Make a Good Life

Sad kitties need new homes....

I just received an email from a real estate agent in town.  Seems she has become the proud new listing agent for a foreclosed home.  The home came with 30 cats and kittens, abandoned by their owner.  She is (graciously) trying to find them homes.  See their story and adopt or donate via this site.  Thank you! 

See The Whole World Anew Each Day

Happy Monday

As viewed from my back door....he puts his little hands on the glass!

Update on the X47-Love it!

 

I obsessed about the German X47 planner (www.x47.com) for months and tried in vain to find something stateside that would satisfy me.  After getting help from local business owner Mathias Eichler (Einmaleins at http://olyblog.net/blog/einmaleins for the blog) I actually bought this system back in November.  Because the ordering part of the site is in German, Mathias (native of Germany) helped me order it online.  It came after the New Year and I got to work on it right away.  I have to say....worth the money.  I need to drop it by to Mathias to have a look at....Germans engineering at its best....I love the Germans!  It is perfect is most every way...only fault I can find is that the months only show up at the corner of each page as a number.  I have to sort this out by counting when I am making plans in the future, but this is likely my problem for never memorizing it.  Sad.

This is an investment piece, and the largest expense is associated with the leather cover.  You have zillions of choices about this, which I basically had limited understanding of, with my German skills.  I am thrilled with the cover I chose....love the inserts except for the grid pattern one.  I now can keep my journal, my planner, notes, projects, address book and business cards all in one nice binder.  JUST what I wanted and nothing else would do.  If they ever go out of business........I will be one unhappy gal.

Hope for "Millennials" found at the car wash.....

My office is next door to a busy car wash.  I have my car washed there often and besides that, I drive by about a dozen times a day.  The adorable young men (I guess they are in their 20's) who work there are very hard-working.  They give me a little hope that not all young(er) people lack home-training.

I just finished venting to someone today about people sitting on park benches playing guitar (in the middle of the day!), or sitting in coffee shops(I know....this is my own issue to work out....).  I went on about how the "Millennials" (born 1977 to 1998) and younger just grew up without work habits, expecting things to be handed to them....the whole hoo-hah about entitlement, etc.  and what did their parents teach them anyway?  This sense of entitlement and lack of work-ethic is the root of our many social problems as well as the demise of our economy, starting with the free mortgage money we have been throwing around for years.....etc.  I have a horse and it is high.  The person to whom I was venting is used to it...

The point of this post (and it is a negligible one at that) is my appreciation for these hard-working young men.  They are literally out there bending and scrubbing from about 8:00 am until 6:00pm...same guys.  They are polite, friendly and concientious and not afraid to get out and work for a dollar. I always have absolute respect for anyone willing to work, and to work hard.  And kudos to their parents.....

Tetekellum bi' lugha d'arabia?

I am brushing up on my Arabic after running into a fascinating gal recently.  She makes her living as a photographer here in town and a single mom.  (read that sentence again...)  And guess what?  She just returned from Egypt- six weeks with her son.  Where did she say?  (I ask naively)  Oh...around, you know anyone will pick up a mom and son over there. What did you say?  You mean....you just "winged it"???!!!

This is so far out of my comfort zone as to make my pulse race typing this.  I so WANT to be that person....but travel and backpack should not go in the same sentence.  The exception...as it always will be:  The British Virgins.  I COULD actually go there and sleep on the beach with a backpack (and bug repellant).  It is always the exception to all of my "rules".

This woman....amazing....is teaching herself Arabic and auditing a course at Evergreen with the esteemed Mr. Farhoum, with whom I also audited a course.  It only took me almost two years of intensive, six-hour a day immersion to learn Arabic.  And she traveled without an itinerary to the middle east.  She is my hero that I will never be.  Maybe a part of growing older is realizing that we can appreciate other people for qualities that we would LIKE to have...though we know it is out of the realm of possibility to actually have them.....

