Rhonda's Ramblings

I’m pretty sure that I have what may be called an obsession with daffodils. Daffodils seriously make my heart happy and bring a smile to my face. If a guy ever wanted to really win my heart…daffodils would be the way to do it.

One of my favorite things to do in the spring is to visit a nearby town where there is a place called Daffodil Hill. I am practically giddy when I am there, surrounded by the happiest flowers on earth.

At the present moment, I have 5 or 6 bouquets of daffodils in my house. The house up the road is currently unoccupied and the yard is full of different kind of daffodils, so I have been rescuing the flowers before they get beaten down by the wind and the rain. Did you know that there are at least 12 different divisions of daffodils? Did you care? And there are numerous varieties and colors of flowers within each division.

I will conclude my scattered musings about daffodils with my favorite poem by William Wordsworth.

The Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not be but gay
In such a jocund company!
I gazed – and gazed – but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

I was going to write about a conversation I had with one of my friends today, but then I realized it would make me look like a desperate skank-whore. So, then I was going to talk about an incident at work, but then that made me look like a conceited skank-whore. Then I was going to write about a phone call I made last night, but then it made me look like a manipulative woman, which is worse than a skank-whore.

Instead I will write about milk. I love milk. And by love, I really mean love it with every fiber of my being. Some days, I could probably drink a whole gallon. If I even have osteoporosis when I get old…I am suing the milk companies. Because I drink enough of it that I should have strong bones forever. Maybe that is why I’m big boned…because I have always loved milk. I drank 3 glasses tonight.

As I walked out the back door tonight to take the garbage out, I was overwhelmed by the singing of the frogs in the pond and the music of the crickets chirping. And I thought…”I love this.” It brought to mind the following song.

Simple Life

I have wandered this world far and wide
I’ve been all around to the other side
But there’s nothin’ like comin’ home
Nothin’ like comin’ home
I wanna sit on my front porch and drink my lemonade
Cut my grass after church every Sunday
And go out on Saturday night
Live the simple life
Wake up in the morning to these fields of gold
And take a long walk down a gravel road

Spend my days in the sweet sunshine
Rock in my swing and watch my garden grow
Know that I’ll always have someone to hold
Oh I wanna live the simple life

I wanna take a blanket down to the creek
And let the water sing me to sleep
Let go of time
Live the simple life … oh yeah
Lately I’ve seen too many city lights
I wanna go somewhere where I can see the stars at night

That is really what I want. The only problem is in the next moment, I will be reading my National Geographic Adventure magazine (the best magazine in the world), and will be dreaming about traveling around the world and exploring places that I’ve never been, and living a life of adventure. That is also really what I want. But they are somewhat contradictory desires….living the simple life in smalltown USA with a husband and a family, or living the single life of adventure while traveling the world.

I want to do it all….which brings to mind another country song:

I Wanna Do It All

I’m sitting in traffic
For the 5th year in a row
Wasting my time
Just to get
Where I don’t even wanna go
I started jotting things down
On a krispy kreme sack
Everything I’d do
If I could leave this place
And never look back

I wanna do it all
Visit paris in the fall
Watch the Yankee’s play ball
I wanna take it all in
Catch a few beads
Down at Mardi Gras
Start a tradition
Lay down the law
I wanna do it all

I want to drink tequila
Down in Tijuana
Say why not
When somebody says
Hey do you wanna
I wanna get my heart broke
Once or twice
Settle down with the love of my life
Rock little babies to sleep at night

I wanna spend a day
Every now and then
Just doin what I want to do
When I wanna do it
Anytime I wanna do it

I wanna do it all
See Niagara falls
Fight city hall
Feel good in my skin
Beating the odds
With my back to the wall
Try to rob Peter
Without paying Paul
I wanna do it all

I’ve never had any allergies…and always felt sorry for kids who did, and was proud of the fact that I didn’t.

Tonight, there were some girls scouts selling cookies in front of the store. I couldn’t pass them up, obviously. I was with my brother, and I knew that he had bought Samoas (or caramel delights or whatever the new PC name is). So, I wanted to buy a different variety. My first thought was immediately Thin Mints. I love refreshing taste of mint and I love chocolate. But, sadly, I remembered a discovery that I made earlier this year which led me to choose the Peanut Butter Patties.

A few months back, perhaps around 8 months ago, I popped a piece of gum in my mouth. Nothing unusual…but as I began to chew it, my throat began to tingle and constrict a tiny bit. I didn’t really think anything of it, until a week or two later, when I was in my brother’s truck, and took a piece of his gum. The same thing happened. It felt a little like my throat was closing up. Not horribly, just a little bit. It wasn’t like I couldn’t breathe, but it was definitely noticeable.

This was the first time that I thought, “Hmm…maybe I’m allergic to gum…or mint! How sad would that be?” Well, after a few more similar incidents, and eating almost a whole bag of peppermint patties in one sitting, (Well, maybe that time, it wasn’t necessarily the mint that made me sick ) I have come to the conclusion that I am slightly allergic to mint. This is by no means a scientific conclusion, but it is a sad conclusion.

