Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Spoke to my ex-husband earlier today. It’s his 39th birthday. He asked me when I started my new job and how it was going. I said I’d sort of started last week. I sort of start this week, and I am DEFINITELY started next week. Only a few meetings this week, but lots of things to work on. Cases will start to come my way, and there will be hopefully a slow and steady buildup. I need to get the office in order, organize everything to work there and and home. While I’m messy at home, I’m usually pretty organized in my work space. I’m starting to realize that I really have done a lot of helpful pre-marketing and pre-networking for this job all year long. Next time you see me, I will hopefully be traveling with my new business cards. OK, off to bed. I’m trying to get on a slightly better schedule. Slightly. I’ll get there as I need to.

In other news, I’m definitely having wrist surgery to remove the Ganglion Cyst. Apparently, it’s in pretty deep. I hadn’t noticed it for all the time that it’s been hurting because I naturally have kind of bony wrists. It really doesn’t look like there’s anything there if you just look at one wrist. It’s only when you compare it to the other bony one that you can see the difference. Leaving the cyst there won’t hurt anything, but since it’s been there so long, we’re assuming it’s not going away on its own. And since it’s caused problems for so long, I’ve decided to go through with the surgery. It’s done in the doc’s office. I just get the whole arm numbed. I’ll wear a small cast from knuckles to a few inches above the wrist for four weeks. Little to no physical therapy expected.

If you haven’t seen it yet:

I’ve been making this sandwich for probably 7 years now. I found the recipe on the internet way back when, and I’ve been loving it ever since. Periodically, I’ve tried to find the original recipe online. For a long time, I’ve come up short. This morning, I once again found it – sort of. The original version had bacon rather than smoked salmon and capers. Must try this other version, too. This photo is from the bacon version I made earlier this week.

Recipe: My Favourite Sandwich by Antony Worrall Thompson

So by FAR the coolest part of this job is that fact that I get to set my own schedule. I just pick 30 hours of the week I want to work, and those are my hours. I fill those with appointments. The other 10 hours is assumed to be for writing and paperwork. How completely cool is that?! I have a few meetings this week – some for marketing, some for training – and I hear there is a case for me now. Yay! I kinda like the slower fade in. Gives me plenty of time to adjust from my unemployed lifestyle.

It’s been so weird since I found out I got the job. I don’t have to spend my time calling people who don’t call me back. I don’t have to spend so much time feeling like a big old loozah. How fun is that?!! 😀

Your future self will thank you if you get this program. It’s free today only. You have to install and activate it today. I just used it to back up my Windows drivers (Select all -> Backup). I then zipped them all up into one file and emailed them to myself. I have spent several days “upgrading” from Vista to XP, and finding all the correct drivers is a matching game of the highest order. By doing this, I know that if I ever need to reinstall an operating system on this laptop again, I will have a MUCH easier time of it. This was found on Giveaway of the Day. I don’t download programs from there very often, but this one has gotten really good reviews, and it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for.

Download here: Driver Magician

Don’t forget that you must install and activate TODAY! It’s a tiny program, so it only takes a minute to do this. l After unzipping (which can be done just by double clicking), install the program. Select Register Later. Then double click on the orange Activate button. Voila!

