I don't really have much to say, even now having been a long time since I updated... I've taken up photography more, and possibly getting rid of my Nikon for a Canon -- the price difference in prime lenses is insane!
I started selling Scentsy -- http://kgregory25.scentsy.us
AND I learned to crochet and have opened an Etsy shop. www.etsy.com/shops/jazzyraisins
Busy busy!
Monday, January 7, 2013
Thursday, August 9, 2012
"I know, Alfred Hitchcock endings are kind of cheap ways out."
Might I say, that today, my son has absolutely driven in INSANE. There are just those days, ya know? One friggin meltdown after the other. Phew. But, we (he) survived... today.
We went to the little beach near the house with a neighbor and Coast Guard wife, Danielle. She had her little boy, Declan, with her. I got sunburned, and Spencer's neck is 3x darker than the rest of his body. I, on the other hand, am going to end up looking like Ross from Friends on that spray tan episode if I keep this up. Not a tan line on my chest, nope indeed, just my back. lol.
I got a new phone... iPhone 4. I gave in, finally, after all these years of rebelling against the iPhone. It succumbs me. I really do like it. A lot. I have an Otterbox on it, which I have already severed scraped up on a rock (Shh, don't tell Garrett). So, all in all, a good buy.
So, the other day I barge into the bathroom on Garrett. How I would kill him if he barged in on me, no matter what I was doing. Painting my toenails or whathaveyou. He was shaving his face. WITH MY BABY BLUE LADIES RAZOR. Isn't that supposed to go the other way around?! I was like, "Get my Hyrdosilk with Olay OFF YOUR FACE now!!" He says, "Uhhh, but I don't have a razor." As I then pulled out a BAG of razors I have collected an accumulated over the past year. GUYS razors. Nice one! Guys aren't supposed to use their wives razors. End.of.story.
As for my bookssss.... I am reading Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, right now. I am also partly reading If I Did It. The books I ordered from Amazon should be here very soon! Finally. Along with some bright yellow sheets. Oh yeah.
We went to the little beach near the house with a neighbor and Coast Guard wife, Danielle. She had her little boy, Declan, with her. I got sunburned, and Spencer's neck is 3x darker than the rest of his body. I, on the other hand, am going to end up looking like Ross from Friends on that spray tan episode if I keep this up. Not a tan line on my chest, nope indeed, just my back. lol.
I got a new phone... iPhone 4. I gave in, finally, after all these years of rebelling against the iPhone. It succumbs me. I really do like it. A lot. I have an Otterbox on it, which I have already severed scraped up on a rock (Shh, don't tell Garrett). So, all in all, a good buy.
So, the other day I barge into the bathroom on Garrett. How I would kill him if he barged in on me, no matter what I was doing. Painting my toenails or whathaveyou. He was shaving his face. WITH MY BABY BLUE LADIES RAZOR. Isn't that supposed to go the other way around?! I was like, "Get my Hyrdosilk with Olay OFF YOUR FACE now!!" He says, "Uhhh, but I don't have a razor." As I then pulled out a BAG of razors I have collected an accumulated over the past year. GUYS razors. Nice one! Guys aren't supposed to use their wives razors. End.of.story.
As for my bookssss.... I am reading Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, right now. I am also partly reading If I Did It. The books I ordered from Amazon should be here very soon! Finally. Along with some bright yellow sheets. Oh yeah.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Casting Lines
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| Oh, Happy-one. At least he's got a stick and some juice. |
Went to Loon Lake again today. Spencer was a real cupcake (I'm gonna use that as opposed to "treat".). He was a turd and a monster and a total fun-sucker. Why, oh why is he such a whine-o?!
Spencer didn't qualify for speech therapy at this time. :( He will be retested in December when the range for the "norm" is a bit more narrowed down. Apparently its hard to qualify a 2 year old boy because he is advanced and in the average range for everything else, he doesn't seem like a hopeless case, I guess, lol. We have a few "exercises" to do with him and she wants us to teach him SIGN LANGUAGE to help him communicate the basics better. Eat, sleep, bath, teeth, etc... he already says those things so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do! Haha.
