Learning Early

Look out, Dad. Somebody’s got the credit cards!

Tales from the Babysitting Files.

Random observations

Last night as I was babysitting my six-month-old nephew and just-turned-two-year-old-running-toddler-ball-of-fire-who-within-less-than-five-
minutes-of-my-pulling-it-out-of-the-box-broke-the-train-door-off-of-LJ’s-brand-
new-$120-dollar-toy niece, I noticed again how my brother and his wife have a 2-gallon trash can under their kitchen sink.

They must be certifiably insane.

Well THAT feels good!

. . . except for the part about being obstinant, but hey, pobody’s nerfect, yes? Obstinacy is just tenaciousness turned upside-down, right? (And I loved the artwork. Beautiful.)

You are Strength

Courage, strength, fortitude. Power not arrested in the act of judgement, but passing on to further action, sometimes obstinacy.

This is a card of courage and energy. It represents both the Lion’s hot, roaring energy, and the Maiden’s steadfast will. The innocent Maiden is unafraid, undaunted, and indomitable. In some cards she opens the lion’s mouth, in others she shuts it. Either way, she proves that inner strength is more powerful than raw physical strength. That forces can be controlled and used to score a victory is very close to the message of the Chariot, which might be why, in some decks, it is Justice that is card 8 instead of Strength. With strength you can control not only the situation, but yourself. It is a card about anger and impulse management, about creative answers, leadership and maintaining one’s personal honor. It can also stand for a steadfast friend.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Theme of the week

With my thanks to Camus.

“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”

ALBERT CAMUS, The Plague

Dear God,

Please help me gain understanding, and help me gain it NOW. (I’ll pray for patience later.)

Thank you,

Angela

p.s. Sorry I don’t think that you’re a big dude on a cloud up there anymore. Hope you’re not offended.

just thinking outloud

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

EDMUND BURKE

As one woman with no political power, no money and no real connections, how do I do something? And which cause do I choose to tackle in a world with so much pain and suffering? I do not wish to be part of the reason evil triumphs. I do not wish to add pain and suffering to the world. But there is so much hurt and pain everywhere I turn that I hardly know where to begin. Sending checks to Unicef, recycling and donating clothes to charity suddenly doesn’t seem like enough. Probably because it isn’t. But how to begin . . .

Seasons of Love

Four years ago, a man shot and killed his wife one block from the campus where I worked. The school went in lock-down mode, and I jumped in my car to get my daughter and drive as far away from that block as I could get.

Last night and today my heart has hurt for everyone affected by the Virgina Tech tragedy. There are times when there are no words, and this is one of them.

Four-and-a-half years ago I sat in a big, beautiful hall and watched the musical “Rent” for the first time.

Originally I ordered tickets because I fell in love with the popular song “Seasons of Love.”

“How do you measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee? In inches, in miles, in laughter and strife.”

“How about love?”

I lost it. Just lost it. I’m not one to break down in public, but I did then. I couldn’t stop crying. It was something about the way that these friends cared for each other, even though they were cold and homeless and had more troubles than I’d had in my 33 years put together.

They took care of each other, in spite of their troubles and usually because of them. And it brought the truth of my life home to me in a way I hadn’t allowed myself to feel before that night.

“How How Do You Measure The Life
Of A Women Or A Man?

In Truths That She Learned
Or In Times That He Cried
In Bridges He Burned
Or The Way That She Died

It’s Time Now - To Sing out
Tho` The Story Never Ends
Let’s Celebrate
Remember A Year In The Life of Friends

Remember The Love”

I think that was the night my marriage ended, if I had to point to a moment. I was too much looking for that season of love in my life — for someone who would remember what my life was about after I was gone, someone who cared, someone who just might possibly be interested in measuring my life, the good and the bad of it — someone who would look at me and really see me.

I hope that everyone who lost their life yesterday, whether in Virgina or elsewhere, was truly seen before he or she died. There is too much hurting in the world — too much not seeing and not being seen. I’m going home to hug my kid and say a prayer for every parent who won’t be able to do that again in this lifetime. If we all had more love, what would this world be like?

