*~*~ me at my favorite new place in New Hampshire ~*~*

Well, this picture about sums up "how are you liking New Hampshire?"

What I was thinking:

1. lily pads are incredibly beautiful.

2. I bet this place looks awesome in the autumn and even better in the winter time.

3. wishing my dad could be here to see it, too.

4. looking back on all of the choices and decisions that led up to this moment between November of 2007 and right then, July 26th, 2008. I'm still working on making peace with some of the decisions, but I know for sure I am where I am supposed to be, absolutely, and without doubt.

5. I'm glad Kenny took the job he had to take in order for us to be approved for and financially be able to pay off two mortgages until the house on Cape Cod sold (which it finally did, whew!) If he'd tried to start up his own business, as he wanted to do, we would have had to have waited for about a year to be approved. Even though it wasn't what the initial plan was for either of us, sometimes things just happen for a reason, and what you think is a 'hard choice' is actually something that potentially is going to put you 'where you belong.' I love, love, love working where Kenny and I work, because of the location, the people and the flow of the job, which is just like ripples in the pond - steady and calming. He and I do make a good team.

6. One day, in the fall, I want to take a boat ride on the pond at high noon and just listen to leaves falling on the water and the sound of the oar touching the water. I want to be wearing braids, like I am in this picture, and be the Indian girl I'm not but have always wanted to be. Yeh, I'm a little nutty like that. :)

I can't stop laughin' - man, this is why I'm just so happy to be a part of the Ron Paul movement... the people involved are just so... freakin' funny, creative, positive, intelligent, kind, logical, compassionate and mind-blowingly and heart-warmingly wonderful!

lately I've been doing a virtual walk (via youtube) watching somebody walking all the way from the west coast to the east coast (to New Hampshire!) I was going to start reading another book, but have decided to give my mind and heart a rest for a bit and to instead just enjoy 'walking along.'

There's something extremely spectacular about this footage... sorta reminds me of Forrest Gump, but at a nicer pace, and for a better reason (hope vs hearbreak.) And the guy doing commentary is funny and informative.

Here's a few of the clips to get you started on the journey ... the scenery is just so pretty, calming, and just reminds ya of how nice this planet Earth is. There's dozens more videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/WalkForLiberty

The past few months have been one surreal event after another. Most of them the *good* surreal version.

The funniest happened on June 8th... a former Cape Cod neighbor invited me to her son's graduation party, so I make the trip down from New Hampshire, as I'm really, really happy her son graduated (I know he worked very hard to achieve it, and I know his mom was concerned he was going to give up.) I also wanted to go to this party because Rose always has great food (and drinks), her guests are always open to political discussions, and I love Rose's house, cuz it's one of those places that feels like 'home.' I plan to crash overnight there, as I know driving home won't be an option, as I plan to enjoy some blended beverages.

Her son, without me even saying anything to prompt it, does ask me a lot about politics that day, and hopefully he's thought about what the role of government really is supposed to be in comparison to his 12 years of public schooling, where one out of every three students, nationwide, drops out before graduating. (I actually think that's because students instinctually know that they aren't learning facts in their school system.)

As the party winds down to a group of just about a dozen of us, the mixed drinks and night's dark leads to the bonfire being started. A woman casually mentions that this is the year that the cicadas are slated to come up from the ground, which happens once every 17 years. Mashpee, Massachusetts, it so happens, is one of the areas that was jam-packed with swarms of cicadas 17 years prior, and a few of the guests remember it well. When the ground reaches a certain temperature, they come up out of the ground... thousands of them.


I stand, 3rd drink in hand, to give an impromptu practice Congressional speech, and the fire is just blazing away as the party guests let me know I *really* should run for Congress one day, and that they'd vote for me. I let them know they'll all have to move to New Hampshire to vote for me.


We're all pretty intoxicated, but I manage to get a lot of information to them (in slightly slurred verbal format) to investigate during the course of the upcoming months until November's election. I glance at the fire, and consider that if the ground temp wasn't at the level it was supposed to be yet, it would be now. "Folks, I just want to let you know that these drinks are so good that I can sense the cicadas are down below this bonfire and the ground has heated up to just that right temp, and soon, soon, they'll be coming up, I'm tellin' ya, watch! Although some of the cicadas have been burnt to a crisp because of the bonfire, unfortunately... " I was kinda freaked out (along with everybody else) about five minutes later when one of the party guests jumped up and said "A cicada is on my shoulder!" Around the bonfire, holes started to form from beneath the ground, and soon the entire fire circle had cicadas walking all over the place.

One of the guests started to gather them up in her hands, to bring them to the nearby trees to dry their wings. I'm not sure if it was the booze, but I thought this was the most beautiful thing I'd ever witnessed... The party host threatened to break out the water hose to shoo them all away... once she realized the enormity of the amount of cicadas coming up from the fire-heated area, she retreated to the house to hit bed. She was livid, but we all let her know we actually loved the unexpected entertainment of the cicadas.

It was pretty late, but more guests joined in to get the cicadas to the trees, which now had thousands of shiny, slightly damp cicada wings glowing on the limbs and leaves as the cicadas got into 'hanging to dry' phase, giving a very pretty and spectacular 'glow' to our surroundings. Quite a few trees, from top to bottom branches, were glittering with these tiny, silver shine sparklings (if I'd try to say that on the night this happened, it would have come out 'shilvah shiiiine shpahklingsh'... man, those drinks were THICK with alcohol.)

The next morning, with no hangover thankfully, the cicadas joined me on the back porch deck while I drank my morning coffee and smoked a few cigarettes. Rose came outside to investigate, and again threatened the hose. We convinced her not to (at least right then, while we were there.) It's amazing how many cicadas there were around her house.

Weeks later, while driving to Cape Cod again, between exits 1 through 3, cicadas kept flying into my windshield, and I saw many of them on the highway, crushed. :( They don't live for that long, and my heart felt pangs of sadness each time one went 'BLAP' against my car. They can't be dodged like squirrels or cats... big as cicadas are, you don't know you are about to hit one until you hear the sound and see the goopy mess of death plastered across the glass.

I've put up a few youtube vids of the cicadas (and the bonfire that seems to have created this incredible event right in front of us at the perfect moment.) Enjoy!