Posted by: Lady Optimistic | September 6, 2012

Confession Time

Hi.  My name is Lady.  I am spelling challenged.

I like to think I am a reasonably educated person.  I put myself through college while working full time.  It took years.  And I started a little late, but I think I brought a maturity to my studies that helped me better choose my courses and appreciate the learning – rather than slogging through and having no idea what I was really trying to achieve by the endeavor.

But…

I can’t spell.  I really can’t.  As early as second grade it was clear that my ability to spell didn’t exist.  At all.  To this day  I am unsure about even the simplest of words.  That is why in my previous post I linked to the definition of crisscross – I had looked it up to figure out how you actually spell that word.  It just didn’t seem right.  With me, even if it doesn’t seem right, I need to double-check, because I have no instinct whatsoever for spelling (and yes, I just double checked whatsoever… UGH!)

I must give a shout out to Google about spelling.  It’s even better than editing spell checkers.  I just type in my best guess and if I have spelled the word wrong it suggests the correct spelling and it then gives me links to the word’s definition.  How did I ever survive before Google?!

Actually, I accepted my spelling deficiency long ago, and before the days of wireless internet in the palm of my hand, I used a dictionary.  I treasure my well-worn dictionary.  It has saved me from humiliation more times even than Google 🙂

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Posted in Little Known Facts

Posted by: Lady Optimistic | September 5, 2012

In Which I Wield My Power

We went out for dinner.  I had put in a full day at work.  After work I ran home to get Tinker Bell and Iron Man to take them to their Wednesday activities; involving water, then grass (Surf and Turf Wednesday as I like to call it!)  While the kids were on the turf, I ran to get Zeus so that I could take him back to the turf – that way he would know where the turf is in case there comes a day when I am prevented from running…

Funny thing about Zeus.  He’s a pretty bright guy, but he’s hopeless with directions.  He grew up in Karachi, Pakistan.  Karachi is a big city.  A very big city.  To put it in perspective, Karachi is roughly 3 times the physical area of NYC and the population is more than double.  The population densities are almost the same, so Karachi and NYC are comparable I would say.  But the interesting thing about Karachi is that there aren’t descent street maps of Karachi.  Either you know where you are going, or you find someone who knows where you want to go and have them accompany you to your destination.

But I digress…

We went out to dinner because I had done so much running around and it was getting late and I didn’t want to run around my kitchen to get a meal on the table.  So crisscross-palm-tree-restaurant was where the running stopped.  It was cold in there.  Its usually cold in there.  Iron Man was cold, too, but I could not get him to agree that we should take our burgers home to eat.  It was just too cold for me.  But Iron Man insisted we stay.  So I went up to the counter and mentioned that the dinning room was really cold.  The next thing I know there was a young man walking to all the thermostats in the dinning room, using his key to adjust the thermostat.  Immediately the room became comfortable.  It was almost instantaneous.  I was thrilled.

I felt powerful.  And I really, really enjoyed my burger and fries.

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Posted in Grateful, Super Powers

Posted by: Lady Optimistic | September 4, 2012

And They’re Off!

School has started.  The new backpacks were packed, the new lunch boxes filled to overflowing for their maiden voyage, new, undented water bottles tucked into the side pockets.  7:58AM we were out the door for our 5 minute drive to school.  (We drive because I go directly from school drop off to work, so it saves me at least half an hour to have the car).  There were lots of new faces and the air was charged with excitement.  As we walked in our school principal and her staff were cheering each child’s arrival.  I love our little school.

I kissed Iron Man before departing, and for the first time he looked embarrassed.  I asked him if I was embarrassing him and he nodded shyly that yes, I was embarrassing him.  He’s really growing up.  He’s a first grader in his Kinder-First combined class, so he’s an upper classman who knows the ropes.  He has a lot of responsibility this year.

And Tinker Bell, she was over the moon excited.  A friend from 2 years ago has returned to our little community and Tink couldn’t get enough!  Like her brother, as a third grader she’s an upper classman in her combined second and third grade class, and has many responsibilities to help the new second graders settle in to a new routine with a new teacher.  Tink was a great teacher’s helper last year and I expect she’ll carry on in that role.
I like routine.  Its going to be a great year.  And I am grateful.

