Category Archives: Stuff Worth Pondering

Make It Pretty

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My house is lived in. Less so since my kids have all moved out, but still.

Over the years we’ve accumulated stuff large and small. I have the coffee table my parents bought when I was 10. During summer vacations it hosted marathon games of Rummy 500, which always began at the opening music of “Match Game” with Gene Rayburn and lasted all the way through “Dark Shadows.”

I have a lovely antique oval table that my mom rescued from her mother-in-law’s house. It was a mess, stained with nail polish from a million careless manicures, sporting a warped top. Mom painstakingly refinished it, learning how to fix the warp too, and commissioned my dad to repair one of the legs.  It has beautiful curved legs and ornate designs and it was my job to dust it. How I hated that table. Then it was mine and I made my daughter dust it. How she hated that table.

When my kids were pre-teens I found a gorgeous — and large — farmhouse table. When we put in both leaves, we can seat 10 for dinner — 12 if we use the piano bench. We even did some remodeling to widen the archway in our dining area to accomodate such crowds. I had visions of being the ‘Thanksgiving Mom’ who hosted the out-of-state friends of her college-aged children. Alas, that never happened, as my daughter was one of the out-of-state kids who needed a Thanksgiving Mom of her own and my boys joined the Navy. Don’t feel sorry for me and my farmhouse table, though … we have both hosted a zillion fun events over the years.

And now I have a new piece of furniture — this baker’s rack — but I need some design help with it. We bought it mainly for the wine rack below the brown wooden shelf (surprise!), but there are things I can’t quite make a decision about.

See the two half-circle shelves? See how they’re empty?

That’s because I don’t quite know what to use them for. They’re also a weird size. At their widest points they’re 5″ x 11″. And did I mention they’re half circles?! They’re movable, though … I can use both or just one on any of those four bars across. Or neither.

So here’s my question … what would you do with them? Help me make it pretty! (And yes, my house is purple.)

Let’s Talk About Suicide

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My nephew Ben would have turned 26 last week.

To honor his memory, my family is pledging support to the Second Wind Fund of Metro Denver by participating in their annual “Give Youth a Second Wind” Festival at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds on September 18. There will be food and great music in addition to a 5k walk or timed run through the neighborhoods surrounding the fairgrounds or a 1 mile walk on the fairgrounds.

The Second Wind Fund began in response to a spate of suicides in Jefferson County, CO during the 2001-2002 school year. It started small but is now the largest suicide prevention event in the nation with thousands of participants every September.

The Festival is a celebratory event. The pain of losing someone to something so preventable never goes away, but with this nonprofit organization’s fundraising and awareness campaign, many kids at risk for suicide have been helped. Maybe someone you know.

Second Wind raises money so at-risk kids can get free counseling … in essence, giving them their second wind.

One out of every four teens has thoughts of suicide and by the time kids are 20, that number increases to 50%. My guess is that everyone reading this has been touched in some way by a suicide. It’s a rock that creates as many ripples as tsunamis.

While it’s too late for Ben to get his second wind, it only takes $480 to get a kid through that dark tunnel back into the light.

Please consider donating to The Ben Team, and if you’d care to join us on September 18, 2011, we’d love to have you come out and show your support.

Also consider forwarding this to your friends as well as sharing it on Facebook. You really never know when someone needs a lifeline tossed to them.

But if you do nothing else, start a conversation with the kids in your life. Give them the information for The Second Wind folks — have them carry it in their wallet; make copies for their friends — and let them know people care and can help.

Will you be one of them?

Thank you so much …

Becky

Is The Problem Career Politicians?

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I thought it was a good idea then and I think it’s an even better idea now!

Weigh in on the idea of Deliberative Democracy.

The Wind of Your Weakness

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On NPR I heard a guy say, “Turn into the wind of your weakness.”

I don’t know the topic or the context of the conversation, but that phrase stuck with me all afternoon.

I began an informal list of my personal weaknesses: lazy, stubborn, impatient, demanding, blah, blah, blah, can’t finish a list of my personal weaknesses.

So I thought about my professional weaknesses. Those seem likelier to be turned into the wind of, anyhoo. The paper and pen were waaaay over there, though, so I mentally listed them — demanding impatiently that I just get it DONE, already. They all seemed to boil down to this:

Trying to do too much.

So how, I asked myself, do I turn into the wind of that? It’s not acceptable to me to do less because I love everything I do. I know what I’d tell the participants in my Time Management seminars to do — prioritize, baby!

But I know I already do the important stuff first … you know, that which makes me money. And then it hit me — trying to do too much isn’t a weakness.

