30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 30)

Well, except for the header (which I haven't decided what to do with yet), my creative thing for today has been switching my blog over to Halloween. It's been a fun month! Hopefully I'll get a chance soon to post the first days of my 30 Days of Creativity in September.

Keep scrolling down & take a look for some Halloween fun!

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 29)

Quiet.
It's quiet!
That's the first thing I notice
about Fall's arrival,
usually before the calendar's announcement.
Mother Nature chooses when seasons come & go.

Crickets chirping in the daylight.
Birds coming back to the feeder.
Deer on the move.
Less street traffic during.
Less coming & going.
Children at school, no playing noises.

Breezes blowing dried leaves along the side walks.
And that's what catches my attention.
Then I realize...
It's quiet.
Quiet!

Autumn mornings...
Calming.
Soothing.
Inspiring.
Quiet.

Post # 1000 came & went without my even realizing it! (Smacks head). The blogging milestone occurred on Friday, 9/25/09, with my "Losing Focus" and "Bird Watching" photo posts for 30 Days of Creativity in September.

DUH Jo.
(Shaking head)

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 28)

Soon the Fall "Spring cleaning" can begin,
now that the majority of the decorating is done.

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 27)

Started on the windows yesterday. Didn't get very far but it's a start.

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 26)

Let the Fall & Halloween decorating begin!
(Click on pic for a better view)

30 Days of Creativity in September (Days 24 & 25) AKA Post # 1000!

(Losing Focus, pictured above)

(Bird Watching, pictured above)

Ladies & Gentlemen, Post # 1000!!!

Happy Autumn (2009)!

With the arrival of my favorite season has come a wave of wilting humidity which led me to forget to wish you all a Happy first day of Autumn! (The air conditioning has been on since yesterday and most likely won't be off again until Saturday at this rate). I wouldn't call this a bout of Indian Summer because the temp's aren't high, just the humidity is. I finally dragged up 2 boxes of Autumn & Halloween decorations from the basement yesterday and hope to start getting that stuff out today. Vic and I took out time this morning with getting up and breakfast so neither of us really starting moving until nearly noon! Now it's off to do more laundry and bring up the outdoor Halloween decorations.

It's just so hard getting into a particular season or holiday spirit when you're breaking a sweat standing still!

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 23)

I took a creative break yesterday. My morning writing wasn't going well and while I did take some photo's in the garden afterwards, I just wasn't feeling the least bit creative and that's okay!

30 Days of Creativity in September (Days 21 & 22) aka Post # 997

Sunflower Funk

Lakeside Moon rise

Saying Goodbye: Summer Turns To Autumn

Another season in this ever so quickly passing year is coming to an end today. We will go to sleep this evening in Summer and wake in Autumn.

30 Days of Creativity in September (Days 19 & 20)

Day 19
While up at our weekend place, I worked on this scarf some more and continued writing my "Vines" story which I started over this Summer.

Day 20
Continued working on "Vines."

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 18): Reclaiming My Knitting Mojo

Frustrated by my recent knitting woes, I started making scarves with other yarn late this afternoon and decided I would keep at it until one went smoothly. This was my 3rd attempt and the only one I liked of the 3 so I kept going. This won't take long to finish and I'll post another photo when it's done. (I had to take a break because my fingers were starting to cramp). Now if only I could read & knit at the same time...

Sorry for the crappy photo. I had to take this with my cell since I've exhausted yet another 4 AA batteries in my camera.

30 Days of Creativity in September (Days 7 & 17)

This scarf is giving me fits! I started it just fine on Labor Day then I tried to knit & purl the first black rows. Apparently, I've forgotten how to purl. Again. (sigh) So I pulled that mess out and tried to just knit the first black rows and messed that up. Pulled them out & tried again. Did alright and put it down. Tonight I discovered I'd dropped a stitch and had to add one back in, so I pulled some rows out to do that. I haven't knit anything since March or April but I've gone for stretches of the same before and haven't had this much trouble starting again! But I'll keep at it off & on until it's done.

