Arriving bright and early at the University yesterday, to gather
game supplies, I was surprised to see so little traffic going in and so few
cars parked on campus.
Thinking perhaps classes were starting late, I decided not to
risk parking, coming back later to find I’d been ticketed. So, instead of
taking advantage of the empty lot, I played it safe and parked on that side
street about a quarter mile away.
After crossing the road, walking to where I was now on campus
property, I looked down and spotted a bright new shinny penny.
Inasmuch as finding a penny is a good luck omen, I picked it up
and recited the ritualistic, “Find a penny pick it up. All the day you’ll have
good luck”.
I have
absolutely no idea where I got that from, but it’s something I can’t remember
ever not doing -- something I thought was universally done until, walking the
golf course with a friend some time ago, spotting a penny, picking it up,
reciting the ritual, that friend found it strange, saying she’d never heard of
it.
I
can’t be the only person that does this?
On
campus, I later stopped to take a photo of a group of students climbing that
big deal wolf statue I’d taken that fake being bitten pictures with a week or
so back, but I’ve since been informed “It’s not a wolf. It’s a coyote”.
When I stopped to take that photo, a young man passing by
smiled, greeted me and said, “I didn’t get the message.”
“What message is that?”
“That there’s no school today.”
“Ohhhh! That’s why the lot is empty. What’s going on?”
“It’s some kind of holiday, Veterans Day.”
Everything began to fall into place … the empty parking lot, all
the facebook photos of friends who’d been in the armed services and/or family
members who’d served/serving.
“Since I used the gas to get here, I figured I might as well
study, but the Library is also closed”, he went on to say.
“LOL. Well you’re not the only one. I didn’t get the message
either. I heard the message, saw the message, but it didn’t register.”
Apologies to our Veterans for my having failed to acknowledge
your day, and a sincere thank you to all who defended and are defending.
I can only attribute my faux pas to waking up yesterday, brain
fried from current events, feeling as though I was living in a dream state and
would, at any moment, wake up.
Elsewhere on campus …
 |
| Veteran's Success Center |
On tap for today is resting up for tomorrow. Not planning on
anything other than Virtual 5Ks remainder of the year, I ended up registering
for the famous Mission Inn Run. So it's up and out early tomorrow for what,
after a whole lot of nothing but the living dead here at the complex, I hope to
be a fun day with lots of active people and a simultaneous health and
fitness fair.
Did
finding a penny bring me luck you ask?
In
a manner of speaking, yes, it did.
A
$2 Day of the Dead scratch off lottery ticket, turned into $10, which I rolled
over into a $10 ticket, which ticket parlayed itself into an $80 win.
Eighty
dollars isn’t anywhere near the millions I'm looking to win but, I’ll take it.
After an unusually long day in the service department yesterday --
five and a half hours, I ended up with a headache, and I never ever get
headaches.
It wasn’t the $1,346.60 price tag or the fact, having not
expected such a long wait, I didn’t bring lunch, or think to walk the half mile
to Marie Callender’s for a steamed veggie plate, it was their huge flat screen
blasting Fox Trump News into my brain.
I distracted myself as much as possible with the two magazines I’d
brought and playing PokémonGo in the waiting room, as the place had plenty
without having to step out the door. The few times I did get up and step out
the door, salesmen and saleswomen came out of nowhere.
One was the guy who’d accosted me last time. Had I seen him
coming, I would have run back inside but, all of a sudden, he was just there … “You
back again? How ‘bout I talk you into a new car?”
“I’m happy with my car.”
“What kind of car do you have?”
“Saturn.”
“What year?”
“2004”.
“Oh yeah?”
“I’m not buying a new car.”
“Well, if you do, my name is …”
They're like a bunch of chicken hawks -- the sleazy guys who hang around bus terminals trying to pick up and lead astray young girls.
When the survey arrives, asking me to comment on how well the service department did, I'm going to complain about the sales department's harassment.
At any rate, by the time all was said and done, I was on the road headed
home, caught in the rush hour traffic of folks getting off work.
