List

My list of things that I do or can do or want to learn to do that make me happy:

1.  Making jewelry

2.  Pottery

3.  Decoupage

4.  Making bread

5.  Upholstery

That’s all I can think of for now, but I think I want this to be a running list.  Just so that if I do find myself with time on my hands, I have a go-to spot to decide what to do!

Home is Where …. ?

Who knows where any of this is coming from, but if you are interested in where I went to school for 6th grade, you can see pictures from the school’s website here. 

It’s in English, just in case your Spanish is a little rusty (or non-existent) like mine!

From Mark Steyn to the Apostle John

“In Britain, a research team at King’s College, London, has declared that the female “G-spot” does not, in fact, exist.

In France, a group of top gynecologists led by Monsieur Sylvain Mimoun has dismissed the findings, and said what do you expect if you ask a group of Englishmen to try to find a woman’s erogenous zone.”

There was more to his column this morning, and I will finish reading it, but this was just funny.  It does play on cultural and nationalistic stereotypes at the expense of Englishmen everywhere, but … still kind of funny.  

On a side note, I know that most people reading this blog are not from Michigan, but having just been a front row observer in the Kwame Kilpatrick mess for most of the last several years, I am seeing and hearing some eery similarities in the months leading up to Kwame’s ultimate meltdown and in what our current president is saying. 

I don’t know (or even have reason to believe) that Obama is the same type of “hip-hop” gangsta politician that Kilpatrick was; however, his years in Chicago are pretty much a mystery.  The similarities that stand out are the relative inexperience, the push to the forefront of the political field in his chosen arena despite utter lack of experience, the pursuit of an agenda that is contrary to where the direction the constituents want to go, the “I won’t quit on you” language, and the apparent belief that he knows better than anyone else how to do the job, despite glaring evidence to the contrary.  Granted, Kilpatrick had made a number of obvious (to me, anyway) missteps that this president has avoided.  However, I’m not sure that’s a good thing. 

When Kilpatrick was running for re-election, I made the comment to my uncle, who saw the former mayor on Belle Isle every now and then, that he was too young and too inexperienced to be re-elected, based on how he had handled himself during his first term.  I suggested that his handlers should counsel him to wait – that if he kept going the way he was headed, he was going to crash and burn.  My diagnosis was that he was going too far too fast, and that he was headed for disaster.  My uncle said that he thought the mayor was doing fine, and that if he gets reelected, great.  Out of respect for my now-80-year-old uncle, I have not said “I told you so.”  (But I told you so!)

Obama is on a little higher-profile playing field than Kilpatrick was, and he was not raised in the City of  Detroit under the Coleman Young regime the way Kilpatrick was.   Kilpatrick’s mother, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, is, however, a U.S. Representative, although she only was elected to that position in 1996, while Obama’s mother was … I don’t know what.  Again, pretty much most of his formative years are either deliberately shrouded in mystery/lies, or took place outside the United States where reliable and verifiable information is not available. 

Still, Chicago-style politics and Detroit-style politics are different brands of the same game.  There may be more cover in Chicago than in Detroit, which is (and has been for at least the last 50 or so years) more of an overgrown small town than Chicago, but the game is still the same.   I don’t know whether Obama has been playing footsies with anyone other than his wife the way Kilpatrick was; watching him (the little time I spend doing that), I don’t see anything that suggests such a personality.  Since the Tiger Woods fiasco, I suppose it could be said that you can’t really know about anyone’s life other than your own, but that’s a digression I don’t want to follow. 

I keep coming back to the very first sin of all:  Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.  The Bible says that all sin comes down to three basics:  the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.  There have been discussions, and good ones, about what that all means, but in thinking it through, it seems to me that the lust of the flesh is simply appetite – literally, what your flesh wants, whether it’s food (as in gluttony), sex, or corruption of anything that actually satisfies a physical (or simply human) need beyond what God intended.  (There is an interesting exegetical discussion of this entire chapter here, but I wanted to parse this out myself first and see how I did!)

