Month: March 2011

Out with friends tonight and just remembered I didn’t blog yet.

3 drinks and 80 bucks later, I have a buzz and no money left.

Jenny is ranting about X-files plot failures and Lisa and Frank are playing with their phones. Such a wild life I lead!

# 4 will be graduating from college in May.

COLLEGE!! oh my… my baby is graduating from college… just a sec.. I’m having a “moment”

She’ll be graduating with HONORS!! Hold on, having another “moment”.

I’m such a proud Momma, I want to announce her achievement to the world. She, however, isn’t on the same page.

I asked her about invitations, announcements and such and she just shrugged. She said, “Why? Who really cares what I’ve done. It shouldn’t be about that, should it?”

When she found out she was graduating with honors, her response was, “As long as I get to wear that stupid rope, I’m good.”

I know she’s proud of her accomplishments in that she’s done it all well, but she’s not the kid who will jump up and down, screeching with glee about it. She’s… let’s call her… understated. She looks at all of this just as “what you are supposed to do”.

In some ways, this attitude will serve her well.

It’s such a Hubby attitude.

She’s such a blend. I remember when I was carrying her I looked at Hubby and said, “I want a girl.” He wasn’t too sure about that. He shuddered and said, “Eh, no. What if she has all of our bad qualities. That would be a nightmare.”
Ever the optimist I said, “But what if she has all of our good qualities. She’d be a blessing!”

The universe listened and she got both, but I think it’s done her a world of good to have such a balance.

Now I’m on a mission to find some announcements I can entice her with. They can’t be too “much” in either design or cost because she won’t go for that.

Any ideas?

Many a moon ago, 28 years ago, I worked at a dealership as a switch board operator for an automobile dealership. Much of the time I was actually a switch-bored operator.

I handled incoming calls, assigning sales leads, some light paperwork and….. the mail.

I think I mentioned that I was bored, right?

I had known hubby for about a year and a half by then. We’d come to a place where we knew we cared for one another, but life was not settled and I certainly didn’t think I was going to marry him.  In ’83 he was 17 and not sure what he was doing with his life.  We had talked to each other every day and really enjoyed being with one another.

My desk drawer broke the other day, so I emptied the contents to repair the drawer. Part of what I keep in that drawer is a blue binder in which Hubby had kept a journal about how he felt about me, another of his journals from ’93 and a green folder filled with letters I had written him back in ’83. (see picture above)

Since I had handled the mail, I’d been able to put a letter a day into the mail pile and one day, Hubby called me up to tell me thank you for the letter. (Lather, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat…) I’d begun to write him a letter every day and mailed it to him over the course of 3 months. Some of the letters were only a few lines long and some were more. I’d gotten creative with the addresses after a while, mailing them to Smith Domes, C/O Hubby… or Dr. Hubby Smith, Head of Gynaecology… or Smith-Tronics,  Hubby Smith, President.

The letters were fun to read and the envelopes tickled me as well. I got to the last letter and when I’d opened it I’d read, “Just a note to say,  there will be no letter today.”

Who would have thought that 28 years later, I could send him a letter a day still, except instead of the mailman, I punch a few buttons on my phone or keyboard.

Man the world has changed, but I’m glad I still have  the original Text Message v.000000000001 in my drawer.

The first week of my project 121 has gone by and I’ve noticed a few things.

When you count down to something specific you:

• tend to notice that time moves quickly
• become excited by the approaching event
• become anxious about the work you still need to do before you can go
• aware that you haven’t listened to the language cd’s in awhile
• motivated to do the things you haven’t

This past week I worked on swapping out some food choices and cutting down a bit on portions. I didn’t deny myself anything, really, and in fact I went to the Cheesecake Factory and had some peanut butter cup cheesecake. I split it with Hubby, had about 4 bites and felt satisfied. I never want my project’s focus to be on denial, but on reasonable choices instead.

I also logged 10.4 miles for walking, used my hand weights at home for some upper body toning and did some static leg exercises , AND – yesterday I wen to the gym and stepped up my upper body training. Now I’ve recruited #4 to go to the gym with me to teach me some of the lower body and midsection machines/floor exercises, that I need.

This weeks results………..drum roll please…………..

