Keeping the Spirit Alive

January 14, 2025 I am not one of those who puts away Christmas right away. The sparkling lights make me happy, and I like to prolong that feeling. And to be honest, it takes a long time to put up all the Christmas decorations, so I like to get the most out of my time investment. Here we are nearly at the mid-mark of January, however, and even I must admit it's time to carefully pack away the garland, the ornaments, the wreaths, and all other sparkly and festive reminders of the season. I started today and will slowly work towards having it all put away by the weekend.

Stranger Things

January 13, 2025 Rafe and I are binge watchers, and although we have pretty different tastes in shows, we have found several we have enjoyed together: Ted Lasso, The Boys, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone (and its off-shoots), Inside Man, Nobody Wants This, and Succession, to name some. Currently we are watching Stranger Things. When it first came out I watched the first couple of seasons but fell off, probably because life got busy. We went back and started watching from the beginning, and man, is it intense! We are in the fourth season, and this is by far the darkest and most difficut season. It's really good though! I like a show that can weave several story lines throughout and then connect them all together. I am invested to see where the rest of the show goes...

Craft Night

January 12, 2025

In the weeks before Christmas, Lisa and I decided to take a sewing class, during which we each made a pillow. Simple project, sure, but we were proud of our handiwork! So for Christmas, Lisa bought me a sewing maching. She is going to purchase one for herself too, but she wanted to make sure that my machine was straightforward and user-friendly. With this as an inspiration, we decided we need to have a craft night once a month. Today was our first one, with our main objective being figuring out the machine and how to get it threaded. Mission accomplished! (We also tried out Lisa's new engraving pen as well.) Now we just need to figure out what we'd like to actually make for our next craft night!

My Green Thumb

January 11, 2025

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that keeping plants alive is not my strong suit. Regardless of that indisputable fact, I have been gifted no fewer than four orchid plants over the past two years. In each case, I thought it would be pretty for a little while, join all its predecessors in the foliage graveyard, and that would be the end of it. Imagine my surprise when each one of those plants in turn have remained hearty and healthy and green. I have a bay window in my kitchen, which ensures that not only do the plants have access to regular light, but also ensures that I pass by them each day. This means that rather than languishing, parched and lacking water, I am reminded to water them with regularity. Who knew?? Even better, just a few days ago one of my orchids decided to bloom--a lovely message to let me know it is possible I have turned the corner on my plant-neglecting days.

Back to Physical Therapy--Finally!

January 10, 2025 After nearly a MONTH of waiting for paperwork to appropriately move from the physical therapist to the orthapedic surgeon to my insurance, I was FINALLY approved for the rest of my physical therapy! I went back today and started more strength training to stabilize my knee. Hopefully it won't be long now before I get to go back to my students!

Nearly 30 Years

January 9,  2025

Tonight I met up with Mo, Kelly, and Francine for dinner and drinks. Mo pointed out that we have been friends for nearly 30 years now! Through many ups and downs--marriages, divorces, health scares, job changes, children, new houses, to name a few--we have borne witness to more than half of our lives together. We are all very different, and yet similar in many ways as well. I feel incredibly fortunate to have walked alongside these women for so many years together. Cheers to many, many more.

Soroptomists

January 8, 2025

Tonight I got inducted into the Soroptomist Club of Clovis. When Lisa moved here, she sought out and joined a couple of organizations she had belonged to in other cities, and Soroptomists was one of thoes. Not too long after, she sponsored (or invited) me to join too. I've been to a few of their events as Lisa's guest already, and honestly, I'm kind of amazed this organization had never been on my radar. The focus is empowering girls and women, particularly those who are in need. As an educator, being able to equip students with the resources and confidence to seek out their best life is the best part of the job, which fits perfectly with the Soroptomist vision. I'm looking forward to being able to find more ways to try and make a difference in our community.

