Count the Skeletons With Me

I'm learning that the magic of St. Johns is that you can drive a few minutes in any direction and you're suddenly in the middle of the wilderness. No other human for miles. Today was a wonderfully blustery, windy, grey day. Our family decided to get out and enjoy the many beautiful sites within a close drive from our house. Our first stop was the grave site that Cameron created for our Gracie. The scenery does her justice. She is buried next to a tree with many limbs that reach up toward the heavens. Skeleton #1 Gracie's skeleton.

The view from her grave across the basin overlooks a vast monument to the beautiful color of her fur. It looks like a giant silvery-grey tabby cat buried in a layer of earth. A reflection of her grave...

A hike down the decline to the dry-bed basin produced a skeleton of a different kind... Skeleton #2 A rusted out, shot up skeleton of a car.

Skeleton #3 Cow Skeleton

Skeleton #4 Windmill Skeleton

The brutality of the last skeleton of the hike is felt in the ghostly images of an abandoned cattle chute. Skeleton #5 Cattle Chute Skeleton

All Night Extravaganza!!!!!

Okay, so this is a long overdue post. It's Tuesday and I'm just now starting to feel like I've recovered from Friday. Friday was an all-out party for me. That's right, for ME!!! I dropped the boyfriend and kid off at grandma's house and headed down to the valley to join my cuz, Danielle for an extravaganza to remember!!! We started off our night by heading to the Chris Brown concert. We had VIP tickets so we got to go through a special entrance and enjoy the exclusive VIP lounge.

The opening performers included Tyga, Lil' Bow Wow, and T Pain. It was totally to my surprise that Tyga was the most entertaining of all the openers. Maybe it was because I had no clue who he was, so I had no expectations. He was really energetic and knew how to get the crowd going. Lil' Bow Wow was so small and angry. I couldn't get into his set. I felt like he was a long lost nephew of mine in need of parental guidance. T Pain is a pretty angry guy too, but at least when he took the stage he had back-up dancers to look at.

Who are we kidding anyway? When you go to a Chris Brown concert, you're there to see CHRIS BROWN right? He really blew me away with his entourage. He had rows of dancers, 4 piece band, back-up singers, lights... hell, his clothes even light up! So much for my eyes and ears to take in all at once!!!!

See that stocking cap on his head? He threw it into the crowd and the girl right in front of Danielle caught it! If only he would have thrown it just a little harder to make it to us in the 2nd row!!! Oh well. The girl that caught it was nice enough to let us smell the hat before she put it away for safe keeping. We enjoyed the rest of the concert in the wind and rain. To tell you the truth, it felt really good! Perfect weather for a concert in my opinion! After the final encore, we hung around for a bit to see if there was any chance to get backstage. No go. The security guards started waving their flashlights at people to make the final clear-out. We still wanted to party so Danielle took me to a country music night club. I'm not usually a fan of country, but I'll take what I can get! We had an awesome time cuttin it up on the dance floor! I never thought country music could be so great! Not only was the music great, but the decor in the bathroom was awesome! Ok, fair warning... if you don't want to see nudity, don't go any further..... But if you do, scroll down! ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. This is what I saw in the bathroom when I opened the stall door....

YEEEEEEEEEEEE HAW! I LOVE ME SOME COUNTRY!!!! After the band was done playing, we STILL weren't ready to quit so we went over to I Hop for some late-night grub. Wow, what a night. I think we finally made it back to Danielle's house after 3 am. It has been YEARS since I've partied like that. I'm really glad to know I still got it in me!

Painting With Chocolate Yogurt

I noticed today that instead of finishing his chocolate yogurt, Danzo was spooning it onto the table and moving it around with his spoon as if it were a paintbrush. I realized that he was taking some great initiative to do some artwork, so I got the paintbrushes and paper out and let him go to town. It started out with just yogurt then after a while he incorporated the new water color paints I got for him. He enjoyed himself so much that it practically turned into a day-long event. The best part is, I was able to focus his attention to working on a painting while I cooked dinner. We worked side by side on our own individual projects. No distractions for me! I LOVE it!

Goodbye Gracie...

As with all my cats, Gracie has been in my life since I was 19. She's been a friend and constant companion to me for 13 years. Her exact age has always been a mystery, though. When I adopted her, I thought she was a kitten because she was so tiny. She never grew bigger than the day I got her, so she was full grown then. Add whatever her age was then to 13 and that's the age she was when she passed away this morning around 10 am.