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Posted in Grateful, Over the Moon, Routine, Things I Love!

Posted by: Lady Optimistic | September 3, 2012

Mommy, am I a Democrat?

Yesterday evening, at the end of a gloriously eventful day, Iron Man asked me, “Mommy, am I a Democrat?”

Like a doe caught in the headlights I felt completely cornered and utterly paralyzed.  What am I supposed to tell my almost-six-year-old?

So I asked him, do you know what a Democrat is?

“No.”

I saw my out…  I told him if he did not know what a Democrat is, then how could he be one?
Silence.  Then, a short while later, snoring…

What a relief, until he asks me what a Democrat is.  Maybe I’ll just search YouTube for Face the Nation and let him figure it out for himself  🙂

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Posted in Politics - EEK!

Posted by: Lady Optimistic | September 2, 2012

Anticipation

School will start in just a couple of days. At the same time that it seems like summer just started yesterday, I must admit to being kind of relieved that school will start on Tuesday. Its time for my little family to get back to having routines.

Routine is a good thing in my mind. I like structure, I like to have a foundation to work from.

I love this time of year. The days are getting shorter and cooler. The light is not so saturated. Its the time of year that makes me wish I lived in New England. Having grown up in NYC, I remember the beautiful fall colors and the glorious chill in the air. I miss it and it makes me restless.

I like the restless feeling as school starts. I dig into my routines with new zeal and look for areas where I can make changes to keep things interesting.

This will be a good month.

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Posted in Foundations, Routine

Posted by: Lady Optimistic | September 1, 2012

Ballet Blues… Pinks and Tutus

Raising children can be challenging at times.  🙂

Yesterday was one of those days, where, after a brief 2 days of relief, believing I had figured out everything and had secured my hold on the world’s tail, I was flung into chaos by the words of a one sentence post to Tinker Bell’s ballet school blog…

“We have simplified the school schedule and revised the application form…  please click here…”

My heart stopped, my mouth went dry, my shoulders squared and I clicked the link.

Life was supposed to be perfect… soccer on Saturday mornings, ballet after lunch.  We could do it all.  But no, that would make me look too perfect I suppose.  Now ballet is from 10:30 to noon – or something like that.  Allowing for time to race across town, to the ballet studio in another town means that the entire morning is gone…  Soccer games would have to be at 8 or 8:30AM to actually make this whole mess work.  And that won’t happen every week.

Alas, such is the life of a family that compensates for two full-time working parents by enrolling the children in every imaginable activity from Ballet to Karate, from surf to turf,  from sanity to insanity; to infinity and beyond…

I read an article about this kind of over-compensating, but now I can’t find the link…  sorry.  Actually, now that I think about it, it may have been in a magazine I  looked through at the doctor’s office…  Imagine that…  Print!  I digress…

Anyway, yesterday was another day in chaos for the family scheduler.  I’ll work it out, though.  Somehow.  Its a new opportunity to re-examine our activities and attempt to change them up.  Its all in the attitude.

Without chaos, where would the excitement be?  Where’s the challenge?  Where’s the beef?!?!?

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

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Posted in Doing It All | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: Lady Optimistic | August 31, 2012

Haiku Friday

I follow Kim, and every Friday is Haiku Friday.  Sometimes I play along.  Today’s word is Spiders.  Here’s my stab at it:

little ones scurry

big ones repel from above

Spiders make me shriek!

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Posted in Haiku Friday | Tags:

Posted by: Lady Optimistic | August 28, 2012

I’m The New Kid

Hi.  My name is Lady Optimistic.  Learn more about me here.  Go ahead, I’ll wait…

What did you think?  Please feel free to tell me in the comments below.  I am looking forward to lots of constructive feedback!

I am so happy to be here.   This is a new venture for me, and I am really excited about it.  I have so much I want to do here; writing, sharing and learning.  I sure hope that you’ll introduce yourself and drop in on me from time to time.  I think this is going to be fun!

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Posted in Greetings Friends! | Tags: , ,

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