! Or maybe they actually were the fittest plants all along and that's why they survived! Whatever the reason, those plants turned out to be the ones that are decked out with the most fruit!!! Guess I'll have to re-interpret Darwin's theory!

Meanwhile, you know how last week I showed you our ONE RED TOMATO?

Well Samo found this baby:



- all red and ready to pick - in the tub of cast-offs!

And we hadn't noticed any red tomato at all there on Friday. It just turned red out of the blue!!! (or in this case, out of the green). So we decided to pick it...

And also the other one - the big one.

We're going to let them soften up a bit more, and maybe tomorrow, we'll eat them!

P.S. Those are avocado trees behind my hand in the last picture... I wonder if they'd be able to bear fruit living as they are, in their big pots... I just can't make up my mind to transplant them, but I know they're ready...

Because the day is gone and what do I have to show for it?

It's late. Once again. Every time I click in and decide to write something, I see that it's really too late. Mañana, I tell myself. But the mañanas come and go and my posting mood is blahhed, my thoughts are blocked... nothing is blogged!

So here I am. Let's do this, I say. Now!

Because at least I can tell you this: My tomato plants have sprouted no less than 47 tomatoes! Wanna see a picture of the only red one so far?



Wanna get a closer look?



Okay, that's enough... now I can sleep. I did have something to show after all!

Night Work and such

Been awhile, I know. And I should warn you, what follows will be short and sweet. Mainly, I just want to see something new when I open my blog, so here's what's been going on... at night, at least! Some things still need pictures with them, but I'll start with the big jobs - one that got finished was Lu working on the neighbor's combi... he seemed right at home in the engine compartment as he worked on re-installing the transmission he had fixed.



Don't you just love how he fits right in there? With his lantern by his side!



Meanwhile, Anto was determined to get the doggy gate fixed. I could have told him it wasn't worth it - actually I did tell him - because the dogs are much bigger and stronger than the gate! He worked on it until he got cut by the chicken wire... then he decided to call it a night.



And all the while, the dogs were doing their night work - keeping an eye on things... as you can see, and as Anto later agreed, that little gate - fixed or not -doesn't really cut the mustard any more for these doggies!!!



That's it for now, but I'll try to post more on the work going on around here ASAP.