Should old acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind ?Should old acquaintance be forgot,and old lang syne ?
CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,for auld lang syne,we'll take a cup of kindness yet,for auld lang syne.
And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !and surely I’ll buy mine !And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,for auld lang syne.
CHORUS
We two have run about the slopes,and picked the daisies fine ;But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,since auld lang syne.
CHORUS
We two have paddled in the stream,from morning sun till dine† ;But seas between us broad have roaredsince auld lang syne.
CHORUS
And there’s a hand my trusty friend !And give us a hand o’ thine !And we’ll take a right good-will draught,for auld lang syne.
"Auld Lang Syne" kind of translates to "To the good old days" or "For old times sake". I didn't get to hear this song on New Year's this year and it made me think about it. That is probably a good thing since it means I was actually out doing something instead of watching a perfectly coordinated TV program. I was in San Fransisco, not perfectly coordinated by any means ( just like the people stumbling out of the clubs). As the iphone struck midnight and the fire works began I got a little nostalgic and pondered what is going to come this next year. I realized I have had a lot of experiences and grown a lot this past year. I know I'm getting old because I am developing opinions...on everything. I spout them off here and there only stopping to grunt when I try to stand up and then I'm off again. Some old acquaintances came to my mind and experiences of this year. Some things have lingered with me and I wanted to share.
I talk (complain) about my work a lot because it has kind of ruled my life this year but I have been fortunate to have a job and one that has taught me so much.
I get to work with nurses and CNA's and wanted to say that I have seen angels wearing scrub uniforms. I have seen friendships and bonds form that have saved lives and hearts like no medecine could. Love, patience and innocence that have bridged age, religion and cultural differences. I have met people who are well taken care of by their families and have all the physical resources to make their life comfortable-cling to their fears and comfort zones. In return I have seen those with little comforts and relations and a short time to live, reach out and comfort those around them.
I realized one day how thankful I was for my trials and how it made me hopefully understand a little bit what my neighbor may go through. Of course there is someone else who suffered all things so he could support us and lift us. I am thankful for my Saviour, Jesus Christ and the experiences that have taught me more of the love and forgiveness that he has for us. In the original poem of "Auld Lang Syne" by James Watson the final verse says
"Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief,when from thee I am gone;will not thy presence yield relief,to this sad Heart of mine:Why doth thy presence me defeat,with excellence divine?Especially when I reflect on Old long syne" I hope everyone had a chance to reflect on their year ( and cry as they write a blog about it) and use those difficulties that many people went through to make us better in 2010. ( Yes that is "twenty ten" for those of you who are still debating)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Monday, March 16, 2009
shop til you cry
I went shopping today, its my day off and I make these great plans but they usually fall through because I end up wandering through Ross. Spending time in Ross makes me feel like I have just watched too much tv..my eyes are glazed over and it hurts to go back out into the sunlight. There are some really...ugly...clothes out there, really. Not only are the clothes uggo but I feel discrimnated against at the store..there is no section for someone my age. I wander through the junior department..when are you no longer a junior? Is it when you are pushing 25 or you just tired of getting clothes that require me to wear a tshirt under it and like a sweater over it just to "unskankify". I guess the "junior section" would be 12 yr olds and up. I am getting up there in age and starting to feel like a creeper or a has-been shopping next to the punk rocky skinny jeans girls. When the people next to me are back to school shopping with their mom..bad sign. "What's up girlfriends, does this tube top look good on me?" So I guess that means it is time to go to the......women's section. It was like coming of age when I made that choice today to cross the isle...and yet I felt uncomfortable there too.. Clothes seemed..flowy..which is nice in a sun dress but not in a tshirt. I start finding labels bragging that these lovely tapered-leg pants come with "slimming panels"...After trying on the "skinny jeans" back on the other side I admit that a "slimming panel" wouldn't kill me but...I'm just not ready for that yet. So where do I belong besides on a diet? And yet I know if I just keep stumbling around Ross I will find...something..even for an in betweener like me.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Full time with benefits
Did I mention that I work full time? Full time with benefits..benefits like dental and health insurance, chances to help others and pink eye, like I got this week. That 's right we're talkin right back there in third grade where kids always got head lice,ring worm and pink eye. The last time I got it was from playing with my uncle's ferril cats...what a juvenile affliction..pink eye.. no one even feels bad for you its just gross. I went to the doctors today she said I was super contagious...but of course with great power comes great responsability and I have to be very careful about touching anything. But it is kind of tempting...rub my eye and shake a hand...rub my eye and touch the keyboard at the public library. oops.
