Ah, it's been years since I uploaded any posts to this website.  Mostly, because I don 't vent like I used to.  Ah, the years before menopause.  Anyway, it is now 2021 and I was writing an article for a different website called Pencil Stubs Online about gratitude and I really could not find much to be grateful about.  Two hundred thirty-seven words in and I was struggling with it.  At the time of this writing it is a very sad time in Afghanistan.  The Taliban has just taken over the country and women, especially, are afraid.  

It occurred to me that it might be useful to look up this blog and I could not find it!  Yikes.  Stuff I had written so long ago, some of it might be useful and where did it go?   

Essentially, the procedures for posting to these Blogger sites have changed somewhat and I'd also like to figure them out. 

Relieve neck pain with a simple move! (ATM82)

Relieve neck pain with a simple move! (ATM82)

 I've had a pain in my upper right back for days.  It started as if I'd pulled a neck muscle.  Then, two days ago the pain radiated down my right arm was so painful I could get absolutely no relief.  I began taking lots of ibuprofen, two at a time.  I used ice packs.  It actually helped my knee which had also been giving me grief, but not the pain in my back or arm.

Sleeping was horrible.  I tossed and turned trying in vain to find a spot where my arm and back wouldn't hurt.

Last night I re-read an email my doctor had sent to me back in January of this year (2013) where I had experienced the same kind of pain.  He told me that I had a pinched nerve in my neck and the pain in my back that radiated down my right arm was a result of the pinched nerve.  He told me the repetitive motion of working at the computer and signing checks all day at work was not helpful.  He told me I should move around more and do stretching exercises.

So, this morning I went to YouTube to see if there was anything to do about my problem.  Lo and behold the video above titled:  Relieve neck pain with a simple move! (ATM82) really did help my problem.  Now, some 8 hours later I am once again experiencing the pain.  I will go do the clockwise motion with my nose and the back of my head described in the video.  Hopefully, remembering to do stretching exercises, not spending so much time with the stuff that ends up hurting me and following the moves described in the video will produce some relief.

I also wanted to book mark the video.  I haven't quite figured out the system of bookmarking them and having them handy for viewing later on.

Peace to all.  

Landfill Harmonic- The world sends us garbage... We send back music.

Prozac and Why I Stopped Taking It

In explanation as to why I have not been very busy posting on this blog I can only say I've been on Prozac and have had an even temper for the last couple of years.  There hasn't been much to vent about.  However, I stopped taking it this last summer and now find the urge to speak up.

In its defense Prozac is a sure fire way of calming the waters.  The con about the use of Prozac is I finally realized I felt like I wasn't a participant in life anymore.  The fire in my belly was gone.  The viv just wasn't there anymore.  So, I contacted my doctor and we developed a plan of gradually weaning myself off of it.  I'm not totally off all the meds yet, but Prozac was the big boy that I wanted gone from my system.  It's been about 6 months.  I feel much better.

I found I could cry again.  I hadn't realized I was so shut down that I just couldn't cry anymore.  My advice to anybody contemplating going on Prozac?  Think twice.  It's useful but it's a bitch getting off of it.  Go see a therapist instead and work out your issues that way.  On the bright side, you'll have done whatever needs to be done and maybe you won't have those same issues hanging over your head next lifetime around.

Currently, I've turned my attention to my websites that have languished while I zombied out on Prozac for the last 2 years.  Blogger had really changed.  I'm impressed with how idiot-proof it seems to be.  What I want to do is to somehow create an income stream that will allow me to spend my days doing what I really want to do; write, read, craft, invent stuff and just have a better time than being administrative staff for a job that went stale some years ago.  So, I took today off.  This is my second post today.   The first one was for Building your own Ouija Board at my Learn to Channel Blog.

So, off to be creative and really, really enjoy my day off. 

70 Million

Ran across this video today.  70 Million by Hold Your Horses.  Terrific.

Changing Normal.dotm

I seem to be having good moving moments all over the place today.  This one fixes the problem of not being able to see documents on the computer as easily as I once was able to do. 

