I have been to Facebook now two or three times in the last minute meaning to write something on my mind, but knowing that certain people will take it the wrong way. So, I come to the comfort of my blog page where at this point I have no followers (won't someone please follow me? hheheheheheheeee) so that I can vent. Here goes.
Pushing someone out of your life because of perceived things this person may have done without really checking to make sure they did them is not right. Can't you check your facts before condemning someone to the black sheep position in the family? The person pushed out is crying right now and it makes me want to punch someone. Punching is not something I do, but when you hurt the person I love, I feel like punching. Never mind, I won't do it. I choose to forget it and forgive. But just remember that sometimes the things people say about someone else can hurt that person and they never really forget it. I know. Someone said something to this person about ten years ago and from deep hurt and frustration the person hurt turned to something that should never have been turned to. Sticks and stone can break bones, but words can hurt really worse. People, it's time to talk to one another and stop assuming things that shouldn't be assumed.
How's that for a cryptic message? I strive not to use real names in this blog. Therapists will tell you that a good way to get something off your chest is to write a letter to the person who has hurt you, but then don't send it. That's how I went from Facebook to this blog. If I put what I wanted to put on Facebook, then my cryptic message could be seen in different ways by different groups of people and then the matter would be worse than it already is. Sheesh!
Now, I just need to decide whether to keep this post up and for how long. It just felt good to get it off my chest. For those reading, it takes a lot to make me mad. I'm not to that point, but when you mess with someone I love, well......punch or just forget about it? I choose to forget about it....for now.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Quest for Higher Education is Coming to an End
I can't believe it! I heard from my academic advisor that after the current semester, I will need only four classes to complete my bachelor's degree! Woo hoo!!!!
It's been a long, long, long road. I started this journey in the fall of 1997 when I was newly divorced and wanted to do something for myself. I could only afford to take one class a semester for awhile, especially since I was still raising my daughter. But, it appears it is finally coming to an end!
I registered for one class this summer, two classes in the fall, then all that will be left is my senior capstone class and I will be done. May 2012 never looked so good! I see a party in my future!!
It's been a long, long, long road. I started this journey in the fall of 1997 when I was newly divorced and wanted to do something for myself. I could only afford to take one class a semester for awhile, especially since I was still raising my daughter. But, it appears it is finally coming to an end!
I registered for one class this summer, two classes in the fall, then all that will be left is my senior capstone class and I will be done. May 2012 never looked so good! I see a party in my future!!
Blog Fodder
This posting is to complete an assignment on story elements. What you are about to read is real. It does not contain actors, but real persons. Persons who resemble the persons in this story, but who are not related, is strictly coincidence.
The Camping Trip (if you can call it that)
In 1995, five women went on a camping trip to Brown County. It was our third annual camping trip, and this year was going to be slightly different. Instead of sleeping in a camper and tent, we were treating ourselves to a rental house overlooking a forest full of color. Our usual camping trips involved bugs of various types and since we were going to shop in downtown Nashville, Indiana, we thought we would forgo the camper for the luxury of the house without bugs.
Saturday morning, we all head out to our relaxing weekend. We drive through some areas with colorful trees on our way to the house which sits back about a quarter mile off the main road. Seclusion at its best. With four bedrooms, each of us find the room of our choice with two people in one room. As we are searching the house, Linda, who is the prissiest of all the campers, screams. There is a mouse in the toilet. Debbie, who is the most experienced, fishes the mouse out and assures Linda that there are no more mice. And, we didn't see one the rest of the weekend.
After shopping most of the day, the campers return to the house to begin cooking dinner. Enter the problem! Michelle sees something move across the floor. All five women scream. It went under the swivel rocker. Someone had to see what it was. Debbie decided she would be the one to check on what it was. She tiptoed up to the rocker so she wouldn't scare whatever was under the chair. Why make it run any further, right? So, she tipped the chair up and more screaming begins. It is a snake! Not a big one, but any snake is big to a bunch of city girls.