Other benefits of work is that my time is completely filled with worthwhile activity...meaning I have zero free time. No cleaning my room time and if you know me...well... So I was cleaning the other day and got to thinking about one of our hampsters, Ghost. Ghost escpaed from his cage and lived in a mouse hole under our sink, we knew he was there because there would be continous avalanche of lint and cheerios that he would shove out of his hole. That's me, that's my room. My family hardly ever sees me except the constant hide and low tides of stuff. I exumed a sweater I got for Christmas from under some hats, sweet! Delayed presents. I also found the book I had checked out on organization under some stuff..had to pay the late fine. Pathetic but it shows I desire for change.
Well I better go my pink eye is "tingling"...someone must be in danger...
Other benefits of work is that my time is completely filled with worthwhile activity...meaning I have zero free time. No cleaning my room time and if you know me...well... So I was cleaning the other day and got to thinking about one of our hampsters, Ghost. Ghost escpaed from his cage and lived in a mouse hole under our sink, we knew he was there because there would be continous avalanche of lint and cheerios that he would shove out of his hole. That's me, that's my room. My family hardly ever sees me except the constant hide and low tides of stuff. I exumed a sweater I got for Christmas from under some hats, sweet! Delayed presents. I also found the book I had checked out on organization under some stuff..had to pay the late fine. Pathetic but it shows I desire for change.
Well I better go my pink eye is "tingling"...someone must be in danger...
Monday, November 24, 2008
My dog-
This has been on my mind I just never got a chance to type it up. I or I guess "we" have the cutest dog in the world, she is a dalmation and she is a pitbull...she's spotty and she's beefy (with scary jaws) a PITMATION. Her name is Rose and yes if she had a different name she would probably smell the same (not sweet) . I am here to confess a certain jelousy that I have for Rose, I am starting to feel threatened like when she is around I am just invisible. I walk her down the street (well I used to before I started working) and people stare at her from cars and wave..hello spotted dog! Walking her as school starts is also a big mistake because all the kids want to pet her they see a DALMATION... and their moms grab their hands and say don't pet the dog because the moms see ROWS of TEETH. But mom its a Dalmation like from 101 Damations! Actually, I say, this is a Pitmation and they made a movie about them too,
101 Pitmations needless to say Cruella Deville, Horace and Jasper didn't make out so well and it isn't appropriate for little children.
I was trying to cross the street with Rose and a man in a old pick up ( a real life Tomater) is make a turn and gets that "dirty old man" look on his face and leers out the window...Oh brother I think..men..I am not a peice of meat to be leered at! Puh-lease. But then dirty old man speaks and says "That's a purdy dawg.." and drives away. I think my dog just got leered at and not me. Hence the feelings of jelousy...but I have solved that, now I walk the dog I wear a sequined dress and high heels.
101 Pitmations needless to say Cruella Deville, Horace and Jasper didn't make out so well and it isn't appropriate for little children.
I was trying to cross the street with Rose and a man in a old pick up ( a real life Tomater) is make a turn and gets that "dirty old man" look on his face and leers out the window...Oh brother I think..men..I am not a peice of meat to be leered at! Puh-lease. But then dirty old man speaks and says "That's a purdy dawg.." and drives away. I think my dog just got leered at and not me. Hence the feelings of jelousy...but I have solved that, now I walk the dog I wear a sequined dress and high heels.
Friday, October 24, 2008
look who is back...
I love home. It's been good to be back. I'm learning that anywhere is just another place to scrape by unless you have the people there that make is special or whatever...not to get mushy here or anything. BIG NEWS!! IIIII GOT A JOB....! that's right I'm e to the m to the p-lo-y-ed I'm employed and I be up at my desk just workin on my business...uh yeah one more time e to the m to the, to the, to the.....Little music moment..
I drive an hour each way to get there, that's kind of intresting joining the coffee drinkin-talk show blastin-doin makeup while I drive, commuter gang. And I am stickin it to the enviroment, global warming my fender!, I will not ride share- sounds waaay too awkward. It's not bad, a good time to think or go into the same comatose state I do when I watch too much t.v. Finally I blink and somehow I got to work and don't remember anything in between. (nothing in this blog can be held against me in a court of law)
I am just working my little heiny off...I felt like a politician my first month, trying to sound smart and letting people know that "I can see our energies coming together in seperate ways and pulling out again synergistically with a trajectory of improvements" (what?...) I've been trying to get to know everyone smiling and learning names and now there are people that I have been smiling at pretending to know there name for way to long to actually ask it now. But for real (and just in case my boss ever sees this blog) "I love what I am doing"
So now my daily schedule is to hit the snooze 4 times (so I skip my workout) get ready, drive an hour (talking to myself, singing or spacing out) work work work then drive an hour back home, mooch dinner from my parents, watch t.v. for 45 min, fall asleep in my work clothes then wake up long enough to change for bed...repeat. But I am not totally boring sometimes i think about cool things like socializing or going surfing. Shut up I am not pathetic. Anyways...I have to go now because it's almost time to fall asleep in work clothes..maybe this weekend I'll go out and buy some new trouser socks....
