Does your life ever resemble a bad commercial?

Sue is so happy. Look at her clean, spotless kitchen. Sue reaches to empty her trash bag and look how easy and effortlessly the clean, strong bag comes out. And it has those handy top ties, too! But what about Jane? Jane bought those bargain bags (camera cuts to scene of Jane removing her bag and trash spilling everywhere). Jane sits in the middle of the trash and starts to cry.

I'm "Jane" lol. I'm taking out my trash this morning and find out that the bottom of the bag is not even sealed together. Dirty, wet kitchen trash everywhere! Yep, I bought that roll of bargain bags. So I reach for another to put the mess in. It's sealed on both ends. Won't open. Well, let's try the next one, shall we? It comes completely apart into a flat piece of plastic. (sigh) Third time HAS to be charm, right? YAY!!! A functioning bag. So I proceed to put all the trash (and the non-working bags) in there. Okay, now I need a new one to line the trash can. Next one doesn't open on either end. Are we seeing a pattern here? Yep, two more and I had a properly functioning bag to line the trash can. It's too early in the morning for this. Next time I'm buying the brand name! Maybe I need to go back to bed ...

Saturday night boredom

Well, I'm off work tonight. I've been poking around the house, making laundry soap and doing some loads. Have you ever been bored with a million things to do? There's really no end to housework. It's like the black hole of accomplishment. So pretty much at any given time, I could find at least 100 chores that could be done in the house. But sometimes, you just don't feel like doing them.

I've been meaning to go clean my closet. I don't even know what clothes I have anymore or what would fit, if anything. I can think of a lot of things that need cleaning or scrubbing, rearranging, organizing, or discarding.

But I guess I'll just take this Saturday night and unwind, prepare for a busy couple of weeks I have coming up. I believe a nice evening walk and a bubble bath are in order!!

What happened to the letter L?

Now, this is truly a babble for the evening. Take a look at your keyboard. Which letters are worn off? For me, the letter L is completely gone. I can't figure out why, unless I have been excessively LOL'ing. Letters that are half gone include the C, M, and the O. Everything else is pretty much there. Does this say something about my typing content? Hmmmm .... LOL

Postcrossing cards

I've talked about Postcrossing before. Here I'm making a list of the different countries to which I've sent cards or from which I've received them. I'll keep this updated as new cards are sent and received. I'll only list the countries once, even if there are multiple cards. I've sent and received the most cards within the USA.

Sent:

USA
Malaysia
Finland
Portugal
Germany
Netherlands
United Kingdom

Received:

USA
Finland
Germany
Taiwan
Portugal
Ireland
Turkey
China

What's in a name?

I am going through a divorce. I'm kind of used to the process, considering I started the thing in February, 2007. It's sort of been awhile. While I wait for things to move along (sometimes patiently, sometimes impatiently), one of the thing that bothers me is the continued legal status of my name. Now, when I was married, I retained my maiden name as my middle name. So now I do use my maiden name in general. The exceptions are with employers for tax purposes, bank accounts, my license and social security card, and things that involve my children, because I use my married name that matches theirs, for now.

Sometimes this lack of closure really bothers me. I don't feel like I can get on happily with the rest of my life and officially put a chapter behind me. The name thing serves to drive this home on occasion. I'll be going along so well, then someone calls on the phone asking for me by my married name. It just seems so foreign to me now. It seems like something from long ago that still lingers and won't let me shut that door.

What's weird is writing my name. One of the first things we write as children is our name, first, then our last. When I write my maiden name, it flows right out. I just say the name in my head and it appears on paper. My married name was always strained. Not that this had some sort of mystical reflection on the marriage itself, which did go sour, but just the fact that it wasn't the natural name for me to write following my first name. In my head, I would have to spell it out letter for letter. And that's after 17 years of that name. On things I have to sign, I still find this a problem.

I don't know how long I'll be in limbo. Most days, it doesn't bother me at all except for the financial part. But when I hear that name following mine, it stirs a bit of hurt and anger inside. I hope that goes away someday.

