Witch's Fingers

My friend, Renata, brought me witch's fingers that she baked for the Halloween party.  When I took the foil off the plate, I screamed!

They look realistic, don't they?

Again?

This is the second day in a row that I found a little green tree frog in my mailbox.  If he's there again tomorrow, I'm going to have to come up with a name for him.

Regal Walter

Here's regal Walter, sunning himself on the patio in the backyard:

Here's hoping he behaves himself at the PetFest this Sunday!

What the Cat Did to the Pineapple

My cats are notorious for meddling and interfering with all kinds of things.  This is the latest...

We bought a pineapple and put it on the kitchen counter to ripen.  In the morning, I noticed it was on the floor and several of the green things on top (I have no idea what those are called, but you know what I'm talking about) were lying next to the pineapple.  I picked it up and put the pineapple back on the counter.

Then I found the pineapple on the floor with a cat crouching right next to the poor pineapple.  I have a feeling that it not the calico cat who was the culprit, but it was  probably the gray cat.

He looks so innocent, but don't be deceived.

Poor Zoe, set up by her sibling...

A Snake, a Frog, and a Lizard

I don't know what the deal is with the reptiles and amphibians in my neighborhood, but within the last two days, I saw a garter snake when I was pulling weeds in my garden, pulled the mail out of the mailbox this afternoon and found a green tree frog on one of the envelopes, and finally (I hope), opened the door to the patio to feed the cats only to have a lizard try to leap on me from the screen door.  Those who know me will be very surprised to hear that I did not scream!!!

Two Minutes Left

There were two minutes left in the football game.  I have only watched two whole football games in my life, but I still want my home team to win.  It makes the whole city happy!

Well, I thought they would win this game.  They were ahead by four points, and there were only two minutes left in the game.  I thought for sure there would be victory.

I got on my bicycle and rode really fast through my neighborhood, trying to get back home before the game was over.  As I was riding, I could hear people yelling, and I knew they were yelling at their televisions.  I just knew those were celebratory yells.

People started to come outside, but I didn't ask anyone the score.  When I got home, I looked at the TV, and I was amazed, in the last five seconds, the other team scored a touchdown and won by three points!  What???

Just goes to show you, you never know how things will turn out until the very end....

Cats in a Basket

Henry, the gray cat, loves to snuggle in this wicker basket.  Zoe wants to be wherever another cat is, and she couldn't be happier curled up right on top on Henry!  I really want to know what Henry thinks...

Who's Happier?

Who looks happier?  The man with the dog on his lap or the dog on the man's lap?

Henry Cracks Me Up

Cats can climb things that you'd never believe they could.  This chiffarobe is eight feet tall.  Henry loves to jump up to the window sill and then jump on top of the dresser.  It cracks me up when I walk into the room and see him up there:

Look What the Raccoons Did!

I had buckets of potting soil on the back patio, and the raccoons knocked them over, looking for food.  They scarf up whatever's leftover from the feral cats that we feed in the backyard, but then, everything else is fair game...

Blessing of the Animals

Our church had the Blessing of the Animals on a Sunday afternoon.  We only brought Walter, not all the cats.  Our pastor makes house calls, so he's blessed them at home.  Here's Wayne with the pastor and Jerry and his dogs.

Fake It Til You Make It

This is a common sentiment in AA circles; for the uninitiated, AA = Alcoholics Anonymous.  In other words, you may not feel like it, but act like it until it's real.

This leads me to something I read in a book called, Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. (I heard about this book from another blog written by Kristen Lamb.)  The book is about creativity.  In the chapter, "Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started," Kleon says, " If I'd waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started being creative, well, I'd still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things.  In my experience, it's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.  You're ready.  Start making stuff.  You might be scared to start.  That's natural.  There's this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people.  It's called impostor syndrome.   The clinical definition is:  a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.  It means that you feel like a phony, like you're just winging it, that you really don't have any idea what you're doing.  Guess what:  none of us do.  Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they'll tell you the truth:  they don't know where the good stuff comes from.  They just show up to do their thing.  Every day."

I don't know about you, but whenever I hear about or read about something that I thought only happened to me, I'm so relieved that other people have felt that way.  Even better - there's a name for it.

When I first started my social work career, I was 23, fresh out of graduate school, with my first apartment and first car.  I felt so inadequate because I didn't have any experience, and this was my first job.  Of course, you have to have a first job so you can have some experience.  God bless the first employer that gives you a chance.

I remember pushing my grocery cart around the store, shopping for food that my meager paycheck would afford me.  I felt like any second, someone was going to come up behind me, tap me on my shoulder, and say, "Give it up.  We know you're not an adult."  I was just going through the motions, playing at being a grown up.

Now, all these years later, I find out there's a name for it, and it's a syndrome  that "runs rampant in educated people."  Who knew?  I didn't.  But I'm so relieved to know that others have felt this way, and it's a real thing.

So getting back to the title, "Fake it til you make it," even though I've never thought of myself as creative, if I show up and do the work, it'll happen.  What do they say about creativity?  It's 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.  In other words, you gotta work hard to make something happen that's worthwhile.