I drive an hour each way to get there, that's kind of intresting joining the coffee drinkin-talk show blastin-doin makeup while I drive, commuter gang. And I am stickin it to the enviroment, global warming my fender!, I will not ride share- sounds waaay too awkward. It's not bad, a good time to think or go into the same comatose state I do when I watch too much t.v. Finally I blink and somehow I got to work and don't remember anything in between. (nothing in this blog can be held against me in a court of law)
I am just working my little heiny off...I felt like a politician my first month, trying to sound smart and letting people know that "I can see our energies coming together in seperate ways and pulling out again synergistically with a trajectory of improvements" (what?...) I've been trying to get to know everyone smiling and learning names and now there are people that I have been smiling at pretending to know there name for way to long to actually ask it now. But for real (and just in case my boss ever sees this blog) "I love what I am doing"
So now my daily schedule is to hit the snooze 4 times (so I skip my workout) get ready, drive an hour (talking to myself, singing or spacing out) work work work then drive an hour back home, mooch dinner from my parents, watch t.v. for 45 min, fall asleep in my work clothes then wake up long enough to change for bed...repeat. But I am not totally boring sometimes i think about cool things like socializing or going surfing. Shut up I am not pathetic. Anyways...I have to go now because it's almost time to fall asleep in work clothes..maybe this weekend I'll go out and buy some new trouser socks....
Friday, July 11, 2008
Walk please..no drowning
In the past week I have had to pull three kids out of the pool. I saved their little lives, I hope they grow up to be presidents and doctors and put me in their memoirs. Two were from this summer youth group that got rewarded a pool day. I think right before they came their counselors showed them some lifeguard videos of how to perfectly portray an active drowning because they executed it perfectly. Hands flailing overhead, little bubbles coming up from the bottom. Remember fellow and future lifeguards...look for bubbles. As I climbed out of the pool soaking wet and went back to my guard chair it caused me to reflect on my life as a lifeguard...meaning while I should have been paying close attention to the pool I was composing a blog in my head. A life that started at 14 while being a junior lifeguard, dare I say that I have been lifeguarding for close to a decade now?! Where is my corner office and 401k? During this time I have seen the laughter and the tears that comes with spending hours hovering around 4 ft of chlorinated water...as well as the puke,blood and diareaha.
Let's take a swim down memory lane and recall a few highlights. I have been a lifeguard at 8 different pools across 4 states. I think some of my most memorable experiences happened at the Travis Aquatic Center...we fondly called Travis High because it had the social schematics and maturity level of a high school. The military insituted a standard that if there was "fecal contamination" then we must close the pool for 24 hours. Maybe they shouldn't have told this to a bunch of teenage lifeguards who were spending 40 hours a week of their summer at Travis High. One afternoon I had just finished swimming laps and was headed towards the ladder when something under the water caught my eye. Is that..? Could it be..? I swim in for a closer look with my goggles and bubbles of sheer joy escape from my mouth (which I probably should have been keeping shut) IT IS! POO! A small pile of glorious fecal contamination and the key to a day off. I spring out of the pool to inform my fellow guards and their reaction is the same, ...where is the child that did this so that we can carry him around on our shoulders and express our gratitude. Why this is almost as good as the day that a rat ran into to the pool and we were payed to watch movies all day. There were sunblock fights and rainy days spent golfing into the pool, trying to hit kickboards while our one patron, a little kid swam and collected the balls for us. We had the pool rats, every pool does and I don't mean the hairy kind but these are the kids that get dropped off everyday an hour before the pool opens and they patiently wait outside until we opened and then their parents collected them when we closed that night. My favorite was Derrick and Alicia. Their parents were getting divorced and I think the pool was free daycare. No public was allowed in our office except Derrick and Alicia and the guards would eat their lunches with them and let them sit on the stands and pretend to be lifeguards. Maybe we'll be in one of their memoirs.
There was a girl in Idaho that I was teaching lessons to. She had a lot of trouble keeping her face in for more than 3-5 seconds and it was frustrating for her and me because she was really trying hard. Then her mom took me aside and thanked me for working with her. She told me that the year before they had been driving to swim lessons and got into a car accident. Their car landed in a canal and a lot of water came in but they were able to get out, she had been afraid of water since then. I realized how brave this little girl was being by still trying so hard, I felt bad for getting frustrated and it was really cool to work with her.