The lust of the eyes is a little trickier.  Why say “lust of the flesh” and “lust of the eyes” if they both mean the same thing?  If they mean something different, what is the “lust of the eyes”?  If the eyes truly are windows of the soul, then maybe the lust of the eyes is a more spiritual lust or sin.  Maybe it refers simply to spirit-lusts:  fantasy, hope, ambition?  The analyst suggests the following interpretation:  “the tendency to be captivated by the outward show of things without enquiring into their real values.” [C. H. Dodd, The Johannine Epistles (Moffatt New Testament Commentary; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1946)]. 

The “pride of life” one is fairly easy to understand:  the focus on one’s place in society or in the world.  For me, anyway, it’s one of the easier ones to spot, although I think it’s possible to have the “pride of life” sin in reverse – have you ever met anyone who seemed to revel in how poorly they lived, how few possessions they lived with, or what a lowly lifestyle they maintained because they didn’t want to be “proud?” 

Anyway, as I said:  I’m not sure which of the three is Obama’s “Achilles’ heel,” but he surely has at least one.  My gut feeling says that it’s the last, but I could be wrong.  Now that I’ve read the Dodd analysis, I think it could be more of the second:  ”the tendency to be captivated by the outward show of things without enquiring into their real values.” 

I also did some additional reading over the weekend – it was kind of a bad weekend for reasons I’m not really sure about.  You can read the whole thing here, but it was basically the whole Third-Culture Kid (TCK) thing – where I’ve been for the last 36 years.  Here is the troubling quote:

“The answer to the question of how long it takes them [TCKs] to adjust to American life is: they never adjust. They adapt, they find niches, they take risks, they fail and pick themselves up again. They succeed in jobs they have created to fit their particular talents, they locate friends with whom they can share some of their interests, but they resist being encapsulated. Their camouflaged exteriors and understated ways of presenting themselves hide the rich inner lives, remarkable talents, and often strongly held contradictory opinions on the world at large and the world at hand.”  [Emphasis added].

When you think about what we know (and don’t know) about this president, one thing we do know is that he was (is) a TCK – that leads to some serious questions about someone who is in essence a stealth president who is oriented toward camouflaging his true nature and hiding his “often strongly held contradictory opinions on the world at large and the world at hand.” 

Before anyone takes me to task about being so against Obama, I had many of the same reservations about John McCain, who was born in Panama to (I think) military parents.  His life seems to be much better documented, so there was more verifiable history on him than on Obama, but I had some of the same reservations, namely that he seems to be able to present whatever persona is required to allow him to fit in and succeed.  All of us do that to some extent, and I know that with my own background, that is something I have to watch for. 

But there is a different between a lack of practice or skill in being authentic and actively trying to keep one’s true nature and beliefs hidden from others.  

Anyway, something to watch for in the coming months, I suspect.

Addiction Update

It’s been 2 weeks.  That can go either way.   “Wow!  Two whole weeks!  That’s great!” or “Only two weeks?  It feels like it’s been forever!”

The headaches that “everyone” said would go away after a while haven’t.  However, I don’t know if the headaches are from not having any diet Pepsi (or diet Coke – either would be acceptable), or from other sources.  I haven’t had any water today, so it could just be that I’m a little dehydrated. 

Either way, I’m two weeks … sober.

Say What?

I confess:  I did not watch the State of the Union address.  This is not personal to the current president; I haven’t watched a State of the Union address … well, ever.  My bad.  Besides.  It’s much more fun to read what other people say about it after it’s over, particularly since from what I can gather, the speech itself tells little about the true “state” of the union.  I’ve been paying attention all year, so I think I probably can figure out the state of the union all by myself.

That said, there have been some great (and sobering) assessments of last night’s speech.  Take this, for example, from Yuval Levin over at the National Review Online:  “…on the whole, this was really an incredibly graceless, self-righteous, and grouchy performance.”

Or, this, from my new secret boyfriend, Mark Steyn (same place):  “There’s no sense that, even as platitudinous filler, it arises organically from who this man is. As mawkish and shameless as the Clinton SOTUs were, they nevertheless projected a kind of authenticity. With Obama, the big-picture uplift seems unmoored from any personal connection — and he’s not good enough to make it real. Same with all those municipal name-checks.”

