January 13, 2006

Yikes! It was awful!!! Totally crazy!!

Ok, so the kids and I get ready….we’re runnin’ a bit behind, but, not too bad. We get in the car, and the darn thing won’t start! I’ve had this van over 3 years, and have never had engine trouble with it! So, totally weird!

But that is not the problem at hand…..we’ve got to get to school! And we were really leaving too late to be walking, but….we gotta go! So I run in the house, get a jacket, and off we go…….

We’re walking fast, and I’m telling them to hurry, and Patrick’s complaining that he didn’t want to be late! And then…..

A car pulls over to the side of the road by us, rolls down their window, and says, “If you’re going to Big Springs, don’t bother. There’s no school today, they’re having an electrical problem!”

What? Broken car? Broken school? What?

(It was actually QUITE nice what this lady did — she pulled off of the main road …. drove down the side street a ways … just to tell us this! As she then did a Uturn and went back to the main road. Nice, huh? I didn’t even know her!)

Anyway, so … now the kids are ecstatic! And we go home…..

And Mark gets up, tells me to meet him out front … and jumps my widdle minivan with his BIG DADDY TRUCK…..it takes all of two seconds! I’ve never seen a faster jump! LOL!

He tells me to go ride on the highway for a bit, then come home, turn it off, and try to turn it back on, just to make sure that everything is OK. So I lock the kids in the house with the big, mean, SCARY dog…as they had already started playing video games and couldn’t be bothered– and off I go!

Ok, so now I’m on the freeway …. with cars ALL around me …. and the effin truck in front of me drops a BOX … ON THE GROUND IN FRONT OF ME. I was pretty sure I couldn’t swerve, there really wasn’t even time to check if I could swerve……so I swerved a little tiny bit——–and then just DROVE OVER IT!!! It wasn’t totally hard! Phew! Thank God! But it wasn’t totally soft, either! Dammit!!! Get me off this effin freeway!!!!

I got off as soon as I could, turned around — got home and hid INSIDE ALL DAY LONG!!!!!

I hope it’s safe to take the kids to school this morning!!

I’d begun to feel as if the Gods were after me, like in some Greek mythology-type way!!!!

Crazy!!

Oh, and I had tons of stuff to do yesterday….that obviously didn’t get done.

I was supposed to go to a RISD Council of PTA’s General Meeting at the administration bldg in the morning, then go back to our school to work on the Book Fair, then in the evening go to our PTA board mtg.

None of that was accomplished.

Weirdness…

/END MSBP

I so remember that day! It was just one of those nutty, crazy, wacko hide under the covers kind of days! I could not believe it was just one thing after another that was happening. And that lady who didn’t even know us was so sweet to get off the main road and come tell us school was out!

I love having days like these recorded. Helps me remember times with my kids. Exactly why I’m swiping my words back from MySpace!

Stay Groovy,

Hey Myspace! I want my words back! They’re mine and I’m takin’ ‘em! Mine, all mine!

You see, I’ve been blogging here and there and just about everywhere over the years. And now my words are just scattered about all willy-nilly. And I’m not liking it. Not one bit.

So I shall commence gathering them up. The MySpace blog posts that I want to keep will be transferred over here and placed on the date they are posted. They will tell their original publishing date at the top of the post.

A few other places online that I’m dragging posts over here from shall be handled a bit differently. I’m going to put most of those on their original published dates. So I’m not even really sure if they’ll show up in RSS or anything like that. But I’d like to keep those posts in their proper ‘date spots’.

So over the next few months, watch for the MySpace blog posts (MSBP) and possibly others, if you happen to catch them.

I’m off to round up all my words….

Be Groovy,

Guest post written by Amy Rodriguez

I’m a little bit of a theater geek, although unfortunately for me my high school didn’t have a fully developed theater program. If I had it my way, it definitely would have. But I just have to settle now for simply enjoying plays. So as soon as my sister talked about planning a trip over the holidays to go to New York City, one of the first things that I started thinking about was which plays we’re going to go and see. She’s not as into plays as I am, but I’m pretty sure that I made a really good case to her.

When I was online looking up a bunch of stuff about which plays were worth going to see, I ran across some information on a hearing test. I sent it to my sister and encouraged her to go. She’s going in a few weeks and hopefully she can get fitted with some hearing aids that will help her enjoy our trip more.

I’m pretty excited that the Rent musical is on stage in New York again. I’ve always wanted to see it in person so this will be the perfect opportunity!

