a puzzler

It came in like the flash floods did a couple of weeks ago (I suppose you heard of the floods here in Colorado? - Boulder was swallowed by a nearby river -creek really- and a town not too far up the way was completely shut off by the flooding. It was pretty dramatic, but our house received about 4-5" of rain while where I worked there was some flooding and a mile up the road from where I worked people were being rescued from cars) a cold front moved in this morning with a vengeance. The temps had been mild and my tomatoes had continued to flourish. I covered them last night as a last minute precaution and I'm glad I did because this morning we woke up to snow on the windshield. The ground was too warm to hold any snow but the air and sky possesses a November frostiness.

I am not ready. 

 

But I am ready for the fall puzzle which we broke out last week while we were on our mini stay-vacation.

. 

 It's sitting all framed out and ready to be worked on for the coming month and a half (if it takes us that long) until the table is cleared for Thanksgiving and (yikes!) Christmas decor.

I wasn't ready, but there it is. That's life. We aren't always ready for some of the bits and pieces of life that come along but there they are sitting on the table, waiting to be put together. And it will be a nice picture- when we're all done.  

--
"We are all standing at the station. The train is always leaving and the soul checks it's watch and wonders if its his time to go." -Cole, character in Key West, episode: Act of God.
"And the true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all." -- Robert Louis Stevenson

the crazy one...

It's emergency hospital visits, watchfully sitting by her unconscious bed.
Phone calls: of an emotional young woman who is tired of roller coaster of feelings
trashing her room
"I hate this. Why do I have to be the crazy one?"
Angry, inexplicable fights with her older sister
"I love you SOO much, Mom!"
silence
"I'm cleaning the whole house today!"

According to the DSM-5, 5 of 8 of these characterize her as Borderline Personality Disorder. I've seen all 9. At least 8.
1) frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
(2) a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
(3) identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self image or sense of self
(4) impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating)
(5) recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
(6) affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)
(7) chronic feelings of emptiness
(8) inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)
(9) transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms


Seemingly mundane events may trigger symptoms. For example, people with borderline personality disorder may feel angry and distressed over minor separations—such as vacations, business trips, or sudden changes of plans—from people to whom they feel close. Studies show that people with this disorder may see anger in an emotionally neutral face⁵ and have a stronger reaction to words with negative meanings than people who do not have the disorder.⁶


It's her but it's not her. She's says she was lost to me a long time ago. She is wrong. 


 ____________________________________________________________________

From yesterday:
So the government shuts down and hundreds of thousands of federal employees go without a paycheck? Republicans are full of it and I'm tired of it but if they are going to shut the government down then I say they shouldn't get paid either. So,

Tell Congress: If you can't do your job, you don't deserve a paycheck.

(See the full post for the whole info on the petition)

I can get behind this...

So the government shuts down and hundreds of thousands of federal employees go without a paycheck? Republicans are full of it and I'm tired of it but if they are going to shut the government down then I say they shouldn't get paid either. So,

Read the following from a petitioner at 'Move on' and click the link below if you want to sign too.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives decided to shut down the government rather than pass a spending bill that funds the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as "Obamacare." Not only has the president's signature healthcare law been upheld by the Supreme Court, but it was a major issue in the last presidential election when Republicans were soundly defeated.

Tell Congress: If you can't do your job, you don't deserve a paycheck.

These Republican members of Congress are putting the extreme and ideological demands of a small minority over the health of the American economy. And now, federal employees, veterans, and hardworking families will be the ones who have to pay the price. That is unfair and morally reprehensible.

Members of Congress should take responsibility for their own inaction and lose their paychecks until they come to a resolution. Every day this drags on, it does more damage to everyday Americans and our nation's fragile economy.

That's why I started a petition, which says:

I demand that members of Congress NOT get paid during a self-inflicted government shutdown. It is morally reprehensible that hardworking federal employees will stop receiving the paychecks they need to feed their families and pay their mortgages, while Congress still gets paid for refusing to do the job they were elected to do.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Laura Leavitt

This petition was created on MoveOn's online petition site, where anyone can start their own online petitions. Courage Campaign didn't pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.

Books to read that are hitting the big screen...*

So what are some of the books you have read that were better than the movie...? Harry Potter and the... (name any of the books) springs to mind. Lord of the Rings... The Hobbit... The list goes on. You can put the visuals up there but there is simply no way one person's imagination or even a big team's imaginings can completely encapsulate the creation of the minds of the readers. At least IMHO. It's the rare movie that is better than the book. In fact, I have long said that the only movies that are better are the books that were not very well written and the screen writers improved on it (I thought Cold Mountain was in this category).    

So, for for the coming months some books that are hitting the big screen that I thought you might enjoy reading before you see them on film (if you haven't already): 

Divergent is coming to the big screen. Haven't read it yet? Neither have I but there's still time since it's scheduled to open March, 2014. Compared to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, Wikipedia says "It is set within a dystopian version of Chicago. The novel has been compared to similar young adult books such as The Hunger Games because of its theme and target audience. Roth has said that the idea for the series was born while she was studying in college." 





And coming soon? Ender's Game
 Slated for release on November 1. Those of you who go to theaters a lot (I don't) have probably already seen the trailer but here it is for those of you who want to see it who don't make it to the movies much:

City of Bones is being released this week... too late to read it before opening night but you could read it before it gets to dollar theaters (if you're poor, like me)


The Fault in Our Stars is the story of Hazel Lancaster and Augustus Waters, two Indianapolis teenagers who meet at a Cancer Kid Support Group.** No release date at this point but IMDb says that Shailene Woodley will play Hazel and Ansel Elgort will play Augustus.



James Dashner's Maze Runner is coming to theaters starring Dylan O'Brien. This is another I haven't read but there should be plenty of time since it's not out until February. Dashner is quoted on Wikipedia that in 2005 in November he was going to bed when he had an idea about, "a bunch of teenagers living inside an unsolvable Maze full of hideous creatures, in the future, in a dark, dystopian world. It would be an experiment, to study their minds. Terrible things would be done to them. Awful things. Completely hopeless. Until the victims turn everything on its head." Begun in December 2005, it was completed in March 2006.

The Wolf on Wall Street by John Belfort looks to be a great party for Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Matthew McConaughey. The book sounds like it might be worth reading...

There are more but I think I"ll leave it at that for today!


*source Buzzfeed article by Arielle Calderon
**John Green's website