Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!
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I tell ya, there are mornings - there are beautiful mornings - and then there is *this* morning.

I should put it in perspective. Last night I went to bed later than I'd hoped to. I had trouble falling asleep because my foot hurt that much, and it was too late at night to take even half a pain pill.
And yet,I slept soundly and awoke refreshed. I woke early too. None of the cats ran under my feet and tripped me. My teenage son got out of bed on time. The Levis 501's I bought before he was born fit me as comfortably as sweat pants this morning. No part of them was tight -not even across my hips. We had fog hovering above the river, and it smelled like fog instead of pollution. No birds had pooped on my windshield overnight. Traffic didn't get in my way. The stoplights were all green as I passed under them. L was early to school. I had time to pick up breakfast for the hubby man; and he was getting out of bed as I came in the door. AND we're probably going to get thunderstorms later today.

Yep. A perfect morning.

Sometimes There's Ugliness
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This morning I dashed into 7-11 to get some breakfast and lunch money for L. Ahead of me was a petite young woman in incredibly tight jeans. She was walking quickly, in a stilted, jerky kind of way. I wondered what her disability was, decided it was probably arthritis, and pondered the hardship of arthritis for such a young woman.

Although she appeared to be in a great hurry, she took the time to hold the door open for me. She ducked her head as I thanked her. I thought, "That girl needs more confidence". And went to get my breakfast -which took about 40 seconds.

At the register, the woman was ahead of me again. She was trying to fish money out of her front pocket, using her finger as a hook to wiggle the change and bills out. Her sole purchase was a $1.50 can of beer.

I noticed she had dropped a nickle so I bent to pick it up for her. As I was stooped, I saw a quarter and some pennies too. So I picked it all up and set it on the counter for her. She thanked me, and I saw her face for the first time. She looked at least as old as me; and she had a perfectly rectangular bruise blossoming over the bridge of her nose.

The little things I'd observed suddenly became huge. The discolorations on her arms weren't hives or bad skin, they were layers of bruises. Her fingers were swollen. There were old marks on her throat and collarbone.

I suddenly wanted to ask her if the beer was for her, or for the person who had mashed her face? And I realized that I wasn't willing to take her into my home and shelter her - because I didn't want the drama of driving her beater off my property.

And I felt like crap.

I have no idea why I wanted to help and protect a total stranger. Maybe because, at that moment, she would have let me? I don't know.

And I had a moment of clarity. Second Life is attractive to so many people because bruises don't show.

Birthing
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Second Life really did eat me. Swallowed me whole.
In that alternate reality, the Hubby Man got a job as a dj. He worked at several clubs, and finally found a place to call home. We made pixel friends, danced to good music, became emotionally involved ... and then the club closed.
The people we'd come to know and love had nowhere to go. The place had been so great, that no where else could compare.

So, several of us got together and within the space of a week, built a club from scratch. Last night was our grand opening. It was wonderful. And exhausting.
Like giving birth, you go through stages. There's the "Ow, contraction, I'm kind of scared and kind of excited... I'm having a BABY!" phase. Then there's the transition phase, where it's just you and your pain. And then it's time to push. All 5 of us pushed like crazy. And now we're looking at this baby we've given birth to, and don't know where it puts us.

We built it for everybody. And we wanted to build a place that felt like home. we succeeded. Now we have to keep it going, even though each of us had taxed ourselves to the limit. And even though each of us had real life things happening too.

Sometimes I think I have everything under control, and that belief takes over and controls me. My friends and business partners suffered because of it. And that really sucks.


And, because it's St. Patrick's day, me and my red hair are staying in the house. Ans I'm wearing purple. Nyeah.

Lazy
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Actually I haven't been lazy, I've been busy. And my foot is having another healing spurt. Which is good, but I'm disappointed that I'm back to using my cane. It's temporary, I can cope.

On the Second Life front, I've been to busy and too lazy to go around and take interesting pictures. So, I found some links to interesting pictures instead. I do still plan on taking snapshots of some of the worst visual offenders; because really, if you ever plan on playing the game - you ought to be prepared.

photo links:
SL Adventures takes pictures of what he or she encounters. Sometimes it's pretty, sometimes it's a giant rat. You never know.
I thought this was pretty interesting, especially because they brought along a Thing In A Crate.


Anyone can buy looks in SL, so there are a lot of red haired female avatars. And a lot of big breasts or washboard stomaches. Plus there are a heck of a lot of tan people with tattoos. My avatar has orange hair. I had to do a lot of shopping to find the color I wanted. I found it at Calico Creations and the color is called "sunset". It's orange, I tell ya.