so today . . . i have nothing funny or insightful to blog. i am sorry.
i'm having a rough couple of days. don't worry--it will get better--it always does. but my self-esteem has taken a hit and just wants to crawl under the covers and stay there (if it just wasn't so hot!) today i cannot muster up funny julie or sarcastic julie or off-the-wall julie or out-in-left-field julie. or even blog-about-food julie (diandra says i blog about food way too much anyway!)
almost every time i blog, i think about you guys that i know follow, and i try to write something that will make you laugh. because there are enough people out there who are complaining or whining (ok, i know i whine too, but at least i try to make it funny . . . ) or yelling about something. but today it just wasn't happening. i had finally decided not to post anything at all, and then one of you made me laugh!
my friend sherry is a faithful blog reader. she has recently come through some devastating circumstances, and i have great admiration for her. but since i live so far away there isn't much i can do to help, except to write blogs that make her laugh. so that's what i try to do . . .
well, today, she made me laugh. out loud. and then i laughed out loud again. and even now, an hour later, i am still getting a giggle out of what she wrote to me. and today, i needed a laugh. so thanks, sherry, for telling me about your poor sister's mishap last weekend (which was pretty funny, now that she is safely at home,) but especially for sharing the pet society experience. i would have never thought you were capable of showering in some strange pet's tub!
and don't worry--my self-esteem will eventually recover, and funny, sarcastic, off-the-wall, out-in-left-field julie will be back. i would like to say blog-about-food julie is retired, but i'm pretty sure she is not--sorry diandra . . .
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
i think the moms should get the credit . . .
so today . . . this is my third attempt to write this blog. i don't know why i am having such a hard time finding the words to say what i want to say! i have come to the conclusion that maybe i am trying to say too much, so i am going to attempt to simplify. but you know how i am . . .
diandra has a friend. her name is bianca. diandra and bianca are fairly new friends, but they have some unique things in common. both of them have dads who are pastors. both of them have grown up to work on staff at their dad's churches (which means their dad is their boss!) both of them are women in ministry--not always an easy thing. both of them love teenagers. both of them blog. both of them have amazing, smart, funny moms :) and both of them are incredible speakers.
i get the opportunity to hear diandra speak almost whenever i want to, because she is our youth pastor, and part of that job means that she teaches the teens at our church. she also speaks at teen camp. she has been the chapel speaker at the high school she attended. she even occasionally preaches to our whole congregation. i ALWAYS enjoy hearing her, because she is interesting to listen to, she is funny, and she does an excellent job of challenging her audience--whoever they are. of course i am her mom, so i am also always incredibly proud--not only of what she does, but of who she is!
but tonight was my first opportunity to hear her friend bianca speak.
i have heard that bianca is a good speaker. she teaches different groups at her church, but she also travels around the country speaking, mostly to women and teens. i was anxious to hear her, because i have been reading her blog regularly since she started it a few months ago, and it always inspires me. tonight i was not disappointed. not only was she articulate and confident in her delivery, but her material showed a lot of preparation, knowledge, wisdom, and insight. she was funny and real, and i found myself responding and taking notes.
(of course, i had to take notes on my phone, because i can never find a pen. or paper. so i am sure everyone thought i was playing a game or texting someone--which i would never do, because that would set a bad example for the teens. and it would be incredibly rude! but i didn't want to forget some of the things she said, so i had to use my phone to write things down. even though the light came on. really, i was taking notes. they are right there in my phone if you don't believe me . . . )
i probably won't get to hear bianca speak very often. but it is ok, because i can read her blog. i love to read her blog. it is funny and smart and insightful, just like she is. sometimes it challenges me to think in different ways. sometimes it reminds me of things i know, but have somehow chosen to ignore. sometimes it gives me a picture that helps me remember something important. sometimes it just makes me laugh. but it always makes me think. always.
there are times when i think i am an island. but i'm not. friends are important. as bianca said tonight, the first thing God said was bad, was that man was alone. we need our friends to help us have fun, to encourage us when things get tough, to give us perspective when we have tunnel vision, to help us "hang in there" when we feel like we have had enough, to say, "dude, don't do something stupid"--yeah, that's how we talk here in socal--when we are about to dive over the edge. we all need people in our lives who share our world view and can not only encourage us but can also challenge us and make us think.
diandra is blessed to have found that kind of a friend in bianca.
and consequently, i am blessed to have found her blog!
diandra has a friend. her name is bianca. diandra and bianca are fairly new friends, but they have some unique things in common. both of them have dads who are pastors. both of them have grown up to work on staff at their dad's churches (which means their dad is their boss!) both of them are women in ministry--not always an easy thing. both of them love teenagers. both of them blog. both of them have amazing, smart, funny moms :) and both of them are incredible speakers.
i get the opportunity to hear diandra speak almost whenever i want to, because she is our youth pastor, and part of that job means that she teaches the teens at our church. she also speaks at teen camp. she has been the chapel speaker at the high school she attended. she even occasionally preaches to our whole congregation. i ALWAYS enjoy hearing her, because she is interesting to listen to, she is funny, and she does an excellent job of challenging her audience--whoever they are. of course i am her mom, so i am also always incredibly proud--not only of what she does, but of who she is!
but tonight was my first opportunity to hear her friend bianca speak.
i have heard that bianca is a good speaker. she teaches different groups at her church, but she also travels around the country speaking, mostly to women and teens. i was anxious to hear her, because i have been reading her blog regularly since she started it a few months ago, and it always inspires me. tonight i was not disappointed. not only was she articulate and confident in her delivery, but her material showed a lot of preparation, knowledge, wisdom, and insight. she was funny and real, and i found myself responding and taking notes.
(of course, i had to take notes on my phone, because i can never find a pen. or paper. so i am sure everyone thought i was playing a game or texting someone--which i would never do, because that would set a bad example for the teens. and it would be incredibly rude! but i didn't want to forget some of the things she said, so i had to use my phone to write things down. even though the light came on. really, i was taking notes. they are right there in my phone if you don't believe me . . . )
i probably won't get to hear bianca speak very often. but it is ok, because i can read her blog. i love to read her blog. it is funny and smart and insightful, just like she is. sometimes it challenges me to think in different ways. sometimes it reminds me of things i know, but have somehow chosen to ignore. sometimes it gives me a picture that helps me remember something important. sometimes it just makes me laugh. but it always makes me think. always.
there are times when i think i am an island. but i'm not. friends are important. as bianca said tonight, the first thing God said was bad, was that man was alone. we need our friends to help us have fun, to encourage us when things get tough, to give us perspective when we have tunnel vision, to help us "hang in there" when we feel like we have had enough, to say, "dude, don't do something stupid"--yeah, that's how we talk here in socal--when we are about to dive over the edge. we all need people in our lives who share our world view and can not only encourage us but can also challenge us and make us think.
diandra is blessed to have found that kind of a friend in bianca.
and consequently, i am blessed to have found her blog!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
surprise? or ambush??
so today . . . i was ambushed. by my evil twin. and her partner in crime, who is the nicest person you will ever meet. i don't know how she was sucked into the vortex, but the plan would not have worked without her.
it all started innocently enough. my friend sherry saw that we were going to be visiting my parents and thought that she might come up to see us. she farms with us and thought this would be a chance to meet my mom--who also farms.
but then wendy (my evil twin) got wind of our plans. she thought that maybe she would like to come as well . . . sherry lives just over an hour from my parents, but wendy is about four and a half hours away! that is kind of a long trip for a one day visit! so, since she wasn't coming, wendy spent friday night being pesky while we were playing farmtown.
my friend wendy is one of my favorite people, but she has perfected the art of playful obnoxiousness--although sometimes she borders on the seriously obnoxious (hey--i said borders . . . ) we have more fun when we are "bickering." she is like the annoying sister i never had (and really didn't miss!) we have pranked each other and pranked others together. and today she pulled a prank on me, and i never saw it coming.
this morning my mom and dad and diandra and i got up early and headed for the antique show. this is a huge show that usually hosts about 1000 vendors. it is nearly impossible to get through the whole show in one day, but we always try. we saw so many cool things, but were somewhat limited in our purchases since our luggage was already pretty much packed solid. diandra was looking for vintage cameras and had excellent luck in finding some, although we may have to strap them to our bodies and try to convince the airline that they are fashion accessories in order to get them home.
once we moved inside, we could smell the food vendors. there is something about the aroma of hot dogs in the warmer that gets me salivating. it soon became clear that we needed lunch--no matter what time it said on our watches. plus our legs were ready for a rest. so i lurked in the eating area, cruising for chairs. i managed to snag three AND find an empty spot at a table. when we sat down to eat, i realized that i still hadn't heard from sherry. she had thought she would arrive close to 12:00 and it was later than that, but she had my phone number so i figured if there was a problem, she would call.
after lunch we moved into the second building. diandra found more cameras. mom found perfect chairs for her kitchen, only to be told that they had just been sold! she was sad. she was more than sad. diandra found a coral bead bracelet with a chicken on it--yes a chicken--that she just had to have. and a bracelet made out of pennies.
i found nothing. well, that's not completely true. i found several rocking chairs that i liked, but they would not fit in my suitcase. i found lots of beautiful crystal pieces--vases, candlesticks--but as lovely as they were, i have no place at home to put them. i found lots and lots of sparkly rhinestone jewelry (which is usually my default purchase,) but i already have so much that i didn't really see anything unique or different. and i was halfway through the third building.
i was halfway through the third building when my phone rang. it was sherry and she had finally arrived, so i went out to find her. we were both in the same courtyard, but i couldn't see her. i finally had to call her, and then we spotted each other. we headed inside, but she kept kind of looking around. she seemed a little uneasy, but i thought it was just that the show was maybe kind of overwhelming. and then, there she was--my evil twin!
wendy had decided at the last minute to make the trip. her daughter was coming part way up anyway, so she rode with her for the first three hours and then met sherry. i was so surprised! and pleased!! i had been excited to get to see one friend, and now i got to see two!
it seems as though usually when we come up north to visit, there are always people who want to see us. but they always seem to want us to come to them. and honestly, after travelling 1000 miles to get here, we are usually just too tired of travelling to make very many connections. so this was a rare and special treat--two friends who cared enough to make the trip to see us!
we laughed. we talked. we shopped. we piled into the cars along with our purchases and headed back to my mom and dad's house, where they made a delicious dinner for us. we laughed some more. we talked some more. we farmed--yes we farmed, and it was so much fun to be able to actually TALK to each other rather than use the chat box to communicate.
we had started out to have fun today, and we did. and having two of my friends show up (one unexpectedly) just increased the fun!
thanks you guys! it was great!!
it all started innocently enough. my friend sherry saw that we were going to be visiting my parents and thought that she might come up to see us. she farms with us and thought this would be a chance to meet my mom--who also farms.
but then wendy (my evil twin) got wind of our plans. she thought that maybe she would like to come as well . . . sherry lives just over an hour from my parents, but wendy is about four and a half hours away! that is kind of a long trip for a one day visit! so, since she wasn't coming, wendy spent friday night being pesky while we were playing farmtown.
my friend wendy is one of my favorite people, but she has perfected the art of playful obnoxiousness--although sometimes she borders on the seriously obnoxious (hey--i said borders . . . ) we have more fun when we are "bickering." she is like the annoying sister i never had (and really didn't miss!) we have pranked each other and pranked others together. and today she pulled a prank on me, and i never saw it coming.
