There is a joke that I love that fits this situation perfectly.
There is a man watching television and the emergency broadcast system breaks in to announce there is a major storm on its way and there will be widespread flooding of the area. All residents are being told to evacuate immediately. The man says a quick prayer asking God to take care of him. His neighbor knocks on his door and says, "We are packed up and ready to go, do you need a ride?" The man tells his neighbor, "No thanks, God will take care of me." The neighbor leaves.
The storms come and the waters start to rise. The man moves to the second floor of his house and sees out the window another neighbor in a boat. This neighbor comes to the window and says, "Come on, man, we've almost waited too long, let me take you out of here." The man shakes his head and says, "No thanks, God will take care of me." The neighbor shakes his head and rows away.
The storm keeps raging and the man ends up on his roof. A helicopter comes and the ladder is lowered, a loud voice booms out "Grab the rope and climb up! We have a lot of people to save!" and the man shouts back, "You go on and save them then, God will take care of me!"
And the storm keeps raging. And the waters raise and the man drowns. When he stands before God he is really angry. He shouts at him, "I had FAITH, I told every one you would save me and yet here I am DEAD!" And God looks at him and says, "I sent you a television report, a car, a boat and a helicopter what else did you want me to do?"
This story always tickles me. Sometimes when you ask a question you need to listen to the answer.
Going to school for massage therapy was the answer to my question of What next? And I ignored it. And I paid the price.
I went to a small private middle school. So the experiences everyone else had with cliques and "mean girls" and such I didn't have. I had one brush with it during high school but I was comfortable enough in my own skin and a pretty tough cookie by that time so I wasn't impressed with it, and it didn't make the impression on me it might have otherwise. So I was shocked to be living my own middle school experience at 36 years old.
It's hard to describe completely. I was the focus of hatred and dislike that to this day I am not entirely sure why it started. It made my time at work miserable. It started from a few nasty comments here and there to vicious gossip and rumor mongering at work and outside of work. I kept a fairly brave and callous front up at work but I cried a lot more than I would like to admit. I wonder why I stayed. I know I had reasons, commitment to the agency, commitment to the client, belief that it couldn't possibly get worse (and yet, it would) but I think probably the thing that kept me there was pride. I wasn't going to let them win.
I can remember sitting at an agency retreat one year as the client billings were flashed in pie chart form up on the screen. I was the AE in charge of 65% of the agency's revenue at the time. I looked around the room at this group of people that HATED me and I thought, I should quit tomorrow and as I go I should let my clients know why I am leaving. And I felt an anger bloom in me that I had forgotten existed. I had spent the past 20 years getting over being that angry kid and there she was back full force. And let me tell you, no one in that room would have been prepared to deal with the bitch I was in high school if I didn't like you. I wasn't going to take it anymore. Come Monday morning at work things were going to shift. I was the big dog in that place and dammit they had better start taking notice! I didn't care if they liked me or not but they better well fear me and respect me because I was burning the place down!
After we had dinner that night and we were all getting ready to head back to the city our creative director whispered in my ear, "What ever you are planning, you need to take the weekend to think on it." I looked at him and he said, "I've known you a lot longer than they have, that is not a good look in your eye. You are better than that, you need to hold on to that." Creative directors as a whole are a challenge, and ours was especially trying to work with but as I always remind people, he is one of the good guys. It was a quiet ride back down the mountain for me that night while I thought about what he said. Was I better? I sure didn't feel like being better. I felt like tearing them apart. Then our media director reached over and patted my leg and asked if I was okay, she is also one of the good guys. And I realized I needed to take the weekend and think.
As is my normal behavior that weekend I read a book. One of the problems with reading as much as I do is that you forget what book you read something in. There is a story from a book that I read that weekend that profoundly changed the way I viewed my situation. And it has changed the way I deal in the world ever since. And I CANNOT remember who wrote it. Someday I hope to stumble across it again so I can give them full credit. In the story the man's mother is married to a really abusive jerk. I cannot remember if it's his father or his stepfather, but anyway, he is horrible. He cheats on her, he abuses her physically and mentally while they are married. He is an awful human being. Years later he is very sick and no one will take him in. She lets him back into her house and she takes care of him until he dies. Her son asks her, why would you do that? He was horrible! And she says, "I cannot let who he is change who I am."
