I’m so glad I got the idea to ask if they wanted a column or articles about the Internet and sent in my resume to back it up. What a great thing it would be to have a job doing exactly what I love!!!
—————————Cut and pasted———————————-
Hello, Laura.
Ian passed your letter and resume on to me. I’d like an opportunity to meet
with you in person to talk about your skills and experience.
I’m leading the internet strategy team at our news group and perhaps there
may be some mutually beneficial opportunities we could explore.
Can you let me know what your schedule is like next week? I could meet you
at our office, if that’s most convenient to you. (In my job, I
travel all over the region, so it’s not an inconvenience for me.)
Let me know if you can meet Thursday, Aug. 8 in the afternoon in.
Thanks for sending your resume and letter.
Regards,
Anyway, he would always narrate the game for himself. Sometimes I would be tossed in as the adoring fan/ groupie. I love my brother, I’ll spend the rest of my life cheering for him, back them it did feel a little silly though. I was the only fan.
Is it a man thing, the whole team narration type thing? Its kind of endearing. I’ve never done it out loud but there have been times when I’ve narrated privately, in my own head. Sadly, my narrations are never as uplifting as those hockey games between my brother and the garage door.
All this rambling today is taking up space. I’m scared. I don’t think I can get back into living my life and all that trying again. I’ve tried a lot. To get into it would be reavealing too much of my life, some of the wounds scraped into your soul are just too sharp to share randomly.
So, I think this week my team is losing. Maybe I will sleep on it tonight and things will be all fresh and rosy in the morning. I promised one of the other BackWash columnists that I would find someone to talk to when I got back here. But, inside I really thought I could do it all on my own. I don’t like talking to someone face to face and telling them all the really deep feelings, the fears and the fact that I don’t even trust myself any more. I think I must be part drama queen, but how much is real emotion? Am I allowed real emotion?
Anyway, this week my team is losing it. But, somehow hope always springs eternal, I’m the eternal optimist. Each time I get really down some part of my brain clicks on and starts coming up with new ideas, new solutions and once again I’m not ready to give up. Today was rough but its just become tomorrow: 12:05 AM.
It was “interesting” to drive. I can’t pick another word. Not challenging exactly, I didn’t have any real problems. It was exciting really. All that horse power and the hugeness of the truck itself. Rufus, as I began to call him, could easily drive right over most of those other cars on the road and I would have just though I hit a pot hole.
On the deserted backroad, well paved but no cars or houses, I let Rufus have his head. I could tell he wanted to all day, he was just holding back. I took it up to just over 120 k. Rufus is old but I could tell he would have liked me to let him race along and hit that 140 K mark where the spedometer ends and its just Rufus and the bare roadway ahead. But I held him back, images of small animals and the every possible pedestrians pushing themselves into my mind. But driving Rufus was fun, if a little too exciting around some of those corners. Rufus just has so much power, one tap on the gas and he wants to fly off the handle.
I’d definately take Rufus out on another date again. Beat up as he is, he had a powerful, masterly style. I told him, if he was a real man I’d probably go for him, all the way.
I got reading that old stuff about the visa/ greencard stuff tonight. Maybe its time to take that page down now. I guess its still a resource for some people though, it continues to get at least 10 hits a week. But I had a lot of mixed feelings looking back at the woman who wrote all of that. Would it have been better to have turned around and never looked back? That time I was stopped and searched at the border, before we started the visa process, I could have just gone on with my life, keeping Todd as a friend. I had doubts then but I passed them off as the doubts everyone has, “who is ever sure about marriage” my Mom told me.
I guess I have my answer now. Mom has started talking about me looking online for another guy. I might like meeting someone, but I don’t even want to try to trust them. Maybe that changes. Its only been a week since I moved back here. Anyway, I’m tired about thinking about what I’m feeling or if its ok to feel what I’m feeling or if I’m being overly dramatic or just overly sensitive. Is there ever a time when you are allowed to feel anything at all?
Its nearly midnight, when I’m asleep I’m dead to the world.