When I was an Associate Instructor in grad school, we talked a lot about something called a “teachable moment”. It’s the idea that when things go wrong in the classroom, it’s often an excellent time to do some great teaching – especially when we’re teaching students to become teachers themselves (which is what I was doing). Take that disaster, that flub, and look at it, and find the lesson being offered. Share it with your students. Although I was a few hours late in watching the Obama speech, I did finally watch it, and what a speech it was. Obama has been under fire for the things that his preacher said, and I’ve been feeling really uneasy about it. I watched the video of his preacher – the one everyone has been talking about. I have to admit that I thought it was pretty beautiful. It was powerful. He was speaking what I feel is truth. The kind of truth that lots of white people in this country like to hide from and pretend isn’t there. The kind of white privilege we talked a lot about in the class I taught. The point wasn’t ever to induce white guilt. The point is to really and truly understand where another human being is coming from. If you don’t allow students in your classroom or people in your office of friends in your life to speak their truth, then you don’t really know them. If you require that those around you behave in certain ways in order to make you feel more comfortable, than the life you’re living is filtered/watered-down. You’re not interacting with the real world. You’re living in a playland of sorts. This is what makes me so sad about politics. It’s so many people trying to make me see things their way and trying to tell me that what I see isn’t real. It’s a very “Emperor’s New Clothes” request. You’re trying to get me to turn what I see as shit into shine-ola. Well, I can’t. I can learn about who you are and how you got to your ideas, but if you’re asking me to pretend that you don’t see race. Or that everyone in American has an equal playing field… Well forget it. It’s not going to happen.

I was afraid to watch the speech. I was afraid Obama would spend more time distancing himself from his preacher, and if he had done that, I would have lost a lot of respect for him. I imagined him calling up the preacher and telling him that he really loved him, but in order to win the election, he’d have to separate himself completely from his church. What a sad thing that would be. He didn’t do that. He showed that he has conviction. That he knows who he is and what he believes. And when under attack, he doesn’t panic and freak out and hurl daggers. He does the right thing. He makes a speech where he explains his real view, and he tells people like it is. He talks about his experience. He talks about Sunday morning segregation. He talks about what is said behind closed doors. I want more people like that in my life and in charge of my government.

Can we really come out of these dark ages? If we can, I might stop wearing the blindfold. I might start listening again.

I’m gonna vote HARD for Obama. I’m going to push that button/punch that card/pull that level… until it BLEEDS.

If you haven’t seen the speech yet, or if you haven’t seen what real integrity looks like in a while, check it out: Link

An amusing follow-up. It’s a snippet of a conversation I had with my friend Ayse today about Obama:

me: how was the Obama speech?
ae: TEH AWESOMENESS
me: OMG I have to say that I’m pretty bothered by the response to his preacher
12:58 PM ae: to honestly talk about race … amazing
me: It makes me sad that it’s acceptable
ae: me, too
me: For white people to dismiss what that preacher was saying
ae: i know!
basics.
me: Because what he was saying should not be radical
To say that America is failing black people and has for generations isn’t (to me) an opinion
ae: truly
agreed
me: You’re witnessing a rare moment when I can’t avoid being political
ae: i’m liking this moment!
12:59 PM go, abby!
me: Because I’m so bothered when people view dissent as Unamerican
ae: i know, really
me: It’s the most American thing there is, and fuck them for thinking anyone who says
“Damn America”
is evil
ae: really
preach!
me: I hate that Obama is having to distance himself from that man, because that man speaks truth
I really wonder what obama is thinking inside his head right now
What a fucking position to be in
1:00 PM ae: he handled it v. well
me: OK good
I will watch later
ae: said he could no more disown wright than the black comm, than his own white grandmother
“These people are part of me and they’re part of America.”
brilliant!!!!!!!
me: YES!
Very
ae: i teared up then
me: I’m glad he didn’t bow down
ae: so smart, so sincere
1:01 PM me: He’s in a helluva position
ae: me, too! he didn’t!
me: I hate that black people have to be “white” to win and get ahead
I mean, I sort of wonder how bicultural he is
I think that unlike many black people in America
He’s actually what we’re seeing on TV
He doesn’t go home and get his black back on
ae: he said a beautiful thing that he has bros, sisters, nieces, uncles, nephews of every color and hue
me: Which is why he can succeed
1:02 PM God, I hope he wins
I liked that preacher.
ae: he is what we see!
me: Yeah
ae: but “get his black on” is hilarious!
😀
me: It’s like me in my job interview
I decided
ae: were you getting your black on?
hee
me: No! Just… Better be honest now so I don’t have to put on a mask for the rest of my job!

Here’s me twittering about the speech earlier: