Woman of Psychology in Session
These are all my psychology super stars. I want to be in their world of psychology. Each of them can be steadfast. Deep breath … YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH! BE STRONG! CHOOSE GOOD! SIT UP … WRITE!! Yes ma’am. Ok.
Paper …Topic: u07d2 Problem Solving Date: May 29, 2006 2:03 PM
Subject: In response to the assignment from Ann
Last edited on: May 29, 2006 3:22 PM
There are seven steps in the problem-solving cycle (Sternberg, 2003). The first step is to identify the problem. The problem that I am going to use is - resolving the needs as a multiple in order to focus on the high-end day-to-day concentration tasks such as school. The goal is to be working on the tasks. The goal is often distracted by multiple multiple needs. We keep trying to better our system, because at the present time, the system isn’t producing well enough. We are glad for the opportunity here to reevaluate the system. It seems that each day, we grow smarter and more creative in not only defining the problem, but also perpetuating the obstacles. More depth does not necessarily mean forward momentum. Although the system bulks, the need of completing tasks on deadlines presses on and if we don’t figure out how to improve the system, we risk losing everything we’ve worked toward and would like to accomplish with our education and career.
The second step of the problem-solving cycle is defining and representing the problem. Multiples need to work with all of their parts in getting the one “family system” going in the same direction. One part of the problem is that as a whole, we’ve made commitments to be educating ourselves without much expertise on maintaining schedules and routines. It seems as a system, we need to resolve the needs of each 20 parts as a process of working toward the main goal of reading and writing papers and discussions. It’s like give and take. For example, in this last two weeks, we’ve had to take care of the emotional needs of our doctor on vacation, the on-going need to do our personal writing, which assists in balancing what happens to us collectively, complete difficult work assignments, and move our general household life in a forward direction. There is also maintenance of social relationships, including friends and family. Not all parts of us do all these tasks consistently and some parts umbrella themselves by putting aside their immediate needs to assist other parts; much like a mother putting her children to bed because he is tired and she doesn't want him to be overwhelmed, but will then later put herself down so she also doesn't get overwhelmed. The younger parts and the older parts go forward in time together. Per se, there is no other major priority that has to be worked on after work/office hours, other than what’s been mentioned above. We don’t have habits of television viewing and usually only one or two people will stop by our home over the periodic course of a week or month. We tend to stay at the computer about 9/10’s of our waking hours and all gets worked out from “the safety” of this station with the utmost priority being school. But, inevitably, we have to make immediate choices to start the next school task, or satisfy needs of those of us who develop other priorities, many times in direct opposite correlation of the need to focus on school tasks, especially in consideration of time consumption. A set of problems, we will not resolve at this time is that of being collectively depressed, anxious, or compulsive-obsessive. While none of these help, they are only secondary obstacles.
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The third step of the cycle is to formulate strategy. Given the above, 1) it would not seem we are going to change from being a multiple to a singleton, nor are we going to stop cycles of depression, anxiety, nor obsession, so we are going to need formulate strategy that is affective in refining the problem, which seems a good idea because it allows the writers and the students to work together through an assignment as well. 2) If we stop going to school, then we lose what we value most in the learning processes and secondarily, we would need to start paying back school loans without having earned a higher income to pay the debt. 3) Most important is to avoid being crushed as potential dissolved. We’ve set a ten-year plan to carry out the school mission, and this is what’s important to do with our life. We feel most like ourselves when writing and psychology has given us our balanced course and direction. It would seem to get the parts going in the right direction might be only a half fallacy. Because essentially what is realized is that whatever their needs are are our needs too, and in reality most the parts believe they really are helping, and usually in a round about way do help, just not on deadline.
An example of a typical day would be that someone wants to read the text assignment out on the balcony to avoid younger parts becoming overly comfortable and sleepy on the couch, but that draws out another part who is terrified of being away from the computer, especially outside. This runs parallel to the next dilemma of someone trying to learn picture taking, because she’s figured out it will help the first part move about in space and would make a nice storybook birthday gift for Grandma. Meanwhile a part who’s taken responsibility at work for a technology management plan gets pushed to resolving the issue she’s been stuck on in backing up the administrative computers, so she buys a memory devise, which terrifies the two that do the budgeting. So with one over-expenditure in hand, we find yet another part who has decided, “Well if that part can get a piece of technology, “so should I!” Because she’s waited longer for her purchase and it wasn’t even as costly. This pretty much tilts all budgets, and now the younger parts being treated out to daily Slushies for doing good work at work (being patient and not demanding out time while others are working) are suffering the older parts financial crises because someone refuses to dip into deeper cash reserves for pocket change. In turn the younger parts protest by refusing to go to bed on time. This goes on into infinity. It is not that the system isn’t working together; it may be more likely that there are just too many diverse needs and creative problem solvers; each ultimately trying to do the best for themselves and others, but as one doctor stated, we have trouble in being able to maintain steering control of the ship. So, I would think the correct strategy is to rally around one management tool in steering the ship. We've have an appointed leader, but we've not been able to make one part more responsible for all the others, as much as teach the doctrine that everyone has to learn be responsible for self and our projects.
The strategy we are working on right now is using the PDA. In the past and continued in the future, we utilize a blog as a running set of notes so that we all can touch bases with each other. But, it is cumbersome at times, because there is insecurity leaving it, or in over-explaining or justifying our case to others. Often the blog is expensive to run because of the cost of time. Parts are having trouble giving up the ground, because what is being written seems like the most valuable part of who we are. Most the parts want a turn, and sometimes parts just have to take breaks and let others have there turn. It is often “Wait, wait, one more thing …” I think now this is a stalling technique to gain more time “out” where they are the one who gets to make choices and direct energy and time. As good as the system is in communicating satisfaction or need, we get sidetracked into peculiar issues of separate parts instead of working more directly on our joint school tasks. Most of the work this last couple of weeks has been securing and advancing our technology department. We’ve added the double screen, flash memory, camera mobile and fixed, and PDA as the primaries. The significance of the PDA, which has been developing amongst parts, is to now utilize it as if it were the ship’s log. By that, I mean our strategy is now that the parts have to note in the “ship’s log” change of direction. The wheel itself would be our single or joint conscious attention. In so doing, each part has too look at agenda items listed by others, while being a Christopher Columbus in aiming toward the solid grounding of school, work, or living. Nothing more than a sentence and the items listed have to be checked off as getting done before adding a major directive change. The PDA should become a short-cut version of the blog, which does work, though bulky as a winter coat in spring.
In organizing information, we realize a lot of energy and time has gone into perfecting the variables including the needs of self and others. We’ve also had to plan around actions that would relieve the stress of parts being overwhelmed. Information from one front would affect different the actions on half a dozen plains. We’ve often left each other in unknown labyrinths, because there is never enough time or energy to complete actions to satisfactory levels of task completion, sense of achievement, or in docking. There is also a lot of horse trading. Like parts are giving and taking one thing or another to get something else, which gets tangled and confused. Along with the technology advances there have been personal relational needs exposed in losing our psychiatrist’s time and adding more time with a Grandmother who we had lost contact with, but along with that switch, we’ve lost some of our best support and took over more anxiety, in fear of being exposed to other “family.” To shore this front, we’ve worked harder at relationships with our own sons. Our friends remain stable. It might seem at first “odd” to utilize so heavily the PDA as our mapquest, especially toward work and school, but we need something that will be with us wherever we are at. Because of our moderate memory impairment, we’ve known for quite a while our best chance of succeeding is in our writing things down. The family set of complications involves most importantly our own sense of self. Basically, we as parts have always considered ourselves part of a system, where we are trying to accept we are more like parts of our own family, which is unnerving because family has in the past been unraveling. We are going forward with it though, because it makes sense as a major progression.
The allocation of resources is always a challenge as mentioned above with time and energy. We’ve struggled with deadlines for a long time, especially noted at work. We still have considerable lag time. There is more pressure wanting to do more with your life. Often we fall prey to manipulation of our financial resources. I might not know who I am in 2 days, but I can be pretty sure if I order something over the computer, I will know within three days time the new object will be concretely available to us. With money and purchasing one has a sense of control and order. Because, we had available extra money, we built up our stock of assets, which in turn like most tasks involve time in learning and practicing. This is much more the case with multiple parts of us learning. Each of us has better or worse learning curves and to avoid diversification, it is better when more work together. The idea of working on the larger picture is very sound. Like now in considering “all the parts,” we feel some sense of things being better, whereas tangents often mean we’re lost in space. The sense of control, though is most likely a façade, because to admit honestly, real control takes place within the self. In this respect we have to acknowledge that the PDA is an outside object, but that it is an object simple enough to be usable to most parts concerned. We need to internalize its form.
So far in monitoring, we are doing pretty good with the devise, though it is too new an idea to be sure. This one has developed over a long period of time, so that is in our benefit. There has been a lot of building up to this point. A lot of good ideas exchanged. And, the familiar sense as if everything is going to be ok. The reassessments will occur as we find parts trying to break from the mold. If we are handing in assignments and completing the course, then we have found a system that is working. Another marker event is when we feel confident enough in completing the course that we schedule another course for the next semester. Yesterday while with our son, we commented positively to him our sense of confidence in him, because of his fluidity. His life has bumps, but they are more like gradual dips that he simply adjusts to. There is always the feeling he is moving through time efficiently and effectively. We could only know this if we’ve been there, done that and appreciated it for what it was worth. In a like manner, we can do this … just need to “progress.” We are doing that.
The only evaluation we can make this far is that it “feels good.” I can know by the fact we’re finishing an assignment. There is a little uncertainty in that I don’t know if our thoughts are too strange for the assignment format. I have enjoyed thinking through the steps and it leaves us with a familiar marker that school itself is not as much foreign to one’s progress with its new information, but complimentary. This sense of completing small tasks also works in our favor, because it allows our minds to work around start to end projects which are very satisfying. The insight would be to hold the knowledge consciously that school is not overwhelming while it is being directly worked on. We know we are smart enough to do the work. We’ve just been struggling in our self-management. With a plan in place, and with no objections coming in thus far, I can say we look forward to the next task. One last consideration … along with the directives being made in the PDA, we are getting better at being self-encouraging, which assists in balancing out our feelings of loss with less working time with our psychiatrist.