On a computer using Windows 7 and Microsoft Word 2010. To change the normal.dotm template find where it is located.

c:\users\John Doe\app data\roaming\microsoft\templates

Format a blank document in Word to your specifications.  On 2/4/12 I chose: Arial, Font size 14, No spacing and the zoom factor is 120%.  Save it as a macro enabled template to the desktop and call it something like Normalthenewone

Resize the window where your normal.dotm is located and drag the new file Normalthenewone.dotm to that window.  Make sure Word is closed and delete Normal.dotm.  Make sure you’ve got the right Normal.dotm by right clicking and looking at the properties.  If you’ve got earlier versions of Word on your computer there will be a Normal.dot for them. 

Rename Normalthenewone.dotm to Normal.dotm

I'm Baaaaack

It’s been awhile. I won’t say I’m sorry because I needed the break. But, now I’m back. It’ll probably take me a little while to ease back into things.

Not so focused on things spiritual or psychic at the moment. Just grateful to have a bit of my zip back again.

Some thoughts on cleaning.

I have this latent slob tendency. Well, actually it’s not so latent. I am a slob. I guess that’s like saying I’m a little bit pregnant or I’m a little bit alcoholic. You’ve just got to be honest and say it, “I am a slob”.

While I was depressed it got worse. Not only was I not interested in doing anything I was not interested in putting anything away. Sometimes my husband would take the bull by the horns and tidy up, but it drove me crazy because I didn’t know where he was putting my stuff. Then, I’d get fixated with finding whatever it was that I couldn’t find. Do you think I’d wait for him to get home so I could ask him? No. Well, that probably wouldn’t work anyway; he usually can’t remember where he puts my stuff especially if some time has passed since he cleaned up. Don’t think I don’t appreciate his efforts. I do. It’s just that sometimes I can’t find my things afterwards.

So, I have climbed out of my rut. It’s the new me. Actually, the doctor gave me another pill, which after 4 days seems to be working really well. Projects are just bubbling out all over the place.

The background conversations I would have with my guides produced a bit of common sensical advice that perhaps I might be interested in cleaning up my area a little bit. So, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 20 minutes. Then, I had to take a break and was motivated to start with a little bit of writing.

It occurred to me that cleaning a little bit of a mess at a time is probably the best way to go about it. It’s like it’s not a shock to the system. It’s like remodeling. My own preference is to remodel slowly, where each change gets to settle in and become part of the house. If somebody were to come in and totally remodel my house so that I walk in and don’t recognize anything I would throw up. Or, at least, I might become queasy, perhaps dizzy and disoriented. In short, I wouldn’t like it.

Why should cleaning be any different? This way, doing a bit at a time I’m making progress, but it isn’t a huge shock to the system.

It’s nice to be back.

Moving along.  Lots of projects.  Not all that effective.  Need to do some inner child work.  Need to chill out a little bit.  Gained 5 pounds....Ooooof.

Fretting

Do you ever fret about how much time you don’t have? Maybe you are trying to do too much or perhaps you are unable to concentrate effectively on what you are doing at any given moment. If you had 4 things to do and did all 4 of them well how satisfied would you be that you could easily get to the 5 things you didn’t get accomplished at your next free moment?


I think fretting might be a waste of time. I actually do it a lot and am interested in achieving a more peaceful existence where fretting does not take center stage as often as it does now.

Here’s what I would like to see with myself. I’d like to see a commendable (to me) body of work done with my websites and with my blogs. I’d like to see more work done on my new hobby of carving crochet hooks. I’d like to see some time spent on creating and making purses and totes. I’d like to see progress made with my knowledge of Spanish.

I remember when I learned to channel that I concentrated on the task even though it seemed to me that nothing much was happening. My watchword during those days was, “I will not give up.”

Perhaps I can recapture that time and apply that same perseverance to what I want to accomplish this year.

222 and All That

I hope those who celebrated the day had a Happy Thanksgiving. Our office is closed Thursday and Friday and this is a lovely 4 days off for me.

Mostly, I've been reading, Under The Dome by Stephen King. It was just recently released and is still one of the "New Books" at our library. Which means I need to be finished with it by Dec 2nd. 1074 pages. I've got another 300 to go. Good book. I love how Stephen King tells a story. There's just no hurry because you are NOT going to get away from it, whatever it is. So there is time to examine every picking detail.

And, a psychic point of interest....I had begun this post at my other blog called The Spirit Moved Me and Look What Happened. But, it being basically chatty rather than uplifting or in some way spiritually moving the guides suggested to me that I not put it into that blog. A better choice being this one at Where the Psychic Vents where I could write a nice update on my life.

As I began the transfer of post from one blog to the other I saw that this post will be number 222 at The Psychic Vents. And, that is news. Especially, since I was just writing about reading a Stephen King book. See, dear readers, when I turned psychic I was reading a boat load of Stephen King books. I had just quit my job in favor of pursuing life as a writer. But, the first thing I did as a free woman was to get horribly sick. It was over a month that I was sick. My days were turned upside down as I slept all day and was awake at night. And, I had an itch to read a Stephen King book.

I had avoided any of his books all of my life (up until then I was 35 years old and at the present time it is 20 years later). I thought they were just too scary. But, about 2 months before I quit my job to be a writer I was at the library on a Friday evening after work. The goal was to get a big fat book for the weekend. I didn't care what it was going to be about. I just walked into the library wanting a big fat book. I remember I walked around a little bit until I headed into the New Book Section. It was there I saw it. It was about 3 inches thick. It was a newly released, uncut edition of, The Stand. My heart thumped. I saw it was by Stephen King, but I flipped open the fly leaf to read what was there. Poifect. I took it home, read it and was done by Monday. 3 days to read over 1,000 pages. And, from that moment on I was no longer afraid to read Stephen King books.

So, 2 months later as I was fighting and then slowly recovering from that horrible sick I got the minute I quit my job what better way to spend my time than reading a lot of books by Stephen King? I did. And, I got psychic.

The first thing that happened was I began seeing the number 222 everywhere. I mean it was everywhere. The first place was the time on the microwave oven. Then, it was just everywhere. I talked to my sister about it because I was concerned and the next day she telephoned me to excitedly say she had just been in her bank's parking lot, looked up at their sign twirling around on top of a post to see that the time was 222. I don't remember what the temperature displayed on the opposite side of the sign was, but there it was 2:22 in the afternoon. Creepy.

I continued seeing 222 everywhere. Checks that I wrote had a 222 in them. Receipts I got from shopping had 222 in them. To this day, with every book I read, I seem to be aware of that page, 222, as it goes by.

There were other things that began happening too. My dreams got really vivid and wierd. I remember I dreamed about some tall dude coming up my front steps with a huge pumpkin head. I dreamed of myself coming up the front steps hand over hand on the railing as if I was having trouble with the ascent. I began to know that the phone was going to ring before it rang and then I began knowing who was on the other end. I was well and truly freaked by this time.

I went to the library to investigate ESP because that's what I thought this was about. When we were kids we were always interested in hearing about things ESP. But, it never actually happened to us. Just to other people. And, we also weren't real sure that it was real. I found a copy of Colin Wilson's book called ESP. It's a huge book and I read enough of it to find out he didn't consider things ESP to be freakish or alarming. That was enough to settle my breakfast and with a much calmer manner I began to read other books to try to discover what was happening to me.

I read somewhere that 222 is a signal that you are on your spiritual path. That put an entirely different spin on things from the lurid and freaky to a quietly psychic and spiritual path. I was comfortable with that.

I was on my way. So, 222 has a special significance for me and so do the books written by Stephen King. And, today is a special day for this blog.

Psychic Skull

Somewhere along the line I read on the internet about a psychic who had skulls to sort of get her in the mood. I’ve got crystal balls, and different stones and crystals laying around. I’ve got a Buddha that sits below my monitor. I’ve got wind chimes and lucky pencils and one of those holographic etchings of Elvis, but I didn’t have a skull.

It sounded reasonable to me, so I went on the internet to look for skulls. I wasn’t interested in a real skull; a replica would be perfectly acceptable. Except, everywhere I looked they were expensive.

Halloween is coming up and the stores are stocking all sorts of goodies for the holiday. I happened upon a very nice skull at Walgreens for $5.99. Right up my alley. DeeDude wasn’t really thrilled with it and said I couldn’t keep it out in the living room. So, it sat on a little night stand table where I could look over at it. Seemed sort of bald. Seemed sort of not finished. I got the wild-hair idea that I would make little hats for it. Seasonal things. Like springtime would have lots of flowers on it. I could crochet them. I could do all sorts of things to dress my skull.