this morning my mom and dad and diandra and i got up early and headed for the antique show. this is a huge show that usually hosts about 1000 vendors. it is nearly impossible to get through the whole show in one day, but we always try. we saw so many cool things, but were somewhat limited in our purchases since our luggage was already pretty much packed solid. diandra was looking for vintage cameras and had excellent luck in finding some, although we may have to strap them to our bodies and try to convince the airline that they are fashion accessories in order to get them home.
once we moved inside, we could smell the food vendors. there is something about the aroma of hot dogs in the warmer that gets me salivating. it soon became clear that we needed lunch--no matter what time it said on our watches. plus our legs were ready for a rest. so i lurked in the eating area, cruising for chairs. i managed to snag three AND find an empty spot at a table. when we sat down to eat, i realized that i still hadn't heard from sherry. she had thought she would arrive close to 12:00 and it was later than that, but she had my phone number so i figured if there was a problem, she would call.
after lunch we moved into the second building. diandra found more cameras. mom found perfect chairs for her kitchen, only to be told that they had just been sold! she was sad. she was more than sad. diandra found a coral bead bracelet with a chicken on it--yes a chicken--that she just had to have. and a bracelet made out of pennies.
i found nothing. well, that's not completely true. i found several rocking chairs that i liked, but they would not fit in my suitcase. i found lots of beautiful crystal pieces--vases, candlesticks--but as lovely as they were, i have no place at home to put them. i found lots and lots of sparkly rhinestone jewelry (which is usually my default purchase,) but i already have so much that i didn't really see anything unique or different. and i was halfway through the third building.
i was halfway through the third building when my phone rang. it was sherry and she had finally arrived, so i went out to find her. we were both in the same courtyard, but i couldn't see her. i finally had to call her, and then we spotted each other. we headed inside, but she kept kind of looking around. she seemed a little uneasy, but i thought it was just that the show was maybe kind of overwhelming. and then, there she was--my evil twin!
wendy had decided at the last minute to make the trip. her daughter was coming part way up anyway, so she rode with her for the first three hours and then met sherry. i was so surprised! and pleased!! i had been excited to get to see one friend, and now i got to see two!
it seems as though usually when we come up north to visit, there are always people who want to see us. but they always seem to want us to come to them. and honestly, after travelling 1000 miles to get here, we are usually just too tired of travelling to make very many connections. so this was a rare and special treat--two friends who cared enough to make the trip to see us!
we laughed. we talked. we shopped. we piled into the cars along with our purchases and headed back to my mom and dad's house, where they made a delicious dinner for us. we laughed some more. we talked some more. we farmed--yes we farmed, and it was so much fun to be able to actually TALK to each other rather than use the chat box to communicate.we had started out to have fun today, and we did. and having two of my friends show up (one unexpectedly) just increased the fun!
thanks you guys! it was great!!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
the cat club
so today . . . i had an adventure. i went to hollywood. after dark. to a club on sunset blvd. did i mention it was dark?
i have a friend who sings. her dream is to be a rock star, but as time passes, her dream seems to get further and further away. until today. today, she got to sing in a club in front of people who had paid to get in. it was kind of cool.
this was clearly not going to be rollie's thing. i did not even ask him if he wanted to go, because i knew this would be one step outside of hell for him. so my friend wanda went with me. we met at my house at about 7:30. we didn't need to be at the club until 8:45, so i thought we had plenty of time. i grabbed my gps and we headed down the road.
well, actually before we headed down the road, we got in my car and sat there while i attempted to enter the address of the club into my gps. i don't use my gps too often, because i usually know where i am going. so, of course, the battery was dead. no problem--i have a car charger! i thought i would just plug it in, power it up, and we would be off. so i plugged it in, but it wouldn't power up. hmmmm. ok, it must be SO dead that it is going to take a little while to charge up enough to turn on. i said to wanda, "don't worry. we will stop and get gas, and by then it should be charged up enough." but after filling the gas tank, it still wouldn't come on. so i said to wanda, "don't worry. if it won't come on, we will just head north on the 5 (freeway) and follow the signs to hollywood. then we will just cruise sunset blvd until we find the club." can you say naive?
i could not figure out why the stupid piece of black plastic junk would not turn on! and i was starting to get a bit annoyed by it. then i realized what the problem was. it also has an fm transmitter for traffic reports, and instead of the power plug, i had connected the fm transmitter. oops. when i connected the power cord, it started right up. so we entered the address of the club and headed down the road.
it's a good thing we got the gps working, because as it turns out, you don't get to hollywood from the 5 freeway--you have to go on the 5 and then onto the 101. i missed that, and probably would have ended up in sacramento, except i heard the gps fainly saying "recalculating route." recalculating route? why was she recalculating our route? and then i realized that i had been so busy talking. i had missed the turn. thank goodness that thing knows where i am and how to get me to where i want to be! the gps did not take me the way i thought we should go, but one thing i have learned is that you need to trust it. other wise it takes a long time to get where you where you are going. you will eventually get there, (if you don't smash the gps because it won't stop saying, "recalculating route,") but it will take much longer than if you just go where it tells you to.
half an hour later, we made it to the club. well, actually we made it to where the gps said the club should be, but we couldn't find it. we drove up the street. we turned around and drove back. we turned around again and drove by a third time. finally we stopped, rolled down the window, and asked someone if they knew where the club was. this was all wanda's idea. my idea was to leave her in the car and go to the subway sandwich shop and ask if they knew where it was. but wanda thought asking some stranger on the sidewalk was a better idea. maybe she just didn't want to be left in the car . . . alone . . . on sunset blvd . . . after dark . . .
it turned out to be our lucky day, because the guy she asked knew right where it was, and we were almost there. so we drove up, GOT A PARKING PLACE RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR, and didn't even have to put coins in the parking meter because it was sunday. i should mention here that my only hesitation in driving was knowing that at some point i was going to have to parallel park. i flunked my first driver's test during the parallel parking portion (please! who really needs to be able to back along a curb for 30 yards anyway!) so when we got close, i just prayed for a parking place that i could drive straight into--requiring no backing up along a curb! and as wanda sighted the club (her job) i spied a parking place (my job.) not only was in right in front of the door, but it was on the end, so i could just pull right in. my guardian angels rock!
now, this club was small. it was probably only about 25 feet across, but it was deep. and dark. it was not easy to find, except of course that we were parked right in front of it. we got out and headed for the door, where we stopped to pay a cover charge--another new experience for me. it cost $10 just to walk through the door! the guys ahead of us had their driver's licenses out, and i thought, "oh, he will need to see my driver's license." talk about positive thinking! of course he didn't card us! i mean, i am old enough that it is obvious i won't be breaking any laws by going in. still, it would have been nice to be asked . . .
inside, the door was right next to the stage. that meant when we walked in, everyone there was looking at us. it felt a bit awkward, but we went on in and found a place to sit. it wasn't m'chel's turn to perform yet, so we listened to another woman sing for a few minutes. almost all of the crowd was there to see m'chel and danny, but the singer seemed to be enjoying having an audience and was not anxious to relinquish the stage.
while we waited, i decided we should have something to drink. now i have never been in a club before, so i wasn't sure what to expect. i walked toward the bar and began to wonder if they served anything you didn't have to be 21 to drink. i was thinking along the lines of a diet soda, but thought i might have to settle for a glass of ice and then just wait for it to melt. there were lots of choices, but i didn't see any diet coke cans. so i asked, and the bartender didn't look at me like i was totally out of my element (which i was.) he just filled two glasses with ice and sprayed diet coke in--from a fountain hose. he even added a lemon and a lime!
finally it was m'chel's turn to take the stage. i am fortunate enough to get to sing with m'chel every week when we lead worship. she has a beautiful velvety, rich voice! her guitar player, danny, also played with our band for about 5 years, and it has been so much fun to watch him become an amazing musician. i didn't know any of the songs that they performed, but they sounded great, and i was so proud to be there for their debut.
m'chel wants to tell the people who haunt the clubs on the strip about Jesus. she doesn't sing worship songs--she sings songs that the people in those clubs will relate to. she hopes that will give her an opening to talk to them and listen to them, and move them a bit closer to God. and if anyone can do it, i think m'chel and danny can.
we left shortly after they were done. there were other acts to come, but tonight we were there for m'chel and danny. our sodas were gone, the weekend was over, and it was time to go home . . .
i don't hang out in clubs--it just isn't who i am. but tonight i did. and i will probably go back to see them again. it was a little awkward at times, it was definitely outside my usual realm of existence, but it was also fun! i guess that is kind of the way it is when you have an adventure!
i have a friend who sings. her dream is to be a rock star, but as time passes, her dream seems to get further and further away. until today. today, she got to sing in a club in front of people who had paid to get in. it was kind of cool.
this was clearly not going to be rollie's thing. i did not even ask him if he wanted to go, because i knew this would be one step outside of hell for him. so my friend wanda went with me. we met at my house at about 7:30. we didn't need to be at the club until 8:45, so i thought we had plenty of time. i grabbed my gps and we headed down the road.
well, actually before we headed down the road, we got in my car and sat there while i attempted to enter the address of the club into my gps. i don't use my gps too often, because i usually know where i am going. so, of course, the battery was dead. no problem--i have a car charger! i thought i would just plug it in, power it up, and we would be off. so i plugged it in, but it wouldn't power up. hmmmm. ok, it must be SO dead that it is going to take a little while to charge up enough to turn on. i said to wanda, "don't worry. we will stop and get gas, and by then it should be charged up enough." but after filling the gas tank, it still wouldn't come on. so i said to wanda, "don't worry. if it won't come on, we will just head north on the 5 (freeway) and follow the signs to hollywood. then we will just cruise sunset blvd until we find the club." can you say naive?
i could not figure out why the stupid piece of black plastic junk would not turn on! and i was starting to get a bit annoyed by it. then i realized what the problem was. it also has an fm transmitter for traffic reports, and instead of the power plug, i had connected the fm transmitter. oops. when i connected the power cord, it started right up. so we entered the address of the club and headed down the road.
it's a good thing we got the gps working, because as it turns out, you don't get to hollywood from the 5 freeway--you have to go on the 5 and then onto the 101. i missed that, and probably would have ended up in sacramento, except i heard the gps fainly saying "recalculating route." recalculating route? why was she recalculating our route? and then i realized that i had been so busy talking. i had missed the turn. thank goodness that thing knows where i am and how to get me to where i want to be! the gps did not take me the way i thought we should go, but one thing i have learned is that you need to trust it. other wise it takes a long time to get where you where you are going. you will eventually get there, (if you don't smash the gps because it won't stop saying, "recalculating route,") but it will take much longer than if you just go where it tells you to.
half an hour later, we made it to the club. well, actually we made it to where the gps said the club should be, but we couldn't find it. we drove up the street. we turned around and drove back. we turned around again and drove by a third time. finally we stopped, rolled down the window, and asked someone if they knew where the club was. this was all wanda's idea. my idea was to leave her in the car and go to the subway sandwich shop and ask if they knew where it was. but wanda thought asking some stranger on the sidewalk was a better idea. maybe she just didn't want to be left in the car . . . alone . . . on sunset blvd . . . after dark . . .
it turned out to be our lucky day, because the guy she asked knew right where it was, and we were almost there. so we drove up, GOT A PARKING PLACE RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR, and didn't even have to put coins in the parking meter because it was sunday. i should mention here that my only hesitation in driving was knowing that at some point i was going to have to parallel park. i flunked my first driver's test during the parallel parking portion (please! who really needs to be able to back along a curb for 30 yards anyway!) so when we got close, i just prayed for a parking place that i could drive straight into--requiring no backing up along a curb! and as wanda sighted the club (her job) i spied a parking place (my job.) not only was in right in front of the door, but it was on the end, so i could just pull right in. my guardian angels rock!
now, this club was small. it was probably only about 25 feet across, but it was deep. and dark. it was not easy to find, except of course that we were parked right in front of it. we got out and headed for the door, where we stopped to pay a cover charge--another new experience for me. it cost $10 just to walk through the door! the guys ahead of us had their driver's licenses out, and i thought, "oh, he will need to see my driver's license." talk about positive thinking! of course he didn't card us! i mean, i am old enough that it is obvious i won't be breaking any laws by going in. still, it would have been nice to be asked . . .
inside, the door was right next to the stage. that meant when we walked in, everyone there was looking at us. it felt a bit awkward, but we went on in and found a place to sit. it wasn't m'chel's turn to perform yet, so we listened to another woman sing for a few minutes. almost all of the crowd was there to see m'chel and danny, but the singer seemed to be enjoying having an audience and was not anxious to relinquish the stage.
while we waited, i decided we should have something to drink. now i have never been in a club before, so i wasn't sure what to expect. i walked toward the bar and began to wonder if they served anything you didn't have to be 21 to drink. i was thinking along the lines of a diet soda, but thought i might have to settle for a glass of ice and then just wait for it to melt. there were lots of choices, but i didn't see any diet coke cans. so i asked, and the bartender didn't look at me like i was totally out of my element (which i was.) he just filled two glasses with ice and sprayed diet coke in--from a fountain hose. he even added a lemon and a lime!
finally it was m'chel's turn to take the stage. i am fortunate enough to get to sing with m'chel every week when we lead worship. she has a beautiful velvety, rich voice! her guitar player, danny, also played with our band for about 5 years, and it has been so much fun to watch him become an amazing musician. i didn't know any of the songs that they performed, but they sounded great, and i was so proud to be there for their debut.
m'chel wants to tell the people who haunt the clubs on the strip about Jesus. she doesn't sing worship songs--she sings songs that the people in those clubs will relate to. she hopes that will give her an opening to talk to them and listen to them, and move them a bit closer to God. and if anyone can do it, i think m'chel and danny can.we left shortly after they were done. there were other acts to come, but tonight we were there for m'chel and danny. our sodas were gone, the weekend was over, and it was time to go home . . .
i don't hang out in clubs--it just isn't who i am. but tonight i did. and i will probably go back to see them again. it was a little awkward at times, it was definitely outside my usual realm of existence, but it was also fun! i guess that is kind of the way it is when you have an adventure!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
the electronic connections
so today . . . i realized how much i depend on my electronics.
i know i have blogged about how much i love my electronics and can't live without them, but today i realized that it is about more than just my entertainment--it is what is keeping me connected with people. without my smartphone, my laptop, and an internet connection, i would be a man without a country . . . well, maybe a woman without a country . . . let's just say solitary . . .
my phone plan has unlimited everything for only one "small" fee. i guess it is small compared to my car payment or my grocery bill, but it is still a chunk of change. i think our very first cell phone plan was for 60 minutes of talk time a month--can you imagine?!? we guarded those minutes like gold! and we had ways of circumventing the actual use of the cell phone ("i'll call your cell phone, and when you see my number on the caller id, don't answer it. just go call me from the nearest regular phone at work.") if we left diandra at home alone, we would tell her, "don't call us unless the house is on fire or you are bleeding and a bandaid won't fix it." when text messaging came on the scene, we didn't see the need for it, and so we only had 100 text messages per month on our plan. but once we started communicating by text, we very quickly realized that 100 was not going to be adequate. and don't even get me started on the joy of being able to access the internet from my phone anytime, anywhere. yes, we now have the "talk all you want, text all you want, surf the net all you want" plan. and it is a good thing.
yesterday i texted diandra because i needed someone to come harvest the crops my kindergarten boys had planted. their crops have to be dealt with in a timely manner if i want them to be able to be involved, because it all has to happen during the school day. so when it was time to harvest, and none of my farmer friends were online, i texted diandra. she got on her computer, harvested for us, and then went back to whatever she had been doing. was i going to call someone and ask them to do that? no, that would just be ridiculous! but there is something casual about a text message . . . it didn't seem ridiculous at all to text her.
this afternoon i was at costco, and i got a text from a friend of mine who had seen me driving there. she just wanted to know if that was where i was headed. (we have a brand new costco near us--thus, the excitement!) i texted back, "yes." and then we proceeded to text each other back and forth for the next 45 minutes or so. we could have called--we both had our cell phones. and had we called, the conversation probably would have only taken 10 minutes. but text messages are much less intrusive. i could shop at costco, and read her message any time after it came in, and respond while i was just wandering the aisles.
pictures add another whole level to the communication. i rarely go shopping without diandra, but when i do, picture mail is a necessary part of it. i send her a photo and say, "what do you think?" and quite frequently i will get a picture from her while she is at the mall, asking my opinion of a coat or shoes or top she is looking at. we can help each other shop without even being at the mall together!
the other day i was sending a text and mentioned to rollie that i needed an angry face smiley for my message, but my phone didn't have one. after he and diandra got done laughing about the incongruity of that, he sent me this picture:
and now, when i am texting and need an angry smiley, i just insert his picture. (and since that is such a scary picture of a really nice guy, i'm also posting this picture for balance--but since i don't know how to crop pics yet, it is of all of us.)
i've blogged about how facebook has allowed me to reconnect with old friends who live far away. but it isn't just about sending email--we can message each other in real time and have conversations.
tonight when i settled down with my computer to farm, it wouldn't load onto my computer. i tried several times, but kept getting an error message. oh no, i thought, what was i going to do with my evening? working on my farm was my plan for tonight. so i watched, and as soon as i saw my mom come online, i messaged her and found out she couldn't get on either. then wendy popped up, and i asked her too and got the same response--no farm town for anyone. so we just talked to each other on the computer for a while. but soon wendy messaged me, "i'm on farm town." my heart leaped--i messaged my mom, "wendy is on farm town. i'm going to give it a try." my mom messaged me, "i'm on my way too," or something like that. and soon we were all happily plowing, planting, harvesting, and plotting about what we were going to do on our farms. because you see, farm town isn't just about the farm. if it was, we would probably tire of it fairly quickly. it is about the people and the communication with them that happens while we farm. that is what keeps us going back night after night. it isn't really about the white farmhouse, it's about meeting our friends every night and catching up on what's been going on in our real lives.
i get to talk to my mom and wendy and sherry and albert almost every night, and that wouldn't happen without farm town. rollie and diandra are never further than a text message away--they cannot always answer their phones when i call, but they can almost always read a text. my facebook interactions sometimes move people i only know superficially into the friend column. my life is enriched because of my electronic connections with people.
but, if anyone ever hits los angeles with one of those smart bombs that doesn't destroy anything except the electrical systems, i am toast.
i know i have blogged about how much i love my electronics and can't live without them, but today i realized that it is about more than just my entertainment--it is what is keeping me connected with people. without my smartphone, my laptop, and an internet connection, i would be a man without a country . . . well, maybe a woman without a country . . . let's just say solitary . . .
my phone plan has unlimited everything for only one "small" fee. i guess it is small compared to my car payment or my grocery bill, but it is still a chunk of change. i think our very first cell phone plan was for 60 minutes of talk time a month--can you imagine?!? we guarded those minutes like gold! and we had ways of circumventing the actual use of the cell phone ("i'll call your cell phone, and when you see my number on the caller id, don't answer it. just go call me from the nearest regular phone at work.") if we left diandra at home alone, we would tell her, "don't call us unless the house is on fire or you are bleeding and a bandaid won't fix it." when text messaging came on the scene, we didn't see the need for it, and so we only had 100 text messages per month on our plan. but once we started communicating by text, we very quickly realized that 100 was not going to be adequate. and don't even get me started on the joy of being able to access the internet from my phone anytime, anywhere. yes, we now have the "talk all you want, text all you want, surf the net all you want" plan. and it is a good thing.
yesterday i texted diandra because i needed someone to come harvest the crops my kindergarten boys had planted. their crops have to be dealt with in a timely manner if i want them to be able to be involved, because it all has to happen during the school day. so when it was time to harvest, and none of my farmer friends were online, i texted diandra. she got on her computer, harvested for us, and then went back to whatever she had been doing. was i going to call someone and ask them to do that? no, that would just be ridiculous! but there is something casual about a text message . . . it didn't seem ridiculous at all to text her.
this afternoon i was at costco, and i got a text from a friend of mine who had seen me driving there. she just wanted to know if that was where i was headed. (we have a brand new costco near us--thus, the excitement!) i texted back, "yes." and then we proceeded to text each other back and forth for the next 45 minutes or so. we could have called--we both had our cell phones. and had we called, the conversation probably would have only taken 10 minutes. but text messages are much less intrusive. i could shop at costco, and read her message any time after it came in, and respond while i was just wandering the aisles.
pictures add another whole level to the communication. i rarely go shopping without diandra, but when i do, picture mail is a necessary part of it. i send her a photo and say, "what do you think?" and quite frequently i will get a picture from her while she is at the mall, asking my opinion of a coat or shoes or top she is looking at. we can help each other shop without even being at the mall together!
the other day i was sending a text and mentioned to rollie that i needed an angry face smiley for my message, but my phone didn't have one. after he and diandra got done laughing about the incongruity of that, he sent me this picture:
and now, when i am texting and need an angry smiley, i just insert his picture. (and since that is such a scary picture of a really nice guy, i'm also posting this picture for balance--but since i don't know how to crop pics yet, it is of all of us.)
i've blogged about how facebook has allowed me to reconnect with old friends who live far away. but it isn't just about sending email--we can message each other in real time and have conversations.tonight when i settled down with my computer to farm, it wouldn't load onto my computer. i tried several times, but kept getting an error message. oh no, i thought, what was i going to do with my evening? working on my farm was my plan for tonight. so i watched, and as soon as i saw my mom come online, i messaged her and found out she couldn't get on either. then wendy popped up, and i asked her too and got the same response--no farm town for anyone. so we just talked to each other on the computer for a while. but soon wendy messaged me, "i'm on farm town." my heart leaped--i messaged my mom, "wendy is on farm town. i'm going to give it a try." my mom messaged me, "i'm on my way too," or something like that. and soon we were all happily plowing, planting, harvesting, and plotting about what we were going to do on our farms. because you see, farm town isn't just about the farm. if it was, we would probably tire of it fairly quickly. it is about the people and the communication with them that happens while we farm. that is what keeps us going back night after night. it isn't really about the white farmhouse, it's about meeting our friends every night and catching up on what's been going on in our real lives.
i get to talk to my mom and wendy and sherry and albert almost every night, and that wouldn't happen without farm town. rollie and diandra are never further than a text message away--they cannot always answer their phones when i call, but they can almost always read a text. my facebook interactions sometimes move people i only know superficially into the friend column. my life is enriched because of my electronic connections with people.
but, if anyone ever hits los angeles with one of those smart bombs that doesn't destroy anything except the electrical systems, i am toast.
