It's MY Turn!!!
You have lucked up and found my very first blog! This is a project for my CAGS certificate at the University of New England. I LOVE being a student which is probably why I work in the Duval County school system in North Florida! So, what about me? I teach English and Reading. I love to travel. I have visited the island of Cuba and those wonderful folks on humanitarian mission trips many times in the past twelve years. That's my passion!
I'm at a great point in my life because my two beautiful kids are now in their 20's. Somehow the parenting shifted from caregiver to counselor to confidante to colleague. Again, it's a Great Time to Be Me!!!!! So, what's with the title of my blog??? I shamelessly stole it from a LONG time ago, and I had to cyber-travel to Arizona, my birthplace, to remember. This was the name of my mom's sewing shop when I was a baby! I was already famous before the age of one!
Did I mention Mr. Man? For the past two+ years, I've been involved in a long-distance relationship. We are at opposite ends of Florida, and together we've traveled from Miami to Tallahassee to Cedar Key to Orlando to Gainesville, to St. Augustine, and everywhere in between! Oh, and I turn the Big 5-0 this year. Maybe it's not the Greatest Time!!!! (LOL)
These two handsome guys are my son, Tim, a very young 27, and my cousin, Douglas, an even younger 51. Yesterday, My son and I made a trek to Tallahassee to celebrate the high school graduation of Doug's son Ryan. Tim practically lived in this house from 2001 to 2003 (translation: ate there a lot and used the laundry facilities on occasion) when he was in school at Florida State University and he grew quite very fond of Doug. While my cousin is legally blind and only has his peripheral vision, he has ears to hear and a heart to love. I am preparing for tomorrow evening's ENC 1101 class and Descriptive Writing! One selection I am using is an excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Here's the suggested Pre-Reading Journal Entry for this assignment from The Longman Writer. 
Wow, what a prolific topic for your students to reflect on...I immediately went my childhood...When I was little, my eyes were crossed...It was a result from my mother having a high fever when my eyes were developing...I was the "cross eyed girl" or "patches" until second grade when my final eye operation was accepted by my body (the previous 2 were not)... Kids can be cruel, but it always made me try harder to get them to look beyond my problem...I have to say, the person who made me feel that I was just like everybody else was my mother...I came home from school one day crying because following my final eye surgery, one girl that I thought was my friend, tripped me on the bus and I fell flat on my face....My mother stormed onto the bus the next morning to give her a tongue lashing....It was mama bear mode, just wanting to protect me...Funny thing was, after my mom barked at her and got off the bus, I proceeded to sit right next my "friend" on the ride to school....I thought that my mom made it all better, so forgive and forget!....ha!...This is how I've pretty much lived my life, letting go of the negative, and always taking the high road....I love that you have such a special bond with your Uncle Jack (and I WILL say a prayer for him), and that your son has connected with Douglas....This post was like a Chicken Soup For the Soul, excerpt...It made me FEEL :)
ReplyDeleteAdrienne, I'M GOING TO MISS YOU! I only know you from your writings, but you are so affirming and insightful and I bet you speak with your hands. (a skill which will be totally refined after Hawaii!!!) It's nice to meet a "glass-half full" Pollyanna-type, who uses the power of the pen to uplift. I can just imagine your mom up in heaven, still running interference on your behalf on an "as needed basis." Was she watching from the clouds when you had your eye tumor surgery? Thanks for comparing my ramblings to Chicken Soup....It really does the body good!
ReplyDeleteI will be saying many prayers for your Uncle & your family. This blog hits home for me like a punch in the stomach, as I recently lost my Uncle Bob to cancer in January. He too was a gift and awesome and wonderful and showed me what a GOOD man is (as I had no father to set that example). Your words are so true in that the people who come into our life are so very necessary and how fortunate you are, and your son is, to have the care & guidance of the world's Douglases and Jacks. If all people were so blessed to have strong influences like the two men you wrote about, I honestly think the world would be a better place.
ReplyDeleteCindy-Can you SEE me???!!!....It's not that I talk with my hands, I just can't talk WITHOUT them!-ha!..I did feel like my mom was with me for my "fourth" eye surgery....Things in life sure come full circle, don't they?...I think I might need to keep this blog up to check in with you ladies....I'm going to miss the correspondance otherwise.
ReplyDeleteJenn and Adrienne...
ReplyDeleteToday I went to the graduation of the school where I was employed from August to January. I was a platform guest and billed as a "Special Guest of the 2010 Senior Class." It was SWWWEEEET. One of the Valedictorians referenced a Mr. Elliott in his speech. This was a man who left our school in August after faithfully serving for a very long time. He lost a very swift battle to prostate cancer in September, and there were no less than 25 faculty members among the standing room only crowd at his memorial service. (and it was a holiday weekend!) I mention this because his widow sat next to me on the Platform and I got to hug her a lot and celebrate the lifelines her hubby threw repeatedly throughout his career...It was a total gift to be with her and I felt like I had known her forever even though I had only met her briefly at Mr. Elliott's "farewell." It was also a slice of humble pie. I was all that and a bag of chips sitting up there with the dignitary "talking head" types until I realized I was on the clock to comfort a very dear lady with the courage and bravery to give us a FACE as we all "shared the weight of a memory."
Girls...I was thinking the same thing...I feel like I have way too much invested and would miss way too much if I closed this blog out! What a wonderful assignment this has been!!
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