I must have read that sentence twenty times. I cannot let who he is change who I am. It became my mantra. I cannot let who they are change who I am. I would like say that from there on out it became easy, but that would be a lie. It got much worse. I just changed the way I dealt with it. I stopped wondering what was wrong with me and realized that it was their issue. When things got too hard to deal with at work I picked up my lap top and worked from a friend's office. I worked early, I worked weekends, I worked evenings at home. I basically stayed away from work as much as I could get away with. And when I was there I did my best to not let it get me too down. I tried my best to keep a civil tongue in my head, which most of the time meant I didn't talk at all. During social/work events I tried to play along as much as possible. I kept my mouth shut when I heard or saw things that were no one's business even though I could have used them to wreck a few lives. I held back people's hair while they vomited, I jumped dead batteries in cars, I kept people from talking when they were drunk and wanted to play true confessions. I tried to understand when people I had been friendly with in the past were shitty to me. Basically I did my level best to be who I am.
Months went by and things were miserable at work but I thought I was managing it okay. Then my boss and I went to Vegas. While we were there he made a crack that let me know two things. One he was aware of the worst of the things being said about me, and two he was part of it. The bitch that had gone into hibernation that weekend came roaring back full force. At a food court in Vegas I called my boss back to the table and stone cold told him that I was done. That I was through eating shit. I was finished turning my cheek. I was over being the grown up and either he was going to fix it or he was going to regret it. The look on my face, or the absolute lack of emotion in my voice must have scared him because as soon as we got back I got a lunch invitation from the two ringleaders of the abuse and got an apology. They also wasted no time in throwing another person in the office under the bus and soon she became the target of their abuse.
And this is much longer than I was planning on so I will wrap it up for now. So as our story stands so far, I put the question out to the Universe, what should I do with my life? And at this point in the story I am ignoring the answer I got. Can you see how well it's working for me? :-)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
What do I want to be when I grow up?
Man, I pondered that question for years. I think on some level, though I love massage therapy, I still do. How do we find what we are supposed to do? Is there a grand calling out there for all of us? I don't really know. What I do know is that the road to me being what I am right now was a long and twisty one.
So background time...for those of you that don't know Brent and I got married when we were 18. Let me let that sink in for a minute. Yep, 18, graduated in June of 86 got married in December. Brent joined the Navy and away life went. My mother is fond of saying that I was born a grown up. Another day and another blog I will talk more about that, childhood stories are fun, but for their own time. Brent joining the service was a good solid grown up decision for a couple of kids to make. It meant steady income, housing, and medical coverage. Looking back on it we would have switched that up and done the college route instead, but at the time it was a good decision to make.
So his career path was set and signed away. That left me. At 18 and no degree you don't have a lot of options in front of you. Food service and retail. I did both. My parents are older than most parents of my generation and instilled in me that depression era work ethic. If you have a job, I don't care what the job is, you do it well. So I always did well no matter where I worked. But there is only so long you want to do food service or retail work. I decided that really the smart thing would be to do bookkeeping. I am good with numbers and no matter where we were to live I could get a job doing books. And so I switched to back offices in retail stores. Would work the floor as needed and work the office the rest of the time. And we rolled along with this arrangement until we moved to California.
California has a pretty constant flow of people coming into the state. Due to that they have a pretty large pool to draw from for employment. What I soon discovered is that I wasn't going to get a job as a bookkeeper without a degree. The other thing that California has is a spectacular Junior College system. Now with Brent in the Navy we could only guess we were going to be stationed in San Diego for a few years anyway so this worked perfectly. I enrolled in San Diego City College for $5 a credit hour, maximum $25 a term and got my degree in Accounting. My professors wanted me to go on to UCSD and pick up the two additional classes I would need to take my CPA exam but I didn't want to be a CPA, I wanted to be a bookkeeper. That's enough, thanks.