Another program that caught my attention this weekend is called Sabre. I really don’t know what it does, only that its used in the travel/ tourism industry. I saw it as a requirement for a job in the newspaper. Everything else I could do, but I have never heard of Sabre. Poking around on Google I found a link to what I think is the right site. There is also EasySabre but I think its the same bunch of people.
So Witchcraft might have to do the same. Its not like I’ve been posting new content there anyway. I did want to, planned to, all that stuff but its never happened. The traffic it used to get has died off too, so its not likely anyone but me would miss it.
Are you bored enough?
I had an idea this weekend too. Well, one of many. Anyway, I thought I would look at writing a bi-monthly/ monthly newsletter or blog or something column-like called “Tripping Around Ontario”. Of course it will have to wait until I have that car. But, when my last name is Tripp and I enjoy travelling and I am a writer, isn’t that just a combination too good to ignore? In the end, why not? So, if I can figure out how to pull it together and what to do with it once the string has been pulled… I think its a good idea.
Anyway, onto the news. I am cancelling the freebie AOL tomorrow. My Mom says she was charged for somethings during her free time with them and I should make sure they are not doing the same to me. Especially since I am not yet gainfully employed yet. I have put a new ISP on the same credit/ debit card and I don’t want it sucked dry by AOL since that was the divorce settlement money. Oh how I love having money to spend though. I have tried not to go crazy and have a real shopping spree but I did buy a few mostly practical things. One being a book at Chapters, a guide to Canadian writers markets. Its actually called “The Canadian Writer’s Market“. See? Isn’t that really practical of me? I would have bought the CGI/Perl book I found on Amazon but it wasn’t on the shelf at the time. The Canadian Writers book isn’t very up to date though, it still has InkSpot listed (more than once even) as a resource for writers. Sadly, InkSpot is no longer with us. From what I last heard it may yet arise from its ashes. That would be great. This time I would ignore all the voices and sign up as a writer for the site.
Anyway, back to my portion of reality. I love magazines. Is there a club for magazine addicts? I bought over half a dozen magazines in the past two weeks or less. True, I do want to aim for those markets but still seems like a lot of money spent on a few glossy pages. At least now I can take advantage of some of the graphics and what not with the new scanner.
I am signed up with Sympatico now, as my ISP. It bothers me slightly that they are joined with Bell Canada, a massive corporation, not well known for caring about the little guy. But, I personally have never had any trouble with Bell before. Sympatico looks interesting, better than iPrimus who swallowed up GlobalServe. I would have gone with GlobalServe again if they still existed. Once I wrote to one of the owners and heard back that he was a Pagan too. How nice was that! Made me really want to stick with GlobalServe as my ISP. I would have too if I hadn’t moved to the US about 5 years ago.
I would like to put in time at Dmoz tonight. I am editing in Travelogues, Weblogs and Writers Resources – all of which need work. Writers Resources is doing ok but for the Contests category which has an active editor who seems to leave everything sitting in unreviewed for ages. Maybe he/ she has delete phobia? I don’t know, but it bugs me to see over 50 unrevieweds when I have just updated the whole Writers Resources category, at least all the areas without active editors.
I want to get BackWash updated tonight too. A lot to do and not much time. Zack is sleeping over tonight and I can be sure he will be waking me up at 6:am. He loves his Auntie and I love him too. 🙂 Stay tuned for pictures once I get time to load them on the site. Have scanner will scan. 😉
“We look at a painting to know the painter; it’s his company we are after, not his skill.” – James McNeill Whistler
“A photograph is a most important document, and there is nothing more damning to go down to posterity than a silly, foolish smile caught and fixed forever.” – Mark Twain
“You don’t take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it.” – Pentax advertisement
“Life is like a good black and white photograph, there’s black, there’s white, and lots of shades in between.” – Karl Heiner
“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” – Ansel Adams
Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. – Anonymous
Senseless photographers practice random acts of beauty; intelligent photographers practice consistent acts of selflessness.
“A photograph is always invisible, it is not it that we see.” – Roland Barthes
Best of all I am back online after the move back to Ontario. I can only get online in the evening and nights due to having just one phone line. That’s a pain but I can handle it. Hoping it won’t be long before I find a job, car and place to move to, my own place.