But, I didn’t do anything about it. I’ve just been real busy and haven’t had time to turn around and spit. Though I haven’t forgotten.

Last weekend we went to my girlfriend Barbara’s house for dinner. Dinner was fabulous and we had a lovely time. Her husband Charles had a birthday the day before and we took him a little present. When I put the ribbon on the wrapped present there was this extra piece with a piece of scotch tape on it that I stuck low down on the door jam for the cats to play with. They weren’t interested and the next day I found the curl of blue ribbon on the floor. I picked it up to throw it away and spied the skull. Perfect.

Newsletter for August and September, 2009

Finally, I got my newsletter out. For whatever reasons I have been off track with a lot of things for the last few months and one of them was my newsletter. This is something I've been doing on a monthly basis for the last 4 years. I took pride in the fact that I hadn't missed any months. Until now. It really threw me into the dumps. I would sit in front of my computer waiting for some sort of inspiration to strike and nothing happened.

A friend advised me to take a break from it for awhile and see if the desire to produce the newsletter would return. And, today it did. Some changes, though. Of the 3 sections available to me (I write it at Bravenet.com) I will henceforth devote one to the guides channeling. That's why I'm here and it's only right to give them a section for themselves. The other section will continue to be for developing your psychic senses. I've had that one for some time and feel it is good to remain. The third part might possible be a humorous thing or could just be whatever seems appropriate. Maybe it could just be my section.

In any case, the newsletter is out and you can see it at Talking to Spirit here. Or, just sit back and read the humorous part which follows. I loved writing it. True, too.


Psychic Guy vs Non Psychic Guy

Same day. Same happenings. Same person except in one version the person is psychically aware and in the other that person is not.

Morning. Psychic Guy awakens and begins talking with guides. Decides to send out psychic awareness and request for healing to co-workers and relatives who are struggling with health and other issues. Non Psychic Guy farts. Farts again just for the hell of it and begins waving covers about. Psychic guy farts and says, “Excuse me.” to myriad guides who might be in range.

Non Psychic Guy decides to roll over and go back to sleep. He awakes in a panic late for work and off on the wrong foot for the day. Psychic Guy rolls over, goes back to sleep and is awakened 15 minutes later by guides who tell him it is time to get out of bed. He is not late to work and also gets to eat breakfast.

At work Psychic Guy gets a phone call. Guides indicate he should remain calm. Psychic Guy ends up telling salesperson that the company is not interested. Non Psychic Guy is unprepared for salesperson, ends up getting angry and tells salesperson not to call again.

After work at grocery store. Guides tell Psychic Guy to drop apple in hand. Psychic guy chooses another. Non Psychic Guy buys rotten apple.

Driving Home. Non Psychic Guy is cut off by 2 people, tail gated by 3 more, curses frequently and by the time he is home he is worn out. Psychic Guy runs into the same lousy drivers and calls them assholes. Guides chip in with helpful comment to say, “Everybody has one.” Psychic Guy realizes he is being a jerk and ends up laughing at himself.

It just takes the edge off.

“Most Haunted” TV Show

What is this?

Eeeeeek! #$@#$! What? What? I can’t see anything. (Screen is dark….neither can the viewer). Eeeeek! !#$%$# Wooosh! $!@#% Something pinched me! What? What? If you can hear us make a sound. Boom. Eeeeeek!

“Most Haunted” is a regularly viewed show in our house. I was diligently updating my blogs (having been most lax about it the past month) and heard the above dialogue from the living room. I ventured out to see what was going on. It's an interesting show.

Chocolate

Do you have something that tempts you? Something that when it is right smack dab in front of you that you find any sense of being in control of your own urges go straight down the drain?

There are those who might say, “No, nothing does that to me. I am always in control of what I do, of what I think, of what I put in my mouth.”

