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 |  Here's to bloggin' around the block--one word at a time. |
| I’ll update my blog. I would turn off those reminders except I might go even longer than I realize. Can somebody please tell me, where does the time go?? I’ll be glad when the new Follow the Leader  begins. I need something to get me motivated. Deadlines. I need deadlines. I even need those to get my house cleaned up. If someone is coming over, that’s my deadline. Otherwise I’m a great putter offer. Also, Tourn-a-Rounds is beginning again after a long hiatus and I’m still in the running! (To the writers who helped me with my campfire entry: Thank you!! We won!!!) I just finished telling someone that I didn’t think I was that competitive. But it’s still fun to win! And I was talking about checking my stats here on WDC. I rarely look at them. I enjoy being here and I hope I’m improving my writing, but I don’t make a living here. And when it stops being fun, or I can’t afford it anymore, I’ll just fold my port and leave. Meanwhile, I am enjoying myself right here right now. I’ve made my political views known, and they haven’t changed. So I don’t want to blog here about politics right now. Of course those scores can really change. Hope everyone has a nice weekend. It may be another few days before I get back here, the way time is zipping by. |
I nearly could have named this entry "Drive Like a Dick Day" like Robert Waltz  except I want to try to keep myself positive. And it’s not my only topic. I did have a rather stressful experience on Thursday evening though. Working from home, I usually only have to go downtown about once a week. Since I had a meeting that night I thought I would be really smart and leave early so I could go by the main post office where we keep our PO Box. Plus I wanted to send that package that my mail carrier couldn’t take. (See "Invalid Entry" ) As I headed down Capitol, I suddenly noticed that traffic was heavier than usual. By the time I realized what was going on, I was penned in the middle lane with bumper to bumper cars. My first clue was a kid in a blue jersey holding a sign reading “Event Parking $10.” Yikes! The brand new tax-payer funded stadium is right across the street from the post office. (I don’t think my tax money should be funding their palaces and millionaire salaries, but that’s another blog. I’m trying to stay positive here.) Still, I had a little hope that they wouldn’t block off access to the post office. Why should they have that right? Well, my hopes were dashed when traffic slowed even more and I realized the whole street was barricaded for about three or four blocks. A cop was standing in the street directing everyone to turn right – the wrong direction for the post office and completely opposite of my meeting place. Still hemmed in, I was swept a few more miles out of my way before I could turn around. Between the traffic and another unexpected detour, not only did I not get to the post office, I ended up fifteen minutes late to my meeting. Turns out there wasn’t one event, there were three! So, anyway the meeting went well; the “bitch sisters” weren’t there so we didn’t have to hear chatter and griping. And Friday I went to the post office branch closer to home to mail my package. I walked in and stepped to the end of the line. To my right, a man stood near a machine and shouted: “Anyone want to mail something with a debit or credit card?” “No,” I said, “But I have this package with the postage already on it that my carrier couldn’t take.” He took the package from me, gauging its heft in his hand. “That’s because of the new Aviation rules,” he said. “Technically you should go all the way through the line, but I’ve seen your face so I’ll have Monica put a blank sticker on it for you.” And that was that. Painless! Back to Thursday night, I got home in plenty of time to hear Obama speak. I was inspired and it felt wonderful. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt inspired. I need to feel inspired. I’m so very tired of feeling apathetic and hopeless. This is one of my favorite parts: Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves – protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology. Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work. That’s the promise of America – the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper. The fact the Barack Obama is the presidential candidate is amazing to me. As a teenager I experienced intense racial prejudice up close and personal. It’s still painful. I may write about it some day. For now let’s just say I admire Barack’s mother for her courage and the fact that she could instill such confidence in her son. And I’ll end on this note: Yes we can! |