4 inches lost – mostly off belly and butt

3.2 lbs down

antsy if I don’t move by 2 pm

 

I’m happy with these results and am confident that  I’ll be skittering up the Spanish Steps with the best of them.

I talked to #1 this morning at length about her daughter’s birthday party.

She told me that Lilli was petrified of the “Giant Rat”, a.k.a. Chuck E. Cheese. She cowered in her mother’s arms while the rat approached and even though my daughter tried to wave him off, he still menaced enough that her hubby had to step in to turn the rat around. For the rest of her party, my newly 5 year old Lilli quaked in her shoes every time she even thought the rat was coming. She even refused to sit at the head of the table because she couldn’t see the door.

That’s my baby!! Always take the gunslingers seat and never sit with your back to the door!

Before we go on trips, we send out a “Getting to Know You” form for the kids to fill out. It helps us to figure out some of their likes, dislikes and fears. Other than horror movies being a big No-No with this group, clowns were the most often mentioned fear. I, myself, have no love for the painted grins on the faces of clown either. I wonder what it is about costumed characters and clowns that freak people out. AND, if so many people are freaked out by them, why do they continue to promote these things to kids?

Stuff I guess I’ll just never understand…

While #1 and I were chatting about the giant rat 0rdeal, I remembered one of her experiences in a similar place. She was about 3 and a Chuck E. Cheese-esque establishment called “Showtime” had just opened in the mall. I decided to take her to see the animitronic animals in “the band”.  She stared wide-eyed at them for a bit, but I’d made sure we sat as far away from them as possible, just in case she got a little spooked. Once the novelty had worn off, she started bouncing in her seat and dancing to the music. She seemed especially interested in the gorilla, but nevertheless, she was having a ball.

In fact she was enjoying herself so much, that she began to nod her head up and down and kick her feet and in a moment of sheer bliss of body movement and music, she SLAMMED her head onto the table. She went completely still and I remember being  worried that she’d knocked herself out. I called her name and asked if she was ok and slowly she raised her head and looked up at me with those big blue eyes that were sparkling with unshed tears, bottom lip trembling with an expression so hurt, I knew in my heart that even though the knot on her head was turning purple, she was wondering how in the world, after being in such a complete state of bliss, she could suddenly hurt so badly. And then she wailed.

Poor baby. I remember going to her and picking her up to comfort her the whole time I was shaking with that nervous laughter  you get in those kinds of OMG situations, but also thinking about what a lesson she’d just learned. A few cuddles and a pat or two and she calmed down and got back into her chair, but it wasn’t too long after that, she was smiling, kicking her feet and bouncing to the music again – just with a little more control this time. That’s when I realized she’d just reminded me of a lesson as well.

Even though you are happy as a clam, sometime crap happens. The important part is, did you lose your bliss, or did you recover and return to your happy place just a tiny bit wiser?

A few things happened this way today.

I decided late in the morning – an hour before noon- that I wanted breakfast.

We were leaving for work this evening and one of Hubby’s employees called out, meaning that he had to stay home and get some rest so he could drive. The timing couldn’t have been worse and made me late for rehearsal. I got there minutes before it began.

It’s 11:00 pm and I have to finish a post before midnight for it to count as posting once a day for the entire month.

It’s just been one of *those* kind of days.

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires.  ~Charles Caleb Colton

The Future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.  ~C.S. Lewis

Are you a hugger? Does your family regularly hug each other to say hello or farewell?

Mine wasn’t. (showing feeling… of an almost HUMAN nature, this will not do) <— Pink Floyd “The Wall” lyric bomb.

My parents and siblings were all very hands off. Emotions on any range of the scale beyond neutral to mildly pleasant weren’t really encouraged. Don’t get me wrong, my parents used to joke about EVERYTHING, so there was lots of laughing, but there just wasn’t room in that household for extremes, or hugs.

I wasn’t used to hugging or being hugged in a casually familiar way. When I started working at a Montessori School, the ladies and gentlemen there were very tactile. (It was Montessori, what did you expect?) They were nurturing and supportive people who loved to hug. I had been recruited to this position by someone I had met while volunteering at the Chorus when #4 was only 6-7 years old. She was from a big Italian family and she hugged everyone for everything.