I speak of chocolate cravings. I also speak of the time of the month. Used to be there were times when I couldn’t think of anything else but having a piece of chocolate. And, it wasn’t as though just one piece of chocolate was going to stop the craving. I suppose that’s why they made Hershey Kisses. You sort of thought you might be able to stop at one and if you did, why, no harm done. It doesn’t work that way. That’s why they don’t sell cigarettes singly. If you’re going to have one, folks, you’re going to be hooked. Anyway, I don’t know that there have been any studies done between cigarette smoking and a woman’s time of the month. Perhaps there should be.

Back to the chocolate. I realize now as I’m moving rapidly into menopause that the chocolate cravings I used to have really were cravings. I don’t have them anymore. It’s the strangest thing, but all the time I was younger and had my menses I denied that I had anything that smacked of a chocolate craving. Now, that I don’t have them at all I can see with the much better vision of hindsight that I did indeed have chocolate cravings.

Satisfying those cravings didn’t hurt anything as far as I can tell. But, the surprising thing to me now was that they really were tied to the movement of the moon and not to some defect in character I had to overcome.

On The Importance Of Weighing Yourself After You Have A Dump

In our house my husband and I weigh ourselves a lot. Personally, I weigh myself every day. Other people tend to think this practice is obsessive. All I know is that if I miss weighing myself I am also in danger of having my weight creep up with a vengeance. I have an eating disorder and I keep it under control by weighing every day. My husband also weighs himself, though I’m not sure he does it every day.

That said, I weighed myself this morning before I’d had my dump. This violates the number one rule in our house of when you weigh yourself in the morning, but I was in a hurry. I recorded the weight and moved on with my morning routine.

Eventually, nature called and after I was done I figured I’d weigh myself again. It could be like a scientific experiment, before dump weight and after dump weight. DeeDude refers to this as BDW and ADW. He said ADW is what you want to do.

Lo and behold there was a 6 ounce difference in the recorded weights. DeeDude was passing by the bathroom right then and I called him in to see the results of the experiment. His comment was, “I always knew you were full of shit.”

Ham Psychic Hit

Yesterday morning I made my lunch for work. It was a very simple ham sandwich: ham, cheese, butter and bread. The ham DeeDude got for us at Costco are humongo slices, way too large for one sandwich. So, I thought I’d use some of the remaining ham to sit on the English muffins I planned to have for breakfast. The ham sat on the plate and as I looked at it I got a very clear image in my head of one of the cats up on the counter licking away at my ham. I shook my head and thought to myself, “how silly you are.”

Right.

So, I turned from my odd vision to busy myself in the refrigerator getting out my English muffin. As I shut the door and turned around I saw Shelby, one of our cats, industriously licking away at my ham.

That was a psychic hit.

My next inclination was to eat the ham anyway. Kitty licks don’t bother me all that much, though she had managed to cover the entire bit even before I could shoo her off of the counter. I figured if I was going to do that I really ought to rinse it off. Then, it came to me that the ham was hers not mine. I moved with that one and parceled it out to all the cats.

Sam wasn’t around though and as I neared the end of the slice I figured she was just going to have to miss this particular treat. But, she showed up right as I had two bits left. She moved right into drinking at the water dish and seemed to be real busy. I had things to do and didn’t want to wait for her to notice I had a couple of treats of ham for her.

Now, Samantha is a funny cat. She grew up to be a no human contact cat inside the house. Outside she’s fine and you can pet her and pull on her tail as she welcomes you home and escorts you up the steps. But, once you get inside the house you better not touch her because she’s lightning quick and will turn and claw the living daylights out of you if you’re not careful.

So, she is taking her own sweet time having a drink and I want to get rid of this ham. I poked her in the side to get her attention. I was taking a chance, but it worked. She turned to see who dared to poke her and saw the ham. She gave it a careful kitty sniff to make sure it was okay and I figured she was all set to get it. I released it and it dropped to the bottom of the water dish.

I have never seen such a study in consternation ever in a cat as she closed in on the surface of the water dish, like Snoopy used to do in the cartoons, and studied that bit of ham sitting under 2 inches of water. I fished it out for her and gave her the other piece, but the whole episode was interesting to me and certainly a nice way to start my day.