After graduation I got a job at a wholesale pottery company, with my experience and my brand new piece of paper I was able to get on as their full charge bookkeeper. I spent the next few years working for a variety of companies as different versions of bookkeeper/office manager. I also took three years off in the middle to stay home with Christopher. Then the first shift in career happened. Moving back from Colorado Springs to Portland, Oregon we found ourselves in need of a letter from a company saying I had a job waiting for me so we could get the loan on our house. The advertising agency I had been keeping books for before we moved was coming to the realization that the person they had in their AE position for one of their biggest clients was not working out. Jack, my former boss, asked me if I wanted the job. He assured me he would teach me anything I didn't know and that the rest was just tracking numbers, which I had done for them before in my old position. So I took a big leap and said yes.
Now, Jack hadn't told me that he was in the absolute last stages of selling the company to his partner and by teaching me anything I didn't know what he really meant was he would run for the door just as soon as I had my desk unpacked again, and good luck to you! Maybe it wasn't that bad...but it sure felt like it the first few months. There were 4 of us in the agency full time and we had a freelance bookkeeper that would come in a few days a week. Between the 5 of use we did it all. And I learned a lot very quickly. I realized just how sheltered I had been from the day to day dealings when I had worked there before.
So the whole time I am doing the job I am still thinking in the back of my head, is this it? Is this what I am supposed to be doing? New people would start at the agency and they would be so excited to FINALLY be in Advertising! This was their goal. This is what they went to college to do. And there I was handling the agency's biggest client and a small handful of others and I had no clue if this was even what I wanted to do.
Now in every office there is that person that will rub your shoulders when you are stressed and tired. I was that person. And every time I would rub someone's back or shoulders they would say, you are really good at this you should do it for a living. Now the first few times you hear that you think, awww...isn't that sweet. Then you start thinking, hmmm...maybe I should. I like doing it, I am good at it. It makes people feel good. Hmm....
Brent and I talked about it and he bought me books on massage and books on reflexology and I read them and practiced more and thought, yeah, this sounds good to me. So I looked into schools. I had the paperwork in hand to start night school. It was going to be very tricky to manage as my travel schedule for work was picking up more and more, but I really thought this was it. And then I chickened out. Completely backed out of it. Just couldn't see how I could manage full time work, school and family life. It just wasn't for me so why even bother. I called the school, withdrew my initial application and gave up the idea.
Or so I thought.
So background time...for those of you that don't know Brent and I got married when we were 18. Let me let that sink in for a minute. Yep, 18, graduated in June of 86 got married in December. Brent joined the Navy and away life went. My mother is fond of saying that I was born a grown up. Another day and another blog I will talk more about that, childhood stories are fun, but for their own time. Brent joining the service was a good solid grown up decision for a couple of kids to make. It meant steady income, housing, and medical coverage. Looking back on it we would have switched that up and done the college route instead, but at the time it was a good decision to make.
So his career path was set and signed away. That left me. At 18 and no degree you don't have a lot of options in front of you. Food service and retail. I did both. My parents are older than most parents of my generation and instilled in me that depression era work ethic. If you have a job, I don't care what the job is, you do it well. So I always did well no matter where I worked. But there is only so long you want to do food service or retail work. I decided that really the smart thing would be to do bookkeeping. I am good with numbers and no matter where we were to live I could get a job doing books. And so I switched to back offices in retail stores. Would work the floor as needed and work the office the rest of the time. And we rolled along with this arrangement until we moved to California.