Good God, people! It’s so simple. It’s so simple. Shit. And now I start to cry. Not crying. Not crying. Not crying. Ok, here it is, ready? Simple:

If someone else tells you that you suck, they are wrong. Wrong.

And you know what, even sometimes when you tell you that suck, you’re wrong. Wrong. And most importantly, if someone else tells you that you suck, and you internalize it, and then you tell you that you suck, you’re wrong. Wrong.

You don’t suck. None of us suck. And we’re all pretty gawdanged awesome. Just awesome. You know why? ‘Cause God made you. And God made me. And he makes cool creatures. Super, groovy, cool creatures. Really, it’s true.

And if you’re atheist, then you just have to know that it’s true that you’re awesome. And that I’m not full of shit. Because I’m not. I’ve always believed in God, so I can’t really imagine what being Atheist is like, so I’m sorry if I don’t really understand where your power or your passion or whatever comes from – ’cause I just don’t get it. But I’ve had plenty of friends who are atheists. And I love them, every one. And I want you/them to believe/KNOW that you are awesome, too. Okay? Okay, think I’m digging myself in deeper here in trying to be inclusive so I’m gonna shut up. But dammitall – we’re all awesome. And that is that.

Somewhere along the way, I listened to this person or that person or hell, even advertising …or even peer pressure – that said I wasn’t good enough. And I also think I began to believe at some point, that I never would be and so I should just get on with life ‘as it were’, if you will. Like, this car is for sale ‘as is’. And that’s that.

BUT THAT’S NOT TRUE!

And it never was true. Ever. Not once. Not even for a minute.

I’ve been thinking about this stuff/this kind of thing a lot lately and the funny thing is, the Universe is throwing stuff in my path that is validating it again and again and again….

Don’t you love it when life works that way? When you’re tuned in? Awesomely groovy. Supremely.

Whoa!!! I went to my favorite tweets just now to find a couple of tweets that have reinforced this message for me recently…..and guess what I found! A tweet from almost a month ago that totally validates it, too! So the wheels began turning before I even knew it!!! Wow! And I remember when I saw that tweet, it just about made me cry. Hit me in the chest, you know? And here’s that groovy tweet:

The tweet was from Hope Bertram @WindyCitySocial and was then retweeted first by @jylmomIF and then by @DanielleSmithTV.

The other awesome tweet in my favorites was one of my own:

I was sitting outside with the dog the other day and that thought just came to me and I loved it so much. So I’ve actually put it in my Favorite Tweets and tweeted it more than once. And I might go tweet it again right now!

Ok, I’m back. Here’s another:

That tweet is from @JackieHesley and totally resonated with me yesterday!

~~~~Clearly I’ve let this post sit in drafts for too long. I got lost my awesome again and got chicken and thought I shouldn’t post it, but, dammitall – I have to post this!

What led me to actually trying to blog all I’ve been going through emotionally with this *Awesome Stuff* is a totally rockin’, kick butt post from the super cool chick at this place:

The post is called: Waking Up Full of Awesome and it. is. awesome. And it so spoke to me …and a crapload of other people, too, as you can tell by the comments!

And now she’s even added shirts – I so completely want one. No, how silly of me – I want TWO – one for myself and one for my rockin’ awesome daughter! Totally!

Listening to my inner five year old,

GET GLAD!!!

See, life is bringing me down today. I’m not really even going to get into it, because, then I’ll carry on like a durn fool and get even more mopey-weepy-sad. I can sum it up with … NAMS, money, baby. Or baby, money, NAMS. Or no money = no baby and no NAMS. Whatever.

But yesterday, man, I was FLYING. Just totally my happy-go-lucky self. And I did one of those silly Facebook reposts and wound up with some lovely gifts. And the lovely gifts were the words above. People actually said those things – about me! How amazingly super groovy!

So I’m just gonna keep looking at those words and keep myself (get myself!) on track today!

I love this story – holy cow!! This is so awesome! This woman …”this chick from Vonida Street” as she says…is my new hero! Her name is Majora Carter and she totally rocks! Just watch:

And holy good gracious cow, but, I keep finding more good stuff about her! I’ve found two TED Talks she’s given and I absolutely love TED Talks! Here’s the first one:

And here’s another one:

Fast Company named her in the 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2010. You can read all about her on their site here: Majora Carter

Wow, this stuff just keeps coming and coming… bear with me for a minute here, ok?

Here’s a great interview of her at Changemakers.com: Majora Carter
GREENER OF GHETTOS, PROPHET OF LOCAL, AND CHANGEMAKERS JUDGE

She has a radio show called The Promised Land that I can’t wait to dig into!

She founded The Majora Carter Group to help other cities transform WHERE they live instead of CHANGING where they live, just as she did in The Bronx. Awesome!

And, of course, you can find her on Twitter! @MajoraCarter

Seriously, this woman is so amazing, that I could keep ‘em coming and coming for hours, but, I’ve got to get to work and that’s surely enough for you to dig into and learn more about her sustainability efforts, her community-transforming projects and her wonderful vision, which can actually be summed up in one sentence:

Wow – I just love that! Seriously! I had those same thoughts about my children’s first elementary school. Many people I knew were pulling their kids out and getting them in other schools, the magnet schools and wherever else they could place them. But I felt like, if everyone walked away – then everyone’s just walking away. And that thought really bummed me out. So we stuck it out and I became very active up there at the school, even being PTA president one year. It was so funny, because, people always thought I worked up there – from the neighborhood kids (“Oh, you’re that lady that works at the school!” haha!), to their parents, and even sometimes actual employees thought I was a fellow employee! So when I heard Majora say that line above in the first video I watched on CNN, it really struck a chord in me. Love this woman!

P.S. Thank you, CNN.com for featuring Ms. Carter today in your videos!!

If you are working online, I’m sure you have heard people talking about using PLR in their business. And a lot of these people that use PLR are running their own businesses online.

Perhaps you, however, are a virtual assistant. I do some virtual assistant work myself. Well, you might think PLR has no place in a VA’s business. Let’s see what Nicole Dean has to say about that:

Virtual Assistants: What is PLR and How Can it Help you to Get More Clients?

Here’s a question that I received today. I thought it was such a valuable question that I wanted to share my response.

Dear Nicole,
I hear you talking about PLR articles, but I’m a Virtual Assistant, not an Internet Marketer. I need clients, not content.
Why should I care?

Dear Virtual Assistant:

Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to respond to your great question.

PLR content can actually help you to get more clients. And, I’ll explain how.

As someone who hires and works with a lot of Virtual Assistants in my business, I’ll tell you that I hire oftentimes based upon the knowledge that person shows just as much as what they “say” they can do.

For instance, let’s compare two Virtual Assistants (hypothetically – these aren’t real people).
Susie and Tessa.

I go to Susie’s website and she’s got three pages – including contact, services, and pricing. I look around a little and discover that Susie specializes in videos and multimedia. I think “hmmm… interesting” and then leave.

Next, I find Tessa’s website. She’s got the same pages on her website as Susie – contact, services, and pricing. It looks to me as if she also specializes in videos and multimedia. That’s not what I’m looking for, so I’m about to leave when I notice that she has a blog. On her blog, she’s got articles about how I can use video in my business and how to also use video to get more traffic and make more money. I’m interested. She obviously knows her stuff. I contact her to find out how she can help me to get more traffic with my existing videos – and to brainstorm more videos that I can incorporate into my business on an ongoing basis.

Tessa got my business. Susie did not.