It was a unique experience for me and I have to say, a little nerve-wracking because I was never sure what I was supposed to do. Seems silly now, but at the time I had to conscientiously decide that I was going to work on my new hugging skills. I was going to allow people into my personal space and accept that they hug because they care. I can’t tell you how huge a step this was for me, but I was determined not to freak out every time someone moved in for a hug.

Slowly, over time, I learned to accept physical embraces from strangers and how to give them. My tenure with the school guaranteed that I always had someone to hug. I realized it could be a pleasant experience. Although always timid to initiate a hug, I got pretty good at being a gracious receiver.

When I left that job and started the one I have now, the hug quotient wasn’t nearly what it had been. I noticed that I started to revert and was reaching out to give hugs less and less.

Last night, I went to a production put on by a local high school and involving about 9 of our students. One of these happens to be the boss’s son, a boy I’ve known for most of his life. We saw him after the performance (he did a wonderful job) and I stopped to tell him congratulations before weaving through the crowd to leave the theater. He turned and made a brief move and when I didn’t swoop in, he just held my hand and said he’d see me Tuesday.

WTH? Why didn’t I just give that kid a big ol hug to let him know how sincere I was and how much I supported what he was doing? He would have appreciated it, I could tell.

So, note to self, no retracing lessons learned. Hugs are not always appropriate, but when they are, they are appreciated and make a difference.

 

I had this incredible urge to open up a new blog post to write, and I still do, however I have no idea what I’m supposed to write about. How strange is that?

I keep watching the new Doctor Who trailer, although I can’t seem to find the date that tells me when the new season starts, I did read that they will be doing spring series a summer break and then a fall series. That would be great!

I’m in an awesome mood today. I feel so awake and alive I’m practically shaking – all of this and NO Caffeine. Another wonder, since last night I was so tired I could barely stay awake. Must be all this exercise I’m getting now. If it’s a by-product, then I’m all for it.

Last night I was at rehearsal and a music bomb went off in my head. You know, when a word or a sound triggers a musical memory of a song or some lyrics? Yeah, that.  Well it went off and I started singing some kind of song I haven’t heard in years and looked at hubby and said, (ok, I admit it! I actually whined) “I want that song!!”  Sat down this morning to look for it and POOF! it had evaporated from my mind.  Wonder how many brain cells it took with it!

Tonight I’m going to see a production of “Into the Woods” done at a local high school. Some of our students are involved and it’s always nice to go see them in something other than chorus. They are all so talented it’s nice to support them however we can. Plus, we get a great date night. Can’t beat that.

Speaking of things you can’t beat…. Hubby just walked in with a bouquet of flowers.

One of my online friends assigned this task to each of her buddies, so here we go! Btw, it’s late and I just got home from work, so the fact that my blog can be prompted by someone else is truly helpful this time. Thanks, Wicked!

Why are you a ________? (Puppy, fairy, polar bear, car, or whatever you are – or maybe you are just yourself)

I’m a 7th because I fell in love with Beethoven’s 7th symphony. Since I’m totally convinced that he wrote it specifically for me, I’ve retitled it appropriately as sharons7th.

Who are the “significant others”/main characters who may receive mention in your blogs and what is their relationship to you?

Hubby is pretty obvious, he’s Hubby! He’s been the best thing that could have happened for me. We’ve been together for 29 years; married for 26. I’ve numbered my children #1, #2,#3, and #4 according to their birth order.

#1 and #4 are daughters, #2 and #3 are sons.

Bess is my long time best friend and kitteh. She’ll be 17 years this June. Piper is her nemesis, otherwise known as the Pip, Pippy or “the dog”.

Jenny is a bff. I consider her more of a sister from another mother.

Do you have any hobbies? Like what?

I enjoy reading, writing silly blogs, taking pictures, knitting (although I’m not a very complicated knitter)listening to music and sculpting with fimo clay. I don’t get to sculpt like I used to with clay, but I have found that I enjoy sculpting with candy and fondant to make awesome cupcakes.

I’m also in training for the newest Olympic event. Hopping in the Shower will surely be introduced as an Olympic sport soon, so I hop in the shower whenever I feel the need to train. Hopping in the shower is relaxing and I usually come out smelling better than I did when I went in. Funny how such an intense sport like hopping in the shower could have such a pleasant after workout aroma. WARNING – DO NOT TRY AT HOME! Hopping in the shower is dangerous and requires extensive training.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

What is a favorite song of yours?