California has a pretty constant flow of people coming into the state. Due to that they have a pretty large pool to draw from for employment. What I soon discovered is that I wasn't going to get a job as a bookkeeper without a degree. The other thing that California has is a spectacular Junior College system. Now with Brent in the Navy we could only guess we were going to be stationed in San Diego for a few years anyway so this worked perfectly. I enrolled in San Diego City College for $5 a credit hour, maximum $25 a term and got my degree in Accounting. My professors wanted me to go on to UCSD and pick up the two additional classes I would need to take my CPA exam but I didn't want to be a CPA, I wanted to be a bookkeeper. That's enough, thanks.
After graduation I got a job at a wholesale pottery company, with my experience and my brand new piece of paper I was able to get on as their full charge bookkeeper. I spent the next few years working for a variety of companies as different versions of bookkeeper/office manager. I also took three years off in the middle to stay home with Christopher. Then the first shift in career happened. Moving back from Colorado Springs to Portland, Oregon we found ourselves in need of a letter from a company saying I had a job waiting for me so we could get the loan on our house. The advertising agency I had been keeping books for before we moved was coming to the realization that the person they had in their AE position for one of their biggest clients was not working out. Jack, my former boss, asked me if I wanted the job. He assured me he would teach me anything I didn't know and that the rest was just tracking numbers, which I had done for them before in my old position. So I took a big leap and said yes.
Now, Jack hadn't told me that he was in the absolute last stages of selling the company to his partner and by teaching me anything I didn't know what he really meant was he would run for the door just as soon as I had my desk unpacked again, and good luck to you! Maybe it wasn't that bad...but it sure felt like it the first few months. There were 4 of us in the agency full time and we had a freelance bookkeeper that would come in a few days a week. Between the 5 of use we did it all. And I learned a lot very quickly. I realized just how sheltered I had been from the day to day dealings when I had worked there before.
So the whole time I am doing the job I am still thinking in the back of my head, is this it? Is this what I am supposed to be doing? New people would start at the agency and they would be so excited to FINALLY be in Advertising! This was their goal. This is what they went to college to do. And there I was handling the agency's biggest client and a small handful of others and I had no clue if this was even what I wanted to do.
Now in every office there is that person that will rub your shoulders when you are stressed and tired. I was that person. And every time I would rub someone's back or shoulders they would say, you are really good at this you should do it for a living. Now the first few times you hear that you think, awww...isn't that sweet. Then you start thinking, hmmm...maybe I should. I like doing it, I am good at it. It makes people feel good. Hmm....
Brent and I talked about it and he bought me books on massage and books on reflexology and I read them and practiced more and thought, yeah, this sounds good to me. So I looked into schools. I had the paperwork in hand to start night school. It was going to be very tricky to manage as my travel schedule for work was picking up more and more, but I really thought this was it. And then I chickened out. Completely backed out of it. Just couldn't see how I could manage full time work, school and family life. It just wasn't for me so why even bother. I called the school, withdrew my initial application and gave up the idea.
Or so I thought.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
And moved...
Okay, all of the old items are here now.
They start oldest at the bottom (right after Moving day!) and work towards current.
I promise no more mass date postings. :-)
I will be back tomorrow or the next day with all new material, but this should keep you busy for awhile!
Feel free to comment!
They start oldest at the bottom (right after Moving day!) and work towards current.
I promise no more mass date postings. :-)
I will be back tomorrow or the next day with all new material, but this should keep you busy for awhile!
Feel free to comment!
Potential (6/16/09)
Is there a more loaded word in the English dictionary? Good and bad this is a powerful word.
I have an amazingly talented friend who is a professional photographer and Potential is the one word I use to describe her work. Then I have to explain. It's not that I think she has the potential to be a good photographer, she already is one. It's not that I think she has the potential to do great things, she already is doing them. It's that her pictures for me always seem to be about the Potential. The what happens next. Now part of that is her main bread and butter is kids and weddings as is for most photographers and those two subjects are all about potential, but her work always is about more than just the subject, it's about the subject and the world around them! Her passion is working with animals and she has a series of shots with a dog on the beach where I can hear the ocean and I can feel the ball in my hand as I am about to throw it for that waiting pooch! Potential...