**Edit** I also wanted to add, because it seems I've become a book reviewer, that I was reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer (the same one that wrote the Twilight Saga) and omigaadddd, I couldn't finish it. I actually couldn't even READ it. I have had it for years now and the first time I tried to read it, I stopped. This time I'm on page 200ish of 620ish and I JUST.CANT.DO.IT. Its soooooooo boring, lol. So, its bookmarked and back on the shelf. Maybe I can read a chapter here and there just to finished the damned thing and then never read it again. (Aso, it seems, they are making a movie out of it, great, lol) The Host by Stephanie Meyer. On the other hand, I also just read Her Fearful Symmetry and I really actually liked that, as odd as it was. I do think it was better in the beginning though and went oddball toward the end, but thats okay.
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| "We are Gregory's and We Party." |
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| URMINDERULYMPURKS!! |
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| I have plenty of canvas left! |
Monday, July 30, 2012
Read Me First.
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| Our Lighthouse. Winchester Bay, OR |
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| Umpqua River Lighthouse. |
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| Sad, depressing swings at the play area next door. |
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| Cutie. |
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| 126 photos later... ONE good one. :) |
Just a couple of photos to add to this. The lighthouse where we live and Spencer being all cutsey-tootsey. :) My phone is broken. Its seriously amazing how many times I can drop a phone in a given day/week/month. The difference between Garrett's and mine is drastic, ha! Mine's cracked on the outside, has no prongs to hold the back plate on and its newest addition -- a non-working screen. Yaayy. I don't get why its so hard for me to hold onto. It falls of the couch, off the chair, off the bed, out of the car, out of my purse, out of my HANDS onto the concrete, wood floor and grass. It never fails the back flies off as does the battery. Today, though, I had many things in my hands, so I had an excuse to drop it, right? Sweater, holding a kid's hand, coffee mug, camera.. phone. I'd rather drop the phone than the Nikon, that's for sure. But, anyway, the back didn't fly off, it just decided to never work again instead. I'm not eligible for an upgrade with Sprint til July 2013. Yikes, so this should cost us a pretty penny. So glad I dropped the insurance two months ago...... :)
Our neighbor and her little girls have been coming over and hanging out with us some. Its been nice to get some adult interaction. Makes you feel like a crazy nutso only having a two year old with speech delays to talk to. He doesn't like when Mama has Mia or Layla in his lap. (The girls, they just turned 3 and 4 a few weeks ago). He has a hard time having other kiddos touching his toys or going in his room. He's, of course, in that "side-by-side" play, and doesn't understand sharing yet, so its tough on him. He enjoys watching them though and he pretty much keeps to himself.
I forgot to mention in another entry something else Spencer's speech evaluation lady, Jenny, said. She mentioned that I seemed to have "high expectations" for Spencer to have independence. That I EXPECT a certain behaviour and complying to what I say. Well, yeah, can't have him being a hooligan annoyance running all over the place. She asked how well he did by himself and such. I told her, if I tell him to play in his room or pick up this toy, stop touching that, don't do this, well, I expect him to listen to me. For the most part, he does really well. He will play in his room for hours by himself. He will sit in his bean bag in his room and read book after book and only come downstairs when he wants something to drink, haha. That's just how he has always been, likes to do things on his own and in his own time and that's fine with me. That's how we have become accustomed to acting toward him. Maybe with a more needy kid, it would be different. I know you have to discipline each in their own way. She was asking how we had our house set up. Does he mess with outlets or dangerous things, etc. I said no, not ever. Ever. Because he knows not to! Not that I don't take into account that there are always exceptions to the norm, I cover up the outlets anyway. He never messes with the air fresheners, or anything like that. As for how my house is set up, I haven't moved anything up on shelves out of his reach because I have taught him, and he KNOWS, not to touch them. He will still occasionally, but a quick "Spencer, no." and hes over it and onto the next thing, lol. Hopefully I don't sound too strict on a 2 year old, but it works for us. Now if only I could get him to sit in high chairs at restaurants without screaming.....