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 16): Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, September 2009 (pics & explanation)

While tooling around the internet yesterday, I stumbled upon "Garden Blogger's Bloom Day." While I'm unsure if it was started by Carol at MayDreamsGardens (http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/), the following is from her blog: "...I hope you’ll join us for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day this month and tell us about what's blooming now in your garden. All are welcome!

It's easy to participate. Just post on your blog about what's blooming in your garden on the 15th of the month and then leave a link in the "Mr. Linky" widget below along with a comment so we can find you and visit your garden to see what you have blooming."

Fun!

Pictured above is some of what was blooming in my garden as of yesterday, September 15th.

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 15) - Morning Glory, A Day In The Life

30 Days of Creativity in September (Day 14) & The Countdown Begins

I have yet to post most of my items for my
30 Days of Creativity in September,
but I'm working on it!
(Click on the
"30 Days of Creativity September 2009"
label at the end of this post for Day 11).

Here is yesterday's above,
my new blog header.
(Don't be fooled, this actually took a while to make and after 5 different versions, this is the one I decided I liked best).

The Countdown Begins?
you may be asking yourself (or not).
No, I'm not already counting down to Halloween.
Well, actually I am,
with the widget in the right column,
but that's not it!

This post you are reading right now is # 990.
That's right, post #
nine hundred and ninety!
I'm only 10 posts away from post # 1,000!

I think that's incredible
and
calls for celebration!
(Once I get there of course).

This Is Where I Was When The World Stopped Turning

(Written throughout the week of and on September 11, 2009)
I was supposed to be on the 78th floor of World Trade Center Tower 2 that morning. Instead, I was safe at home in my living room. People I would've been working with, my boss (the wonderful man who hired me), gone. People I didn't have a chance to get to know and wish I did.

I called out of my job that morning because I didn't have faith in myself & my abilities and therefore no courage to continue working in Manhattan - no, the job itself wasn't what I wanted to do, but I'd always dreamed of working in NYC, because it was a Beautiful Autumn morning and I just didn't have it in me to go into work. I'd been up for awhile but only turned on the tv just before the 2nd plane hit. They were only reporting Tower 1 was on fire at that point. They didn't know. A few moments later, I watched a plane swoop around the Towers and fly strait into Tower 2. My Tower. My floor. The tv screen went to snow. (I didn't have cable then).

My ex was running around the apartment yelling that he knew it was a terrorist attack. I couldn't speak. I could barely breath. My right hand was clamped over my mouth, my eyes open as wide as I've ever felt them. My left hand was still holding my mug of tea which was now all over the floor & couch. I kept repeating "Oh my God oh my God oh my God" over & over in my mind. I don't remember getting off the couch. I was standing directly in front of the tv.

My ex stood in front of me and said, "You were supposed to be there!" and went about trying to find another channel on the tv.

I backed up to the wall in the hall, my eyes not leaving the tv. Channel 2 was the only channel still able to broadcast on regular tv. (It was the only channel I would have for months). Both Towers had black smoke billowing from them. I slid down to the floor in shock.

Eventually, just before Tower 2 fell, I was able to go find my journal and get back onto the couch. People jumping, falling. When Tower 2 fell, I screamed and was again standing in front of the tv. My soul fell with it. Now the tears came. Gut wrenching sobs. "My GOD, what was happening?!" I screamed.

More people jumping & falling. The Pentagon, attacked. Tower 1 fell. A plane crashed in a field in PA. So many rumors and so much chaos. I wrote it all down in that journal. (Which I no longer have thanks to my ex). I taped my World Trade Center ID in there.

My mother called to literally curse me out (for having wanted to work in Manhattan) and to tell me what a foolish asshole I would be to go back there. Then she started in on how she was in danger too because she worked 2 towns over from Earle Naval Weapons (inland) Station. I hung up on her.

My best friend Kathy called and when I answered, she said, "Oh thank God!" and we cried.

My other best friend Gill worked on Avenue of the America's at that time and I was in a panic because I couldn't reach her. (She was alright, we touched base the next day).

I didn't sleep that whole first night. I couldn't stop watching the coverage, praying survivors would be found. I walked around in a stunned daze for the next couple of weeks. I was glued to the tv or a radio at all times.

