Decisions

S took this pic of me last weekend. She says that I look so much more at ease when I am out of that damn town I live in. I think we had our best visit ever. I have moving on my mind these days.

Meme

The Rules:
1) Link to the person that tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least three people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
5) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6) Let the fun begin!

I was tagged by Trop.

6 quirky things about me? (only 6? :)

1. I am a complete loser about hair/makeup. It has to be foolproof, or I will screw it up. Even then I stll manage to screw it up sometimes!

2. Like Sassy, I am also OCD about checking the alarm clock. I will check it before I get in bed and half the time I have to get up and check it again!

3. I am a sap for old movies. LOVE them! Especially musicals. A few favorites- Pillow Talk, Calamity Jane, South Pacific.

4. I am a museum freak. I love to go in and look.at.everything. It drives my older two kids crazy but my youngest is right there with me. (God I love that boy!)

5. I took up golf at age 39 and loved it. I hope to get back to playing when I'm done with school. S and I love to play together.

6. I'm a complete laggard about new trends and gadgets. I have no burning desire to have the latest and the greatest. I can wait until all the bugs are worked out, thanks very much. I still have an old car (1997) I have an old cell phone, and I don't have a digital camera (I did, but it broke so now I just use my cell phone). WhenI do get a gadget, it takes me forever to learn the features, and I'll likely never learn them all before the thing breaks and has to be replaced.

I'm a little behind the times since I was out of town, so anybody who hasn't joined in yet, feel free!

Speaking of Sweet Memories...

I'm about to go make some more... I leave tomorrow for someplace warm and sunny. Tomorrow morning when I get up the forecast says it will be 3 degrees and a windchill of minus 7. By tomorrow afternoon I will be somewhere where no coat or boots will be required!! S has promised that I am going to be totally pampered. I can't wait.

Sweet memories

I have been thinking about S all day today. We make such a great team. We like to do so many things together. She reminded me today of when we used to do projects together. One of my favorites was when we redid the powder room at my old house. The house was built in the 70's, and everything about it was very dated, including the dark mediterannean style cabinetry.
We ripped down very ugly FOIL wallpaper, painted the walls a neutral color, painted the cabinet white, replaced the floor with vinyl tile that looked like natural stone( ok not exactly but hey the budget was pretty tight) We had so much fun making that room look wonderful. I can still remember S sitting on the floor cutting the last pieces of tile to fit in the doorway. We had to cut the base board molding and use a mitre box, and we were both a little scared of the power tools, but we did it. She made it so much fun and we were so proud of that room. It was the smallest room in the house, but it was done over w/ love, and I remember feeling so proud of our accomplishment and just enjoying how pretty it looked. It was around this time that we began to realize we had feelings for each other and we had lots of fun working in the close confines of that room together.

We continued to fix up other rooms in the house,painting and putting up a border for the boys and repainting the spare bedroom a sunny yellow color. I wish she was here with me now, I miss having her beside me. It's hard when the other half of your team is so far away.

Now that I'm out of the house, the ex has found new energy ( either he's getting ready to sell it or maybe it's his mom nagging) to get things done that I asked him to for ever. He never took any interest in the house( or in me for that matter). S came along, fixed my house and stole my heart.

Oh Please

Chuck Norris- the man who makes his living PLAYING tough guys, has expressed his fear that John McCain is too old to be president, that he might be too old to withstand the stresses and pressures of the office.

Hmmm, let's see, John McCain: Naval Academy graduate, pilot, POW, Senator.
I think Mr. McCain has been sufficiently tested under pressure and proved himself more than capable.
Chuck Norris: B movie and TV actor, TV huckster of exercise equipment. You only wish you were as tough as McCain. I don't know anything of Mr. Norris's personal life, but I think it's pretty safe to assume he never faced the stresses of being held prisoner and tortured by an enemy.

I don't have any idea who I'll vote for this year. I don't know if I'll claim any party affiliation. I hope people can tell the difference between a real hero and someone who plays one on TV.

"Appearance and Attraction"

The title of this post was the topic of the lecture tonight in my class on Nonverbal Communication. It was quite interesting and we talked a lot about how we form opinions and impute favorable characteristcs to people based on their "attractiveness". Now I know we are all horrified to think this is the case, but it really is.
We also talked a lot about self image and how people's self concept can be distorted by the cultural norms or ideals. One that we talked about was women's perception of themselves. Most women view at least one part of their body as "fat". Most men would choose to be taller. It seems that none of us are satisfied with how we are!
It reminded me of Sassy's post about her recent weight loss. She posted a pic and I think everyone agrees that she looks great and has done a great job losing weight and taking care of her health. Sassy commented in her post about looking in the mirror and still seeing herself as "fat" or at least not where she thinks she should be. Even though she goes to the store and buys size 6-8, her mind is still thinking/feeling like she's in a 14. How many of us have done this? If we answer honestly, probably a lot of us have had the same or similar experience. I know I have looked at old pictures and thought, "Wow, I really looked thin there", but I think back, and ask myself if I thought of myself as thin THEN. I never felt like I was thin then, I always felt like I needed to be different than I was.

Unfortunately, Barbie is still the ideal that is put before us and portrayed in the media and to our kids. Girls as young as 4th and 5th graders report "dieting". This is crazy! I hope our country's focus on fitness and health will someday expand where we can address the health of women's self concept. Maybe Carson Kressley's new show will help. It certainly can't hurt!

"Change"

All the candidates in NH are fighting about who best embodies change.
I know the answer- it's ME.
Since 2005 I've gone from being a stay at home homeschooling Mom to a full time student and part-time paralegal.
Right now I wish I had a magic 8-ball, or a meme or website that I could insert the variables and find out where I'm going from here.
I'm trying to finish my bachelor's in Summer 08.
In February I'm taking the LSAT.
I don't know where I'm going from here, whether I go to law school, graduate school or get a job. I know my lease is up this summer and I'm moving from this little town. I just don't know where. My kids are doing ok right now- I don't like the schools they are in. The older two will probably stay where they are- too many friends and the fear of anything different will keep them here in this little town. I have hope for better things for my youngest and myself. One of those better things will be a fresh start in a new place.So many things I'd like to do, so many opportunities, yet the one that eludes me is the direct path to my sweetheart.


The one thing I know, is come 2009, I will be in a different town, whether it's a few miles down the road or a couple states away.
Anybody got a road map? I'd love to know where I'm going from here.

Gooollllleeee!

Gomer, I mean Huckabee is the projected winner in the Iowa Caucus.
Thank God, he's last in the polling in New Hampshire.

Intercultural understanding

A post over at Zoe's reminded me of something I've been working on for school. She lamented the sight of a Mother feeding her preschoolers Hostess cupcakes and Mountain Dew for breakfast. It is disheartening to think of the thousands of children who are waking up to or going to bed with this type of food on the menu morning, noon and night. I commented about how I had a co-worker, who had no idea what "broiling" was and aside from visits to Burger King, had never eaten anything broiled.

I had to read a book for school this quarter called A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne, PhD. I thought it an unusual choice for a class in Intercultural communications, because I had always thought of that concept in the traditional sense of Americans and Mexicans, or Americans and Canadians, or Americans and any other country you can name. After reading this book I have to say I think it is extremely relevant to intercultural communication. As Dr. Payne illustrates in a very short text, there are definite, huge, cultural divides between the poor, the middle class, and the wealthy. Unfortunately for the poor, the rules and norms for all our systems are written by and in the language of the middle class. What I failed to realize was that poor people are living in a system and society that plays by totally different rules than they are used to in their world. The poor have very different ideas about money. Money is to be spent. If you have extra, you help someone who needs it, or else when you need it, they won't help you. In many poor neighborhoods, the ability to fight is critical to survival. In a school setting, fighting will get you in trouble. The examples are just as shocking and seem just as ridiculous as the stories we hear of Americans going to other countries and offending the natives by their ignorance of the native cultures. (like building bridges over dry riverbeds, or spending thousands building western style homes for pacific island natives who viewed the concrete homes as "jails" and refused to occupy them. Dr. Payne's book gives short tests to see if you could survive being "poor", "middle class" or "wealthy".

From the poor test:
Do you know how to move in half a day?
Do you know how to get someone out of jail?
Do you know how to live without a bank account?

This book points out not only the effects of these differences, but also some insights into the causes. This is an excellent, short read, a real eye-opener. I highly recommend it, especially for Educators or Social service providers.