Friday, May 29, 2009
alone on a friday night
so today . . . i am home by myself--just the way i like it. sometimes . . .
diandra is at the church for a teen overnighter. she hates those, but the kids love them (of course!) so every once in a while they schedule one, she dreads it, goes and has some fun, deals with all the drama, comes home the next day and sleeps it off, and then relaxes because she knows she won't have to go to another one for a while . . . only this time she took my crock pot for nacho cheese. i am kind of wondering what it will look like when it comes home . . . assuming it comes home . . .
rollie is at an angels' game with a friend (and it isn't me!) i love angels' baseball--especially on friday nights--because on friday nights they have a fireworks show after the game, even if they lose! but today they are going to celebrate his friend's birthday, so i guess it is good that the friend got to go . . . and yet, i know they are sitting there eating nachos and frozen lemonade and chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches . . . and i am at home eating nuts.
i have other food i could eat, but i'm sitting here on the couch like a beanie baby and don't feel like preparing anything. and when i say preparing, i really mean taking something out of a package or can and microwaving it. i could go out to eat. i don't go out to eat by myself much, and i really like to take my book and go sit in a restaurant and eat alone. but if i were to do that tonight (and i have the perfect opportunity) it would mean going out into the cold.
it was cold here today. the sun didn't shine much, and it was cloudy most of the day. it just isn't right for this time of the year! we should be able to depend on lovely sunny days and just barely cool nights--not gloomy cloudy days and chillingly freezing nights. if i wanted this kind of weather, i would live somewhere else. i mean, it was even hot in oregon today!!
i know this, because i read what my friends write on facebook. and let me tell you, my oregon friends were all about the weather today. they were kind enough not to direct their sunshine comments at me directly, but they were happy campers! except my mom--and probably wendy. my mom said the weather has turned, which means watering her flowers every day now until they die--which hopefully won't be until fall. wendy says she has planted 450 zinnias!! i find this somewhat difficult to believe--not because i don't think she would do something that crazy, but because i can't imagine how you would even get 450 zinnias home! does home depot even have 450 zinnias in their store? or would you have to go to several different stores? and once you got them home, who even has room for 450 zinnias in their yard?!?! until i see actual photographs, i am thinking perhaps she was speaking metaphorically . . .
you see, i do have friends--several in fact. but most of them don't live near me. it is a good thing i have the internet, because that is how i stay connected with most of the people i love--sometimes even the ones who live with me!! there are people here that i could have called and said, "rollie's at a ball game, diandra is at an overnighter--let's go out!" but again, it's cold outside, and my beanie baby body is pretty comfy on the couch . . .
so here i am, alone at home, with the tv and my computer and the dogs for company. just the way i like it. sometimes.
diandra is at the church for a teen overnighter. she hates those, but the kids love them (of course!) so every once in a while they schedule one, she dreads it, goes and has some fun, deals with all the drama, comes home the next day and sleeps it off, and then relaxes because she knows she won't have to go to another one for a while . . . only this time she took my crock pot for nacho cheese. i am kind of wondering what it will look like when it comes home . . . assuming it comes home . . .
rollie is at an angels' game with a friend (and it isn't me!) i love angels' baseball--especially on friday nights--because on friday nights they have a fireworks show after the game, even if they lose! but today they are going to celebrate his friend's birthday, so i guess it is good that the friend got to go . . . and yet, i know they are sitting there eating nachos and frozen lemonade and chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches . . . and i am at home eating nuts.
i have other food i could eat, but i'm sitting here on the couch like a beanie baby and don't feel like preparing anything. and when i say preparing, i really mean taking something out of a package or can and microwaving it. i could go out to eat. i don't go out to eat by myself much, and i really like to take my book and go sit in a restaurant and eat alone. but if i were to do that tonight (and i have the perfect opportunity) it would mean going out into the cold.
it was cold here today. the sun didn't shine much, and it was cloudy most of the day. it just isn't right for this time of the year! we should be able to depend on lovely sunny days and just barely cool nights--not gloomy cloudy days and chillingly freezing nights. if i wanted this kind of weather, i would live somewhere else. i mean, it was even hot in oregon today!!
i know this, because i read what my friends write on facebook. and let me tell you, my oregon friends were all about the weather today. they were kind enough not to direct their sunshine comments at me directly, but they were happy campers! except my mom--and probably wendy. my mom said the weather has turned, which means watering her flowers every day now until they die--which hopefully won't be until fall. wendy says she has planted 450 zinnias!! i find this somewhat difficult to believe--not because i don't think she would do something that crazy, but because i can't imagine how you would even get 450 zinnias home! does home depot even have 450 zinnias in their store? or would you have to go to several different stores? and once you got them home, who even has room for 450 zinnias in their yard?!?! until i see actual photographs, i am thinking perhaps she was speaking metaphorically . . .
you see, i do have friends--several in fact. but most of them don't live near me. it is a good thing i have the internet, because that is how i stay connected with most of the people i love--sometimes even the ones who live with me!! there are people here that i could have called and said, "rollie's at a ball game, diandra is at an overnighter--let's go out!" but again, it's cold outside, and my beanie baby body is pretty comfy on the couch . . .
so here i am, alone at home, with the tv and my computer and the dogs for company. just the way i like it. sometimes.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
wednesday bonus blog: a friend in need has two friends indeed!
so today . . . is going to be a busy day. wednesdays always are--that's why i stopped blogging on wednesdays. and then i had the brilliant idea of the bonus blogs, so now i still have to find time to post those--which wouldn't be so bad if i didn't feel the need to "introduce" them, and then add final thoughts at the end . . .
oh well, here goes . . .
this blog was originally posted on friday, june 6, 2008.
how can you tell if a person is your friend? there are a lot of people in my life, and while i like almost every single one, i wouldn't necessarily say they are all my friends. or maybe they are, but just at different stages of friendship.
first, there are those people that you are just getting to know. you may not see them often, but when you do you have short conversations with them. the silences are awkward though. you talk to them when your paths cross, but don't spend much time together, because what if you run out of things to talk about? you are learning a bit about each other, slowly, but you are careful about what you say. after all, you don't know them well enough yet to let them see who you really are. i call these people possible friends.
next there are those people that you have talked to enough that you now know what interests and viewpoints you share. you enjoy your interactions, partly because you kind of know what to expect and partly because there will still be some surprises in your conversations. you feel comfortable enough to maybe go to a movie or concert together--those activities that don't require much conversation--and afterward you talk about what you've just seen. you may let them see a little more of who you are. then, if they don't run away screaming, they become new friends.
then there are your everyday friends. these are the people you spend your day with. they know you pretty well. they may be your co-workers, the people you go to church with, your neighbors. they pretty much know what is going on in your life, but maybe not all the gory details. you are comfortable with them and might invite them to go out to lunch or to a ball game or the mall. your conversation is easy. this is where many of the people in our lives are. and this is a good place to be--a friendship without a lot of demands or expectations.
and then there are those friends that you know you can count on. some people call them their best friends, but i prefer to call them my real friends. these are the people who really know me. they know i'm not anywhere close to perfect, although i try to look like i have my act together. they know why i don't play sports, but love words. they know i probably have skeletons in my closet (along with suitcases, too many shoes, and the perfect hangers) but they choose to like me anyway. these are the ones i know i can call in the middle of the night if rollie is gone and my bathroom is flooding or my clothes dryer burns up. they are the ones who will listen to me whine or rant or fall apart without making any judgments. these are the people i trust.
i started thinking about all of this last week when we ran into problems with our internet. rollie is usually able to handle all of our electronic issues, but this time even he was stymied. so we asked our friend james for some help. without hesitation he agreed to come over and see what he could do. well, he worked on the problem for four hours that night with no success, and then came back the next night with another friend and worked for three more hours before they finally had our internet running properly again. they gave up two evenings just because we needed help! so i just wanted to say how grateful i am for friends like that. neither james nor walter (his friend) will read this--i'm fairly sure they are not on myspace--but i was inspired by them this week. i wish i was that kind of friend, but i am afraid that maybe i am not. i'm going to try harder though, because how we make people feel is important. and this week my friend james made me feel like somebody cared . . .
i'm not very good at the friend thing--i tend to be more of an alone person. given the choice between going somewhere with people and staying home by myself, i will almost always choose being by myself. once i get home from work, i do NOT want to go out again--unless i am lured with food. i find that most of the things i enjoy doing are solitary activities. it isn't that i don't like people--i do. it isn't that i can't function in a social situation--i can. and it isn't that i'm not thoughtful of others--i am. it just that that isn't where my natural personality lives. and sometimes i just seem to be immobilized by inertia. for example, i never forget a birthday! but everyone i know probably thinks i don't have a clue, because i cannot seem to get a birthday card or gift out on time (or even close to on time) to save me!
so i am very thankful for the few real friends that i do have, because they love me anyway . . .
oh well, here goes . . .
this blog was originally posted on friday, june 6, 2008.
how can you tell if a person is your friend? there are a lot of people in my life, and while i like almost every single one, i wouldn't necessarily say they are all my friends. or maybe they are, but just at different stages of friendship.
first, there are those people that you are just getting to know. you may not see them often, but when you do you have short conversations with them. the silences are awkward though. you talk to them when your paths cross, but don't spend much time together, because what if you run out of things to talk about? you are learning a bit about each other, slowly, but you are careful about what you say. after all, you don't know them well enough yet to let them see who you really are. i call these people possible friends.
next there are those people that you have talked to enough that you now know what interests and viewpoints you share. you enjoy your interactions, partly because you kind of know what to expect and partly because there will still be some surprises in your conversations. you feel comfortable enough to maybe go to a movie or concert together--those activities that don't require much conversation--and afterward you talk about what you've just seen. you may let them see a little more of who you are. then, if they don't run away screaming, they become new friends.
then there are your everyday friends. these are the people you spend your day with. they know you pretty well. they may be your co-workers, the people you go to church with, your neighbors. they pretty much know what is going on in your life, but maybe not all the gory details. you are comfortable with them and might invite them to go out to lunch or to a ball game or the mall. your conversation is easy. this is where many of the people in our lives are. and this is a good place to be--a friendship without a lot of demands or expectations.
and then there are those friends that you know you can count on. some people call them their best friends, but i prefer to call them my real friends. these are the people who really know me. they know i'm not anywhere close to perfect, although i try to look like i have my act together. they know why i don't play sports, but love words. they know i probably have skeletons in my closet (along with suitcases, too many shoes, and the perfect hangers) but they choose to like me anyway. these are the ones i know i can call in the middle of the night if rollie is gone and my bathroom is flooding or my clothes dryer burns up. they are the ones who will listen to me whine or rant or fall apart without making any judgments. these are the people i trust.
i started thinking about all of this last week when we ran into problems with our internet. rollie is usually able to handle all of our electronic issues, but this time even he was stymied. so we asked our friend james for some help. without hesitation he agreed to come over and see what he could do. well, he worked on the problem for four hours that night with no success, and then came back the next night with another friend and worked for three more hours before they finally had our internet running properly again. they gave up two evenings just because we needed help! so i just wanted to say how grateful i am for friends like that. neither james nor walter (his friend) will read this--i'm fairly sure they are not on myspace--but i was inspired by them this week. i wish i was that kind of friend, but i am afraid that maybe i am not. i'm going to try harder though, because how we make people feel is important. and this week my friend james made me feel like somebody cared . . .
i'm not very good at the friend thing--i tend to be more of an alone person. given the choice between going somewhere with people and staying home by myself, i will almost always choose being by myself. once i get home from work, i do NOT want to go out again--unless i am lured with food. i find that most of the things i enjoy doing are solitary activities. it isn't that i don't like people--i do. it isn't that i can't function in a social situation--i can. and it isn't that i'm not thoughtful of others--i am. it just that that isn't where my natural personality lives. and sometimes i just seem to be immobilized by inertia. for example, i never forget a birthday! but everyone i know probably thinks i don't have a clue, because i cannot seem to get a birthday card or gift out on time (or even close to on time) to save me!
so i am very thankful for the few real friends that i do have, because they love me anyway . . .