You will be awarded some great honor.
You have a sense of adventure.
A pleasant surprise is in store for you.
You will be unusually successful in business.
You take a reverant attitude towards life and are most capable in the guidance of others.
I can smell the coffee, brewed and ready for consumption. Funny how that was a deadly disease not so long ago.
Hopefully today is the day my Mom will arrive with the truck. It could be tomorrow though. I will be so glad to have the truck packed up and ready to go. I’m so ready to go, to get on the road and be away.
I’ve got everything ready really. Just a few odds and ends to finish up and I need to pack an overnight bag for along the road.
I’m still thinking about that scanner I saw at WalMart. It looks like its not available in Canada. But, it would be a bit bad to buy it now when there are so many other things more important which I need to spend money on. Yet, I would love to have a scanner for my websites. I could even scan in a nice looking picture of myself for the HerPlanet managers pages. All I have now is a horrible looking Immigration picture we took for all that paperwork. By the time we took that picture (one of twenty in the process) I had long ago stopped smiling.
Anyway, Todd is still in bed and I guess we will see what the day will bring. I’m going to make myself some coffee (still have coffee cream and ground beans, enough for another pot or two). It’s a nice kind of coffee too, French Vanilla Creme.
“Change is the only evidence of life.” Evelyn Waugh.
“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living.” Gail Sheehy.
“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator.” Robert R. Kennedy.
“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family.” Anthony Brandt.
“Life is a paradise for those who love many things with a passion.” Leo Buscaglia.
Spa Secret: Lime and Ginger Salt Glow
Pulverize 1/4 cup fresh ginger root in a blender; add 1/2 cup table salt. Mix in juice from two limes and 1/2 cup warmed vegetable oil to make a soft but gritty paste. Use to exfoliate hands, feet and rough spots such as elbows, massaging into skin with gentle circular motions. Rinse with warm water spiked with squirts of lime.
Sounds nice to me. Made me look for ginger and lime recipes online.
Here is one to try this Fall.
Ginger-Lime Sweet Potatoes
From Cooking Light magazine.
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
5 cups thinly sliced peeled sweet potato
1/8 cup butter
1/8 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon lime rind
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife.
Combine flour and potato in a large bowl; toss well.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and next seven ingredients (sugar through pepper); cook 4 minutes; combine potato mixture; toss well. Spoon mixture into a shallow 2-quart casserole dish coated with cooking spray.
Cover and bake at 425 degrees for 55 minutes or until tender. Let stand 10 minutes.
Yield: 6 servings.
At the divorce hearing (is that what they call it?) the judge asked a couple of times about my last name, if I’m changing back to my maiden name. I didn’t put a lot of thought into the whole name thing this time. I thought more about it before the marriage.
There was a time when I had decided I would keep my family name when I married. When I told Todd this, before we were married he was surprised that I would even suggest such a thing. He wouldn’t even consider that I wouldn’t take his name. I don’t know why I took his name when we got married. Maybe the simple answer is that I just caved. I remembered all the times my sisters and I talked about having a better name than Brown. Better sounding, more interesting, etc. But, by the time I wasn’t a kid any more I appreciated Brown, it’s easy to spell all those times I have to give my name for something or other. It’s plain but natural too. So, if it wasn’t dramatic, it was at least dependable.
Here I am, at another name crossroads. I chose to keep Tripp. I don’t feel I can go back to being Brown again. I’m not that same person, the girl I was. Neither name feels like it belongs to me, neither feels a part of me. When I think about the name thing I feel like I have no identity, no name, no home. That’s why I wrote that quote above a few weeks ago.
At least I still have my first name, they can’t take that away from me.
“To make your ideas work for you, you first have to work for them.” Thomas Alva Edison.
“It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, wind up with that small change. We have nothing else to give.” Urula K. Le Guin.
“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but rather a manner of traveling.” Samuel Johnson.
“Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else.” Tennessee Williams.
