So I went to see the cousin and that was fine. I guess we can't make up for the fact that we have very different philosophies of life. Blood can't make up for everything. It was interesting to see her though.
As we were catching up with kids and such, I asked her, "What do you do for fun?" She replied that she has a full time job and is raising two kids and doesn't have time for anything else. I honestly didn't know what to say after that. I mean, that's what I do too. A lot of us do that. We still have fun. At least we try to have fun.
Turns out I don't understand women who don't have girlfriends or hobbies. Knit and Tonichad a posting recently on how she felt sorry for a woman (a neighbor?) who didn't have any hobbies. Boy-child pointed out that in an interview John Waters basically said hobbies schmobbies, find yourself a passion. Ok, I can live with that; many hobbies take on a life of their own and become obsessions.
A co-worker asked me a while ago, when my mother was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's, what my mother's "thing" was. I asked, what? She said, "You have your knitting, what was your mother into?" I replied, "Partying." (co-worker laughs uncomfortably here), "My mother loved to socialize." A lot of that was with girlfriends over the years, although really mom loved to be around people no matter what. (There was almost always good food. And often cards. And frequently booze.) Even my mother-in-law noticed, when she was in town once and met a bunch of my mother's friends, how the girlfriend bonds in my mother's circle were very special.
I get lots of girlfriend emails - here's a favorite:
I am only as strong as the coffee I drink, the hairspray I use and the friends I have.
To the cool women who have touched my life. Here's to you!
It is good to be a woman:
1. We got off the Titanic first. 2. We can scare male bosses with the mysterious gynecological disorder excuses. 3. Taxis stop for us. 4. We don't look like a frog in a blender when dancing. 5. No fashion faux pas we make, could ever rival the Speedo. 6. We don't have to pass gas to amuse ourselves. 7. If we forget to shave, no one has to know. 8. We can congratulate our teammate without ever touching her rear end. 9. We never have to reach down every so often to make sure our privates are still there. 10. We have the ability to dress ourselves. 11. We can talk to the opposite sex without having to picture them naked. 12. If we marry someone 20 years younger, we are aware that we will look like an idiot. 13. We will never regret piercing our ears. 14. There are times when chocolate really can solve all your problems. 15. We can make comments about how silly men are in their presence because they aren't listening anyway.
Thanks to Alli for introducing me to the Flaming Lips. Yes, I know I should have been up on this old band (old to Alli, anyway) but I wasn't. I think I know a few of the songs they've done, but I've never been cognizant of the band itself. I love the album titles found in the discography section of the Wikipedia article on them. I guess I'll add them to my Pandora radio station and see if I want to make any purchases...
And since I'm musing on conversations with youngsters, Sarah was quite surprised to hear I had been in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. As I tell her more stories about things I've done she becomes more amazed that I am still alive to tell the tales. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I haven't told her practically any of the outrageous stuff.
Girl-child called last night. She got a tattoo. She's been talking about it for ages, so I knew it was coming, but it still seems kind of odd. It'll probably take some time for me to get used to it. (I haven't actually seen it yet; I may or may not take a photo).
I am chugging along on the cardigan I've got on the needles, but it's slow going. I also started another shawl for bus knitting; it's off to a promising start. The shawl is part of my continued effort to diversify from (obsessive) sock knitting. Perhaps I will have a moment to take a few photos this weekend. Perhaps not.
I had a good talk with an old friend the other day. It's funny how helpful that is (Thank you again, Susan). I plan to see another old friend next Monday for dinner; I haven't seen her for quite a while and I suspect she has some big piece of news to spring on me. I hope it's good.
And speaking of Susans, a cousin of mine from Baltimore is in town and I'm going to see her tomorrow evening. Should be interesting. I haven't seen her that many times but we're only five years apart and we've both been through some big mid-life stuff over the past few years. She's having lunch with my mother today so I hope she's recovered enough from that by tomorrow night that we can talk about other things too.