| I may be the only one in the neighborhood who likes our mailman. Some of the folks call him “the mad Armenian.” I don’t know if he’s Armenian or not (he has an accent) but he usually acts angry. For years I’ve said “hi” to him and he answered back, somewhat grudgingly. Occasionally he spoke first. Gradually he began accepting me. I work from home and often have a lot of mail to send out. I like how the post office has the online calculator so I can figure my postage without guessing. Saves me a lot of returned mail. Anyway, this week I’ve been busy. I put out a whole box of letters on Monday. Yesterday I put out several letters and a package of brochures. I put all the postage on the padded envelope and marked it Media Mail the way the Post Office website said to do. But, I found out from my Armenian friend that I can’t send my packages through him anymore. In the longest conversation we have ever had, he said he used to be able to take the packages and postmark it with his stamp, but no more. Even if he knows me. He told me how to use the automated machine at our branch -- if I already have the right postage it will give me a blank slip to paste on -- and it will take my picture. Ah, I finally got it. It’s “because of the bombs.” |
| Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. ~William Faulkner This has been one of those weeks where things actually flowed. It didn’t seem like it at first. I was busier than usual with a lot of deadlines and a few roadblocks like my computer “dying.” But it turned out that it wasn’t dead after all; it was just in some kind of hypersleep mode that I figured out how to wake it from. If it happens again, I’ll be able to handle it quickly. I count that as a personal victory on my part. As a person with a pessimistic personality, I will take all the personal victories I can chalk up! I talked to my mother for quite awhile on Thursday. She got home from the rehab/nursing home on Tuesday. She stayed longer than she wanted to, but it obviously did her some good. She says she doesn’t remember the first couple days in the hospital, and she was obviously talking out of her head when she told them she wanted to be put on life support. Her living will still stands. But right now she feels good! She sounded better and was much more lucid than she has sounded for a long time. I had to work today, but that’s okay. We had a board meeting and it didn’t last as long as usual. My drive went smoothly and most of the board members showed up. The meeting actually had good energy. Even the normally negative one and the high-maintenance worrywart didn’t upset me (as much) today. We met in the conference room of Au Bon Pain, and I was able to schedule us there again for November. As a special treat I brought home a couple of croissants. Jack and I have been on a sensible eating plan for the last couple of months. It was nice to splurge. Even waiting until the last minute to do some things has turned out to be for the best. I had finished writing my fundraising letter but hadn’t copied it yet. Meanwhile we were offered some free books we can use as premiums so there’s still time to add that to the letter before we send it out. I feel like I’m on a roll – all the lights are green. In case you haven’t noticed, it doesn’t take a lot to make me happy when my head is screwed on right. I guess it must be fitting pretty well right now. It’s not like there haven’t been some inconveniences, because there have. (I already mentioned the computer.) The central air is leaking all over the floor of our furnace closet. They’ve been here twice to try to fix it. It looks like Monday the thing is going to undergo a major operation. The good part of it is we live in an apartment. We’ve both done the house thing where everything is our responsibility and it’s kind of nice just to the turn the problem over to the management. We love our place. It’s family owned and managed so we don’t have to worry about corporate changes. It’s a well built, roomy place and there are only four apartments in our building. We share the basement, which has extra storage and a washer and dryer. Some things are old (like the furnace they’re working on) but our rent is reasonable. It’s a great setting, lots of trees, and it’s near a park and convenient to all the places we frequent, like Trader Joe’s and Half-Price Books. And living here helps us have a lighter footprint on the earth. Gee, I hope I can hang onto this attitude of gratitude for awhile. It feels pretty good. |
| 1. I have been covered up with work lately. I only work part-time. Let’s put it this way - I only get paid for part-time. We’re planning two events; I’m finishing up a newsletter, a brochure, and getting ready to send out a fundraising letter. They’re all very important. We put the not in not-for profit, and if we don’t make our budget, well…I don’t want to think about it. There’s a board meeting Saturday, which always makes me nervous, although it shouldn’t. There’s nothing scary about them. It’s just me. 2. When I felt the anxiety coming on over all I needed to do today, I sat down and played a few games of Hearts. I don’t play fair. I just work at trying to see how many times I can shoot the moon. If I’m not getting close, I quit and start again. I’m not really that competitive, I just play for fun and to relax my mind. The trick is knowing when to stop. That reminds me. Follow the Leader is starting again. Yay! And guess who won third place in the last round?  Actually I tied with the very opinionated and prolific Elisa the Bunny Stik  I’m honored. 