Today I had to stay home again with my post-seizure-ness, or pos-seizure-ocity... Erik had another first day on the job, which he loved!

Today Lucky is very attentive. I guess she realized something happened with me this morning.

I see my neurologist in the morning. Let's hope he has some idea as to why these convulsive episodes are so frequent lately.

i really like the Spiderman movies.

"I've always been standing outside your door. Go get 'em, Tiger."

Today, I was going through some papers. I found a little red notebook from my last job, right before The Scooter Store.

On the first page, are Garden State Parkway directions, complete with milemarkers, to my sweet cousin Debbi's house for Christmas morning 2001. Oh, they were so careful with me, and still, I managed to get turned around around in a Toll Station. Probably someplace I shouldn't make a U-Turn.

So I flipped out and moved back to San Antonio, and got this rough little admin. assistant job where I was foolishly the lone white girl in the joint and no one would speak to me in English. I believed in my inner core at the time that I was building character.

Oh, MAN, I was so unhappy. And I lived in this shady part of town, where people were coming around all hours of the night, banging on my door, looking for a fix.

Yes, I know you're thinking, Little North Dakota Girl, go home...

I've got all the late-night police courtesy patrols documented, in my Little Red Notebook. And today they're good for Memory Lane.

I do love autumnal majesty. All this back-to-school craziness has me thinking of dashing to Grand Forks for Chinese food.

"To be loved, be lovable."

I'm on a major red kick right this instant. We're going to run out and buy red paint.

Please see A Lot Like Love, so we can discuss it.

Oh, the roads we take...

Tonight Liz and Carter are taking Melanie to Stephen F. Austin college in Nacogdoches. I almost moved there before I started working at The Scooter Store, but at the time my wonderful neurosurgeon and a new job won out over Gypsy Radio. And Tash joked that she couldn't pronounce Nacogdoches, so we had to scrap that plan. Love you, Tash.It worked out well. Thanks.

I'd still be living out of the same thirteen Rubbermaid containers.

I just got off the phone with Tash.

She was gushing about how beautiful Lucky is. Well, her full name is Lady Luck Ophelia. Lucky, for short.

I know that sounds totally corny, until you learn that Tash and I, in high school, had pet gummi worms. Mine was named Dimitrius Oswald. And those gummi worms lived in a little black and white satin box that the ring bearer carried at my wedding.

In college, we named one of our plants Antonio Sabato Banderas, Jr. Mike, I am so sorry you had to accompany us to Burger King that wintry night. Yes, we are that nuts.

Hey, I never got to have pets.

Now for what I was really going to say. Natasha has been my friend for more than half of my life. Fifteen years, ever since a basketball bus, I think. Sometimes we don't talk for five years. And then we just jump back into touch and it's like a wrinkle in the time/space continuum. And never a cross word of regret.

See, if we ever run into each other in the post office, The Social Hub of Activity in Washburn, ND, we should be able to at least do that with a clean slate. Especially for two people who love each other as much.

(curtain)

Saw Stealth tonight. Definitely today's Top Gun. Lots of good dog fights and plane noises, lots of close up shots of blue-eyed Josh Lucas, the guy from Sweet Home Alabama, and Erik only fell asleep, like twice.

Hey, I once subjected myself to all three Matrix movies in one weekend for him.

So I have been having all this Memphis de ja vu lately, and tonight I got, not one, but TWO emails from two separate friends, who don't even know each other, referencing Memphis.

Four and a half years ago, I spent four life-changing days in Memphis for the Country Cares for St. Jude Kids Radiothon Training Seminar. I toured St. Jude, held a lot of sick babies, and partied with the likes of Brad Paisley, Tommy Shane Steiner, Keith Urban, Steve Holy and Mindy McCready.

Several margaritas and two rolls of film later, I was standing at the Wawa one-hour photo counter with my cawfee tawlk buddy Karen. I could barely breathe as I handed over these irreplaceable memories to a teenager, whose first day it obviously was, and my jaw dropped as he ripped the film out of the canister. And needless to say, who needs pictures, with a memory like mine... I think you've heard that run-on story a thousand times, but it makes a good argument for digital cameras.

