Ok...so you know that I went to school for 20 years and put lots of letters after my name. And you know that I have had my share of victories and defeats. What you do not know is that today, I bested a nemesis.
Smoking? Heck no- been there- dropped that. Nail biting? Yuck!
No! Today- after keeping house for 35 plus years and doing ton after ton of laundry I- with the help of YouTube learned how to fold a fitted sheet so it looks like it just came out of the package!
Are there any more challenges? Everest? Piece of cake!
Triathalon? For kids. I have learned how to fold a fitted sheet!
Today, in another blogging life I was talking about looking for a Dilbert life in a cubicle just to wait out the storm. The very thought gives me hives. So I got to thinking..... why not build my own cubicle. I mean, it is not like I have not done it before. This is not my first recession
Wow- this is not even MY recession.
In my relatively short life, I have built up a private school, a PR firm, and countless other "cubicles". Where's my hammer?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Isn't it amazing the difference a day can make. Maybe it is because of my husband. I swear- the man only knows how to have a good and upbeat view of life. He always seems to have two goals- To please God and to take care of me. How did I get so lucky?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
My head is stuck.
In a record groove.
I have been correcting papers all morning.
Now, I have to turn around and try to do something to help make our future a little more secure
Like find a full time job
With benefits
My head is stuck and the record keeps going around
Find a job
Round and round
Find a job
Round and round
A job that won’t mean I have to move or drive four hours a day
There is a writer that I truly enjoy. Her name is Sue Bender and I think I am attracted to her words because we have matching “issues”. Write now, I am reading- for the fourth time, bits and squiggles of her book “Stretching Lessons”. I keep it by the bed and dip in now and then, nodding my head and saying- “Yea…I get ya….”
I read today how, when she was looking for a retreat where she could write her book in peace, she almost gave up the opportunity of a free space in San Francisco for three weeks because it would have meant sharing the space with cats and she was a not “cat person”. It was not the cats that daunted her- it ws the newness- the risk.
When I was 18, I thought nothing of taking the Ferry from Staten Island over to New York City to ride the subway in the middle of the night just to watch the sparks fly on the tracks. I would go to the airport with a friend and take the next plane to anywhere (that I could afford). I set up housekeeping in my own apartment and took on Madison Avenue before I was in my mid twenties.
In short, I was pretty fearless.
I mean, I opened a PR in Hollywood.
Not much scared me.
Then I moved to the CoachellaValley- and suddenly, I was immobilized.
Freeway Freeze.
HATE the pass…abhor the 91 and I read too many accident reports to have any real rapport with the 10.
For three years now, I have been stranded unless my husband and I go somewhere together.
Then I found the 210!!!!
Follow the yellow brick road!
I don’t know why, but that freeway is my friend!
I am outta here more often than I am in here and that makes it more fun to live here.
Since we met, the 210 has taken me to LA, Pasadena and all points west. It is going to take me in to have lunch with a friend in the Studio City Hills this week.
Anyone got any cheese? I need it to go with this whine.
I know it seems like a little thing- and it is when you think about the really terrible things that are going on everywhere-
but...well,
I am going to miss my commencement ceremony for my Doctorate,
and I am just a little bit bummed about it. Graduation is on the east coast and that kind of trip is just not in the budget right now. Of course, my husband offered-but he and I both know that it would be really irresponsible. It's just that you get this cute little beret when you get your Doctorate- and these robes that look like they came from a Oxford- because they are the same design. I was really OK about it until I got an email that they were putting my name in the commemorative program even though I would not be there. I felt as though it was a medal being bestowed posthumously (I can be overly dramatic ....) Well- what the heck. Like I said- there are more important things to think about, right?
I'm feeling lucky today. My classes are caught up, and all my students seem to have a great grasp on the material. A friend who I lost track of a decade ago "found" me through an online social network. I finished my Blog for MyDesert.com and I really believed what I had to say. And now, I have nothing to do but "play with my house"- my code for cleaning- while I listen to a recorded book. And I just heard we are going to be seeing our son and his family this weekend! Yup- this is my lucky day.
Today is the first day of school- at least it is for the 40 students I am teaching at the University of Phoenix. I am their professor for cultural diversity. I have taught for many years, but I have never felt the burden as heavily as I do now. I worked hard for civil rights. I spent several years trying to pull kids out of ghettos of streets and of thinking. Now, I have a chance at a very momentous time in our history to influence the thinking of young, future scholars. Oh my...am I ready?
It has been a strange couple of days. I am getting ready to teach two classes next week at a University for whom I have never taught before and I am a bit nervous. I find I am like Georgia O'Keefe in a very small way. She could not paint unless her drawers were cleaned out and organized. I cannot teach if my closets- all of them - are in order. So for the last two days, my husband has given me a wide berth as I have torn a part every closet in the house- threw out, organized, labeled and otherwise terrorized even the most innocent loose hanger. I do this as I listen to books on tape and do not come up for air until it is done. So here I sit- closets in order....classes about to start. I really feel like I have it all together. Wadda ya wanna bet I will not be able to find a pen?
Today I have to go to a Board meeting and make a presentation. Right up there with getting wisdom teeth pulled without benefit of anesthesia
Places to go...people to see...points to make...points to lose.... Dollars to spend...dollars to make But while I go about the business of going about my business.... believe me.... I'm working on a dream.
An old friend told me once that my life was set to music- I have a sneaking suspicion he was being a bit sarcastic at the time, as I was your typical histrionic teenage girl- but I didn't care- I liked the idea. Maybe it was growing up with all those great movie scores with swelling string sessions. You know, in your mind, running through the streets to meet Cary Grant at the top of the Empire State Building....that kind of stuff.
Or maybe it was the poets in those turbulent years
Simon and Garfunkle "hello darkness, my old friend....I've come to talk with you again...."
Leonard Cohen Suzanne takes you down To a place by the river You can see the boats go by You can spend the night forever
Donovan- Thrown like a star in my vast sleep I open my eyes to take a peep To find that I was by the sea Gazing with tranquility. 'Twas then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man Came singing songs of love.
High school dances....the songs coming from the radio of your first car...the song you listened to over and over when "he" did not call....your wedding song.....the song you sang to your child at bedtime....
You just have got to love a country that looks to groundhogs to predict the weather. But then again- we look to politicians to correct the future..... Personal trainers to change our bodies..... And time to change everything for the better.
So- Happy Ground Hog Day....I am predicting nothing- but hoping for the best...working toward the better....believing in it all.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
I would like to button things up. I would like to see things in order. Everything. I would like for people's feelings not to be hurt. I would like for people not to hurt my feelings. I would like to not be misunderstood or to misunderstand.
I want things to be buttoned up. I want everyone to have some place to live. And someone to love them. I want countries to stop threatening each other and frightening the children