Waiting to Go Back

January 7, 2025 I am still waiting on medical clearance to go back to school, even though the new semester started today. I am feeling very guilty about having left my kiddos, since even with the best of subs the experience isn't quite the same. Having A.P. and Dual Enrollment students makes it even more stressful because they are worried about being prepared for the A.P. Exam and their college-level courses. I know I have to make sure I am fully able to go back without putting myself in position to reinjure my knee, and I also know that the kids will survive without me. Still, I wrestle with the dual roles of taking care of myself and taking care of my students. I will be back very soon, however, and we'll make the most of the rest of the year together.

Brianna's First Day

January 6, 2025 After 13 years, Brianna has made her way back to the Central Valley! I'm so happy to have her home with me--quite literally for a time, since she and Leslie the Puppy are staying with me for a couple of months until she moves into her own place. She started her new job as an E.A. with State Center Community Colleges. Now we have three of us who work in the district in various capacities--Bree at her job, Lisa as the VPI at Fresno City College, and me as an adjunct faculty member at Clovis Community. All in the family! Although Bree's day got off to a rough start, she jumped in and started learning the ropes in her new role. Since she has lots of experience as an E.A. (Executive Assistant), I'm sure she'll be up and running in no time. Her rough start, by the way, didn't come from the job itself, but the act of getting to the office. Bree has been living in Seattle, and prior she lived in Washington D.C., both of which have great and easily accessible public transport. Because of this, she hasn't owned a car for the past few years. Moving here will necessitate having a car, and until she makes that purchase, she is borrowing Lisa's second vehicle. Bree wanted to give herself plenty of time to get to work early this morning, and it's a good thing she did. Not being accustomed to warming up a vehicle on very cold mornings, she went out and found that the van's windshield was frozen, and nothing she did-defroster, water on the windshield, etc.--helped make the windows safe for driving. That's a frustrating way to start any day, but even more so on your first day at a new job. She kept calm though (I probably would have been in tears!) and called herself an Uber. Because she was leaving so early, she had built in enough of a time cushion that having to wait for the Uber didn't put her behind. She made it to the office just a bit early and got ready to check in to the new job. I was pretty impressed that she didn't let the situation frazzle her!

It's The Little Things

January 5, 2025

Being a homeowner means there is always something to be done, and I don't always have the skill set to complete all the chores quickly or easily. I am so thankful that Rafe is not only a good handyman, but that he is absolutely willing to jump in and take care of things that need to be done. He is a true partner in that way, and I feel pretty lucky!

In Limbo

January 4, 2025 In October, I had knee surgery. Lisa and I were taking salsa dance classes, and one night while being spun by my partner, I heard a familiar snap. (Familiar because I have heard that snap before while jumping on a trampoline, and it signaled a torn ACL and meniscus.) My instincts were right; after a few weeks of some hobbling and significant pain, I went to the orthopedist who diagnosed a torn meniscus. I was thankful it wasn't the ACL, since that would have been a more intense recovery. I scheduled surgery and let my school know I'd be out for a few weeks. Little did I know! When in surgery, the doctor found cartilege that was torn all the way through. He opted to not only repair the meniscus, but to perform micro-fracturing, which is a process by which drilled holes in the kneecap down to the marrow are done in order to promote healing and rebuilding of the damaged cartilege. I'm glad he did it while he was there, but the repercussions of that procedure were that I was to be completely non-weight-bearing on that knee for a full six weeks while it healed. Far longer than I anticipated, for sure, and after that there was physical therapy to rebuild strenghth and stability in those muscules. That's what I've been doing for the past several weeks; I finally got off crutches (falling twice after I could finally start to put weight on that leg!) and have been trying to rebuild stamina and reduce my limp. Here's where the limbo starts: The doctor recommended 24 physical therapy sessions. My insurance will only approve ten at a time. The doctor's note for disability has me off until February 2, but I was hoping to come back early, when the new semester begins. The physical therapist said when my first 10 P.T. sessions were done that she wasn't inclined to recommend me going back yet, but since we still had a couple of weeks of P.T. during the Christmas break, she'd be open to seeing what my progress was like. In order for my insurance to approve of the next set of 10 P.T. visits, my doctor had to review my 10 visit report and agree that yes, he still recommended a total of 24 sessions and would like for me to continue. Apparently, however, communication among Doctor, P.T., and Insurance is something akin to the Bermuda Triangle. P.T. has said they have faxed the doctor with the report three times, and the doctor's office has said that they have never received anything, despite reaching out to the P.T. office. P.T. can't schedule anything without an okay from Insurance, and Insurance says they won't approve anything until the paperwork from Doc to P.T. has been submitted to them. In the meantime, I have been attempting to play middleman to no avail and haven't been able to get phyical therapy for two weeks, let alone clearance to go back to work. And so, although students return from Christmas break on Tuesday, I will be out at least for another week while waiting for everyone to figure out how to get me back on track.