Our neighbor and her little girls have been coming over and hanging out with us some. Its been nice to get some adult interaction. Makes you feel like a crazy nutso only having a two year old with speech delays to talk to. He doesn't like when Mama has Mia or Layla in his lap. (The girls, they just turned 3 and 4 a few weeks ago). He has a hard time having other kiddos touching his toys or going in his room. He's, of course, in that "side-by-side" play, and doesn't understand sharing yet, so its tough on him. He enjoys watching them though and he pretty much keeps to himself.
I forgot to mention in another entry something else Spencer's speech evaluation lady, Jenny, said. She mentioned that I seemed to have "high expectations" for Spencer to have independence. That I EXPECT a certain behaviour and complying to what I say. Well, yeah, can't have him being a hooligan annoyance running all over the place. She asked how well he did by himself and such. I told her, if I tell him to play in his room or pick up this toy, stop touching that, don't do this, well, I expect him to listen to me. For the most part, he does really well. He will play in his room for hours by himself. He will sit in his bean bag in his room and read book after book and only come downstairs when he wants something to drink, haha. That's just how he has always been, likes to do things on his own and in his own time and that's fine with me. That's how we have become accustomed to acting toward him. Maybe with a more needy kid, it would be different. I know you have to discipline each in their own way. She was asking how we had our house set up. Does he mess with outlets or dangerous things, etc. I said no, not ever. Ever. Because he knows not to! Not that I don't take into account that there are always exceptions to the norm, I cover up the outlets anyway. He never messes with the air fresheners, or anything like that. As for how my house is set up, I haven't moved anything up on shelves out of his reach because I have taught him, and he KNOWS, not to touch them. He will still occasionally, but a quick "Spencer, no." and hes over it and onto the next thing, lol. Hopefully I don't sound too strict on a 2 year old, but it works for us. Now if only I could get him to sit in high chairs at restaurants without screaming.....
Thursday, July 26, 2012
“He thanked her and left the house in the mood of a shipwrecked man who has allowed the rescue ship to pass him by.”
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| Driftwood curtain rod - I know, its a bit small! |
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| Finally healed orchids. |
Newssssss, nothing much. I'm boring and reading Chicken Soup for the Soul - HA! I read Coraline in one night, it was decent. It was very fast paced and there was no Wybee (or however they spell his name in the movie-Wyborn.) I did see that Tim Burton was putting out another movie soon called Paranorman. ParaNORMAN? Are you kidding me? That'll be entertaining... lol.
We are ALMOST finished moving, well, we have everything moved, but not cleaned up across the street. I am not really looking forward to that. Its hard to get stuff done when Garrett works as much as he does. When he works, he doesn't get to come home for days, so its all up to me. He does have this weekend off and I am glad that we FINALLY don't have some kind of obligation to do, relaxation!
I am going to try to paint with oils soon. I have to find an art store that sells both canvases and oil paints and the brushes that I need. I think people underestimate when I tell them how far things are from us here. I have put almost 10k miles on my car since February (I have had to go to Portland a few times, to Seattle once and Eugene a bunch of times because that is where almost ALL of my doctors are located). When I say I have to "go to Walmart", for those back home, it would be equal to the distance of driving to Mandeville from New Orleans. Its not close, and that IS the closest store like that, haha. Its rough. Anyway, I went to Walmart today because I needed diapers because Leg-o-lamb, my husband, didn't tell me we were almost out the night before... yay for me! So, I'm going to go ahead and get new eyeliner, mine's out, and new mascara, because mine is old or something and makes my eyes wanna itch out of my head. I get home and no eyeliner. Damnnnnit! How inconvenient! If Spencer would stop taking stuff OUT of the basket and putting it on random shelves, I wouldn't keep having to go to Walmart! Haha. Geez. So, now I'm eyeliner-less and Walmart is just to dang far away to go to before the 1st, because I refuse.
