Sometimes Life is Hard
A child having to deal with physical and emotional trauma; friends dealing with emotional crisis; church members stressed over growing and/or lack of growing pains; my personal lack of financial know-how; letting frustrations out on unsuspecting friends; not knowing how to best help all the victims of the recent national disasters are all part of life. They are all part of my life.
When I was younger I did not understand how some people could pray "Lord, come quickly." I had too many plans for my life and way too much to do on this earth to think about it ever ending. Now, I am older and that prayer of "Lord, come quickly" is finding its way into my thoughts. No one ever promised me that life on this planet would be easy. Sometimes I just have to say that out loud.
Twin Sebrings
Through the weird circumstances of my daughter's auto wrecks (two within 15 minutes) and the need for a rental car to get her to and from school and work, she is driving a different rental car each week. This week she is driving a white Sebring convertible. Sitting out in the driveway beside my silverblue one it looks like they are faternal twins.
Where Was This When I Desperately Needed It
While researching some APA citation style stuff on the internet I discovered the most amazing computer program. For a mere $39.00 you can purchase a program that works with MS Word and automatically formats your paper, your citations, and your references. Did you grasp the full impact of that last sentence, the program AUTOMATICALLY formats your most tedious and time consuming tasks of writing a research paper, a thesis, or a dissertation. I almost broke out in to tears during the online demonstration as I watched a dialog box appear and an imaginary student type in the author, title, name of the journal or book or presentation, year, volume, and page numbers into little boxes on the dialog box and press the enter button. Then the most amazing thing happened...the program puts the citation in the correct form in the text of the paper AND lists it in the references list in its appropriate alphabetical position with all the spaces and periods in the right places. You can even drag and drop references from previous papers into a current paper. Best of all it is set up to work in APA, MLA or Turabian style. To anyone who has ever struggled with the quirks of APA this is a thing of beauty, a masterpiece of computer programing.
Every single grad student should immediately write a letter to Santa Claus begging that this be in the stocking hanging by the fireplace. In fact, I think I will go hang my stocking up right now!!
My Daughter Tagged Me
My daughter tagged me so now I am responding. I am not going to tag seven other bloggers so you can just write your 7 answers to 7 question on my comments section.
7 Answers to 7 Questions
7 things I plan to do before I die:
-travel to all the continents except Anarticia
-finish all the home improvements projects that I have started
-retire from a job
-be the mother of the bride
-visit the Grand Canyon
-get out of debt
-organize my garage
7 things I can do:
-throw my hip out of joint and put it back again
-talk to college students
-be a peacemaker
-talk on a belch
-make my daugther laugh
-pray everyday
-get along with most people
7 things I cannot do:
-play sports
-watch scary movies
-clean every room in my house at the same time
-wear my shirt tucked into slacks or a skirt
-ignore disrespectful behavior
-play the piano
-eat oysters
7 things that attract me to another person:
-someone who is interesting
-someone who makes me laugh
-laughs a lot
-likes to experience new things
-confident
-compassionate
-can dish out and take a joke
7 celebrity crushes
-Tom Selleck
-Sean Connery
-Robert Redford
-Paul Newman
-Hugh Grant
-George Clooney
-Tony Blair
Happy Tuesday!
Poptart Haiku
My daughter's blog from yesterday has awakened the haiku muse.....
Poptarts are evil
Poptarts can make you gain weight
A Suzy-Q is good.
Suzy-Q Haiku
Luscious chocolate cake
Fluffy, creamy, white center
Why do I love you?
Left Turns or Left Obliques
I have a friend who will drive out of his way to avoid making a left turn. He is fully capable of making a left turn in his high performance sports car, but he much prefers to make a right turn because left turns are harder. A left turn requires much more thought than a right turn and frequently it requires patience while you wait for a break in the oncoming traffic.
I have become an observer of the left turn habits of drivers in my smallish Southern town and I am here to say that the art of the left turn is extinct. I mean almost no one in this town can actually make a left turn. The new technique for redirecting your car by 90 degrees is to just kinda angle your car in the new direction. The actual turning of the steering wheel in a manner that will result in the car accomplishing a 90 degree turn seems to not exist in this town. I have almost been smacked on numerous occasions if I happen to be sitting in the right lane on the road to which a driver wishes to angle his/her car. My driver's education instructor called it "cutting the corner" and believe that it constitutes an illegal turn. In fact it is not a turn at all...it is an oblique.
My new motto is "Make left turns, not left obliques!"
Slight Improvement
Let me just list the aspects of my life that seem better this week than last week.
1. Daughter reported that the paperwork from her accident last week has been found at the police station. They promised that she can pick it up tomorrow. Now we will see if they actually say in the report that the 87 year old woman who plowed her car into my daughter's body is the responsible party.
2. All the students that came for their first clinical supvision meetings were very well prepared for the meeting. They all even seemed to have a plan in their minds for the entire semester.
3. Details for the trip to Uruguay are coming together.
4. I found the songs my husband has been searching for on Itunes. Some one had made an Imix of the songs all from a movie he likes but the soundtrack was never released as a CD.
5. Our friends arrived safely in Florence. For the readers who know Jessica and the girls, it seems that on the very first day in Italy both A and C had already conned several different male students into carrying them on their shoulders because they had rather be carried than actually use their feet. Those two little girls can charm the hardest heart.
6. This may be best of all......there is no humidity here right now!!!
Life is Just Hard
I think about the unbelievable number of homeless people after the hurricane and I am sad.
I think about my daughter and all her pain and frustration from that silly wreck last week and I am mad and sad.
I think about the young friends whose marriages are in ruins and I am sad.
I think about my students who were traumatized by one of their teachers last night (he told grad school horror stories).
Maybe we should follow my daughters suggestion and move to Iceland. Do people have troubles in Iceland? Is life hard in Iceland. Sometimes it sure is hard here.