Sunday, April 5, 2009
does facebook have an age requirement?
so today . . . i was talking to a friend of mine, and she was telling me about her husband's grandmother, who is old and living in an assisted living facility. they went up to visit her last weekend, because they had been told that her health was failing. i think they were under the impression that death was imminent. but when they got there, grandma didn't seem that bad--just bored and tired of living with a bunch of old people. when she was telling me this, i said, "you should get her on facebook!" my friend looked at me like i was insane . . .
but really! i think it is a great idea!! there is so much you can do--she could stay busy and keep her mind active all day. she could have a pet, send flowers and goodies to people, as well as do stuff with them through superpoke. she could explore all the applications to see which ones she wanted to participate in. she could join groups that looked interesting. she could play games and take little quizzes to keep her mind sharp. she could communicate with her grandchildren and make new friends. she could post a fake profile picture and let people think she was a young person. she could have all kinds of fun, just on facebook! and then if you add in all the options on the rest of the internet, she would never be bored!
when diandra was little, we were having dinner with some friends one night and started talking about aging and retirement plans and and taking care of our parents if they got to the point where they needed it and what would happen to us when we got old (and maybe decrepit!) diandra was sitting there taking all this in--i think she was about 7. we were joking about what arrangements we would like her to make to care for us when we were really, really old, and what type of care facility we would prefer. after listening to us go on and on and on with requirements, she finally just looked at us and said, "i guess you will just go where i put you!"
since she is an only child, that is probably true! but it was so funny--that show of power--coming from this tiny, cute, sweet little girl, that we just laughed and laughed. it has become one of our most invoked family phrases--"i guess you will just go where i put you!" or "i guess we will just go where she puts us!"
well diandra, when i get really, really, REALLY old, just park me in your back bedroom with my laptop, internet access, and facebook. you won't hear a peep out of me--as long as you keep the brownies coming ;)
but really! i think it is a great idea!! there is so much you can do--she could stay busy and keep her mind active all day. she could have a pet, send flowers and goodies to people, as well as do stuff with them through superpoke. she could explore all the applications to see which ones she wanted to participate in. she could join groups that looked interesting. she could play games and take little quizzes to keep her mind sharp. she could communicate with her grandchildren and make new friends. she could post a fake profile picture and let people think she was a young person. she could have all kinds of fun, just on facebook! and then if you add in all the options on the rest of the internet, she would never be bored!
when diandra was little, we were having dinner with some friends one night and started talking about aging and retirement plans and and taking care of our parents if they got to the point where they needed it and what would happen to us when we got old (and maybe decrepit!) diandra was sitting there taking all this in--i think she was about 7. we were joking about what arrangements we would like her to make to care for us when we were really, really old, and what type of care facility we would prefer. after listening to us go on and on and on with requirements, she finally just looked at us and said, "i guess you will just go where i put you!"
since she is an only child, that is probably true! but it was so funny--that show of power--coming from this tiny, cute, sweet little girl, that we just laughed and laughed. it has become one of our most invoked family phrases--"i guess you will just go where i put you!" or "i guess we will just go where she puts us!"
well diandra, when i get really, really, REALLY old, just park me in your back bedroom with my laptop, internet access, and facebook. you won't hear a peep out of me--as long as you keep the brownies coming ;)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
it's better than being dead!
so today . . . is my friend wendy's 50th birthday!
i know, i know, it is hard to believe that i have friends who are that old, but i do.
wendy and i became friends several years ago when we taught in the same preschool. initially, her classroom was upstairs and mine was downstairs, so we didn't really get to know each other until that lucky day when i finally got to move upstairs with everyone else. our classrooms were side by side, and we had dutch doors. so sometimes we would hang over the closed lower portion of our doors, like horses in their stalls, and talk to each other. she had the cool classroom with the loft, while i had the classroom with all the random stuff in it. and then my room got painted . . . they let me choose the color, and i chose purple--kind of an orchid color. it was beautiful! they painted the doors and the window frames and the cabinets. and i thought it was the best room, because it was purple!! wendy did not agree!!!
it took a little while, but we eventually discovered that we liked each other. and when we got together, we were dangerous! harmless pranks were played. water was squirted. items were 'stolen' and held for ransom. jokes were told. crazy schemes were hatched . . .
like the year all the teachers travelled out of town for a conference . . . as usually happens when women go to conferences, first we shopped. but wendy and i didn't go to the mall--we went to toys r us and bought squirt guns. a plan was set into motion, and when the other teachers arrived back at the hotel, we took them hostage. now remember that these were just water guns. you would think they would just ignore us, or leave, or something . . . but they didn't--they went along with the game. thus was our power!!! we were so believable! and a little bit scary, i think . . .
at the conference we bought these cool glasses that made everything look like a rainbow when you looked through them. they didn't have ear pieces though--you just held them in front of your eyes with a little stick like opera glasses.
i thought these were the greatest thing, and when i looked through them, i just felt weird. which resulted in my walking in a strange way that became known as "slinking." i slinked throught the target parking lot, which totally mortified wendy, which made it even more fun. i slinked a lot of places that weekend . . .
then i moved to the coast into a big house that needed sprucing up, but i was having a hard time getting started. i had no job and no new friends--just rollie and diandra--and so i sat there day after day looking at the paint cans, but not opening them. then wendy called. she said she was coming over to the coast to help me paint, and she was bringing a few other teachers with her. they came, and we painted. they spent the night, we ate pizza, and then we painted some more the next day. we didn't finish the job before they had to leave, but we were off to a good start, and i was able to finish it up on my own. if she had not come, that house might still have awful wallpaper and sponge painting on the walls!
time passed, and even though we would call each other once in a while, i found that without the daily contact and the shared experience of our jobs, we were losing touch . . .
a couple of years later, we moved to southern california. again, new town, no job, no friends--still just rollie and diandra (for whom i am very thankful!!) one day diandra said to me, "mom, you need to get on myspace. even wendy is on there now!" and so i did. we started communicating again, and i remembered why i liked her so much. we talked, we teased, we made a plan, and as a result she came to visit me last summer for almost a week. we had more fun . . . it started at disneyland where we had a frightening encounter with jack sparrow . .
(ok, this doesn't look frightening, but you should have seen him try to chop off my hands!!)
we headed for hollywood (right after rollie took this picture . . . )
. . . went to graumann's chinese theater . . .
and took in the local sights too. here we are at the cerritos library (i know it looks like a fountain, but the library is to the left of us.)
those places will never be the same (well, maybe the library will--we were pretty subdued there . . . ) i think this was the first time someone not related to me came just to visit me.
on my 50th birthday, wendy sent me a triple chocolate mousse cake (or something like that.) it was chocolatey beyond belief!
(i think i wrote a myspace blog about that. i'll have to look it up and post it--sorry albert.) it was a huge surprise--i thought it was a bomb or something! not only is wendy thoughtful and generous, she also plans ahead so a person's birthday gift actually arrives on their birthday (unlike some friends who are still looking for the perfect gift . . . )
wendy now teaches her class in "my" room. it is still purple, and she complains about it constantly, i'm sure. but i like the thought of her in that classroom, because i am pretty sure that some of my dna is still there stirring up trouble.
wendy, i wish we could have spent the day together at disneyland--it's free on your birthday, you know. if only you didn't live so far away! maybe when you turn 60 . . .
i know, i know, it is hard to believe that i have friends who are that old, but i do.
wendy and i became friends several years ago when we taught in the same preschool. initially, her classroom was upstairs and mine was downstairs, so we didn't really get to know each other until that lucky day when i finally got to move upstairs with everyone else. our classrooms were side by side, and we had dutch doors. so sometimes we would hang over the closed lower portion of our doors, like horses in their stalls, and talk to each other. she had the cool classroom with the loft, while i had the classroom with all the random stuff in it. and then my room got painted . . . they let me choose the color, and i chose purple--kind of an orchid color. it was beautiful! they painted the doors and the window frames and the cabinets. and i thought it was the best room, because it was purple!! wendy did not agree!!!
it took a little while, but we eventually discovered that we liked each other. and when we got together, we were dangerous! harmless pranks were played. water was squirted. items were 'stolen' and held for ransom. jokes were told. crazy schemes were hatched . . .
like the year all the teachers travelled out of town for a conference . . . as usually happens when women go to conferences, first we shopped. but wendy and i didn't go to the mall--we went to toys r us and bought squirt guns. a plan was set into motion, and when the other teachers arrived back at the hotel, we took them hostage. now remember that these were just water guns. you would think they would just ignore us, or leave, or something . . . but they didn't--they went along with the game. thus was our power!!! we were so believable! and a little bit scary, i think . . .
at the conference we bought these cool glasses that made everything look like a rainbow when you looked through them. they didn't have ear pieces though--you just held them in front of your eyes with a little stick like opera glasses.
i thought these were the greatest thing, and when i looked through them, i just felt weird. which resulted in my walking in a strange way that became known as "slinking." i slinked throught the target parking lot, which totally mortified wendy, which made it even more fun. i slinked a lot of places that weekend . . .then i moved to the coast into a big house that needed sprucing up, but i was having a hard time getting started. i had no job and no new friends--just rollie and diandra--and so i sat there day after day looking at the paint cans, but not opening them. then wendy called. she said she was coming over to the coast to help me paint, and she was bringing a few other teachers with her. they came, and we painted. they spent the night, we ate pizza, and then we painted some more the next day. we didn't finish the job before they had to leave, but we were off to a good start, and i was able to finish it up on my own. if she had not come, that house might still have awful wallpaper and sponge painting on the walls!
time passed, and even though we would call each other once in a while, i found that without the daily contact and the shared experience of our jobs, we were losing touch . . .
a couple of years later, we moved to southern california. again, new town, no job, no friends--still just rollie and diandra (for whom i am very thankful!!) one day diandra said to me, "mom, you need to get on myspace. even wendy is on there now!" and so i did. we started communicating again, and i remembered why i liked her so much. we talked, we teased, we made a plan, and as a result she came to visit me last summer for almost a week. we had more fun . . . it started at disneyland where we had a frightening encounter with jack sparrow . .
(ok, this doesn't look frightening, but you should have seen him try to chop off my hands!!)we headed for hollywood (right after rollie took this picture . . . )
. . . went to graumann's chinese theater . . .
and took in the local sights too. here we are at the cerritos library (i know it looks like a fountain, but the library is to the left of us.)
those places will never be the same (well, maybe the library will--we were pretty subdued there . . . ) i think this was the first time someone not related to me came just to visit me.on my 50th birthday, wendy sent me a triple chocolate mousse cake (or something like that.) it was chocolatey beyond belief!
(i think i wrote a myspace blog about that. i'll have to look it up and post it--sorry albert.) it was a huge surprise--i thought it was a bomb or something! not only is wendy thoughtful and generous, she also plans ahead so a person's birthday gift actually arrives on their birthday (unlike some friends who are still looking for the perfect gift . . . )wendy now teaches her class in "my" room. it is still purple, and she complains about it constantly, i'm sure. but i like the thought of her in that classroom, because i am pretty sure that some of my dna is still there stirring up trouble.
wendy, i wish we could have spent the day together at disneyland--it's free on your birthday, you know. if only you didn't live so far away! maybe when you turn 60 . . .
Saturday, March 21, 2009
my day as a photographer's assistant
so today . . . i went on a photo shoot with diandra.
she was taking head shots for my friend amy, who is an actress. we met her in the the bixby knolls area of long beach. the houses there are beautiful and the business district is interesting. we could probably have taken photos there all week and not run out of cool things to shoot.
we shot in alley ways . . .
we used the steps and retaining walls next to the sidewalk . . .
and we even went into people's yards--we did ask permission first, and no one said no--even in bixby knolls!
it was fun to walk around the neighborhood with diandra as she scanned for the next spot to shoot. amy was a good sport to do whatever diandra asked her to do. there were wardrobe changes (one was in the street between two cars with diandra and i serving as the two missing walls,) yard invasions, goofy faces, and even some jumping up and down. if you want to see the resulting photos, check out diandra's photography blog in a few days.
of course, i couldn't walk around all afternoon with my camera in my pocket without taking any photos of my own. so i had some fun taking pictures of diandra taking pictures of amy. i had to do it with one hand, because my other arm was full of possible props and wardrobe options.
at one point, i went back to the car to drop off some of the stuff we were done with. i returned to find diandra and amy shooting in front of a red door. as i walked up to the house, i was struck by this image . . .
while i waited for them to finish up, i noticed some cool details in the garden . . .
so, even though it was gloomy saturday afternoon, i had a great time. it was nice to be out in the fresh, cool air, walking at a leisurely pace (instead of being dragged by psycho dogs) and looking for interesting visuals. i think maybe i want to be a photographer's assistant--at least, if the photographer is diandra . . .
she was taking head shots for my friend amy, who is an actress. we met her in the the bixby knolls area of long beach. the houses there are beautiful and the business district is interesting. we could probably have taken photos there all week and not run out of cool things to shoot.we shot in alley ways . . .
we used the steps and retaining walls next to the sidewalk . . .
and we even went into people's yards--we did ask permission first, and no one said no--even in bixby knolls!
it was fun to walk around the neighborhood with diandra as she scanned for the next spot to shoot. amy was a good sport to do whatever diandra asked her to do. there were wardrobe changes (one was in the street between two cars with diandra and i serving as the two missing walls,) yard invasions, goofy faces, and even some jumping up and down. if you want to see the resulting photos, check out diandra's photography blog in a few days.of course, i couldn't walk around all afternoon with my camera in my pocket without taking any photos of my own. so i had some fun taking pictures of diandra taking pictures of amy. i had to do it with one hand, because my other arm was full of possible props and wardrobe options.
at one point, i went back to the car to drop off some of the stuff we were done with. i returned to find diandra and amy shooting in front of a red door. as i walked up to the house, i was struck by this image . . .
while i waited for them to finish up, i noticed some cool details in the garden . . .
so, even though it was gloomy saturday afternoon, i had a great time. it was nice to be out in the fresh, cool air, walking at a leisurely pace (instead of being dragged by psycho dogs) and looking for interesting visuals. i think maybe i want to be a photographer's assistant--at least, if the photographer is diandra . . .
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
what to write, what to write . . .
so today . . . i can't write. i don't know what is going on. i've started two blogs, one about pricing new glasses and one about walking the dogs. but neither one was very good. even i wasn't interested in them, and i am writing them!
so then i thought i would go back and respond to some of the comments that have been left. i guess i thought there would be a way to go back and pull up all the comments. but either there isn't or i just can't figure it out by myself, and diandra isn't home.
so i am sitting here watching american idol, with the exhausted dogs laying next to me. rollie is already in bed, and diandra is apparently at ralph's buying tuna fish to eat before she goes on to do whatever it is she does at night (we call her vampira.) i have things i should be doing, but since i already walked the dogs today, i sort of feel like i've done enough.
oh wait! i know what i can write! i hope you are still reading . . .
so today . . . i drank a boba drink. my friend jessica brought it to me after lunch. i was threatening to drink my emergency pepsi, and so she brought me a boba. if you have never had one, they are interesting. my best guess is that it is kind of a coffee/tea/milk combination. it is sweetened (probably loaded with sugar) and you drink it iced. but the interesting thing is that it has these blobs in the bottom. they kind of remind me of the fish eggs we used to use for bait when i was a kid. my dad always had us put the fish eggs in our mouths until we needed them (i still can't believe i actually did this!) the blobs are perfectly round and seem to be tasteless, but firm and chewy. they are also kind of slippery. i had a boba one other time, but the blobs were big--i thought they were blueberries until i tasted one. of course i don't like blueberries either--they squish and squirt when you bite into them--but at least they have anti-oxidants. jessica, not knowing if i would like this or not, graciously only put about an inch of these little balls in the bottom of my drink. and they were small, like dippin' dots.
i wanted to be grateful, but boba and i are not friends. however it was so thoughtful of her, that i decided to give it another try. now here is the cool thing about boba drinks. they come in a clear plastic cup and the top is a clear plastic film that is sealed all around--spill-proof! then when you want to drink it, you use a pointy straw to stab into the lid (it is quite satisfying, once you get the hang of it) and then it is ready to enjoy! so i stabbed my straw through the top, swirled the boba around the bottom, and took a big drink. those little bobas went slithering up the straw, across my tongue, and down my throat. it was icky! i tried again, because i really wanted to like it, but it was still gross. i just couldn't do it.
now this is all happening in front of my two little boys at school. they are watching me, and joshua is making a face. he says, "i hate boba!" joshua doesn't say 'hate,' so this is a really strong statement from him. i said, "i don't think i am crazy about it either." then he says, "want me to show you how you can drink it without the bobas?" i say sure, and he shows me how to pull the straw up just until it clears the boba level at which point you only get the drink when you slurp through the straw, because the bobas are heavy. genius!
so i drank the drink, but couldn't quite ingest the bobas. apparently a lot of people really like them, but i think i am not one of them. however, the drink was delicious! and the good news is that you can order it with or without the bobas, which i found interesting since it was sealed. then i found out that at these boba places, you order your drink, they fix it the way you want it, and then they put that clear plastic seal on the top--right in front of you! i find that fascinating! now i am going to have to go to a boba place just to see them do that--i am easily entertained . . .
and i am lucky to have people in my life who think enough of me to bring me a boba drink and keep my emergency pepsi safe for another day . . .
so then i thought i would go back and respond to some of the comments that have been left. i guess i thought there would be a way to go back and pull up all the comments. but either there isn't or i just can't figure it out by myself, and diandra isn't home.
so i am sitting here watching american idol, with the exhausted dogs laying next to me. rollie is already in bed, and diandra is apparently at ralph's buying tuna fish to eat before she goes on to do whatever it is she does at night (we call her vampira.) i have things i should be doing, but since i already walked the dogs today, i sort of feel like i've done enough.
oh wait! i know what i can write! i hope you are still reading . . .
so today . . . i drank a boba drink. my friend jessica brought it to me after lunch. i was threatening to drink my emergency pepsi, and so she brought me a boba. if you have never had one, they are interesting. my best guess is that it is kind of a coffee/tea/milk combination. it is sweetened (probably loaded with sugar) and you drink it iced. but the interesting thing is that it has these blobs in the bottom. they kind of remind me of the fish eggs we used to use for bait when i was a kid. my dad always had us put the fish eggs in our mouths until we needed them (i still can't believe i actually did this!) the blobs are perfectly round and seem to be tasteless, but firm and chewy. they are also kind of slippery. i had a boba one other time, but the blobs were big--i thought they were blueberries until i tasted one. of course i don't like blueberries either--they squish and squirt when you bite into them--but at least they have anti-oxidants. jessica, not knowing if i would like this or not, graciously only put about an inch of these little balls in the bottom of my drink. and they were small, like dippin' dots.
i wanted to be grateful, but boba and i are not friends. however it was so thoughtful of her, that i decided to give it another try. now here is the cool thing about boba drinks. they come in a clear plastic cup and the top is a clear plastic film that is sealed all around--spill-proof! then when you want to drink it, you use a pointy straw to stab into the lid (it is quite satisfying, once you get the hang of it) and then it is ready to enjoy! so i stabbed my straw through the top, swirled the boba around the bottom, and took a big drink. those little bobas went slithering up the straw, across my tongue, and down my throat. it was icky! i tried again, because i really wanted to like it, but it was still gross. i just couldn't do it.
now this is all happening in front of my two little boys at school. they are watching me, and joshua is making a face. he says, "i hate boba!" joshua doesn't say 'hate,' so this is a really strong statement from him. i said, "i don't think i am crazy about it either." then he says, "want me to show you how you can drink it without the bobas?" i say sure, and he shows me how to pull the straw up just until it clears the boba level at which point you only get the drink when you slurp through the straw, because the bobas are heavy. genius!
so i drank the drink, but couldn't quite ingest the bobas. apparently a lot of people really like them, but i think i am not one of them. however, the drink was delicious! and the good news is that you can order it with or without the bobas, which i found interesting since it was sealed. then i found out that at these boba places, you order your drink, they fix it the way you want it, and then they put that clear plastic seal on the top--right in front of you! i find that fascinating! now i am going to have to go to a boba place just to see them do that--i am easily entertained . . .
and i am lucky to have people in my life who think enough of me to bring me a boba drink and keep my emergency pepsi safe for another day . . .
Monday, March 2, 2009
making new friends
so today . . . there was giggling coming from the family room.
this is a fairly unusual occurance, because usually, in the evening, i am in the family room by myself while rollie is catching up on sports and stuff in the "man room" and diandra is out doing whatever it is she does when she is not at home. and except for the click of the keys on my computer, or the low voices on the tv, it is quiet.
but tonight the family room was inhabited by two girls who were giggling. actually, they are young women, but i guess to me diandra will always be a 'girl.' (i wonder if in my mom's eyes i am still a 'girl' even though i am now a mom of a grown up girl of my own!) they had snacks and they were watching a long awaited event. they would laugh at the same things, gasp at the same moments and of course, eat snacks! they made each other laugh, they talked about what they thought would happen next, and during the commercials they got to know each other better. because that's what happens when you are making a new friend . . .
friendship is a precious thing. i have lots of people in my life--and i even like many of them--but just a few are friends. it can be hard to find people who share your interests, "get" your sense of humor, understand your dreams, and like you anyway. it can be risky to answer the question, "so, do you like . . . ?" not knowing if your answer is going to be the deal breaker of a developing friendship or if it will be met with the hoped for response of "me too!" so tonight, it was fun for me to get to see two girls becoming friends--especially since one of them is my daughter. i hope this is just the beginning of the giggling . . .
this is a fairly unusual occurance, because usually, in the evening, i am in the family room by myself while rollie is catching up on sports and stuff in the "man room" and diandra is out doing whatever it is she does when she is not at home. and except for the click of the keys on my computer, or the low voices on the tv, it is quiet.
but tonight the family room was inhabited by two girls who were giggling. actually, they are young women, but i guess to me diandra will always be a 'girl.' (i wonder if in my mom's eyes i am still a 'girl' even though i am now a mom of a grown up girl of my own!) they had snacks and they were watching a long awaited event. they would laugh at the same things, gasp at the same moments and of course, eat snacks! they made each other laugh, they talked about what they thought would happen next, and during the commercials they got to know each other better. because that's what happens when you are making a new friend . . .
friendship is a precious thing. i have lots of people in my life--and i even like many of them--but just a few are friends. it can be hard to find people who share your interests, "get" your sense of humor, understand your dreams, and like you anyway. it can be risky to answer the question, "so, do you like . . . ?" not knowing if your answer is going to be the deal breaker of a developing friendship or if it will be met with the hoped for response of "me too!" so tonight, it was fun for me to get to see two girls becoming friends--especially since one of them is my daughter. i hope this is just the beginning of the giggling . . .
