It occurred to me today how great my life is going.
-- I am excited to be starting grad school after years of being convinced I would never go back.
-- I have maintained a 90-lb weight loss for more than a year and I've never been in better shape than I am right now.
-- I've been making improvements to my apartment that are making it even more homey and reflective of my personality. I feel totally at home here.
-- I really do feel like I can do anything - and what's more, I WANT to do so much more.
This is so exciting!
Also - this morning, I went to put on my socks and sneakers, so that I could go straight to my parents' house and take Racer for a walk after school, and I put my socks on, left foot first, right food second and then I picked up my right sneaker. I could have very easily put my right sneaker on and gone on with my business but instead, I put it down, picked up my left sneaker and put that on first. Why? Why did I have to put down a perfectly good shoe to put the other one on first? Does handedness extend to little things like what shoe you put on first? What hand you use to scratch a bug bite? What hand you use to zip up your pants? I don't know why but that struck me as interesting this morning.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Bucket List
Allie is currently on a fantastical cross-country roadtrip with her boyfriend. I've been reading her blog as they go and the more I see of her adventures, the more I think this is something I really need to do in my lifetime. I know several people now who've embarked on similar adventures in the last year and each one of them said it was an experience they wouldn't trade for the world. Thinking about roadtrips has gotten me thinking about other things I really want to do. It might be a little cliche but I think I need to make a bucket list and I'm going to start it here and now.
- Wear a bikini in public and be proud
- Follow the Red Sox to the West Coast for at least one game
- Visit the Hogwart's at Universal Studios in Florida
- Go to St. Lucia
- Visit England and take a historical tour
- Go on a cross-country roadtrip
- Fly in a helicopter
- Bungee jump off a bridge
This is just a start but I don't want to forget these things...I want to make them happen.
- Wear a bikini in public and be proud
- Follow the Red Sox to the West Coast for at least one game
- Visit the Hogwart's at Universal Studios in Florida
- Go to St. Lucia
- Visit England and take a historical tour
- Go on a cross-country roadtrip
- Fly in a helicopter
- Bungee jump off a bridge
This is just a start but I don't want to forget these things...I want to make them happen.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Behind Enemy Lines
For the first two weeks of Summer RSG, I'm working as a para at Camp Chase from 12-4. After spending my whole life there as a camper, a counselor, a leadership staff member and finally a director, to be there as a para responsible for only one camper is both liberating/handcuffing.
Butting out has never really been a strength of mine. It's not that I'm nosy (though I'll admit, I like to know everything that's going on), it's that I want to help with any problem anyone could encounter ever. I'm a caretaker at heart. If that means I have to get in your business sometimes, so be it. With this in mind, I've been mentally preparing myself to stay out of camp business and just stick to my own student. In theory, that is a great plan. In actuality, here are the hang-ups. The student I am working with is really flexible and independent. He gets along with the other kids and isn't a flight risk. I find it actually serves him better if I step back and give him the opportunity to have independent conversations and walk places with the group, rather than by my side. This level of freedom gives me the opportunity to observe the group and the unit as a whole...and the camp director, unit leader, counselor in me is SCREAMING. I've never worked harder at minding my own business and even so, I'm really not doing that well.
I'm finding it really hard to be at camp as a para and turn off that part of me which has been so dominant every previous summer, and try to run the place. It's like the President of the United States coming back to the White House as a custodian.
All that said, I am SO happy to be back at Camp Chase. I really missed it. It's like coming home.
Butting out has never really been a strength of mine. It's not that I'm nosy (though I'll admit, I like to know everything that's going on), it's that I want to help with any problem anyone could encounter ever. I'm a caretaker at heart. If that means I have to get in your business sometimes, so be it. With this in mind, I've been mentally preparing myself to stay out of camp business and just stick to my own student. In theory, that is a great plan. In actuality, here are the hang-ups. The student I am working with is really flexible and independent. He gets along with the other kids and isn't a flight risk. I find it actually serves him better if I step back and give him the opportunity to have independent conversations and walk places with the group, rather than by my side. This level of freedom gives me the opportunity to observe the group and the unit as a whole...and the camp director, unit leader, counselor in me is SCREAMING. I've never worked harder at minding my own business and even so, I'm really not doing that well.