Why? Because Tessa did some things right.

• She showed her knowledge.
• She demonstrated that she understands marketing by having a blog.
• She made me think about my business.
• She seemed like a person who I’d like to work with.

How does this apply to PLR content? Easy.

Susie could have had my business if she had purchased some great quality PLR content and published it on her blog. Of course, as always, I would recommend that Susie use the content as a starting point only and then add her own ideas and examples into it to make it uniquely hers.
But, the important thing is that she could have had an active blog offering great value to potential new customers that showcased her talent and made people desperate to hire her.

And, she could have done it for under $20.

Would you like to boost your blog content, impress potential new clients, and become the recognized expert in your niche? Check out this great PLR site to get started. Be sure to sign up for the notification list so you don’t miss a thing!

Nicole Dean is the owner of www.EasyPLR.com – where you’ll find high-quality PLR articles sold in very limited quantities. The PLR articles at EasyPLR are professionally written and professionally edited — top quality at an affordable price.

*******************************

This is really great – I’m so glad I read this article, because, the wheels in my brain are turning with ideas for my VA site.

I am always learning so much from Nicole. Seriously, she rocks!

So my dream takes us back to my childhood home, or rather – my childhood street, where my mom still lives. I suppose we were back home for the summer – as we usually are, but, were not able to this year. I say this, because, it was totally present-day, present-time. I mean, like – now, now. Kind of weird for it to have been so current. Or, maybe not. I don’t know. Are most dreams not right now?

I’m a bit foggy, as I’ve got a stinkin’ migraine today. They kind of give me pregnant-brain. If you’ve ever felt that, you know exactly what I experience. My kids say I’m this dingy all the time, but, this is actually worse than my usual dingy. Scary thought. Ha.

[Dingy. Hmm - I want to say spacey, you know? But spelled like that it looks like the dirty kind of dingy. Maybe they're spelled the same. Who knows.]

The dream starts with my walking up La Manga, going east, from Querida. So I wind up walking past about what’s supposed to be about 8 or 10 houses. Only – they’re no longer houses. And on the left side of the street, my elementary school is also no longer there. Why are these houses and this school not there? They’ve been blown to smithereens by a tornado.

There is still ‘stuff’ there, just like it was out here in Alabama, but, the school does NOT look like a school and the houses do NOT look like houses. It’s really hard to accurately describe, and if you don’t live in Joplin or out here in AL, I’m sure you saw it on the news. Maybe it’s just so difficult to put it into words, because, it is so shocking. I don’t know. But like – the woods don’t look like the woods anymore. So otherworldly, really. It’s strange.

And that’s how La Manga looked – (not that we have woods. lol.) for about eight or so houses. I think it was from the Dorfmeisters’ house (who in this dream were really the first house on the block, not the second, like in real life) to maybe the Vardillos’ house or the Mamots’ house. And of course, Bowie Elementary looked like that, too.

So I walked down the length of the destruction and then somehow wound up in the alley and was making my way back to our house. I got there to the backyard and I realized the dogs had been home alone during the storm. In real life, my mom has four dogs. In the dream she had five or six. I was so sad, thinking the dogs must have all been killed. But then Buddy showed up. I was so happy to see him!

Then another dog showed up. I guess the little guy represented my mom’s real dog, Randy, but he was a little different in the dream. Different coloring and such. Anyway, I was really happy to see him, too – I was thrilled that two of them had survived. That seemed like such a miracle.

Then I was in the backyard, just feeling the horrible devastation of it all and hanging out with the dogs. I guess we were all comforting each other. And then POOF! In an instant, the backyard was completely normal, I heard my mom’s car pull up in the driveway. My mom, my dad, my brother, Mic all came into the backyard. They were happy, cheerful, and totally excited.

Apparently we were celebrating my birthday – which I thought was really weird since it was my dad’s birthday and mine was two months ago. (And that’s how I know it was current time, because yesterday really was my dad’s birthday.)

And they are all seeing right past my gut-wrenching feelings of devastation. I’m trying to make them understand.

“Everything was gone, you guys, don’t you see?” and they’re just not getting it. Dang, was it ever strange. To them it was a wonderful, beautiful and happy day. And three minutes earlier, it was dark, dreary, and devastating. It was super creepy.

And more than a little mind-numbing to see your childhood home and your elementary school …just ….gone.

Dude. Those poor kids. Three elementary schools in Tuscaloosa were hit. Like – demolished. Ugh. I mean, I felt for them before, but….

I feel so stupid. I’ve tried not to mention this to anyone, for fear that I’d be acting selfish. But it seems the stupid, horrible storms are haunting even me. All we got was some roof damage on the house and some roof damage on the shed. Of course, the yard and street were a mess, but, we just barely got touched.

That’s more than I can say for less than ten miles from here. (I live right by Webster’s Chapel, one of the hard-hit areas.) Heavy duty stuff. More than ‘heavy duty’….spellbinding. Jaw-dropping. Nauseating.