The advantage to becoming an expert problem-solver for the problem we have addressed is that for one it would allow us a strong advance in our growing interest in goals and to some degree over choice-making. The goals consideration has been an active part of our considerations over the last couple of years, particularly while at work. I think a major responsibility we have at work is to lead others to learning goal-making. But, we have realized all along that it was up to us to lead by example. The unfortunate part of this is that we have parts that also want to be invisible rather than to lead. We’ve had a lifetime challenge in not sabotaging ourselves, or in holding a global respect for who we are and what we can do. If we became an expert in what we were doing, we would be able to pass good information to people we work with and our sons. We find often our friends are running parallel lives. And, we hope to be a more constant support for our grandmother now in her 98th year. My Grandmother is someone we’re consciously choosing to spend time with. The disadvantage to being a problem-solver is that more people come to you wanting to depend on your resource-abilty, so this has to be watched carefully. It is more acceptable teaching people to be independent individuals than to depend on another to take care of needs that aren't theirs. One friend has taught us, for example, that while it is important to work, it is also important to come home from work at a decent time to be working on personal goals.
The process of selective-encoding insights is to filter out what one’s mind(s) doesn’t need and to secure information that is essential. Having a selective-comparison insight is the unique individualistic ability to perceive old and new information to reach for something more. Selective-combination insight is the combination of being selective in encoding while then comparing material gathered to for a superior answer. For example, in consideration of the problem-solving work done previously, we knew and left a marker (encoded) the information that it was a good idea to purchase the PDA. But, it was not figured out why or how we would use it until today. Also, an another old idea left encoded in reserve was the marker thought left by our retired psychiatrist that we had difficulty maintaining the steering control of our selves. When tension again rose in the process of school tasks needing to be completed, we combined old knowledge such as the above and old knowledge of writing things down with new information in that, until the day we read up on PDA’s and purchased the same day, we had no idea how, or in which way a PDA was going to work for us. It was a particularly tense situation where guilt was involved and needed to be surpassed, because in not understanding its usability, we’d made a considerate monetary investment in the product.
In the process of selective-encoding you are in a sense practicing good gardening skills in sorting out the corn from the tomatoes and peaches while raising awareness which kind of cultivating and harvesting each would need. In comparison, selective-comparison is more like studying what is known and what one is learning about growing a new type of seed that is new to the area of your home town. Although you’ve gardened for a long time, the information gained from old and new knowledge will be insightful. Selective encoding is more a process of analysis where selective comparison is more a process of synthesis. In encoding you are breaking down the elements by category. With comparing you are building new theories. With the combination of both, you would have achieved a Gestalt. The only weakness of the first two is that each doesn’t directly suggest an element of each other. The weakness of the combination is that it doesn’t incorporate all knowledge of insight.
Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Cognitive psychology (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
End Paper
Good morning It’s me again. We’ve been up for about a half hour or so now. We’ve had a few smokes, some cold coffee, fed the kitties, warmed up AND passed a few notes between Nikki and us … sure do love that woman! She makes us smile to beat the band! But, now we have to be moving on. We’re doing pretty good with steering the ship so far, though had to scold the one who got watermelon off target. Just a tiny scold. The one who wanted just one look at the pictures was all good. Now, we get a tiny little bit of MPD and then we need to start on the next paper.
I wanted to say that I got another chance to talk to my Grandma. We talked about all kinds of stuff like I found out she has a meat grinder and makes hash from left over meats she puts in a little plastic contain in her fridgerator. She then fries it up watching carefully so it doesn’t scorch and she adds things like diced potatoes and onions to it. It sounded wonderful! I never knew! I think she was a little nervous when we first called, because we talked about the severe weather they were expecting up there with rain and gusting winds. We talked about evacuation plans and finding the safest spots in the house. I don’t think she thought her roof was going to blow up, but she was still thinking of it anyway. I said at the end of that conversation, best not to take my part of the conversation over seriously, because sometimes I feel we’re a bit of an extremist. But, over the course of the conversation between us we depressurized the system! I think it had been so hot up there in MN, that they were in their upper 90’s. Her apartment is air conditioned, but I don’t think they had it on for the main halls and such so people were staying in their apartments and that was no good. We reminded her that what she had done with her friends in protest was good thinking. I was very positive in meeting with others so they had more control over their living situation and that she continues to talk to my Uncle, because he’s always seemed to help her a lot. I know he’s not intimidated by making a well placed call when necessary. He’s got a firm right upper hand.
There was a little part of the conversation that reminded me that she was still a little intimidated by the thought of being too old to stay by herself. But, she feels strongly that she isn’t ready for the other, and I see absolutely no sense in being in a nursing home either. She still cooks and cleans and gets around every day, so there is no reason she should be limited to a one bedroom home. She is still tiring and says that it will be ok when her time comes. She was somewhat encouraged that one of her older brothers was driving at 100 up to a week prior to his death. She said like many he had gotten Pneumonia. I think he died last summer. She appreciated that he lived alone too and took care of himself. I think it is a matter of honor and pride in our family to not be a “burden” on others. I think she’s trying to teach me to toughen up in that I recognize that she gives me little hints on how to get along better for myself. Such as in making the hash. She says that she doesn’t do much cooking of cakes and cookies, because it is just herself and I think she is a little frightened to get into a big cooking session because if she got into a weak spell, she could lose control of the kitchen. She says that things like the hash or soup are good, because she just has to turn off the stove. She also says that after she starts cooking something she stays close to monitoring it. I think her memory is better than ours, in that we need to use the timer. Hehehe she says she has a friend that still likes to do things with candy. I’m not sure whether it was home made or purchased, but sometimes if people weren’t around, she would leave it on the puzzle table, because people would know it was from her and help themselves to it and my Grandma said it gave the woman the greatest pleasure in sharing with her friends. That’s some pretty cool stuff!
I also got a lesson on how to make homemade chicken soup. She says she makes about three thighs at a time by boiling them in water, then uses the strained broth with bullion cubes and adds onions, carrots, and celery. She says she has plastic containers to put in the freezer with the extras and doles it out from there. We’ll have to remember this. Oh yeah, she says she uses roman noodles too. I know our friend makes good soups, so we’ll run that one past him … by the time we could try it, we’ll need more directions on how to use the stove in amount of time cooking chicken and stuff. We were too dazzled to get down to the real basics with my grandmother, specially because she tires so easy and we have sooooo much to talk about. Another part of the conversation I remember is that we are both needing to consider for safety having cell phones. Our friend says he wants to consider it seriously for my birthday. But, I am still not appreciative of the darn things. Just think they are so invasive. It seems rude to me that people are on them every moment they can like walking down the hall, or in elevators, or at restaurants, or like my friend when we’re driving together. It’s to a point, I would rather follow him in my car to a restaurant after work than drive with him. I hate to be put on hold while he’s having phone conversations. Most of them are business related, but I still don’t want to hear it. But, our Grandma and us advanced the conversation anyway. She said she was waiting on someone who worked at a cell phone company, I don’t remember which. And, I said that if your just waiting to talk to someone not on your regular callers, that I might as well just look it up on the Internet. Hehehe she’s still not quite thinking of computers, but I think having a cell phone at 98 is pretty modern thinking. I think she would get out a little more if she could know she wasn’t going to miss calls. My Grandmother talks to people all around the country. We talked about etiquette in that she says when they are sitting out on the porch sometimes people get calls on their cells. We agreed it would be good manners after you got the call to walk away from the people so you don’t interrupt the flow of their conversation. YAYY!!! We progressed things!
The problem my grandma is having with getting a cell phone is that she is hard of hearing and wears a hearing aid. I think we discussed before she’s lost hearing all together in one of her ears. In looking around last night I found some information, but not a lot. The best info seemed to be from a company called Audex who are working with Nokia on a devise called the Chaamp, which inserts between the phone and the battery. There are other devises that can be worn around the neck that do something to cut down on the interference. With those devises you put the phone itself in the pocket. I don’t know how much she already knows because of what her friends use. Maybe her friends aren’t hard of hearing like her? Not sure … but, we’ll advance the conversation more next time we hear from her. One of the neat things about our talking last night was after Jacob being here, we found the head phone devise we’d originally bought for our phone. It is for just one ear and is very light. The hearing and microphones are both great. Neither of us had a lick of trouble with it last night and it freed up my hands for typing while I was talking with her. I found myself taking a few notes so I would remember better. That was really good thinking.
Hmm, that was some of the basics from the call. We ended up the call talking about what would be happening this week. Thursday is her birthday. I think my mother is going down tonight. They will visit tomorrow and Wednesday she’s supposed to do grocery shopping for my Grandmother and do stuff like that. On Thursday, my Uncle and Aunt will meet them and they will go out to dinner. And, on Friday two of my unknown long distance cousins will be coming in. In the meantime, everyone and their brother will be calling in to wish her a happy birthday. My Grandmother has always had good communication skills with friends and family. She does notes in Christmas cards and always remembers people birthdays. In all the years of no communication between us, she’s always slipped me a card with a little spending cash. I’d like to carry on that tradition, just need to learn using the PDA better for reminders AND keep a little extra in our bank account, HEAR all you inside!??
Well, that’s pretty much of that. I see V. is up … I think he likes that we got an assignment done finally, and I’m sure he’ll be eager to see the next. He’s pretty cool that way. It’s like an unspoken agreement … If I write them, he will read them! YAYYYY V!
Better set-up next assignment … Here we go…
u07d3 Creativity :
Thoroughly compare and contrast the various approaches to creativity. Based upon current research and theory on creativity, what advice would you give to a friend who would like to be more creative in his or her work? Is a highly creative person more susceptible than others are to personal emotional challenges? If so, explain.
Ok, looks like this is covered by pages 393-399. I’m afraid that until we catch up … we might have to look through the assignments for just the right answers. But, I’m afraid we are going to lose necessary information to understand the whole. I know we can reread later when there is time, but I also know we’re cramped for time now. Might have to pull a few quick resources for this next paper, maybe not. V’s now right on top of our need for speed. Well he always is, but we’re talking in a direct parallel IM as I am writing hehehe Gotta love the V!
Paper …
The various approaches to creativity as less structurally listed by Sternberg (2003) are in defining the word loosely, asking the questions of how much creativity we produce, discussion of what we know, asking ourselves who and where we are, and a collective response, which includes all of the above. Sternberg more concretely states approaches are psychometric and cognitive, personality and motivational, and social, societal, and historical (2003).
Creativity as something “original and worthwhile” (Sternberg, 2003) is inclusive of a wide variety of experiences and abilities that produce, discover and revolutionalize. He further describes creative people as being flexible and having non-conformist attitudes (2003). The psychometric approach considers “the ability to create more” (2003). The cognitive approach include problem solving and insight and weighs in more toward the long hard work of building on a store of information created by experts, or to conceptualize convergent and divergent thinking similarly to how we’ve been considering analysis and synthesis in this unit. The cognitive approach also discusses the release from functional fixedness, especially after incubation.
In addition to these approaches are considered personality and motivational approaches. These are approaches that consider the person himself as either being endowed or not with an “openness to new ways of seeing, intuition, alertness to opportunity, a liking for complexity as a challenge to find simplicity, independence of judgment that questions assumptions, willingness to take risks, unconventionality of thought that allows odd connections to be made, keep attention, and a drive to find pattern and meaning—these, coupled with the motive and the courage to create” (Barron, 1988, p. 95 as cited in Sternberg, 2003). The third approach of social, societal, or historical, includes the gift of an individual creator being in the right place at the right time and finding life’s special gifts while not usually seeking them. Gardner synthesized a general set of traits and experiences that were familiar to many creative people, and lastly is the view point where one tries to utilize the information from all the above as conveyed by Sternberg and his partner. Sternberg’s example of buying low and selling high is an opportunistic view of looking for what others usually miss and capitalizing on or propelling ideas further before moving on to the next idea, which gives creativity the aura of responsibility and includes quality and quantity like the search for diamonds. Sternberg’s ideas of types of creative contributions appeared in the text as a directional gauge as to the creative ideas influence and could be likened to the processes of influence in comparing the collective effort in the cognitive psychology research view of explaining how one article or study might affect the next.
Pause Paper, post, and get to work! Good Job!
Remember systems explain how we work, not who we are … we are a family of US AND we're a "getting better everyday psychology student! YAYYYYYYY Us!
Woo Hoo ... a JACOB DAY!!!
Ok, Good morning. This is me being down to business. We are using every known ability we have to do the school work in front of us. We are realizing that to do any certain task, we need to beg the cooperation of all parts involved. It is sort of like a hostage situation where you don’t get your needs met, until you make sure all the needs of other parts are met first. It takes us a long time to gather the strength of concentration we need for school. But, we’re here now … and that has to count for something. A lot has happened between sessions. We left a message at our blog about studying. We find ourselves looking back to especially yesterday’s camera work to reassure ourselves that it is going to be ok. We took out the PDA and in the task section, we wrote what we had to do. Just one sentence for each task. The work that we are to do has already been outlined and is sitting on left screen. We need to do this:
u07d2 Problem Solving :
Part I: (Page 360, k) Develop an example of a problem situation that can be used to illustrate the problem-solving cycle. State the application of the cycle to the situation for each of the cycle's steps. Explain what would be the advantages and disadvantages of becoming an expert problem-solver for the problem you addressed.
Part II: (Page 376 silly!)Compare and contrast Davidson and Sternberg's three kinds of insights, being sure to address the strengths and weaknesses of each. How might incubation help in insightful problem solving?
So, we’re open to page 360 and we’re going to look at the first step of 7 in the problem-solving cycle. We’re pretty sure that the example we are going to use is the steps necessary for us to collectively be at school.
The first step is Problem Identification. Here we go.
Paper …
There are seven steps in the problem-solving cycle. The first step is to identify the problem. The problem that I am going to use is - resolving the needs as a multiple in order to focus on the high-end day-to-day concentration tasks such as school. The goal is to be working on the tasks. The goal is often distracted by multiple multiple needs. We keep trying to better our system, because at the present time, the system isn’t very good, nor has it been for most of the year that we’ve been working through school tasks. We are glad for the opportunity here to reevaluate the system. It seems that each day, we grow smarter and more creative in not only defining the problem, but also perpetuating the obstacles. More depth does not necessarily mean forward momentum. Although the system bulks, the need of completing tasks on deadlines presses on and if we don’t figure out how to improve the system, we risk losing everything we’ve worked toward and would like to accomplish with our education and career.
The second step of the problem-solving cycle is defining and representing the problem. Multiples need to work with all of their parts in getting the one “family system” going in the same direction. One part of the problem is that as a whole, we’ve made commitments to be educating ourselves without much expertise on maintaining schedules and routines. It seems as a system, we need to resolve the needs of each 20 parts as a process of working toward the main goal of reading and writing papers and discussions. It’s like give and take. For example, in this last two weeks, we’ve had to take care of the emotional needs of our doctor on vacation, the on-going need to do our personal writing, which assists in balancing what happens to us collectively, complete difficult work assignments, and move our general household life in a forward direction. There is also maintenance of social relationships, including friends and family. Not all parts of us do all these tasks consistently and some parts umbrella themselves by putting aside their immediate needs to assist other parts; much like a mother putting her children to bed, so that she can have a couple minutes to her self. Per se, there is no other major priority that has to be worked on after work/office hours, other than what’s been mentioned above. We don’t have habits of television viewing and usually only one or two people will stop by our home over the periodic course of a week or month. We tend to stay at the computer about 9/10’s of our waking hours and all gets worked out from “the safety” of this station with the utmost priority being school. But, inevitably, we have to make immediate choices to start the next school task, or satisfy needs of those of us who develop other priorities, many times in direct opposite correlation of the need to focus on school tasks, especially in consideration of time consumption. A set of problems, we will not resolve at this time is that of being collectively depressed, anxious, or compulsive-obsessive. While none of these help, they are only secondary obstacles.
.
The third step of the cycle is to formulate strategy. Given the above, it would not seem 1) we are going to change from being a multiple to a singleton, nor are we going to stop cycles of depression, anxiety, nor obsession, so we are going to need formulate strategy that is affective in refining the problem, which seems a good idea because it allows the writers and the students to work together through an assignment as well. 2) If we stop going to school, then we lose what we value most in the learning processes and secondarily, we would need to start paying back school loans without having earned a higher income to pay the debt. 3) Most important is to avoid being crushed as potential dissolved. We’ve set a ten-year plan to carry out the school mission, and this is what’s important to do with our life. We feel most like ourselves when writing and psychology has given us our balanced course and direction. It would seem to get the parts going in the right direction might be only a half fallacy. Because essentially what is realized is that whatever their needs are are our needs too, and in reality most the parts believe they really are helping, and usually in a round about way do help, just not on deadline.
An example of a typical day would be that someone wants to read the text assignment out on the balcony to avoid younger parts becoming overly comfortable and sleepy on the couch, but that draws out another part who is terrified of being away from the computer, especially outside. This runs parallel to the next dilemma of someone trying to learn picture taking, because she’s figured out it will help the first part move about in space and would make a nice storybook birthday gift for Grandma. Meanwhile a part who’s taken responsibility at work for a technology management plan gets pushed to resolving the issue she’s been stuck on in backing up the administrative computers, so she buys a memory devise, which terrifies the two that do the budgeting. So with one over-expenditure in hand, we find yet another part who has decided, “Well if that part can get a piece of technology, “so should I!” Because she’s waited longer for her purchase and it wasn’t even as costly. This pretty much tilts all budgets, and now the younger parts being treated out to daily Slushies for doing good work at work are suffering the older parts financial crises because someone refuses to dip into deeper cash reserves for pocket change. In turn the younger parts protest by refusing to go to bed on time. This goes on into infinity. It is not that the system isn’t working together; it may be more likely that there are just too many diverse needs and creative problem solvers; each ultimately trying to do the best for themselves and others, but as one doctor stated, we have trouble in being able to maintain steering control of the ship. So, I would think the correct strategy is to rally around a consistent ship or set of ship captains.
Pause Paper
Jacob TIME!!!
Aynetal3 [8:08 A.M.]: :)
Sweetie Pie [8:09 A.M.]: good morning, having trouble typing here
Sweetie Pie [8:09 A.M.]: fingers don't want to work,
Sweetie Pie [8:10 A.M.]: I am better now
Sweetie Pie [8:10 A.M.]: 3 sips of coffee
Aynetal3 [8:10 A.M.]: hehehe
Aynetal3 [8:10 A.M.]: you all good?
Sweetie Pie [8:10 A.M.]: what are you up too
Aynetal3 [8:10 A.M.]: just woke up
Sweetie Pie [8:10 A.M.]: really now
Sweetie Pie [8:10 A.M.]: what were you up to last night
Aynetal3 [8:10 A.M.]: was up but fell back to bed in 20 min ..
Aynetal3 [8:11 A.M.]: Jacob all day
Sweetie Pie [8:11 A.M.]: I see, he gave you a run around
Aynetal3 [8:11 A.M.]: huh? He was a good Jacob
Sweetie Pie [8:11 A.M.]: I mean he kept you busy
Aynetal3 [8:11 A.M.]: Yes that he did ... though I stopped and watched him
Sweetie Pie [8:12 A.M.]: he fix any of your stuff
Aynetal3 [8:12 A.M.]: Yup yup fixed volume
Aynetal3 [8:12 A.M.]: speakers new sound card
Sweetie Pie [8:12 A.M.]: really now, what was wrong,
Sweetie Pie [8:12 A.M.]: ahhh new sound card
Aynetal3 [8:12 A.M.]: sound card went bad
Sweetie Pie [8:13 A.M.]: I thought so, I am so smart, but not as smart as Jacob
Aynetal3 [8:13 A.M.]: hehehe funny Sweetie Pie
Aynetal3 [8:13 A.M.]: did you see pictures
Sweetie Pie [8:13 A.M.]: so he took your old computers.
Aynetal3 [8:14 A.M.]: two of them the more recent too ... he found life in them and said he could make them work
Sweetie Pie [8:14 A.M.]: maybe he should go to a best buy, they are always looking for technicians
Aynetal3 [8:15 A.M.]: He's worked there before in their computer section
Sweetie Pie [8:15 A.M.]: ahhhh, I see.
Aynetal3 [8:15 A.M.]: he's like my super star kid!
Sweetie Pie [8:15 A.M.]: for today for sure
Aynetal3 [8:16 A.M.]: umm all the time?
Sweetie Pie [8:16 A.M.]: good
Sweetie Pie [8:16 A.M.]: so what is up today, or should I suggest
Aynetal3 [8:16 A.M.]: just school
Aynetal3 [8:16 A.M.]: you?
Sweetie Pie [8:16 A.M.]: good thought
Sweetie Pie [8:17 A.M.]: little things that need to be done.
Sweetie Pie [8:18 A.M.]: hopefully not losing minutes blankly staring into a screen
Aynetal3 [8:18 A.M.]: hmm
Sweetie Pie [8:20 A.M.]: so what did you do with Jacob yesterday
Aynetal3 [8:21 A.M.]: everything! I asked V to brb
Sweetie Pie [8:21 A.M.]: Ok, what is everything
Aynetal3 [8:22 A.M.]: first we looked at the computers he got the two newer ones to DOS and he said from there it was no problem making them work
Aynetal3 [8:22 A.M.]: We were able to save one of the set of my docs onto the flash memory from safe mode
Sweetie Pie [8:23 A.M.]: this is good
Aynetal3 [8:23 A.M.]: Then checked out my speakers, then we went to lunch, then over to best buy then he fixed the speakers and set them up
Aynetal3 [8:23 A.M.]: he was here 6 1/2 hours :) :) :) :) :)
Aynetal3 [8:23 A.M.]: Lotsa time to talk mostly about technology
Sweetie Pie [8:23 A.M.]: where did you go for lunch
Aynetal3 [8:23 A.M.]: Just to applebees
Aynetal3 [8:24 A.M.]: both under $10 just had for Jacob a hamburger and me a fajita wrap
Aynetal3 [8:24 A.M.]: :)
Aynetal3 [8:24 A.M.]: never drink with Jacob :)
Aynetal3 [8:24 A.M.]: DIET pop
Sweetie Pie [8:25 A.M.]: I see, any insights to how Jacob is doing
Aynetal3 [8:25 A.M.]: umm and very small cheese cake
Aynetal3 [8:25 A.M.]: Wow he's just doing pretty good :)
Aynetal3 [8:25 A.M.]: he's home now at his dads ... think he still respects him very much, but I don't think he's all that happy over there especially in basement
Sweetie Pie [8:26 A.M.]: ahhh should talk to my son.
Aynetal3 [8:26 A.M.]: But the father stopped house buying cuz they had trouble selling their place so at least Jacob can live more comfortable without need to pickup for realtors ... think that was causing tension
Aynetal3 [8:26 A.M.]: hehehe
Aynetal3 [8:26 A.M.]: He'll only make about $350 total.
Aynetal3 [8:26 A.M.]: Working
Aynetal3 [8:26 A.M.]: But friday or Saturday he goes back to school
Sweetie Pie [8:27 A.M.]: any work chance other than RA at Northern
Aynetal3 [8:27 A.M.]: I can't tell you how pleased he was to get computer and speakers
Sweetie Pie [8:27 A.M.]: Probably will fix them up and sell them
Aynetal3 [8:27 A.M.]: No, he's going back into cheerleading. We gave him some required up front money for that
Aynetal3 [8:27 A.M.]: No that's not like Jacob at all.
Aynetal3 [8:27 A.M.]: If anything he would give it away, but he won't
Sweetie Pie [8:27 A.M.]: what does he need 3 computers for
Aynetal3 [8:28 A.M.]: he wants to take laptop to classes and he needs them for traveling back and for on breaks to go home or Tanners
Aynetal3 [8:28 A.M.]: But I think Tanner isn't talking to Jacob
Sweetie Pie [8:28 A.M.]: why is that
Sweetie Pie [8:29 A.M.]: by the way I saw your pictures
Aynetal3 [8:29 A.M.]: don't know why else for the laptops, except he came to a space he really really wanted one
Aynetal3 [8:29 A.M.]: did you like them?
Sweetie Pie [8:29 A.M.]: yes, kids looking fit and my o my what a clean desk
Aynetal3 [8:30 A.M.]: did I send you the one I made?
Sweetie Pie [8:30 A.M.]: I don't think so
Aynetal3 [8:30 A.M.]: hehehehe Jacob's always fit ... most of the time talking about cheerleading he talked about his role as leader
Aynetal3 [8:30 A.M.]: hold on
Aynetal3 [8:31 A.M.]: mail
Sweetie Pie [8:32 A.M.]: ok
Aynetal3 [8:32 A.M.]: I hope no one gets upset ... Jacob was worrying about it and I wanted to let him know he was in good company
Sweetie Pie [8:33 A.M.]: your silly
Aynetal3 [8:33 A.M.]: hehehehehe
Aynetal3 [8:33 A.M.]: I know :)
Aynetal3 [8:33 A.M.]: It struck me though with first dr. M and Jacob with both growing two sets of facial hair
Aynetal3 [8:34 A.M.]: I thought Jacob and dr. Marvin looked strikingly similar
Aynetal3 [8:34 A.M.]: Jacobs got the better torso
Sweetie Pie [8:34 A.M.]: some similarity yes
Sweetie Pie [8:34 A.M.]: working out right now,
Aynetal3 [8:35 A.M.]: yep dr. M not working out and pretty slim, though not as slim as Tanner
Aynetal3 [8:35 A.M.]: no tattoos all around hehehe
Sweetie Pie [8:35 A.M.]: Ok nuf of that, hmmmmm
Aynetal3 [8:35 A.M.]: LOLOL
Aynetal3 [8:35 A.M.]: awe Sweetie Pie he's such a good kid
Sweetie Pie [8:36 A.M.]: I know that, so what else of the day
Aynetal3 [8:37 A.M.]: hmm... he didn't talk about Macadam much ... but some more on Tanner ... a lot on finances cuz I wanted to know where he was and that he'd be ok
Aynetal3 [8:37 A.M.]: some on his loneliness ... I think he's afraid of not having a girl by the time he leaves. He doesn't quite understand why no girl in 3 1/2 years, though he talks about them not matching up good enough
Sweetie Pie [8:37 A.M.]: well he is in college, we know it is a poor time there
Aynetal3 [8:38 A.M.]: but supposed to be good time for picking up girl
Sweetie Pie [8:38 A.M.]: thought he had a lot of girls chasing him
Sweetie Pie [8:38 A.M.]: yeah but lot of life after college
Aynetal3 [8:38 A.M.]: he does ... both the waitress at the restaurant and geeky guy at best buy were falling all over him
Aynetal3 [8:39 A.M.]: he has the kind of self confidence that draws people to him ... and he's very honest and forthright in a nice way
Aynetal3 [8:39 A.M.]: I showed him the story book ... I knew it be too long to read, but he liked the pictures
Sweetie Pie [8:40 A.M.]: hmmm, then what we have is a person who does not attack every person for attention because he does have confidence.
Aynetal3 [8:40 A.M.]: that's very true I think he goes into relationships thinking what could happen here good
Aynetal3 [8:41 A.M.]: I talked to him about his fluidity in a little after he was explaining his swooshy move during a game. We were talking about him teaching. He says he still wants to give the board some time, but no more than two years ... after that he's considering very seriously teaching at the high school level
Sweetie Pie [8:42 A.M.]: will he have a secondary certificate
Aynetal3 [8:42 A.M.]: BUT, his grandmother pushing him to go toward teaching in Texas where his aunt is, because he could start earning $62,000 as an intern like
Aynetal3 [8:43 A.M.]: No, he'd have to get that ... I don't want him going all the way down there :(
Sweetie Pie [8:43 A.M.]: it would take him another 2 years to get a certificate in school.
Aynetal3 [8:43 A.M.]: thats what he was saying.
Aynetal3 [8:44 A.M.]: he likes the lifestyle of school ... he said Tanner missed a whole lot not being in the environment
Sweetie Pie [8:44 A.M.]: unless he did night school while at the board.
Aynetal3 [8:45 A.M.]: I'm not sure about that ... don't know .... he's pretty relaxed outwardly, but I think there is a certain tension within
Sweetie Pie [8:45 A.M.]: it is different, I notice how my siblings feel about school and how they push thier kids for college
Aynetal3 [8:45 A.M.]: what do you mean?
Sweetie Pie [8:46 A.M.]: if they went to college, they push the kids there, if not they don't think it is important
Aynetal3 [8:47 A.M.]: I think we're on the side of pushing, but not more than some. He knows my views on education as important, but if it weren't in him, I wouldn't go so far
Aynetal3 [8:47 A.M.]: He's got a 3.0 now so turning out to be a better student than in high school
Sweetie Pie [8:48 A.M.]: not all kids make it, I realize, but it remains the idea of the parents who went that they must give every effort.
Sweetie Pie [8:48 A.M.]: he is older
Aynetal3 [8:49 A.M.]: yes I agree ... I don't think that his mentor father is pushing it big though, and I'm not so sure the G's are either ... I think I'm the only one
Sweetie Pie [8:49 A.M.]: strange there, but maybe consider the source.
Aynetal3 [8:49 A.M.]: Jacob would make a good teacher he gets along well with others, is interested in the development of people, and he's pretty laid-back
Aynetal3 [8:49 A.M.]: what do you mean?
Sweetie Pie [8:50 A.M.]: nothing, you have always explained them as a little eccentric
Aynetal3 [8:50 A.M.]: g's?