Then there is the flip side, the pressure that Potential brings with it. My mother was pregnant eight times. She had one miscarriage, two of my sisters died shortly after birth, one brother was fatally hit by a truck when he was very young. That left my two older brothers, my sister and I. Due to the amount of pregnancies and the size of her babies after my brother Jeff was born (he was #6) the doctors told my mother no more babies. She said okay. And a year and half later my sister was born. The doctors said, seriously, no more babies. You will die or the child will die. No more. And she said okay. So just over 6 years later when she found she was pregnant with me the doctors were not happy. I believe there was also a letter written to the condom manufacturer letting them know of their defective product and that at the very least a refund should be coming forthwith.
They told her, do you think we were kidding? You will die if you carry this child to term. The baby will most likely not survive and if for some reason it does it will most likely be retarded. Now, the only thing I can figure out here is this is before genetic testing and doctors were just starting to figure out the correlation between Down Syndrome and age of the birth mother, but I still think it was a pretty bold statement for him to make. It has, of course, made my brothers and sister very happy through the years to repeat this little bit of medical fact at any opportunity.
Anyway, my parents are extremely religious people and for them there was no other option than to carry the child to term and hope for the best. I was almost a month late. So at almost 10 months pregnant my mother and father made their way to St. Joseph's in Albuquerque. My parents are not Catholic but still felt at that point the nuns were going to be of more use than the doctors. After a very rough delivery where I tried my hardest to kill my mother on the way out we both survived. Beat up for me. Lots of blood loss for her. But mother and baby recovered just fine.
But this is where the story of my life took hold. For as long as I can remember my mother would tell me, "God has very special plans for you." Or "You wouldn't be here if God didn't have great things you needed to do." Do you know the pressure that puts on a child? GOD wants me to do great things and all I want is to have an ice cream cone. Potential. It was like a weight to carry around. Eventually I got over it. I decided my potential was just that, mine. Just like everyone else's. And I put it mostly away.
Then I became a parent. I see this kid in front of me that is on his way to being an exceptional man and I see POTENTIAL! He told me yesterday after a random talk, "You really have big plans for me don't you?" I realized I was being my parents all over. I had to back away from the ledge and remind him that I see all of the great things he can accomplish, if he so chooses, and that yes, I fully believe he can do anything, but mostly I just want him to be happy. However that manifests itself. And that is the truth. If I accomplish nothing else in life if I can raise a kid that grows up to be a content good man, then my Potential is fully realized and I am happy.
This year my incredibly talented friend will take my incredible son's Senior pictures. Potential...meet Potential. I cannot wait to see the results!
Her website is http://www.greenchairstudio.com/ because I know you all want to see that dog!
I have an amazingly talented friend who is a professional photographer and Potential is the one word I use to describe her work. Then I have to explain. It's not that I think she has the potential to be a good photographer, she already is one. It's not that I think she has the potential to do great things, she already is doing them. It's that her pictures for me always seem to be about the Potential. The what happens next. Now part of that is her main bread and butter is kids and weddings as is for most photographers and those two subjects are all about potential, but her work always is about more than just the subject, it's about the subject and the world around them! Her passion is working with animals and she has a series of shots with a dog on the beach where I can hear the ocean and I can feel the ball in my hand as I am about to throw it for that waiting pooch! Potential...
Then there is the flip side, the pressure that Potential brings with it. My mother was pregnant eight times. She had one miscarriage, two of my sisters died shortly after birth, one brother was fatally hit by a truck when he was very young. That left my two older brothers, my sister and I. Due to the amount of pregnancies and the size of her babies after my brother Jeff was born (he was #6) the doctors told my mother no more babies. She said okay. And a year and half later my sister was born. The doctors said, seriously, no more babies. You will die or the child will die. No more. And she said okay. So just over 6 years later when she found she was pregnant with me the doctors were not happy. I believe there was also a letter written to the condom manufacturer letting them know of their defective product and that at the very least a refund should be coming forthwith.
