Silent Screams

Sunset to a blustery day.

annmariejonesallen — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:09:31 +0000

Today I woke up to sunshine. It then snowed. It was like a spring storm full of wind and snow instead of rain. You could see the snow blowing down the street as if it were sand. Then the sun came out again and the snow continued to fall. The snow stopped in a while but the wind has not gone. Yep, it was a blustery day.

When one door closes another one opens.

annmariejonesallen — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 01:19:29 +0000

This Post was originally completed on May 25th, 2010 at 11am. Somehow it was saved as a draft I meant to post it.

My youngest daughter graduated college last Friday, May 21, 2010. My oldest daughter came home a married woman to see her sister graduate. They are grown up. They are OK. They will hopefully continue to have opportunities come their way and happiness in their path. I am very proud to call both of them my daughters.

The last 7 years have flown by filled with the everpresent ups and downs of life.

One of these days

annmariejonesallen — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:40:50 +0000

I wish that I could do a better job at keeping up with a blog. Since last time a year has slipped by except for one small post with no pics. I have taken a lot of pictures. I had Christmas this year and a tree out of the box and decorated by my daughter. My health has come into question a few times due to Menopause being a bitch for me. Hot Flashes, Mood Swings, and the hormones that were given to me to fix those, elavated my TriGlycerides to 741, off the charts. I spend 30 minutes every day two doors down. The Devil still lives and I still think that something or anything that I do will make things different. It doesn’t. In other matters, I believe that I see a tunnel to at least look for a light at the end of.

I cooked a bunch of good food over the last month or so. I have lost some of the weight that I have gained due to hormones and quitting smoking. Yes that’s right I haven’t had a cigarette in almost a year but I have been through almost every medical testing machine to conclude that I have CrazyMenopauseLady syndrome.

I now have an ebay and paypal account. I don’t want to buy anything but may be considering a sales hobby. As I take the christmas tree down I am photographing the ornaments before I pack them away, in case I want to sell them or maybe I just need reminders of what I have. I have White House Ornaments and other collectables that may be worth a little something. I need to continue to find things that I want to do to continue moving forward instead of being stagnent.

Halloween was awesome. Hayrides and LOts and LOts of TorTs. The yard was great, Margaret was here and came by to join Bobby, Kristine, and I for the TorTs and dinner, pancakes and breakfast meat feast. Theme this year, Witch’s Apothecary featuring Giant frankenkitteh that I bought with birthday money from Victoria.

Thankgiving was nummy. Nothing special just lots of great food. The normal turkey, homemade mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, gravy, green bean casserole, etc. etc. Went shopping with Kristine on black Friday and got the 50 in plasma TV for the family, pans for Victoria and most anything that we had seen in the sales papers that we wanted we got. No fights, afternoon nap and out again to shop some more.

Movies seen in 2010: Piranah 3D, Resident Evil 3D, Saw 3D, Alice in Wonderland 3D, the Crazies, at the theater. Thank you Kristine, I would never see a movie in the theater unless you worked there. At home a ton of dvds as usual.

To conclude for the moment: One of these days things will be better. (they are pretty good right now, just a touch stressful)

materialistic butt heads.

annmariejonesallen — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:56:47 +0000

Yep that is what we humans are. We buy too much, we throw away too much and we keep too much. Just look at the programs on TV Hoarders, Animal Hoarders, Clean House, Too Fat for 15, the Biggest Loser, Extreme Everything and Anything. TOO MUCH! (kinda reminds me of heatmiser and freezemiser) dadatada TOO MUCH!

I am just tired of spending money on stuff I don’t need and don’t know why I want it.

Night Skies

annmariejonesallen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:23:00 +0000

As I drove home on January 6th I noticed that the moon was rather large and thought I might be able to get a clear shot of it without too much distortion. Since I am just learning what a camera can do I of course make mistakes which sometimes are awesome. I realized that the camera sees so much more than me in the sky and now I am hooked with taking pictures of the night skies.

Since then I have taken many pics of the moon still making mistakes and learning something new each time, but always walking away with the knowlege of just how small a speck of dust in the universe that I am.