I also feel like I vacuum alot.
I'm starting Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. She wrote The Time Traveler's Wife.
“I’m curious about things that people aren’t supposed to see—so, for example, I liked going to the British Museum, but I would like it better if I could go into all the offices and storage rooms, I want to look in all the drawers and—discover stuff. And I want to know about people. I mean, I know it’s probably kind of rude but I want to know why you have all these boxes and what’s in them and why all your windows are papered over and how long it’s been that way and how do you feel when you wash things and why don’t you do something about it?”
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
"D-O-B-O-D-O..." House.
So, Amanda, here you are. Some photos of our little townhouse. It seems very - primary color-ish. Haha.
Spencer had his evaluation on Monday. She said he is right at and above his age range for most things, including visual ability. (He LOVES Where's Waldo and can find Waldo faster than we can!) She said he seems extremely visual with a sensory issue in touch, i.e. he doesn't like sitting next to or in someone's lap for the most part, he doesn't like his hands to be dirty (he WILL not paint without throwing a fit, will not touch dirt, refuses to eat anything messy. etc). She said he 100% does not have autism, he's just a bit of a neat freak like his mama... sorry, Garrett, you will have to live in cleanliness, ha! He IS speech delayed, but since he babbles in long ways (sounds like he is saying an entire paragraph with the occasional word in there), he wants to talk, but just isn't getting HOW to do it. He understands the concept of speech and communications, turn taking in a conversation and such and he does say things he is interested in. Most of it, she thinks, is that there aren't really any kids around us, he doesn't really have anyone to play with other than two older little girls who don't really tolerate a younger boy who won't talk and there are no mother groups or anything out there. Nothing. We just got him the Where's Waldo book and within two days was saying, "Walwo" only because he is INTERESTED in him, lol. We are waiting to hear back from her, she should be coming to our house to see him again, but the therapist said its REALLY, REALLY hard to get a two-year-old boy qualified for the speech program. So, we will see.
Also, I finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I thought it was one of the worst books I have ever read in my life, lol. Seriously. I know it was written from a little 9 year old boy's POV, but the fact that his father was a extremely high-ranking Nazi Commandant and somehow the boy knew NOTHING about Jewish people, the "master race", Hitler (who he called the Fury instead of the Fuhrer", and didn't know that the depressing camp next to his house was Auschwitz (but assumed it was an awesome place like Berlin where they have shops and stores and play all the time even though the people were emaciated and wearing the same clothes with and shaved heads), which he pronounced "Out-With" is so absurd and unbelievable, it was hard to read. The fact that the little Jewish boy he befriended, Shmuel, was able to get away every single day from the camp and walk far to the edge of the camp along a fence for a YEAR and was never detected was also just not the way it way, ESPECIALLY in Auschwitz. Its completely implausible and its seriously glossed over anything that would have been of any interest or importance. Not to mention, the facts were wrong, which really irked me. I have an interest in the Holocaust and WWII and the fact that this was written and wasn't even correct bugged the crap out of me. ANYWAY, all in all, I didn't like the book and when it was over I wanted to turn it over and shake it to make another chapter fall out because I was like "WHAT?? That's it?!" I read the last three chapters 3 times because I thought I had missed something lol.
