Charleen's Chateau

Not just another WordPress.com weblog ;)

  • Wonderful Day

    “Well, I heard that into every life
    A little of it must fall
    If there’s any truth to the saying
    Lord, let it be a Southern rain…

    …Cars alive on city streets
    of sparkling black water
    like waves beneath my window
    never break just roll away
    Tonight, this rain will be my lullaby
    these cars, my dreams
    to carry me home to stay…

    And it will never cease to amaze me
    how a little rain can drive folks crazy
    When I’d trade all my blue skies gladly
    for your blue eyes, crooked smile
    and a steady downpour”
    – Cowboy Junkies “Southern Rain”

    I love a good rainy day. Especially in the summer. I wouldn’t even mind another July full of it.

    BTW, if you haven’t heard the Cowboy Junkies, you should check them out. My Mom got me hooked on them years ago. They’re really good; especially if you like folk rock.

    Well, I’m going to go curl up with my pear cider and a book, and listen to the storm roll in. Have a wonderful night, folks, and enjoy the rain!!! Love, C

  • To all Matt fans… :-)

    For all you that read my brother’s page,
    I know that it is all the rage,
    To embrace the language of poet and sage
    I merely don’t have the patience for it.
    So if you choose to in couplets utter
    All your emails – without a stutter! –
    You have my praise, thought I may mutter
    That you’ve gone ’round the bend a bit!

    Love you, Sweetie. Miss you, Darlin’. And I’m behind you 100 billion percent!

  • 4th of July

    Ok. Survived work. Survived freeway, pouring rain and traffic. But I barely survived my dog.

    You see, we have these yahoos here that decided it would be fun to play with Roman candles in our neighborhood. By the time that we got back from going to see Gareth & Paula’s baby & BBQ night (some GOOD food, let me tell you!), Rhiannon the dog was thoroughly terrified. I went outside with her so that she wouldn’t get spooked while she was taking a powder, and some bozo lets off with this big bada boom that scared the red off her fur. She did what she always does when she’s scared, and attempted to prove her theory that she can become one with my legs if she presses against them hard enough. Unfortunately, I was in mid step.

    So now, I’m tired, full, and happy…but I have a slightly sore butt from where I landed on it. Fortunately, God chose to grace me with plenty of cushion back there, but I think that that aforementioned padding is going to be black and blue.

    I hope y’all’s 4th turned out well. I love to see that so many people are turning out to celebrate the official beginning of my Birthday Month. Further celebrations should be forthcoming. Maybe more parades? Think on it for me. I’m going off to sleepyland for now.

  • The agony of de forth

    I have a house full of guests.

    Part of the freeway is closed due to some idiot hitting the sign and knocking it onto the road.

    I’m fantastically late.

    I’ve only had a few hours sleep.

    And…it’s the Fourth of July, dammit!

    I don’t like to complain, but why do I have to go to work when everybody else in their right mind, slept in and will be doing nothing more stressful than BBQing?

    Maybe this will all pick up tonight.

  • What it takes to get me to wash my car….

    “Every time it rains
    It rains pennies from heaven.
    Don’t you know each cloud contains
    Pennies from heaven?”
    -Pennies from Heaven (don’t ask me who originally wrote it!!!)

    I forgot to tell you what happened to me on Thursday….

    I was taking this tight curve from the I-35 feeder onto 15th street, that runs really close to the Erwin Center, and I was running LATE. I had a lot on my mind, and I was listening to the news so I was Zone Girl. All of a sudden, this massive amount of water lands on my windshield and moonroof with a “SPLAT!!!”.

    My first thought was that I had hit something, so I slammed on my brakes and looked around for a victim…then “SPLOOSH!!!” it happened again, this time getting in my windows (I have no AC). So there I am, wet, sitting at a dead stop in the turn lane, looking through my moonroof for clouds or something in this crystal clear sky.

    Then a third time, “SPLASH!!!”

    At that point, I finally got smart enough to look through my passenger window at the elephant wranglers having a good laugh at my expense. That’s right, elephant handlers. You see, the circus was in town, and they were cooling off the pachyderms by letting them play with large buckets of water. Most of them were spraying the water at eachother or on their handlers, but this one had a point to make. He saw me coming, and decided to put his own version of a “Wash Me” sign on the dust of my car.

    Ok, I get it. I’ll go wash my car.

  • Florists

    Hey there! Don’t have much time, but I thought that I’d reply to a comment.

    Yeah, I’ve been working at a florist – Pflugerville Floral Design actually – and they’re really nice folks. I started out just working for them on holidays and such, but they needed Satruday help, so I took them up on it. I’m not doing flower arrangements or anything, mostly deliveries and helping at the desk and all that stuff. You’d be surprised how unappreciative people are when they recieve flowers. The folks in the middle and upperclass homes get all huffy like you’ve interruped their lives or something. It’s the lady in the doublewide in the middle of nowhere that really touches your heart by passing you a 50 cent tip that really melts your heart. The others? Well they don’t tip at all!