Einmaleins

Visited this cool little shop today in downtown Olympia http://1x1olympia.com/1x1/news/

Since I have been obsessing about the X47 planner, I had a moment of excitement when driving past this store today thinking the proprietor may have some insight as to how to get my hands on one.  Mathias (owner, presumably) was quite helpful....and if nothing more I think I could order one with his help with the language piece.  Even he was alarmed at the price however....

It is important for us all to support our LOCAL shop owners, grocers, business people.....get out there and shop!

Long time gone...what I've been up to...Obsessing

Truthfully I have been very busy with real estate (my chosen profession) for the past two weeks. Rates have been all over the place, but surprisingly....shoppers out there.  I received three offers in one day last week.  I can't explain it.....but being a gift-horse and all.....

This weekend I have dedicated time to finding the perfect planner/organizer for my daily life.  I switched from digital to analog last year after the Treo debacle, and happily used a standard "At a Glance" notebook planner gifted to me by Candace.

Sadly....I have found it lacking lately because of my other life-excursions that I want to keep track of in a journal sort of way.  I am lugging about this planner and a Moleskine book or two for other projects, and I would love to have a combination of some sort.  Ideally a planner with a journal page beside each day, or something.

Today I have spent hours online looking for options.  Not surprisingly there are plenty of people who want the same "perfect" planner....and blogs and sites dedicated to the search.

I am coveting this cool German system called the X47 www.x47.com.  Sadly, my German is lacking and the other language available for ordering is French.  And if my calculations on the exchange rate are correct, this particular system would set me back a cool $250.  The Moleskine planner is looking better and better, for a mere $20.  But....I am a little obsessive/compulsive once fixated on something, so the search continues.

Old friends...

 

My old group from DLI (Defense Lauguage Institute) stays in touch pretty well via email.  We have been missing someone for a while....our old group leader, SGT Deinhart, otherwise known, in Arabic as Gazwan (this is not pronounced as it looks....the "G" sound is a letter in Arabic prounounced inexplilcably in the very back of your throat).  Erika dug him up somehow and we have spent the last couple of days getting back in touch with him.

Old times.....those were some of the happiest days I can remember, and some of the most stressful, horrific and downright demanding as well.  But really, looking back and reminiscing with these guys it all seems good.  I can't remember what the title was for the position SGT Deinhart had....group leader or something.  But he was our direct boss....Carl (now my husband) a couple of bosses above that.  I honestly didn't think I would make it through that school at the time.....I remember being sick to my stomach from nerves on a daily basis during our DLPTs (final testing).  Maybe Carolina is mine after all.....just now, nothing makes me sick to my stomach.  After the Army, real estate really is a piece of cake.....

I will have to remind myself of that more often!  When I start to get wound up about a transaction I will just tell myself: "At least I don't have to take a PT test while speaking Arabic."

Reunion Redux

I finished my high school years in a very small town in coastal Georgia.  Of course I would say that I had a very normal upbringing, but over the years I have come to learn how unusual my experience during these years was, in comparison to many people's experiences.  For example, there were only 21 people in my graduating high school class.  When I talk to friends now about our children and the issues at hand involving socializing, cliques, dating, etc.  I really just don't have that much to offer.  We lived in sort of a cloistered little community.....

I am probably remembering things nostalgically....But in my mind, my class was just sort of a big, happy family.  There was a small group of kids that were my friends and partners in adolescent mischief....and we didn't really date each other, but we were together a lot of the time, girls and boys (I think I even remember mixed company slumber parties?).  Though I think I recall not really "approving" of "our" boys dating the Glynn Academy girls....

We (well-those with better organizational skills than me) are planning (again) our 20th reunion in August...it will actually occur in our 21st year in conjunction with the class of 1988, who we were close with.  We had our tenth reunion, which was a blast. 

Just getting emails from this small group brings back a flood of memories and warm feelings.  Many of them (most of them, except Tommy, who is apparently living north of the Mason-Dixon) are still in the South, a couple still on St. Simons.

Hopefully I will be able to swing something in August (that is BVI time....) to get to St. Simons.  These guys absolutely shaped my life experience....and I feel a little sad that my children won't enjoy the same cloister-effect.