Sweetie Pie [8:51 A.M.]: yes,
Aynetal3 [8:51 A.M.]: I think they are over confident in who they are, but that's helped them be successful. I see with Jacob more life struggle. He talked about how hard the transition was in moving from our place to his dads and we talked about Tanner's anger
Aynetal3 [8:52 A.M.]: He's made a name for himself at school and has perfected a sparkly reputation for being a very good guy ... didn't fall into the traps of parties, drinking and such
Aynetal3 [8:52 A.M.]: he's done well with teachers too
Sweetie Pie [8:53 A.M.]: hes a good kid
Aynetal3 [8:53 A.M.]: yup yup ... just don't know how that happened
Aynetal3 [8:53 A.M.]: I've never felt less than blessed with him
Sweetie Pie [8:53 A.M.]: :-)
Aynetal3 [8:54 A.M.]: He talked though about picking up so much from especially karate some church, teachers etc. He feels he may have gotten some from parents, but he got more from the people he mentored under
Aynetal3 [8:54 A.M.]: and making good choices
Sweetie Pie [8:55 A.M.]: all good points, and a smart kid knows how to pick the right teachings.
Aynetal3 [8:56 A.M.]: Yep proud of him for that ... less guilt as a parent in knowing if you have shortcomings, your kids going to help themselves filling in the gaps
Sweetie Pie [8:56 A.M.]: we try to teach them to do that.
Aynetal3 [8:56 A.M.]: yup yup that's the best of living life!
Sweetie Pie [8:57 A.M.]: so what else is on the agenda for the day
Aynetal3 [8:58 A.M.]: I felt real close to him this time, but usually do. I was exceptionally pleased he went the extra distance to help us out. That's not something the kids have done much of in the past, with the exception of Tanner having bought that laptop for us
Aynetal3 [8:58 A.M.]: just school
Umm … something, something here with full-breasted robin …
Sweetie Pie [9:07 A.M.]: so school for you, time for me to go
Aynetal3 [9:08 A.M.]: *sigh* BUT you didn't tell me of your day fishing and with Mom??
Sweetie Pie [9:08 A.M.]: a good day. Save it for my back rub
Aynetal3 [9:08 A.M.]: AHA! You're like that you know!
Sweetie Pie [9:08 A.M.]: yep
Aynetal3 [9:08 A.M.]: Am I losing you to clean socks?
Sweetie Pie [9:08 A.M.]: so give me kiss
Aynetal3 [9:09 A.M.]: hehehehe smooooooooooooooooooooooooooooch!
Sweetie Pie [9:09 A.M.]: underwear
Aynetal3 [9:09 A.M.]: LOLOLOL
Sweetie Pie [9:09 A.M.]: :-*
Aynetal3 [9:09 A.M.]: :-*
Sweetie Pie [9:09 A.M.]: talk to you later
Sweetie Pie [9:09 A.M.]: O:-)
Sweetie Pie signed off at 9:09 A.M.
Ok, ok ... we're not going to mellow out here ... As V would say, MS ... meaning SCHOOL~!
Be over here ------------:)------------>>>
Umm, the last word is TEASING!
AHA! Hard at work I see! Shh, studying...
Long Day ... Long Post ... Puttering at its Best
Wednesday Night …
Good evening … Yeeks that sounds much too formal. This is just me and in case you wanted to know … that was our scrunched up still eating the last of the watermelon face
This is going to be a pretty short note, because its just after 7 pm and we should be heading to bed. Before the watermelon face, our sweetie was over for a couple of hours – the first time we’ve seen him for 8 entire days. Well, as you could imagine something happened moments after the door was open that seemed kinda steamy. Hehehe … YAYYYYYY s!
Um, well after that pretty much we had some sub sandwiches and a nice long talk. It was a little unusual, because I was looking forward to giving him the backrub part, but he said he had to go to a fishing meeting and he didn’t want to be sleepy. He says we do too good a job of relaxing him. Well, I didn’t like that idea of no massaging so much, but we still got to hear the fishy stories . There was some pretty good stuff. Mostly we just let him go from one thing to another … some questions … but, pretty much just listen enraptured by his ability to speak well about things that fascinated us. Probably regular guy stuff, but I could hear his excitement and enthusiasm and I thought Wow! Here is a person totally engaged with what he was doing. Pretty much it isn’t always the story per se, but more the spirit of the conversation that seems to sweep one away. That’s what it is like when I hear him talking about fishing. And, as you might imagine some of the stories were about the fishing, some about the people he was with, and some about how he was feeling and thinking as stuff was happening. Just can’t get any better than all that! I think he is having a great time with this group of people … umm, but in a guy way. A lotta things that go on literally I don’t really hear so much of. Like I know they ate one night at a Mexican restaurant and another at a family smorgasbord, but I don’t know the specific conversations. I’m just playing out my jealousy when I ask if the waitresses are pretty … sure, that’s true! Hehehe
Oh dear … that’s as far as we are getting tonight. Sleepiness is coming over us like a heavy thick blanket, soft to the touch, and easy on the eyes. Nitey nite!
Friday morning …
Good morning. And, an early morning at that. The kitties decided that it was time to be up and fed and that was that. I’m going to get dressed in a few minutes and go to the drug store to buy a can of coffee. It’s come down to that. This would be the third morning without. Sweetie-pie was going to pick it up last night, but it was forgotten … so I guess this is written up as backing-up the back-up. I need to think for a few moments if there isn’t anything else we’re going to be needing. I should pick up shampoo, a new tooth brush, and some tooth paste, hmm. That’s a pretty good idea. Hmm, anything else? Donuts come to mind. Hmm, wouldn’t hurt to get dressed now. Hold on.
Pshwoo that’s done … one more smoke. Ok, little rest … It was so humid outside and in the house, we turned on the AC. Didn’t make Chief real happy, because he was enjoying the outdoors. But, ya gotta do, what you gotta do. Did I mention that it is only 2 am now? Yeeks … they started all this anyway. Hmm, there was something else. I know … some kind of medicine for arthritis. The stuff we’re getting prescription isn’t enough, in that we’ve been having trouble with our fingers. They’ve been achy and pressing keys has been harder than normal. Feels as if they are stressed out. That makes a very unhappy situation. Best we try something with the medicine for arthritis just in case. I suppose we’d need to make another dr. appointment to check that out, but this is relatively new, so maybe it is just temporary. I’ve been without the braces again this last week too, so maybe that has something to do with it. I think I left them at work yesterday, so we’ll have to hold up on that one.
Ok, deep breath … don’t forget the money and let’s get on with this … without coffee we’ve been getting headaches and having trouble staying up. Need to fix that, right? BRB
Pshwoo back! That wouldn’t have been so bad, but for some reason, my credit card said to check for valid ID. Umm, I still don’t have my driver’s license … so, I’m arguing with this dippy woman about why she should let me have my tooth paste and such. HMPF!
Ahh now well past that. We got back and the V was up early too! Hehehe … we were looking at V’s last post and decided to add a picture to his to make his less scary. Then V posted the new picture at his blog!
We’re thinking yup yup that’s going to go into the next story book. Been dreamy for a bit now ourselves. We keep getting drawn back into the pictures. I’m not sure why that all became so important, but it did. We talked to our Grandma on Monday and again on Thursday. We had sent her the picture book as a 98th year old birthday gift. Her birthday is on June 1rst … I think that is next Thursday. I better check on that to be sure. AHA! And, that will be a Dr. M. day too. He’s been gone a very, very long time. Anyway, my Grandma liked the book a lot I think. She said she’d never seen one just like it. I think she had a hard time understanding though that the pictures she was seeing in the book, could be on anyone’s computer who looked. I think we’ll talk to her about this later.
Friday night … Hi …
Seems like one of those weeks where my feet didn’t touch the ground. It’s taken a while to get something down. Shoot not happening tonight either. Just got tucked in by Deb for the night … think we’re giving these poor bones a break. Nitey nite.
Saturday morning … Ok, ok … we’re seriously going to finish a post this morning. Even Missy says so. She says, Pshwoo aren’t you ever going to get done … This is like taking the slow boat to China! Nothing worse than a kitty with an opinion. She’s stacked with them!
AHA! Someone’s been playing again … Good Chief picture this morning … hehehe umm nice curtain picture too I love them to pieces!
I’m still experimenting with the camera … I can’t figure out how to erase the pictures on the camera so I can start off fresh … the 1 GB card was too big, so I ordered a 512 MB I think with that I can take 150 pictures where right now I can only take 20. Hmm, seems like this is something I should be able to look up?
WooHOOO figured that out! Seems the camera has to be closed with the view finder or playback button on Ok, ok … much better now … I read the abbreviated 40 page instruction manual. I still don’t know optimal flash exposure or anything like that, but I am on my way. This time I recognized too when my batteries were running low and I started to recharge them … Hmm, let’s see that was about 7 am. So, should figure that out. I think I need to get a few more batteries to keep ongoing supply. Right now we only have four and the camera eats up two at a time. I have no idea what would happen if you were on vacation and wanted to shoot on and off all day. I did a lot of opening and closing and experimenting as we read … so thinking that tires batteries. (Post script … I remembered to finally check the camera about 10 am and they were ready. SOOO, that means less than 3 hours to charge. AND, we remembered we better charge the PDA too … still haven’t figured all that out as far as best use … put that on the agenda).
Yayyyyyy, I got the elusive MISSY!!!
Don’t let them fool you when they say they have a hard life around here! They’re such nifty kitties! As you can imagine having a balcony is quite the thing around here. I can’t imagine a life, where the kitties weren’t allowed to get some fresh air. I’ve felt bad before in that with an exception while they were really small, they’ve never been free to roam. BUT, I couldn’t imagine anything happening to them. I do know from when they were just baby kitties, they were so motivated as to be climbing trees. I’ve grown up with storybook images of firemen rescuing kitties from trees, and I wanted no part of that mess! Even if it means cutting short a few kitty dreams. As you can see from this last picture, the tree just past Missy is rather low. It holds a good majority of the bird sounds we hear. With kitty fine lens photography eyes, I bet you that mellows them out to pieces to be watching the birds so closely. And, fortunately they have only brought a few birds down and into the house with them. Pretty sure that’s not something I want a part of! HMPF! Birdnapping!! And for any of you that might worry, no the kitties will not fall off the balcony, or at least they have not tried that in the last six years. I guess three floors is a healthy balance between their creativity and my nerves.
