18 posts from October 2007

Gotta leave again. Happy Halloween to all. Sorry Arizona relatives, my trip schedule is so tight that I can't hang out. :(  But I will return to Arizona again in January for a long visit so we will at least see each other then. I am looking forward to seeing the cactus.

So, this is what my family and I ended up doing tonight: attending the second annual Washington, DC Zombie Lurch held at the base of the Washington Monument. Here's a few images from the Lurch. Click on each to see a larger version. Those zombies sure can dance! And who knew they could become so politically active?

Its Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  How many people do you know that have been touched by the disease?
Submitted by Karen.

My close family and friends are really lucky--none of us have had breast cancer before. We are grateful we have not had to deal with this illness. (My sister lost an eye to eye cancer, though.)

I've spent the whole night trying to take care of a (possibly dying) kitty, so all I have time and energy to say right at this moment is the California fires look like the worst ones I have ever seen on TV before, and I hope all of you California Voxers are safe, and your families, friends, pets, and houses too!

I haven't been blogging as much lately. Part of it is I am just tired. My life has been a little overwhelming recently--not necessarily all in a bad way--but it's exhausting. I'm just spent. I wish I could take a week off, and spend the first two days of that week just sleeping and lounging in bed reading meaningless pop culture magazines. Then I'd use the rest of the week to try to clean out my messy house and yard. I just feel like there's too many tasks I have to complete and too many responsibilities I need to fulfill and too many details I have to track and remember. Work assignments, medical appointments, peoples' birthdays, rules and regulations, dates and times, car maintenance routines, bill payment schedules, passwords and PIN numbers, etc., etc. Some much damn data. I guess that's a condition of the modern world. All I know is it is tiring me out and I want to cocoon.

I also feel badly because I owe so many people emails and phone calls and snail mails and packages and photographs and other stuff. I hate to let people down and disappoint them and I always try to make it a priority to stay in touch and show people that I care. So the fact that I failed to send my second cousin (a child) his birthday card earlier this month and that I haven't been online with my stepmothers' group (where people need support) in almsot 2 weeks really bothers me.

I guess my only excuse for lagging in my correspondence and social interaction is that that every major area of my life has experienced complications and upheaval recently. In no particular order: my cat's having seizures, my aunt is in the hospital, my husband has had a headache for more than three weeks, my son got caught by his teachers slacking on his school work, both of our cars need maintenance and repairs, my company is owned by two crazy brothers who make every action and decision into a lengthy, drawn-out, traumatic ordeal, I can't do anything to stop the Bermuda grass invading my backyard, my next door neighbor has a sanity problem, I don't have enough money to deal with everything that needs to be dealt with, my fridge is broken, a vendor keeps on making unauthorized charges on my credit card, and on and on. You don't want to hear it, you've got a luandry list of your own, I'm sure.

I'm not depressed or anything, just tired out. It's hard to remember everything when you're this tired. And I'm tired in a "deep in my bones" sense.

Last night I read a brief article, the theme of which was "add to your life by subtracting things from it." Meaning, to make your life fuller and more enjoyable, pare out all the unnecessary stuff and simplify and streamline your processes. So, while I don't think of my blog time as "unnecessary" or as something that should be eliminated from my life, I do think I need to set it aside for a little bit. I think one of my fellow Vox neighborhood members is also going through a little blogging hiatus of her own, so perhaps my need to take a little break is not unusual for this time of year (as we build up towards those emotional ordeals known as The Holidays).

I'm not sure how long my Blogging Hiatus will last; maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow and feel the need to post something. But I think I need to funnel some of my free time into some of my other pursuits so that I don't feel like I am drowning in tasks and goals and problems and issues and action items that never get completed.

So, the bottom line: I might be around on Vox a little more this week, or I might be going on a bit of a blogging break. I'm not sure. But in case I disappear for awhile, at least everyone knows I'm still alive and doing OK, not submerged in a crushing depression or something. I'm just trying to get by, muddle through, whatever you call it. 

Dr. Randy Pausch, diagnosed with terminal cancer, delivered a last lecture on life lessons that has been viewed online over a million times.  What would be in your life lessons lecture?

1. In the end, everything will be all right. (Someone died while I held their hand, so I know this to be true from witnessing the end happening in front of me.)

2. The best ways to stay young:

a. Don't lose all of your childlike enthusiasm for the little things. Remember when an ice cream cone or a spotting a salamander could make you excited.

b. Stay active. Play and jump. Just keep moving.

c. Never stop trying to improve your education. Learn and think.

d. Use unscreen and consume antioxidants. Don't smoke.

3. Stop taking things for granted, especially your relatives and close friends. Accidents can happen at any age, so take the time to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you now.