3. I suppose I should confess that I haven’t been watching the Olympics. I’ve seen a little of the gymnastics and even less swimming. We just rarely turn on the TV through the week. I did read an article about Michael Phelps in Natural News The author, a nutrition expert, calls him “sell out” because he’s pushing Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and is “Ambassador” to McDonald’s for the Chinese kids. “Michael Phelps and Ronald McDonald: Which one is the biggest clown?” ( http://www.naturalnews.com/ ) This seems a little harsh. Yes, he is a role model, but at least junk food is legal. 4. Oh, and my computer died again. It’s the same one that died for about three weeks then came back to life on its own. I was getting too complacent about it, I guess. Most things were backed up, but not quite everything. I hate when that happens! 5. Random quotes: Happiness is inward and not outward and so it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are. Henry Van Dyke The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath. Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart There are too many people, and too few human beings. Robert Zend |
| I miss the Follow the Leader . The whole time I was playing, I didn’t get one reminder to update my blog. Now I’ve gone several days without blogging because I have to come up with an original thought. So…rather than doing that, I’m borrowing this topic from a young friend orangefiire who wrote about an unusual phobia she has --"Invalid Entry" . I’m not making light of her phobia, but she wrote a pretty funny entry about the “green, diseased looking wart-like pig candy!”I couldn’t find a name for orangefiire’s fear and loathing of pickles. The closest I came was lachanophobia -- fear of vegetables -- but that doesn’t quite fit. However I found quite a long list of other phobias. (http://phobialist.com/#A-) I would venture to say that most folks on this site don’t have graphophobia -- fear of writing, or bibliophobia -- fear of books, or even logizomechanophobia – fear of computers. How about hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – fear of long words? Just the name of that phobia is pretty creepy. I know I’ve come across a few people that seem to suffer from phronemophobia – fear of thinking! I think my son must have stenophobia – fear of narrow things. When he was young, we saw a display that had a really skinny chair in it. He hated it and couldn’t stand to look at it because it freaked him out so much. I think he may have gotten that fear from me. I also have cremnophobia -- fear of precipices. And probably a few other things I can’t think of right now. How about you? Do you have any phobias? |
| Controversial Survey I’ve read this in some other blogs and journals including Robert Waltz "Controversial" who kindly added some of those links to his entry. I finally decided to try it. So here goes: 1. Do you have the guts to answer these questions and repost as The Controversial Survey? Ummm. Do you see my answers? 2. Would you do meth if it was legalized? Of course not. 3. Abortion: for or against? Abortion should remain legal, safe and rare. 4. Would our country fall with a woman president? Is our country going to survive now? I believe a woman could be a good president. It depends on the person. 5. Do you believe in the death penalty? Not as it is now. It’s too arbitrary for one thing. I think we might consider bringing back the guillotine for the aristocrats. (Joke. Sort of.) 6. Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already? You know why it isn’t legal now? The Alcohol Lobby. I think it should be decriminalized to free up law enforcement for real crime. 7. Are you for or against premarital sex? Well, I lived with my husband for a year before we got married. 8. Do you believe in God? I’m agnostic. But I believe there’s a universal life force that is completely awe inspiring. 9. Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized? Yes. 10. Do you think it's wrong that so many Hispanics are moving to the USA? Immigrants come here from all over the world. Why does this question single out Hispanics? 11. A twelve-year-old girl has a baby...should she keep it? A twelve-year old is a baby herself. 12. Should the alcohol age be lowered to eighteen? I don’t know. 13. Should the war in Iraq be called off? Yes, we need to end it. 14. Assisted suicide is illegal...do you agree? No. I agree with Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act as I understand it.( I just read "Invalid Entry" by Carolina Blue  )15. Do you believe in spanking your children? My children are too old to spank. 16. Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars? Yes. I could replace it a few times and have money left over. 17. A mother is declared innocent after murdering her five children in a temporary insanity case. And? The question is? She apparently was insane. Can you imagine living with that? 18. It's between you and a person who is being kept alive by life support, which one dies? I don’t even understand this question. Am I near death? Does the person on life support mean something to me? Sorry. Not enough information. 19. Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers? I don’t have any control over that. |
