Angela's Words to Live By for February 15, 2005

The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.

-- Rita Mae Brown

Angela's Word to Live By

We must learn to give ourselves permission to blunder, to fail, and to make fools of ourselves every day for the rest of our lives.

-- Sheldon Kopp

Happy Valentine's Day! and random stuff from Angela

It's Monday, and I have the day off! Ha, ha! I was prepared to stay in my room all day, but Ray got himself suckered into driving Dierdre to Plano (50 miles) to stay overnight with some friend of hers before we moved.

(sigh)

Oh, well.

Today I'll go into town with Ray and Dierdre, and then the day's project is to do some paperwork I have for work. (Yes, I recognize the irony in being tickled to death to be home from work today, only to plan to do work at home anyway - but this is the only place I can get any work done! I certainly don't get much work done at work!)

Then, two home projects continue. Gotta go through some paperwork that is piling up around here and make labels for the file folders with my labelmaker, and, uh, something else. I knew what it was a few seconds ago.

Sheesh!

Hey, did you see the movie, "Ray" with Jamie Fox? I thought it was pretty good. Ray Charles' determination in the face of his disability awes me. Anyone's determination in the face of disability and discrimination awes me. Dogged perseverance definitely has its place in any story of success, whether that success is on a grand scale such that movies get made or whether it is a small, personal success like our purchase of our little ten acres of Texas mud.

Okay, just babbling now. Later!

Angela

Angela had something to say just ONE minute ago...

...but I forgot what it was. :-)

Karen says: Youth

So here's the deal: My oldest two girls (14 and 12) and I were in the elevator coming downstairs from a doctor's appointment. The only other person in the elevator was a guy probably about my age. He asked, "So... are you all three sisters?" I feel so *young*! :-)

Mom celebrated her 80th birthday last week. Oldest daughter made the cake, and middle daughter decorated it. 

Angela doesn't think anyone really wants to hear what she has to say

On top of that, she is pretty sure she doesn't have anything to say anyway. She doesn't know why, because she used to have plenty to say and got in trouble on a fairly regular basis because of it. But there you are.

Talking about myself in the third person is interesting. Don't know why that is so, either.

I got to go to Las Vegas with the rest of my team for a major yearly manager's meeting. This is the first time people at my level have been allowed to go. It was interesting, and I guess fun. I don't drink, and I didn't gamble until about the last half hour we were there - but I did win $88.35 off my $5 bill in the nickel slots. So that was definitely fun. :-)

If My Body Were a Car

When I was in high school, I took a civics class from a local mayor. One of the exercises we did was to pass around an index card with our name on it, and everybody wrote what kind of car they thought we were. I didn't know what kind of car I was then (I was only seventeen!), but now I know; I'm a rusting minivan with peeling paint and a big rear end, able to carry lots of kids at one time. :)

Here's a related joke:

If my body were a car, this is the time I would be thinking about trading it in for a newer model. I've got bumps and dents and scratches in my finish and my paint job is getting a little dull, but that's not the worst of it.

• My fenders are too wide to be considered stylish. They were once as sleek as a little MG; now they look more like my grandfather's old Buick.
• My seat cushions have split open at the seams. My seats are sagging. Seat belts? I gave up all belts when Ben &Jerry's opened a shop in my neighborhood.
• Air bags? Forget it. The only bags I have these days are under my eyes. Not counting the saddlebags, of course.
• I have soooooo many miles on my odometer. Sure, I've been many places and seen many things, but when' s the last time an appraiser factored life experiences against depreciation?
• My headlights are out of focus and it's especially hard to see things up close.
• My reaction is not as graceful as it once was. I slip and slide and skid and bump into things even in the best of weather.
• My whitewalls are stained with varicose veins. It takes me hours to reach my maximum speed.
• I'm burning fuel at an inefficient rate.
• But here's the worst of it - almost every time I sneeze, cough or sputter - I leak oil.

I'm so ready for a trade in! Anyone know where I can get a good deal?