4. Although our country might be flawed, most of us Americans will get to eat dinner tonight, and most of us get to live in relative peace, and these are great gifts. Most of us will never know how it feels to be a war zone refugee, for example. And that's something to be grateful about.

5. Try not to yell at your kids. All they hear is hurt; they won't hear the lesson you are trying to teach them. (But don't be too hard on yourself if you slip sometimes--we all end up yelling at our kids once in awhile.)

6. Just because someone contributes genetic material to the generation of a new child, it does not automatically make them a parent.

7. Reuse, recycle, have a yard sale, donate to thrift.

8. Everyone needs some "alone time" once in awhile--it doesn't mean you are antisocial or ungrateful for your family or friends. But everyone also needs some "social time" making connections with other people once in awhile, too. Otherwise you just end up hoarding cats in your house and piling newspapers eight feel deep in your hallways. (Or, in the case of a relative of mine, stockpiling toilet paper, paper towels, socks, and tissues to the extent that when you die, these stockpiled items supply 4 households with paper goods for 6+ months.) 

9. Americans get less vacation time than nearly any other group of workers in the world. No one ever died saying "I wish I had spent more time sitting in my beige cubicle in the office park!" Take your vacation. Demand time off.

10. Time moves way too fast, so don't feel guilty if you skip out on cleaning the bathtub in favor of frolicking outside instead.

I know, these observations of mine are pretty cliche, but nonetheless this is some of the big stuff life that has taught me so far.   

I am a frustrated commuter who must pay the Dulles Greenway and the Dulles Toll Road their rapacious tolls on a daily basis--excessive fees that grant me the "privilege" of getting mired in daily morning traffic jams that are only slightly better and less time consuming than the traffic jams on Route 7, which parallels the Greenway and Toll Road.

Finally, after years of public outcry about how these toll roads are managed (and years of secrecy by the operators of the Greenway, who refuse to publish their financials and divulge their profit margins), a Congressional Representative, Frank Wolf of Virginia, has initiated an inquiry into their business practices.

Here is a passge from Rep. Wolf's most recent email newsletter:

"This week I asked Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell to review whether the company that owns the Dulles Greenway is using proper accounting methods.  The company has been authorized under current state law to raise one-way tolls to $4.80 by 2012, and it is legally allowed to do so if it cannot make a profit on the road at the current rate.  Determining profitability requires accurate accounting; however, an article in this month’s Fortune magazine calls into question the accounting practices of Australia-based Macquarie Bank, which owns TRIP II, the direct owner of the Greenway.  This review is imperative to ensure that the public’s trust is not being violated.

I hope this information is helpful. Please visit www.wolf.house.gov if you need additional information on these or any other issues."

For those of you Finns and Finn lovers in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, the Finn Spark Inc. social and charity club's new website is up and running:

http://www.finnspark.org

The club's largest annual event, the Finnish Christmas Bazaar, is being held again this year on November 17 in Bethesda, Maryland. Come early, because this hugely popular event gets crowded fast and all the best treats like the homemade rye bread and pulla pastries tend to sell out quickly.

I've been attending this Bazaar almost every year since I was about 4 years old, and it's one of my favorite holiday events.

Tervetuloa to everyone! See you there.

Ok, so I have known for years that Swedish designer Hanna Andersson makes adorable clothes for babies and little tikes, but I had no idea until this weekend that she also offers clothes for women. So I spent my birthday cash from last month stocking up on some new clothes from the easy-to-navigate Hanna Andersson website. Almost everything on the site seems to be made of natural fibers and materials, which I love, because synthetics always make me sweaty, itchy, and scratchy. For under $200 I bought pewter colored ballet flats for work, two 100% cotton T-shirts, one velour T-shirt with cute, puffed short sleeves in Finnish flag blue, a printed cotton dress that can be layered over a mock turtleneck for winter, and two Swedish dala horse ornaments (the proceeds from the ornament's go to a children's charity. Don't tell my mother, but she is getting one of these ornaments for Christmas this year). (My mother is an honorary Swede because she lived in Sweden as a child as a wartime refugee during the late 1930s and early 1940s.) As soon as I can afford to do so, I want the ruby red velour dress, which will be great for work with boots and tigthts. Good stuff! Although I can't quite describe it in words, these clothes and accessories from hHanna Andersson definitely have a Scandinavian aesthetic: clean lines, bold colors, quality fabrics. I am hooked.

If you are thinking of visiting Brunswick, this would be a great weekend to do so: the annual Railroad Days Festival is underway all weekend long. There are carnival rides, train rides, crafts, funnel cakes, music and entertainment, and all kinds of autumn fun.

Ironically, after a particularly harsh week at work, I am feeling somewhat antisocial and will most likely spend most of this weekend holed up in the house avoiding crowds. I had enough of crowds over at the Crafty Bastards show in DC last weekend, something I plan to blog about later on.