| What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Victoria Osteen is on trial for assaulting a flight attendant over a spill on a first-class seat. She’s the wife of televangelist Joel Osteen and co-pastor of their Texas mega-church. The family was flying to Vail, Colorado in 2005 for a skiing vacation. They had to leave the plane and the passengers had to wait two hours while the Osteens retrieved their luggage. Victoria was already fined $3000 by the FAA. Now she is in court on a civil suit filed by the flight attendant. On Friday she testified, saying, “I love people. I’m guilty of that.” Oh, puleeze! That reminds me too much of Hillary Clinton when asked what her weakness in office might be. “It’s that I care too much.” (Pardon me while I snicker.) Maybe the Osteens are sincere, but I just cannot look at any televangelist without thinking of Elmer Gantry. But I’ll let the court decide if Victoria is guilty. I know it’s not exactly a lot of fun to fly anymore either. Not that I get to go first class. Speaking of flying, I just read an article that said “cost-conscious airlines are forcing pilots to fly with less fuel on board.” In spite of pilots concerns and a NASA safety alert, the FAA can’t “dabble in business policies.” Another corporate bottom line story: Assisted Living Concepts, a firm that runs a chain of facilities around the country, is evicting elderly residents. In the past the company always told their residents that when they ran out of money and went on Medicaid they would be able to stay. But, they just changed their policy and are sending eviction notices. One 99 year old woman received a notice to vacate. She has paid $350,000 of her own money since she moved there, and has run out. Now that she will need to rely on Medicaid they say she’ll have to leave. ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93260987&ft=1&f=1001 ) You know, I believe in taking personal responsibility, but I also believe in shared responsibility. More and more people are playing by the rules, doing all the right things, and still getting screwed. All so there can be a few more billionaires? Something is wrong with this picture. |
| Last night we stopped by Half-Price Books for a half hour. We stop in at least once a week and usually find a few things we can’t live without. Almost everything I buy is on the clearance rack for $1 to $2 – that’s hard cover books and videos or DVDs. Anyway, last night I was enjoying browsing the Clearance Section when some woman walked over beside me talking loudly into her cell phone. I realize if I want it to be quiet I should probably go to the library. But I still think it’s rude. What happened to courtesy and privacy? I wasn’t in the mood to hear her one sided conversation. It was boring anyway. What is it with these people that think they are so important that everyone should be subjected to them bellowing into the phone while they walk around the store? I walked off, and of course she followed me. She had no clue I was even there -- she was too self absorbed for that. It’s just since she irritated me so much I attracted her like a magnet. Of course after I got away from her, I heard someone else’s self important bleating into her cell phone. And I won’t even tell you what I think of the people who won’t put down their phones, or at least shut up, while they’re checking out. What is wrong that people have to be attached to those things like some umbilical cord? And it's not just the bookstore. It's everywhere. I have a cell phone but I rarely use it. I think they’re important for emergencies, and I text with my kids which is fun. But if I think I need to use it in a public place, I will try to find a quiet corner or go outside and make the call. I don’t stroll up beside someone and make them listen to every word I say. It’s just rude. |
| My neighbor rang the doorbell this evening and when I answered she was standing there with a little dog on a bright pink leash. “I want you to meet Lulu,” she said. My neighbor is about six feet tall and pretty hefty. The dog was a little long haired pug-faced dog with huge eyes. I knelt down to and began to pet Lulu (even though she wasn’t especially clean) while my neighbor told me where she got the dog. Lulu snorted a couple of times through her pug nose, but otherwise she was very quiet. A woman my neighbor knew found the dog where someone had apparently dumped her. The poor little thing was dirty and matted and hardly moving. She looked like she had just about given up. The woman took her in and fed her and gave her a bath and tried to get some of the mats out of her fur. She knew she couldn’t keep the dog because she has a 150 pound Malamute. The Humane Society isn’t taking any new dogs so she needed to find a home. And that’s how my neighbor ended up with Lulu. She got her on Saturday and even left her alone all day while she went to work and I never heard a peep out of her. Mimi, her cockatiel, was kind of noisy and that’s probably why. She’s jealous. I’ll probably be seeing a lot of Lulu. She wasn’t quite ready to leave when it was time to go home. (She sat still and snorted a couple more times.) Why in the world do people abandon animals like that? It is getting to be a worse problem all the time. I saw on the news one night that when people are forced out of their homes by foreclosure they are often leaving their pets behind. I may have just answered my own question. |
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So glad to see your blog again, and I like the idea of a 'new' Clean Slate. I may just do that myself! I look forward to reading more from you! 
