April Showers bring May Flowers...

Not a lot of showers this April.

I found myself stashing the portable heater away in the garage.  Because it's supposed to be upwards of 90 degrees in the coming days and it just doesn't make sense to keep it out.

Even though I've cleaned out the garage, I find myself throwing more and more stuff in there.  I don't want a lot of stuff.  But when I get overwhelmed, I like to think that if I buy a new outfit or something for the house, I'll feel better.  It all adds up.

Last year, I watched hours and hours of the show, "Hoarders" for motivation to throw things out.  It worked.  I completely transformed the garage.

Isn't it funny how different people handle stress?

Some people drink.  Some people get confrontational and nasty.  Some people disappear.  And some people (ahem, me) tend to accumulate. 

It sure feels great when I manage to pull through and throw stuff out though.  I've got to stay on top of that.

Writing Again

I've decided to finish the book.

You know, the one I started in 2007.

When I started it, I only had enough for half a book...now I know I can really finish it.

I think that if I write once a day...for the next month, I will be ready to self publish.

The book is about teaching.  I've run the idea by a few friends of mine. One is in educational management and thinks it's a great idea.

The other person I ran my idea by, she used to be an editor for a major publishing house in New York.  At least, I think she was.  I haven't talked with her for a few years.  But, when I ran my idea by her some years ago, she thought the timing for the book was spot on.

I think the timing is even better now.

Invictus

I had to memorize this poem in 2nd grade (English school, American school was way easier than that);

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

By William Ernest Henley

The Best doggies in the World

I could go on and on about my puppies they (they are fullgrown dogs)...but I'll try to keep my list down to 10...

This is why my doggies are the best ever;

1) they snuggle with me and give me love whenever I need it, even if I don't know I'm needing it.

2) they make me laugh. Every day.

3) they tell me they love me. Every day. Anyone who says dogs can't talk, doesnt know dogs.

4) they are smart really smart. Scary smart. They train me to walk them a certain time. They know automatically what is a dog toy and what isn't. They know when I'm happy, sad, in a bad mood, even when I don't know what I'm feeling.

5) they are always up for an adventure. Always.

6) they never complain about what we are doing. Well, hardly ever.

7) they are always smiling.

8)'they love my food.

9) they buffer the bad times. Really. If I take em with me, I can deal with stressful people and situations. Cuz it never gets them down. And I can bring my attention to them and off of the lunatics in my presence.

10) they are family.

Noise 'n Neighbors

It was noisy this morning.

First, construction noises tht awoke me in the early morning hours. Not just the overweight twentysomething that lives next door and body slams her door any chance she can get (I think she's mentally disturbed), but the ongoing shrieking and crashing of cranes and tons of steel slamming against each other in a constant, never letting up alarm clock like crashing and bashing.

So I woke up.

Headed downstairs, fixed a cup (or two) of tea. And decluttered my email inboxes.

As I sat, slowly going through my online obligations, the other neighbors sent their shrill 3 year old outside their front door (and under my window) to play.  Apparently, he's too noisy for them to deal with in their house. Which means I get the pleasure of hearing the noisiest kid on earth outside screaming and yelling and, inevitably, cry-screaming that he wants to go back inside. The kid does this for hours. If anyone needs to get neutered to prevent more of this, it's those neighbors. But I'm sure they have another on the way.

As I sat on my couch, pondering the means of justifiable homicide, the dogs went nuts. They started barking as if someone's pants were on fire. Pretty soon I could hear some hammering and, eventually, someone started slamming what sounded like a metal obje t up against my house. It was the cable guy.

I gave up. Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon looking up land in the quiet countryside on Zillow.

Loooong day

It has been a very long day.

I just came home after a doozy of a day and I gotta say...what was I thinking all those years ago?

Cuz coming home to the dogs is the best ever. I feel my stress going down, just being with them...

I know I was worried that getting the dogs/ a dog would mean I wouldn't be able to do all those things I wanted to do...namely, travel..

But, to be honest, I'd rather not go on a trip if I can't take the family.

So, getting the dogs has been the best thing ever, for my mental and physical health. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Blogging Again

My last post was March of 2011...

A few things have changed...

I have an iPad now and can post from it...

I've been writing a book about my time teaching at a Program Improvement school in East San Jose and an Alternative School in the East Bay. I'm gonna call it fiction, but it's based on my experiences there.

A few family health scares and tragedies but where there is life, there is hope.

I've made a lot of new friends and said goodbye to some dear old friends.

Art and creativity have always been there for me, but I'm just now realizing that they are a huge priority in my life. Also, so are the dogs and plants, nature & the outdoors.

I'm lucky 'cuz I know how to cook and I like to make my own stuff. So I've been doing a lot of that.

Real estate continues to be a part of my life, as does thrifting and fashion.

For the last year I've been meditating every morning and reading from my morning reader.

And meet ups! Meetups are great! I've joined a trillion meetings and try to hit up one a month, minimum.

I think I'm gonna go ahead and read some of my past entries...it's funny but I think Facebook replaced blogging for me..twitter never really did anything for me though...

It feels good to blog again, like seeing an old friend...

Weeds, Season 6

And if you thought it couldn't get any better, think again.

Love that show!

She (Mary Louise Parker) ditches the Mexican Drug Lord (also her child's father) to save her murderous child and embrace a life on the run.

I love this show.

Sadly, daily, it is becoming more and more realistic in this crazy California-ay state...

What is Bullying?

Recently President Obama and wifey appeared on Facebook to address the issue of bullying. Apparently our children have gone bull-crazy with their bullying and it needs to be addressed.

Only it's not our children.

Let's look at our society right now. You got it, the folks who are running the show. You know, the ones with the $8 million salaries, sports figures and prominent political positions. The ones who set policy, police us and decide our laws, national budgets and state and federal positions on things like...oh, I don't know...collective bargaining for one thing.

Well, those folks are getting (or have been for awhile) quite...well, ugly is the word I'm thinking. You know, the grown up types who appear on talk shows (making billions of dollars) and complain that our teachers don't do their $35,000 a year jobs.

Or how about our billion dollar sports figures who rape young girls, yet don't face prosecution, continue to collect their gross salaries and still have a wifey and family. That's a bully.

How about the software exec. making booque bucks who thinks he knows how a public school should be run, yet never in fact ever attended a public school. A priviliged tycoon, who was priviliged all his life, yet thinks he knows all about those of us less priviliged.

Or the executive (school or industry) who toots his card as an ethnic minority and uses that to bulldoze competent teachers and sabotages students of all ethnicities. "You can't teach unless you are of my race!" this blowhard bellows. And students of his ethnicity suffer because he hires teachers only of his own ethnicity, some who can't teach. That's a bully.

The Enron execs....they were bullys. The Wall Street a-holes who gave out loans that they knew were no good..but we all ended up paying for...now that's a bully.

Or the governor who only runs for office because he doesn't want to pay for a luxury tax on his hummers, yachts and mansions..and hires his own goons for political office (instead of a more qualified outsider)...now that's a bully.

But, hey, it's a feel good thing to appear on facebook and address the symptom of a larger societal problem. Talking about our larger societal problems of glorifying and magnifying the adult bully...now that would take courage.