Cross Blog

An introduction to this photo. I have a book blog going where I review the books I read. I mostly find them at the library. This morning I wrote a review for "A is for Alibi" by Sue Grafton. I absolutely love the Alaphabet mysteries. The heroine is Kinsey Millhone. Anyway, what I've been doing lately is to illustrate each review with a picture I take myself rather than snagging one off of the internet all the time. I've been trying to get our cats involved too.

So, Miss Mattie here is one of the rejects. Even though this was a sort of cute situation where she's trying to bite the book mark I'd made and stuck in the book it came out kind of scary looking. But, I still wanted to show her off.

Happy Saturday everybody.

Being Psychic Didn't Help Here

You know it’s time to vacuum your house when you come home from a visit with a friend to discover a piece of kitty litter stuck to your forehead….and she doesn’t have cats…you do.

Online Kaleidoscope - ZE Frank

This is a kick. I'm always on the lookout for neat things to do online. This is a kaleidoscope. Go to the root directory for lots and lots of things to do to waste time and have fun.

http://www.zefrank.com/dtoy_vs_byokal/index.html


And, the man in motion at TED.

Our Governor

Two Elderly Women Fighting

Where I Get Busy

So, on my week off I’ve been trying to do things that are fun interspersed with projects/chores that have been too long ignored. Yesterday, after my dental cleaning, I popped over to the shopping center a couple of blocks away and bought two pair of shoes at the Payless. They were having a buy one get the second pair 50% off, which was a nice deal. I have been wearing rubbery garden clogs for several years and because I’m diabetic I wear white socks. They look silly. I’ve also been losing a bit of weight and the jeans I wear every day to work are getting baggier and baggier looking. Altogether not a real fashion look and certainly not good office wear. Since I’m moving into a position to be our office manager I figured I should look a bit spiffier, so I was pleased to find the shoes.

Next stop was Sears. They were having a sale on a lot of clothing and I found some black slacks…a step up from my grungy jeans. Turns out they didn’t fit and I had to move DOWN a size. Wooo!!!! So, I bought 4 pair at $19 each. It sort of bit into the checking account, but I figured I need them now. Two pair in black, one in blue and one in brown. They didn’t have any woman’s petite sizes, so I’ll need to hem them…unless the shoes I got lift me up high enough that the hems don’t drag.

Then, I went to Oakland’s China Town. It was a bear finding parking, but I finally managed it. I almost didn’t go because my hip was hurting by then with all the walking I’d done, but I’m glad I did. I popped into a few grocery stores. I got a couple of barbeque pork buns, my favorite. DeeDude hasn’t found his yet. He didn’t get home until 10 PM last night and I was already asleep, so I’ll tell him about it this morning and if he isn’t interested….It’s mine!

In one of the stores I purchased some dried plum bits. The package was $5 so it wasn’t something to sneeze at. I had absolutely no idea what these things were going to taste like, but there was a Guide at my elbow in the store urging me to put back the candied ginger I had in my basket and go with the plums instead. I do listen these days when they make suggestions and we ended up with the plums. I had one last night. Very intensely sweet so you don’t need to eat a lot of them at once. DeeDude tried one last night and when I asked him how he liked it said he didn’t care for it. Which leads me to this morning’s project:

I haven’t put anything up on Spirited Recipes in awhile and I think it would be cool to collaborate with the Guides on something to make using the plums. Also, DeeDude said that I ruined a block of Lucky brand cream cheese. He always says for me to get the Philadelphia brand, but I persist in trying to save money. Anyway, I was moved to sweeten the cheese with some Agave syrup. That went over like a fart in church, so maybe I could use that in whatever we’re going to do with the plums.

This is a photo of a flower I took recently from one of the bouquets DeeDude got for me. He doesn't wait for special occasions.

I am on vacation for the entire next week. Wooo Wooo Happy Happpy Happy. Plan to do a lot of reading, taking naps, lots of writing and working on Talking to Spirit. New flower picture...learning about Photoshop. Consolidating and streamlining the menu. Cutting out all the verbiage from the front page and finding places for it within the site.

There is a lot more work, but if I can get it started this week it will be easier for me to continue working on it once I'm back to work again. It's been such an overwhelming project that I just couldn't seem to get started on it properly. One of the major holdups was working with my blue flower in Photoshop. I never really learned the program and that, right there, is the problem. Spent about 5 hours or so on it this last week after work every evening hammering away at it.