I was some place the day after and a woman was on her cell phone, bitching on & on about how unhappy she was with how one of her newly refinished & covered dining chairs had come out. Finally I lost it and yelled at her to take it outside because if that was all she was worried about with what had happened the day before, she'd be lucky I didn't shove her phone up her ass and give her something more important to bitch about. She made me sick. I cannot imagine who she was talking to.

It took me 3 years to begin to wonder less why I was alive & any one of those people wasn't and become truly thankful for being given another chance to make a good life & be a better person to myself as well as to others. (I couldn't for the life of me imagine how I/my life was, worth more in a sense than most who had died - I had no spouse, my daughter had passed 2 years earlier & so I had no dependants, I'd backed out of a high power stock broker job using the excuse that it wasn't what I wanted to do (it wasn't) but in truth I was a coward & had no faith in myself and I hadn't been the best person to myself and others & done some terrible things). The 'why me' & 'survivors guilt' was overwhelming for a very long time.

Since 2004, I have been on a long and sometimes horrendous journey towards healing, emotionally & physically, not just from September 11th, but my life in general. I thank God every day for Victor. Even though I wanted to go at life on my own & was fully prepared emotionally to do so, I wouldn't have made it by myself because of my health and without him, I wouldn't be here typing this now. And though I was getting better slowly physically, emotionally it was taking so much longer. And then my best friend Gill told me about GoodReads. Then I found Chicks on Lit. Then Holli friended me & our bonding pushed my healing forward. Then I found all of you & more Chicks. I now thank God every day for my blogging friends and Chicks!

This morning when I got up, I lit candles on the mantle. Tall red, white & blue prayer candles. Short white candles. The votive I used that week 8 years ago for the candle light vigil around the world. A small wreath decoration from a large wreath saved from a dumpster near Ground Zero.

I went once and stood on the viewing platform next to the Church, its' graveyard down to my right. I felt something on my right arm and waved my left hand over it without looking. I felt what I thought was a strand of my hair blowing across my right forearm and grabbed with my left hand to get it off me. I looked down and realized my hair was braided strait down my back. I groped around for lose strands and didn't have any. That's when I realized it felt like fingers running very lightly & softly up & down my arm from my wrist to my elbow. I whispered, "I'm so sorry" and left. Seeing all of the missing posters and candles had been hard. That was too much.

Never forget 9/11/01. I won't. For their sakes, so they'll know I'm doing something w/the chance I was given.

Honoring September 11th (cont'd from last post) and 30 Days of Creativity in Sept (Day 11)

If you have a moment, please scroll down until you see the green music widget let it load and listen to the song I've chosen for today, "Where Were You...?" by Alan Jackson. (This will only be on the widget from 9/10 thru 9/14). No matter when I hear this song, my tears flow. So true. A wonderful gift for us to remember we aren't alone in what we experienced and felt 8 years ago today.

This morning I put the above together on the mantle, to honor those lost 8 years ago today. For me, this is part of the 30 Days of Creativity in September.

Honoring September 11th

What I do is perhaps small
but it's what I can do
and I feel I must do something,
anything
to let those lost know
I will Not forget.

So I've changed my blog background
and tomorrow
will light candles on the mantle,
watch the Memorial ceremonies,
go to see the beams of light in the Towers' footprints.

A day filled with
tears,
memories,
guilt
and thanks.

I was supposed to be
on the 78th floor
of
World Trade Center Tower 2
that morning.

Instead,
I was at home,
safe in my living room.

Where were you
when the world stopped turning?

Something Old Something New, My ABC's

Some of this you know, some you don't. (I was tagged by Sarah over at Sarah Says ~ see my CoL BlogRoll on the left).