That is both a very easy and very difficult question.  Of course I love sharons7th, but there are so many others that I’m thankful for having heard that narrowing it down to just one is very difficult. I think Burst Generator by Chemical Brothers might be up there.

A favorite film?

I’m normally and love ’em and leave ’em kind of girl when it comes to movies. There are a few that I’d happily watch over and over. I think for a favorite film it might be “Family Stone”. Something about the dynamic of their family reminds me of my own. “Moulin Rouge” is a favorite, and of course all the Indiana Jones movies. I also like “Two Weeks Notice”.

What would be your dream job?

I used to say that when I grew up, I was going to be a wife and a mommy. I fulfilled that dream and have been very satisfied with my original dream job. If I wasn’t doing what I am now – which I LOVE – I might have gone into nutritional medicine. That kind of thing fascinates me and sticks in my head very easily.

How would you spend your dream day?

My dream day would include casual walking,  nature, sunshine, music, water, Hubby and my kids and probably a camera to capture everything that made me happy. Seeing fluffy bunnies would help round it all out.

What would be your last meal?

An everlasting gobstopper. I’ll spit it out when *I’m* done and not one minute sooner.

What did you like to play when you were a kid?

Hmm… I liked going to the pool. I spent most of my summers in the community pool. I liked the game “Rebound” and “Bing, Bang, Boing”, and my sister and I played “Dream Date”. Our family was big on playing Monopoly marathons. I also read, wrote stories and drew illustrations and – wait for it- listened to a lot of music.

What do you do in your real life?

I am a Chorus Manager for a Children’s Chorus. What that means is I manage the paperwork, communications and operations for the chorus. I work closely with the Director to do whatever it is she needs to make the chorus the best experience for all involved that it could possibly be. We have 375 students between two different campuses. Student’s range in age from 6-18 years of age.

Are you political? Right? Left? Center?

Isn’t that a Suzanne Vega song… uh oh, I feel lyrics coming on.

If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?

If I had a superpower, I think that it would be the ability to wiggle my nose and have my house clean and in order right away. I’d start a cleaning business and make bank by peeking in homes, wiggling my nose and closing the door on a job well done!

Optional question: Is there anything else you think I should know about you?

I wear a size 11 ladies shoe.

**Most of my links will require you to watch them on YouTube. Sorry about that!! (they are worth it, though)

The sun was shining and a slight breeze was blowing. It was just chilly enough to need a coat, but not cold. I had my tunes in my ears, a pep in my step, and I was ready to go walking this morning.

I started out on my walk quite the happy camper. The song, “Little Less Conversation” (a little more action) by Elvis Presley was letting me know that my choice to MOVE was the right one today. That song never ceases to get me going, and so I was headed down the main road in town with my head boppin’ and my body moving to the music while walking.

Can you imagine it?

I’m sure you can.

Spins, cross-steps, forwards and backwards, I was having a blast! (my friend will be reminiscent of a similar walk on a beach in Florida) The next song came on (Extreme – Get The Funk Out) and there was no way to stop the groove, so for almost a 3/4 of a mile, I was jammin’ and incredibly happy.

The first man I passed gave me a huge grin. Then a man in a dump truck caught my eye and waved. Two men in a box truck broke into smiles and nodded their heads, and when our paths met again, the first man gave me two thumbs up.

I walk this loop often and that just doesn’t occur, so it must have been something different, ya’ think? I’m sure watching someone totally enjoying themselves, laughing and smiling and dancing on a sunny day was  what did the trick.

I’m sure there may be a few who say that these people were laughing at me, but I don’t really care. If they were laughing, they were happy as well.  The end result was that I was truly in my happy zone and because I was, others were nudged by it.

The rest of my play list for my 1.5 mile jaunt? (I’m working up my distance again, don’t laugh)

Michael Buble – Call Me Irresponsible

Jason Mraz – The Remedy

The Vapors – Turning Japanese

Art of Noise – Peter Gunn

If none of that infected you with any kind of happy… then beware the laughing baby…..