Christmas Lights (Heights Lights)

annmariejonesallen — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:50:55 +0000

So, funny story, this is my Christmas tree for 2009. No really and the lights didn’t go on until after Christmas Day. It is just the way that this holiday has been. My oldest daughter could not make it home for the holiday and we decided to surprise her at her aunt’s house on Christmas Eve, 3 hours from home and we turned around and drove back home that night so that I could fix breakfast for my father on Christmas day. AWESOME and we actually surprised her, to the point of almost jumping out of their moving car as they pulled up to the house and saw us.

SO SINCE MY LIGHTS WERE SO PUNY I DECIDED TO RUN AROUND THE CITY TO SEE WHAT MY NEIGHBORS HAD COME UP WITH TO SHARE WITH THE WORLD.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.

THE HOUSE ABOVE HAD MUSIC AND THE LIGHTS SET TO BLINK WITH THE BEAT.

THIS ONE WAS TUCKED INTO ONE OF THE INVISIBLE NEIGHBORHOODS HIDDEN BEHIND A ROW OF BUSINESSES AND NO THROUGH STREETS. CUTE. KINDA REMINDS ME OF A PEPPERMINT AND GINGERBREAD HOUSE.

THIS ONE IS THE YEARLY WINNER OF THE LOCAL CONTEST. I DO NOT KNOW IF THEY WON THIS YEAR OR NOT BUT EVERY POSSIBLE PLACE IN THE YARD IS LIT/DECORATED IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

AND THESE ARE THE NEIGHBORS THAT ARE ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE YEARLY WINNERS, CAN YOU IMAGINE THE REST OF THE NEIGHBORS AND THE COMPLAINTS THEY MUST HAVE………. TOO BRIGHT, TOO MUCH TRAFFIC COMING TO LOOK AT YOUR LIGHTS, ETC.

DIFFERENT VIEWS OF THE WINNER HOUSE.

LIKE. BUT A LITTLE TO WHITE FOR ME..

THIS ONE IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT AND BLURRY BECAUSE I WAS SITTING IN THE RUNNING CAR TAKING PICTURES, BUT I JUST FELT LIKE IT DESERVED A PLACE HERE BECAUSE OF ITS DIFFERENCES.

I FOUND THIS HOUSE IN THE CONJURES NECK NEIGHBORHOOD, GOD I LOVE THE REBEL IN THEM, NO ONE ELSE IN THE WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD HAD NON WHITE LIGHTS. MAJOR AWESOMESAUCE.

GOOD FORM, NICE MIX OF WHITE LIGHTS AND FLOODS.

PayDay Loan Poster show, Main Street, December 4, 2009

annmariejonesallen — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:08:06 +0000

PayDay and Car Title Loans originated with the Devil. It really better be an emergency to get one because they are hell to pay back. Hence we have the presentation of one of Kristine’s classes. A lovely show on how the Devil comes to take your money. Both my husband and I went. We started the evening on the way to the show by stopping by a local wine and cheese shop for a “Wine, Beer and Cheese Tasting”. That was VERY nice. Bought ourselves one of the featured wines and a “4 pack” of the featured Beer.

Now onto the show. We were early and had a great opportunity to both observe and photograph the pieces. They were very thought provoking and informative as well as eye catching, which is what a poster should be. The Hors D’oeuvres and Lemon/limeaide were a delicious addition to the show.

After Kristine had done her obligatory mingling we were headed to the Galaxy for dinner. (an unexpected disappointment) Too crowded, Too noisey, and I was sitting on a downhill sprung spring in my booth bench!!!!!!!

Moving on to the First Friday’s part. We popped over to Gallery 5 to see how the Winterfoods Artwork is to be displayed through January 5th. On the walk we ran across musicians and fire dancers. What a very interesting walk to Broad Street, and it was a little chilly. A few more galleries and then back to the car for a warm ride home. All in all a whirlwind evening and a lot of good quality family time. Till next month……….