Spencer had his evaluation on Monday. She said he is right at and above his age range for most things, including visual ability. (He LOVES Where's Waldo and can find Waldo faster than we can!) She said he seems extremely visual with a sensory issue in touch, i.e. he doesn't like sitting next to or in someone's lap for the most part, he doesn't like his hands to be dirty (he WILL not paint without throwing a fit, will not touch dirt, refuses to eat anything messy. etc). She said he 100% does not have autism, he's just a bit of a neat freak like his mama... sorry, Garrett, you will have to live in cleanliness, ha! He IS speech delayed, but since he babbles in long ways (sounds like he is saying an entire paragraph with the occasional word in there), he wants to talk, but just isn't getting HOW to do it. He understands the concept of speech and communications, turn taking in a conversation and such and he does say things he is interested in. Most of it, she thinks, is that there aren't really any kids around us, he doesn't really have anyone to play with other than two older little girls who don't really tolerate a younger boy who won't talk and there are no mother groups or anything out there. Nothing. We just got him the Where's Waldo book and within two days was saying, "Walwo" only because he is INTERESTED in him, lol. We are waiting to hear back from her, she should be coming to our house to see him again, but the therapist said its REALLY, REALLY hard to get a two-year-old boy qualified for the speech program. So, we will see.
Also, I finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I thought it was one of the worst books I have ever read in my life, lol. Seriously. I know it was written from a little 9 year old boy's POV, but the fact that his father was a extremely high-ranking Nazi Commandant and somehow the boy knew NOTHING about Jewish people, the "master race", Hitler (who he called the Fury instead of the Fuhrer", and didn't know that the depressing camp next to his house was Auschwitz (but assumed it was an awesome place like Berlin where they have shops and stores and play all the time even though the people were emaciated and wearing the same clothes with and shaved heads), which he pronounced "Out-With" is so absurd and unbelievable, it was hard to read. The fact that the little Jewish boy he befriended, Shmuel, was able to get away every single day from the camp and walk far to the edge of the camp along a fence for a YEAR and was never detected was also just not the way it way, ESPECIALLY in Auschwitz. Its completely implausible and its seriously glossed over anything that would have been of any interest or importance. Not to mention, the facts were wrong, which really irked me. I have an interest in the Holocaust and WWII and the fact that this was written and wasn't even correct bugged the crap out of me. ANYWAY, all in all, I didn't like the book and when it was over I wanted to turn it over and shake it to make another chapter fall out because I was like "WHAT?? That's it?!" I read the last three chapters 3 times because I thought I had missed something lol.
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| Living room, the front door, half bath, laundry and kitchen are down that hallway. |
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| Backyard from living room. |
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| Living room. |
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| Obviously kitchen. |
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| Spencer's room, kinda blurry. |
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| Our bedroom, to the left is the computer desk and behind me are the closets that line the wall. |
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| Upstairs bathroom. |
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| Down the second half of the stairs. |
Saturday, July 21, 2012
"So tell me I'm okay with no areas of grey. Tell me I can go, just don't tell me you don't know. Because there's nothing I can't take like these areas of grey."
Why helllloww, fellow bloggers. As of late my life is, well, not very interesting.
Aunt Flo makes me sad/mad/uncomfortable and unable to forget what I don't have anymore. Basically, she's a downer and she likes to rub it in by making me most miserable than necessary by her visit.
We have finally moved... across the street. I like it much better. The master bedroom is 4x the size of the one we had and really, even though this is a two bedroom townhouse, I think its bigger than the four bedroom detached house we were in. One thing I am not particularly fond of.. and that's more of a worry reason.. is that it IS a townhouse and connected to one other unit... and they have a week old newborn. SO, my worry is that Spencer will be constantly waking up their baby with his ear-shattering wails of protest - subsequently, they will hate ME and possibly Garrett since he works with the lady who had the baby. After her medical leave is up though (in about 8 weeks) she will be sent off to "a" school and then they will be moving. It'll just be the Nelson's and us. Sad, ghost town! Anyway, I still have cleaning to do in the house across the street and a few more things to move out, but Garrett is working all this weekend, so we have to have it all finished by next Wednesday. Monday's task is to move the 55g fishtank - always funfunfun to do.
Errgghh, books! I just finished reading Mulch Ado About Nothing... eeeehh, it was okay. I'm glad I'm finished with it though. Onward to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I'm halfway finished with it now.
The raised-ness on my orchid tattoo has finally gone down to a respectable level and thankfully the itching is gone. I was just about read to scratch the thing off my arm. Sometimes you just have to think, "Is scratching worth the possible damage??" TOTALLY worth it, and no damage noted. Sanity reasons, really.