Postcrossing

I've been doing a new fun thing called postcrossing (from Postcrossing.com). I love to get mail, but I usually only get bills. :( When you sign up for this, you get a random address and send a postcard. You can send up to five at a time. When your postcard is received and registered in the system, your name and address are randomly given to someone else, and they send you a card. So far, I've sent more than I received, but it's still fun. I've received four cards - two from within the US, one from Taiwan, and one from Finland. I've sent cards to Germany, Finland, Portugal, the Netherlands, the UK, and within the US. I'm going to get a photo album just for the postcards I receive. There is some expense, because you have to buy the postcards and stamps (it's currently 94 cents to send internationally), but I am enjoying it and think it's worth it. Sometimes people mention in their profile what type of cards they like to receive, but I generally send local landscapes of Iowa. Some of the people have asked to become pen pals as well. Just another thing to have some fun with and learn about people and places all over the world! :)

Once in awhile, you've got to take a night off

So that's exactly what I'm doing tonight! The weird thing is, as soon as I got the okay from my contract that there weren't any rush jobs and I could take the night off, I suddenly didn't feel well. Tried a nap, didn't help. I think that when you are so overwhelmed with work, you tend to ignore how you're feeling because you can't afford to feel bad. When you finally get a chance to breathe, you feel it.

I'm not quite sure if I'm a workaholic. I work all day every day, pretty much. I like my jobs. I didn't work for a long time in my "past life" lol, which is something I'm trying to put behind me. I suppose my sudden endless workday could be an attempt to make up for lost time. I think, however, that it's more of an attempt to make up for lost identity.

It's strange how life brings you to these places. I learned how to type my freshman year of high school on an old manual typewriter. It was the last class of the day, and all I could think of was how I wanted to get home. I was a complete beginner and didn't accomplish much speed in the class, but I did learn my keystrokes. It was helpful to learn them on a manual typewriter, because you had to push the keys a little harder. When I later switched to computers at my job, I was able to fly over the keyboard. When I first started working at a full-time job, I was a secretary. I liked the jobs I had, but didn't love them. They were jobs and not careers. I didn't really feel like I used the talents I had. The middle part of my life was wife and mother, a whole other story, but while being a mother is so fulfilling and rewarding, I still don't feel like those personal talents were shining. Well, now I've found my transcription and English tutoring, each a unique outlet for my personal talents. Maybe that's why I am always working, just trying to get the most out of where I've been led in life.

Music

I've been learning so much about music! One of the projects I'm working on involves the history of music, and I've been learning so many new and interesting things. It's amazing how many things are a part of our history that we don't even know about. I've learned about histories of songs, where certain genres of music come from, how certain terms came to be, and countless histories of amazing people involved in the music industry.

Whenever you feel bored or depressed, remember that you always have the power of knowledge. You can browse through the internet, read a book, or go off to the library to explore countless subjects. I think the greatest thing about exploring is that you will discover there are a lot of people out there just like you who had to fight many problems in their life. They may not have ended up with perfect, flawless lives, but they worked to overcome obstacles that stood in the way of their dreams. The more you read about history, the more you realize that it is part of the story of your life, and we are all a part of each other.

School's in!

Our homeschooling year will be starting on Monday! I've never been one to follow the school calendar, but this year will be something a little different. I'm new to this state and this will be my first year using a supervising teacher. I've been a bit nervous about this, because while my curriculum is challenging and my kids test above grade level, it really doesn't work for us to have a lot of papers, so I'm worried what this lady will think about that. My oldest learns best when we both read a book and discuss it. He also branches out on his own, finding connections and reading about them until he finds himself in a whole other subject area. I don't want to discourage that in any way or fill up time he would spend on these pursuits with unnecessary busywork. My youngest son, on the other hand, is a very logical person. He wants exact answers to everything. So with him, the fill-in-the-blanks type of work matches his style.

My oldest will be doing driver's ed this year! He has to go to the local school for several 6:30am classes. Won't that be fun! LOL Good thing we live very close. I need to get out and drive with him more. He'll need 20 hours driving with me.

My First Blog :)

Okay, here we go! This is the first blog page I've ever done. I hope I can manage to type something remotely interesting and readable once in awhile.

Thanks for reading! :)