I used to work at the Vacaville pool and had to open for the 5 am lap swim. This meant that I had to get there by 4:30...dark, during the winter, rain or shine. I would get soaked pulling the covers off (which is hard work if you ever try it)One girl injured her back pulling off covers, the swim coach said she needed to be doing more ab excercices, not the thing to tell a chubby girl. She filed a sexual harrasment complaint against him. Then I would sit the rest of the 2.5 hours watching the steam rise off the pool and saying hello to the same people every morning. Richard would always say "Oh fair and a meddlin" when you asked how he was. Hard as it was to get up that early, it always felt great watching the sun come up on autunm days. When I left for school they had a breakfast for me and some of the ladies embroidred a laundry bag with my name on it for college. I have found similar people at each pool I've worked at. One sweet lady in her eighties met a hunk here at the Kailua pool, a charming man also in his eighties. They became sweethearts and she asked him to go on a trip with her, he said she would have to marry him first. So she agreed and they were going to get married but he passed away during a simple operation last month. But she still comes everyday to the pool and tells you she is taking it one day at a time.
I guess on the surface, lifeguarding has been a constant full-time or part-time job that has provided me with income. But after looking back on 10 years (i know...i know..it isn't that long) but I would say it has been a little serendipitous.
Let's take a swim down memory lane and recall a few highlights. I have been a lifeguard at 8 different pools across 4 states. I think some of my most memorable experiences happened at the Travis Aquatic Center...we fondly called Travis High because it had the social schematics and maturity level of a high school. The military insituted a standard that if there was "fecal contamination" then we must close the pool for 24 hours. Maybe they shouldn't have told this to a bunch of teenage lifeguards who were spending 40 hours a week of their summer at Travis High. One afternoon I had just finished swimming laps and was headed towards the ladder when something under the water caught my eye. Is that..? Could it be..? I swim in for a closer look with my goggles and bubbles of sheer joy escape from my mouth (which I probably should have been keeping shut) IT IS! POO! A small pile of glorious fecal contamination and the key to a day off. I spring out of the pool to inform my fellow guards and their reaction is the same, ...where is the child that did this so that we can carry him around on our shoulders and express our gratitude. Why this is almost as good as the day that a rat ran into to the pool and we were payed to watch movies all day. There were sunblock fights and rainy days spent golfing into the pool, trying to hit kickboards while our one patron, a little kid swam and collected the balls for us. We had the pool rats, every pool does and I don't mean the hairy kind but these are the kids that get dropped off everyday an hour before the pool opens and they patiently wait outside until we opened and then their parents collected them when we closed that night. My favorite was Derrick and Alicia. Their parents were getting divorced and I think the pool was free daycare. No public was allowed in our office except Derrick and Alicia and the guards would eat their lunches with them and let them sit on the stands and pretend to be lifeguards. Maybe we'll be in one of their memoirs.
There was a girl in Idaho that I was teaching lessons to. She had a lot of trouble keeping her face in for more than 3-5 seconds and it was frustrating for her and me because she was really trying hard. Then her mom took me aside and thanked me for working with her. She told me that the year before they had been driving to swim lessons and got into a car accident. Their car landed in a canal and a lot of water came in but they were able to get out, she had been afraid of water since then. I realized how brave this little girl was being by still trying so hard, I felt bad for getting frustrated and it was really cool to work with her.
I used to work at the Vacaville pool and had to open for the 5 am lap swim. This meant that I had to get there by 4:30...dark, during the winter, rain or shine. I would get soaked pulling the covers off (which is hard work if you ever try it)One girl injured her back pulling off covers, the swim coach said she needed to be doing more ab excercices, not the thing to tell a chubby girl. She filed a sexual harrasment complaint against him. Then I would sit the rest of the 2.5 hours watching the steam rise off the pool and saying hello to the same people every morning. Richard would always say "Oh fair and a meddlin" when you asked how he was. Hard as it was to get up that early, it always felt great watching the sun come up on autunm days. When I left for school they had a breakfast for me and some of the ladies embroidred a laundry bag with my name on it for college. I have found similar people at each pool I've worked at. One sweet lady in her eighties met a hunk here at the Kailua pool, a charming man also in his eighties. They became sweethearts and she asked him to go on a trip with her, he said she would have to marry him first. So she agreed and they were going to get married but he passed away during a simple operation last month. But she still comes everyday to the pool and tells you she is taking it one day at a time.
I guess on the surface, lifeguarding has been a constant full-time or part-time job that has provided me with income. But after looking back on 10 years (i know...i know..it isn't that long) but I would say it has been a little serendipitous.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
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