I'm finding it really hard to be at camp as a para and turn off that part of me which has been so dominant every previous summer, and try to run the place. It's like the President of the United States coming back to the White House as a custodian.
All that said, I am SO happy to be back at Camp Chase. I really missed it. It's like coming home.
Friday, July 1, 2011
You blog, I blog.
Since Jessy and Vanessa have been blogging more frequently to document their growing (and beautiful) little girls, I decided that, although I am child-less, that it might be fun for me to start blogging again too. My subject matter will be decidedly different than theirs but it's still fun. You know what I do have to write about - adventures in online dating. Woof.
It's no secret that I'm a member on match.com, I have been for a long time. Working in a school, with almost entirely female co-workers, makes it almost impossible to meet anyone in the workplace. That's fine. While there is the occasional match that extends past a few emails back and forth, more often than not, it's a) men who are old enough to be my father (or at least an uncle), b) men who don't have a real solid grasp on English, or (and this is my FAVORITE) c) men who feel "hey, what's up?" or "how are you?" is the PERFECT opening line. What am I gonna say to that? --- I'm fine. Peace. That kind of email is worth about as much as a guy in a bar who says "Did it hurt? When you fell from Heaven?" - "Hey, what's your sign?" - "I lost my phone number, can I have yours?" -- really?? REALLY.
Among the more ridiculous emails I've gotten:
Verbatim --
Handsome Airline Pilot
I date younger and your my type
You just can't be psycho... :)
I'm Mark
A million things are wrong with this. This guy was 39. He was shorter than me. He didn't use any punctuation. He called himself handsome. He used the wrong you're. It's amazing to me that a man who doesn't know one of the most basic rules of English flies planes for a living. And his ONE rule is that I not be psycho? Well...dammit. It's too bad I AM completely psycho, otherwise I'd be falling all over myself trying to reel this guy in. How lucky for me that a 40-year-old man dates younger and I am his type! What the hell am I waiting for???.. Sorry, Mark. You're gonna have to cruise the internet personals for another girl in her midtwenties who will actually fall for that. MAYBE, there's a reason why you're 40 and still single... OH, AND USE PERIODS AT THE END OF YOUR SENTENCES. If this weren't so comical, it'd be discouraging. Is this really all that's out there?
It's no secret that I'm a member on match.com, I have been for a long time. Working in a school, with almost entirely female co-workers, makes it almost impossible to meet anyone in the workplace. That's fine. While there is the occasional match that extends past a few emails back and forth, more often than not, it's a) men who are old enough to be my father (or at least an uncle), b) men who don't have a real solid grasp on English, or (and this is my FAVORITE) c) men who feel "hey, what's up?" or "how are you?" is the PERFECT opening line. What am I gonna say to that? --- I'm fine. Peace. That kind of email is worth about as much as a guy in a bar who says "Did it hurt? When you fell from Heaven?" - "Hey, what's your sign?" - "I lost my phone number, can I have yours?" -- really?? REALLY.
Among the more ridiculous emails I've gotten:
Verbatim --
Handsome Airline Pilot
I date younger and your my type
You just can't be psycho... :)
I'm Mark
A million things are wrong with this. This guy was 39. He was shorter than me. He didn't use any punctuation. He called himself handsome. He used the wrong you're. It's amazing to me that a man who doesn't know one of the most basic rules of English flies planes for a living. And his ONE rule is that I not be psycho? Well...dammit. It's too bad I AM completely psycho, otherwise I'd be falling all over myself trying to reel this guy in. How lucky for me that a 40-year-old man dates younger and I am his type! What the hell am I waiting for???.. Sorry, Mark. You're gonna have to cruise the internet personals for another girl in her midtwenties who will actually fall for that. MAYBE, there's a reason why you're 40 and still single... OH, AND USE PERIODS AT THE END OF YOUR SENTENCES. If this weren't so comical, it'd be discouraging. Is this really all that's out there?
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