You know when someone says something that just hits you – like, kinda like, in the gut – you know? And it sorta makes you cry – but, it’s a sort of good cry. Like it’s just the truth.

Oh who knows what I’m rambling on about. Gosh. It’s kind of like a relief. Yeah, it makes you feel relief.

Oh hell’s bells – you just feel what it makes you feel, ok? I just have to share it (and catalog it) here on my blog. Here ya go:

So let me see if I can verbalize this a little better here. First it kind of socks you in the gut – makes you wanna cry. So you feel sorta bad. Then you realize the truth to how EASY ‘getting’ love is. And that the power is all in your court. And how freeing that is. And how nice it will be – on the times that you remember this – to easily ‘access’ love. Just like that. So then that sorta makes you cry again – like happy tears. And then the relief washes over you.

Who knew one little tweet could take me on such a goofy rollercoaster ride of emotions?

Way to go, Tony! And thank you!

I really want my sidebar space back, though, so I’m just going to put a link to this post there, for quick and easy access.

I used this really cool software to get the video to start right where I wanted it to. It is supposed to end at a certain point right after the ‘brick walls’ part – making the clip only about 15 seconds long, or a little less. But the only part that worked was the beginning – which is good, so you can get right to the BRICK WALLS part. I just stop the player after he’s done talking about that – I just need my BRICK WALLS reminder every now and then. Sometimes I watch his whole speech over, but, it’s really long. So for the constant reminder – I just need that one section.

I’ll try to remember what the software was so that I can share it with you guys – surprisingly, I don’t see it in the code. And I’m going to try to make the clip again, too – to see if I can get it to cut off at the end where I want it to.

Anyway – for now – just remember about the BRICK WALLS! They are there for the OTHER PEOPLE!

Thank you to Carnegie Mellon University for sharing Dr. Pausch with the world and thank you to Splicd.com for allowing me to splice to one of my favorite parts!

….are kids who are dealing with, or who have dealth with, catastrophic illness. We have a little girl at our elementary school who is going through cancer treatment, and the last time I saw her, she was in a wheelchair. Today at the Christmas concert, not only was she not in a wheelchair, she was not wearing a hat or scarf or a wig, her beautiful bald head glowing in the fluorescent lighting. She reminded me of Melissa Etheridge – fighting against her illness, loud and proud! This sweet little girl in our school is in the fifth grade, just on the verge of appearance really mattering to these kids. And yet, here she was, proudly carrying this gorgeously white head of hers, like it was all the rage. And yet, it was more than that, really. She really had that attitude of not caring what people thought. And that, to me, is the best place to be. I love kids (and adults, too!) that can wander through their days, not so obsessed with ‘oh no, am I wearing the right brand of jeans, and oh no, did I curl them up just so – just like everybody else?’ (Yeah, I know – curling up your jeans was from the 50′s, the 80′s, and for a short time a couple years ago – definitely not now! Hey – it was just an example!)

Seeing this girl today really made me feel good. It is like, just being in the presence of such beauty and strength, we are ourselves uplifted, some little bit.

I don’t know what all kind of treatments she had, if it was mesothelioma treatment or what, but, I know she is on the road to recovery. And I’ll just bet that a good part of the reason for that is the strength of her spirit!

I have been wanting to talk to a psychic for the longest time! My best friend, ‘Big Sammie’, used to always go and she would tell me what a great experience it was for her! Sammie was into all things metaphysical and really inspired me to embrace things that I’d been feeling my whole life that I had thought were really ‘off’ and I didn’t normally share with people. There’s just nothing really ‘mainstream’ about my spirituality and Sammie was a blessing in my life, because she nurtured that in me. I know that we were meant to be together. Another thing that I know – is that I was meant to pick the psychic I picked today at PsychicSource.com. See, when you call, the menu goes through a list of the available psychics and you hear a little blurb from each psychic about their gifts and the tools they use. So you can go through a whole list of them – there are nineteen of them available right now. Marilyn, however, was the second one whose ‘blurb’ I heard, and I didn’t want to listen to anymore – I just knew she was the one. I had a wonderful reading – she really helped me to clear some things up in my mind and to see clearly how I need to face certain things in my life. I’m so glad, so thrilled, that my first reading was so wonderful. Right before I called, I was nervous, and I was thinking, “But I wanted Sammie with me for my first time!” (She passed away in 1997.) And then I felt her nudging me, ‘Silly! I am with you!’ And I’ll just bet that it was her nudging me to pick Marilyn, too! Thank you, Sammie! It was really cool, too, because for new customers, it’s only $10 for 10 minutes! That rocked!

