Book Commercials & Misanthropic Observations

Contemplating greater things

My favorite photo of many I took at the Zoo today. Wasn't the weather wonderful?

Back to life

Jeff Burton time came into the office yesterday (Jeff stops to chat even less than I do, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him pop in to the office on his way to a meeting) and offered me a script he made for his class reunion website. He graduated from Hudson too- class of 83. What he didn’t know is that I was looking and looking for that exact kind of code- well, I think he knew if after I cracked him in the arm and said “shut up! this is so great!” Anyway, I’ll have that up and running soon.

oh, wait this is funny: When he was showing me the site he made I wasn’t able to log in because I was accidentally typing butonia instead of burtonia. hee hee hee . but.

Just send your 9 year old boys into my office and I’ll type”but” for them. No one else thought it was that funny.]]>

VICTORY

Crest spin brush, today I have accessed your power with a single flick of my thumb. You are merely a tool in my hand and no longer an instrument of torture to remind me of weakness. muhuhuhahahah

My name is Brandy. I sleep, I blog, I sleep (and I watch trashy tv)

yea, still moving slow. But- not nearly as angry about it as I was. Much better attitude today. Maybe nothing is better for us self-described irreplaceable superheros than to miss out on all the things we need to do and not be missed.

Frankly, I don't carry that much extra energy around- I only eat what I have to when I'm feeling good. Take that away, then run me through a ringer… let's see how much you move around after that. I know I'm thinking more clearly because I just noticed how hairy my legs are. I really really miss reading. I tried to last night and got nauseous after a few pages. Paul brought home his xm radio so I could listen to something interesting to fill the time.

PS. Paul just called and told me that Steve Holsteen and crew were praying for me last night. I have no doubt that's where my attitude change came from. Thanks.

mmmph

My days are wasted in sleep. I just brushed my teeth and wasn’t able, using both my thumbs, to push the on button hard enough to get my crest spin brush to turn on. Typing this will put me to sleep now for hours; I am already out of breath. I feel reduced below the level of my sweet spud-dog, at least for her the fact that eating and pooping are the highlights of her day is a joy. I hate this. The good news: no vomiting for almost 30 hours now. Why then, do I bother with this? Because this post is proof that I did something today besides sleep. I’m going to sleep now.

Reunion update

Good news: I got permission to rent a meeting tent on the upper level of the zoo without having to pre-purchase tickets. I didn’t want to harangue anyone to buy tickets from me, and it was going to be quite a lot of money upfront. I’m not counting my chickens until they hatch, tho, and am expecting a contract in the mail. Then the date will be confirmed.

I heard from Amy Buser (Smidt) today and was excited to learn that her sister, Wendy, works at the Apple Valley Zoo with event planning. What a great contact, thanks Amy.

Current costs, I’ll keep a running tally just for fun:
Zoo tent rental: $150.00

Day 3

As I sat in the bathtub this late morning I thought, “I’m going to blog about this” “this” being how sick I have been over the last 3 days. But now that I am at the computer, I am really exhausted. I’m going back to bed. Just wanna say thanks, mommers, for taking care of me yesterday. And Paulers has been so kind.

A “novel” idea

Ok, it’s actually a nonfiction idea- I have very few novels, less than 10. Even though our bookshelves hold over 400 books.

My current read, which is not listed in my bookshelf online since I am waaaay behind on that database, is Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann. 1921.

Lippmann’s topic of interest is how Public Opinion affects politics. He proposes that a true democracy can’t work because the masses are more moved by emotion and rumor than fact. It was explosive when published and poses these questions:

What are the psychological forces that affect understanding?
How do people interpret information, accurate or not?
What emotional reactions did it trigger in them and how did their emotion affect their judgment and actions?

For example: Two men are quarreling, apparently about money, but their passion is inexplicable. Across the table they are quarreling about money, in memory they are back in their youth when a girl jilted one man for the other.

Back to me- let’s talk about me. I have been very hyperemotional lately. My passion is inexplicable. Until, in reading this book I see:

that I am overreacting if the issue is what it seems to be on the surface- but it is not the real issue. I am reacting to what I deem to be a slippery slope. In my mind the current situation is proof of “what I knew would happen”.

(Yes, you are right to be confused; I am not naming the situation. Hopefully I can get my point across without that- and there are actually 3 current situations in which I am showing this pattern )

The thing is, I have a pattern of this- I make dire predictions and when they come true, or even seem to be on the verge of coming true, I react with the full force of having worried for months. This book has helped shed light on this for me, and I am clinging to this sentence on page 12: “this reveals how difficult it is, even for trained lawyers, to suspend response until the returns are in.”

I suppose just admitting the problem is half the battle. Whew. I am going to work really hard on SUSPENDING RESPONSE UNTIL ALL THE RETURNS ARE IN.]]>

Happy Birthday, Anna Fuchs!

Here she is- the beautiful baby girl of our good friends, Greg and Nancy.

(she’s the little one, Greg’s the big one)

Greg and Nancy honored us by being in our wedding party, and now we get to be Anna’s Godparents! How very loved we feel. I’m already surfing the web for baby sewing projects.

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But, Mom, what if they don’t like me?

I decided to give it a rest and take it up again fresh in February 2007.

Which is why, in March, I thought maybe I should take it up again. I just dove in and decided on the Apple Valley Zoo, because it offered all of the above criteria, allowed people to show off their actual children instead of just photos as so often happens at reunions, and because it is in the day, allows the Party animals to make their own crazy little reunion any night that weekend.

I’m actually quite behind in my contact information; the original outlook database is gone. So I sent out the mass email looking for any bits of info – and then had a small anxiety attack, remembering the 6 or so unbelievably unkind alumni who tore me to shreds over the last reunion (1 before the event, 4 at the reunion, and 1 after) while offering no help or understanding. It was like I owed them something and I wasn’t coming through.

As my heart raced this time I told myself I would never please everyone and that I would have good boundaries and could just stop if this got out of hand and how much more it matters to give people the opportunity to connect, to feel assured that they belong to some community, any community, in this sometimes cold world, and scanned the house for alcohol as I waited for the first responses.

Here’s what I got: some wise responses on remembering to not list alumni who have died in the list of those I have no contact info for, a heads up on one who had died that I didn’t know about, a good bit of advice about utilizing “my space”, contact info for some that I didn’t have, 5 or 6 “thank yous”, a couple of “hellos”, and a friendly reminder that I must have contact info for this person, since I sent them an email in that mass email.

So very encouraging, Thanks, class of 91. I’ll keep slogging through.]]>