Maybe if I can clean up a little around here … maybe this weekend we can show you around the rest of the place as well. Would mean some serious cleaning though, so it might have to wait a bit.
Ok, ok … we’ve had a serious change of heart … we decided to go ahead and publish as is … well, maybe we aren’t brave enough to do the picture of the kitchen table. Well, no honestly … I’m not up to the kitchen table yet. The Cooking part of the kitchen doesn’t look so bad, because sees to it that it gets straightened up. I liked the kitchen good enough when we came here, but after time we lost more and more ability to be using it. It took a long time to just do the microwave.
I like this part … it is the hall going into the kitchen the door you see goes into my real bedroom and that’s off limits, right now too! TOOO messy. All the pictures on this wall are of the boys when they were younger. I only have one or two pictures of them being older.
This picture has some calendars old ones when I was a kid, and the other wall facing it has another eight calendars. You can see a tiny bit of messy table, but that is enough of that!
You can see in this picture how the two walls connect. It is the long wall. And the room you are looking into is the back bedroom. You are missing another white furniture across from the bed, but that is like way too messy. We got the white desk and dresser from my daughter-in-law. It is the set she had growing up. I was glad to take it for her. I like it pretty good, but more than anything … it helped to fill up the room. One day I might have money to do it proper, but for now … I’m just glad to have something that Chief is comfortable with. Hehehe
So that is pretty much that. I’m getting closer to being able to put curtains in the back, but I figured out that I need some kind of bits or something for the drill. It will have to wait until after our vacation/meetings. We’re getting there though …
Pshwoo, it feels way different to have you seeing these other parts of our house, and in a great respect it is difficult for us to even look at these things. I am comfortable with my space here at the computer and that’s about as far as it goes. Working at getting comfortable with the balcony.
Ok, just one more picture. I don’t think you have this view yet. It is of the world we see most often.
It looks a little dark, but I’m sure you get the idea. We’re still wasting space on the table In that I’d have more room if I pushed the screens back. Ok, did that. I can still read everything fine although it is a bit of an illusion at this point to have the words being typed so far from the keyboard. Just in the respect that the view takes in more of my fingers as well as the screen in front of me. Most the time we’re typing, we are looking at the smaller screen in front of us, with just a quick glance left which fills up most of our eyes radius. I think the only solution to getting the desk more decluttered would be to place the CPU and woofer down on the floor, but it wouldn’t be very convenient to use or vacuum. Hmm, we’ll figure it out sooner or later. Hehehe part of what is really confusing now is that I have the black framed screen in front of me, I am looking at the picture above of the station, and glancing left I have a bigger picture of the station, and each of the last two images have double sets of screens within them! Maybe we’re going to need closing down a few things. Sure a good thing the table is a nice size.
Hmm, its interesting … I’m getting rid of the extra pictures I didn’t want and I got up to the one of the messy table. At the original point it seems too threatening of me to approach. But, maybe if I approached in small steps. What could I do with it? What doesn’t belong. Ok, the Nyquil, tummy stuff, mouthwash and a few of the extra bottles could be put in the storage closet with the towels. Empty cigarette boxes, the aspirin bottle box, bag and loose garbage stuff thrown away. That lighter hasn’t worked like it doesn’t no more … no reason we couldn’t throw that away. 14 of the bottles have to stay on the table … oh oh … someone didn’t take medicine this morning. Then there is the seasoning stuff. I think our friend likes that, but we don’t … ok, we’ll put that on top the microwave. Candles? Hmm, we only need one, we can put the other in the spare bedroom on the desk. Our hand braces. We’re going to need them in a little bit. There’s that envelope with the extra money for the trip … Does that have a place it could go? I know maybe on the fridgerator. Maybe you can help me remember then. Coffee mug, glasses and ashtray should go in the dishwasher, right? Then the biggest problem is that people keep bringing me all those envelopes of stuff. I don’t know what to do with that? If I put in the spare bedroom (been there, done that), then I just forget … Hmm, seems like maybe to get it off the table, which is helping it look scary, I am going to have to file it or throw it away. Hmm, we got filer places in the back bedroom and here next to the computer. But we don’t want to mess with tabs, cuz we don’t have enough. Ok, maybe that’s a small problem? Maybe we have some other kind of labels. Lets go see. K??
AHA! I present before and after pictures. Next, maybe the floor. Lordy knows how long that fork has been sitting on the floor with the dust bunnies! I think having a camera must be a good thing … it gets us to take a look with what we’ve been too scared to face in real time. Usually, I see this kind of mess developed and I just want to run away and hide as fast as I can. I’m not sure why, cuz … when we broke it down there wasn’t anything too hard to handle, except we only skimmed through the mail before bagging it and putting it on that maroon chair in the back. I think we’re going to need ’s help for that. But, as you can see the result of 10-15 minutes work is AMAZING! AHA!
I sure would like to put my curtains up though … and there’s some big stuff that needs to go down to the garbage. That area back there is like a waiting zone. And that stuff above the air conditioner? That’s the hardware for the curtains. You see … I’ve got the stuff, now I got a drill, just need drill bits … we’re getting there. Hmmn, forgot to take the medicine again. We’ll wait a little bit for the table to dry, then we can get our medicine. This time, we placed it on a place mat, so we can just slide it forward or back.
Can I tell you something else? I’m afraid to even say this for fear of who in our head is listening. But, umm when we were skimming the mail? We found a check from our school that has been sitting there over a month. It is another check for $1850. Our minds are already trying to figure out how to spend it. We’re going to hold off though with the exception of making sure our friend is paid up for groceries, and then we are going to get our car cleaned out maybe with our friends help, maybe today. Then we are going to get the fluids changed, and the car washed inside and out, and then we’re going to make an appointment with the car fixer people to check the car out proper for traveling long distance. I’m pretty sure that God is looking out for me. I would feel much much better to drive in our car knowing that its safe to drive rather than to spend the $300 on a rental car. That’s a canceled deal. Just gotta make the call. AND, the day that we take care of the car?? We’re also going to make sure we can get our drivers license that day. If I was extremely well fortuned, I’m afraid to even say this, but if I could only get my friend to take off part a day, I know we would be able to get this done. There is only two weeks to finish all this. I think that is going to need being impressed pretty hard on him today. It’s the first time I’ve allowed myself even to think of it. I couldn’t figure out how to get the car fixed up and have food money while I was gone at the same time IF I paid bills. Maybe now I can do all three and have extra money left over. AND, maybe we can address the matter of the car air conditioner not working for the third or fourth year in a row.
It’s funny. If I wouldn’t have taken that picture of the messy table and felt so guilty, I would have gone right along thinking all that mail was just garbage. Yep, yep … pretty sure there is a God.
Hmm. And, I just took my pills and am eating a bowl of cereal … I had felt too nervous to eat before. Feeling much better now. Shoot … our mind is in that dangerous place. Thinking Joe could use some money, but I don’t know if his Grandmother didn’t give him some after spending time together in Texas. I’ll have to figure that part out. Ahh, I see his computer is on-line … thinking its kinda early on a Saturday morning though. Hmm, not responding … V would say … unusual. Hehehehe. We’ll leave him a note.
Might be kinda long for him to read it all the way through … we’ll see.
Aynetal3 (9:56:05 AM): Joe?
Aynetal3 (10:00:00 AM): Joe, I need to talk to you about money. I would like to know your set for next semester, if you’re back from TX, if your ok with your dad til back in to summer school, if your grandma gave you some spending money, and if you got enough to make it to your first school paycheck. I think if you are in need, I could get you a couple hundred dollars. We had a surprise check. Let me know ... if you don't need it, we'll withdraw it from the bank to save for later. We still need to get our car checked ... leaving for OH in two weeks. CALL! The Mom
Ok, if he reads it … pretty sure that will catch his attention. What red-blooded college kid couldn’t use a little more money? Hehehehe I feel Mom-like when I can do this kinda stuff.
*SIGH* This is tough being me. There’s so much stuff to think about. I know that I’m losing school time, so we’re going to concentrate on finishing the writing pretty soon. We IM’d with our friend earlier this morning.
Sweetie Pie (7:51:03 AM): Hi
Aynetal3 (7:51:16 AM): Sweetie Pie!!!
Sweetie Pie (7:51:22 AM): what if I come by today about 3 to 4
Aynetal3 (7:51:36 AM): what happen I think that's a pretty nice idea!
Sweetie Pie (7:51:51 AM): good, might bring dinner too.
Aynetal3 (7:51:59 AM): WooooHOOOOO!!!!
Aynetal3 (7:52:04 AM): Barbeque?
Sweetie Pie (7:52:27 AM): I have two games today, I thought it might be appropriate for bbq
Aynetal3 (7:52:36 AM): OH MAN!!!!!!!
Sweetie Pie (7:52:47 AM): going to get busy here in a minute so I might have to run
Aynetal3 (7:52:52 AM): You better come in real needy for back rub then!
Sweetie Pie (7:53:09 AM): 4 games in 24 hours could provide that
Aynetal3 (7:53:16 AM): AWE...
Sweetie Pie (7:53:29 AM): I am OK though, feel strong
Aynetal3 (7:53:32 AM): Maybe if we got a warning call, we might jump in the shower and meet you at the door
Sweetie Pie (7:54:01 AM): I might have to shower myself when I come in.
Aynetal3 (7:54:17 AM): I'll have a fresh towel waiting ... maybe can dig up mint?
Sweetie Pie (7:54:27 AM): :-)
Sweetie Pie (7:54:44 AM): I am going to run, read my mail and get ready for my games
Aynetal3 (7:54:54 AM): ok smooching you a lot!