Monday, February 16, 2009
my fiftieth post
so today . . . is my 50th blog post. wow! i am kind of impressed with myself . . .
most days i really enjoy writing, but there are those days where i get started late, or i can't think of anything to write about, or i am just too tired to think about writing. and then i think about how i feel when i go to check the blogs i read and there aren't any new posts--it is disappointing, and i feel a little bit like, "well what am i going to do now? i had planned to spend the next five minutes reading about diandra's teens, or looking at jasmine's lovely photos, or catching up on what is happening with my other friends and family, but there's nothing new to read." i know that the bloggers i follow don't write every day, but still, when NONE of them have a new blog, i miss it. so i try to write something every day.
it is fun to put down my thoughts. but i have discovered that i also really enjoy reading the comments on my blogs--even my friend wendy's comment of "you're pathetic," which is what she says since i can't see her rolling her eyes at my insights. (don't worry about my feelings--it's how she shows love!) my blogs tell you what i think, and your comments let me know what you think. and it tells me that people are reading.
i spent a good part of my rainy saturday this weekend catching up on the blog of a friend of mine. she lives in seattle and loves to garden and knit and cook, and she raises a lot of her own food. we were best friends when we were kids, but as adults our lives are very different from each other. yet i found her blog to be interesting reading, and it helped me to get to know who she has become. as i read her blog, i found myself thinking of what a nice life she has created. at first i just read the entries, but after reading a few months of blogs, i found myself commenting--i couldn't just read, i wanted to respond. i think that is a sign of a good blog. a good blog makes you think about something, and you want to let the writer in on what you are thinking.
so since this is my 50th blog, if you have never left a comment before i am going to ask you to leave one. i am curious about who is reading and what you think.
and as for my friend lisa, your blog gave me a cozy afternoon of reading in front of the fire while the uncharacteristic rain pounded outside. i hope you got my comments. and keep on blogging!
most days i really enjoy writing, but there are those days where i get started late, or i can't think of anything to write about, or i am just too tired to think about writing. and then i think about how i feel when i go to check the blogs i read and there aren't any new posts--it is disappointing, and i feel a little bit like, "well what am i going to do now? i had planned to spend the next five minutes reading about diandra's teens, or looking at jasmine's lovely photos, or catching up on what is happening with my other friends and family, but there's nothing new to read." i know that the bloggers i follow don't write every day, but still, when NONE of them have a new blog, i miss it. so i try to write something every day.
it is fun to put down my thoughts. but i have discovered that i also really enjoy reading the comments on my blogs--even my friend wendy's comment of "you're pathetic," which is what she says since i can't see her rolling her eyes at my insights. (don't worry about my feelings--it's how she shows love!) my blogs tell you what i think, and your comments let me know what you think. and it tells me that people are reading.
i spent a good part of my rainy saturday this weekend catching up on the blog of a friend of mine. she lives in seattle and loves to garden and knit and cook, and she raises a lot of her own food. we were best friends when we were kids, but as adults our lives are very different from each other. yet i found her blog to be interesting reading, and it helped me to get to know who she has become. as i read her blog, i found myself thinking of what a nice life she has created. at first i just read the entries, but after reading a few months of blogs, i found myself commenting--i couldn't just read, i wanted to respond. i think that is a sign of a good blog. a good blog makes you think about something, and you want to let the writer in on what you are thinking.
so since this is my 50th blog, if you have never left a comment before i am going to ask you to leave one. i am curious about who is reading and what you think.
and as for my friend lisa, your blog gave me a cozy afternoon of reading in front of the fire while the uncharacteristic rain pounded outside. i hope you got my comments. and keep on blogging!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
happy birthday to meee!
so today . . . is my birthday!
when i got up, rollie had already gone to the church. but he left me one of those cards that plays music (it got my head boppin') and my third bag of dark chocolate m&m's (no wonder there was only one bag left at target the other day.)
then, just before i left for church, diandra came down to wish me happy birthday. and while hugging me she said, "i'm glad you are one year older and not dead!" she is finally embracing my birthday motto of "it's better than being dead!"
one friend brought me flowers, and another brought me a very chocolatey cake--yum yum.
some of the teens threatened to sing happy birthday to me during church, but thankfully they apparently believed my threats of banning them from the band if that were to happen. then one of them asked me how old i was, and i said i was old enough not to have to count anymore!
my mom and dad called me. rollie took me to lunch, and diandra took me to the mall.
i received many happy birthday wishes on facebook. i know facebook isn't a real place, but the people who inhabit it are real and they remembered that today was my birthday. (ok, maybe they didn't remember, but facebook reminded them. it still counts!)
as i get older, my birthdays are not such a big deal. it doesn't matter what we do. it doesn't matter how old i am. it doesn't matter if there is cake (although it's nice when there is!) even the presents, which i still love, are not as important to the day as they used to be. what matters most to me is being with my family and knowing that there are people who care. and today that happened. i had a great birthday . . .
and here is a comic that was in the paper, today on my birthday. i hope you can read it, because it made all of us laugh right out loud! (the dad alligator has an accent--thus six becomes seex.)
when i got up, rollie had already gone to the church. but he left me one of those cards that plays music (it got my head boppin') and my third bag of dark chocolate m&m's (no wonder there was only one bag left at target the other day.)
then, just before i left for church, diandra came down to wish me happy birthday. and while hugging me she said, "i'm glad you are one year older and not dead!" she is finally embracing my birthday motto of "it's better than being dead!"
one friend brought me flowers, and another brought me a very chocolatey cake--yum yum.
some of the teens threatened to sing happy birthday to me during church, but thankfully they apparently believed my threats of banning them from the band if that were to happen. then one of them asked me how old i was, and i said i was old enough not to have to count anymore!my mom and dad called me. rollie took me to lunch, and diandra took me to the mall.
i received many happy birthday wishes on facebook. i know facebook isn't a real place, but the people who inhabit it are real and they remembered that today was my birthday. (ok, maybe they didn't remember, but facebook reminded them. it still counts!)
as i get older, my birthdays are not such a big deal. it doesn't matter what we do. it doesn't matter how old i am. it doesn't matter if there is cake (although it's nice when there is!) even the presents, which i still love, are not as important to the day as they used to be. what matters most to me is being with my family and knowing that there are people who care. and today that happened. i had a great birthday . . .
and here is a comic that was in the paper, today on my birthday. i hope you can read it, because it made all of us laugh right out loud! (the dad alligator has an accent--thus six becomes seex.)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
oh, THAT'S what the little green dot is . . .
so today . . . i was just hanging out on the internet, trying to decide what to blog about, when a little green dot appeared at the bottom of my screen. yesterday, i realized that the little green dot means that my friend wendy is online.
it took me a little while to learn this. usually i use my computer with the sound off, because i am typically also watching tv or talking to rollie or i'm at school, and i don't want the computer making noise. so i didn't hear the "ding" when wendy was trying to message me. i would eventually SEE that she had been online, but by then she would be off. she couldn't figure out why i wouldn't respond, which i could tell by reading her comments --"why isn't this thing working?!?!?!" she would say.
but yesterday, i finally saw the green light and was able to respond when she tried to talk to me. and then tonight, i saw the light and IM'd her first! i am learning . . .
when you IM someone, the conversation is a little weird, because there is a bit of a time lag. most of the time while i am responding to what she has written, she is writing something else. so you sort of end up having two parallel conversations with the same person at the same time. it's interesting. and fun.
some might ask, why not just pick up the phone and call? i think it is kind of like the difference between interacting on a social page like myspace or facebook, and writing a letter. a letter or a phone call needs an agenda, but you don't really have to have anything to say to message someone. it's just a little, "hey, how are you doing?" and then you move on. even the subject matter tends to be a little trivial and changes quickly. after all, if you had anything important to say, you would call . . .
some people bemoan the isolation of a society of people sitting at home communicating by typing messages to each other on their computers instead of getting out there and living their lives among others. i agree that it is probably not socially or emotionally healthy if all your relationships are electronic ones. but the truth is, i am finding that i am able to renew and sustain friendships with people who don't live where i do, that were all but lost to me before myspace, facebook, instant messaging, and blogs became a part of my life. if i wait until i have something important to say before i write or call anyone, it never happens. but the beauty of the internet is that sometimes just posting "hey, i was thinking about you today," can start an electronic conversation that helps connect people. (and besides, without twitter and blogs i would never know where diandra was . . . )
i wasn't going to blog tonight, because wendy and i IM'd for about 40 minutes, and i didn't have any idea of what to write about, and i was hungry. my plan was to just explain that, so at least there would be something for you guys who check my blog every day (thank you!) to read, and then i was headed for the kitchen.
but look what happens once i get started. the beauty of the internet strikes again . . .
it took me a little while to learn this. usually i use my computer with the sound off, because i am typically also watching tv or talking to rollie or i'm at school, and i don't want the computer making noise. so i didn't hear the "ding" when wendy was trying to message me. i would eventually SEE that she had been online, but by then she would be off. she couldn't figure out why i wouldn't respond, which i could tell by reading her comments --"why isn't this thing working?!?!?!" she would say.
but yesterday, i finally saw the green light and was able to respond when she tried to talk to me. and then tonight, i saw the light and IM'd her first! i am learning . . .
when you IM someone, the conversation is a little weird, because there is a bit of a time lag. most of the time while i am responding to what she has written, she is writing something else. so you sort of end up having two parallel conversations with the same person at the same time. it's interesting. and fun.
some might ask, why not just pick up the phone and call? i think it is kind of like the difference between interacting on a social page like myspace or facebook, and writing a letter. a letter or a phone call needs an agenda, but you don't really have to have anything to say to message someone. it's just a little, "hey, how are you doing?" and then you move on. even the subject matter tends to be a little trivial and changes quickly. after all, if you had anything important to say, you would call . . .
some people bemoan the isolation of a society of people sitting at home communicating by typing messages to each other on their computers instead of getting out there and living their lives among others. i agree that it is probably not socially or emotionally healthy if all your relationships are electronic ones. but the truth is, i am finding that i am able to renew and sustain friendships with people who don't live where i do, that were all but lost to me before myspace, facebook, instant messaging, and blogs became a part of my life. if i wait until i have something important to say before i write or call anyone, it never happens. but the beauty of the internet is that sometimes just posting "hey, i was thinking about you today," can start an electronic conversation that helps connect people. (and besides, without twitter and blogs i would never know where diandra was . . . )
i wasn't going to blog tonight, because wendy and i IM'd for about 40 minutes, and i didn't have any idea of what to write about, and i was hungry. my plan was to just explain that, so at least there would be something for you guys who check my blog every day (thank you!) to read, and then i was headed for the kitchen.
but look what happens once i get started. the beauty of the internet strikes again . . .