Arriving home with that headache, I broke my grain-free thing by
quickly devouring the chicken burger and fries I’d stopped to pick up at Baker’s,
settled in and tried to clear my head, get back on center.
I caught the tail end of Judge Judy which, by the way, was a
case involving ownership of a 2004 Saturn.
By end of the evening, I'd managed to survive Fox, the long wait, the harassment and was back
on-center, but the burger bun on an empty stomach was giving me problems,
because my stomach reacts negatively to wheat and grain -- I wasn't to have eaten the bread.
Waking up at 4:15 this morning, life didn’t feel real. It was
like what I’d seen, heard, experienced over the last few days was a dream, a
bad dream that I needed to wake up from.
I don’t know if it was the bread or Fox News still working their way through
my system, but unsure of what was real, I had to ask myself, “Did that really happen? Is Donald Trump the
president?”
On tap for today is heading to the University for PokémonGo tools,
as I pretty much depleted my backpack in the waiting room of the service
department.
So Hillary won the popular vote, but lost.
Kinda remind me of that television show Survivor. The Electoral
College is like an Immunity Idol but, instead of keeping a survivor in the
game, it takes the survivor voted for out. In other words, taking that analogy
into this event, your vote was for naught, it really, as Jeff Probst would say, "Does not count".
Thus far, I’ve only had to unfollow one person, and not because
of her political views, but because she’s become a religious nut.
A spiritually minded individual my own self, I’d become
increasingly uncomfortable with what she’s been posting, the tone of which comes across as judgmental, pompous, arrogant, fanatical. A lot of what “We as
Christians” should and should not do … same-sex marriages are a sin against God
… PokémonGo is evil and gives our enemies landmarks to target.
Even Halloween, in her eyes, is the devil’s tool … “Don't let
your children participate just for having a few free candy. Remember that the
devil is going to collect with interest!!!” … “As believers, we need to know
clearly what side of the spiritual battle we are on. A substitute is not dress
in a benign costume and attend a ‘harvest fest’. The substitute is to suit up
in the full armor of God, bend our knee and cry out to the Lord of hosts to
fight the battle against powers and principalities. Our job is not to conform
to the world, but rather to be transformed by the Holy Spirit.”
WHAT?!
She posted THAT just above a photo of herself dressed in a Day
of the Dead costume, surrounded by others similarly dressed.
When someone questioned the hypocrisy, her response was “That’s
different. It wasn't Halloween related. The youth did an illustrated sermon
about dying unto one’s self.”
Not all of my facebook friends are unhappy with results of the
election, which is their right and doesn’t bother me one bit.
But I found it strange, considering plans to "build a wall", when
this religious zealot friend, this Hispanic friend, the friend who taught me
how to make tamales, the friend who was already teetering on the edge of being unfollowed,
began posting anti-Hillary … “Lord help us if this woman is elected” … “Reasons
Why Hillary Should Not Be Elected”.
But then again, she’s entitled to her own opinion and I myself
try not to judge. However, when she’d asked me to let her know next time I was
at the Souplantation -- which is near her job, so we could meet up for lunch, I
stopped facebook check-in so she’d not know I was there.
The fact that I no longer wanted to spend time with her, was actively hiding my whereabouts from her, was a sign it
was time to unfollow, but I didn’t.
The straw that broke this camel’s back was her reaction to the
vote, that she “Prayed, Prayed Prayed!”, and it was now “Amen Amen Amen!!!” …
“God is on our side!”
Bye girl.
On tap for today is the dealership for those shocks.
It’s gonna be a long wait, around 3 hours, and I’d like to go
walking, hunt Pokémon. However, I did that last time and it was a nightmare
because the area around the Convention Center is all car lots, and those guys
are hungry … aggressively hungry.
I’m like walking down the sidewalk, obviously engrossed in something on the
cellphone, and guys are yelling at me, “What kind of car you looking
for?”
“I’m not. I’m in the Service Department.”
Some even came out of nowhere, hoping to engage me in
conversation with a smile and their good looks, “Good morning ma’am. What are
you driving now?”