No matter what you think about our current war, I know that this will take your breath away. This post on my friend, Marcus’ blog Moment of Silence today- really makes you stop and think, and realize that …hey! You may be going to McDonald’s for lunch today, or taking the kids to the zoo, or watching movies with friends – heck! You might be going to see the opening of Spider Man 3 – but, you know what – men and women from the United States of America are out there dying right now! It makes me weak to even think about it. Please – go … read that post. And see if you don’t just tremble a little bit like I did.

…is that you get to go through all your stuff! You know, all that special stuff that you’ve been keeping forever and a day! It’s funny because if we don’t move, I sometimes don’t see this stuff for years, but, it’s so majorly special to me! It’s almost like, once a year or so, I should go through all my stuff, just for the warm fuzzies it gives me!

Some of my favorite stuff to go through is all of my ‘Catholic stuff’. I call it that because it is a mix of things from all aspects of my life growing up as a Catholic. My grandmothers were both very devout Catholics, and they would give me little trinkets here and there, and I inherited some of their things when they passed. And our church would frequently have book sales, so I have lots of sweet, little Catholic children’s books. My most favorite of my ‘Catholic stuff’, however, is all of the first communion gifts that I received when I received that sacrament in the second grade. I have the most beautiful rosary from my Grandmamom, and a very pretty necklace from my parents, and a wonderfully precious children’s mass book signed by one of my very favorite priests, Fr. Kamel. He was such a sweet, gentle, and kind man, I loved being around him.

I feel so warm and cozy and loved when I am looking all over this stuff, and showing my kids, and telling them my stories about my sweet grandmothers, my favorite priests (Fr. Kamel, Fr. Kelly, and Fr. Gayle) and what it was like growing up Catholic.

Either I’ve never flown at this time of day, or it was during my drinking days, when my focus was on the next drink – not the silly splendor out the window!

But let me tell you, it was easily one of the most beautiful things I have EVER seen! I just could not stop looking at it and I don’t really know if I can even come close to adequately describing it.

My favorite seat is the window seat about two rows behind the wing. I like to be able to see the wing as a sort of frame of reference, so I can truly see the fun of the ‘roller-coaster’ and also so that I can more fully understand, as I take in the beauty, that I am thousands of miles up in the air. When I am not on a wing, I ‘kind of’ forget that – it is such a pretty sight, but, the wing helps to put that bit of ‘reality into it – so I truly know what’s going on. Not sure if that really makes sense – but, I just like my wing, ok? Heehee

Anyway, so I was lucky enough to get the ‘perfect’ spot on the way out to Dallas, and things were looking cool out the window – and I don’t remember if this happened slowly, quickly – or if maybe I looked away for awhile and then looked back, but, at any rate – the sky was suddenly this incredible splash of color – and you know exactly what colors I mean! Roy G. Biv – he is such a cool guy, isn’t he?

And beautiful, too! Heehee – red orange yellow green blue indigo violet – painted on the most giant wall I have ever seen – I really couldn’t believe it, it was so beautiful that I was almost in tears (although given the circumstances for the flight…) and I was also speechless ( now my family can tell you that’s something!)

I swear, it was like a drug, whenever I looked at it, I was filled with this intense warmth and I just sighed really hard.

I have climbed mountain peaks, and that is a sight to see. (No, I haven’t climbed a 14er, but, I have done some pretty good climbs.) And I was totally and completely BLOWN AWAY by this.

It was like a Mexican restaurant for giants – you know how they are usually so colorful? Or a hippie, vegetarian restaurant/yoga center for giants. But if you will just picture the biggest, I mean BIGGEST wall possible – and someone comes along and paints Roy G. Biv in blending rows across it horizontally – and then adds some fluffy, white pillows on the floor up against it…

That was it. And it was amazing, so very amazing.

I didn’t get to pick my time that I flew, because of the way that I bought the ticket, but, boy did I need that emotional fuel to make it through the difficult trip ahead.

I bet God planned it like that – it was an emotional gift from him to help me get through.

Yep – it was definitely a God deal.

I got to thinking today about my five things meme and I realized, first off, that two of those things were related – the belching and the day camp experience.

Yep – the guy counselors, whom I adored and idolized, are the ones who taught me how to burp! Hahaha!

Funny thing is, I don’t remember one single girl counselor. Not one.

And girl counselors were always in charge of me. They would separate the kids up into groups of about 10, and assign a counselor to each group – of the same gender.