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
no, i'm not related to kevin bacon
so today . . . i was on facebook. i know, i know, i spend way too much time online, but there it is.
anyway, i was on facebook, and i had three requests for an application about relatives. normally i don't like to add new applications because they tend to clutter up my page. but this request came from my daughter, one of my nieces, and another very cool guy who i kind of think of as a nephew, but he is really the son of my cousin, so i don't know what that makes him to me, but we act like he is diandra's cousin so i think of him like a nephew . . .
ANYWAY, the idea is this-- i mark the people on my contact list who are relatives, and then send the app on to those people. and then they do the same. as this continues, we each theoretically end up finding people we didn't even know we were related to--think "six degrees of separation" only with people you are related to, and not kevin bacon. since i love the people who asked me to do this, i did it--even though i had to add an app.
it only took a few seconds to go through my list and mark my relatives, but something interesting happened as i did that. i found myself starting to mark people that are not related to me! now, i have a wonderful family--i wouldn't trade them for any other group of people. but i guess i've also been blessed with some very good friends. some are people who have gone through difficult circumstances with me. some are people i have known for a long time. some are people who are like me in so many ways that it is hard to believe we are NOT related. and with some, there is just an unexplainable connection--it's like our brains are networked.
i needed to see that. sometimes i feel like an island in the middle of a huge ocean, and it was good to be reminded that i'm not. i have bridges to lots of other islands. most of these islands don't live where i live, but thank goodness for bridges (like the internet!) i was never someone who had a lot of friends, but i AM someone who has some awesome friends! and i am so thankful for that!!
so thank you, to you guys who are my friends. it's good to know you are out there. i love you!
and to diandra, holly, and james--thanks for bugging me with the new app! i love you guys too!!
anyway, i was on facebook, and i had three requests for an application about relatives. normally i don't like to add new applications because they tend to clutter up my page. but this request came from my daughter, one of my nieces, and another very cool guy who i kind of think of as a nephew, but he is really the son of my cousin, so i don't know what that makes him to me, but we act like he is diandra's cousin so i think of him like a nephew . . .
ANYWAY, the idea is this-- i mark the people on my contact list who are relatives, and then send the app on to those people. and then they do the same. as this continues, we each theoretically end up finding people we didn't even know we were related to--think "six degrees of separation" only with people you are related to, and not kevin bacon. since i love the people who asked me to do this, i did it--even though i had to add an app.
it only took a few seconds to go through my list and mark my relatives, but something interesting happened as i did that. i found myself starting to mark people that are not related to me! now, i have a wonderful family--i wouldn't trade them for any other group of people. but i guess i've also been blessed with some very good friends. some are people who have gone through difficult circumstances with me. some are people i have known for a long time. some are people who are like me in so many ways that it is hard to believe we are NOT related. and with some, there is just an unexplainable connection--it's like our brains are networked.
i needed to see that. sometimes i feel like an island in the middle of a huge ocean, and it was good to be reminded that i'm not. i have bridges to lots of other islands. most of these islands don't live where i live, but thank goodness for bridges (like the internet!) i was never someone who had a lot of friends, but i AM someone who has some awesome friends! and i am so thankful for that!!
so thank you, to you guys who are my friends. it's good to know you are out there. i love you!
and to diandra, holly, and james--thanks for bugging me with the new app! i love you guys too!!
Monday, February 2, 2009
and i am two for two . . .
so today . . . i heard back from another old friend.
she lived next door to me when i was a teenager. our families were friends. she had three younger brothers, and i had one (although there were times when he seemed like three!) our brothers played together and plotted ways to annoy us. sometimes they were the bane of our existence, but together we were stronger than any one of them (and sometimes even two of them!) our moms were friends. we spent most of our free time together. in the summer, every day at noon we would meet at one house or the other with our bologna and miracle whip sandwiches, and watch perry mason. even now, bologna sandwiches make me think of perry mason, and if i happen to hear the theme music for perry mason, i get hungry for bologna and miracle whip.
we loved to make things. we always had a project going. the most memorable one to me was when we decided to make quilts. we cut hundreds of small hexagons, which then had to be stitched together by hand because of their shape. i had my unfinished quilt and bag of hexagons until just a few years ago. i just couldn't get rid of it, even though i knew i would never finish it, because it reminded me of her.
one summer she made the trek by car with us to iowa. she visited her relatives while we visited ours, but we shared the three day trip each way. when we went to pick her up for the trip back, she had tiny tree frogs in a shoe box, AND MY MOM LET HER BRING THEM ALONG! in a shoe box. in the car. for three days. i couldn't believe it!
then the day came when her dad was transferred to the seattle area, and they had to move. we vowed that we would still be friends, but phone calls were expensive and letters became infrequent. we were able to visit each other a few times and managed to stay close for a while. she came to visit me at college (where we got tear-gassed, but that is a story for another day!) and was in my wedding. then we moved to kansas city and the distance just became too great.
our paths have crossed occasionally since then, but we haven't really been able to sustain the connection. she is the only friend i have from my childhood and teenage years, and so she knows me in a different way than anyone else. that is a rare and valuable thing, so this time i am determined that i won't lose her again.
she lived next door to me when i was a teenager. our families were friends. she had three younger brothers, and i had one (although there were times when he seemed like three!) our brothers played together and plotted ways to annoy us. sometimes they were the bane of our existence, but together we were stronger than any one of them (and sometimes even two of them!) our moms were friends. we spent most of our free time together. in the summer, every day at noon we would meet at one house or the other with our bologna and miracle whip sandwiches, and watch perry mason. even now, bologna sandwiches make me think of perry mason, and if i happen to hear the theme music for perry mason, i get hungry for bologna and miracle whip.
we loved to make things. we always had a project going. the most memorable one to me was when we decided to make quilts. we cut hundreds of small hexagons, which then had to be stitched together by hand because of their shape. i had my unfinished quilt and bag of hexagons until just a few years ago. i just couldn't get rid of it, even though i knew i would never finish it, because it reminded me of her.
one summer she made the trek by car with us to iowa. she visited her relatives while we visited ours, but we shared the three day trip each way. when we went to pick her up for the trip back, she had tiny tree frogs in a shoe box, AND MY MOM LET HER BRING THEM ALONG! in a shoe box. in the car. for three days. i couldn't believe it!
then the day came when her dad was transferred to the seattle area, and they had to move. we vowed that we would still be friends, but phone calls were expensive and letters became infrequent. we were able to visit each other a few times and managed to stay close for a while. she came to visit me at college (where we got tear-gassed, but that is a story for another day!) and was in my wedding. then we moved to kansas city and the distance just became too great.
our paths have crossed occasionally since then, but we haven't really been able to sustain the connection. she is the only friend i have from my childhood and teenage years, and so she knows me in a different way than anyone else. that is a rare and valuable thing, so this time i am determined that i won't lose her again.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
old friends become new friends
so today . . . i heard from an old friend, someone with whom i haven't been in contact since i was just out of college. i was so happy to hear from her!
when rollie went to seminary, we moved to kansas city, missouri--a LONG way from home. when we arrived, we found a place to live, unpacked our stuff, started looking for jobs, and rollie enrolled in school. it wasn't long before he was very, very busy with classes, homework, and his job as a school bus driver.
i was less busy. soon i had a great job working with nice people, but they were all a lot older than i was. i found i didn't have much in common with the other people in our apartment building either. and being shy, as i was, made it hard to make new friends.
but we did find a church full of friendly people. and we got to know a lot of seminary couples. if you know me very much at all, you know i wasn't fitting in really well with other "seminary wives." i was surrounded by people, but still felt alone.
then i met cyndy and judy. they were my salvation during those three years in kansas city. we didn't really have a lot in common--i was young (22) and they were older (29ish!), i was married and they were single, i was shy and quiet, and they were outgoing and friendly, i had a job and they had careers. but they were two of the most fun people i have ever been around! i'm not sure i could have become their friend if rollie hadn't helped me by also being a part of the group. he is a fun guy and he was kind of the bridge between their friendliness and wackiness and my shyness. i'm sure we had serious discussions, but what i remember most is the laughter--it seems like no matter what we did, they had fun and so did i.
when we left kansas city three years later, i was a different person. i was more confident, less fearful, more outspoken (but still shy.) and while some of that probably had to do with living so far away from home and getting three years older, i know that some of it had to do with my friends cyndy and judy. their friendship changed me, and played a part in making me who i am today--so yes, you guys, it's partly your fault!!
i am really excited that i've been able to reconnect with cyndy through the internet. (i love the internet!!) while i am sure her life hasn't all been fun (because no one's is) it sounds to me like she has met her challenges head on and blasted right through them. i knew there was something special about her back then, and it seems to me that her life shows that i was right! i think i am going to get to see her this summer, and i can hardly wait!
i have recently tried to reach two other old friends through email addresses i found. i am hoping i will hear back from them as well, because there is something unique about people who knew us at different times in our lives. the people who knew me in my 20's would find some surprises if they were to spend time with me today--i am not the same, and they wouldn't be the same either. but that is what makes it interesting . . .
when rollie went to seminary, we moved to kansas city, missouri--a LONG way from home. when we arrived, we found a place to live, unpacked our stuff, started looking for jobs, and rollie enrolled in school. it wasn't long before he was very, very busy with classes, homework, and his job as a school bus driver.
i was less busy. soon i had a great job working with nice people, but they were all a lot older than i was. i found i didn't have much in common with the other people in our apartment building either. and being shy, as i was, made it hard to make new friends.
but we did find a church full of friendly people. and we got to know a lot of seminary couples. if you know me very much at all, you know i wasn't fitting in really well with other "seminary wives." i was surrounded by people, but still felt alone.
then i met cyndy and judy. they were my salvation during those three years in kansas city. we didn't really have a lot in common--i was young (22) and they were older (29ish!), i was married and they were single, i was shy and quiet, and they were outgoing and friendly, i had a job and they had careers. but they were two of the most fun people i have ever been around! i'm not sure i could have become their friend if rollie hadn't helped me by also being a part of the group. he is a fun guy and he was kind of the bridge between their friendliness and wackiness and my shyness. i'm sure we had serious discussions, but what i remember most is the laughter--it seems like no matter what we did, they had fun and so did i.
when we left kansas city three years later, i was a different person. i was more confident, less fearful, more outspoken (but still shy.) and while some of that probably had to do with living so far away from home and getting three years older, i know that some of it had to do with my friends cyndy and judy. their friendship changed me, and played a part in making me who i am today--so yes, you guys, it's partly your fault!!
i am really excited that i've been able to reconnect with cyndy through the internet. (i love the internet!!) while i am sure her life hasn't all been fun (because no one's is) it sounds to me like she has met her challenges head on and blasted right through them. i knew there was something special about her back then, and it seems to me that her life shows that i was right! i think i am going to get to see her this summer, and i can hardly wait!
i have recently tried to reach two other old friends through email addresses i found. i am hoping i will hear back from them as well, because there is something unique about people who knew us at different times in our lives. the people who knew me in my 20's would find some surprises if they were to spend time with me today--i am not the same, and they wouldn't be the same either. but that is what makes it interesting . . .
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