Not attempting to do it all would be the weakness.

Thinking about it, though, it’s kind of a drag because now I have to turn into the wind of that lazy thing. But I figured it could wait while I checked Facebook.

It was not the diversion I thought it would be because one of my friends had posted this: “The cave you fear holds the treasure you seek.” Now it seems I must steer the wind of my weakness right into the cave I fear.

Luckily I’m seeking a place where I can stall, er, find time to make a list of priorities. Hoist that jib, matey!

How would you turn into the wind of your weakness? Do you think that’s good advice? Is there a cave you fear? Are you seeking metaphorical treasure?

Next Generation Book Gizmos

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I’m so glad I’m living in the future! Now, where’s my jet pack??

Watch this amazing TED video where software developer Mike Matas shows what can be done with the next generation of books.

Such an elegant way to read and write books. Can you imagine a child of the future saying he doesn’t want to read when he has one of these books in his hands?

I have a lot of writer, reader and teacher peeps … weigh in! Do you want to read books like this? Do you want to write books like this? What would you write about? Can you anticipate teaching with books like this? What would be the pitfalls and the promise of using them?

Nutritional Info on Menus

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It’s easier to create a poll here than on my Lazy Low Cal Lifestyle website so — well, you’ve already figured it out, right?

Have I mentioned how very lazy I am?

Here’s what I’m curious about today. I read an article about the federal rules proposed to require restaurants to post nutritional information — specifically, calories — on their menus.

So, I’m wondering …..

If you want to comment on the proposed regulation, you have until June 6th to do so. If you have an opinion, tell them!

Regardless of what you’ll do when confronted with nutritional information, do you think posting calories on menus will change the eating behavior of most Americans?

JFK’s Desk

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Remember how John-John played under JFKs desk? Now you can too!

Well, not under it, exactly, but you can click on stuff and explore it virtually. Almost as much fun, eh?

The JFK Library recently launched the interactive desktop to get a feel for the era. Flip through photo albums of adorable children and sublime adults. Listen to some of JFKs recorded phone calls. So much history!

My favorite is the recording of Sinatra singing new campaign lyrics to “High Hopes.” To find it, click on the campaign button on the desk, then click on the record hanging on the wall.

Yes, Children, back then everyone thumbtacked their records to the wall. That’s a trend I’m expecting to come back, by the way.

What was your favorite piece of JFK memorabilia? What’s your favorite period in history?

What I’m Not Thinking About Today

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I’ve been ridiculously busy lately and haven’t blogged in awhile. So I’m sure you must be curious about the things I’m not thinking about today.

I’m not thinking about the weird color of John Boehner’s skin. Or the weird stylistic maneuvers of Donald Trump’s hair.

Or the millions of ways I’ve heard people pronouce David Plouffe’s name.

Or the itchy spots on both my shins and my right elbow.

Or if shampoo can double as body wash.

Or my poor food and beverage choices the last few days.

Or how much I really dislike everything about Angelina Jolie.

But I’m especially not thinking about why I’m so judgmental all of a sudden.

I’m also not thinking about why someone would leave a weird rambling comment on my other blog that kinda sorta chastised me about something I didn’t even say and then wonder why I didn’t respond.

Which lead me to not think about if people get likkered up before they read my blogs.

What are you not thinking about today?

Crime In The Hood Update

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It seems my crime-fighting continues. Yes, I’m standing tall with hands on hips staring pensively toward the horizon.

About a week after this happened, the detective was back at my house for another photo lineup. This time, he brought two pages.

He slid a page with six photos across the table to me. None of them looked familiar at all so I wrote out a statement saying that, properly initialing and signing everything, of course.

Then he slid the second page toward me. Right off, two kids jumped out at me. Not literally, of course, but you already knew that. They looked very similar — same hair, same build, same features. I felt bad that I couldn’t definitively thump a photo with my finger and say, “That one.”

I just couldn’t decide between the two and finally said so. To my surprise, he said, “Great!” Turns out the detective had just come from the house of another witness who picked out the same two photos that I did.

It occurred to me that all the kids in the photos were wearing state issued orange jumpsuits. “You arrested him?”

The detective nodded. “We were able to place him at the scene and by picking him out of the photos, you and the other witness I talked to today helped solidify the ID.”

I asked about the first picture and he told me there was a third guy in the car  but they couldn’t place him at the scene. When they went to arrest one of the other kids, he was there carrying some stolen laptops!

So it seems the wheels of justice are turning pretty quickly. And it probably speeds things up when you have dumb criminals.