Linda is the first to run out of the house, followed closely by all the other women. Linda locks herself in the car and swears she won't come out until the snake is taken care of. What to do...what to do. The only thing to do is to call a park ranger. However, Mr. Ranger doesn't think a snake is that important to come get as it is not in the park, nor is it a poisonous snake from our description. He said we'd have to get rid of it ourselves. How are we going to do that? We begin searching, minus Linda who is still in the car, for anything around the house that we can catch the snake in. We find a cinder block and a stick. Michelle decides she better protect Linda, so she stands guard by the side of the car. Dana doesn't want Michelle to be by herself, so she stands guard, too. Debbie and I are the only ones left to take care of the snake. I think we both got a hit of adrenalin knowing we would be the heroes of the day by saving the trip and catching the snake. We venture back into the house. First we need to make sure the snake hasn't moved from under the chair. Mr. Snake likes the dark, cool underside of the chair, so we find he's still there. I get on top of the chair with the cinder block in my hands. My job will be to drop the block on top of the snake either killing him or trapping him. Debbie's job is to coax Mr. Snake out from under the chair so I can do the dirty deed.
The stick is used to poke at Mr. Snake. He doesn't like that too much, so he pokes his head out from under the chair. This excites Mr. Snake enough to come further out. Debbie's second job begins as she directs me which way to turn in order to drop the block. I can't lean over the chair as it will tip. "A little to the left. Now a little bit more. Drop it!" Darn, Mr. Snake has figured out what we're up to and is craftier than the inexperienced campers. So, another round of coaxing out from under the chair. Mr. Snake is none to happy at this point. "Okay, turn a little to the right. Not too much. I think you're in good position now. Why don't you lift the block higher so maximum damage can be done?" Up goes the cinder block a little higher than before (which is not easy as it is heavy). Down goes the cinder block right on top of Mr. Snake, but not as good as we'd hoped. He didn't die, but he couldn't move. Now what?
Another call goes out to the park ranger who finally decides to send a lackey to the house just to pacify some pleading women. Meanwhile, Linda is still in the car, but her guards decide since the snake is trapped, they can investigate the scene. Mr. Junior Park Ranger shows up with a bag and a rake-like looking instrument. We point out Mr. Snake, who turns out to be a garter snake, and he just laughs.Okay, it is kind of funny, but we aren't going to laugh until Mr. Snake is outside. "Does anyone want to hold the bag while I lasso the snake?" Debbie and I have had our fun, so it's up to Michelle or Dana (Linda is STILL in the car). Michelle says she'll do it and dutifully holds the bag out for the capture. As you can imagine, Michelle will not be able to sleep that night and probably not for the next two weeks!
Mr. Snake is now caught and in the bag and is leaving the house and grounds with Mr. Junior Park Ranger since none of the women want him around anymore. The rest of the evening is spent having dinner and playing card games but each of us had to inspect everywhere we went before stepping into a room or getting into bed.
As the years have gone by, we have not forgotten this funny episode and now that we can laugh about it, we do, and so do many other people who hear the story! I think that might have been the last year the five women went on their annual camping trip, too!
Assignment: As I wrote the story, I could see each of the elements (character development, sequence of events, pace, conflict, point of view, resolution, etc.,) come alive. I paid special attention to the story to make sure each element was present. Without having to pay too much attention, the elements all fell into place. If I had left out one of the elements, the story would not either make sense or be complete.
The Camping Trip (if you can call it that)
In 1995, five women went on a camping trip to Brown County. It was our third annual camping trip, and this year was going to be slightly different. Instead of sleeping in a camper and tent, we were treating ourselves to a rental house overlooking a forest full of color. Our usual camping trips involved bugs of various types and since we were going to shop in downtown Nashville, Indiana, we thought we would forgo the camper for the luxury of the house without bugs.
Saturday morning, we all head out to our relaxing weekend. We drive through some areas with colorful trees on our way to the house which sits back about a quarter mile off the main road. Seclusion at its best. With four bedrooms, each of us find the room of our choice with two people in one room. As we are searching the house, Linda, who is the prissiest of all the campers, screams. There is a mouse in the toilet. Debbie, who is the most experienced, fishes the mouse out and assures Linda that there are no more mice. And, we didn't see one the rest of the weekend.
After shopping most of the day, the campers return to the house to begin cooking dinner. Enter the problem! Michelle sees something move across the floor. All five women scream. It went under the swivel rocker. Someone had to see what it was. Debbie decided she would be the one to check on what it was. She tiptoed up to the rocker so she wouldn't scare whatever was under the chair. Why make it run any further, right? So, she tipped the chair up and more screaming begins. It is a snake! Not a big one, but any snake is big to a bunch of city girls.