I gave them a curt “A car I’m happy with” and kept
walking.
So to avoid being bothered today, I’ll just check the area for
new Pokémon. If there's something new in the area, it would make being bothered worth it. If nothing new shows up, I’ll
read, meditate, sleep.
Awake at 4:15 this morning, I just lay in bed … afraid to get up
and start the day, afraid to know.
Along about 4:50 I wrestled with … is it best to avoid knowing for as long as I can or just get up and rip
the bandage off.
Up I got, logged on and, though I'd expected as much, my reaction was physical.
First, my hand went to my mouth in horror.
Second, I found it hard to breath.
Third, my eyes felt watery.
Tears?
Checking in on my facebook friends, I found everything
from sad to hilarious.
“Better get new tennis shoes for all those protest walks I'm
gonna go on. #WTF?!”
“I have a house in the Azores Islands in Portugal - you are all
invited. Okay so you may need to bring a hammer but …”
“Frightening in every way.”
“God has forsaken us.”
“I want my mommy!
”
“We just set our clocks back to 1950.”
“The second coming of Hitler.”
“I feel so ill right now. ”
“One thing I underestimated in this election: America's desire
to burn itself to the ground.”
“Well ... hopefully you’ll all be able to feel better with weed!”
“Ok...Trump won...election over...can you all start posting your
food and drink pics again...I miss those!!”
I’m just sorry I lived this long, but it is what it is.
I didn’t want to know or hear anything about the election today –
I’ll just learn of America’s fate when I get up tomorrow morning, so I spent
the day in avoidance -- catching up on recorded programs, working on that
needlepoint project, eating.
Took a leisurely drive to the Rancho Cucamonga Souplantation and brought
back salad for lunch, chili and cornbread for dinner.
Later, feeling stuffed and bloated, I played a
few rounds of Candy Crush, and surfed the web, ending up on a site called MagiQuiz
where I found … “If You Were a Pokémon, Which One Would You Be?”
After answering a series of questions, the results came up as ...
What blew my mind is that PokémonGo, not too long ago, added a Buddy -- which gives players the option of selecting any Pokémon to appear alongside their profile’s avatar
and, as you walk with your buddy, it will find candy that can be used to power
up or evolve.
I chose Chansey, and I chose Chansey because she's just so darn cute and, out of so many to choose from, she just felt right.
Now curious as to what she does, because of the quiz results coming up the same as what I'd opted for, I did a little research and find she has abilities … “Abilities:
Natural Cure, Serene Grace.”
That sounds like me and what I'm into as well, so now I'm curious ... what other quizzes are on this site.
Oh look, it's “Where Should You Move if Trump is Elected?”
You'll never guess what I got.
Back when I was looking to relocate, because Nurse Ratched wasn't handling the termites swarming into my unit, I thought ahead and just in case the worst
possible outcome happened with this election, I’d included requirements for moving
to Canada in the search, even looked into senior complexes.
On television, when someone is fleeing the country into Canada, they
just get in the car and go. It looks so easy.
It’s not.
There are eleven complicated steps, involving official documents
and permission to enter from Canada.
As a retiree, I would not need to apply
for citizenship – which I would consider, even though it would add even more
complicated steps to the process, but found a visa would suffice.
But even if I were to work my way through the steps, I’d still
need to visit the country, book myself a hotel and stay long enough to find a
place to live.
Not in the financial position to flee the country right now, I’ll
just have to suck-it-up if the future looks bleak end of day tomorrow.
Besides, as a spiritual student, the message I’ve received from
my studies is that one is never to run from situations life gives you; instead one
is to work through -- that the way out IS the way through.
Gonna be a rough four years, possibly eight if tomorrow goes
wrong; and then we’ll surely have Junior to contend with after that, but it’s
gonna be what it’s gonna be.
That’s not to say that, given the opportunity – financially and
otherwise, Canada might not be an option at a later date. I’ll just see the change in
circumstances as a sign to “pick up your bed and walk”.
Only I’ll drive.
