Dear Mom,
One of the best features of the Internet is YouTube, especially since the explosion of videos featuring musical artists. I go on Artist Jags, one night indulging in Ray Charles, another Etta James, another Bonnie Raitt, and John Lee Hooker and Nora Jones and.... There's no way in a lifetime you could see these artists and the many performances they've staged. One of the hallmarks of a wonderful talent is that they are the biggest fans of their peers. To watch B.B.King perform with and appreciate Eric Clapton or Chet Atkins and Doc Watson in a duet, this is heavenly.
If you don't see anything else, watch Bonnie Raitt and Nora Jones singing "Tennessee Waltz". They've taken a standard waltz and made it a serious blues tune-and a woman's wailing, stark-souled blues tune at that. It's as old as life and as new as your first broken heart. They make you feel it just like the first time.
a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzDUi_L6MzA
I feel a Billie Holliday-A-Thon coming on.
I love you,
Lisa
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Adrenaline
Dear Mom,
When I get anxious, I get this adrenaline rush all over. It's very annoying. I think I know where it comes from. I've never heard of this before, but I can give myself an adrenaline rush on purpose by deliberately thinking of something that worries me. I'd like to stop it, but I have to admit my body likes it. I may give up caffeine someday and see if I can retrain myself. I figured out how it started, almost 10 years ago.
When I was 42 I had a hysterectomy. Immediately I had surgical menopause, and couldn't find a hormone replacement that I could tolerate. For a year I had about 5 hot flashes an hour. Background: two glands in your body produce estrogen, the ovaries and the adrenal glands. When deprived of estrogen your body will do whatever it takes to get it. It quickly finds out that with anger, anxiety or irritation, your adrenal glands will pump a lot of adrenaline and a little shot of estrogen. But you're suddenly in a state of "flight or fight" with no physical outlet, your body is sure that it's in danger. The end result is a hot flash, but your body's been through hell, your adrenal glands are tired and shortly another cycle begins. Exhaustion sets in quickly and you can't get enough rest because-you guessed it-you're having hot flashes.
The upshot of all this is that once you're body's trained itself to do that to you, you can approach it logically to understand what's going on. I think it's possible to retrain your body not to react to emotions like that, but it might be a real effort. It's really not very good for you.
I love you,
Lisa
When I get anxious, I get this adrenaline rush all over. It's very annoying. I think I know where it comes from. I've never heard of this before, but I can give myself an adrenaline rush on purpose by deliberately thinking of something that worries me. I'd like to stop it, but I have to admit my body likes it. I may give up caffeine someday and see if I can retrain myself. I figured out how it started, almost 10 years ago.
When I was 42 I had a hysterectomy. Immediately I had surgical menopause, and couldn't find a hormone replacement that I could tolerate. For a year I had about 5 hot flashes an hour. Background: two glands in your body produce estrogen, the ovaries and the adrenal glands. When deprived of estrogen your body will do whatever it takes to get it. It quickly finds out that with anger, anxiety or irritation, your adrenal glands will pump a lot of adrenaline and a little shot of estrogen. But you're suddenly in a state of "flight or fight" with no physical outlet, your body is sure that it's in danger. The end result is a hot flash, but your body's been through hell, your adrenal glands are tired and shortly another cycle begins. Exhaustion sets in quickly and you can't get enough rest because-you guessed it-you're having hot flashes.
The upshot of all this is that once you're body's trained itself to do that to you, you can approach it logically to understand what's going on. I think it's possible to retrain your body not to react to emotions like that, but it might be a real effort. It's really not very good for you.
I love you,
Lisa
Monday, February 18, 2008
Shopping!
Dear Mom,
OK, sometimes I love to shop, but only for things I really want and I shop my
way, which means online.
Don and I have been enjoying the plants I brought in from outside. I didn't
want to bother with a greenhouse, but I wanted to save some of my plants.
Then we got a couple of half-dead African Violets from Wal-Mart. Now for a
back-story. Don loves plants, but denies any involvement when it comes to
caring for them. He's been after me to get some houseplants, but I resisted
so far. Years ago in Florida I had about 30 African Violets, they're very
addictive. As soon as you have every color you can imagine, then there are
the Miniatures, and the Trailers, and the Chimeras, and the Variegated....
These two plants have done so well I went to this website, "The Violet Barn",
and ordered the "Seller's Choice" collection of ten different standard-size
African Violets. The total was $67.00, shipped, and in winter! Not bad.
http://www.robsviolet.com/
Take some time to go through the site, it's big and deep, and contains a lot
of their lives, there's even a love story.
http://www.robsviolet.com/about_us.htm
http://www.robsviolet.com/a_fairy_tale.htm
When grown right, these babies can be big-up to a foot wide. They're shipped
kind of small, though, as they're very brittle and prone to breakage. Oh,
no! A broken leaf? Uh, won't that make lots of new plants? *grin*
Never mind, they'll soon be bigger than I want them to be. Don's promised to
hang some grow-lights for me when the sun doesn't come in the south-facing
window later in the year. That's why they've been so pretty, they really
need a little sunlight or grow-lights to bloom like this. The blooms are as
nice as I've seen on show plants. Unfortunately, once or twice this winter,
I let them get dry and they were a little too close to the window and got
cold, resulting in some leaf damage.
Just got a confirmation on my order and they'll be delivered next week. Can't
wait. I have plant fever really badly and spent part of the day grooming my
plants.
I love you,
Lisa
Friday, February 8, 2008
I Hate Retail
Dear Mom,
Worked at the Bluffton Store today. It's a funny thing, I kind of hate retail.
The reality of retail sales is that you make a huge investment of your time and funds, work like a mule to get it started, usually go into debt to finance and stock, continually wrack your brain to attract customers, open your establishment...and wait. Wait for people to decide they want what you offer, trickle in to see (or taste) what you've got, decide if they feel like paying your price, then decide whether to return. In the meantime, you worry.
The jobs I've had involving retail sales are the only ones where I watched the clock, hoping against hope it would move faster so I could go home and get something tangible accomplished.
I really enjoy the kind of work I do now, housecleaning. I get to work, the client is happy to see me. I work hard with no breaks. Sometimes I talk and visit with them while I'm working, which makes the work go faster. In many cases I become very close with my clients and provide an outlet for them; they can discuss things they don't normally talk about with friends and family. They provide the same outlet for me. By the time you've worked for them for a short while, they seem like family and you do to them, too. They pay your for your much-appreciated time and work, and treat you respectfully. Then you go home to your real life, with no worries.
The work is hard and I never have to 'exercise'. I'm healthy and fit.
I love my job.
I love you,
Lisa
Worked at the Bluffton Store today. It's a funny thing, I kind of hate retail.
The reality of retail sales is that you make a huge investment of your time and funds, work like a mule to get it started, usually go into debt to finance and stock, continually wrack your brain to attract customers, open your establishment...and wait. Wait for people to decide they want what you offer, trickle in to see (or taste) what you've got, decide if they feel like paying your price, then decide whether to return. In the meantime, you worry.
The jobs I've had involving retail sales are the only ones where I watched the clock, hoping against hope it would move faster so I could go home and get something tangible accomplished.
I really enjoy the kind of work I do now, housecleaning. I get to work, the client is happy to see me. I work hard with no breaks. Sometimes I talk and visit with them while I'm working, which makes the work go faster. In many cases I become very close with my clients and provide an outlet for them; they can discuss things they don't normally talk about with friends and family. They provide the same outlet for me. By the time you've worked for them for a short while, they seem like family and you do to them, too. They pay your for your much-appreciated time and work, and treat you respectfully. Then you go home to your real life, with no worries.
The work is hard and I never have to 'exercise'. I'm healthy and fit.
I love my job.
I love you,
Lisa
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Please Forward Responsibly
Dear Mom,
Today I cleaned for one of my two Tuesday ladies. I managed to get her house cleaned and solve some computer problems for her. She's got several friends who send her forwards and is being inundated with stupid emails, sometimes several hundred a week. It's gotten where she hates to pick up her mail. I wish people would stop doing all that unnecessary forwarding of huge files. It's much easier and more responsible to send a link to a website where they can see the same thing without clogging up their mailbox. Or even worse, sending a picture of another kitten doing something inexpressibly cute, taking 15 minutes to download to someone on a dial-up connection. I have been known to plan revenge upon irresponsible forwarders.
Her grandson has been taking care of her computer, scanning and defragging, etc. whenever he comes over. Her Norton (!!!!akkk!!!!) anti-virus ran out several months ago and she's been surfing on a fast connection with no anti-virus since then(!!!!double-akkk!!!!). I downloaded and installed AVG Free Version for her, scanned and defragged and ran a virus scan. It caught one Trojan horse. Don says that means I should install Spybot Search and Destroy and Spyware Blaster, too. I'll do that next time.
This evening I got her a GMail account and we talked her through downloading and configuring Thunderbird so she's good to go. Now she can inform her close friends and relatives of her "good" address and let the rest wonder why she doesn't pick up their emails anymore.
I love you,
Lisa
Today I cleaned for one of my two Tuesday ladies. I managed to get her house cleaned and solve some computer problems for her. She's got several friends who send her forwards and is being inundated with stupid emails, sometimes several hundred a week. It's gotten where she hates to pick up her mail. I wish people would stop doing all that unnecessary forwarding of huge files. It's much easier and more responsible to send a link to a website where they can see the same thing without clogging up their mailbox. Or even worse, sending a picture of another kitten doing something inexpressibly cute, taking 15 minutes to download to someone on a dial-up connection. I have been known to plan revenge upon irresponsible forwarders.