Sweetie Pie (7:55:00 AM): see you later
Aynetal3 (7:55:03 AM): :-*
Sweetie Pie (7:55:05 AM): :-*
Sweetie Pie (7:55:10 AM): O:-)
Yup, yup life is looking pretty good. I think before we dive into school there are just a few more notations. This week we had a big event at the Center. I think we’d talked before about Sr. doing the movie of the center. Well, V. was wrong … it’s harder to find in my memory now than he might suggest. Thinking, thinking. The first thought is that they put powder on my face as they were doing the interview. Next thought was how cool the interview was … not that I answered spectacularly … just kind of gave mindless answers to her interview questions, so I’m pretty sure I’ll just get like maybe hopefully one appearance in the video. She was asking the same questions to many people, and they will take the ones with the better answers. BUT, the most amazing thing is that they redid the room entirely as if it were a studio. I’m very sure there was mega money put into their equipment and such. It was so well done that overlooking the interviewers was the couch (they filmed in living room section for Group 4) had throw pillows on it with stuffed animals sewn on front, they highlighted that with special spotlights and they highlighted the artwork from the group on the closet doors in back of that. When you entered the room there was cords everywhere! They had cords running from other rooms that were taped down there was so much power being used by the equipment. And, they had those nifty screens and umbrellas and huge, huge cameras. It was all just amazing. We reminded Sr. Tess in time that she got pictures from her small camera of them taking pictures. WOOO HOOOO!!!
The filming people were in a team of three … the woman who set it up, the camera man, and the guy that was moving around the equipment. They were there before I got there at 7:30 and after I left at 4 pm. They took pictures of people coming in the door and leaving at the end of the day. They took pictures during the chapel service, of people doing exercises with the dance teacher, eating, working out in the community, doing art, cooking, maybe workshop, and small manipulatives like pouring water for the lowest group. That was mostly done before lunch. Oh and in the garden too! During the afternoon is when they settled in the living room. I was the first, Yeeks! I thought I was going to have to remember something, but I couldn’t remember the first line. But, she said she would talk us through it. I which I hadn’t been so nervous, I don’t think I will be usable. After me was sweetie pie, then three parents, the other Q, and then finally Sr. The’ve got sooooooooo much footage to include on this bitty production hehehe I don’t know I sure hope it is going to be a great video. Sr. says that each of the parents and staff get one copy free. I don’t know how many extras she is going to have made. She says they’re putting them on DVD’s and she’ll sell them for like $10, which I think is a super deal. I think we’ll get like 4-5 copies … We’ll want to send one to V … SHHHH … don’t tell him. And then, to each of the boys and my Grandma. I don’t know if Tanner would take one, but we’re going to send one for him just in case. I’m PRETTY sure it will turn out great. One of the staff umm talked to the camera people about using their slimming lens hehehehe.
I’m not sure if I will be able to publish it on the blog. Sr. said they are for anyone and everyone to help promote the center. I only have a few people who would watch it, and I’m thinking it might be too long and not sure Debs and Christina’s dial-up would take it. I’d have to check. That’s it … about covers my whole little world. I suppose I could send one to my mother, that would be fair, but we’re still thinking … eh, she could see my grandmas’ copy. I am thinking that’s the way to go.
AHA! First we caught son #3 and now we’re going to catch son #1! He’s going to call this direction in 5 minutes.
Jacob, of course, is always a pleasure to talk with. We didn’t talk long enough to find out how his trip went, but when I asked him if his Grandmother had given him any money, he said $20 and that that was about the amount of money he spent while in TX. He didn’t sound so happy that he made it in the good graces of his cousins. He said they are only 15-16, but that they were way wealthier than him. That didn’t make me feel so good. We try to ask him directly how it is going so he doesn’t feel guilty in letting people know he’s having a pretty tough life. His father let him work for the few days he’s been home, and Jacob said he should make just a couple hundred dollars to hold him up until he gets paid from school. He says he’s going to be something like a camp counselor at the University. I figured it must be for kids who are prospective students. It’s a good job for him and will pay some cash, but most important it pays room and board for over the summer. YAYYYY!!! Jacob wasn’t sure if he could remain employed over the last semester, but we’ll hope for that chance. He’s going to need some kind of money. When I asked about room and board for next year, he wasn’t sure how that was happening yet. He hadn’t talked to his father. They were going to buy a new house. If they can afford a new house, they can see him through a few more months school. Pshwoo.
Anyway …we worked out something for tomorrow. He’s going to stop by here and I’m giving him a couple old laptops that don’t work for me, but might for him. If I planned real carefully, when we go out to lunch, maybe we could stop at Best Buy or circuit city for a sound card. He thought most likely that’s what the static is all about. We told him he could have one set of speakers, because it was worth the stress not to have to send them back and pay a little out of pocket. He says his speakers are six years old and are the one thing he hasn’t been able to budget enough money to improve. YAYYYY!!! And, we’ll give him a little extra. Probably in a check though until the money clears proper. It sounds like he is going to be going back to cheerleading for the last semester, and I think that really excites him. So maybe the money will go toward whatever that cost is. They might have to buy their own uniforms or something. I wish I had a zillion dollars to give this kid.
Hmm, turned on the AC … it had gotten warm in here. Shut the curtains too, because we are dizzy. ACK!!!! 1:30! We forgot lunch _~!*()#%&_!#($& diabetes!
Ok, ok … been there, done that.
Macadam always talks volumes when we get a chance to be with him. He talks fast, though a little defensive. I think we asked a couple of bad questions. One for sure. We asked about him getting into debt again. What I’d forgotten to remember was that Lee was out on maternity leave for 5 months instead of working. I guess that would do some damage to a credit card. Interesting, but I figure that’s about the same amount of time that Macadam started trading less than well. For the most time on the phone though, we listened to all that he’d done over the last couple of weeks. There has been a lot of phone calls, resumes, letters, etc. He went to a job fair, which didn’t pan out … too many sales types jobs, but he went to three or four interviews either down at the Board or somewhere close to it. He said it looked more like he was going to be the one who would be able to choose which company, and I’m going to knock on wood here AND say a little prayer, because we’re hoping he gets one of the couple that he likes best. I had trouble sorting them all out … he talked about percentage the company was willing to go … it sounds like that was the split the broker worked out as to their cut and his cut of the success he might have. He talked about different training programs the companies had and whether or not they would want him to trade his way, their way, or a new way combining both. He talked about whether or not there were more or less traders and even if the had amenities like kitchenettes. One of the jobs he talked about was in the older section. Shoot, to hear it explained that’s where I would want to be. He says everything is wall to wall wood and there were the old fashioned big heavy wood desks. Another consideration was to work with family or not. One of his second cousins is offering job potential. Another consideration was of course the salary, and another consideration depended on what kind of markets the company sold. I know Macadam sold S & P something, but he said he could trade about 15 things and there were like 150-200 things that could be sold, though maybe more. In consideration of management/sales work, I think he is holding it as an option, but right now not the best option. He wants to go somewhere he would be excited to get up for every morning. He said that he was offered more money with the sales job, but he didn’t trust the set-up would be less money getting started than what they had quoted. Bottom line is he didn’t want to get stuck at this point in his career doing work he wasn’t thrilled with, though he will cover the family expenses.
He also talked about how things were managed with refinancing the house. I don’t think he got as much as he wanted to cover his debt, but Macadam is always thinking six steps ahead. He’s a smart person … I just know he’s going to figure out what’s right for him and his family. I’m not sure if they are always agreeing between husband and wife what is right and wrong, but it is up to them as a team to work that out and I have all the confidence in the world, they can do it. I never thought being young was easy. And, somewhere in the middle of all that Granddaughter #1 figured out we were on the phone, so I got a phone smooch too! WooHOOOO!!!! And, it turns out, she still loves us! YAYYYYYY! There has been a tremendous amount of tension and change for them, it seems from the time Macadam’s Grandfather died through now. And, I’m pretty sure that having babies is one of the most demanding changes anyone could make. I’m very proud of them.
Looking over the last week from what we can remember, I think you have most the highlights. Maybe not enough’s been said about our fishyman, but maybe there’s not too much that has changed there. We’re still madly in love with him. I’m thinking that not so much is getting done with school though and there is only a small amount of time before our friend comes. What we’re thinking is that we should do some more picking up. To do that though we are going to need leaving the computer. Not so sure that would make us real happy. The hardest part is to figure out the electronic boxes and the clothes situation. We’ve fallen back to laying out the dresses worn on the back of the couch. AND, we think that a fair amount of that’s been done in the bedroom too, because I know there’s stuff about. Like we’ll get the towels to the cleaners, but then they sit folded in a plastic bag on the tread mill and there’s other piles of loose clothing. Does stuff like this happen to other people too? And, there are extra pillows and blankets tossed one direction or another. Maybe that is going to need fixing too. I know I wouldn’t have to pick up our bedroom for son #3 to stop by, but it would make us feel better if it were done. PLUS, a certain sweetie pie would be thrilled we invested some more time into the project. Theoretically, we’re back to knowing it would take less than an hour, but we need to motivate ourselves first. Hmm, would feel good to do it for the others. Can we make it good for ourselves? AND, if all went well, could we get back up on the horse and walk again AND do school!?? Shoot that would represent a lot of change. AND, we haven’t been able to think Dr. M. thoughts for a while again. Thinking for a minute here of our Grandmother. She said that the management doubled their normal amount an increase in rent costs and her and her friends got together and protested. They all wrote the same angry messages when the company sent out their normal evaluations. Hehehe … the tenants won! The management company came down in rent cost. That oughta prove that sometimes right wins over wrong. My Grandmother said she tried to keep a low profile though, because theoretically after you hit the age of 95, they can terminate the lease. They haven’t bothered her yet, but she’s worrying rightfully over it anyway. I thought it seemed pretty unfair, but she said they probably thought that by the time people are 95 they need to be in a nursing home. But, she’s not that kind of a Grandma. HMPF!
Ok, ok … if my four days away from 98 year old Grandmother can make the bed and keep her living room picked up … then surely I must be able to as well. Ok, girls … finish that smoke, and we’re going to have at it. We’ve left a couple of pictures up with the kittie cats. One where they are preemptively looking out the balcony door, one where Chief is coming in and the other where Missy is sitting out. I feel really good about being able to take those pictures. The one with Missy doesn’t even look so dangerous, but I know it still feels like it. I’m very comfortable with the living room being so dark, but I’m thinking we’ll have to turn on a light. Maybe we gotta do it like the kitchen table. Need to think our way through it. Let’s start by turning on a light, k? Not a big deal.
WooHOOOO … and we changed a light bulb in a second lamp. Pretty good I’d say … We got dizzy standing up though. Not sure why that happens. And, my hearing gets messed up … It’s like the sound of the air comes rushing at me in spurts. Until we can relax a bit, we can only see a little bit at a time. Like we are not able to stand at one end of the room and glance over the whole thing without sitting down. I can do it physically, well ‘cept the dizzy part, it’s just that I get overwhelmed by it easily. It doesn’t matter if its picked up or messy. Same goes with the floor. I know in my head besides the clothes on one corner of the couch, I have to straighten pillows and pick up four blankets. And a few books on back of the couch. Then the living room will be picked up. See … so it shouldn’t really be a big deal. We’re going to try blowing off the negative thoughts we feel thinking that it would be childsplay to do that little.
This is Chief and us trying to work through it. ‘Cept he gave up first and decided to rather lay down and get some more of that good petting. If V were here, he would say maybe just another excuse not to be doing something we should be doing. As soon as he gets in our arms, he curls up in the most cutest ball of fluff. Just not fair that this be working again our weakened resolve. Ok, ok … we’re shoosing him off … we can and WILL do something good for us!
PSWHOO! That’s done! At least the living room. Our back hurt pretty bad though right before sitting down. But, we got the whole thing picked up … Maybe 10-12 minutes top, probably less time. We’ve made definite progress. Maybe we’ll spend some time now in the living room with said mushy friend. AHA! I glimpsed at the bedroom. I think that is going to take up to three times being up. There’s hanging up clothes a few items to the laundry basket. And, at least two times up to make the bed. TOO MANY LAYERS! There is at least four sets of pillows and they fall off the bed one side or another, so you gotta go back and forth. Ok, ok … we’re letting us talk ourselves out of it again. Thing is … just got to rest the back, and then go back in there. I think we are now hanging clothes in the back bedroom too, remember? Just swoop em up and get them to the other room. C’mon we can do this, right? A woman who can clean her own kitchen table must be able to do, darn near anything! BATHROOM???!!! Way out of line with that smirky remark!
Well, yes, the living room does look nice, BUT let’s not get carried away. Ok, ok … 1 ½ minutes. You can do this! Our friend is supposed to give us a call first so we can jump in the shower. Need that kind of heads up … He’ll probably call 15-30 minutes away, so we’re going to need getting going, k??? I know … I know … Shoo!
Oh oh … Friend just walked in … Double oh oh … he wanted to get on the scales and he’s weighing in at 3.8 pounds less than me. I knew that was going to be trouble. He’s in the shower first. He’s done 4 games in 24 hours. I watched him undressing ;) … he was sorta slowwwwww. Ok, serious here … gotta go!
Ahh, this is the happy one because she’s just spent the last 4 ½ hours with her umm friend and 9/10’s the time there was nakidity involved. YAYYYY B-day suits! Sure been a very nice afternoon. Yep, yep, yep … see that’s the problem of having kids around … not enough nakidity. Shoot, I’m such an imp!
There is plenty of time to talk too, but today I did more talking, maybe even Steven before … umm I’m sorry just thinking out loud. ‘Scuse me.
You saw those nice kitty pictures, earlier then? We can talk about anything and frequently do … my eyes get a little watery as we think so many times what a wonderful wonderful person he is. I spend so much time studying every movement of his face, such as a tilt of the head, a raised eyebrow, his confident-knowing sighs, his gorgeous crystal clear blue eyes. Sometimes he just leaves me breathless. Sometimes I cry because he’s so beautiful to look at and touch and know. I think he’s surely the reason the sun rises and sets. He deserves every smidgeon of happiness that can possibly find its way into one perfect soul. How lucky, lucky I am to have him for my friend. My very, very good friend. It’s funny … this line of thinking sometimes leads me back to an instance of childhood. I’m not sure the age or situation exactly, but I remember laying on the floor in front of my bedroom door (inside of the room), and I made a solemn pledge that if God just gave me the chance for nothing else, to please find the perfect person who would love me as much as I loved him, and if God could do that for me, I would try as hard as I could to be the good me he wanted me to be. Somehow in that instance I knew I could never have a gift more fortunate than the insight of being loved by a love more special than could ever be dreamed. And, then somehow magically, our friend and us connected. I’ve felt ever since that God must understand me better than I could ever all by ourselves. He must be a God who really cares.
Ahh Chief has come to get in on this very good mood.
*Giggle* well, that was all pretty good too! We slowed down and did some good two-handed petting. I think he was either trying to remind us that it was near bedtime, or to reassert himself as the true master of the flat.
Hmm, we seem to be fading off here … not so much writing … more just letting our mind wander as it will … The pictures had a big part of the day before sweetie pie got here … and tomorrow needs to be about school and Jacob coming. I think he’ll be here around noon or 1 o’clock because he said something about lunch. Time passes so fast. I did want to say one more thing.
We are coming up to a working with Dr. M. week. He’s been in our dead zone for most this last couple of weeks. It’s again a space where we don’t usually get much farther in progressing thoughts toward him, except to say that he’s not here. We’re going to need opening up that door and being not so afraid to look within it. The pictures to the story book helped a lot. They made us feel good about ourselves even though he wasn’t here. I think that all has something to do with him. We felt him to a sense of while we were doing the book, if it were something that would make him smile. By now you all know that he is usually one smile after another anyway. We feel a bit distanced from the out of control feelings we had before the appointments stopped being normal. We’re still having trouble with school and we miss our talks in that his person is so good to be with. When we are with him, we sometimes try to think of a harder and harder question to ask him, or question him more in-depth. There is usually some sense of wanting to know or understand more. Now it seems as if school had been put in that same dead zone. All along we think we want to be in school with all sincerity. It’s just that when we try to concentrate on working at it, it seems like a million miles away. By this time, we feel no repoir with either the teachers or students. It’s like a vague memory to think of the best known personality in the student lawyer.
We told our friend tonight that we were pretty far behind. He wasn’t into one of those moods where he appeared overly concerned. He stated like V so often does, let’s not worry about this one being perfect, let’s just get this one done and over with. I can hear V. already … that Rich, he’s quite some guy. Thinks like me! We talked about a little with our friend as well a sort of summary of this past space in time, where we had first gotten the screen and PDA, then went right away to the web cam, then got the memory, and established ourselves with the camera. We’ve always had trouble carrying a purse and for periods of time, we’ve gone through the small briefcase, grocery bags, and cloth bags given by “The Arc.” The newest thing is to carry the small cloth camera bag. It fits the camera and the PDA, the cord connecting the camera to the computer, plus our flash drive, a couple spare batteries, our regular cards, and loose bills and change. We’ve spent considerable time condensing our documents both at home and work. It had taken primarily two complete days to do the one work computer. There will be a couple more hours left to do the laptop. And, we straightened out the couple of files we’ve held over on Sister’s computer. We stayed at work Friday until 6 pm finishing our tasks. Part of it was running updates to Microsoft on the laptop, but the majority of time was finalizing the work with the big computer. I’ve got it so when you open up “My Documents.” You can see each of the years since 1999. There are several files for the “My stuff.” And a file each for CARF 2004 and now the 2007. In each of the year files, there is another index level where there are files such as Administration-Staff (Training), Individuals Served, Reports, Meetings, Advocacy, and such, then another level on some of them, like on the Individuals served for each year there are sub-files of 30 Days-Annuals, goals and objectives, Qnotes, Behavior, intake and such. I’ve gone through and taken out anything personal out of “My documents” and hid it on the C drive. CARF was further filed under each of the main categories such as input, accessibility, health and safety and so forth, and then there were files each for the performance analysis and business improvement reports. Lastly, if the file wasn’t tossed, or easily recognizable/in format, we would change the name of the file, so that it fit our design. It was a lot of work, because there were about 700 files and folders and each one, except the real obvious, had to be looked at to carefully screen where it should go.
When we had gotten done, we backed-up the work computer alongside our personal computer on the flash drive. We’ll wait for the other computers to be organized before we add them. I had completed all of the work folders to begin with the name Ann thinking that if the other administrative secretarial folders were added to the drive, we would want to differentiate the folders. Plus, we wanted some separation between home and work folders and file in case we ever needed to reload them on the work computers. All in all we are feeling pretty good about the total effort and effect. The other major projects this last couple of weeks were the picture story, the Tech report, finishing the performance analysis outline and data gathering plan, staff training in computers, and training work done with the intern on Annual reports. Other than school, I would say that it has been a pretty good effort. I wish we would have gotten to the bedroom, but maybe we’ll try that again in the morning. What we were able to get done was in the shadow of Dr. M. being gone. So, we’re figuring we must be doing better than not, right?
I think it is common when we start getting overwhelmed to put in a Herculean effort into things being ordered again. It felt great to sit back late Friday night and look over what we’d done with the folder/file organization. It seems to have the affect of simplifying our life at work. Because in reality … the effort can be summarized literarily into a certain small category of folders. Like I can look at CARF in general and see just so many actual reports that need to be written. And, we’ve put good effort into both the reports for tech and performance analysis. There was a little additional work with Sr.s normal set of tasks, but nothing really out of the ordinary. The work of the newsletter, coverage in the front, and even the movie day were each relatively small, plus we got credited for the meeting we just attended/passed for learning how to train QMRPs (QHSP’s). And, we worked hard at not missing a beat as Sr. threw down her few serious inquiries asking if we hadn’t started work on the center’s annual report. Like, man-o-man! Has the center got needs! I don’t know maybe this is just a covert way of saying, ok we’ve been working, but things aren’t perfect yet. Maybe we should get to bed soon. I’m afraid that this post will still have to wait one more day, because in totality … I can honestly say, “We’re BEAT!” Nitey nite!
Hmm, is that a kitty waiting on the chair for me? ACK, ok really gone now.
