Deep Thought

I have a thousand thoughts running through my head, a mile a minute, how cliche. I have a terrible time taming them (what alliteration) and taking them down on paper (blog post - whatever).

I noticed today as I was working the patient accounts on the A/R how much like a piano the keyboard is. Maybe that's why work is so enjoyable when I get to just sit and type, when the accounts all come together, the balances are all correct, refunds are administered, what can I play next?

I told a woman at work the other day that I'm a creativity snob. It's true. I can't bear to watch a poorly directed film, listen to choppy flat music, or read uninspired writing. (I have a thing for threes, but they don't have a thing for me). A film has to connect with all the senses, music has to soar, writing has to flow. I watched an excellent movie the other day with G-. "Capote." Incredible. A movie to appeal to all the senses. Thoughtful, well-written, well-acted. Engrossing. I hadn't thought much about the content when G- asked me to watch it with him (well after the little ones had gone down for the night, not quite "Monsters Inc" enough for them), but the director put this film together in such a way that I noticed his touch in every scene. Excellent.
Music has escaped me lately. My favorites on my profile will speak for themselves. The music that does interest me is thought-provoking, soul-catching, soaring (there's that word again, can you see it?)
As for books, I've been on a Harry Potter fact-finding mission for so long that I can't afford to pick up another book until I uncover all the clues (I only have until next year, on book 5 now). Funny how coincidence puts arrows in your path. As I was forming my next thought, the commercial came on in the background. "The Night Listener" by Armistead Maupin. I've had this book since it came out in paperback in 2000. Talk about inspired writing. This man is one of my all-time favorite authors anyway, but this book was like that first sip of Sierra Mist after driving the long hot journey home from work (I just can't put the air on, I just can't). I must find a way to see the movie next week.

This has been an inspired post for me as well, creatively speaking. I found a fascinating site today, just randomly browsing blogger's blogs. Check her out. You won't regret it.

Bring Melanie Back!

Well, I'm going to forgo my knitting/lunch hour to blog today. My husband,G-, called me at work to tell me that our favorite children's program's hostess has been fired. I'm speaking of the one and only Melanie Martinez. She used to host a children's show called "The Goodnight Show" on PBS Sprout. As the website says, she was fired last week. She did a couple of stupid commercials 7 years ago that showed up on youtube.com. (I'm not going to link to them, I don't want to encourage it.) She told PBS about them and was consequently fired.
If you've never seen Melanie, you're missing out. She's perky, cheerful, happy, everything in a kids' show hostess you could ask for. She is the most natural person on TV. G- and me always look at her and think she can't be for real, no one is that happy and perky. She's like the Wiggles, only better.
Besides, did you know that George Carlin and Alec Baldwin do voiceovers on Thomas the Tank Engine (which plays on the Goodnight Show)? Do we really need to pull their histories??? And look at Sesame Street! Do we start pulling everyone off of that show who has done the same thing Melanie has done and worse???
Okay then, now for your part.
Write Sprout (Sandy_wax@sproutletsgrow.com,
Jenni_glenn@sproutletsgrow.com,
sprout_network@comcast.com,
info@sproutletsgrow.com).
Sign petitions. (Here's another one.)
Please please please help us bring Melanie back. The Goodnight Show will never be the same without her (or course if they don't bring Melanie back, Sprout won't be shown in my house again)....

Better

I'm really enjoying this blog thing. I've decided to let my family in on this. Mainly because I want to share the newest great news. My 4-year-old, we'll call him Say-say, has been in speech therapy since December of 2004. When he first started, we were teaching him sign language just so we could try and figure out what he wanted (chocolate milk for example). He only had about a 10-20 word vocabulary. He has come so far, his teacher, Ms. Kim, has said we'll start winding down and may be done in the next month! I'm so excited but sad too. He really enjoys seeing her every week. We're going to have to find something for him to do at the same time so he at least has the experience of leaving the house at the same time. He's not in preschool and probably won't be in any kind of school environment until kindergarten so he really needs something to break up the day.

My day was much better today. Partly because of the great news above, partly because I got to go to our other office to work. It's always so much more relaxing over there. At first, it really seemed like this morning was a continuation of yesterday. I had another girl call out (different girl, different reason), and when I called the other supervisor to let her know, I found out there was a wreck due to the out-of-nowhere downpour (the same one I got caught in going to work 45 minutes later) so she had been a half hour late getting in (the rain also resulted in several of our doctors' first appointments being 15-20 minutes late which is always a great start to the day). There were several other snafu's that would only make sense to the people working in the office with me so I'll spare you the boring details. Let's just say, I wasn't having the best morning. And then I got the great news about Say-say. The sun literally came out on the way back.

The little one's bugging me right now so I'll come to a close. Better day than yesterday.

Monday

This has to go down as one of the top ten worst mornings ever. It's one of those days where you don't even hope things are going to get better. You know if anyone wants to tell you about something, you already know something went wrong. I started off my day with a call from an employee who couldn't get to work. No problem. I was on time getting out of my house (which is unusual for me), but I happened to read a CNN story this morning about a family that was trying to flee Lebanon who's car was bombed. Dad's dead. Of the rest, two teens are in surgery, the other two children (8 yrs and an infant) are screaming in pain before passing out, and Mom's left to try and hold everything together. I don't care what's going on over there anymore, JUST MAKE IT STOP.
I'm actually glad Rice is over there. That's scary because I'm strongly against this administration so when I'm glad one of their people is on the job, you know something's dreadfully wrong.
I watch Anderson Cooper every night, hoping for the best, but mainly just wishing he'd get his ass home. I watch all these people having to leave their lives behind. This is insanity. I understand the rational. Israel wants its soldiers back. I don't think Hezbollah should have took them.
I saw an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper and a Lebanese gentleman. The gentleman said Hezbollah had traded hostages with Israel before, why is this any different? Let me repeat that : "WHY IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT?" Maybe because Israel is tired of having to do it. I really don't understand the whole Israel vs the whole Arab world thing. I don't pretend to. But I do understand the pain I see on these people's faces, and nothing should cause that.

As for the rest of the morning, I can't even go into it. I haven't decided if I'm going to tell friends and family about this blog. I kind of just want somewhere to vent, but I also want to share things, happy things, so until I decide, I will refrain from any obvious jabs but I will say this. I usually go to lunch at 12:30. I spent an hour trying to fix a computer at the front desk of the medical office for whom I work then went to lunch around 1:30. I don't even want to think about how the rest of the day's going to go. But thinking about those poor people stuck in the fighting has put it all into perspective for me.

1st Blog Ever

So I'm sitting in my living room, watching the latest on CNN, and reading knit blogs on the internet when it occurs to me, "Hey, what a great way to track progress on my knitting projects (which I should be working on right now instead of reading knit blogs)". So here's my attempt at a blog. I know nothing about blogging or html, haven't even had a web page in 9 years (member the days when everyone had a web page from a free homepage site, ah to be young and clueless again!) But I've decided that this is going to be fun. I'm going to use this to keep my family updated, to keep my knitting projects straight, to throw my two cents in regarding news stories and outrageous Harry Potter Book 7 theories. My idea is to have a link on the right to go to each one of those special interests, but at the moment I need to figure out how to do just that...before the children wake up from their naps...