Her grandson has been taking care of her computer, scanning and defragging, etc. whenever he comes over. Her Norton (!!!!akkk!!!!) anti-virus ran out several months ago and she's been surfing on a fast connection with no anti-virus since then(!!!!double-akkk!!!!). I downloaded and installed AVG Free Version for her, scanned and defragged and ran a virus scan. It caught one Trojan horse. Don says that means I should install Spybot Search and Destroy and Spyware Blaster, too. I'll do that next time.
This evening I got her a GMail account and we talked her through downloading and configuring Thunderbird so she's good to go. Now she can inform her close friends and relatives of her "good" address and let the rest wonder why she doesn't pick up their emails anymore.
I love you,
Lisa
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Busted
Dear Mom,
I enjoy watching people carefully and listen to what they really say, not interpret them through my own opinions.
I like the fact that people will tell you what's on their minds early on in a conversation. You'll often hear within a few minutes of talking what's most bothering them; a problem that hasn't been solved, a personal struggle with another family member, etc.. They just can't keep it out of their conversations unless they've taught themselves to be very self-disciplined about what they reveal to casual acquaintances. Even then, the concern will leak out, it's just a little harder to pick up.
This propensity appears again when you compliment a person on something practical or creative they've done. Within seconds they'll point out the one thing that's not perfect. A master quilter's eye will be drawn like a magnet to her one mistake on a prize-winning quilt, she'll even point out the invisible flaw to viewers.
People are pretty predictable, and they'll bust themselves every time.
I love you,
Lisa
I enjoy watching people carefully and listen to what they really say, not interpret them through my own opinions.
I like the fact that people will tell you what's on their minds early on in a conversation. You'll often hear within a few minutes of talking what's most bothering them; a problem that hasn't been solved, a personal struggle with another family member, etc.. They just can't keep it out of their conversations unless they've taught themselves to be very self-disciplined about what they reveal to casual acquaintances. Even then, the concern will leak out, it's just a little harder to pick up.
This propensity appears again when you compliment a person on something practical or creative they've done. Within seconds they'll point out the one thing that's not perfect. A master quilter's eye will be drawn like a magnet to her one mistake on a prize-winning quilt, she'll even point out the invisible flaw to viewers.
People are pretty predictable, and they'll bust themselves every time.
I love you,
Lisa
Friday, February 1, 2008
Satisfaction
Dear Mom,
The euphoria you get when you succeed at learning a new skill on the computer is an interesting feeling. It's not quite like anything else. It's very like the feeling of accomplishment one gets from academic endeavors. You find a subject that appeals to you, find the avenues to research it, organize and process the information and then act on the knowledge you have. It's a process that's uniquely satisfying. It's the mark of a self-motivated person, one that passive people rarely experience.
It's a little lonely too. Hardly anyone you hang out with shares your enthusiasm for learning an obscure little skill that makes your task easier. Usually it's a task you've assigned yourself and no one cares whether you've done it or not. Ah, the pain we geeky-types endure! I feel so lucky to usually have my geek sitting right beside me to share a picture, a joke, a video, a skill, ask a question or just roll my chair over to grab a kiss.
One thing I've noticed about "working" on the computer; the difference between it and other forms of entertainment is that when you're through, you've produced something instead of passively absorbing what's been fed to you. That's it, being productive instead of absorbent. Makes some people seem like paper towels, doesn't it? I know some thicker-picker-uppers, how about you?
I love you,
Lisa
The euphoria you get when you succeed at learning a new skill on the computer is an interesting feeling. It's not quite like anything else. It's very like the feeling of accomplishment one gets from academic endeavors. You find a subject that appeals to you, find the avenues to research it, organize and process the information and then act on the knowledge you have. It's a process that's uniquely satisfying. It's the mark of a self-motivated person, one that passive people rarely experience.
It's a little lonely too. Hardly anyone you hang out with shares your enthusiasm for learning an obscure little skill that makes your task easier. Usually it's a task you've assigned yourself and no one cares whether you've done it or not. Ah, the pain we geeky-types endure! I feel so lucky to usually have my geek sitting right beside me to share a picture, a joke, a video, a skill, ask a question or just roll my chair over to grab a kiss.
One thing I've noticed about "working" on the computer; the difference between it and other forms of entertainment is that when you're through, you've produced something instead of passively absorbing what's been fed to you. That's it, being productive instead of absorbent. Makes some people seem like paper towels, doesn't it? I know some thicker-picker-uppers, how about you?
I love you,
Lisa
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