Linda is the first to run out of the house, followed closely by all the other women. Linda locks herself in the car and swears she won't come out until the snake is taken care of. What to do...what to do. The only thing to do is to call a park ranger. However, Mr. Ranger doesn't think a snake is that important to come get as it is not in the park, nor is it a poisonous snake from our description. He said we'd have to get rid of it ourselves. How are we going to do that? We begin searching, minus Linda who is still in the car, for anything around the house that we can catch the snake in. We find a cinder block and a stick. Michelle decides she better protect Linda, so she stands guard by the side of the car. Dana doesn't want Michelle to be by herself, so she stands guard, too. Debbie and I are the only ones left to take care of the snake. I think we both got a hit of adrenalin knowing we would be the heroes of the day by saving the trip and catching the snake. We venture back into the house. First we need to make sure the snake hasn't moved from under the chair. Mr. Snake likes the dark, cool underside of the chair, so we find he's still there. I get on top of the chair with the cinder block in my hands. My job will be to drop the block on top of the snake either killing him or trapping him. Debbie's job is to coax Mr. Snake out from under the chair so I can do the dirty deed.
The stick is used to poke at Mr. Snake. He doesn't like that too much, so he pokes his head out from under the chair.
Another call goes out to the park ranger who finally decides to send a lackey to the house just to pacify some pleading women. Meanwhile, Linda is still in the car, but her guards decide since the snake is trapped, they can investigate the scene. Mr. Junior Park Ranger shows up with a bag and a rake-like looking instrument. We point out Mr. Snake, who turns out to be a garter snake, and he just laughs.Okay, it is kind of funny, but we aren't going to laugh until Mr. Snake is outside. "Does anyone want to hold the bag while I lasso the snake?" Debbie and I have had our fun, so it's up to Michelle or Dana (Linda is STILL in the car). Michelle says she'll do it and dutifully holds the bag out for the capture. As you can imagine, Michelle will not be able to sleep that night and probably not for the next two weeks!
Mr. Snake is now caught and in the bag and is leaving the house and grounds with Mr. Junior Park Ranger since none of the women want him around anymore. The rest of the evening is spent having dinner and playing card games but each of us had to inspect everywhere we went before stepping into a room or getting into bed.
As the years have gone by, we have not forgotten this funny episode and now that we can laugh about it, we do, and so do many other people who hear the story! I think that might have been the last year the five women went on their annual camping trip, too!
Assignment: As I wrote the story, I could see each of the elements (character development, sequence of events, pace, conflict, point of view, resolution, etc.,) come alive. I paid special attention to the story to make sure each element was present. Without having to pay too much attention, the elements all fell into place. If I had left out one of the elements, the story would not either make sense or be complete.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
My little bird is flying the nest today..
My eyes don't want to stop crying. My daughter is leaving for Ohio today. We have never lived more than ten miles apart. But, she's leaving for a new life. One I hope that is better and more satisfying than the one she lives here. It's bad when you're trying to escape a past that others won't let you forget. So, she's moving to another state to be where people don't know her past. She's more brave than me. I wanted to move away from the pain of divorce and all the crap that goes with it, but I didn't have the courage. So, I moved from south side to the north side. My daughter has courage. I wonder where she got it from?
Here is a picture of her a few years ago.
I will miss you, Girl Child. But, I am sooo proud of you.
M-O-M-M-Y (She always spelled it when she was looking for me when she was young.)
Here is a picture of her a few years ago.
I will miss you, Girl Child. But, I am sooo proud of you.
M-O-M-M-Y (She always spelled it when she was looking for me when she was young.)
Blog Fodder
My W390 class is beginning our final project for the semester. Final. I love that word. I like this class, don't get me wrong! I'm just really looking forward to summer break. My husband and I moved our patio chairs out of the barn yesterday because it was warm! It's supposed to be warm all this next week, too. I'm praying that we haven't jinxed spring and bring winter back just because we got too excited about it being warm and brought the chairs out. Blame us if it does!
Now, back to Blog Fodder for the class. Our assignment is to create a multimedia project that will highlight something from the English department at IUPUI. My group has chosen to do a spot on how you sign up to be a mentor or tutor for the Writing Center. This will involve making a PowerPoint presentation using our e-voice writing skills as well as various forms of media and interviewing to complete the project.
So far, we have only met in Oncourse messaging. Since we are on spring break as of today, we will jump into the project the following week. Our proposal is due March 27. Our group is three persons - me, Emily Keck, Rachel Monk, and Heather Roushselang. We have divided up some very basic research this first week to get a feel for what is available already online and who we could interview. Since this is the only way we have communicated, it's going pretty well. We all seem to look at Oncourse e-mail on a pretty regular basis, so that helps. What I don't like about Oncourse is that I typed a nice looking document, but when I put it into Oncourse, it put all these megatags in it. I forgot to put it in the Word box first. I don't know if we'll try meeting in Second Life or not. In my opinion, it will be too much work. I'd rather either continue chatting by e-mail or find a time when we can all meet and hash out the project in more detail.