They told her, do you think we were kidding? You will die if you carry this child to term. The baby will most likely not survive and if for some reason it does it will most likely be retarded. Now, the only thing I can figure out here is this is before genetic testing and doctors were just starting to figure out the correlation between Down Syndrome and age of the birth mother, but I still think it was a pretty bold statement for him to make. It has, of course, made my brothers and sister very happy through the years to repeat this little bit of medical fact at any opportunity.
Anyway, my parents are extremely religious people and for them there was no other option than to carry the child to term and hope for the best. I was almost a month late. So at almost 10 months pregnant my mother and father made their way to St. Joseph's in Albuquerque. My parents are not Catholic but still felt at that point the nuns were going to be of more use than the doctors. After a very rough delivery where I tried my hardest to kill my mother on the way out we both survived. Beat up for me. Lots of blood loss for her. But mother and baby recovered just fine.
But this is where the story of my life took hold. For as long as I can remember my mother would tell me, "God has very special plans for you." Or "You wouldn't be here if God didn't have great things you needed to do." Do you know the pressure that puts on a child? GOD wants me to do great things and all I want is to have an ice cream cone. Potential. It was like a weight to carry around. Eventually I got over it. I decided my potential was just that, mine. Just like everyone else's. And I put it mostly away.
Then I became a parent. I see this kid in front of me that is on his way to being an exceptional man and I see POTENTIAL! He told me yesterday after a random talk, "You really have big plans for me don't you?" I realized I was being my parents all over. I had to back away from the ledge and remind him that I see all of the great things he can accomplish, if he so chooses, and that yes, I fully believe he can do anything, but mostly I just want him to be happy. However that manifests itself. And that is the truth. If I accomplish nothing else in life if I can raise a kid that grows up to be a content good man, then my Potential is fully realized and I am happy.
This year my incredibly talented friend will take my incredible son's Senior pictures. Potential...meet Potential. I cannot wait to see the results!
Her website is http://www.greenchairstudio.com/ because I know you all want to see that dog!
Random Thoughts While on a Walk (6/15/09)
Today's walk was split half and half with Christopher. We walked down to the shopping area near the house he stopped for lunch, I grabbed an ice tea and headed back home. I thought I would share a few random walk thoughts with you all.
Why is it that the way to someplace seems longer than the way back?
How long has the path in dog poop park been paved?
If all of the people in Beaverton stopped trimming their blackberry bushes would it take a full season before they took over the world?
Over hearing a conversation at the playground as we walked by..."Well the Mom's in Motion group was formed to really be a support system, I think Cindy joined just to get free babysitting so she could go out partying." Sounds like Cindy to me...I wonder if it's the same Cindy or just a coincidence.
Talking about summer plans, and thinking having no plans are as good as having a lot of plans.
Sunglasses, I have to remember to grab my sunglasses!
I really did have a part in raising a good kid. Amazing.
So...November is six months away...
Watching a kid Christopher went to middle school with out driving on his own, why is it someone else's kids getting older is so much more of a shock than your own?
I wonder if the mother walking with her teenage daughter was thrilled with her choice of the Hooters t-shirt.
Though there aren't sidewalks on all of Springville Road there is a load of crazy driving on it!
Hoke died over 5 years ago and Margaret moved back to Florida within a month after, I still look down the street as I pass Graff and I think I am looking to see if Hoke's truck will be parked there.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich here I come!
If I leave the house at 7:15 I can make it to the airport by 8 without a problem.
And about a thousand more thoughts not to mention all of the random things Christopher and I talked about including but not limited to haircuts, Halloween costumes, football shaped heads, making shit up because it amuses me, Senior year capstone presentations.
Why is it that the way to someplace seems longer than the way back?
How long has the path in dog poop park been paved?
If all of the people in Beaverton stopped trimming their blackberry bushes would it take a full season before they took over the world?
Over hearing a conversation at the playground as we walked by..."Well the Mom's in Motion group was formed to really be a support system, I think Cindy joined just to get free babysitting so she could go out partying." Sounds like Cindy to me...I wonder if it's the same Cindy or just a coincidence.