I’m a good dog and I just want to go home

If this doesn’t send you to your local shelter (or at least make you tear up and possibly donate), I don’t know what will. And while I’m not schlepping Pedigree dog food, I still am on a mission to bring another dog home. Can you tell?

Attitude

Attitude

There once was a woman who woke up one morning,
Looked in the mirror,
And noticed she had only three hairs on her head.

“Well,” she said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today.”

So she did.

And she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror
And saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

“Hmmm,” she said,
“I think I’ll part my hair down the middle today.”

So she did.

And she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror
And noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

“Well,” she said,
“today I’m going to wear my hair in a pony tail.”

So she did.

And she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn’t a single hair on her head.

“YAY!” she exclaimed.

“I don’t have to fix my hair today!”

Attitude is everything.

Be kinder than necessary,

For everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Live simply,

Love generously,

Care deeply,

Speak kindly,

Leave the rest to God.

With love,

Me

Photo credit goes to my dear and loving husband’s cousin Carol, who knows her stuff when it comes to taking beautiful pictures, and the text is from an e-mail I received from the lovely, amazing, multi-talented and ever cheerful Fran. I will always be grateful for the time she was in my life. Here’s to you both! (if you ever read this) Thank you for sharing your gifts with me!

Doing MUCH better and time for banshee!

So I have this little post rolling around in my head all about what I learned from last week’s down-in-the-dumps experience, complete with great revelations and research studies, but it’s going to have to wait. You know why? TAXES. That’s why!

To discuss my tax situation with you would be to bring nearly unbearable shame upon myself and my loved ones (okay, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but we’re talking ‘04, ‘05 AND ‘06 here, people). Don’t ask.

Apparently, if they owe YOU money, it’s not such a big deal. Good with money I am not. So it’s a lucky thing that WordPress is FREE (my favorite word). I’m an English major, remember? English major. Money. Not a good combination.

I AM smart enough, however, to have a little bit socked away in a 401k or 503c or something like that. It’s with the Teacher People. And it’s doing okay, because I checked the “get aggressive ’cause I’m young-ish” box when I signed up. (I’m not totally stupid fiscally. Hush, Peanut Gallery!)

But if I’m going to put this kind of time into a post, I should just go ahead and talk about how I got my mojo back, BUT, since it’s late and I still have miles to go before I sleep, I will leave you now with the lovely Screaming Banshee of Hallmark e-card fame.

One word of warning: Keep the volume low if you don’t want to wake the kids. I am unfortunately relating to poor Banshee’s situation more than I would like to at the moment.

Happy week before tax week, everyone! My fondest wish for you is that you already have your big, fat refund in your hot little hands and will think of me as you’re relaxing on your Hawaiian vacation sipping mojitos.

Click here to see the card, and remember that I warned you about the volume. She/he is really screaming in this one. LOL. She/he. Like Pat. Pat makes me laugh.

And my sincere thanks to everyone for caring about my little blue moments last week. As fun as we all try to make this life, it’s true that stresses show up every once in a while. Sometimes they wear odd masks or speak to deeper issues or truthfully just get over-analyzed. I have been guilty of all three of those things more often than I care to remember.

But I do promise to share with you my true story about realizing that one particular research study seems to apply to me more than most. Of course, that will have to be after I get done doing my taxes, which — at this rate — will take me well into 2008. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

Found on the Keirsey Temperment Sorter Site

If I do not want what you want, please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.

Or if I believe other than you, at least pause before you correct my view.

Or if my emotion is less than yours, or more, given the same circumstances, try not to ask me to feel more strongly or weakly.

Or yet if I act, or fail to act, in the manner of your design for action, let me be.

I do not, for the moment at least, ask you to understand me. That will come only when you are willing to give up changing me into a copy of you.

I may be your spouse, your parent, your offspring, your friend, or your colleague. If you will allow me any of my own wants, or emotions, or beliefs, or actions, then you open yourself, so that some day these ways of mine might not seem so wrong, and might finally appear to you as right — for me.

To put up with me is the first step to understanding me. Not that you embrace my ways as right for you, but that you are no longer irritated or disappointed with me for my seeming waywardness. And in understanding me you might come to prize my differences from you, and, far from seeking to change me, preserve and even nurture those differences.

Taken from David Keirsey’s site, based on the Myers-Briggs personality types