There's a swirl of feelings in our household today. Lots of tears, agony, loss, depression, grief, exhaustion... but most importantly, there's a feeling of peace and relief. Her whole life was filled with challenges from the start. She was born blind and she also had a chronic inflammatory condition that no vet could ever really figure out. She spent years on treatments of all different kinds of steroids until finally I discontinued them and decided to manage her health myself. This worked well for a long time. She was so healthy for many years that you'd never guess she had a condition of any kind.

Whenever people met her for the first time, I'd always get a kick out of telling them she was blind because she never acted blind or less-off than anyone else. She would always be right there to greet people and "see" what was going on when we had visitors. She loved to get right in the middle of the action of the kitchen too. She'd always be there to listen to clanging pots and pans and smell all the aromas when I would cook meals. As night fell, the crickets started to chirp from behind the refrigerator and under the dishwasher. She delightfully took it all in as her personal evening surround-sound concert.

She's the only one of my cats that would never eat canned cat food or tuna for that matter. She preferred a scrambled egg with extra virgin olive oil and salt every morning. It was so delicious, she'd lick her bowl absolutely clean. Sometimes she would eat toast or lap up a dish of plain olive oil. I always had to make sure a loaf of bread was out of her reach because she reveled in tearing into a loaf of bread like a tiger might tear into a piece of meat.

Whenever I would vacuum, she would follow me around and get in my way until I would give in and vacuum her gorgeous silvery-gray fur with the brush attachment. She loved it so much that she would sit there for hours and have me groom her if I would. Always curious, kind, and spunky. She would chase the other cats around the house if they got in her way. All the other cats loved and respected Gracie as an elder of their tribe.

Since we've moved to a new town, she's had a hard time mapping a new world out for herself, which seems to have caused an overwhelming amount of stress. Over the past few days, the stress became too much and her illness took over like a flash storm. I could no longer keep her body in balance with any medicine. She was in some unfortunate pain, so death came as a blessing. Now we are left with memories of her that will remain with us forever. Our family will take the inspiration she gave to us and try to find a way to honor and send her into the next existence on a powerfully positive energy stream.

Goodbye Gracie. Thank you for inspiring us all. We love you.

More

I have found that meal times are the best setting to try and integrate some sort of communication with my little one. After all, the child is somewhat confined to a high chair or at a table, so they have to pay attention. Also, there are reinforcements all over the place when you're eating. I mean, what better reinforcement tool than food, right?

Today, Danzo was sitting in his high chair after dinner. I gave him an enormous piece of chocolate cake and just a small amount of milk. (I knew he would want more milk soon, so I was ready to prompt him!) He got a mouthful of cake, then guzzled his milk down in no time. He shook the cup at me and started to whine.

"Oh, do you want more milk?" I asked as I demonstrated the sign for "more."
"Say "more" if you do." I said.

His response usually consists of whining louder and throwing the cup at me or starting to cry out of frustration, but today was different... He put the cup down as his eyes lit up with excitement. I swear I could see sparks fly out of his eyes from all the firing that was going on in his brain. He did the sign for more, which looks like this:

I grabbed the milk and poured him a full glass. His sign quickly turned into a full-on applause. He was absolutely elated. I was too. It was a huge step he took today. To have a desire for something (more milk) and be able to flawlessly communicate without frustration is just remarkable! Go Danzo!

New work in progress...

I've had a creative block for the longest time... I just haven't been able to break through what was stopping me until the new year came around. I have been busy, busy, busy cleaning out closets, cupboards, toy boxes. You name it. There is a mountain of stuff outside the front door just waiting for the truck to come pick it up. As the physical clutter clears out, I can feel a new space available to clear the air of residual spiritual negativity. This, in turn leaves me with a new perspective on the true freedom I have to be creative.

So I got out my brand new set of watercolor pencils that I got for Christmas and just went to town last night. The mantra I'm using as I create is, "There are no mistakes." This especially helped me when I took a little break and came back to find that a little child had got hold of my pencils and added a few scribbles of his own. I looked at it and instead of getting mad, I smiled and said to myself, "There are no mistakes." I continued to work and turned the scribbles into part of the picture.

As with most things I draw, I just let my sub-conscious come out so I really don't know where its going. Just letting it all out and seeing where it will take me.