“Any road is bound to arrive somewhere if you follow it far enough.”Patricia Wentworth.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Chinese proverb.
“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” Amelia Earhart.
“The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk; the unexpected visit; the unpremeditated journey; the unsought conversation or acquaintance.” Fanny Fern.
“Give curiousity freedom.” Eudora Welty.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Geoffrey Chaucer.
“In the long run the pessimist may be proved to be right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip.” Daniel L. Reardon.
“The end is nothing; the road is all.” Willa Cather.
“Nature gives you the face you have when you are twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But it is up to you to earn the face you have at fifty.” Coco Chanel.
“Do not deprive me of my age. I have earned it.” May Sarton.
“Age is all imagination. Ignore years and they’ll ignore you.” Ella Wheeler-Wilcox.
“we are always the same age inside.” Gertrude Stein
“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.” Madeleine L’Engle.
Judy’s Homemade Bread
Stir 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1 tablespoon (1 package) of yeast into 1/2 cup lukewarm water.
Combine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup lard (I used canola oil)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 1/2 cups water and 1 cup milk
into a large bowl. Add yeast mixture.
Add about 8 cups of flour and slowly add more, working in to make a not to sticky dough. Knead well.
Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch down. Form into buns or loaves and allow to rise in greased pans.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes
(until the loaves or buns are slightly browned)
Mary-Ann’s Jalapeno Peach Dip
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup peach jam
1 4-ounce can green chilies
1 tablespoon chopped jalapeno
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
1 cup shredded colby cheese
Beat the cream cheese, jam, chilies and jalapeno in a mixer bowl until thoroughly mixed, scraping the bowl occasionally. Spoon into a 9″ by 9″ dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve with chips or crackers. 15 to 20 servings.
I’m still not sure when I will be moving. I was so sure it would be this week. My Mom told me she would come down with the truck on Monday (today) if no one else had. But now she seems to think Graham will come down sometime this week, maybe. It’s hard to live like this. I don’t think they have clue how it feels to be packed up and waiting and being put off again each week. I want to go home, to see Zack. I miss that little boy and I know he is looking forward to seeing me too. We always do nice things together. I do my best to make sure he isn’t left out, I know how that can feel.
I got my period yesterday so that’s my red and white for Canada Day I guess. Todd is going to honk after work tonight and I’m going to get some ice cream at the Farm Fresh store down the street. A treat for Canada Day and Aunt Flo. (Todd started calling my period “a visit from Aunt Flo” when we were first together. I guess its a little nicer than “on the rag” which is from my brother).
I finally got the book review done for HerCorner. Why do I procrastinate so much on doing those? Sure, its hard to find something new to say each time and hard to do it for 300 to 500 words but I did get reviewers copies for quite a few books and now I’m way behind in doing them all. Just one more thing I have to organize and settle when I move.
I know my Mom is expecting me to stay there with them for awhile but I’m beginning to think that could be a mistake. I don’t know what else to do though. I won’t have a car and I’ve been spending my divorce settlement money on things I should wait to buy later. Urrrgh! Can I never just get past this same point in my life? I always seem to end up right back here no matter what I do. I’m always moving after a failed something or other. When will I ever have a place to call home.
I bought a book yesterday. It’s a bit of all all in one from Peach Pit Publishing – JavaScript for the World Wide Web by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith. It includes some basic CSS and DHTML as well. I was looking at another book for those maybe this will be enough. I did want to learn javascript at some point too. It’s part of learning Lotus Notes/ Domino so I guess it could all come together if I take that course or study on my own and get certified.
Well, I should be getting other things done. My Mom was going to email me to let me know the latest.
“The main purpose of a garden is to give the owner the best and highest kind of earthy pleasure.” Gertrude Jekyll.
“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.”
“Hurt not the Earth, Neither the Sea, nor the Trees.”
“You don’t have a garden just for yourself. You have it to share.” Augusta Carter.
“If you pray for rain be prepared to deal with some mud.”
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” Henry David Thoreau.
“Happiness must grow in one’s own garden.”
“Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day – like writing a poem or saying a prayer.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
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