I love mint. When I was in high school, my best friend and I were seriously addicted to Peppermint Patties. And Mint Chip ice cream is quite delightful. And I like mint flavored gum that leaves that fresh feeling in your mouth. I am by no means giving up mint for good. I will still eat it, because it tastes so good. Unless of course it begins to cause me to break out in hives. Though that probably wouldn’t really stop me either. But it did keep me from buying mint girl scout cookies…and replace with peanut butter, which I could also write paragraphs about how much I love it.

In about a month, I will be arriving on the continent of Africa, the country of Kenya, the city of Nairobi.

I really don’t have a clear idea of what I will be doing there, but I’m going with and organization called HEART, whose main focus is health and AIDS education. I am going with a friend whose main focus is researching female genital mutilation (FGM), in the hopes of writing a book that will be a resource for Kenyan women.

I’m pretty excited. God always surprises me. 4 months ago, I had no idea that I would be spending a couple of months in Africa.

Thankfully, the travel advisory has been lowered. They are no longer recommending that all non-essential American personnel leave the country. And now the warning doesn’t sound much different than the warnings we get in the U.S. when the threat level goes up.

The U.S. Government continues to receive indications of terrorist threats in the region aimed at American and western interests, including civil aviation.
The threat to aircraft by terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles continues in Kenya, including Nairobi. Terrorist actions may include suicide operations, bombings, or kidnappings. U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places including tourist sites and locations where westerners are known to congregate, as well as commercial operations associated with U.S. or western interests. In particular, there is an increased threat against westerners in the capital, Nairobi, and the coastal region.

My life so often borders on the chaotic. And it’s my own fault.

I am disorganized, undisciplined and a procrastinator. This leads to a chaotic life, in which I am always losing things, always a step behind and always doing things at the last possible moment.

I don’t take this to the extreme. I always pay my bills on time, and check the oil in my car, and get to work on time. Things that are super important get done on time. But the things that aren’t so important, like keeping my room clean, or returning my library books in a timely manner, finishing the crocheted baby blanket that I started when my friend first got pregnant with her now 16 month old son, I do not make a priority.

Sometimes I wish that I were the type of person who was and had to have every little thing in order or I would go crazy. But the fact is that I”m pretty laid back and I don’t usually mind that my life is in disarray.

Except for today. It was really annoying me. And I made a resolution to be more organized and more disciplined and less of a procrastinator. It lasted all of 5 minutes.

I stole this from Alisa

Only a few more states to go.

create your own visited states map

And a lot more countries. Too bad so many of the countries that I have visited are small, they barely show up. Like Fiji, you can’t even see it on this map. If I had been to Russia, then it would look like I was much more well traveled. But hopefully soon I will be adding Kenya and Greece at least.

create your own visited country map

See what I’ve done here. I didn’t want a new blog with only one post in it. That seems empty and boring. So I brought over some recent posts from my other blog…which nobody has ever read.

And with the frequency that I write blog entries, I figured that I’d need them here to make it look presentable.

I love children.

The sun is shining; the sky is blue. A perfect day to catch up on some yard work. As I’m pulling the annoying weeds, (that try to deceive me into thinking they are cute little flowers by having pretty clover like leaves and yellow blooms, but really send mile long root systems throughout the whole yard), a little boy appears at the front gate.

“Working in the yard?”, he asks as he opens the gate and walks into the yard. “Hmm…I don’t really know this kid”, I think to myself. I do know that he lives two houses down the road, but I’ve never really talked to him.

“So, what’s your name?” “What grade are you in?” “What school do you go to?” “Isn’t this a beautiful day to play outside?”

“Justin.” “First grade, but this is my second time. I got held back.” Penn Valley School.” “I’m not playing, but it’s the weekend, so I don’t have school”

As Justin and I continue with the kiddie small talk, a young girl of about 9 or 10 walks through the gate. In her arms, she is holding an adorable little girl who is almost 2 years old. The 10 year old, Heather, is Justin’s sister, and she is in charge of Hayley, the next door neighbor.

I soon discover that Heather is even more of a talker than her brother, Justin.

“This is Hayley, Warren and Jennifer’s daughter, and they are going to have another baby in May, one day before or after Hayley’s birthday, but they don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl. When they went to the doctor for the c-section last week, they couldn’t tell from the pictures, because the baby wouldn’t open it’s legs, but they think it’s a boy. Hayley likes to see different things at your house like the hummingbird feeder because her dad has lots of stuff in the garage, but mostly just motors, because he’s a transmission man; that what he does. The reason you don’t have any hummingbirds at your feeder is because the man up the street has like five hummingbird feeders and they all go there to eat. See my new shoes. I got them at Payless, with Sponge Bob shoelaces. The shoelaces were only $2.99, which is $3.00, so that is a good deal. My brother got new shoes, too.

She relayed all this information to me in what seemed like one breath.

I spent the next hour hanging out with my new friends, swinging on the porch swing, picking lemons and flowers, exploring my backyard, and learning lots of new stuff about my neighbors. If I ever want the neighborhood gossip, I know who to ask. And I know who not to tell my secrets to.

But they reminded me of what I love about children. I love that they just walked into the yard of someone they don’t even know. I love that they make friends so easily. I love that they find wonder in the little things, like picking lemons and Sponge-Bob shoelaces.

I want to be more like a child.