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From now until the latter part of 2008, many prophecies are going to begin to be fulfilled … Some of these prophecies concern the demise of the United States over the next year, which will be followed by man’s final world war. This last war will be the result of clashing religions and the governments they sway. Billions will die! This time will far exceed even the very worst times in all human history.

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What did I learn this week?

After visiting two beaches, I learned:
1) The waves tossed huge logs up on top of the jetty at the Marina. I don't think I'll stand there anytime soon.

2) My favorite beach may never be accessible again.

3) In one area if the winds come from any direction but the South, the waves come over the jetty and up several blocks, so there are always sandbags right outside the doors of the stores.

4) The local radio station said their tower is now half as tall, and they hadn't been able to reach it yet. Kidding around, it seems size matters. They can't reach their listener. ;)

5) A colleague had a home that was hidden away by woods. Several trees on his property fell, some on his house, but his home is clearly visible now from the road. Another said "It's like his house appeared suddenly out of nowhere!" I've noticed that effect at other locations. You couldn't see there was a house there until all the trees fell down.

6)I ran into Abe who had been watching Tin Man also right before the power went out in his town. There was a tornado in another show that night as well...I think he said "Desperate Housewives." Many people around here thought their house would blow away with them in it (including myself, on the upper floor)...all so Wizard of Ozish. From the paper, there were gusts in our peripheral coast area of 160.

7) On the second day, I got a call at 4:00 am. It was too cold to sleep, so I answered the phone. (I rarely ever answer the phone.) It was Dave in Australia. I haven't seen him online in half-a-year, and he's never called. He just wanted to say "hello". I guess the secret is...if you want to reach me, call me at odd hours when salespeople don't call, and maybe I'll pick it up. That was so neat. He sent a Christmas card from his family. It reads "Greetings from Oz."

8) There was an abstinence of Christmas cards this year. I lamented the fact that I didn't write any. Everyone I spoke with at work hadn't either. There was an impromptu Christmas party in the neighborhood and no one wrote out cards this year either. Everyone feels exhausted.

9)Bats. One of the neighbors says she has many bats. I've seen a few creatures in the night (in the summer) that could have been bats, but I always thought they were swallows. She does this truly zen-like thing, and lays out in the middle of her yard, covering her hair and they will swoop down within inches of her face. She didn't know where they were coming from.
When I was looking for a home, the realtor told me that bats tend to live in shake roofing, suggesting that I avoid them. She has a shake roof. Interesting though, I thought he was kidding, just like he was kidding about a particular mountain lion up in a tree. (It was a fake.) I mean, who puts a fake mountain lion in a tree? The bat thing is eerie and has a sense of beauty, yet I'm perfectly satisfied to listen to her experience without visiting. :)

I get no visitors to my little journal. Maybe I should change the name to something like zen.

It's just a loosely arranged group of experiences that frame my fascination with synchronicities, dreams, and human experience.

There were a few interesting synchronicities with the storm. Two weeks prior we had a speaker who talked about disaster preparedness. She had been through the hurricane Katrina. I had missed the speech - out at another event, but within a few weeks we had a storm with hurricane force winds. For my paper this quarter, I chose in October the controversy over the benefits of CISD and psychological debriefing. After the storm, I was able to get an extension to complete my paper (it was almost complete) and take my final.
At work they offered CISD to those who chose to participate. It's just odd, because really, I had never heard of it prior to October when I was scouting around for a topic that I could use to discuss statistics.

The disaster really heightened my awareness of the emotional context of the controversy.

Did I do well? Hard to say. Last night I dreamed I failed the class, scoring poorly on the paper and exam. But I am sure that I did fine on the exam. The paper felt right to me, but depends on the expectations of the instructor, who may have wanted to see a graph for the tabled data. I did indicate that my choice not to graph was because visual data seems more memorable to me, and my report was about poorly sampled data and studies that should not be grouped together in comparisons. I thought a graph was just a bad idea.

Dream 12/18 4:30 am

In the dream, I was at an airport with a group of people I didn't recognize who were "my friends". There was a lot of rolling luggage. One "friend" had two million dollars in a small rolling case. I really liked the case. It was about the size of an old-time cosmetic bag (larger than today's) made of light-brown leather. It reminded me of a cross between a treasure chest and a cash register, because when you unlocked it and opened it there were drawers. I didn't actually see the money, but was fascinated as to how the thing opened into drawers. While we were talking, one of the other "friends" disappeared with the case. I left all the other baggage behind as I chased after this person, who could be either a true friend and helping to move the luggage, or a fake friend who was really stealing the loot. I could move swiftly without having to deal with the other people and trappings. The airport was fantastic and colorful with lots of lights and colors and fine things in shops, similar to Philadelphia. I didn't have to turn to other possible directions because for some reason, this airport had only one main route to the gates, and as I raced along, I realized how strange that was and then that this was a dream. I wondered why my mind decided there would be no alternate routes in this dream, and pondered the meaning and feeling of guilt of being partially at fault. I should not have assumed that the trust between friends protected them from ripping each other off, and should have been watching more carefully. It was inevitable that she would be found, since there was really no where else for her to go. (I didn't get the impression there were really any planes at this airport.)

I woke up.

---
There's a lot of day residue in there:
The idea of baggage and relationships was likely from a discussion with another about how it was that neither of us would likely have serious relationships in the future because we've never really had good ones in the past, and we were both sort of old to suddenly be good at it. We both decided that we probably felt more anxious with relationships than without them.

The airport was another conversation with a person whose flight was cancelled in Las Vegas and she spent 7 hours waiting for another flight. Also, the airport took the souveniers that she had just bought at the airport because they had liquid in them - some dice floating in water and some lotion. That would be upsetting. The absence of planes is also explained by this conversation.

I don't know how the lovely luggage and two million dollars were invented.

Outside my door tonight was a huge horned owl. I tried to reply as it who-who'd but it didn't pay attention to my version. The neighbor's crazy cat tried to catch it as it flew off through the air. The owl was larger and I wonder who was hunting who.