Talking about summer plans, and thinking having no plans are as good as having a lot of plans.
Sunglasses, I have to remember to grab my sunglasses!
I really did have a part in raising a good kid. Amazing.
So...November is six months away...
Watching a kid Christopher went to middle school with out driving on his own, why is it someone else's kids getting older is so much more of a shock than your own?
I wonder if the mother walking with her teenage daughter was thrilled with her choice of the Hooters t-shirt.
Though there aren't sidewalks on all of Springville Road there is a load of crazy driving on it!
Hoke died over 5 years ago and Margaret moved back to Florida within a month after, I still look down the street as I pass Graff and I think I am looking to see if Hoke's truck will be parked there.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich here I come!
If I leave the house at 7:15 I can make it to the airport by 8 without a problem.
And about a thousand more thoughts not to mention all of the random things Christopher and I talked about including but not limited to haircuts, Halloween costumes, football shaped heads, making shit up because it amuses me, Senior year capstone presentations.
*whispers* (5/22/09)
Have you ever heard the phrase "Don't call the devil by his name?" It basically means if you say something bad out loud you will bring it to you. My parents are of the generation that took this to heart and would *whisper* any words they felt were scary. Words around death or divorce were always *whispered*. Led to one of the funniest misunderstandings of my life. Now, for those of you reading this that know me, you know I laugh at inappropriate things, for those of you that don't know me as well this is your warning.
There was a prominent business family in the town I grew up in. They owned restaurants and car dealerships and a few other businesses. Well the patriarch of this family was also a bit of a dog. And he was fairly public about it. When I was maybe 11 years old he died. He was at his girlfriend's apartment and there was a gas leak. My parents and other adults were all a buzz about this and would discuss it when they thought the kids weren't in hearing distance. Well, let me tell you, there is nothing that will bring about kids like discussing something you don't want them to hear! But the conversation we all heard went like this:
"Did you hear about JG?"
"I did! Did you hear he was at his *girlfriend's* apartment when it happened?"
"Yes, I did. I can't believe he was *asphyxiated* SG must be so angry!"
Fast forward to my teen years sitting in class one day studying biology. Mrs. Parks asks the class if we know the word for what happens when the body is denied oxygen. A lot of people guess suffocation, but the word she is looking for is asphyxiation. I laughed out loud.
"Ms. Clifton, do you want to share with the class why asphyxiation would be humorous to you?"
and I debated for a moment and then thought, well she asked...
"Well, do you remember JG? He was asphyxiated at his girlfriend's apartment. All this time I thought it was a sexual position and he died trying it!"
Really funny thing is I ended up working for his sons years later and every once in awhile would still get inappropriate giggles thinking that for years I thought asphyxiation had something to do with sex!
There was a prominent business family in the town I grew up in. They owned restaurants and car dealerships and a few other businesses. Well the patriarch of this family was also a bit of a dog. And he was fairly public about it. When I was maybe 11 years old he died. He was at his girlfriend's apartment and there was a gas leak. My parents and other adults were all a buzz about this and would discuss it when they thought the kids weren't in hearing distance. Well, let me tell you, there is nothing that will bring about kids like discussing something you don't want them to hear! But the conversation we all heard went like this:
"Did you hear about JG?"
"I did! Did you hear he was at his *girlfriend's* apartment when it happened?"
"Yes, I did. I can't believe he was *asphyxiated* SG must be so angry!"
Fast forward to my teen years sitting in class one day studying biology. Mrs. Parks asks the class if we know the word for what happens when the body is denied oxygen. A lot of people guess suffocation, but the word she is looking for is asphyxiation. I laughed out loud.
"Ms. Clifton, do you want to share with the class why asphyxiation would be humorous to you?"
and I debated for a moment and then thought, well she asked...
"Well, do you remember JG? He was asphyxiated at his girlfriend's apartment. All this time I thought it was a sexual position and he died trying it!"
