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I like to call myself an “eclectomaniac”. Planning interferes with my process! I’m very changey. But I’m pretty consistent about it!

~~~~S.T. Lloyd

“Nobody can be exactly like me. Even I have trouble doing it.”–Tallulah Bankhead

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Magical

By I.N. Lloyd © 1-3-09

I think I heard a fire horse bark, and I laughed, then I saw a twinkle in the sky and it started to rain gold into the garden. The end.

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Happy To Be Glad

By: B.Z. Lloyd ©

Well I’m happy to be glad

And no longer sad

And i never get mad

oh no, that would be bad

and when i jump…

I don’t touch the ceiling

i touch the sky

and i’m happy like a clown

and my frowns upside-down

and theres no need to asking

because i’m happy

I don’t have 2 lie

i’m happy to be alive

Be happy, be glad

don’t get sad

and don’t get mad

if you were happy too

well I’d be happy for you

Just all things good

and skip the bad news

because you know you should

Well I don’t need money

I’ll high-5 the sun

I’ll never be lonely

Just have a little fun

My skies always sunny

and I’ll say something funny

just to lighten the mood

because I’m one funny dude

and there’s no need to be rude

polka-dot

you think you’re happy

You’re not!

Those new shoes you got

You think they’re hot

Be happy, be glad

don’t get sad

and don’t get mad

if you were happy too

Well, I’d be happy for you

Just all things good

and skip the bad news

because you know you should

Well I’m high on life

and when you realize

life’s better than you think

because you open your eyes

after you blink

’cause life’s better and you’re

happier than before

like happy knocked on your door

and when you reminisce

don’t think of the bad times

or the sad times

or the things you miss

Well…. I guess end with this

Have a little bit of my happy-ness!

2009 copyright

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Rumination

By S T Lloyd ©

It is one of those days when the sky is mild, a breeze is blowing and I can hear the wind chimes. It is fall. I love the fall. Of course, it’s not the full-fledged cusp of fall splendor. No brilliant display of colors as of yet. A few yellowing and brown leaves flutter down in the breeze. It should be pretty this year, as we’ve had sufficient rain. It rained last night, in fact. A steady, easy, relaxing, lulling kind of rain. But we still have air conditioners running, so it wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been, say if there were aluminum awnings or if it were safe to leave the window open.

Today is a candle day. There is something about the flicker of live flame, however small, that gives a little resuscitative dose of hope. Not enough to live on, mind you, but enough to survive another hour or two. My heart is leaden in my chest. My shoulders sag and my spine curves under the weight of my cares. Some days I am stronger, can lift and carry better. And some days I am a weakened, depleted, sickly veteran.

On this day I’m a little “stuck in the mud”. But, it’s only morning. Usually something comes along and distracts me. More often than not, anymore, it’s merely a matter of having so little tolerance for melancholy. Thankfully that is the nature of the human spirit. It’s not programmed to stall, but to ebb and flow, like the tides. Perhaps that is why we are so drawn to the ocean. It resonates with our souls at an elemental level.

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SHORT BUS

By ST Lloyd

ShortBus-T source

I like riding the short bus ‘cuz it’s much more funner. You don’t get beat up on there And nobody takes your cupcakes and God is the actual bus driver. The short bus goes slower So nobody gets hurt and falls off and when somebody gets on there’s always a place to sit because nobody says sit somewhere else. I’m special, ‘cuz only special kids get to ride on the short bus. And also because they always Say that about me.

You can sit with me if they let you ride the short bus too then you will be lucky like me!

(There is a special hidden message in the above story. Can you find it?)

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And now for a bit of randomocity of the t.m.i. variety:

A Baby Boomer’s Adventure in Technology

By S. T. Lloyd ©

old-lady-cell-phone source

Ok, so. I upgraded my new Cosmos Touch phone. It thought it was time I got a QWERTY full keyboard for texting. When the box arrives a few days after Christmas, I’m already getting sweaty palms, thinking, oh boy, maybe this wasn’t such a great idea. My vision has gotten so blurry, and it’s hard to see the buttons. Heck, it’s hard to even press them, what do the kids do, sharpen their nails to a nib? There are things you do on here that don’t even use buttons. Well, when I fire it up to activate it, I’m already flustered at the fact I have this new phone and I’m thinking “I’m probably going to hate it”. (In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m over 40).

So, I manage to transfer all my old contacts to the new phone via “Backup Assistant’ in Verizon. So far, so good! But then I made the grave mistake of trying to set my ICE numbers. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of “scrolling” on a touch screen. I get stuck on the Animal Control number, which where I live is also the police non-emergency number. I somehow inexplicably manage to lock it in as one of my ICE numbers. I am desperately trying to get it to go away when I hear….”City Police, what is your emergency?”

Oh. MY. GOSH!!!! So I tell the dispatcher, “I’m so sorry, I have a new phone and I’m trying to learn how to work it and somehow I got your guys in my ICE numbers and I can’t get it off.

The dispatcher laughed, good-naturedly, and said it was okay, no problem. The “contact” was still on my screen as she (apparently) disconnected the call on her end at the same time I am fumbling to press the “end call” button, or what I thought was the end call button, which looks deceptively similar to the “send call” button. You guessed it, the phone is ringing again immediately and I’m yelling into my phone “NOOOOOOOOOOOO stop, PLEASE!!!

I told the dispatcher the third time around (yes, I was foolish enough to keep trying), “look, I am just an old lady trying to figure out her new phone”. But on the fourth time, I just hung up. I was terrified to even try any more to delete the number from the ICE list for fear that a SWAT team would show up at my door and arrest me for making crank calls to the Po-Po.

I even went online through the Backup Assistant and changed it there and did a sync to sync the change to my phone by that route. I cautiously make my way back to the dreaded phone, as if I can sneak up on it, and ever so cautiously scroll to the contact list……..AND THE NUMBER IS STILL THERE LIKE SOME FREAKIN’ SCARY CLOWN IN A HORROR MOVIE!!! (And now what’s online doesn’t even match what is in my phone. How does that even happen?)

My 16-year-old son was ever-so-helpfully sitting beside me, shaking in unapologetic laughter and simultaneously turning red with embarrassment, while wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. (I ask you: What good is a teenager if they can’t help you with your technology at a time like this?)

Then he had the audacity to just smile and shake his head “no” when I said “let me put an ICE number in YOUR phone and YOU figure out how to get it out”. He put the phone behind his back like a second-grader.

You will probably hear my frantic “non-emergency” call to the police on some $5.00 comedy CD from a truck stop somewhere one of these days.

P.S. To remove an unwanted ICE number from your ICE list, you must delete the contact altogether. When I did it, it felt like one of those tension-filled scenes in a movie where they are defusing a bomb! Whew! Dodged a bullet, I did!