flickr friday

I don’t think I’ve shared any shoe pictures in a while…  Oh, look, here’s one now:

These are my current favorite shoes – I just love them!  Aren’t they the cutest shoes ever?  No, really, aren’t they?  “It’s not rocket science, just say yes and we’ll move on!” (Random, I know.  My apologies – I’m a little punchy because I’m pretty happy it’s Friday.)  Anyhoo, more shots of these shoes over on Flickr.

After just saying that I’m feeling punchy, I now realize that all of the pictures I’ve chosen for today are pretty serious…  Huh.  Oh, well.  As a former boss used to say, “Onward and upward!”  Here are this week’s flickr friday favorites:

gourds of all colors – The little tiny baby ones are so cute!

untitled – Good reminder.  I should have this tattooed on my arm or something…

crimson beauty – Such vibrant red – gorgeous!

fallen – Amazing bokeh.  The leaf is literally the only part of the shot that is in focus.  Wow.

love knows not its own depth… – So true.

dream – This is an amazing picture – a favorite among favorites, so to speak.  It’s one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.

sailing into the sunset – Paradise.  I know some people say paradise doesn’t exist, but I would argue that this might just be it.  Or it’s at least as close as we can get in this life.  Anchors away, I say.

Oh!  Duh.  I just remembered, it’s Halloween.  Happy Halloween, everyone — have a great weekend!

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farewell, julie

Sadness. My fantastic boss, Julie (pictured here), left the College back in July. Her stupid husband got a stupid new job in stupid upstate New York, so they had to move away. (He’s not really stupid. Actually he’s really smart, which is why he got this great new job. But I reserve the right to call him stupid because he took Julie away from us. Also, I don’t have anything against upstate New York. It’s a very nice place.) Julie was one of the best bosses and colleagues I’ve ever had and I was very sorry to see her go. She’s been gone several months now (with a few quick visits to the office) and I still miss her. The College is in the process of hiring her replacement – they’re going to have to find someone really amazing because Julie (and her predecessor, Sean) set the bar pretty damn high.

My co-workers and I wanted Julie to know how much we would miss her, so we took her out for a small intimate dinner and held a larger, department-wide reception to send her off with our best wishes.

Good-bye, Jules and best of luck in this new chapter of your life!

Complete set of pictures from both events can be viewed over at Flickr.

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obama wants to take your candy.

You know, if Barack Obama was a third party candidate, people would be standing around their water coolers making fun of him.  No one would take him seriously.  He would be Ralph Nader: The Sequel.  If he didn’t have the economic and philosophical support of the Democratic National Committee behind him, he would be a joke.  The man is so far Left of even the most liberal politicians currently holding elected office.  Clearly, Americans are just not paying attention anymore – if they were, Obama wouldn’t even be in the running, especially this late in the game.  Personally, I think he’s dangerous – here’s why:

What Barack Obama is advocating in this tape is Liberal Fascism.  He wants a radical Supreme Court — not us as voting citizens, not our elected legislators, but rather Presidentially-appointed judges (presumably appointed by himself since he assumes he’ll be the next President) — to reinterpret The Constitution in order to redistribute the wealth of American citizens.  Obama calls it “redistributive change.”  Basically, he wants the courts to enable the government to take some of your money and give it to people who, for whatever reason, have less money.  Here’s a great way of looking at it:

via The Recovering Protestant (thanks, Kim!)

I don’t know about you, but I work hard for my candy and I don’t want the government giving it away to someone else.  Because I care about people and about my community, I might generously decide to share my candy with my neighbor if he was too sick to go trick or treating or some other extenuating circumstance.  But that’s for me to decide, not some radical revisionist judge and certainly not Barack Obama.  Please don’t vote for him.