And then there’s Karl Rove’s opinion, set forth in the Wall Street Journal:  “Mr. Obama has squandered the “sense of common cause” he talked about on Sunday that many felt at his inauguration. In the week leading up to his State of the Union, he did little to rekindle that spirit or reverse his sinking fortunes.” 

The Heritage Foundation is pretty good.  Their analysis of the speech can be found here, but here are a couple of points that they make about the speech:

“President Obama inherited a global recession and a global financial meltdown. So far, his enacted policies have had no beneficial effect as the 10 percent unemployment demonstrates in spades, and his threatened policies remain perhaps the greatest barrier to a strong economy.”

And:

“Despite overwhelming public opposition, the President in his State of the Union restated his commitment to flawed health care legislation that would transfer more power and decisions to Washington and away from patients and families.”

And:

“President Obama’s proposed “freeze” will not start until 2011, will only apply to only about one eighth of $3.5 trillion budget, and will not be relevant to any of the unspent $862 billion stimulus plan, his health care plan or the House of Representatives’ additional $156 billion stimulus plan.”

Granted.  These guys are all on the “other team,” so to speak, so their criticisms aren’t really that surprising.  My favorite, actually, was from my sister-in-law, who said, “I always feel like I am watching a pep rally… swear I saw ’spirit fingers’ …was totally waiting for a human pyramid or perhaps some tumbling across the stage. My favorite will be shirtless individuals with letters painted on their bellies that spell some sort of word. One of these days.” 

We will see. 

All in all, I think that watching reruns of “The Unit” was probably a better use of my time – although, technically, I didn’t see much of that either.  Tanner was very interested in playing with his cow, and I was trying to get through “Emma,” by Jane Austen.

*** UPDATE ***

This was from Bobby Eberle’s column this morning, too: 

“Not only was Obama as narcissistic as ever, the speech was nothing like some pundits were predicting. Having faced stunning gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey and then the historical Scott Brown Senate victory in Massachusetts, those “in the know” speculated that Obama would move toward the middle. Wrong! The speech was the same old socialist rhetoric topped with a direct confrontation with members of the Supreme Court. There was no class at all… but should I have expected anything else?”

He went on to point out:

“One of the most stunning moments of the entire speech was when Obama addressed the members of the Supreme Court directly. I have never seen this before. He blasted their recent ruling on election spending by advocacy groups. Not only was this an extreme breach of protocol in my opinion, it was also wrong. Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito couldn’t sit stone-faced while Obama went on and muttered the words ‘not true’ to Obama’s attack.”

Yep.  That’s the President of the United States, folks.  Reminds of Bill Cosby’s “Fat Albert” line:  “No class.” 

In case, you’re really curious, there is an interesting “fact check” analysis of the speech here.

Thanks, You Guys – You Are So Helpful!

Just wanted to say “thank you” for your support, prayers, encouragement, etc.

I reached a resolution:  I am going to pursue certification as a creditors rights specialist and (if I can) a business bankruptcy specialist through one of the certification organizations.  That way, I will a) have a more marketable profile, and b) I will feel like I have a little more control over my career – I won’t feel so much at the mercy of others.

FYI – I found out that, despite having not quite reached my billable hours total for 2009, I nevertheless billed over 300 hours more in 2009 than I had in 2008, which is when I went to Hungary, and when my aunt died.  However, despite working my tail off that much harder, I only boosted my dollar return – 300+ hours – by $10,000.  That’s it.  All of that grief, all of that energy, all of that focus, and I only boosted my return by $10,000. 

At least, that’s what I was told.  By someone I trust.  

Now that I look at the actual billing/accounting records, I think that the person who made the statement mis-read the report (i.e., that the differential in 2008 was between what I billed and the “actual value” of what I billed).  The difference between what I billed for 2008 versus 2009 was actually more like $33,000 ( which is still kind of sucky – I worked soooooo hard and that’s all I have to show for it!).  The difference in the actual value for 2009 versus 2008 was about $60,000.

The reason?  The “average billed rate” for 2008 was actually higher than the one for 2009 – which means that even though I was doing more work, I was doing more at a flat rate or at a lower hourly rate than my regular one.  I also noticed that the percentage of work that I was doing for the person that I (thought I) had been doing the most work for actually has stayed about the same. 

I also should point out that I started taking a little iodine every few days, partly because I was noticing some things that were not … right.  I don’t know if that’s given me more energy that has therefore been directed at making my life better as opposed to just keeping my head down and doing what’s in front of me because I had no other resources, or if things are just all finally starting to click, but it all has combined to remind me of a little story I once heard:

A bird was taken by surprise in a cold snap, and he fell off his branch, frozen almost solid.  A horse came along and pooped on him, which (although disgusting) warmed him up so much that he felt much better and started to sing.  As he was singing, a hawk came along, pulled him out of the poop – and ate him.

Moral:  The one who puts you in s*** is not necessarily your enemy.  The one who gets you out of s*** is not necessarily your friend.  When you’re in it up to your neck, whatever you do, DON’T SING!! 

Hopefully, this is the first step out of s*** and into true warmth and growth.

THIS Close … to Packing Up and Saying, “Screw It! I’m Outta Here!”

That’s all I can say right now.

One More Goal for the New Year

Mark Steyn, in his inimitable way, said this this morning – about something totally different, by the way – that I just couldn’t put out of my mind until I wrote it down:

“Whenever aspiring writers ask me for advice, I usually tell ‘em this:

Don’t just write there, do something. Learn how to shingle a roof, or tap-dance, or raise sled dogs. Because if you don’t do anything, you wind up like Obama and Fineman — men for whom words are props and codes and metaphors but no longer expressive of anything real.”

Not because I am an aspiring writer, but because I feel a little stuck in my life right now.  If I don’t “do” something pretty soon, my life is going to continue just as it is, with props and metaphors and substitutes for actual “real” living because I just don’t have the time right now.  If I don’t take the time, and soon, there won’t be any “living” in my life. 

NOT what I want for 2010!

The rest of his article is good, too, but today, it wasn’t about politics for me.  It was about something else.

Paul Harvey’s 10 Commandments for Pets

I haven’t been able to find anything contradicting the attribution to Paul Harvey for this piece, but at the same time, it’s pretty good anyway, so I’m not sure it matters who said it.

“This is something I heard on Paul Harvey not long ago. It’s entitled, “Ten Commandments for a Responsible Pet Owner” as dictated by the pet.

1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.

4. Don’t be angry with me for long and don’t lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainments. But I have only you.

5. Talk to me. Even if I don’t understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.

7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in your hand, and yet I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I’m not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long or my heart might be getting old or weak.

9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too will grow old.

10. On the difficult journey, on the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can’t bear to watch. Don’t make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there. Because I love you so.

Take a moment today to thank God for your pets. Enjoy and take good care of them.

Life would be a much duller, less joyful thing without God’s critters. Please pass this on to other pet owners.”

Addictions – I Haz Them

Hello, my name is Lawyerchik, and I am addicted to diet pop (or soda, depending on what part of the country you live in).  I have not had a diet carbonated beverage since Friday, January 15, 2010. 

If you’re anything like me, the first word out of your mouth upon reading that last sentence is probably “WHY????“ 

I’ve done this before – back in 2008, when I was in Hungary - because I didn’t want to pay the horrendous prices they charged over there for any type of beverage that wasn’t tea or coffee.  I was on a budget, doggone it, and I was not going to let some little vice interfere with my trip!  Here’s the thing:  once I got past the first couple of days – which, let me tell you, gave me a tremendous appreciation for what smokers must go through when trying to quit! – I felt better. 

This last year, with nothing really interfering in my life (other than work), I realized that I was not as healthy as I used to be, and that I could actually control some of the things that were contributing to my not being as healthy as I used to be.  So, I started doing more cooking, including making my own bread, and I started paying closer attention to how things I ate and did made me feel. 

