FRIDAY THE 13th WAS SO TWO DAYS AGO ~ AND YESTERDAY ~ AND TODAY ~ AND…

En route to work early Friday morning, practicing deep breathing exercises, and I hear a text coming in. Next red light I’ll read it. My 15-year-old daughter texts, “It’s Friday the 13^th. There goes your bad luck.” No, she’s not putting a hex on me. Rewind to 15 minutes earlier, as I’m getting dressed for work.

I’m in my CSL mode ~ Cussing as a Second Language ~ and she’s the only one in earshot. It happens so seldom these days, that when it does kick in, it’s like an anomaly. So, why today?  It’s like my brain receptors magnetized every negative vibe that could possibly make its way past my filter. They enter my stream of consciousness and explode right out of my mouth.

“What the BLEEP…?!!! My favorite jeans are tight! What’s up with this…?!!! Now I have to BLEEPing change into my BLEEPing stretch sweats… and that changes everything else I BLEEPing planned to wear… Shoes, jacket…! At this point, I’m not even aware of the date. I just know I’m on a roll, and I’m not about to stop ~ not yet…

“I’ve gotta wear the same BLEEPing boots I already wore three days this week. Listen to me…! Now I sound like a BLEEPing fashion diva, and I’m SO not a diva...! Who the BLEEP is gonna care anyway? I’m working at BLEEPing girls’ juvie… They all wear the same clothes as each other every BLEEPing day...!”

By the time I puked out that last BLEEP, I was aware of the fact that my daughter was standing there frozen speechless and gawking at me like she was about to do a Google search for an exorcist. That should have been the cue to push the QUIT NOW button on my rampage. But no, I’m not done BLEEPing out all the reasons I’m so BLEEPing pissed...

“I work-out almost every BLEEPing day…! I eat BLEEPing health foods...!  Why do I BLEEPing bother…? I might as well go back to eating all the stuff they BLEEPing tell us not to eat…! Who the BLEEP made them the health food police, anyway…? Now I’m BLEEPing running late, and I was even up BLEEPing earlier than normal… I even had time to make a BLEEPing healthy smoothie. So, what the BLEEP…?!!!”

Instead of pushing QUIT NOW and UNWIND, I push REWIND and REPLAY. It was like listening to a sound bite from my former days of obsession with weight and body image. I put my favorite comfortable waterproof boots on, and start to zip… What…?! Seriously..?!!! Are you BLEEPing serious…?!!! The BLEEPing zipper’s stuck…!”

An incoming text helps snap me out of it…It's my friend’s daughter, who I had told I’d take to school because of the forecast for rain ~ “What time are you leaving..?”

“Oh, BLEEP, I almost forgot…!” Her text is really a smooth intervention from the Universe. It's also a wake-up call to remember that this kind of venting never got me anywhere. “Okay, Father God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Universe, Spirit Guide ~ whatever you want us to call you these days… I give…! I need some help here… So, would you PLEASE help me out…? I’ll deal with this later… Just get me out the door on time…”

I ignore the fashion police voice in my head shouting, "Step away from the heel boots, and no one gets hurt...! I put them on anyway. Then I get the thought to take the other ones with me. Oh yeah, I’ll have Jasmine try and fix them on the way to her school. Jasmine tries to be helpful, but a 14-year-old only has so much patience for other people's stuck zippers. That’s about the time I get the text from my daughter.

As she reminds me that it’s Friday the 13^th, I remind myself that I’m not STUPIDstitious, and that while I was engaged in my pissy-fit, I forgot how every Friday the 13^th is my opportunity to shine and demonstrate how to turn “bad” luck into “good.” “Oh yeah…!” I knew I could, and I would… Somewhere in the next 20 minutes, there‘s a red light long enough to help me unstick that stuck zipper… And by the time I get to work, I change into my favorite boots. Yay, me...! Now, I’m actually looking forward to anything that might come at me this day… “Bring it…!”

It turned out to be a perfect Friday the 13^th. I gave the girls one of my number messages to decode using the Alpha-Code I had taught them ~ 9  14  562  12379412929631.  699417  285  2899255528  91  1312  1562859  9573319  417  669  45  26  395125  47  655  3332. Then they had to use the decoded message to journal a writing prompt ~ True or false? Explain why or why not? They’re actually pretty good at it, and they love the mental challenge. They also had some very reflective responses.

So, my point ~ and I do have one ~ is that, no matter what the date is on the calendar, the power to create our own luck rests in our own state of mind and being. Yes, I know all about dark paranormal events that cannot be explained away through positive thinking, but I do think they can be explained away by negative thinking patterns. So, if you're still trying to cross over to live on the lighter side of life, pay more attention to the thought patterns that keep you pushing REWIND and REPLAY. Look for the messages the Universe is trying to have you decode.

If you care to decode my message, the Alpha-Code is base numbers 1 through 9. Under each number, write one letter ~ A through Z. It will look like this: 1= AJS ~ 2= BKT ~ 3= CLU ~ 4= DMV ~ 5 = ENW ~ 6= FOX ~ 7= GPY ~ 8= HQZ ~ 9= IR. Post the decoded message in the comment box below.

(995 words ~ just under 1,000 ~ cutting it close!)

HOW YOU READ WHAT I SAID

Sooo, what do I do when I'm not blogging...?

I'm a working class "professional classroom manager" ~ aka, substitute teacher. It feeds my need for variety and entertainment. It also presents opportunities for playing the mentor role while having a more independent lifestyle. In other words, I can just say no. Ironically, I have never once said no to any assignment unless I was committed to working elsewhere. In all my years of letting go and letting the Universe just take me for a spin in its own vehicle at its own speed, I realize I would have missed out on some adventurous moments if I hadn’t enthusiastically anticipated the answer to “Where to now?” ~ instead of "Are we there yet?"

Subbing also offers an arena where the performer in me gets to interact with a very broad audience ~ much of the time with behaviorally challenged kids. I love them all most of the time and most of them all of the time ;-) Some of them may even be dropping by to visit me online and to check and see if I'm writing about them.

I have an archive full of stories stored in my memory bank. There are so many that I've had to open other branches, just to keep the stories neatly filed and accessible.

I make withdrawals whenever I need a good laugh or when I want to loan out some life lessons learned. However, when I go to tell these tales, I'll have to carefully camo-clothe some of the true life characters with anonymity. I don’t want to be a tattletale ~ just a Bank of Memories tale-teller (hardy-har).

You can find me other places online. I'm the only Google-able Joanne Dagonese who comes up on the first page of every search engine. How did I get so lucky with that name? As a singer-songwriter with a YouTube channel, I perform cover songs of classic hits. Sometimes I get classically hit with the urge to dance and want to inspire channel viewers to bust some dance moves with me. Little did I know, after all these years, that’s one way I’ve been  “raising my vibrations”  ~ a phrase that is slowly becoming part of my vocabulary bank, borrowed from Awakened Consciousness lingo.

Most of my videos are done in my wannabe home recording studio with low-tech devices that may be evolving into more sophistication. I may be blogging on some of them from time to time, as well as linking blog posts to those videos. You’ll also be introduced to my BFF boyfriend ~ a very talented singer-songwriter… More about him, me and how we became us….later!

Oh, and btw, I'm also "for hire" on a freelance website. However, I'll never present myself in the light of the "starving artist" cliché. Really now, that's a little much. Most artists are really just starving for attention. Not me ~ I give myself all the attention I want and need out of life.

I believe in the Law of Attraction and in recent years, I've come into a more practical understanding of how to consciously make it work for me. I've realized, too, within the past two decades, that I'm here now in this moment in this lifetime mainly for the ride. So, if you haven't guessed it by now, I write metaphorically, mostly because I think metaphysically.

Now, here comes the fun punch-line part. I may often lead you to believe that whatever I write about is "all about me" when in actuality, it's all about you and how you just READ WHAT I SAID or READ WHAT I SEED. I’d like to encourage all of you sleeping creative giants to come out of hiding, and get your own boxes. Create your profiles for blogs, channels and portfolios to share. Just get into your creative mode and let your whims waken you to who you are and why you’re here.

(Tah-dah ~ 655 words ~ not counting this word count)

COFFEE ACTIVATES A NIGHT OWL

Day Two ~ learning a little more about blogspot. This reminds me of the time I had a GDI website that I basically did nothing with ~ other than play with the tools. I let it go in the quest for a more simplistic lifestyle ~ meaning, one less project to manage.

However, I've started to feel the fever to write again and document some of the thoughts and reflections that go through my head. Why keep these thoughts to myself...? Someone out there may be as "out-there" as I am. I should let them know what corner of the universe I'm in. Actually, whenever I've joined a community of creative writers, I know I'm not alone. In general, creative writers are a unique breed of artists.

So, being the creative mind that I am, I just have to experiment with the tools I have to play with ~ like fonts and colors and uploded images and whatever... So, if you're looking for consistency here, you may be disappointed, but I can promise to be consistently inconsistent just to keep things interesting.

I don't know why I'm still up at this hour... I take that back ~ yes, I do... I took my 15-year-old daughter to a 9:50 PM movie showing at a local cinema last night. Because she often complains about how I fall asleep even during action movies, I purposely drank a cup of coffee to stay awake. Now, hours after returning home, she's sound asleep in bed, while I'm hard-wired for brain activity that I decided to put to good (or useless) use here.

I'm going to wrap this up for now. Being naturally verbose, I am making a commitment to myself to keep these blogs under 1000 words. I think I'll honor that commitment starting now... And starting tomorrow, I may sound less like a journal entry and actually have something meaningful to say. I usually object when my boyfriend calls me "Night Owl," but I'm afraid I'll have to agree with him this time.

I THUNK IT AND DONE IT

Well, I thunk it, and I went and done it... I said I needed to start writing again, and I thought to myself, why not a blog...? Not exactly original for a JOriginal Muse, but that's probably why it took me so long to decide to blog again.

Because of the fact that there are so many bloggers out there in this over-populated blogosphere, I wasn't sure anyone would move over to make room for one more. I finally had to embrace the idea that maybe I'm not on any mission to get any message across to any lost soul in any God-forsaken land for any particular reason to write.

I'm doing this because it feels good to see my own expressive self imprint itself on an inivisible universe composed of binary codes and all kinds of technical names I'll never master. Maybe I write just for the sheer pleasure of seeing words take shape and become whole concrete ideas made of abstract blocks made of intangible whims.

Anyhow, here I am on Day One of my new blog spot, with nothing particularly noteworthy to share. I still have some homework to do ~ like learning to navigate the features available to us on this blog site.

I'll check in again tomorrow ~ or whenever... I don't want to make promises I may not deliver, only to have something looming over me until I do what I said I'd do.