Available or married?
Married
Best Friend?
Kathy, Brenda, Michelle, Chicks!
Cake or Pie?
Both, prefer cake.
Drink of choice?
AZ Iced Tea (weening myself off), Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer (with ice), Celestial Seasonings Decaf Green Tea
Essential item for every day use?
Uh... my cell
Favorite color?
Oranges, pinks, barn red
Google?
Duh.
Hometown?
The town I was born in isn't my hometown. I felt M, NJ was my hometown after having lived there for 12 years. Then we moved here. Now I'm unsure.
Indulgences?
Books, yarn, Artful Blogging and Where Women Create magazines, Halloween & Autumn decorations, candles, flowers for my gardens
January or February?
Neither
Kids and their names?
One, daughter, Brianna
Life is incomplete without?
Creativity and inspiration
Marriage date?
8/21/04, 5/16/05, 5/25/05 (last time was legal)
Number of siblings?
none
Oranges or apples?
Apples (allergic to oranges)
Phobias and fears?
Heights, trying to have another child, becoming immune to my meds (again)
Quote for the day?
Live your passions
Reason to smile?
Seeing the leaves begin to turn.
Season?
Autumn above all, Winter next.
Tag 3 people?
You, you and you!
Unknown fact about me?
I've worked for financial institutions on Wall Street, Avenue of the America's and at The World Trade Center prior to September 11th.
Vegetable you hate?
Brussel sprouts
Worst habit?
Quick to get angry & defensive and take things personally
X-rays you’ve had?
Teeth, knees, right elbow, ribs, spine, lower back
Your fave food?
Fresh made not processed.
Pick one?
Nope!
Zodiac sign?
Gemini or Tarus, depending on the horoscope.

PS~ My 30 days of Creativity in September will be posted soon, up through what ever day I finally get the chance to post them all!

Sunday in Photo's (4 of 4)

Sunday in Photo's (1 of 4)

This is the first view we saw once we got out of the car at the foot of the High Point (State Park) Monument. Gorgeous! This is only about 15 minutes from our place up north here.

Sunday in Photo's (3 of 4)

Inside of the High Point State Park Monument, looking up from the bottom.

Sunday in Photo's (2 of 4)

High Point State Park Monument (which honors all Veterans, past and present).

Another Check Off The List

Taken from the Dingman's Ferry Bridge this morning before the fog lifted and Kittatinny Canoe Rentals drove us to River Beach in Milford PA so we could canoe on the Delaware River back to the bridge. (I took some other photo's with my camera, this is from my cell which I left in the truck).

Such a gorgeous day! Bascially perfect weather and no recent rain so the river was very calm. I was a little nervous & skeptical at first. I haven't been canoeing since grade school summer camp and that was just in a large pond and when I have to get up at the crack of dawn to do anything, it takes some convincing before I think it's worth it!

We canoed a total of 11 miles which took us roughly 4 1/2 hours with 2 breaks. We packed a cooler w/drinks, snacks and sandwhiches for lunch. It was so peaceful and relaxing! Such a nice time together.

We were beat when we got back home (not apt. home, up north home) and I ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap! Vic read & dozed. I zonked out. He woke me so we could head to the local American Legion for dinner - I never thought a meatloaf dinner could be orgasmically good until this evening. The best meatloaf Ever. EVER!

Now we're reading, listening to country music on the radio and the Cicada's grumpy chatter in the trees, the full moon shining in our bedroom window.

What's That Sound...? Cont'd from last post

Well that didn't work! The picture is missing. But since I can't edit from here, just have to settle for piece meal. Ah technology!

What's That Sound...?

It's peace and quiet. Birds & bugs. No tenants screaming at us & one another because other tenants and just people on our street in general have the nerve to park on the (public) road in front of their apartments so they have to park else where and walk an extra 200 yards to their front doors. (Last night was Fun). I swear some of them are just plain Nut Jobs but they're officially another RM's problem through Labor Day! YAY!

Today we're at 'home away from home' just relaxing. Tomorrow it's canoeing on the Deleware. Saturday it's a trip to the Farmer's Market and the yarn shop, then home to refuel the kitties followed by whatever suits our fancy through Monday.

I hope you all enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

And The Award Goes To... Me!

I received this award from Lit and Life (http://litandlife.blogspot.com/) on 8/29/09.
I'm very flattered, to say the least.
Thank you L!

"This award is to honor certain bloggers that are kindhearted individuals."
Rule:
Nominate 10 bloggers you feel deserve the Humane Award.

(Stay tuned for my announcement of who, in turn, will receive this award from me).