Really funny thing is I ended up working for his sons years later and every once in awhile would still get inappropriate giggles thinking that for years I thought asphyxiation had something to do with sex!
Disneyland (3/28/09)
I love Disneyland. No secret there right? I tried to figure out just what it was about the place that I love so much this week.
I am frugal by nature. My father was the oldest son of an alcoholic father and barely capable mother. He was born in 1930 and to say they were poor would be putting a positive spin on things. He is tight. Saves everything because you never know what parts you could salvage to fix something else. He went to work when he was 12 and hasn't stopped yet. When we were kids if we went shopping and would say "I saved $5 by buying this on sale!" he would say "You would have saved $20 had you not bought it at all." I find myself thinking this now when I go to buy something. So you know it's not the prices that make me love Disneyland.
Crowds make me tense. Being the youngest in my family I never had space to myself. I shared a room with my sister. A cramped 14x70 foot trailer with way too many people at any one time. I like to have my own space. I don't want a stranger bumping into me, breathing down my neck, taking up my air. :-) So it's not the mass of humanity that makes me love it.
So I paid really close attention while we were there. Was it the rides? Was it the experience? Was it nostalgia for my misspent youth? What is it?
It's the Happiest Place on Earth. That's it. I know it's their marketing slogan, but it really does seem that way. Yes, crying babies and over tired toddlers are there, but so are kids beaming with excitement over seeing Mickey LIVE and IN PERSON! Looking at the people in line with us, EVERYONE comes to Disney. There were Japanese tourists, middle America tourists, native Californians, hipster parents, mini van driving soccer mom parents, goth kids, jock kids, little kids, teens, adults, big families and singles. EVERYONE comes to Disney. And I think that's why I love it so much.
It's a little microcosm of the world in one place where everyone is there for one purpose, to have a good time. You aren't going to pay the price you do to go to have a bad time so people are working at having fun. And I like that. We all work at so much in our day to day lives. Why not work a little at the fun stuff as well?
Or it could be that I had two compliments about my hair while we were there... ;-)
I will post more about the trip later. Lots in my head that needs to get out.
I am frugal by nature. My father was the oldest son of an alcoholic father and barely capable mother. He was born in 1930 and to say they were poor would be putting a positive spin on things. He is tight. Saves everything because you never know what parts you could salvage to fix something else. He went to work when he was 12 and hasn't stopped yet. When we were kids if we went shopping and would say "I saved $5 by buying this on sale!" he would say "You would have saved $20 had you not bought it at all." I find myself thinking this now when I go to buy something. So you know it's not the prices that make me love Disneyland.
Crowds make me tense. Being the youngest in my family I never had space to myself. I shared a room with my sister. A cramped 14x70 foot trailer with way too many people at any one time. I like to have my own space. I don't want a stranger bumping into me, breathing down my neck, taking up my air. :-) So it's not the mass of humanity that makes me love it.
So I paid really close attention while we were there. Was it the rides? Was it the experience? Was it nostalgia for my misspent youth? What is it?
It's the Happiest Place on Earth. That's it. I know it's their marketing slogan, but it really does seem that way. Yes, crying babies and over tired toddlers are there, but so are kids beaming with excitement over seeing Mickey LIVE and IN PERSON! Looking at the people in line with us, EVERYONE comes to Disney. There were Japanese tourists, middle America tourists, native Californians, hipster parents, mini van driving soccer mom parents, goth kids, jock kids, little kids, teens, adults, big families and singles. EVERYONE comes to Disney. And I think that's why I love it so much.
It's a little microcosm of the world in one place where everyone is there for one purpose, to have a good time. You aren't going to pay the price you do to go to have a bad time so people are working at having fun. And I like that. We all work at so much in our day to day lives. Why not work a little at the fun stuff as well?
Or it could be that I had two compliments about my hair while we were there... ;-)
I will post more about the trip later. Lots in my head that needs to get out.
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