Running on Empty

annmariejonesallen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:26:00 +0000

Yep it is empty. Wednesday an art show for Kristine’s Class, subject Winterfood. A rainstorm from Hell, Tornado Watch, and a bottle of wine with mexican food. Overall a very good night before the “Silent Hill” ride home. Fog and mist, just waiting for the road to drop off into eternity.

: December 2, 2009 “First Show”

I enjoyed the show tremendously and I am very proud of my youngest for her accomplishments and her first “$ale” even though the proceeds go to a group donation to the food bank and to Gallery 5 (where the works are on display now through Jan 5).

So as you can see theshow included music, displays, food and good conversation to be had by all. BUY LOCAL and support Virginia and its Farmers. Our economy needs the homeboys to survive.

annmariejonesallen — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:23:50 +0000

So it has been a busy 3 weeks and I have not had a chance to sit and do a blog and this will be a short one. I have been running around grocery shopping and cooking and I ventured out on Black Friday. Why you say, Damned if I know except for the opportunity to see what I have been missing the last couple of years that I haven’t gone. 3 am black Friday morning, pouring rain, thunder storms and a chilling wind, Old Navy opens. I am there. Shopped for 15 to 20 minutes then stood in the checkout line for 2 hours to purchase $15.00 jeans, $35.00 winter coats and miscellaneous $8.00 tops. O the check out line was exasperating. 5:15 am, Best Buy, 2 GPSs later and a very organized check out system then on to Target. The check out line for Target had gone all the way around the inside of the store back to the entrance………… sat down for a minute to rest my legs in the not open cafe (which I was counting on for coffee) to contemplate if there was anything that I could possibly want to stand in a line like that again this morning. NOPE. On to Staples, 1 Office Chair, and 2 very large capacity CD notebooks later and a not too long line on to the next spot. Michaels, coupons in hand, not meeting any expectations skipped and onto JoAnn Fabrics. Ott Lites, $19.99, 2 in hand and trying to find anything there not on sale to use a 50% coupon, scissors, ok you can never have enough scissors. Back to Michaels to use a 25% off total purchase coupon on tape and exacto knife refills, something I know I will always need. O how good home was sounding at this point. Nap for a few hours then up again. Ventured back out to eat with the hubby and stopped at the local RiteAid picked up two doggy beds at 4.99 each and toured the mall lot to see how busy it was, not that busy for Black Friday. I think everyone spent all of their money on the morning deals. Went to Ukrop’s, a local grocery store, and had a little Starbuck’s Coffee to re-energize. At 10 pm I went back to the mall to pick my daughter up from work and wandered around with her a bit more got kicked out at closing time, 11pm then wandered over to the local WalMart to check out the Christmas Trees. Found a 6.5 foot prelit (with white lights) for $35.00 and a 4 foot Black prelit (with red lights) for $15.00. Got home around 12:30 am and passed the hell out. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (I didn’t wake up until 4:06 pm Saturday) yep I was tired.

First Fridays Art Walk

annmariejonesallen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:49:06 +0000

Place: Broad Street, Richmond,Virginia

Reason for going: Winter Foods a project fund raiser for the show. Support Local Farmers. Feed the hungry, show them how to make lots of food for a smaller amount of money.

Yep, that is a farmer’s market that is on/in the bus. Taking the produce to the people.

Now on to the First Friday Art part …………………….

Exhibit number one: Drawing Blood II at Ghostprint Gallery with the following artists, Timothy Hoyer, Phil Holt, Daniel Albrigo, Jeff Srsic and I don’t know to whom to give credit but the pieces are as follows.

Then it was down the street to Matthew Fisher’s show;

And as I was walking through this gallery I ran up on a wood carving by Morgan Herrin:

This Art walk was a visual smorgesboard and there were many other sites to see but as I wandered in and out of galleries I landed at 1708 gallery they have starlite panels in the sidewalk outside of their door and inside I was greeted by a wall of speakers. Those speakers had many different brand names and many different sizes. Each of them had it’s own “Story” coming out of it. You had to stand really close to the speaker that you wanted to pay attention to and hear.

Based on this walk I would do it again. Lots of people, lots of talent and lots of fun.