I Don't Know Where This Post is Going but It Will Get There

Can you believe once upon a time and for several years I posted five times a week? My how times change.  Back on October 12, Hugh Jackman and I shared a birthday and this blog turned 9 years old.  I certainly never imagined I'd be doing this nine years later and although the pace of my output has slowed considerably I don't want to stop completely.  This forum has provided me with people whose friendships have sustained me through some of my darkest days and who have rejoiced with me in great triumphs.  I like to think I have reciprocated that to some folks as well.  I am grateful, so very grateful for the friends who have become like family and the little community we've been able to form.

In other files marked "the times they are a changin'" I offer two examples of educational anachronisms.  This week  in one of my libraries a little boy ran to my desk carrying a book so he could alert me to the "bad word" contained in the title.  The book in question was Dick and Jane: a Christmas Story.  I had to explain that it was a nickname for Richard that has fallen out of favor. 

Later, a fourth grade class came in with their brand new math workbooks for a new curriculum aligned with the mandated Common Core standards.  As a table full of students hunched over their workbooks crunching numbers I happened to notice the two pages contained several word problems using a stamp collection as the main reference point from which to derive information.  Let me repeat that.  A stamp collection.  A fourth grade class.  A poverty-stricken, inner city school.  In the year 2014. Cuz, yo, that's how we roll in da hood.....with our postage stamp collections.  Bitches be all up in my face wantin' a British Guiana 1c magenta. 

Sweet mother of irrelevancy, if we have to stop a math lesson to explain what the hell a postage stamp is and why on earth someone would have an entire collection of them because the kids are all giving that cocked head, confused puppy look I think we've derailed ourselves a bit here.  Could we perhaps enter the 21st century and provide appropriate examples of things the kids might actually come in contact with so they can grasp how math affects their daily lives?  If you want to introduce stamp collecting as a concept just say so and I will come up with a lesson integrating vocabulary, geography, history, art, technology and even math.  Furthermore, the kids will be on the edges of their seats and learn something that may actually spark their imagination and intellect because it will be cohesive rather than random.  This?  This is just plain stupid.

We've also had all sorts of automotive traumas.  In the last three months each of my three children has had an accident.  Thank God, no one was injured.  That's the most important thing.  The cars have fared less well.  Two were totaled, one sustained minor damage.  Calypso's car has had transmission problem and is back on the shop for more of the same. Mr. Lime's Clampett-mobile style truck had the brakes go and tries to slowly poison the driver with carbon monoxide unless the window is cracked open.  It's now in the shop for a new muffler and brakes.  I'm just wondering which automotive gods I have pissed off and if an offering of motor oil and Turtle Wax will help appease them.  Then again, one could say a Higher Power has had my back since the people I love most have been spared injury.

In happy news, I've been able to teach my series of free community yoga classes as practice of my new skills. Did I mention I was the first among my large class of teacher trainees to have to teach the public?  How about that it was before we'd had the classes on sequencing or providing physical assistance to students?  It was nerve-wracking to prepare for but fun to do once I was there.  My mantra for nerves was, "It ain't cancer.  It's yoga."  Very zen, huh?  I'm sure the ancient gurus chanted that in Sanskrit or Tibetan.  I was so encouraged by the two teachers who came to my classes, as well as my fellow trainees.  And then there were the two ladies who were brand new to yoga and who told me they were hooked immediately because of the message that there is no competition and that they listen to their own bodies whether what they do looks like the teacher or the person on the mat next to them or not.  I was THRILLED that they "got it" and were empowered by that.

So here I am nine years out, working in two urban schools running libraries, working toward being certified as a yoga instructor.  I've been through a child's serious illness, my own serious illness, five surgeries, and more cars than I care to count.  My three children who were in elementary school and junior high when I began this blog are all graduated from high school and on to the next steps of their lives.  One is in Georgia, one in a local institute of higher learning, and one is preparing to go to Haiti next month in preparation for a later 1-3 month internship there.  Mr. Lime is counting the years to retirement and I am embarking on new adventures within new communities of friends.

Da Count-Da Blog

DA COUNT
(Counting what I've got instead of bemoaning what I lack. Go tell Lecram if you played along.)

I've been blogging for about 3 1/2 years now and it's been such a great thing. I started it because I wanted to keep in touch with some friends I made in a trivia forum after that place devolved so badly none of us could stand to go there any more. We had fun being silly in our individual blogs and in a couple that some of us authored together. Along the way I found new friends from all over the world.

I also discovered this is a pretty nice place to try out some creative ideas. I desperately needed a creative outlet that cost no money. I saw some fine examples of other people using this format in such a way and decided early on not to lock myself into one type of post so I could be flexible in what I tossed out into the ether. Having this outlet has allowed me some nice opportunities to see different ideas and test them out in my own way. It has sparked more creativity in me and made me want to polish some things I might otherwise have ignored.

I never intended to have a confessional type of blog or spend a lot of time venting aggravation (I don't mind reading those types, I just don't generally want to be that type). I've wanted to be positive for the most part. On occasion though there have been things that have weighed on me so I've put them out here in one way or another. When I've done so I've been blessed with wonderful expressions of support, some good advice, and great kindness from so many of you.

This week I needed to write the post about music teachers because I was so angry about the way my girls have been treated lately. I started about 3 different versions of the post and they all were so negative I couldn't bring myself to post them. Yet, I still needed to express some of what was going on. The struggle to express it without spewing bile from start to finish led me to reflection on the list of good teachers. I think if I didn't have this particular outlet I may well have stewed in my own juices a bit longer because I wouldn't have been forced to look at things from a different angle. So this week I'm counting having this blog because for all the silly drivel I can put out there, it has served me in far deeper ways than I ever imagined it would.