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back to sea level

I’m back from the Mile High City and happy to be so.  It was an interesting trip to say the least.  Let’s summarize using bullet points:

• First leg of my flight to Denver:  puking, pregnant woman sitting next to me.  I felt so bad for her.
• Second leg of my flight to Denver:  had to gate check my suitcase – with my camera inside! – and worried about it the whole time.
• First night in Denver: took a Zinc supplement on an empty stomach, woke up in the middle of the night, and threw up for a while.  Being sick, alone, in a hotel room far from home is a bummer.  (Hm, there’s a lot of vomiting in this blog post, isn’t there?  Sorry about that.)  (Also?  Don’t take Zinc on an empty stomach – you’ve been warned.)
• Denver is dry.  It’s DRY.  Really DRY.  (I guess it’s because of the elevation – they don’t call it the Mile High City for nothing.)  I was not prepared for this and I was very uncomfortable.  I had to drink 8-10 bottles of water a day (Denver also has the cleanest tap water in the nation, apparently), apply lip balm every hour or so, and apply hand lotion several times a day.  My sinuses were so dry and sore, I had to go buy some saline nasal spray.  It was insane.  Finally I saw on the news that the humidity level was 21%.  21%!  Even in the dead of winter, Maine doesn’t get that dry.  Geez.
• First leg of my flight home: sat next to a sweaty, drunk guy from North Carolina who proceeded to harass everyone within a ten-seat radius for the duration of the flight.  He got on the plane drunk and had two more bottles of wine during the flight.  Within three minutes of his arrival, he had told me his IQ is 140 (Yeah. Right.), his ex-wife’s name is Melissa, his sister (one of three sisters) is named Suzanne, he has 13 neices and nephews, and he was recently fired from his job.  His former company required periodic FBI background checks and he suspects he was fired because he recently sponsored a child from Vietnam.  (I know, it doesn’t really make much sense – don’t shoot the messenger.)  He gave me his business card – he’s a “Technical Consultant.”  Anyway, it only got worse after that.  When he packed his lip with skoal and used one of his empty wine bottles as his spittoon, I started to wonder if I was being Punk’d.
• Final leg of my flight home:  finally got a little reprieve in the form of an empty seat next to me.  And then the stewardess explained that the plane’s weight distribution was off (it was a tiny, little plane) and she reseated my entire row.
• We were flying into Portland in a bad wind storm – the last half-hour of the flight was very turbulent.  Fortunately, there no puking this time…for me or anyone else.
• When I got home at 11:30-ish at night, the electricity was off in the house, presumably because of the wind.  Joel was visiting his parents in New Hampshire.  I went to a hotel.

I think it was worth it though because here’s the thing:  the conference I attended was great!  Excellent presenters, very comprehensive workshops on every imaginable aspect of gift planning, professionals who are involved in gift planning in many different fields (lawyers, tax advisors, wealth managers, etc.) from all over the country.  I met some really nice people and I learned so much.  I also learned that I have so much more to learn.  Yikes.

Also?  I got to see Denver!  I’ve been to many of the states around it – Nebraska, Kansas, Arizona, Utah – but I had never been to Colorado, so now I can check it off my list.  (What?  You don’t keep a list of all the states you’ve visited and the ones you still need to get to? )  I didn’t get to see a lot of it, but I did take a stroll up and down the 16th Street Mall and I could see a bit of the snow-capped mountains from my hotel room window – it feels like a success to me. 

P.S.  I took my camera with me and managed to get a few shots while I was there.  Unfortunately, knowing me, I won’t get to them for a while.  And by a while, I mean months from now.

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yo!

yo, yarmouth clam festival, yarmouth, maine

Now that I have your attention…  Just wanted to say have a great weekend, friends!  See you next week!

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hitting the bottle

return for refund, yarmouth clam festival, yarmouth, maine

No!  I kid.  I’m not really hitting the bottle, but I am going to a cocktail reception this evening.  A work-related cocktail reception where I won’t know a single person in the room.  Sounds fun, eh?  Ah, well, it is what it is (that’s my mantra these days) – I’ll be fine.

Hope you’re all having a great week – tomorrow’s Friday – woo, hoo!

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what’s up, buttercup?

Get it? I said, “What’s up, buttercup?” and there’s a picture of a buttercup! Ha! You’re laughing, right?

Actually, I’m not even sure this is a buttercup, I just wanted to use it in the title. I’m kooky that way. Ok, moving right along… As I mentioned, not much text around here this week – just pictures. I’m just popping in to say hello – I’m off to Denver today for a planned giving conference. Well, I’m off provided there aren’t high winds or snow or any other weird weather issues, either in Portland or in Denver – wish me luck!

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think pink

You’re not sick of photographs of my peonies, are you? I just can’t help myself…they’re my all-time favorite flower and they bloom for such a short time…I always take tons of shots of them.

Plus, this soft pretty pink is also intended to remind you that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Ladies, please, do those self-exams and get an annual mammogram if you’re over 40 (or over if you’re 35 and have a family history of breast cancer). My Mom had a blessedly minor incidence of breast cancer – she’s a great example of how early detection saves lives.

Oh, and if you want to go the extra mile, I highly recommend one of these campaigns – Save the Ta-tas and Save 2nd Base – they’re hilarious! And as we all know, every potentially terminal illness needs a little infusion of humor, right? Right.

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my signature color is cerise.

I think this is all a wee bit “out there” but it was fun to play with.  My results, you ask?  (Or maybe you didn’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway.)  Apparently, my signature color is cerise.

Until today, I didn’t even know there WAS a color called cerise.  Maroon?  Of course.  Burgundy?  Well, yeah.  Crimson?  Yes, that too.  But cerise?  Never heard of it.

Anyway, here’s my description (according to Pantone, Inc. and Michelle Bernhardt’s Colorstrology) in its entirety:

“You have an array of talents and few people can resist your charm and beauty.  You are sensual and charismatic and can be influential over others.  Being creative and organized helps you feel grounded.  There can be a tendency to go to extremes and you may swing from going overboard to becoming overly disciplined.  Your personal color encourages you to express your abilities fully.  Wearing, meditating or surrounding yourself with Cerise helps you balance your provocative nature and attain your rightful place in life.”

Huh.  I don’t know about charm and beauty…  But I’m definitely all about being creative and organized.  And yes, I suppose I do have a tendency to go to extremes.  But you didn’t hear me say it.   What do you think?  Does this sound like me?

What’s your signature color?  To find out, visit Colorstrology and then please come back and leave me a comment.  I wouldn’t say my match was dead-on, but it got some stuff right…  I’m curious to hear if other people’s colors match their personalities at all.

Destination: Denver! this week for a conference – National Conference on Planned Giving (I know, riveting topic, right?!) – I’ll be gone Wednesday through Saturday.  As I’m already feeling pretty stressed out about the whole thing (nervous flyer, traveling alone, intense schedule, etc), I won’t be writing much this week.  However, I will try to get a photograph posted each day – no guarantees, but I’ll give it a shot.

Have a great week!

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flickr friday

Yup, that’s where my head is – in the clouds. Actually, my head is swimming. Or spinning. Or my mind is reeling. Basically, I’ve got a lot going on:

~ Ever-present office politics (Can I just say how sick I am of bi+chy, passive aggressive behavior from people who are decidedly old enough to know better?)

~ Meet and greet / informal interview with a candidate for the director of my department here at the College

~ Looming deadline for a publication to be mailed

~ Work-related trip to Denver next week for which I feel woefully unprepared

And then to remind me to keep it all in perspective…

~ A colleague’s three-month old grandson passed away earlier this week from a congenital heart defect. He was only recently allowed to go home, but took an unexpected turn for the worse and passed away on Tuesday afternoon. If you’re a praying type of person, please say a couple for Lysanne and her family – they can use all the help and comfort they can get right now.

Gosh, going on about pretty pictures seems a little trite after that reality check… But maybe it’s okay if we look at it as a celebration of the simple things in life? Yes, I think so.

untitled

this is how my heart behaves

march

aspens

lily

waiting, dockside

dark sunrise

And now, as we head off into our weekend – presumably a time to slow down a bit – let’s remember that life is precious, friends. You don’t need me to tell you that, I know, but the events of this week compel me to say it anyway. Take a deep breath and a moment to be grateful for all the people and moments in your life that bring you joy. Tell those you love that you do – they need to hear it and you need to say it. When has anyone ever reflected on life and concluded “I wish I had loved less” or “I think I said ‘I love you’ too often”? Never. We can all always stand to be more loving and to demonstrate that love. And we should. I’m just saying.

Ok, I’ll stop there before I cross the line into preachy, sentimental drivel. Have a good weekend, ya’ll — see you next week!

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