Hot flowers taken with a flash, indoors, at night: The tags continue to multiply on the fence: I finished a Montego Bay scarf: There was a very unusual passenger on the bus the other day:
I was asked where a librarian can go after being at the U?* Lots of places, I think. My new position is at a small campus of a for-profit institution. I know folks at the U look down at small for-profits, and think I'm "lowering" myself by coming here but frankly, I like what I do here. It's a lot like my volunteer work, only with a librarian emphasis instead of ESL teacher emphasis (although I'll probably do some tutoring of basics here on occasion too).
The thing is, what I (currently) do at the U is stuff I don't value. One of my primary tasks, for instance, is to supervise three people - two who don't need to be supervised and a third who refuses to be supervised. What I do at the new school is mostly instruction. The students here are non-traditional, most never had an opportunity to go to college, all are enthusiastic to improve their situation. Most of what is studied here has a practical application (nursing, paralegal, etc).
Everyone here is looking up. Some are looking up from a long way down, but they are nonetheless looking up.
*and btw, I never had a librarian title at the U. Library Assistant, Library Supervisor, but not Librarian
So much advice available these days; How to be happy, how to make money, what is the best thing you can do for your children...much of it contradictory. I've been musing over various things for a week or so; this is my first installment.
Boy-child has been accepted into the University of Minnesota PSEO program for next year. We were a bit surprised, given that his grades are good but not brilliant, he had a meltdown his sophomore year and he wrote a totally outrageous essay for the application. We know a lot of kids who did not get accepted, and we felt it was a long shot. So I've been thinking a lot about what it was that got him in. My current theory is that the essay demonstrated his acute intellectual curiosity and that cinched it. In the essay he referred to The Turner Diaries, freedom of speech and censorship, the Winter War, time travel and various other weird, outlandish or just simply obscure things he's been reading about and investigating. In short, he was accepted perhaps not in spite of his own brand of strangeness, but because of it.
Which brings me to another essay I recently heard on the Sunday morning news show I watch. It was Ben Stein talking about asking his shrink, "What is the difference between happy people and unhappy people?" Apparently the shrink answered that unhappy people are the ones who always take the safe route, avoid risk and, as a result, often end up where they don't want to be. Happy people take risks, live on the edge (for various periods of time?) and do what they want to do.
Of course, it's rather self-serving, but I hope it's right, not just for Boy-child getting in to the U for being himself, but for me taking a relatively big risk job-wise this year.
I don't ever follow the World Cup, but I happened upon something in the Spanish press today. One thing leads to another, and I was sent this headline from Beth, who does follow soccer:
Refs prep for U.S. vs. England with curse course
RUSTENBERG, South Africa -- The Brazilian referee and his assistants who will work the England-United States match at the World Cup have been studying English-language obscenities the players might use.
The countdowns begin. One is in anticipation of Girl-child coming home from Ghana. We've heard from her several times now. I can't wait to hear all about it. She'll be home in a week. I took the day off. The other is a countdown for quitting my old job. I started the new one last week. This is my new office. It has a window AND a door. The computer has not arrived yet, so this one is borrowed. All in all so far so good. The culture couldn't be more different than what I've gotten to know at the U of M. The tent caterpillars are still around. It's funny, because I had quit noticing them since they're not EVERYWHERE any more, and then I saw a group of young children run over to this tree saying, "This is the caterpillar tree! Look! Look!" I love how eavesdropping on others' conversations can give us new perspectives. I'd never noticed that this was a preferred tree for tent caterpillars before. (I wonder what this tree looked like a couple of weeks ago when you couldn't walk down the sidewalk without stepping on a few?) Boy-child and I scored a four movie set for $23. Yeah! I'm looking forward to watching Bogart and Bacall after long days of double duty this summer.
I can't say I understand the path where this came from but there's an attribution to Knitgrrl at the bottom, so I'll leave it at that. Of course, I didn't knit a single stitch Tue/Wed/Thu this week because I started my new job, but today I got to take the bus, knit, I get to go home at 5:00 and I have two days off. Yeah!
