20 posts from October 2006

Tonight when I got home from work, I had a package on my doorstep from my mom.  Among other things, she sent me my hiking boots and this quote:

The significance of the combination is empowering.

And uber-productive, as well.  In random/sometimes-simultaneous order:

• Baked pumpkin muffins (Wow ... good stuff -- thanks for the recipe, Mom!  Although ... I did tweak them just a tad.  I am my mother's daughter.  ;-)
• Got rid of all the clothes on my floor (No, I didn't throw them out.  I actually completed several loads of laundry.  Even ironed some stuff, which I never do.)
• Sheets are now back on my bed!  (And bed is made -- looks sooooo nice.)
  
• A couple rounds of dishes
• General apartment cleaning
• Played piano!  (Still need to get this thing fixed.  Doesn't sound right without a working sustain pedal.)
• Got stuff to make Chex Mix, but may not get around to that today.
• Blogged!  I wrote for Forward, my own PR blog, and even an extra one for Forward that I'll post tomorrow.  (Plus here, of course.)
• I read a book.  Got through a whole chapter of "Founding Brothers," which I'm still working on.  It's taking me a while to finish that ... I just don't get much time for book reading these days.  Shmay.

Oh ... and I just remembered ... the House marathon is on today!  (Right??)  I haven't had my TV on at all today.  Been be-bopping around the house to the likes of this:

02 Taking a Chance On Love

Late night watching random TV makes for some random bits of wisdom ...

Paraphrased from Wanda Sykes (with regard to NASA):

Over 75% of our citizens don't even have passports.  How the heck do we think we're gonna get to the moon if we can't even get out of our own country?!

... when you meet the Grim Reaper on the Metro.  And a very short one at that.

You know how every once in a while, you'll notice that whatever song you're listening to happens to fit perfectly with that particular moment.  And then you do one of two things: you start singing along at the top of your lungs; or you smile, take a deep breath, and soak it up.

Today's walk home was an instance of the latter.

Picture this:  a rainy dusk in autumn Virginia.  It was still light outside, so my peaceful walk was colored with the fiery shades of fall, and the misty rain gave everything a softened appearance.  Then the song kicked in ...

09 High & Dry

This will be the fourth night in a row that I've slept without sheets on my bed.  They're in the laundry.  But really now, these days, I'm slap worn out by the time I go to bed ... so I really don't care that I don't have sheets. 

Good thing the weekend is coming up.  For one thing, it'll give me a chance to finish the laundry cycle and get the sheets back where they belong.  Plus, my place is a mess.  I'm running out of places to "lay" my clothes at the end of the day.  I can't toss them in a wad or straight in the hamper, apparently.  I have to lay them out flat.  Everywhere.  So all I have clear are paths leading to all the necessary locations: door to bed, to closet, to bathroom, etc.  Shmay.

On another note, you know you're a redneck if ... you use duct tape to make your new diffuser fit your blowdryer. 

Yep.  That would be me.

This is, by far, the hottest car I have ever seen.

Neiman marcus

I'm sitting out on my balcony this Sunday afternoon, catching up on my feeds and whatnot.  My balcony (which is really a sun room "slash" balcony that I just can't figure out what to call it) overlooks this grassy courtyard area and a trail where many people walk their dogs.  (sigh)  And this is when I really miss my own dog, who is back home in Alabama
 
Her name is Honey and she's a very old (probably pushing 12 years) very goofy golden retriever.  I have some great photos of her, but since my scanner is busted ... looks like I'm the only one who will be enjoying those today.  (Sorry.)

I do wish I could have her here with me, but I don't have the space for her.  She's a big dog and she's used to living in the country and never being fenced in ... and she's happy where she is.  Even though I know she misses me, too.  :-)

Only a few weeks till I head home for Thanksgiving, though!

I firmly believe that many of our country's social problems are things that need to be addressed in childhood.  They are lessons and values that are almost impossible to implement if introduced beyond those crucial early years.  Our education system needs more support -- both from parents and non-parents alike.  But beyond that, we as a society need to provide better support and resources that improve the situation AT HOME.  Schools can only do so much to make an impression on kids, and they shouldn't be expected to do everything.  Teachers have enough on their plates being responsible for the education of these children.  It's simply not reasonable to let the other responsibilities of childrearing fall on the teachers as well.

This is why mentor programs are so valuable.  It provides someone else in a child's life to offer a positive influence.  And quite frankly, that one-on-one attention is necessary and certainly most effective.  Imagine what it conveys that someone not related to you at all or obligated to do so chooses to take time out of his/her day or week just to spend time with you.  Even the subtle impression of the act itself is one that can make a positive and lasting impact, not to mention the more active lessons that are communicated through conversation, body language and mutual respect.

Respect -- ah, what an important concept.  It's a paradox.  Like many instances of paradox tend to be -- respect is seemingly complicated and yet profoundly simple.  I think what's mind-boggling and complicated to me is the combination of a severe misunderstanding of true respect and the lack of anything that resembles it.  At the core of it -- and what is so profoundly simple -- respect has to start with oneself.  And this, again,  is a concept best communicated early on.  Personally, my sense of respect came from great parents who somehow (if you ask them, they probably don't conciously know how) instilled in me a sense of mutual respect.  It was a sense of "you are valuable, I am valuable, we both deserve respect," and then acting in accordance with that.   Which takes me back to mentoring ...

Ideally, we should strive to have parents instill this sense of value, worth, respect in their own children.  (Recommendations for educating, encouraging and empowering parents to do that is a whole separate post alltogether, as well as a whole lot of research.)  As a back-up plan, mentors can serve that purpose.  By spending time and mentoring a child on a regular basis, you're communicating that you want to spend time with that child (i.e. worth), which is the essential building block for everything to follow.

Oddly enough, this whole train of thought spawned from this article from the Post about homelessness in DC.  Which (just now, after writing this post) led me on another tangent to this article that looks at an interesting anti-violence project.  From the second article:

Constant chattering while Moten talked got some chastised. "I'm not going to disrespect you, and you're not going to disrespect me," he said, his voice rising. "This is for people who are trying to do the right thing. If you don't want to be here, you can leave right now."

Nobody moved. The main discussion resumed, about how to talk things out, how to go their own way and not with the crowd and how to dream about a better future.

Yep, and I even called home about it.  For some reason (that I didn't really anticipate) it's a big deal to me that I've registered to vote in Virginia.  I guess it has to do with being born and raised in one state ... and then finally moving away.  It's one of those significant steps that's redefining "home."

Of course, "home" is a relative concept, but I'll save that discussion for another time ...