I think I might try putting everything we've all done so far into one cohesive document for all of us to see when break is over.
Now, back to Blog Fodder for the class. Our assignment is to create a multimedia project that will highlight something from the English department at IUPUI. My group has chosen to do a spot on how you sign up to be a mentor or tutor for the Writing Center. This will involve making a PowerPoint presentation using our e-voice writing skills as well as various forms of media and interviewing to complete the project.
So far, we have only met in Oncourse messaging. Since we are on spring break as of today, we will jump into the project the following week. Our proposal is due March 27. Our group is three persons - me, Emily Keck, Rachel Monk, and Heather Roushselang. We have divided up some very basic research this first week to get a feel for what is available already online and who we could interview. Since this is the only way we have communicated, it's going pretty well. We all seem to look at Oncourse e-mail on a pretty regular basis, so that helps. What I don't like about Oncourse is that I typed a nice looking document, but when I put it into Oncourse, it put all these megatags in it. I forgot to put it in the Word box first. I don't know if we'll try meeting in Second Life or not. In my opinion, it will be too much work. I'd rather either continue chatting by e-mail or find a time when we can all meet and hash out the project in more detail.
I think I might try putting everything we've all done so far into one cohesive document for all of us to see when break is over.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Blog Fodder
I'm in my eight week of Finding My E-Voice class at IUPUI. We are preparing to work on our second project which includes multimedia and is centered on some part of the study of English. We've been divided into three groups for this project. My group members are Rachel Monk and Emily Keck.
It appears that the three of us are available on Monday through Thursday, so it shouldn't be difficult for us to meet either in person, on chat, or in Second Life. Since we all bring something to the project, we should be able to come up with a cool presentation.
Rachel Monk has good writing skills as well as a Canon video camera and a Canon Rebel DSLR camera. Video and pictures are important to a presentation, so these are good items to have available.
Emily Keck says her strong point is writing. She has experience in editorial writing and blogging.
I can write as well, so I don't think we will have any trouble writing our presentation or our reflection papers. I have connections on campus since I work full-time there and know many faculty members. I can also get data from Information Management and Institutional Research.
I think since we all three have good writing skills and some multimedia experience, our project will not be that difficult to produce. We haven't chosen a topic yet, but I've seen what Rachel is proposing and it could work. At this time, I'm not getting any bad vibes about the project or what we may be missing in the way of experience or skills.
Stay tuned for what the answer to what we decide to do our project on!
It appears that the three of us are available on Monday through Thursday, so it shouldn't be difficult for us to meet either in person, on chat, or in Second Life. Since we all bring something to the project, we should be able to come up with a cool presentation.
Rachel Monk has good writing skills as well as a Canon video camera and a Canon Rebel DSLR camera. Video and pictures are important to a presentation, so these are good items to have available.
Emily Keck says her strong point is writing. She has experience in editorial writing and blogging.
I can write as well, so I don't think we will have any trouble writing our presentation or our reflection papers. I have connections on campus since I work full-time there and know many faculty members. I can also get data from Information Management and Institutional Research.
I think since we all three have good writing skills and some multimedia experience, our project will not be that difficult to produce. We haven't chosen a topic yet, but I've seen what Rachel is proposing and it could work. At this time, I'm not getting any bad vibes about the project or what we may be missing in the way of experience or skills.
Stay tuned for what the answer to what we decide to do our project on!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The Girl Child's Quest
Well, it's decided. My girl child (GC) is leaving the nest. She has decided to leave Indianapolis to strike out on her quest to find a new life in a new town where not many know her past of addiction and she won't be judged, watched constantly, or shunned by family members. This will be her third attempt at living on her own. Her first two attempts were a disaster. Although she will only be eighty miles away, it will seem like three times that amount to me. GC and I have been close most of her life, with the exception of most of 2009 when her life took a nose dive and I had to shut her out of my life in order for her to find her way out of the hole she dug. I think this time she'll make it. As I know from Mark 11:24, whatever I pray for and believe it will come true, it will. I've seen it happen before in her life and I know it will happen again.
So, as GC begins her quest on March 20, I begin my quest of learning to live without her living close by.
So, as GC begins her quest on March 20, I begin my quest of learning to live without her living close by.
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