Albert's Birthday

January 3, 2025

A couple of weeks ago, Lisa, Bree, and Danielle and I went to a friend's house to make tamales. I'm not sure how we came into the tradition of having tamales every Christmas, except that opportunities for purchasing homemade Mexican tamales are plentiful at Christmas time, particularly in the Central Valley. Because of my fondness for them and easy access, my kids always grew up knowing that we'd have tamales at Christmastime--it's one of our traditions. When I happened to mention it at Thanksgiving to a friend, she offered to have us all over for a tamale-making day. I've always heard that it was a long day, tamale-making, and it was! However, with many hands and a few steamers, we were able to make about 18 dozen chicken, pork, and vegetarian tamales among all of us. (We talked, of course, and had the requisite singable songs going, which made the process much more fun.) I can confidently say that they turned out pretty well! Rafe suggested that we take some to his dad when we celebrated his birthday, which is today. Although I admit to a little trepidation about taking my homemade tamales to someone who grew up in a traditional Mexican household and whose mom used to make him tamales, we decided we'd go to Tulare for dinner and treat him. Rafe made beans and Albert made rice, and I must say we sat down to a very tasty meal together! Both of his parents thanked us and gave us the stamp of approval for the tamales, which made me feel good. I love visiting Albert and Cyndi because they are always so welcoming to me, so it really was a great birthday visit. :)

One of My Favorite Things

January 2, 2025

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love babies. Today I got to take dinner to a good friend who just had her third baby. Sweet Daniel was sleeping cozily in his dad's arms, but I got to see that precious boy and give his mama a hug. I can't wait to go back and cuddle that sweet boy! Just seeing that little family, in the aftermath of Christmas, just spending time with each other and focusing in on what's important while mama recovers and everyone bonds with their newest arrival made my heart happy. Oh how I wish our society valued that kind of family time together more than it values the work, work, work of every day life.

January-My Word for the Year

January 1, 2025

Each January I start the year by getting back into writing on this platform, sometimes with strong success, and some years (like last year), only managing to maintain consistency until February. Regardless of how often I post or how long through the year I keep up chronicling my life, I have come to reassess the idea of labeling resolutions of any kind as 'successess' or 'failures'. I think I managed 15 entries last year, and some years I have managed upwards of 200. However, I don't choose to see last year as a failure. I wrote 15 more times than I would have if I had not challenged myself to remember to set aside time. I count that as a win. Goals that we have are goals that we believe we want to prioritize. That being said, I also believe an important part of goal-setting is doing a periodic check-in with yourself. If you are not meeting a goal, are there obstacles in your way that you can in someway remove? Are there different ways you can try to reprioritize your time and energy to meet that goal? Or, if you truly reassess, is it possible that this goal is NOT now a priority for you at this moment or period in your life? Perhaps if you are not meeting a goal, you have consciously or unconsciously decided that your effort and energy are needed in a different area of your life right now. If that's the case, that's okay. That doesn't mean the goal isn't important or worthwhile; rather, it means that your focus is on something else that is also important. I have decided to give myself grace in this regard and recognize that I prioritized different things last year, and now I'd like to get back to this goal. A handful of years ago, I saw a post where the writer decided to focus on a particular word to carry with them through the year, rather than making a list of New Year's Resolutions. I adopted this tradition, and have felt the power of my chosen words each year since. In keeping with my musings about success and failure and goals and the like, I have decided my word for the year will be INTENTIONAL. I want to be intentional with my time, my resources, my energy, and my relationships, endeavoring to make sure that the way choose to operate in my life truly reflects my goals at any given time.