I heard somewhere once that experiencing de ja vu just means that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

Good Heavens, I must be in the right place all the time. Earlier this week I was in Kirkwood Mall in Bismarck, ND. Then, I was in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, and everything was pink.

This morning, this morning, I'm on Tilton Road in Northfield, New Jersey. And while I'm there, I think I'll stop in at the Days Inn and have a donut with Betty, Penny and Kay.

I'm not kidding.

We did some yardwork this morning, and there was a s-s-s-snake-s-s-sskin in the g-g-g-garage. Th-th-this is T-T-T-Texas, huh? And now I have to learn to fly, or at least hover.

The Corinth Sea had really fresh air. And this ferry had baaad cappuccino. This picture was taken before I knew that.

My neighbors are having a garage sale. Knowing they were cleaning out predominantly baby clothes, and that I would not have to buy them, I went over anyway to say hi.

While visiting, it came out that both Jenny and Joe and we are planning on painting our houses, get this, the exact same colors. We were going to paint the house kind of a creamy sandstone, with black shutters and a fabulous red door.

We're not going to live in this house forever, so I think I'm going to bow out of that paint war.

I could pick another color...

Okay, have you seen the commercial for that yogurt stuff that's supposed to boost your immune system?

Stop.

Who would ingest that stuff? Ya know the woman in that commercial? The one who touches the paper towel dispenser with her elbows and all? I am that girl. And everyone knows I am so that girl.

I flush toilets with my feet. Yes, I do. It's only good sense if you think about it.

My darling Kristen goes so far as to say I have an Amoeba Aversion. So when her son, Cory, learned in school what amoebas really are, he took it upon himself to inform me. He thought it peculiar that I was so afraid of a measly, weasly one-celled organism. I love Cory. Happy Birthday, Cory.

Now, back to this immune-boosting custard. What can they possibly have channeled into a yogurt cup? How? Why? Why don't I just go into an inner-city bus stop restroom and lick the toilet seat?

Once upon a time,
In the land of D.C.
I was going to go out for margaritas with the girls.
And Heather said she'd better go too,
To keep an eye on me (Couldn't have been)
Someone said something about a karaoke bar around the corner,
"And you guys really have to watch her,
Because she _really_ loves margaritas."

SHE SAID i'M GOING OUT WITH MY GIRLFRIENDS
MARGARITAS AT THE HOLIDAY INN
OH MERCY...MY ONLY THOUGHT
WAS TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF

SHE DON'T MEAN NOTHING
SHE'S JUST HAVING FUN
TOMORROW SHE'LL SAY
OH WHAT HAVE I DONE
HER FRIENDS WILL JOKE ABOUT THE STUFF SHE LOST
CAUSE TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF

-gary hannan

Met a couple in Greece, on their 29th anniversary trip. They were childhood sweethearts in India, and they now live in Australia. They have no children, so they say, they're together because they want to be. I thought that was a wonderful phrase. They've been in love with each other their whole lives... I just love that. I wish they lived next door.

Leaving the house for dinner Friday, the little girl next door caught us. Julia had been toiling all day, coloring flowers and angels on these brown paper bags. She was selling them for 20 cents each, or five for a dollar.

Erik had a five dollar bill on him, and asked Julia if she had four dollars in change.

"I don't give money back," she said.

Her mom came running over to give her a lesson in making change. Julia is five and Jenny, her mother, who used to work with me, has been trying to teach her she needs to invest her allowance, or else she's going to be working for her money all her life. This is probably a great entrepreneurial lesson to teach a little girl.

So anyway, we ended up buying five of her little brown bags, and my Dad said he will not eat again until he can take his lunch to work in one of them. ;)

I LOVE the rumble of thunder. And I also really like the long, lonesome whistle of a train in the distance.

The ice cream cart that rolls by every summer evening after dinnertime, cranking out its tinny music box tones, kind of creeps me out, because I'm pretty sure there's a brigade of killer clowns in there.

I'll even drive. Do tears not just spring to your eyes when you see something like this? I can smell the North Dakota air.

Counting Crows...

And in between the moon and you
the angels get a better view
of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.

Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
She said she'd like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land
Just like she's walking on a wire in the circus
She parks her car outside of my house,
takes her clothes off,
Says she's close to understanding Jesus
She knows she's more than just a little misunderstood
She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous