James has some really nice neighbors. Ken and his wife Charma come over daily to visit and bring chocolate chip cookies. They have a fun bird named, Fred who also comes along for the walk but waits outside with Charma because Brodie, Jame's Gordon Setter would probably think Fred was a toy to play with.

Last weekend I went home for to visit John and the furbabies. I really miss them and since Anna has weekends off I decided to go home. I have been talking about selling at one of the flea markets down here so I packed up the PT Cruiser and brought all the stuff back that I wanted to sell. Alot of it came out of my antique booth I closed up last December, plus goodies I picked up at yard sales and thrift stores. Yesterday, I googled the surrounding flea markets and most are not open this weekend or like the Melrose Trading Post, http://www.melrosetradingpost.org/ there is a long, long waiting list. But I got in the Long Beach Antique and Collectibles Outdoor Market for this Sunday!! http://www.longbeachantiquemarket.com/index.shtml There was a cancelation right in the front reserved section which is a prime spot... you know what they say... Location! Location! Location! is very important for a successful business. I am excited about this opportunity but the down side is I have to be there at 5 a.m. ugh! why can't there be evening flea markets? Maybe I'll look into getting an evening flea market started... I'm sure there are more people like me who are not "morning" people... we'll see. Anyway, selling at the flea market down here is a dream come true for me.

I am also responding to job ads on craigslist. Administrative assistant, retail, customer service stuff. I decided to stop fretting about my typing speed and just apply already. The temp agencies so far are a bust... most of them are huge corporations with offices all over the planet so my online application pretty much gets lost in the shuffle. There is an EDD office in San Diego county but it sounds alot smaller than the one in Chico. The way I look at it now is... if something is a real struggle to make happen then whatever I'm after is not for me anyways. I will now take the path of least resistance.

Some people look good with gray hair. I don't... so today I went to the beauty school to get my hair "touched up' in Orange... a cute little town way far away from Jame's house... at least it seemed far away. Actually, Anaheim and the surrounding cities are so much bigger than Chico. Anyways, I really liked Orange... lots of cute coffee shops, vintage clothing stores and antiques shops... everything that make my heart go pitter patter! I will have to add this place to my list of places to visit after we are settled in.

James is getting around better but cannot walk on his ankle for another 2 weeks, at least. He goes for his first doc appt. since the surgery this Friday and I will take him.
Hope your summer is going well and you are getting lots of fun time!

xoxo Inge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrpbzkYNvaI

I have a ton of Favorites earmarked in my computer because frankly there are many websites that catch my attention and interest. The Daily Wag is a blog authored by 2 of Martha Stewart's dogs, Francesca & Sharkey http://dailywag.marthastewart.com/ and I try to read it a few times a week. You must check out the new web page titled Wedding Pets Gallery
http://contributors.marthastewart.com/portal/contestGallery/wedding_pets?backto=true, I get a kick out of the photos... I think our pets should be allowed to participate in a lot more things including weddings. I should have taken our 3 dog with John and me to the court house when we got married...that would have been fun.

While I am on the subject of windchimes, relaxation and living in the present moment... here's some Feng Shui ideas
http://fengshui.about.com/
And don't forget to laugh out loud!
xoxo Inge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0wQnVy5lqE&feature=related

This is the windchime that got my attention.

Check out the beautiful succulents in the hanging basket.

There is something about the sound of a windchime that instantly gets my attention and away from what I am doing. It is usually the bigger ones... it snaps me out of what I am doing and into a peaceful state... living in the moment. The sound is soothing to me. I have smaller ones around my patio but it is the mega chimes that really get my attention. I heard one this morning in the condominium complex where James lives. It got me thinking I need to be "present" more often and then I tell myself ," I need to get back to meditating - write in my journal - relax - stop fretting - really live in the moment for a while and stop trying to control every aspect of my life". Actually, now for at least the next 2 weeks I should... no, that's a word I don't want use - too controlling - well, I can't think of the word right now...but you get my drift. Back home there is so much to do and not enough time in the day at times to do it all, especially when a good portion of it is spent practising my typing. So now I have no excuse, James really is not all that much work ... normal feeding, helping him get around the house, bathing, caring for his pets (it sounds more than it really is and he is feeling better. He has not missed work either ... alot of his job is done on the computer and the "leg work" part is being done by 2 of his co-workers, so I do have time to work on me ... and of course practise typing.

I found a stained glass artist called, Desert Creations, on etsy.com that makes beautiful windchimes that you might want to take a look at http://www.desertcreations.etsy.com/

some soothing windchime music...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUpsF4eXLTc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCz4hnb22U4&feature=related

xoxo Inge

Things do have a way of coming together

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewingfor a job in town thinking if the job worked out we would hang around Chico for one more year and save some money and then move to socal. To tell the truth after the interview I drove to the mall and walked around window shopping. I stopped in one of my favorite shops - Hollister Company - which is a sister company to Abercrombie & Fitch and sells beach type clothes and has a store in Huntington Beach...what I'm saying in a round about way is - the store has a huge big screen on the wall featuring a live feed of Huntington Beach in socal. I can watch people walking on the beach or surfing while I am shopping at the store in Chico, 600 miles away. I think that is so cool! But that particular day my heart felt homesick... did I really want to wait another year before moving somewhere I really wanted to live? That day I tried to shove those feelings aside... I thought this might be my first real chance to get another job. That of course was before the feedback from that job and it turned out the hours were less than 20 a week so no matter if they really liked me the hours were not enough and we would have continued to lose money each month and where is the sense in that? Then there was the forklift class idea... that class filled up in the first hour so that fell through... then of course there was my kid breaking his ankle... so I am back to the original plan to find work around socal and just go for it. When I was in my 20s I would have just packed everyone up and moved with a great deal less in savings... I was more of a risk taker and things always worked out. I guess the older I get the more I second guess myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vbQpT7xx48

James had a better night last night meaning he slept 4 hours. Anna, his girlfriend has been up with him alot too, well, ok - she has been up more at night than me. She works in the day so that is when my real shift begins. Between you and me I am concerned that I am not earning money right now and of course choosing between work and taking care of James is a no brainer... but I still worry and the economic climate does not help any. I am typing though... I brought my laptop and when I am not helping James I am typing. I have so much time invested in typing lessons I cannot give up now. I will type the required 40 wpm and then some, I want to get my certificate typing 45 wpm.

I am still keeping up with the news from Iran - they are still active and rumor has it there has been hangings. If you would like to stay informed here is a link that might be useful
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/iran.elections/
xoxo Inge

The Happiness Project

I found an interesting site that you might be interested in...
http://www.happiness-project.com/

Life Happens!

When you least expect it and you are busy looking for work ... a new place to live and suddenly you get a call from your grown son - "Happy 4th, I'm in the emergency room " and his voice sounds groggy.... I hold my breath and ask "what happened?" remembering the last phone call I got from him with the same greeting from the emergency room only that time he and his girlfriend were mugged and beat up outside a neighborhood bar... "I think I broke my foot jumping off a boat". I felt relief - a broken foot I can deal with... So the next day early I drive down south while he is in surgery... I forgot is is Sunday and the end of the 4th of July weekend, but I am lucky I don't hit the freeway parking lot until I get 20 miles north of the Grapevine and then I am about 120 miles away and it takes me nearly 3 more hours to get to Anaheim.

So it is now Monday, James is home and after a "bad" night he is finally feeling less pain (we increased Vicadin dosage )- he has a metal plate and six screws in his ankle as a souvenir from his 2009 July 4th festivities - and I am blogging, looking for jobs down here... I did say I wanted to move down here didn't I?

James showed me the picture of his ankle before treatment and before the docs relocated his dislocated ankle ( don't camera phones come in handy?) and his ankle is turned completely to the left and is dangling off the bone... it looks gross. I heard one of his male friends threw up when he saw James' foot. I'm glad I wasn't there.
Hope your 4th was less exciting.
I have not heard from my job counselor today, I usually get several job leads by now... maybe I scared him by the "brutally honest" messages I left him regarding the job interview I had last week. Oh well, I am no longer looking for work in Chico anyway.
Don't forget to laugh out loud!
xoxo Inge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqGK9PzuyB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIe0A3hmUwM

One of my favorite things to do is...

junking. I have a favorite place to go, 8th & Main Antiques, downtown Chico. I used to live a block away and would go snoop once a week. Well, today after going to a job interview ( I will tell you about that later) and typing at the unemployment office I decided to visit 8th & Main...I hadn't been there in weeks. I was surprised to see the front windows boarded up but there was a sign stating the entrance was now in back of the 2nd building ... now the 2 buildings together are almost a the size of a half block... there is a Quality Inn right next door that has been under construction for at least 6 months and is nearly done... so I thought maybe the antique mall wanted a makeover too. When I got inside the 2nd building of the mall I asked the sales person when they decided to remodel and she said "It's no remodel the front building caught fire and is destroyed. It happened 5 days ago". I was speechless. There were tons of vendors selling their goodies both old and new and the vendor in the front window specialized in french antiques, candles and soap... all gone... and I will bet few had business fire insurance... I didn't when I had my booth in Paradise. We are coming up on the one year anniversary of that nasty fire and I remember thinking - ok, I didn't take out insurance and I there is the possibility of losing my inventory. Too late now.

I am sure they will rebuild but I feel bad for the vendors and of course us shoppers... a few months ago the only other antique mall went out of business and now we don't have a nice place to snoop, reminisce and buy one of a kind treasures. I took pictures of the french antique booth a couple of years ago... what a bummer. The link below is to the Chico ER Newspaper report along with pictures of what the antique mall looks like now.

http://chicoer.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=785590&CategoryID=19046

I mentioned earlier that I went to a job interview... I won't say where because there are some people that read my blog who live here and I don't want to "open a can of worms" but.... I went to the interview dressed nicely (I thought) - remember that I told you I see lots of people looking for work wearing dirty clothes or looking like a hooker... anyway I wore the outfit I wore when I sold cars and they are dressy... I thought the interview went well, but I don't get my hopes up anymore because we are all great actors and just because someone smiles at me does not mean they are thinking the same way. Well, a birdie told me that... one person remarked that it didn't look like I was wearing a bra... I didn't dress very well for an interview and I talked too loud. They are lucky I didn't start cussing and throw around my fav word which ryhmes with luck. Oh well, next!

I have the hardest time trying to figure out the best game plan though... look for work around here.. which I thought might be a better plan and find someplace I can transfer down south but the economy... well, sucks! at least around here, and the money at the restaurant is so bad I am losing money monthly by staying there. I was hoping to stay a year and make money and stash it away and build up our savings again... but if we are losing money, maybe it is better to take the plunge and quit and go south, rent a room , find work and then a permanent place and move the family down. I hate the thought of being away from everyone for at least a month though.

One of the problems of being a Libra is I cannot make up my mind and John is a Libra too so we both sit around saying "I don't know what do you think"?

Don't forget to laugh outloud!

xoxo Inge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Vm8VLj5dQ