I knew I was somewhat affected, but, I thought it was just in terms of my migraines. See, I had gotten to a really freaking good place with them just before the storms. Let me explain, I think I’ve mentioned here before that I’m bipolar. And one of the drugs that I take for the ‘UP’ side of my bipolar, the mania, is an anti-convulsant. That drug has been, in the last few years, also prescribed for migraines. So my doc ok’d me to take extras on headache days. And sometimes …okay, a lot – I get stuck taking extra many, many days in a row. It seems once those buggers come, they’re just not too keen on leaving.

So, anyway, before the storms, I was really working on it and had NOT. TAKEN. EXTRA. for 11 days!!! I was really excited! It was so cool!

But 9 times out of 10, tornado warning days bring on migraines. And April 27th was no sweet, little kitten, that’s for sure! So, of course, I took extra. And here it is July 17th and I’m still trying to work my way down. I’ll just about get there – or get there for 2 or 3 days – and then WHAMMO! A new one comes!

[Here's a little sidenote funny: The gifted kids at school were supposed to go to the Renaissance Faire in Georgia that day and that obviously got canceled. Shawn thought that I should go ahead and drive them! Silly boy! He was upset that Mom was acting all 'storm-crazy' again. Sheesh!]

So I know I’ve been pissed off at the storms for effing up my good no-migraine-run and stuff, but, I just didn’t realize how emotionally affected I’ve been. And really, I feel silly saying that.

I got pretty damn depressed – lower than I’ve been in a long time – for all of May and June. I really thought it must have been about not getting to go to Texas and meet my new niece. OMG, ya’ll! She’s so amazing and adorable!! I can’t wait to meet her.

This is the first year since moving out here that we haven’t been able to go home for a chunk of the summer. One thing after another getting in our way for that to happen.

And I imagine that was a big part of it. But now, after the dream I had last night, I’m pretty sure it was the storms, too. And I’m just going to go ahead and admit it. Feeling my pain or my fear or my shock is not going to take away from the people who lost their homes or their loved ones. I think the storms probably affected all of us in ways maybe we’re not sure of. And denying it is really not helping anyone.

So there. I said it. The storms freaked me the HELL OUT!

I know for sure, that I have not enjoyed a storm since. Not like I used to. In the last week, there have been some rainy days I’ve liked. And there have been some beautiful dark clouds I’ve liked. So I’m coming around – and may one day return to my excited armchair-storm-chaser-self. But when it comes to the storms themselves and all their accompanying noise that rattles inside your ribcage, I get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I hear them kicking up. (See – I used to love that rattle in my ribcage. Exciting stuff. I blame the movie “Twister” – well, and growing up with tornado warnings.)

But – I can’t even imagine what it’s like for the people who lost so much.

God bless them!

This post, however, is over 600 words. So I will have to tell you the dream in another post. Stay tuned!

This is what you call a MacBook Post. Or a MacPost, if you’d rather. That’s right, my dad got himself a new computer again. (Man, oh man, I love it when he does that!!!) And he sent me his old one!

So here I am, MacPosting! Ha! When I hear that in my head, it reminds me of the new unfortunate way I say McDonald’s. Did you know that in Alabama, those with a twang, say “mack-donald’s”? And did you know that there are quite a few Alabamian grammatical abuses that have slipped right into my own speech? It’s really quite disheartening. Really. But that’s another post, for another day. Let’s get Mac’ing!

(And the funny thing, when I say ‘MacPost’ etc, it’s almost like I hear this prim and proper grammar general in the back of my head saying, “Now that you’re allowed to say. Go ahead – say it with abandon!” Haha! Okay, really, enough on this distraction!)

So I’ve got this great new computer and I’m just loving it. True, there is quite a bit of new stuff to learn, but, I don’t really have to learn all that stuff to do what I do. I get to the internet – and I’m happy. And then I just learn the new puter stuff as I go. What I’m saying is …that the stuff I don’t know yet about the Mac is not getting in my way of ‘doing my thing’. So I’m free to just take it easy and just learn as I go.

I’ve got to say – I love the way the keyboard feels under my fingertips and sounds as I type. I just love it. It makes me want to just type and type. What a goob.

So it’s obviously not a ‘new’ computer, but, a new-to-me computer. It’s a 2007. And that, coincidentally, is when my Thinkpad is from, too. The Thinkpad is my last hand-me-down from my dad. It’s having some issues, but, I just love that computer.

I took a pic of the two of them together – my two ‘lappies’, only …it’s on the Thinkpad. And it’s in the office and has been put to bed. I’m sitting here with my feet up in my recliner. So therefore, I’ll add the picture tomorrow.

You know what’s funny, though? I keep forgetting that I haven’t asked my dad what he got for his new computer! I keep thinking, ‘Oh my gosh! I wonder what his new one is! I gotta ask him!’ And I get excited thinking about hearing about his latest and greatest machine and all the cool stuff it does, etc ….and then I forget to ask him! Must remedy that.

So this ends one more ‘my parents ROCK‘ post, only this one is more particularly, my dad ROCKS. But heck, mom has her own category here on the blog, so it’s not like she can feel bad! LOL!

P.S. Tomorrow – July 16th – is my Dad’s birthday! Happy Birthday to my dad, who keeps me so technologically happy! Hahaha!