UPDATE 4/29/10: Bleh. Strike that. Now how do I make a countdown to "date undecided"?

Favorite song (of the week)

Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons.




I don't know if I'm a huge fan of the album as a whole, but I think this song is amazing. I blame the banjo. :D

See you in a few weeks!

A nice family portrait....

We were making Valentines in therapy yesterday and one of my students decided he'd like to draw a picture of his mom and dad. Here it is:



That's Mom on your left and Dad on your right.

Dad only had two legs at first. Then the kid stopped, kinda tilted his head to the side, and drew another...leg (?).

Status

Ashley Blakely is undeniably convex.

It's about time she reintroduced herself to her old friend Treadmill.

Another dream...

My (nocturnal) dream world has been quite interesting lately, so I thought I'd share again:

It was like a scene from one of those superhero movies....A feeling of impending doom in the air, but an almost palpable hope that we would be saved by whatshisname in the leotard and tights....You know the kind.

The main character was a group a marching band kids. Sometimes I was part of the band and sometimes I was just a spectator. For most of the dream, we were at the airport and I guess we were headed to some marching event because they were all in uniform (I don't remember what I was wearing). The whole time, we were running from these bad guys who kept turning up and trying to kill us. Turns out...I don't know if it was the uniforms or what...but if we got to running fast enough, we could fly...so that a) was awesome, and b) helped us escape the villains. The superhero guy never actually turned up...

At some point, I went up to the ticket counter to get my boarding pass, and the lady working at the counter was none other than former vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin! I give her my ticket and she says to me, "Uh-oh Hun, you bought the expensive ticket instead of the cheap one".
Dream Me: "Oh, well that's ok. My mistake. Don't worry about it".
Sarah Palin: "Oh, no. You're just throwin' money away here. Let's switch to the cheaper ticket and get you some money back".
Dream Me: "Ok, well thanks".
Sarah Palin: "You betcha. Here at American Airlines, we believe in Change".
Dream Me: "HAHAHA! Sarah Palin, you are a RIOT!"

I woke myself up laughing. (I do that sometimes).

25 things......

I just copied and pasted this from my facebook account. Boring, I know. Deal with it. :)

1. There are 5 things in life that I really hate doing: washing my face before bed, stopping to fill up at the gas station, talking on the phone, eating at fancy restaurants, washing dishes.
2. My favorite food of all time is potato pizza from Stevi B’s. I could eat it every day. No question.
3. I have no idea how to make small talk. I just end up either saying something strange or saying nothing at all. For this reason, I think a lot of people who don’t know me that well think I’m either a weirdo or a snob. I am neither and it makes me sad bc I actually really like talking to people. I just suck at it.
4. I can’t sleep with a shirt on (I feel like I’m choking), but I have to wear pajama pants (I don’t like my leg skin to touch).
5. Perfect teeth bother me.
6. I went through a few really weird months during grad school where I was totally obsessive-compulsive about light switches and doorknobs in my house. After locking a door and/or turning off a light, I had to touch (the doorknob and/or light switch) three or four times with the palm of my hand or I would get a really creepy feeling that wouldn’t go away. I don’t know what that was all about, but I’m glad I don’t do it anymore.
7. The thing that annoys me most about people is selfishness. I wish that everyone cared just a little bit more about their fellow man and that they would actually go out of their way to make other people happy every once in awhile. The world would be a better place.
8. I really hope that I’ll want kids one day.
9. I’m a vault when it comes to other people’s secrets, but I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut about my own. If I’m thinking it, I’m probably going to say it.
10. I’m a very bad runner. One time I ran three miles on the treadmill and I’ve never been more proud of myself. The problem is, most people I know can run three miles no problem, so nobody else shared in my excitement.
11. I almost never cry about things that actually affect me personally but I’ll cry at the drop of a hat about something ridiculous.
12. A stripper once told me that I have nice boobs. She only saw them covered with a shirt but I took it as a compliment.
13. If I do end up having kids one day, I’m adopting them. I have absolutely zero desire to have them myself. In fact, the thought of having a baby inside my body totally creeps me out.
14. Somewhat related to #7, I sometimes daydream about going to live in an ashram. I think it would be nice. Very nice, actually.
15. I have a terrible fear of getting my fingers caught in things (electric mixers, doors, etc…)
16. I don’t get stressed out very often, even when I should. I’m chronically calm.
17. I love accents. I wish I had more of one.
18. When I was younger, I used to pretend I was the Fonz.
19. I love hats. I would wear a hat every day if I could.
20. Girls make me nervous. #3 is much worse when I’m trying to talk to a girl. I blame this on the fact that I never had many girl friends growing up.
21. I love when a series of events happens and none of it makes any sense at the time and then all of a sudden you realize that all of those things happened in order to get you to this certain point in your life and you realize how crazy life is and how little control you really have over the whole thing. I think it’s exciting.
22. I like Single Me much more than I like Relationship Me. I’ve decided that I’ll never date seriously/marry anyone unless I happen to come across someone who can make me exactly as happy as I make myself. While I think that it’s pretty unlikely that this will ever happen (see #7 again), the idea that it could is very nice to think about.
23. While it would be much more practical to learn Spanish, I really want to re-learn to speak French.
24. I never had braces but I was always jealous of the people who did. I thought they looked cool.
25. I like to think that we (people) reincarnate until we get it right.

And one more:

This picture gives me nightmares.

Bears and bears and bears....oh my?

Two nights ago I dreamed (dreamt?) all night about bears. They just kept turning up. The first time, I was walking (through the woods, I think, but there was a path)....anyway, I looked up and there, 20-30 feet away, was a black bear. I think to myself, "Ok, it's time to think. Black bears and brown bears are different. With one, you're supposed to ball up and play dead. The other, you're supposed to fight"....but I can't remember which one was which. So obviously, trial-and-error is my only option. Eventually, this black bear guy comes up to me. I punch him in the face. Raaaaar! (Wrong move). He tries to claw me, so I get down and play dead. Works like a charm. Bear goes away. Later in the dream, I come across two more bears (on two separate occasions). They're both brown (possibly Grizzly, but I can't be sure). Fortunately, I knew how to defeat them based on the earlier experiment. A little later, I wake up, confused and asking myself two crucial questions: 1. Why am I dreaming all night about bears?, and 2. Where am I walking that I'm encountering both a brown and a black bear in the same range? I mean, I'm sure it happens, but I think that they generally prefer different habitats...

At some point in the dream, I was also shot with a blowdart.

Success!

The transplant went SO well! You can read all of the updates on the surgeries and on Mom and Cason's recoveries here: http://blakelyfamilyblog.blogspot.com/

Big news.

January 5th, 2009: My mom gives Cason a kidney.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!