Shocked!

       

I am not sure at this point if I more shocked over winning the Vivi for best use of animation or over the weather that blew in here this morning.  

Again, I want to thank everyone for their support and for the 'staff' that put the whole event together.  It was a magnificent event and for the most part brought J-Land closer together.  A few negative comments regarding some of the winners, but only a few.  I for one found a whole other 'stash' of great journals to read and met some great people along the way.  Since I've only been doing my journal since June I hardly thought I had enough of a following to even be considered let alone win.   

I actually missed most of the gala last evening :(  A young, 24 year old man from the neighborhood was a passenger in a drunk driving accident a month or so ago.  He has a serious spinal injury and has a very hard long road ahead of him.  There was a benefit last evening to help raise money for his medical expenses as well as assist with his 5 year old daughter.  Knowing this young man in a round about way compelled me to attend and give what I could.  I really thought I'd be home before 9, but it didn't work out that way.  There had to 1000's there and the generosity in donations was overwhelming.  There was a Chinese Auction with over 150 baskets to give away.  Since I wasn't smart enough to put my name and number on the tickets I dropped in for the baskets I HAD to stay and wait out the drawings.  I came home with two baskets and figured it was consolation prize for the Vivi Award.  Imagine how surprised I was to log on when I got home to have comments and emails of congratulations.  I tried to get in the room, but aaah it was full.  So I posted my thank you rather quickly and tried again to get in.  I was able to get in for a moment and than AOL played it's nasty little trick on me, 'good bye.'  I then went to the secondary room for a bit to see and experience some of the excitement.  It was pretty late and the last announcement was over so off to bed I went. I do want to congratulate everyone.  Contrary to some, everyone is a winner!  

This morning I got up with the hopes of logging on and seeing the winners list in its entirety.  I got on for a bit, then Mother Nature began her tricks.  The power flickered and shut my computer down.  Of course it started to reboot and again, power flickered, and cut the boot up off.  The power flickered so often that I actually had to 'hard' shut down my computer because there wasn't enough time to do it correctly.  The winds picked up to about 50 mph and the leaves on the ground hit my windows with the force of little pebbles.  Hard to believe something so beautiful and what appears to be soft could cause that much noise as it slams into glass.  It rained a bit, but nothing major other than the wind.  I left my computer off for a couple hours and once it appeared to settle down outside I made my rounds around J-Land to give my congrats.  The wind gusts hit 67 mph in my area according to the news.  No wonder the power went out!  I can still hear it howling from time to time, but it is no whereas bad as it was earlier in the day.