Good Stuff

Well, I've been planning for a little while to draw attention to some new bloggers and some fun sites and it works out well for today since a migraine laid me out flat yesterday evening. Migraines have a way of killing creativity. So without further ado.

Check out these new bloggers who I think have something interesting and worthwhile to share.

Luann Dunkinson has a whole website as well as a blog featuring her watercolors. A mutual friend showed me her site and I think her paintings are really very lovely.

Misticblu is another brand new blogger who has already shared some interesting observations from life and her job. She said I inspired her to start blogging. Whoda thunk it? I'm flattered, and glad to introduce her.

Lulda is our third new blogger and although I know she is making the rounds through institutions like Friday 55 I wanted to draw attention to her. She's written some marvelous 55s and shared some terrific insights.


If you need a chuckle these sites do it for me.

Totally Looks Like is a collection of side by side shots of celebrities who either look like each other or celebrities who look like strange objects. The Phil Spector entry cracked me up.

Lolcats is animal pictures, mostly cats, with ridiculous captions. Ok, like the previous entry it is for those who are easily amused but I like it.

Cakewrecks is for those looking for baked horror. It's a fairly new site but has taken off like wildfire. Who knew there were so many professional cake decorators completely lacking in any ability?


Other regular haunts...

Here's a game I am compelled to play every day. I have a deck of Set cards at home but no one will play with me anymore because I'm too fast. In addition to Set, I play the Quiddler game on that site as well.

Postsecret is part of my Sunday morning ritual. It's a confessional in art. Some of the secrets shared are silly, some are sweet, some are heartbreakingly sad.

Finally, when I am really trying to avoid any kind of productivity I head over to Mental Floss. It's got trivia, quizzes (not of the "which underwear style is my soul" variety though those sorts at Blogthings can be fun to shred like I shred memes), snarky t-shirts, fun articles.

EDIT: Published it hours ago with the wrong date so it's been sitting several posts down the line...that's what a headache does for me...

Friday 55& Da Count In Meme Form

For ages I have done Friday 55 (compose a story in 55 words). Often I make it relate to Da Count, (count blessings not bemoan their absence). Some have dubbed me Queen of the Twisted Meme. This week I will attempt the perfect union of all three. Gees, I sure hope I don't sprain something!*

CraverVII shared rules.

• Write about 5 specific ways blogging has affected you, either positively or negatively.
• Link back to the person who tagged you.
• Link back to the parent post, so she can track the meme.
• Tag a few friends or five, or none at all.
• Post these rules-- or just have fun breaking them.*

(Lime bellies up to the keyboard, cracks her knuckles, takes a deep breath, and prepares to dazzle the crowd with a previously unseen union of meme, Friday 55, and Da Count. Should she fail readers will click to the next blog within seconds. Success will etch her name in blog history. The crowd falls silent...)*

• I have a creative outlet that doesn't cost me a dime.
• I've gotten to connect with fascinating people all over the world.
• Some of those people have become dear friends even across distance.
• I've gained a network of support and inspiration I never imagined.
• I noticed blogging expands my heart, my mind, and my butt.*

*Notice each section has 55 words. The crowd goes wild...

Milestones

I'm really not staying on top of things too well here. Believe it or not this was my 500th post. I meant to do something for 500, ah well...pretzels will have to do. As near as I can figure I had my 50,00th visitor sometime during this post or that one. Since I was so late about checking my stats I can't even tell you who that person was. Heck, I wasn't even around for my second blogiversary, although it was incredibly cool to spend it meeting a fellow blogger for the first time.

Actually, it is pretty weird to think I've come up with 500 things to post about (Granted not all those ideas were good, but still it shocks me.) It's downright mindboggling to imagine folks have wanted to come see those 500 posts 50,000 times. So I really need to thank all of you who stop by here regularly to see what sort of silliness I slap up here. I started this thing as a way to stay in touch with some pals from Yahoo! Trivia rooms and to have a creative outlet that cost no money. Now I have over 100 people I read on a regular basis and average 80 people stopping by here on a given day. How'd that happen???

Well, in any event it makes me think of milestones in general. There are obvious ones in life like graduating, landing a first job, getting married, having children. There are surprising ones like finding your first gray hair, the first time you are addressed as "sir" or "ma'am" or the first time something breaks when you own your first home.

I remember as a teenager the first time my mother came to me for comfort and I was the one who had the confidence things would work out. She had worked in a horrid little garment factory for 9 years after Dad left. When my brother and I got to be teens she decided she could squeeze in a few night classes at the Vo-Tech school to gain some computer and office skills. She had walked out the factory for the last time and was working in an office as secretary. Finally, she had some degree of financial security and didn't have to wonder when the boss would decide to cut her rate and screw her out of hard earned pay or when the next lengthy lay-off would happen and leave her counting pennies. Unfortunately, she wound up being-downsized a year or so after landing that job. She came home devastated and in tears. Now you have to understand how rare a thing it was for my mom to ever cry in front of us. She is the queen of the brave front. She was always factual about our finances, there was no secret, but she never let us see her worry. This time she was nearly inconsolable and terrified she'd have no choice but to go back to the factory. I well understood what that meant. At the same time I just knew, and knew with certainty, she'd never set foot in that miserable place again. I told her so. We talked about practical steps she was going to take to make sure her worst fears were not realized. It was the first time I felt like I was talking with her more as an adult and less like her child.

Tell me about one of your milestones, one that was not so obvious but one that you still remember its impact.