J'Espere

It was difficult to hear at lunch, that there had been a shooting in Connecticut. A school shooting is never easy to hear about. I remember exactly where I was when Columbine occurred- sitting at my kitchen table, when the program I was watching was interuppted- I happened to be home sick that day. We talked about it for ages at school, so confused about how it had happened, what had made those boys march into a school and open fire, sometimes on people they didn't even know. We had counselors who came in to talk to us about what to look for in someone who was about to go crazy, that we were to report anyone who mentioned killing someone, or killing themselves. And this was a tiny private girls school. Then there was another school shooting, and another. People talked about an "epidemic", people questioned video games, parents, teachers, lack of support. We nodded our heads, agreeing with it all. But we can't really grasp the horror. A few weeks ago, we had a lock...

which means it's time for caroling, warm drinks, and dealing with the crises of a family. Or, in our case, 2 families. Trying to balance out what we want for our Christmas, with the wants and needs of our families, isn't always easy. What's even harder about this year is the housing situation. Or lack thereof. Looking around my living room right now, there are boxes EVERYWHERE, half packed, mostly packed, empty, taped and packed, but there is nary a Christmas tree in sight. Just a few cards on the mantel. In case you're wondering, we LOVE CARDS, so keep 'em coming, y'all! How else am I going to see pictures of your beautiful faces? This past weekend I was really craving Clark Griswold in my home, but had the realization that all of my DVDs are packed up and in storage (like so much of our lives right now) and it wasn't happening. I have to say, Netflix, while I'm very happy you added Disney to your approved list, I was a little disappointed that your...

So, in case you were wondering- we sold our house!! Yay! Cheers for us! We actually sold it a while ago, but I think we were in such shock over actually signing paperwork that I have been unable to process and talk about it. Towards the end of September we were kind of settling into a routine of our house being show ready, of having to wait a while to sell our home, about the market bouncing around the way it does, blah, blah blah. Then someone came along who wanted our house and we were "YAY!" then I said "OH MY GOD! WHAT HAVE WE DONE?" and M. said "See? I told you this would happen?" I guess I was thinking that the buying end of a house would be much simpler than the selling end. I thought we would walk into a home, I would clap, M. would nod his head and suggest an area for his drumkit and recording equipment, we would sign the paperwork, close on two houses in one day and be in. Yea, no. We started looking seriously. And it turns out that there is n...

Today someone very close to me took advantage of early voting and voted for Pat McCrory for Governor of North Carolina. I stood, taking it in, breathing deep and finally asked "Why?" The answer? "He's a business man." This is true. He is a businessman. The downside is that he isn't a very good businessman. I'm using another North Carolinian as an example. Jim Goodnight. Jim Goodnight is the owner of SAS, one of the world's largest software companies. He's also the richest man in North Carolina (I have nothing to back this up, I think I've just heard it). His employees, upon becoming employees, go through rigorous training, work strange hours sometimes, and have unlimited sick days. Yet the turnover rate is less than 4% per year, and the average employee takes 2 sick days. THe focus is on longevity. Getting someone in there for the long haul. The best way to keep an employee for the long haul is to work really hard at the beginning in tra...

My summer has come to an end, and I don't even believe that July really happened. It seems like I had just finished closing up my office for the summer and now I'm not only reopening it, I'm reassessing where I am as an educator. But enough about that. On to the fun stuff. Training season has begun! I start training for the City of Oaks (Rex Healthcare) Half Marathon on Monday and I'm pumped. Sort of. I always prefer training for races that take place in the late fall/ winter, since that training schedule is significantly less hot. But this fall also promises to be slammed with weekend activities, from weddings (yay for one in NYC!) to Girls on the Run (I'm a coach), to Hopscotch Music Festival in downtown Raleigh (VIP is how I roll) and so much more. Seriously. It's ridiculous. So i'm trying to figure out a strategy that will give me some flexibility in the dreaded long run. Or maybe not so dreaded long run. What I learned over my summer vacati...

One of the benefits of summertime is getting to catch up on my TV watching. That's right, people. I'm a librarian who loves television. Since we don't have cable, and we only get two network stations, for me that means a whole lot of Netflixing. Of course, Netfix does a lot to recommend things that they think I would enjoy watching. One of the recommendations I received today was a documentary titled "The Elephant in the Living Room". It's a pretty small documentary about a wildlife officer in Ohio and a man who owns a bunch of lions. The premise of the documentary is to discuss the subject of exotic pets. Should we be allowed to keep wild animals as pets? The story opens with Terry, a man so crippled physically and by depression that he spent almost a year and a half in bed. Finally, a friend gave him a lion cub, and then he received another one later on. Which of course, grew into two large African Lions. The problem with African Lions, is that, of cours...

When we made the decision to put our house on the market, it wasn't lightly done. we talked about it and went around and around, and I went faux shopping for new homes (have I mentioned how much I love walking through other peoples' homes?) and then we talked about it some more and decided it might be a good time to put our home on the market. So we signed with a realtor and then the problems began. Once you start working on your home to get it ready to sell, you realize how much is missing. You start by , say, rebuilding your deck (which by the way is now beautiful). Before you know it, the deck is rebuilt but it turns out the doors need to be replaced. So you replace them only to realize that the light fixture is awful and an abomination (how have you been living with this up until now??) so you replace the light fixture and that's when you learn that the wiring is faulty.... we had hoped our home would be on the market by now. It's getting hot and well into summer...