We have finally moved... across the street. I like it much better. The master bedroom is 4x the size of the one we had and really, even though this is a two bedroom townhouse, I think its bigger than the four bedroom detached house we were in. One thing I am not particularly fond of.. and that's more of a worry reason.. is that it IS a townhouse and connected to one other unit... and they have a week old newborn. SO, my worry is that Spencer will be constantly waking up their baby with his ear-shattering wails of protest - subsequently, they will hate ME and possibly Garrett since he works with the lady who had the baby. After her medical leave is up though (in about 8 weeks) she will be sent off to "a" school and then they will be moving. It'll just be the Nelson's and us. Sad, ghost town! Anyway, I still have cleaning to do in the house across the street and a few more things to move out, but Garrett is working all this weekend, so we have to have it all finished by next Wednesday. Monday's task is to move the 55g fishtank - always funfunfun to do.
Errgghh, books! I just finished reading Mulch Ado About Nothing... eeeehh, it was okay. I'm glad I'm finished with it though. Onward to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I'm halfway finished with it now.
The raised-ness on my orchid tattoo has finally gone down to a respectable level and thankfully the itching is gone. I was just about read to scratch the thing off my arm. Sometimes you just have to think, "Is scratching worth the possible damage??" TOTALLY worth it, and no damage noted. Sanity reasons, really.
Also, I have the absolute cutest child everrrrrrr. Hopefully he will have cute brothers and sisters one day.
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| Wearing his Daddy's Coast Guard hat. |
I also like to bug bugs... muahaaha. Funny me.
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| Mr. Ten-Lined June Beetle I harassed for a bit in the front yard. He wuz dum. (as per most June Bugs) |
The Narrative - "Waiting Room"
"Waiting in line,
passing the time reading four month old magazines.
The pale walls given life by the florescent lights,
exposing stains in the carpeting.
And sitting at my side this mockery of life:
a plastic plant strictly for tasteless decor.
No one makes a sound
but the sirens seeping through the space between the door and the floor.
Well there's nothing left to say.
The word's just collapse into
colorful waves in the spectrum of sound
and it's easy on the ears
and it's nice to hear
but it doesn't mean a thing.
No it doesn't mean a thing.
The silence breaks
like a small earthquake shattering the calm - it's my name.
The familiar scent of sterile instruments
filters out from inside the hallway.
Your chin falls towards your lap, you know you can't come back
Just one more thing to make this a little bit harder.
You'll wait for the turn out.
Until then a sense of doubt hangs in the air like grief in a funeral parlor.
No it doesn't mean,
No it doesn't mean,
No it doesn't mean a thing.
So tell me I'm okay with no areas of gray.
Tell me I can go, just don't say you don't know,
because there's nothing I can't take like these areas of gray,
so tell me I'm okay ."
passing the time reading four month old magazines.
The pale walls given life by the florescent lights,
exposing stains in the carpeting.
And sitting at my side this mockery of life:
a plastic plant strictly for tasteless decor.
No one makes a sound
but the sirens seeping through the space between the door and the floor.
Well there's nothing left to say.
The word's just collapse into
colorful waves in the spectrum of sound
and it's easy on the ears
and it's nice to hear
but it doesn't mean a thing.
No it doesn't mean a thing.
The silence breaks
like a small earthquake shattering the calm - it's my name.
The familiar scent of sterile instruments
filters out from inside the hallway.
Your chin falls towards your lap, you know you can't come back
Just one more thing to make this a little bit harder.
You'll wait for the turn out.
Until then a sense of doubt hangs in the air like grief in a funeral parlor.
No it doesn't mean,
No it doesn't mean,
No it doesn't mean a thing.
So tell me I'm okay with no areas of gray.
Tell me I can go, just don't say you don't know,
because there's nothing I can't take like these areas of gray,
so tell me I'm okay ."
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