The sessions were two weeks long, with an overnight in the woods the last night. And the sessions ran all summer long. So – if I went all summer, that’s about six different girl counselors assigned to me per year – for five years – and I don’t remember one of them. LOL!

I do remember the counselors Steve, David, another friend of Steve’s, and the director Lou, whom I had an insane crush on! And I still have a picture of Lou around here somewhere.

And I think that would be Steve that was the belching coach. And he was the one that would speed up the bus on the freeway access road at the hill – just a bit – so that we would bump up in the air a little bit!!

See they would take us to the YMCA in the middle of the day to swim and buy drinks from the soda machine (Strawberry Crush for me, please!) and then go back out to the woods for the rest of the day.

On the first day of the session, you would get assigned your counselor, and then the pack of you would go out wandering in the woods looking for the perfect campsite. Once you found it, you would make it ‘home’. We tied twine on the trees to mark off our campsites, and then who knows what else to make it our own special space in the woods.

You know, come to think of it, I think there was a time or two that we were assigned a guy counselor.

And from the guy counselor, I learned to cook one of my favorite breakfasts – scrambled eggs with taco seasoning. In fact, I had it for breakfast this morning – on toast! YUMMM!

It is truly heartbreaking, as this camp is now held at a park. A park?! How lame! It is a huge park, but, it is still a park! Lame-o!

The area where the camp used to be held is now a new residential development – figures! – and a fancy shmancy walking trail, paved with concrete! Concrete?! You want to go walking through the woods on concrete? What is wrong with this picture?

Mark and I took the kids over there a couple of years ago, and we went off the concrete trail, as we are ‘real woods’ people, and I actually found some of the old neato spots. I might cry just typing this.

Seriously, that was just such a special time in my life. And to think it happened because my parents couldn’t afford ‘real daycare’. Wow. That blows me away just thinking about it.

When we were there, I found a special spot by the creek that my friends and I had a secret fort in, and we found where I think the horse barn was, and we found the old cemetery — in which some of the original Richardson residents are buried. Like – old!

Oh! And one of my best friends – her nickname was Animalson (Allison). There were a few of us regulars, who came all summer – myself, Allison, Jennifer…and the guy counselors gave Allison and I those nicknames…mine eventually was shortened to Animal after she left – and one counselor even called me Ana. Hahaha!

I could write forever on this topic – I so loved that whole experience!

Well, I’ve been tagged for the ‘five things’ meme by Genki Girl – thanks, mama!

Let me see now…

1. I always wanted to be a truck driver and I am sickly obssessed with trucks of all kinds and even large machinery – there is something so incredibly sexy about a humongous piece of equipment! HAHAHA! No, but, really – I mean that – I swear I do- it was an accidental, but fitting, funny-funny, but, I just love those big machines – and I do think they’re sexy! – it was really great all those years that my boys were obssessed with construction vehicles and we watched every construction movie ever made – multiple times! (whose blog has a pic of their kids in front of the big tire? Genki, was that you? that will be funny if it is you, since you’re the one that tagged me! well, that was one of my favorite videos…about those giant trucks, I think we still have that one, too) And we had to stop at all the cool construction sites – and my family would call me up….”Lisa, there’s a giant grader near my house, quick! Bring the boys!” LOL It was so much fun!

2. I can belch SUPER LOUD! (My family always loved that!)

3. One of my nicknames as a kid was ‘Animalisa’ – I loved it!!

4. The woods are my ‘church’. I was truly blessed, in that my folks couldn’t afford a ‘regular daycare’ and so every summer I was sent to YMCA day camp (which was held in the woods) for the whole summer – and it was there that the foundation for my spiritual life blossomed. (Not that I knew that then.) You know, it’s funny how upset we get when we ‘can’t afford something’ – and I cannot begin to tell you how different my life would be without that experience! I think I’ll remember that next time I ‘cant’ afford’ something for my kids!

5. My husband has a gorgeous, and studly, and manly— fancy and pretty ’99 F250….and I miss his ’78 F150….because of the sound it made – rumbly rumbly old truck – I would get frisky when I would hear him pull into the drive – EVERY time! His ‘new’ and purdy one is oh-so-quiet…aww….drat! Also, along those lines – he bought me a ’98 Nissan Quest…very nice van, it has been good to us – very little, almost no, trouble with it. But I miss my ’77 Delta 88 – her name was Bertha – and she was the greatest!!!

Ok, so there you have it. Now it’s my turn to tag!

I tag: Super-Mommy, Devilish Southern Bell, Brainfizzles, Momgadget, and Casual Keystrokes