For no reason other than I just didn’t want to go to the store yet again when the only thing I was going to do was buy diet Pepsi (or diet Coke – whichever has the best sale), I decided that I just wasn’t going to.  I had bought pop for my parents’ visit over Christmas, so I hadn’t had to buy any for about three weeks prior to the 15th, but I just decided that when that ran out, that was it.  (We won’t discuss the fact that I had bought so much pop that it took three weeks to “run out.”  Really.  We won’t.)

Here’s the ugly truth:  I ended up taking Friday the 15th off work because my system was physically going through withdrawal.  I was still drinking coffee and tea, so it wasn’t like I was not getting any caffeine at all; I just was physically ill without it.  Granted, I had been coming down with something the two to three days before that probably exacerbated the withdrawal symptoms, but holy cow.  Whatever energy I was able to muster was directed at snapping at people for no reason.  That was NOT a good idea!!

The weird thing is, the physical withdrawal symptoms went away after about 3-4 days.  OK, functional again.  Great.  Here’s the part that stymied me:  It’s now been almost 10 days, and I find that I miss that experience.  I can only describe it as the psychological effects of withdrawal. 

I miss the crisp coldness of that first bottle – and I am not into cans; in my opinion, the metal lends a funny metallic taste to the fluid that I just don’t care for – and I miss that effervescence when you first open it.  I like the fact that the plastic bottles have lids on them so that you don’t spill, because when I get going, I sometimes will knock things over.

I like (and miss) the hopped-adrenaline feeling that having that beverage gives me throughout the day – like I can do anything.  I’ve actually noticed that I don’t enjoy things as much as I did before, but I don’t know if that’s the effect of my brain and tissues recovering from the saturation in those substances, or if it’s something else. 

I’ve had friends who were smokers – many of whom tried to quit a number of times – and one of the stories I recall about one such attempt was that it was the psychological effects that led to relapse.  My one friend said that, long after the nicotine itself had been purged from her system, she found that she missed the cigarettes at specific times:  like when she had a cup of coffee, or after work when she was out with friends.  It was a psychological thing – and its absence felt like something was missing from the entire experience.  THAT’S how I feel. 

Now, whether the decision is good or bad, right or wrong, whatever, I’m not sure.  I don’t know if it matters.  There are reports out on the Internet about the evils of various types of artificial sweeteners, about BVO (brominated vegetable oil) that is added to various soft drinks, etc.  All well and good.  For me, it wasn’t about any of those things at all – the BVO isn’t even in the stuff I usually drink anyway. 

Bottom line, it came down to trying to do something positive for my health, and I just realized that if not having what I was used to having caused those kinds of symptoms, then I was addicted to it as surely as if I were an alcoholic, a smoker, or a drug addict.  That alone is a reason to keep it up – either I would control it, or it was controlling me.  (Control issues?  Me?  Naw!)

Weirdly enough, since I’ve been off the soda, I haven’t had a taste for sweet things.  I made a cake this last weekend (which didn’t turn out – that’s a story for another day), and we had our book club at which there was a variety of muffins, coffee cakes, sweet breads, etc.  I didn’t want any of it – and the little bit I tried because I didn’t want to offend anyone, I didn’t care for as much as I usually would.  The sausage, egg, potato thing – YUM! – but not the sweets. 

Interesting.

I will let you know how it progresses.  I am still drinking tea (iced tea, mostly) and coffee, and I still use artificial sweeteners in both.  The tea is sweetened with saccharin that I brought back from Hungary, and the coffee is usually sweetened with Sweet-N-Low, which is kind of the same.  I’m not big on Equal (aspartame) because of the hype, and I’m a little leery of Splenda, even though I know that it comes from sugar.  The more natural sweeteners like Stevia, etc., are too expensive for me to try right now, although I might try them later on. 

The next big switch is going to be to wean myself off cream in my coffee – not because there is anything wrong with cream, but because so many places don’t use real cream (or even half-and-half) but they use this powdered creamer that has sugar in it.  LOTS of sugar.   I’d like to get back to drinking it black (or black with a little sweetener in it), although the reason I started adding cream was for the calcium…… 

Anyway.  That is the story of my addiction.  I will keep you posted – although, knowing myself as well as I do, I suspect there will be a relapse or two down the road. ….