I am always somewhere. It may not always be the "there" I am trying to reach, but even slow progress is good, even coming with the occasional side effect of nosittustoolongus and cabin fever...

I dream.

I have the hardest time remember what day it is...both the actual date, and the day of the week. I believe this is a side-effect from six years of shipboard life. When out to sea, I don't often get to see the sun...and days blend together without that little glimpse into the outside world. Now, I see the sun, but I think I've permanently lost my internal clocking and calendar.

1. "What you do in life echos in eternity." Maximus, "Gladiator".

2. "Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood." Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. "...and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things and at all times, knowing all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:8

4. "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship." Louisa May Alcott

5. "A person is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." SHAPE magazine, April 2009

6. "Life's tough...get a helmet." My dad

7. "If you make a mess, clean it up." My mom

8.   I will wear flats, or better yet, running shoes when executing crucial plans.

9.  "What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog."  Dwight D. Eisenhower

10.  "Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on."  Bob Newhart

11.  "Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine."  Lord Byron

12.  "You do not lead by hitting people over the head-that's assault, not leadership."
Dwight D. Eisenhower

1. What would the members of the Second Continental Congress have to say to the current members of Congress?

2. What do I want to be when I grow up?

3. Why did my dog just open the back door with his head?

4. How can I (practically!) pay for college without incurring huge debt?

5. Where are my keys?

I leave for work when it's still dark. This morning, I could see that it was cloudy...and began hoping for sun. Just before I got to my office, I saw just one ray of sun bursting through a crack in the clouds. The contrast of its brilliant light in the surrounding darkness took my breath away for that split second.

Chocolate. Instant endorphins!

Sometime during the last week, I became an unwitting and very reluctant landlady to at least one mouse...and very possibly two or more of these assuming little guys. My new tenants broke into my breadbox and helped themselves to its contents without so much as a "by your leave." Honestly, the least they could have done was to clean up after themselves. So now, I have to figure out how to humanely evict my unwelcome mouse buddies...as finding their little mouse "berries" is really giving me the creepy-crawlies...and increasing my work load at my house because I have this "unreasonable" need to deep-clean everything every time I find evidence. All of this to say...I need a Great Mouse Detective to help me find the mice and their entry point to my house...and someone to help me explain to my dogs exactly why we need to adopt a kitty. We don't want the kitty to catch the mice...we need something that smells like a cat to keep the mice away permanently.

I am in my new office, which I share with my teammate. Our office is arranged in a way that would make a Tetras Master proud...it's really only large enough for one person comfortably, but we've managed to fit two large desks, two chairs, and a small bookshelf in it...and still have enough room to move around.  Because our walls are a very strange mustardy-brown color, we're still trying to figure out how to best decorate our little space.  A plant is definately needed...however, it needs to be a "sturdy" plant.  (My teammate's black thumbs counterbalance my green thumbs.)  Maybe a painting that looks like a window and shows a nice view would be nice...I can take myself somewhere else via my hyperactive imagination.