This is what I've got so far and somehow it doesn't quite please me yet.

A Swashbuckling Funny

This is a little insight into how I do my psychic channeling. It isn’t something that takes place in a specified area; it’s all the time. So, to lead into this recounting a bit of background info; it used to be that I thought best when I was smoking a cigarette. Then, some 9 years ago I quit. I needed a new thinking place and oddly enough that became my bathroom. In the bathroom you’ve got a bit of privacy. There aren’t that many distractions and I’ve also heard some writers say some of their best ideas come while they were in the shower.

Anyway, this morning I was sitting on the pot. I am reading a terrific romance by Nora Roberts called “Charmed and Enchanted”. It’s one of those 2 books in one and I am into the second one, “Enchanted”. The heroine has had a bit of a problem with realizing her dreams. I know I used to have the same sort of problem. Anyway, I set the book aside to finish up and my thoughts drifted to something I might write about.

Realizing Dreams.

I was wondering about unrealistic dreams people sometimes have and, how they might realize those dreams even though the dreams might be unrealistic. The example that came to me was somebody who wanted to be a pirate. I thought of myself. I work a 40 hour a week job in an office that has nothing at all to do with my psychic self and yet I feel fulfilled as a psychic. I don’t yearn to surround myself with other psychics or with things psychic, but still am wonderfully happy. How could somebody with unrealized dreams, which can certainly make for a great deal of frustration in somebody’s life, somehow come to terms with the idea that they can’t leave their 8 to 5 job to become a pirate and yet have that very same dream fulfilled?

The answer, I considered, might be more along the lines where they immerse themselves in things piratical. They read a lot about pirates, both non fiction and fiction. They could watch a lot of pirate movies. My mind was on a roll with this and I was struggling like a hen about to lay an egg with my next example when Seth, my guide, said, “And, they could go around saying, Yar.” I snorted and laughed at the same time, something a pirate would never do. And that is a quiet look into my life.

Trying to Write

There are two ways to get things done. You can wait for inspiration to strike or you can just hold your nose and plunge into the project.

I tend to wait.

This doesn’t always accomplish very much.

So, today, I decided to just plunge in. The point of the exercise is to write 3 very small articles for my next newsletter. Sometimes I am so full of ideas I just can’t write them down fast enough. Other times, like lately, I’m veering off in other directions of interest and the urge to write just isn’t there. This, however, just is not going to work because I have made a commitment to myself that I will write these articles each month.

They don’t need to be long, just about a normal blog length. Say something in a very short period of time and be sincere about it.

I’m waiting.

Right, still nothing coming. Well, I suppose I could call this a blog entry on the process of creativity and out of it gather 3 weeney newsletter articles. I have about 250 people who have signed up to receive my email. I must not fail them now.

Okay, so let’s get to basics. I’m a psychic. Or, at least a so-so one. I do, however kick ass in the channeling department. I’ve never really thought of that as being psychic, though other people have assured me that it is. I just sort of accepted it as a fabulous thing that happened to me. But, again, that’s got nothing to do with my newsletter.

Anyway, what I think, the people who are reading my newsletter expect is guidance. Why else does anybody come to read my stuff? I’m certainly not a riveting writer. I’m not a fabulous psychic. I do care, though. And, I can channel. I do know what it’s like to talk to Folk in Spirit. This morning I was getting on my scales. This is not normally a fun thing to do, but I do it every day. It’s a necessary evil for me. I am not a normally skinny person. So, I don’t think like one. I think like a fat person and anybody who is a fat person knows that it’s important to get on the scales every day whether you want to or not. Why? Because if you don’t the next time you do climb on you will discover, to your dismay, that you’ve suddenly packed on 15 pounds and you really, honestly don’t remember how that could have happened. I know. It’s happened to me. Anyway, everyday on the scales. And, for some reason this morning I started cursing even before my feet landed on the scale. Maybe I stepped on some kitty litter. I don’t even remember. Anyway, I said, “G** D*** it. C***** Almighty.” And, somebody said, “What?”

You don’t know how fast that can take the wind out of your sails. Anyway, I apologized. I don’t really think they minded so much as wanted to bring to my attention my candy mouth. I mean, technically, I really should learn to keep that under control. Why? Well, I just think it would be a more mature and psychologically sound practice.

So, maybe I could write a short ditty on saying bad words? And, how their negative energies start affecting things around you. And, people around you. When I was a kid I can remember wanting to curse like my father. I’d be more like him. I’d be more grown up. Later I settled upon smoking and drinking to prove my advanced years. So, that’s a thought. Well, folks, I gotta go to work. So, in the absence of anything more productive I will post this and pick up the threads tonight when I get home from being a formerly cranky secretary. I’m not anymore because the Prozac is working wonders. Tah…

Stop Smoking

Ask me what one of the hardest things I ever did in my life was and I will tell you it was when I quit smoking. I also know that if I was able to do it so can you.

Smoking is a filthy habit. I know because I smoked for 30 years. I loved every puff. Although it’s been 9 years since I quit smoking (a pack and a half a day) I still crave one every once in awhile. Here are some of the things I learned when I was able to finally stop smoking.

Every time you quit and do not succeed it is another step in the process of quitting. You didn’t fail. You took another step. I must have quit 120 times before it finally worked.

The early days are hard. Do a new trick each day to distract yourself. On the first day I drank black coffee and sucked mentholated cherry cough drops. This resulted in a horrible taste in my mouth but was similar to having just had a cigarette.

Other days I chewed gum all day until my temples were sore from all the chewing.

Other days I sucked cough drop after cough drop.

The most intense time of it lasted about a week. It might not have been the most ideal way to get through that week, but it worked for me. Another thing I did was to reward myself for going through such a horrible experience and I practiced shopping therapy for awhile.

And, although I wouldn’t admit it at the time I did sneak a few cigarettes along the way. Trying to quit this terribly addictive disease was really horrible and there were times when I just couldn’t stand it anymore and I snuck a few. That lasted maybe the first month or so.

After that I was over the worst of it.

On the bright side? Food suddenly tasted wonderful. I mean I couldn’t believe how good a simple bowl of corn flakes tasted. Everything I ate was absolutely delicious. I ate a lot. And, gained 50 pounds, which I’m still struggling to lose. So, if you can see that you’ve set your feet upon a path of weight gain in the early days you can also counter that with an increase in exercise. The endorphins produced with the exercise will help with the whole process too.

I stopped coughing. I didn’t realize it but I had a smoker’s cough for years. I just thought I coughed a lot and, of course, while I was smoking I wouldn’t have admitted to it in a million years. There was an awful lot of denial going on.

Another plus was that I smelled better. On the downside I could smell everybody else better too. I had a particularly nauseating moment once on a crowded bus when one of the passengers smelled like he hadn’t had a bath in 6 months.

My car and my clothes smelled better too. I just had not realized how the stink of cigarettes had clung to everything around me.

They are passing lots of very strict laws in California. I believe you can’t smoke within 20 feet of a business. You can’t smoke in businesses. You can’t smoke in apartments anymore. You can’t smoke in restaurants or bars. You can’t smoke outside if your smoke drifts into anybody else’s house. You can’t smoke in the presence of a minor in a moving vehicle.

Look on the internet to get a counter sort of program for yourself. I have something called LastQuit. I don’t think it’s available anymore, but I still have it there to tell me based on my smoking a pack and a half every day how I’ve been doing:

How Long It’s Been Since I Quit: 9 Years, 3 Months, 4 Weeks, 12 Hours, 26 Minutes and 19 Seconds.
How Many Cigarettes I Have Not Smoked: 102,166
How Much Money I Have Saved: $21,403.95
How Much Life I Have Reclaimed: 11 Months, 2 Weeks, 5 Days, 17 Hours and 50 Minutes.

Good luck to anybody out there who is contemplating or who is already in the throws of quitting smoking. I will be thinking of you.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you. However you celebrate I hope you have fun.

For The Birds

What "Pauline" Means

You Are Charming and Eloquent

You are influential and persuasive. You tend to have a lot of power over people. Generally, you use your powers for good. You excel at solving other people's problems. Occasionally, you do get a little selfish and persuade people to do things that are only in your interest.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way. And because you're so lucky, you don't really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life. You're sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it.

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?