View from the Couch

It's Thursday again. Wow the week is just flying by. I like it when I'm so busy that my work week sails past. But then the weekend is just so short. Just had a great class. Access. I like teaching Access - because more than any other class I teach, people really begin to see the power that software can have and they start to get creative in their requirements. Granted, there is always someone who dreams a little bigger than their abilities. But it's nice to get people excited about what they can do. Makes me wish I had more time to work on my own databases that I keep meaning to do. :) So the flirty guy isn't flirting anymore. Guess either I'm not as hot as I imagine or he's found someone else who turns his head a bit more. Trying not to let it get to me. But I am reaching a place in my life where I'm either going to have to get serious about finding someone who can put up with me...or settle for the idea that I'm going to be alone. Maybe da...

True Randomness...I'm teaching in 20 minutes. Then I'll get a break for lunch. Back to work. Break. Yoga. And then home. This morning I'm thinking about this guy that has been flirting with me. He's young and cute and makes me feel all sexy and stuff. But...he's really just good for an afternoon. You know what I mean? Not that there's anything wrong with a nice afternoon...or a nice weekend for that matter. But if what I really want is a nice partner, do I enjoy the occasional weekend while I'm waiting for him to show up? Guess there is still a part of me that is a good Catholic girl and wants to keep certain things only for very special people. Remember the downstairs neighbor - we'll just call her "CU" for short. Well, the other night, some guy pulls up in front of the complex, music blasting for blocks. Hops out and heads right toward her place. I knew she had a date coming over because she had arrived home shortly before, slamm...

I cannot take credit for the following. It was part of an email I received from my friend Kate Hawkes 5 years ago. I still think there is much to think about here. Real Independence. Real Freedom. Not just flag waving and fireworks. I wish you all peace and REAL freedom. - kc So the madness of the rush to celebrate is over. While it feels entirely appropriate for children to express their excitement with noise and bright lights and a frantic There it is! and Look! and Where is the next bright bang? I find that I am less in sync with that and more wanting to reassure the dog, admire the cat's ability to ignore it all (mind you she doesn't want to go outside) and wait until it is quiet again. I don't think that I am getting old and stodgy. I just realize, perhaps, that the colored lights, huge noises and the bigger, brighter more breathtakingly violent expressions of 'independence miss the real quality of that gift. Surprisingly, real independence is in t...

It's hot. I don't say that very often. See I have a sluggish thyroid and I'm usually cold. So if I'm sitting here at 9:30 at night with a fan blowing and I'm still sweating...it's hot. I feel bad that it's hot because my daughter has been complaining about the lack of sunshine in Boston. Not that I can do anything about it - but still. I feel bad. I started sending cards to my mother this week. She's in a foster home now and they are trying to get her to start eating and taking her meds and doing her physical therapy. But I think she's truly lost the will to live now. This is really hard for me. Whatever else has passed between us, whatever narcissistic parenting she practiced, she's still my mother. And she's dying. I can't go visit her. I don't have the money or the time. So I hope she'll still be there in the fall and I hope to be able to take a weekend and visit her. In the meantime, I'll send her a card or...

I've been thinking about books lately. Books I'm reading. Books other people are reading. Books we all want to read. Books we tell other people we've read, even though we haven't. Books. I love books. I don't mind reading things online. I love blogs and find some wonderful writing out there. I would adore a Kindle. (hint hint) But I love books. I love how they feel in my hand, paper under my fingertips, how the print unfurls across the page, taking my eye and my imagination with it. I have a hard time passing up any bookstore, even if I know I don't need to buy any more books. I have spent many happy hours with books. I don't even remember when this love affair began, but I know my mother was behind it. One of the few things I could do as a child to get my mother's complete and undivided attention was to ask her to read to me. I can open A Child's Garden of Verse or Wind in the Willows and hear her voice reading to me. There was magic i...

Wow - what a week! I started out the week with a super duper ugly summer cold. Spent the day Sunday laying about sneezing, coughing, generally annoying the cat because he couldn't get comfortable on my lap at all. Fortunately, Turner Classic Movies was having a super duper day. I watched His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. I love this movie. I love the pace, the wit, the back and forth between Grant and Russell. Time just zips by and the movie is over. That was followed by To Have and Have Not - the first paring of Bogart and Bacall. Slim is quite lovely and fresh here and there's something so sweet about the way Bogie whistles after that famous line..."You know how to whistle don't you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." Damn....that's telling him. And as if that wasn't enough Bogart and Bacall, then I got to watch The Big Sleep. Now there are those who'll argue that Robert Mitchum was a better Philip Marlo...

I've got to get something off my chest. I have really had it with bad behavior. I mean REALLY! This has been on my mind for some time. At first, I thought I was just being mildly cranky and expecting more than I had a right to. But now I see that it's really become a problem in our society. Let me give you some examples. I live in a small apartment complex. There are 16 units, 8 one bedroom and 8 two bedroom. Everyone shares a bedroom wall with someone and a ceiling or a floor with someone. Everyone shares 2 washers and 2 dryers that we are asked to use between 8 AM and 8 PM. 4 of us share a front stairwell that has an exterior door that keeps out the bugs, the weather, the stray animals and the Jehovah's witness. (The exterior door doesn't lock, but it looks intimidating enough that people just don't bother us.) About a year ago, my downstairs neighbor moved out and I got a new neighbor. When I met her, I thought she'd be just fine. She's a resi...