    The moral of this story to all my friends and family is this: please tip your delivery person, even if it’s only a few cents. They’ll really remember you for it. And if they snob you out (like we had one guy from Pizza Hut do), call their manager and read him/her/it the riot act.

    As for the career day aptitude test, I got teacher as well as scientific research (the guy said it was because I liked science and had the ability to notice patterns). In fact, I don’t know anyone that didn’t get teacher…I think they were trying to hedge their bets! 🙂 I think that you’d make a good florist, Dani; I know you would love the beaucoups fresh flowers that they send home with you rather than throwing them out. It’s my fave part of the job!

    Later!
    Charlie

  • Deliver Me in a Black Winged Bird

    When I think of heaven
    (deliver me in a black-winged bird)
    I think of flying down into a sea of pens and feathers
    And all other instruments of faith and sex and God
    in the belly of a black-winged bird.
    Don’t try to feed me
    I’ve been here before
    And I deserve a little more

    I have decided that life is too short, and I’m staying home. I have to go into work tomorrow, I already worked Job #2 today, and I just don’t need anymore stress. This Counting Crows song (Rain King) is always relaxing to me, so I thought that I would include a couple of quotes from it. It makes me think of the hawks that I see flying around here. I always have believed that something that beautiful and serene is God’s way of saying, “I’m here; don’t worry. Just have a good day.” It’s always a good day when I see them fly, and I saw them twice already today.

    Although, I daresay my opinion would be quite different if I was a fieldmouse.

    Anyway, have a good day! I’m going to go watch the hawks from my back porch for a little while, and then maybe the fireflies a little later.

    When I think of heaven
    (deliver me in a black-winged bird)
    I think of dying
    Lay me down in a field of flame and heather
    Render up my body into the burning heart of God
    in the belly of a black-winged bird.

  • Oh, Dani Girl….

    Just a quick note for Dani –

    I feel your pain, sweetie! I just finished the book, and I’m already going through withdrawl. I’ll have to post a non-spoiler review of it in a while. In short….WOW. It’s a VERY DARK book, but you and I seem to have a lot of the same tastes on books, and I couldn’t put it down.

    I also ran out of coffee this afternoon, and I don’t know what to do with myself. Ah well, there’s only a little while left at work!

    Talk to you soon!!!

  • Post Script

    Thanks to Dani for getting me hooked on these damn Harry Potter books. Now I’m stuck at work, I can’t finish the dern thing and – knowing that someone important dies in this book – I have the imminent death of four different characters (and one critter) hanging over my head. AAUUGGHH!!!!! Why can’t work be like second grade and have a reading time?

    Seriously, though: Thanks, Dani for tipping J. and me off to these; they’ve been fabulous and utterly enchanting (pun intended!)

    Love,
    Charlie

  • Adam, it’s June, and I’m already there

    “In August and everything after,
    I’m after everything”
    – Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows, on the unreleased “August and Everything After” title song

    It’s interesting to me how the seasons of my life are divided into songs or albums. I can literally hear a song from a certain time or place, and it takes me right back to that moment, complete with smells and tastes. The album “Achtung Baby” by U2, and the song “Stars” by Simply Red take me back to being in England, because my boyfriend gave me both before I left, and they were constantly in my walkman. Musical scores for plays that I’ve done are particularly effective in this sort of thing, as they take me back to that time without fail. It’s hard to hear “Morning Glow” without picturing Aaron Krohn’s first triumph over the high notes in rehearsal. “Good Times are Here to Stay” brings Dames at Sea vividly to life again, and all the abject terror and exhilaration that went with it.

    This being said, I literally listen to different music in different seasons. Winter brings me into the darker, harder music, like the Toadies “Possum Kingdom”, PJ Harvey’s “To Bring you my Love”, or NIN’s “Pretty Hate Machine”. Spring brings lighter, bubble gum flavored pop, usually in soundtrack form: “Josie and the Pussycats” (when I can steal it from J), “Ten Things I Hate About You” and the aforementioned musical scores are very common. Fall is punctuated with soundtracks of a ethereal quality like “Twin Peaks” or “Great Expectations”. Pink Floyd is also a fall standard.

    Summer is a beast of a different color. Suddenly, my radio is playing the Cowboy Junkies, or Janis Joplin (especially her cover of “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess). Blues and Jazz female vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Norah Jones (again with the stealing) or Billie Holliday get dusted off and played ad nauseum. Jimmy Buffet, CCR and the Beach Boys come out my childhood, and make me long for the coast or New Orleans. (Concrete Blonde doesn’t help that latter yearning, by the way!).

    Since Friday, I’ve been reading the new Harry Potter, which is VERY DARK, and ever since then, I’ve had the Storyteller’s disk of the Counting Crows live album – Across a Wire – playing constantly in my car. It’s really more of a fall album for me, but it seems to fit the book.

    I’m sure I’ll write more on the themes of death, faith and friendship that run through both the book and the album, but I’m typing this in Word at work and I really should get back to what I’m doing. I’ve kind of lost the theme that I was working toward anyway in all the exposition. Talk to y’all later!